Alexandr Ovechkin scored five goals in two games last week to blow right by the fifty goal plateau. At 54 goals he's on course to become the first 60 goal scorer in the NHL in twelve years. Up to and including 1996 there were 35 players who had reached 60 goals including a member of the Washington Capitals; the forgotten Dennis Maruk. Maruk had the misfortune of scoring his 60 goals the same year Wayne Gretzky scored 92.
The question is, "Why has it taken 12 years to produce another 60 goal scorer?"
Part of the problem was that dreadful era of hooking and holding that preceded the lockout.
The goaltender equipment issue is reaching critical mass and will be addressed again by the league this summer. The "trap" employed especially by some of the less-talented teams has become a choke point for offenses in the league.
Still, in my opinion the quality of hockey in the NHL has never been better.
In recent years we've witnessed the advent of the 40-second shift and the all-out skating that it has produced. Players simply can't afford to coast even a single shift in today's game.
All things considered, reaching 60 goals is an incredible feat. It is another reason why it is insanity to try to compare statistical accomplishments from era to era. Rocket Richard was the king-of-hockey with 50-in-50 in 1945. Esposito shook the establishment with 76 goals in 1971.
Gretzky with his incredible 92 goal season in 1992. All of them would have been great goalscorers if through some sort of time warp they could be transplanted to 2008. And in all likelihood they would be battling Alexandr Ovechkin for the goalscoring lead at somewhere around 60 goals. Great players remain great players. Only the times and the context change.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Friday, March 7, 2008
March 1 2008
Friday night at the Bell Centre Lucien Bute defended his IBF World Super-Middleweight championship against an aging William Joppy. I don't want to diminish the considerable skills of Bute but being champion in the International Boxing Federation carries about as much weight as a dieting supermodel.
As we've said before, the only true rankings in boxing are carried by Ring Magazine. Joppy, who had a fair amount of success a few years ago was not included in their top 10 contenders.
That said; Bute went into last night's fight ranked as the third in his division behind one of the greatest champions of all time, Joe Calzaghe and Denmark's Mikkel Kessler.
But this is not about Bute. This is about this city, a city that has showcased in the past the likes of Johnny Greco, Yvon Durelle, Donato Paduano and the Hilton Brothers and has resurfaced as North America's boxing mecca. You can mention Las Vegas and Atlantic City where championship cards draw big crowds. But everything in the ring in those cities is imported.
Montreal consistantly puts locally developed boxers in the ring in front of major crowds. Not only do we have Bute and Joachim Alcine high up in the world rankings, but in the pipeline is a farm system of young boxers ready to tgake their place.
It is said that Montreal is an "event city". The 14 thousand at the Bell Centre Friday night tells us that Montrealers consider boxing to be a "big event".
As we've said before, the only true rankings in boxing are carried by Ring Magazine. Joppy, who had a fair amount of success a few years ago was not included in their top 10 contenders.
That said; Bute went into last night's fight ranked as the third in his division behind one of the greatest champions of all time, Joe Calzaghe and Denmark's Mikkel Kessler.
But this is not about Bute. This is about this city, a city that has showcased in the past the likes of Johnny Greco, Yvon Durelle, Donato Paduano and the Hilton Brothers and has resurfaced as North America's boxing mecca. You can mention Las Vegas and Atlantic City where championship cards draw big crowds. But everything in the ring in those cities is imported.
Montreal consistantly puts locally developed boxers in the ring in front of major crowds. Not only do we have Bute and Joachim Alcine high up in the world rankings, but in the pipeline is a farm system of young boxers ready to tgake their place.
It is said that Montreal is an "event city". The 14 thousand at the Bell Centre Friday night tells us that Montrealers consider boxing to be a "big event".
February 29 2008
Timelines seem to be all the rage right now. Permit me to give you an Ottawa Senators nine-month timeline.
Last June the general manager of the Senators was John Muckler. Under Muckler's leadership the Senators reached the Stanley Cup final. A month after their elimination at the hands of Anaheim the owner of the Senators Eugene Melnyk, apparently dissatisfied with the near miss,, fired Muckler and promoted head coach Bryan Murray to the job.
Murray then decided that a veteran team didn't require a veteran coach and promoted assistant John Paddock to the job.
The Senators then started the season 15-2. the entire front office was wearing itself out patting themselves on the back. The Senators came into Montreal on November 19th and beat the Canadiens 4-2. It seemed clear that the Senators were capable of being runaway winners of the Eastern Conference. From Montreal the Senators went to Buffalo and things began to fall apart. They lost in Buffalo. They lost 7 games in a row and the team has not recovered. Systems set in place by the former coach now turned general manager disintegrated. In panic mode the new coach started to overuse his key players. Goaltender Ray Emery's lack of respect for team
rules went mostly unaddressed. They became a team-divided. Last week the rookie coach was mercifly fired. Friday night the Senators lost first place in their division to the Canadiens.
