The Winnipeg Jets selected Mark Scheifele (pronounced Shy-Flea) of the Barrie Colts (OHL) 7th overall in lat nights draft. Despite being ranked 16th by central scouting the 18 year old forward is exstatic to be in a Jets jersey. Obviously playing under Dale Hawerchuk with the Barrie Colts would have something to do with that. It sounds like the youngster definetley has the heart and the right attitude.
The Toronto Maple Leafs drafted Tyler Biggs and Stuart Percy. Burke stayed true to his name by picking an American as his first round choice.
Mark Chipman made it official last night. Manitoba's newest NHL franchise will be named the Winnipeg Jets. He said the decision was made after taking a long hard look at what he was seeing from the fans. There was so much support from the Winnipeg fans that he couldn't ignore it eventhough they had looked at incorporating Manitoba into the official team name.
The Leafs traded their second round draft pick for defenceman John-Michael Liles from the Colorodo Avalanche. You may remember that their was some talk about acguiring this player at the trade deadline this year but it never materialized. Obviously Liles has been on the radar for some time but I wonder, do we really need another high profile defenceman? It seems to me that we have a fairly strong defensive core, at least on paper. I realize that the loss of Kaberle leaves a bit of a whole but I have an idea, how about we fill that whole with Tomas Kaberle as he will be a free agent in a few days and likely will fetch not much more than Liles 4+ million. I personally think we should be exerting our efforts on finding a top line centre and another top six forward. But that is just my opinion.
"The pick was previously acquired by Toronto from the Boston Bruins as part of the Tomas Kaberle trade last February.
The 5-foot-10, 185-pound Liles is set to make US$4.55 million this season and could become an unrestricted free agent next summer.
He’s coming off a strong season where he registered six goals and a career-high 40 assists in 76 games.
The Indianapolis native, who has played his entire seven-year career in Colorado, led all Avalanche defencemen in scoring the past five seasons.
Liles has also played 36 playoff games in that span, notching four goals, seven assists for 11 points." The Canadian Press
It appears that a second NHL franchise will not be coming to Toronto anytime in the near future. City council rejected the idea last week. Although I am a firm member of Leaf Nation, I do not think that another club in the vicinity would hurt the Leafs in the slightest. The Toronto Maple Leafs are one of the most successful franchises in North American sports entertainment. With a population of 5.6 million people in the G.T.A. alone, that would suggest the ability to support to teams. 5.6 only takes into account the Durham, York, Halton and Peel Regions and of course the city of Toronto. To the west of this you have Hamilton, Kitchener-Waterloo, Guelph and Cambridge. This is another 1+ million inhabitants just in these cities alone. To the north is Barrie and the East Cobourg. Having lived in Mississauga and Markham for 3+ years I feel that I am very well adapted to comment on the overall economic situation in this area. In my opinion this area of southern Ontario could support not only one more but likely a third NHL team.
Let's look at Hamilton for example. The first choice for billionaire R.I.M. Corporations owner Jim Balsille. Balsille made a pitch to the NHL to bring the Atlanta Thrashers or Nashville Predators to Hamilton. With a population of 500,000 plus within the city limits and 1+ million within a 20 min drive Hamilton definitely sounds like a viable option. Copps Coliseum is older but has the space to hold a large enough crowd with just minor upgrades. The city government is on board and even provided financial incentives to be included in the Balsille offer. Currently the Hamilton Bulldogs of the AHL (Montreal Canadiens affiliate) are located there. This AHL team could easily be relocated to London, Ontario for example or even Quebec City or another major center in La Belle Province. Halifax looks like it could support an AHL club. St. John's Newfoundland just got one back in the Manitoba Moose.
Why will Hamilton never get an NHL franchise? Because of the Buffalo Sabres. If you ever watch a Sabres home game in which they play another American NHL club you will notice something odd. They play both the Canadian and American National Anthems even when there is no Canadian team playing. This is not done in other American cities. The reason for this is simply because of the amount of Canadians crossing the border to watch NHL games in Buffalo. Being less than two hours from downtown Toronto, in traffic and including border check stop time, Buffalo is a much cheaper destination for southern Ontario residents to watch NHL. In comparison to ticket prices at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto which are astronomical at times the Buffalo Sabres offer a moderate family the opportunity to watch the big leagues. If there was a second NHL franchise in Hamilton or anywhere else within southern Ontario the Buffalo franchise would likely collapse. Would this necessarily be a bad thing? I know we have Free Trade and are so economically linked to the United States that we might as well be a state but, should Canadians be the vast supporter of an American club when it is possible to have a club in Canada. Maybe it is my nationalist sentiment or my disdain for American economic prowess. Or maybe its the fact that Americans seem to think of us Canadians as back water igloo dwellers that makes me feel this way. All I know is that if I was an Economic PhD student instead of a History major I think I could certainly write a thesis comparing the American economic puppet of Gary Bettman to a great many political puppets which have been installed around the globe by the United States the most recent being Hamid Kharzai in Afghanistan. Sorry for the long winded digression into economic foreign policy and such but if anything take a minute to think critically about NHL economics and expansion/relocation policy and I think you may just come up with some interesting points.
