Who's to blame for NHL labour problems? Dumb Canadian fans

We Canadians can be a pretty dense lot at times.  Oh we love to complain, to bitch and moan, but then we just roll over, and we never even expect breakfast or a call the next day.

Take the latest NHL lockout, the third in less than ten years.  How can the NHL treat their fans so badly?  Why are the two sides in this dispute so willing to dig in their heels?

Simple, both sides know that Canadians will be back in droves like they have after each previous work stoppage.

Drop the puck and they will come, spending hundreds of dollars on tickets, back in front of their TV sets watching the game and buying all kinds of crap with their team's logo on it.

The money will be rolling in as soon as the owners and players can decide on some way to divide up the billions, disportionately coming out of Canadian pockets, that fans pony up each year.

Forget the American teams.  With rich TV deals from the CBC and other Canadian networks the NHL doesn't need to worry about stuffing teams in places like Florida and Phoenix, Columbus and Nashville.  The owners of those teams get to share in revenues that wouldn't exist if it weren't for the Canucks, Flames, Oilers, Jets, Leafs , Senators and Canadiens.

When a Canadian team like the Nordique wants to leave, hey...no problem, Gary will help you pack up the trucks.  But when a team like the Coyotes has trouble drawing a quorum to a regular season game, the league steps in and is prepared to lose millions every year rather than give Quebec City back a team, to say nothing of Hamilton.

Why are Canadians treated so shabbily?  

Simple, we are idiots.  If we were smart, when this latest dispute ends we'd stay away from the arenas, stop watching on TV and stop buying those flags for our cars and a host of other merchandise with NHL logos on it.

We'd still get our hockey fix by watching junior and/or minor games.  Instead of paying hundreds we'd only be paying $40 or $50 for a couple of seats.

That's what Canadians would do if we were smart.  But of course we're not smart, we'll cheer like morons and empty our wallets when the players and owners finally decide how to divide up our money.

Toronto Maple Leafs - Not a .500 team yet

All news and politics makes Gordie a dull blogger...I do have other interests, and one of them is sports, something I write about on the odd occasion...

I am a hockey fan, and a Leafs fan to boot (go ahead, make fun).  I always support the home team, which makes life pretty depressing for this long time resident of the GTA.  Leafs, Jays, Raptors...ugh, if it wasn't for 6 out of 8 teams making the post season in the CFL Toronto residents wouldn't have the word 'playoffs' in our collective vocabulary.

And now, with the Leafs surging and sitting just 4 points out of the 8th and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, the Buds' bandwagon is starting to fill up.  I have no problem with that, what bothers me is all the talk of how Toronto has finally reached the .500 level due to their having won 27 games and having lost 27 games in regulation.

The problem is they've lost more than 27 games this season, they've actually lost 34.  They've lost 7 games this year in overtime and by shootout, 3 and 4 respectively.  Now, I'm not very good at the new math...but this old school  guy doesn't see how 27 wins against 34 losses equates to being a .500 team. 

Yes I know the NHL, in its infinite stupidity, awards 1 point for teams that wait until after regulation to lose.  So based on this arcane point system the Leafs have garnered 61 out of a possible 122 points, but that still doesn't make them a .500 team in this fan's books.  

Viewing the current Leafs as a .500 team is part of a loser mentality, and maybe that's part of the problem.  They've lost 7 more games than they've won, but by using the league's idiotic point system they can boost  their battered egos and think they're playing .500 hockey when in reality they're 7 games below the mark.

A word for Burke, Wilson and the boys in blue and white....winners don't settle.  If you want to call yourselves a .500 team then finish the schedule by winning at least 7 more games than you lose.  Do that and you won't have to worry about clawing your way into the playoffs, it'll be a done deal.


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Fire Gary Bettman - Something all Canadian hockey fans should agree on

At the risk of offending a dozen or so Phoenix Coyote hockey fans, I'm going to use my little cyber pulpit to wander off the political path and write about some shinny. Specifically about the way the NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is taking hockey loving Canadians for granted.

Back in June I started an on-line petition calling on Canadians to boycott all NHL licensed products until Canada gets a 7th franchise, with Hamilton being the obvious choice. While there are only 35 signatures so far, I have gotten some positive feedback for my effort. The most recent of which was an email from a gentleman named Ken. He's started his own petition which calls for the firing of Gary Bettman, after a nanosecond of deliberation I signed it.

Putting a team in Hamilton would be a no brainer if the NHL had a commissioner who was interested in viable franchises and growing the game. I'm no Rhodes scholar, not by a long shot...but it doesn't take an Ivy league genius to know that sticking hockey teams in places with no attachment to the game is a recipe for failure.

If you're the commissioner of a major sports league the last thing you want is teams playing in front of a bunch of empty seats, unless you're Gary Bettman, who seems to prefer it. Why else have teams in places like Nashville, Atlanta and Phoenix?

