Right vs Wrong

Let me begin by first admitting something which may surprise many of you but it need be said in any event. I've been wrong before: I was wrong about Iraq, I was wrong about my first wife, I was wrong about school and the list goes on and on. With all of those errors though I have been able to get a few things right and it is the aforementioned errors which have caused me to ponder on issues with a little more diligence then in the past though I will always be a "heart on his sleeve" type of guy. What I have done right is become more selective in those I hitch my horse to. Just because people may be true of heart doesn't always make them right or good for you. 

What, you may ask, is Ted going on about - surely not his life long quest to enumerate his failures. Well I'm talking about the Chara / Pacioretty hit this week and the aftermath. I've listened to an array of opinion on this issue, both by people I very much like and people I would rather spend my day not listening to. What I believe is the result of the hit on Tuesday night, is that it is time for the NHL to change. What I want to see is a great hockey event, with good solid hits, fast skating, blocked shots, great goaltending and skilled scoring. I don't want to see the product which was delivered on Tuesday night, whereby a team which was losing a game soundly, decided that the only way to get back into the game was by intimidation. Did Chara intend to hospitalize Pacioretty? I doubt he wanted to accomplish that, but I don't doubt for a moment that he wanted to eliminate him from the game and send a message to the kid. He has done that and now so has the league. 

Now I know there are many of you old school guys who say "This is nothing new, It's been going on for years" and you know what. You're right, it has been. Cheap shots and message sending has been going on since the game was first iced by the NHL but at the time, so were many other dangerously human traits which we have managed to eliminate. Ken Dryden had a very insightful piece in the Globe and Mail in which he enumerates the things mankind has been stupid about but accepted as normal. Smoking, drunk driving, driving without seat belts, playing hockey without facemasks or helmets all have been eliminated over time and every single event was considered life or sport altering at the time. "Life will never be the same" if I'm forced to stop smoking, drinking and driving or forcing me to where seat belts. Life hasn't been the same because many more people whether victim or perpetrator are around to argue about it. 

It is time again for one of those moments where society steps in and forces those in charge of this sport to change what they perceive as acceptable. Force them to change configuration of the rink - certainly, but also eliminate the decision to plant people into the next century because you can. The sport is not the same as it was. The sport is played by bigger, faster, better athletes. The league is manned by many more people of different persuasions. They all have their human frailties and don't believe for a moment those things are left at the arena door. So in the end I'll hitch my horse to the likes of Ken Dryden, Arthur Cohen, the doctors currently working on the impact of concussions and allow them to mess the game up a little bit in hopes that they save the life and mind of either my kids and grand kids or yours. I could be wrong though....

"Don't Pay For It" Policy

I read this morning that Jean Charest has committed the province to 45% share of the cost to build a new arena to house what hopefully would be a home for a new hockey team to grace the city of Quebec. While at first blush it would seem like a worthwhile investment to attract a sports franchise, especially to the multitudes of hockey fans that I'm sure have been starved for a NHL based hockey team, I would like to offer this advice. "DON'T DO IT". Like a friend perched on a building ledge on the 43 floor of an office complex ready to end the hopelessness, I feel it my responsibility to at least try to talk you down from the ledge and point out a few key facts which may allow you to see life as it actually is and not the way you want it to be or believe it to be.

Firstly, while politicians (Jean Charest, etc), businessmen (Mark Angleson, Chairman of Quebecor and potential owner of said team) and certainly Gary Bettman would all try to convince you that this is a wise and bountiful thing, let me assure of one thing. None of them have the best interest of the taxpayers or hockey fans for that matter in mind. That's right folks, I said it right out loud. Mr. Bettman does not have the hockey fans best interest in mind. He has been hired by the owners to operate, direct and counsel the business towards the end which best represents the owners. The businessman will gain an asset through the acquisition of a team which is movable, can be used as leverage at will and provide only short term satisfaction at best when not firmly committed to the area in question and the politician is only thinking votes. Nothing more. 