Many think with team captain Daniel Alfredsson 35 years of age that the Senators may have blown their last shot at a Stanley Cup.
to every action there is a reaction. The domino effect of an owner firing a general manager who had engineered the Dany Heatley trade; drafted Chris Kelly and Andre Meszeros; signed free agent Brian McGratton and hired head coach Bryan Murray to coach a team that reached the Stanley cup final has been a disaster.
Montreal fans will recognize history repeated. Ron Corey, like Senators owner Melnyk was a non-hockey person with just enough information to royally screw things up. It's taken nearly a decade to recover from Ron Corey in Montreal. The fallout from the last nine months in Ottawa probably will have the same longterm effect.
Last June the general manager of the Senators was John Muckler. Under Muckler's leadership the Senators reached the Stanley Cup final. A month after their elimination at the hands of Anaheim the owner of the Senators Eugene Melnyk, apparently dissatisfied with the near miss,, fired Muckler and promoted head coach Bryan Murray to the job.
Murray then decided that a veteran team didn't require a veteran coach and promoted assistant John Paddock to the job.
The Senators then started the season 15-2. the entire front office was wearing itself out patting themselves on the back. The Senators came into Montreal on November 19th and beat the Canadiens 4-2. It seemed clear that the Senators were capable of being runaway winners of the Eastern Conference. From Montreal the Senators went to Buffalo and things began to fall apart. They lost in Buffalo. They lost 7 games in a row and the team has not recovered. Systems set in place by the former coach now turned general manager disintegrated. In panic mode the new coach started to overuse his key players. Goaltender Ray Emery's lack of respect for team
rules went mostly unaddressed. They became a team-divided. Last week the rookie coach was mercifly fired. Friday night the Senators lost first place in their division to the Canadiens.
Many think with team captain Daniel Alfredsson 35 years of age that the Senators may have blown their last shot at a Stanley Cup.
to every action there is a reaction. The domino effect of an owner firing a general manager who had engineered the Dany Heatley trade; drafted Chris Kelly and Andre Meszeros; signed free agent Brian McGratton and hired head coach Bryan Murray to coach a team that reached the Stanley cup final has been a disaster.
Montreal fans will recognize history repeated. Ron Corey, like Senators owner Melnyk was a non-hockey person with just enough information to royally screw things up. It's taken nearly a decade to recover from Ron Corey in Montreal. The fallout from the last nine months in Ottawa probably will have the same longterm effect.
Monday, February 25, 2008
February 23 2008
Yesterday one of the most ruiness battles in the history of sports came to an end when the Indy Racing League agreed to absorb the Champ Car Racing Series thus ending a twelve-year split that all but destroyed open-wheel racing in North America. Champ Car had the money but the IRL had the race; the Indy 500.
The IRL was founded to get rid of all of those foreign drivers who where invading what was the second richest racing series in the world. Twelve years later and who cares that they"re together again. To quote Gertrude Stein there simply is "no there, there".
Twelve years after the split the only marketable feature in North American Open-Wheel racing is a woman who has never won a race.
In the public consciousness "AJ", "Mario", "The Unsers" have been replaced by Dale Jr.,the Jeff Gordons, Tony Stewarts, Michael Waltrips and the like in NASCAR.
I there anyone out there who can name the last two or three Indy-500 winners. Well, maybe last year because it was Ashley Judd's husband. But even Dario Franchitti abandoned open-wheeled racing for NASCAR this year.
Champ Car had what seemed to be successful races in Canada, including the Villeneuve circuit. NASCAR pushed the Montreal race to the Laurentians as sponsorship money continued to dry up. This year we may have an IRL race in Edmonton but the Montreal and Toronto will be off the schedule.
Can Indy-type racing come back to it's once mythical stature? You can forget about it. As Abraham Lincoln said "A house divided can never stand." The house that was once built on the Indianapolis-500 has been demolished through a civil war that produced near total destruction.
Monday, February 11, 2008
February 9 2008
Thirteen years ago Nike, the sports equipment manufacturer that gave us the 180 dollar basketball sneaker, decided to get into the hockey business.
They bought Montreal-based Canstar Sports and their Bauer product-line for
395 million dollars.
DNike then proceeded to re-invent the hockey marketing wheel. They moved their manufacturing facility to Asia and switched the head office from Montreal to New Hampshire. Basically, Nike was telling Canadians they knew nothing about hockey marketing. Their secret was, put the "Swish" logo on their skate and raise the price from four-hundred dollars a pair to seven hundred. No matter that the Made-In-Asia skates didn't fit North American players feet properly. The bright bulbs in New Hampshire also tried to foist white hockey skates on it's buying public in a not-so-subtle attempt at planned obselescence.
This kind of thing may have worked in the ghettos of the United States where kids were being murdered for 180-dollar shoes that cost 3-dollars to make in China. It failed to fool the hockey buyer.
This week Nike announced they were selling out. Financial analysts tell us they won't get half the price they paid for the company.
For once a corporate glutton like Nike with it's dispicable marketing and manufacturing strategies has run headlong into a wall.
Makes you feel warm and fuzzy.
