Thursday, September 09, 2010
   
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Sports Perspective from the Nation's Capital

Stupid is as Stupid does ~ Forest Gump

Written by Peter McGrath

 "Stupid is as Stupid Does" ~ Forrest Gump .... Or, “The Past lies upon the Present like a giant's dead body”.  ~Nathaniel Hawthorne...


It’s funny to see all the media jumping on the Jacques Martin bandwagon. “He is brilliant”, they say. “To witness how his coaching has changed and adapted for the new era is remarkable”, I’ve heard numerous times. Yeah, Jacques Martin has the Canadiens playing tight, disciplined hockey with a reliance on opportunistic counterattacks for offence. When the Habs do get it deep they execute an up-tempo, remorseless cycle that has lead to frequent quality scoring chances. So, what’s new? That was the same formula used by the Senators when Martin was coaching them. Year in and year out, under Martin, the Senators were one of the top defensive teams while finishing consistently near the top in goals scored. The Senators were extremely disciplined and moved the puck so rapidly out of their own end they were always a step ahead of the other team on the turnover. The media, if you remember (and I do), were convinced that Jacques lacked emotion which trickled down to the team and resulted in un-adaptable, passionless hockey. Jacques had no heart was the implication and hence, the Senators played without heart and could not win the big ones. Now it’s true, the Senators bowed out to, so called, “lesser teams” often in the playoffs. Kind of like, Washington, this year. Lest we forget, seemingly every playoff, those, so called, “lesser teams” the Senators often faced were lead by one of Martin Brodeur (602), Ed Belfour (484), Curtis Joseph (454) and Dominik Hasek (389); four of the top ten goalies all-time in games won. Against these giants, the Senators annually put forth the likes of Ray Emery, Patrick Lalime, Ron Tugnutt, yada, yada, yada. You get the picture…while probably loads of fun and genuinely nice guys, Senator’s goalies hardly inspired fear in the opposition; much less a healthy respect. Now, with Halak playing out-of-his mind, Michael Landsberg and his ilk swear that Jacques has changed, left his cyborg ways behind, and grown as both a “man” and a coach. Mikey, in an interview with Senator’s killer Gary Roberts, tried to get Roberts to publicly state the Hab’s success was owing to Jacques ‘“newfound” brilliance. Using a typical media ruse, Mikey tried to pull the old switcheroo. You know; if the facts don’t fit your story, make new facts.  Hockey is a simple game complicated by so called “media experts”. Don Cherry would agree with that statement. Grapes would also agree that, “great goalies make great coaches”. The simple fact of the matter is that Jacques Martin has always been a very good coach. Jaroslav Halak just makes him better.

 

Let’s Support Our Paralympians! Watch them plus View this 40 Second Clip and $5 will be Donated to Our Team

Written by Rob Cornforth

With the 2010 Paralympic Games underway in Vancouver, we can support our athletes in two ways.

 

Firstly, you can watch them. For the first time in history, CTV will be covering 57 hours of live Paralympic Games events (30 in French, 27 in English). See the following ways in which you can stay updated:

·         TV schedule for events

·         Online Paralympic Games coverage

·         VANOC Paralympic schedule and results

·         Paralympic sport, sledge hockey & up-to-date 2010 Games content: join the CPC on Facebook  ,Twitter 

·         CPC website: www.paralympic.ca

 

Secondly, Pfizer is showing its Paralympic and community spirit with a new, fundraising viral film and the Canadian Paralympic Committee is hoping you’ll spread the news.

 

Every time someone views the film at morethanmedication.ca and sends it to a friend, Pfizer will donate $5 to the Canadian Paralympic team. Share this with friends!

For more information about the Canadian Paralympian Committee, Kimberly McLachlan, Public Relations Coordinator, can be contacted at www.paralympic.ca.   
 

The World’s Biggest Stage; it’s not New York!