I have always been a fan of Kaberle. He is one stand up guy. I would love to see him come back to Toronto. Burke if you are reading this (which I highly doubt) send this guy an offer when he becomes a free agent this summer because I know there will be 29 other teams that will be doing the same.
Analyzing Kaberle's performance with the Bruins it is hard not to notice that he did not seem comfortable. Even in the playoffs he didn't seem to have the pizazz that you would normally associate with his play. I truly believe that he was interested in being a Maple Leaf for life. Now that he has won the Stanley Cup lets bring him home and build on his experience to make the Leafs the viable contender that we all know they can be.
By now everyone has seen ample footage of the recent Vancouver riot which occurred after the Canucks lost the Stanley Cup. Going through the copious amount of media from the past few days I find asking the same questions over and over. What effect is this going to have? What will be the long term effect on hockey, Vancouver, the Canucks and Canada? I am starting to notice a trend which is somewhat concerning. The G20 Summit in Toronto, Montreal hockey riots and Vancouver in 1994 and now. What is the reason some people are driven to such destruction?
The world over Canada is known as a peace keeping country. Canadians is considered to be liberal, economically stable and a place where people immigrate to in droves. We are leaders in environmentalism (minus Alberta), human rights, science and technology, health care and education, just to name a few. Canada has a role to play on the world stage and us as Canadians have responsibilities in that role as well. We should be ambassadors of the values which are nation stands for. We need to be positive role models for others that may have not had the luxury to live like we do. The disregard for societal norms and the rule of law which is depicted throughout these videos offends me as a Canadian. I am offended and embarrassed when I see my fellow citizens act in this nature. I only hope that the drunken back water cavemen and women that participated in this unfortunate incident are swiftly and harshly dealt with by our courts.
We as Canadian citizens are so lucky to have the rights and freedoms that we do. The freedom of demonstration, unreasonable search and seizure etc etc. Why violate the few rules of law that we do have in place which are there primarily for your own protection? Just imagine the amount of law enforcement man hours and resources that is going to go into investigating this riot. That is time and resources that is not being spent on serious crimes. That's a murderer that has a few more days to craft his skill. It's a drug dealer who has more time to push his product or a house burglar who can now break into a few more houses. Forgive me for the melo-drama but seriously, it is time for us to wake up. This is a great place to live and I am proud to say I am Canadian but unfortunately there are some out there who wish to insult my pride. You will not win. There are many more good, moral and decent Canadians than there are bad.
To all the international readers of my blog, last I looked it was around 30%, please do not judge Canada by the actions of a few.
The Vancouver Riot Romeo as I have so cleaverley decided to name him has decided not to cash in on the kiss that made him and his girlfriend famous. Check out the article which is linked through the headline of this blog. It's nice to see that there still are some decent chivalrous men out there.
The Boston Bruins went into Vancouver for Game #7 and are leaving with the Stanley Cup. This game like many in the series was a tale of the goaltenders, particularly Tim Thomas. Even if you are not a Bruins fan, it is impossible not to like this guy. 37 yrs old, almost lost his job as a starter two years ago after winning the Vezina. Didn't really play in the NHL until his thirties. When you here him speak in interviews he is down to earth and seems like just a really good guy. Without him I highly doubt the Bruins would be walking away with the cup tonight.
Other players of note during the series are Marchand, Recchi, Ryder, Chara and one of my favourites, Kaberle.
Raffi Torres of the Vancouver Canucks scored the only goal of the game with just 19 seconds left in the third period. It was a dual between the two goaltenders Tim Thomas (Bruins) and Roberto Luongo (Canucks). Don Cherry spoke after the game and stated his opinion that the game was a dissapointment because of the way both teams played with the exception of the goaltenders. Running two lines for most of the third period Alain Vigneault the Canucks Head Coach decided to put Raffi Torres who is more of a depth player then a top liner. The gamble paid off as Torres received a pass from Ryan Kesler to slide it past Thomas and into the back of the net.
Game #2 of the Stanley Cup final will be held in Vancouver this saturday evening.