They bought Montreal-based Canstar Sports and their Bauer product-line for
395 million dollars.
DNike then proceeded to re-invent the hockey marketing wheel. They moved their manufacturing facility to Asia and switched the head office from Montreal to New Hampshire. Basically, Nike was telling Canadians they knew nothing about hockey marketing. Their secret was, put the "Swish" logo on their skate and raise the price from four-hundred dollars a pair to seven hundred. No matter that the Made-In-Asia skates didn't fit North American players feet properly. The bright bulbs in New Hampshire also tried to foist white hockey skates on it's buying public in a not-so-subtle attempt at planned obselescence.
This kind of thing may have worked in the ghettos of the United States where kids were being murdered for 180-dollar shoes that cost 3-dollars to make in China. It failed to fool the hockey buyer.
This week Nike announced they were selling out. Financial analysts tell us they won't get half the price they paid for the company.
For once a corporate glutton like Nike with it's dispicable marketing and manufacturing strategies has run headlong into a wall.
Makes you feel warm and fuzzy.
February 2 2008
The Commissioner of the NFL held his state of the league news conference yesterday (February 1st) in Arizona and made it official. The Buffalo Bills will play eight home games in Toronto over the next five years. There was hardly a soul in the room who didn't think that the announcement marked the beginning of the end for the CFL.
Toronto is the media and marketing capital of Canada whether we like it or not. Ninety percent of the advertising and sponsorships come out of Toronto agencies. Whatever monies that went into the CFL will inevitably be channeled to the NFL. The NFL says it's going to take steps to protect the CFL but don't attempt to take that to the bank. The NFL just extricated itself from their NFL-Europe fiasco. They're not about to get into another money-pit .
In 1974 the World Football League was formed including the Toronto Northmen.
the minority Trudeau government of the time stepped in and threatened economic sanctions against what they considered a threat to the CFL. The franchise shifted to Memphis without ever playing a Toronto game. Don't expect the government, especially a conservative one, to step in and save the CFL this time.
So, say "goodbye" to the Argonauts and then the Tigercats and then in a slow agonizing death, the rest of a league that has existed in one form or the other sfor ninety-nine years.
What we have is another example of what's good for Toronto is good for the rest of the country no matter what is destroyed in the wake.
Toronto is the media and marketing capital of Canada whether we like it or not. Ninety percent of the advertising and sponsorships come out of Toronto agencies. Whatever monies that went into the CFL will inevitably be channeled to the NFL. The NFL says it's going to take steps to protect the CFL but don't attempt to take that to the bank. The NFL just extricated itself from their NFL-Europe fiasco. They're not about to get into another money-pit .
In 1974 the World Football League was formed including the Toronto Northmen.
the minority Trudeau government of the time stepped in and threatened economic sanctions against what they considered a threat to the CFL. The franchise shifted to Memphis without ever playing a Toronto game. Don't expect the government, especially a conservative one, to step in and save the CFL this time.
So, say "goodbye" to the Argonauts and then the Tigercats and then in a slow agonizing death, the rest of a league that has existed in one form or the other sfor ninety-nine years.
What we have is another example of what's good for Toronto is good for the rest of the country no matter what is destroyed in the wake.
January 26 2008
We all know the word "obsolete". It means "out-of-date"; "out-of-fashion"; or even "passe".
Which ever definition you choose they describe perfectly the NHL All-Star game.
Like the baseball and especially the NBA and NFL all-star games, thde NHL verision has all the credibility of a carnival sideshow. The three-ring circus that has become the NHL version will be played tomorrow night (January 27) in Atlanta.
During the days of the Original-Six the defending Stanley Cup champions played the stars of the other five teams. The game was played at the end of training camp and was a true test of skill and pride. Now the game is an added burden to an already bloated NHL schedule.
The list of pleyrs who duck the game using one excuse or the other gets longer and longer with each passing year.
Being named to an all-star team has become a "sentence". Something like house arrest to be served in addition fo the 82 game schedule.
You don't have to be a star to play in the game, only popular or part of a quota. Look at the list of NHL stars who didn't fit either category who will not take part in tomorrow night's game. And to a man I'm sure they would say they're happy they're not.
Which ever definition you choose they describe perfectly the NHL All-Star game.
Like the baseball and especially the NBA and NFL all-star games, thde NHL verision has all the credibility of a carnival sideshow. The three-ring circus that has become the NHL version will be played tomorrow night (January 27) in Atlanta.
During the days of the Original-Six the defending Stanley Cup champions played the stars of the other five teams. The game was played at the end of training camp and was a true test of skill and pride. Now the game is an added burden to an already bloated NHL schedule.
The list of pleyrs who duck the game using one excuse or the other gets longer and longer with each passing year.
Being named to an all-star team has become a "sentence". Something like house arrest to be served in addition fo the 82 game schedule.
You don't have to be a star to play in the game, only popular or part of a quota. Look at the list of NHL stars who didn't fit either category who will not take part in tomorrow night's game. And to a man I'm sure they would say they're happy they're not.
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