Written by Rob Cornforth


Is it just me or did the Canada-U.S. game start late? For the Canadians it did. I finally saw a glimmer of the famous Canadian heart at about the ten minute mark of the third period. To be fair, our boys looked awesome from that point on. Even so, the Americans were in control from the opening faceoff. The U.S. played an excellent up-tempo game with some jam and a sense of urgency. They attacked, took risks and played with a kind of “damn your eyes” attitude the rest of the world always attributed to Canadian hockey players.  It is sickening to hear Canadian commentators hide behind the superlative goaltending of Ryan Miller. The U.S. earned this victory and won as a team. Canada did not look like a team. I must admit, I was concerned in the days leading up to the game when Coach Mike Babcock said the Canadians had been playing without passion. Are you kidding me? This is not the NHL All-Star Game. This is the Olympics..., the biggest stage in the world. Show your heart! Rise to the challenge or go home! The simple fact is that Canada looked like it expected the U.S. to roll over. The Canadians did not work hard enough to win. There was no energy. Absent that energy, they manufactured little space. With no space, they created nothing. I had the feeling Pronger and Niedermayer, the two pre-tournament “locks” for Stevie Y., were a half step behind the entire game. And Thornton…could Jumbo Joe be any less visible? Yzerman wanted pIayers who kept cool when the pressure was on. You know…players with ice in their veins. Well, wish granted. These guys have been so cool they collectively could reverse global warming. Trouble is none of these icemen seem capable of generating any heat. Babcock has to quit massaging egos. Shorten the bench. Sit Thornton the tin-man and ride Crosby, Toews, Morrow, Richards and the other boys who at least seem interested. It will be interesting to see if Crosby steps up and makes this team his own a la Gretzky, Lemieux and other past greats. He is the spark. If not Canada will fall short and miss out on the medals again.
   

Its Not Whether you Win or Lose, but How You Play the Game (or, we finished second)

Written by Peter McGrath

I applaud the recent victory by the U.S. team at the WJHC. They were a great team with great talent and played an up tempo, exciting brand of hockey. More importantly, every interview I saw with an American player or coach showed them to be a classy, respectful team worthy of representing the U.S.A.  and, the title, World Champions. Nonetheless, before my fellow Canadians fans begin the usual self-flagellation that follows a loss at an international hockey event a little perspective is in order.  Steven Stamkos, John Tavares ,  Matt Duchene ,  Evander Kane,  Ryan O'Reilly ,  James Wright, Michael Del Zotto and Tyler Myers were all eligible for the Canadian team and, but for their respective NHL commitments, did not play. I hate to play what if but…WHAT IF!? Playing what if does not negate the fact that Canadians can’t assume the wins will keep on coming perpetually. We must realize that hockey is an international sport and that fans from other countries love the game as much as we do. We have been spoiled by the success of the Canadian junior teams at the WJHC year after year. We have also been spoiled by the availability of year round ice surfaces in Canada that make it fairly easy for Canadian kids to take up the sport. Funny, the Winter Classic was first conceived as a celebration of Canada’s hockey heritage. You know, catalogues for shin pads and frozen horse manure for pucks. Truthfully, how many Canadians under 55 or 60 have actually played a game of hockey with poop for a puck.  Not me, and I’m no spring chicken. The early 60s saw a dramatic increase in the construction of hockey arenas in preparation for Canada’s centennial. Most middle age Canadian men spent much of their respective childhoods playing on artificial surfaces. This is not the experience shared even today by kids playing hockey in Russia and the former eastern block countries. Kids over there still often grow up playing hockey outdoors in sub zero temperatures. I might even suggest that a young Russian boys’ route to the NHL is far tougher than the current Canadian experience and requires a love and devotion for hockey that at least matches any Canadians’. The reality is that shear demographics and the rapid growth of hockey world wide, makes it likely that Canada will be surpassed as the pre-eminent hockey nation in the not-to-distant future. We better learn to lose now because, just like the U.K. in soccer, it’s going to happen much more frequently down the road.
 

What the Senators need to do to win!

Written by Peter McGrath

Sens vs. Flyers Dec 10I’m watching the Senators lose to the Canadiens as I write this column. Is it just me or do the Sens forwards look slow? Say what you will about Jacques Martin but when he coached the Senators, team speed intimidated the entire league. The speed of the Senators took away the forecheck of opponents by forcing them into a tight defensive shell. This was a contributing factor to the Sens being one of the top defensive teams, year after year. Simply, it was tough to implement a high pressure offence against the Sens when you were preoccupied with the Sens’ race horses sprinting back up the ice on a turnover. Now, however, the Sens just don’t look very fast. This puzzles me when players like Michalak, Fisher and Shannon are flying around. With Michalak’s wheels he should be getting two or three breakaways each game. The problem I see is that the Senators get no intelligent back end support. When was the last time we were treated to a seeing-eye pass finding a streaking Senator forward breaking toward the opponents’ net? Kuba, Karlsson, Campoli and Picard hold on to the puck far too long when coming out of their own end. Time after time, against the Habs, Sens’ forwards were forced to pull up on the breakout. As a result, they never hit the Habs’ blueline at top speed. Back in Atom hockey my coach (my Dad) harped over and over about the ability of the puck to move faster than a player can skate. “Headman the puck”, he’d scream as I attempted to demonstrate I was the second coming of Bobby Orr only to get checked or cause a turnover that invariably led to a goal against. My excuse…I was ten years old. These guys are supposed to be pros! If the Senators don’t learn to move the puck at an NHL level so they attack the opponent’s blueline as a five man unit with speed, this is going to be a long, long and frustrating season. Maybe they should call my Dad.
   

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