Secondly, there are a litany of failed public investment into  sports complexes as evidence of all sorts which taxpayers are lead to believe will invite investment, entertainment dollars and profile to those areas, but in the end these are unabashed lies. The old Giants Stadium in NJ is still being paid for until 2025 even though it was torn down this year. Seattle has one in the Seattledome which still lies empty, the now departed Igloo in Pittsburgh and the endless stories related to the Coyotes woes, should be enough to scare anyone off.What is really troubling, however, is that Quebecers most of all should be skeptical because the payment for the Big O is still on the books and that is now 34 years old. All of these examples represent instances where taxpayer money has been re-directed away from public investment in decaying infrastructure, on the suggestion that somewhere down the line there is some big payoff. There isn't today and there won't be tomorrow. 

Thirdly and most importantly, the suggestion that it will bring new entertainment dollars to the area is of course a fabrication of the highest order. Just because a team comes to town, doesn't adjust a family income upwards to allow for that new entertainment offering. A family who earned $50,000 before the entrance will earn exactly $50,000 after the entrance of that team into that market. If they allocate $2500 per year to their entertainment expenditures, that is what they allocate. They won't spend $4000 and give up food or rent or heat. The only thing that will occur is a redirection of that expenditure away from those venues currently supported in the community. Those venues which I might add are probably bound more to the community then the promised franchise. 

Finally, this carrot dangling is based on false hope. Bettman hasn't committed to a team in Quebec, but merely suggests it won't be considered until there is a new venue. This coupled with the fact that a Canadian team hasn't won the cup in more than seventeen years should tell you something.

Spend your money on something that will offer you at least some satisfaction. Invest in high speed transit to get you to the big city that offers those slices of entertainment and straddles those taxpayers with the burden of profile and then take that high speed train back home to enjoy the thought you don't have the heartache. 

Don't Make Your Mother Cry

When we were kids both parents worked outside the home and so it was part of our daily lives that we were expected to carry our load with respect to daily chores. In consequence my parents created this duty chart in which each of our names were listed down the left hand side and along the top were the days of the week. Within each of the corresponding 42 boxes were the chores each of us were expected to perform on any given day. It was hung on the pantry door in the kitchen and every day we were expected to check the listing and perform the prescribed labor. Failure to perform those designated chores would result in extra assignments the following day or worse including, but not limited to, indentured servitude in consignment to the neighbors. Okay I'm lying about the last part but only slightly. 

In any event, as we grew older the tasks grew more troubling to our rebellious teenage status, especially given the Woodstock years, to a point where one day my brother Mike and I decided to hold a revolt and no longer give in to the free child labor dictum that was forced upon the proletariat masses (wait I digress again). In any event we stopped doing the work. When my mother got home it was immediately a point of contention and as usual, after a brief but heated discussion, she headed to the kitchen utensil drawer to find her preferred weapon of choice. THE WOODEN SPOON. She came back into the living room and gave us the final ultimatum of doing the chores or facing the consequences. When we refused to succumb to the threat of violence, she simply approached while brandishing her Aunt Jemimah artillery. What she didn't expect was that one of us grabbed the wooden spoon out of her hand and snapped it like a pretzel leaving it in two distinctly less threatening pieces. I say one of us because I really don't remember whether it was Mike or I. The affront was immediately followed for only a brief period with us cheering and laughing like convicts running from the road side chain gang.Within a flash of that my mother began to cry. We were stunned. She just sat down in her rocking chair and cried. We were transformed from Lenin to Schmuck in a heartbeat. Our party ended as quickly as if a riot squad fire hosed us with ice cold water. We look at each other and without a word set off to go do our chores. 

Never make your mother cry.

Random Thoughts on the Opening Ceremony

I still love Bobby Orr

 

I still love Donald Southerland

 

I think the entire American team have A D D and they’ve taken them off their meds

 

Why do the totems remind me of an erection

 

I think David Hasselhoff and kd Lang share wardrobes. Hasselhoff is sexier.

 

Opera is 1000 people in the world imposing their will on the billions who hate it.

 

Was it impossible for Furlong to learn more French than mon amis and do a poor job of it. And he could’ve lost the Brit accent at the same time.

 

The rocky mountains are pretty majestic when not made out of sheets.

 

The budget for the opening ceremonies was 47 million. They spent it all at linen and things.