You want people clamouring to join your ownership club? How about showing potential suitors arenas filled with rabid fans!!! That's what you'd have in cities like Hamilton, the 'Peg and Quebec city. Instead we have teams in Florida practically giving tickets away, while puckheads in southern Ontario have to take out a second mortgage to go and see a crappy Leafs team.

Part of Canada's national character is that we're 'oh so polite'. Protesting and signing petitions isn't really our thing, but I suggest its time true hockey fans get angry. Stop buying products licensed to the NHL and sign the petition to have Gary Bettman fired.

Click here to sign the 'FIRE GARY BETTMAN' petition.

Click here to sign the 'BOYCOTT NHL LICENSED PRODUCTS' petition.

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Bloody well done old man, Tom Watson - British Open runner up

I couldn't resist blogging about golf after Tom Watson held the 2 day lead at the British Open. After Friday's round I offered up the opinion that I believed Watson could contend right through til Sunday with a legitimate shot at winning, and the old guy proved me right.

British Open golf - C'mon Watson, win one for us old warriors

It was all right there for him on the 18th hole, a one shot lead and a perfectly placed tee shot in the middle of the fairway...only needing an 8 or 9 iron to reach the putting surface. Some might suggest he choked, but I don't think so. He went with the 8, and even at 59 years of age there's adrenalin pulsing through the veins. The 8 was too much combined with that adrenalin, and while the ball was near perfectly struck, it went long. I was praying the 8-9 footer he'd left himself for par would go in...and that the championship would be his, but it wasn't to be. Instead I'd have to endure watching him in a 4 hole playoff against Stewart Cink.

I won't bother recapping the 4 playoff holes, if you're a fan of the game, then you saw it. It was painful to watch, not because Watson embarrassed himself or anything...just because I was pulling for him so hard.

The television commentators mentioned a few times over the course of Saturday's and Sunday's rounds that some were questioning golf's legitimacy as a sport, when a 59 year old man can compete for a major championship. That's a load of rot. Golf is unique, and while it is not as physically demanding as almost every other sport....it is not a country stroll either. Players walk about 5 miles each day of a tournament, and while one or two of those marches aren't too difficult for a guy near 60, I'm sure that by the 3rd and 4th day he was getting tired.

Golf is physical, its mental...and even a little bit spiritual. In the final equation Tom Watson had enough of the latter two components, but physically its a lot to ask of a guy in his 60th year.

But he held it together for 4 days, and it took a playoff to beat him...when he shouldn't have even been there by any measure of logic. Well done, see you next year at St. Andrew's Tom.

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British Open golf - C'mon Watson, win one for us old warriors

Regular readers of this blog can be excused for thinking that the only thing I really care about is politics. While I do admit to being a political junkie, I do in fact have other interests.

One of those interests is sports, both playing and watching. I've played hockey, baseball, basketball, a bit of rugby and some football. I used to play a decent game of tennis and I've even tried curling on one occasion.

But the sport I'm going to be focusing in on for the next couple of days is golf, specifically the British Open. I haven't had my sticks out for a couple of years now, but watching Tom Watson these past two days has me thinking about cleaning them off for a go at the driving range.

Why am I finding this year's British Open so captivating? Well...naturally there's the thrill of watching the world's best golfers challenge for the claret jug at the birthplace of the game. But its more than that this year. This year its about Tom Watson, 59 years young and leading after play on Friday.

Its not just about Tom Watson the golfer, its more about Tom Watson the metaphor. No matter what the sport, I've always enjoyed watching the aging warrior, reaching back into his bag of tricks, trying to sneak one past father time.

I was in Exhibition Stadium the first game knuckleballer Phil Neikro pitched for Toronto. He was somewhere around 48 years of age, up on the mound trying to confound hitters with a flutter ball. He was picked up late in the season by the Jays in 1987 as a fifth starter. That night at the old ballpark something like 40,000 fans showed up to watch him work. I remember him being quoted in the paper the following day, saying something like, "I can't believe that many people came out to watch an old man throw floater balls".

But they did, for the same reason that many people will be drawn to the British Open on Saturday and Sunday if Tom Watson can stay in contention.

Why are we so fascinated? I think the reason is simple, its because we're all mortals. The moment we draw our first breath is the moment we start dying. I don't mean to sound morbid, that's not my intent. But we're all 'on the clock' as it were. Trying to squeeze as much as we can out of the time we have on this Earth.

Seeing someone of Tom Watson's age, competing with men much younger...some old enough to be his grandchildren, its exhilarating. If Tom can do it, dammit so can I...and you, and you, and you. Sure he has an artificial hip, and maybe he hasn't won a major championship in something like 30 years. But maybe...just maybe.

Logic dictates that this is just an aberration, that reality will eventually set in during the final two rounds. But life isn't always logical, sometimes life is spiritual.

The human spirit operates beyond the calendar, it can soar in a 90 year old and whither in a teenager. Age isn't everything, that's something we all know but have trouble believing. You hear it all the time, "age is just a number". But numbers are real and tangible things, and very hard to ignore. Can Tom Watson ignore his age over the final two days?

Golf is a physical game certainly, but more than most other competitive pursuits, its a mental game. Can this ancient warrior forget about his birth certificate and summon up the spirit to contend and possibly win come Sunday? I think he can.

I've played sports, and there have been moments when everything just clicks. When the brain shuts off and its like you're watching the game as an outsider. But its you making an unbelievable pass, a brilliant deke, a perfectly executed shot. That's the spiritual aspect of sports, when you connect with something and find yourself doing things you didn't think you physically could.

Tom Watson seems to understand that, he's quoted as saying that the spirits are with him this year, and I think he's right. I know my spirit will be with him, along with many others. Forget the numbers Tom, just play the game.

For those of you who aren't fans of the game of golf, but who read to the end regardless, I'm going to leave you with a little treat. Its a video of Robin Williams explaining the origins of the game of golf. Chances are anyone who's ever played the game has seen this clip, but if you haven't its priceless.

PLEASE BE ADVISED, THIS YOUTUBE VIDEO CONTAINS PROFANITY.


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Make room Hamilton, Winnipeg wants back in the NHL

Back on June 21st of this year I strayed from my usual path of writing about politics and current events to chime in on the issue of Canada getting a 7th NHL franchise, taking something of an advocacy tone. I created an on-line petition calling on Canadian hockey fans to boycott NHL licensed merchandise until Hamilton (or another Canadian city) is awarded a team.

While the petition has only gotten 4 signatures so far, it looks like it might be getting some more attention. I received an email today from Craig Ferguson, a 48 year old gentleman who works in financial services. He's a self described hockey nut and the father of 4 teenagers. While he lives in the Hamilton area, he's very much enamoured with the thought of bringing NHL hockey back to 'The Peg'. So enamoured that he's started his own blog on the subject, Make It Eight, eh? Hockey again for Winnipeg!

Craig has written me that he's going to be publicizing the petition on makeitseven.ca's rants page, as well as through facebook.

So allow me to reiterate the idea behind the petition once again.

Canadians should tell Gary Bettman and the NHL board of governors that we Puck Loving Hosers will not be buying any NHL licensed merchandise until this country is awarded a 7th franchise. We'll still go to the games, we will keep watching our Hockey Night in Canada....but the money they get from all the sweaters, key chains, flags, boxer shorts and gawd knows what else...the $Loonies$ filling the NHL's merchandising coffers is going to take a hit unless they pull their collective heads out of Gary Bettman's behind and grant Hamilton (or another worthy Canadian city) a franchise.

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Boycott NHL Licensed Products Until Canada Gets 7th Team - Petition

I've started an on-line petition so Canadians can let Gary Bettman and the NHL know that we're going to hit them where it hurts until they put a 7th team in Canada.

Can Hamilton support an NHL franchise? Absolutely!!! Instead of having struggling teams in cities like Nashville, Columbus, Tampa Bay and Phoenix the NHL could have perhaps as many as 6 more Canadian teams, in cities where hockey matters and is front page news.

With the revenue sharing agreement between the NHL and its player's association cities like Winnipeg and Quebec City would now be viable. It needn't end there, Regina and Halifax might also prove lucrative markets, with the city of Toronto ripe for another team.

But Gary Bettman and the NHL hardly seem interested, they'd rather ignore a country where people live and breathe hockey, while dreaming about expansion or relocation to places like Las Vegas, Kansas City and Portland. There's a good reason for this, there are 24 U.S. teams in the league right now, and many are already struggling to sell tickets. Owners of U.S. teams think its easier to flog tickets for games against cities like NY, LA or San Jose than it would be if the Hamilton Puckheads or Regina Wheat Kings were coming to town.

Sports is big business, and hockey is no exception. The only way to get the league's attention is to hit them where it hurts, in the wallet. I'm not going to suggest that people living in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa or Montreal stop attending games...that would never work. Neither would asking people to stop watching the games on TV, we love our hockey too much.

But ticket sales and television rights aren't the only revenue streams for the league, there's also licensing fees. Every team sweater and toque with an NHL logo on it brings in $$$. Hats, socks, boxer shorts, flags, hockey cards....there has to be a million products generating licensing revenue. This is where Joe and Jane Canadian can hit Gary Bettman and make it count.

If you think Canada deserves and merits another team, stop buying products licensed to the NHL. The league generates over $1 billion each year by plastering team logos on everything from sweaters to key chains, and it stands to reason that a hefty percentage of that money comes from our Loonies. In fact the NHL forecast an 8% increase in licensing revenue back in August of 2008 according to SportsBusiness Journal.

SIGN THIS PETITION and let Gary Bettman and the league know you will not be purchasing any NHL licensed products until a 7th Canadian team is approved.

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