 

Nancy Green still looks like the kid who won the Olympic gold

 

Wayne Gretzky is suffering from the Phoenix situation. Check out the hair dye.

 

The lone Monaco athlete is 55 and didn’t carry the flag. I’m taking out my citizenship.

 

Who’s selling cigarettes.

 

My hero is Betty Fox

 

I’m shocked – it’s raining in Vancouver. Somebody can sling BS

 

I hope Canada wins the gold in hockey, men and women but I’m still mad that Cammalleri wasn’t even considered. What they don’t like smart guys!!

 

I bet Bob Costas was beat up more than I was as a kid

 

They should have made all the figure skating judges take the oath on the stage and let the crowd rate them

 

4.2          1.0          5.3          6.5

 

Did they get a deal on the Iranian hats. I. R. Iran – They thought it was all in upper case at first. Come on

 

It was very fitting the Irish were between the Iranians and the Israelis. Who better to control a brawl.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fare thee well

Just like the chorus from Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (he’s Canadian you know) Déjà vu track, I keep hearing voices raised high in a plaintiff and wistful drone, “we have all been here before, we have all been here before” and can’t help but feel that it is true yet again. The Bob Gainey era will now be left to the history books and the vultures known as Canadien fans who will pick at the road kill despite the dangers of the oncoming traffic. What I know is the job of general manager in the current NHL has got to be like being the impresario to the band on the Titanic -unbelievable talent and guts  being driven by a guy who can’t see icebergs (See Bettman). Being the general manager of the Canadiens is like having that band on that Titanic with tug boats latched to the side to see you don’t miss the iceberg.

 

For all the evidence one can muster on either side of an argument about whether Mr. Gainey was a good or bad gm,  the fact remains, his most recent predecessors didn’t make it to the party as often as he did.  The last icon player to hold the job of gm was Serge Savard ( I like Houle very much but let’s face it folks he wasn’t an icon) and at the time people ran him out of town with the lynch mob just waiting to heave his carcass on high from the nearest oak (thank god Drapeau had removed all of them from Sherbrooke Street). In retrospect, Savard was the last guy to bring not one but two Stanley cups to the city. In a place where one of the top two issues of hiring a gm is  that he must speak the language ( and Boivin made it very clear that it was one of the top two considerations) you are limiting yourselves. Whatever, people thought of Bob Gainey in terms of doing his job, they may find that the pickings are even slimmer now that he has departed.

 

When people raise the Gomez, Gionta, Cammalleri and Hamerlik deals as being terrible I’ll point to Briere, Lecalvalier, Brad Richards and Souray as all being worse and at the time, the outcry in the city for three of the four was resounding. The chorus of “he way overpaid” can be answered by the Komisarek and Kovalev negotiations where he offered fair market value and they took either the same or slightly better deals to go elsewhere and these were players who swore up hill and down dale they wanted to be in Montreal. It’s easy to be a manager when all you have to do is forget what you said yesterday and be the genius of tomorrow, but in these days of cap hits, taxes, climate and constant scrutiny it is easy to understand why players might take the easy road and go elsewhere. There is still nothing like playing in Montreal when you’re playing well (see Saturday against the Penguins) but lo the day when you play bad (see Sunday against the Bruins).  

 

Just like most fans in Montreal, I’m always disappointed when we don’t win a game, when we don’t make it to the payoffs, when we don’t win the cup and we blame everyone involved because of it. Fair enough. What I also know for sure is that there are 29 other teams who want to go to the dance and all of them have a crack at the same players that the Canadiens do. In fact because of their futility of floating on the bottom for so long they even got a better opportunity at the likes of Ovechkin, Crosby and Malkin. Unless Montreal is willing to forsake the playoffs for let’s say 5 or 6 years consecutively and finish in the bottom 5 teams at the specific point in time when some of the most talented new comers are on the way up, and they win the lottery to grab those players, then you’ll have to learn to live with the best that a gm can bring you while competing with the rest of the teams. If you think Bob was bad at that, hold on to your hats my friend because the winds of bad may be blowing up a hurricane.

 

Good Luck Bob and wipe that smile off your face.