How Conrad Black Made Me Change My Tune on Hockey

I have to admit to paying a lot of attention to Conrad Black. His trial intrigued, fascinated and annoyed me. I do read his column every week; when he is on his game he is a ridiculously talented writer. And I found myself following the back and forth between John Moore and Mr. Black.

The one thing that sticks out with the end result of this trial is how much Mr. Black refuses to acknowledge the reality of the situation he's in.

When Black writes things like "In a mind-bending exercise of suppressing, distorting, and fabricating evidence, the Circuit Court revived two of the counts," he comes across as thinking he's still to be vindicated on these charges. When Black states that ...there is practically no chance that even an American court would have convicted on the two remaining counts if they had not been embedded in 15 other counts that eventually all failed at different stages of the proceedings, he comes across as a conspiracy theorist who has deluded himself into thinking that he is the victim in this situation.

It's frustrating to read Black when he continues on about his conviction. I found myself wishing him to continue to write about the U.S. penal system and its failures (in his view). On this he is just as passionate, but it seems much more productive use of his immeasurable writing skills. But it also got me to think about myself and my own railing on about the Boston Bruins' Stanley Cup victory.

I have been frustrated by how the sports media has glossed over something that I found incredibly odd and discomforting - that the Bruins benefitted from favourable refereeing in each game 7 they played during the playoffs. While I realize that linking this to Colin Campbell (father of Bruins' player Gregory Campbell) is basically taking a giant leap into the crazy conspiracy theory area, it would be nice if somebody acknowledged that the refereeing actually changed in game seven of the Eastern Conference Finals and game six to game seven of the Stanley Cup Finals and it benefitted the Bruins, who were a much stronger team at even strength than on special teams. I've brought this up at times with friends to the point where I'm basically repeating myself. And that's not productive for anybody.

So here's my solemn vow: when I talk about the inconsistency of refereeing in the playoffs, I will not take any shots at the Boston Bruins benefitting multiple times from this. Further, I will only talk about the inconsistencies within the series, not in the greater terms of the playoffs.

I know I am not as skilled a writer as Conrad Black. I hope that someday I will have one-thousandth of his writing talent. But until that day arrives, I'll settle for having a skill he seems to lack: being able to move past things in order to work towards a greater good.

Already setting up next year

Max Pacioretty wasn't happy with the Bruins winning the Cup. (Not that I blame him; and I congratulate him for not goin on the rant that I did after the end of round 1.)

You made your bed, now lie in it

After the NHL chose not to punish Zdeno Chara any further for his hit on Max Pacioretty, Air Canada sent a strongly worded letter to Gary Bettman and the 6 Canadian teams threatening to pull their sponsorship of the NHL if actions aren't taken agianst the head shot problem.

(See also: Max Pacioretty expresses his anger over the lack of punishment for Chara.)

Quick probably too angry post

Zdeno Chara is a piece of shit who is no better than Trevor Gillies. I really don't care if Chara ever plays in the NHL again; what he did to Max Pacioretty was an abomination and should have him thrown out of the league forever. It won't because the league really doesn't give a shit about cleaning up their league (cf Bertuzzi, Gillies, Cooke, Richards, etc.) and that's why they will continue to be a laughing stock in the US.

Welcome to Montreal Brent

While I'm watching the Montreal Canadiens' defense corps prove why this trade was needed, I'll point you to Life of a Hockey Widow a blog written by the wife of new Montreal Canadiens defenseman Brent Sopel. It's an intresting look at what it's like to be the wife of a professional athlete.

Paying tribute via hockey mask

Alex Auld has a new mask - one that pays tribute to Jacques Plante, Ken Dryden and Patrick Roy. It is awesome.

Ramblings about the 2011 World Junior Hockey Championship Gold Medal Game

It's tough to be incredibly critical of a team made of players who are under the age of 20. They are, almost by definition, lacking experience in these sorts of high pressure games, and don't necessarily know how to react. with that said, what happened in the gold medal game was rather dreadful.

For two periods, the Canadians dominated the game, building up a three goal lead. It seemed as though all was in control, and the Canadians took their foot off the gas pedal. This lead to a great comeback by the Russian team, scoring 5 goals in 16 minutes and winning the gold medal game.

One can only hope that the Canadian team learned a lesson in not letting up and that you do not earn the reward without completing the task. That this will make them better players in the long run. But for now, it sucks. And it makes one want to yell at his country's junior team.

(I don't mean to take anything away from the Russian team, who showed immense character in 3 comeback victories during the elimination round. They never gave up, and recovered from a disasterous start to the tournament to win the goal medal.)

RIP Pat Burns

Here's Scott Morrison's piece on Pat Burns.

Edit: Here's the tribute video that played before the Canadiens/Maple Leafs game on Saturday.

My feelings after Game 7 of Habs/Pens

Your quick Montreal/Washington Playoff thoughts

Even with this being the best possible matchup for Montreal, Washington will win in 5 hardfought games.

Just so we're clear

Yes, I was hoping for a Leafs win tonight. Yes, I fully expect the in-a-death-spiral-Leafs to destroy the Canadiens on Saturday. Yes, I am still confident that the Canadiens will make the playoffs.

Brillance

The Four Habs Fans present Born To Be Our Goalie.

(At this point I probably need to point out that the Four Habs Fans site might be NSFW, though the specific Bon Kovy post is SFW.)

Missed the net by *that much*

For being such an important person in the Joseph L. Rotman School of Management, Richard Powers manages to significantly miss the mark in this piece about how Gary Bettman has failed as NHL commissioner.

Giddiness, commence!

GILLETT SELLS CANADIENS TO MOLSONS

(hat tip: Habs InsideOut, who read La Presse so I don`t have to remember my French.)

The Montreal Canadiens are curious about...stuff

So, Les Habitants sent me (via Ipsos) a survey to take. I'm assuming it's because I purchased tickets from them directly at one point.

The survey was pretty general, asking for demographic information before getting into the meat of the matter. Among the information they were interested in:

• How many games did you watch on television this past year?


• How do you get "general" information? How do you get Canadiens specific information? (3 choices for this; the choices were the major Montreal newspapers, major sports websites, Montreal television stations and Montreal radio stations.)


• How much do you use the internet?


• How many other events have you attened at the Bell Centre in the last year?


• Have you ever bought tickets from scalpers? If so, how much did you pay as compared to the face value of the tickets? How satisfied were you with your scalper experience?


• How many ounces of spirits do you drink in a week?


• How many glasses of wine do you drink in a week?

The last three bulletpoints were the monst interesting. They seem to be interested in knowing how many people have gone to scalpers, and if there's anything to be worried about from them (instead of immediately assuming that scalpers/ticket agents are bad.) And they are curious about the finer drinking habits of their fans. There's no reference of beer at all, unless they are considering beer to be a part of spirits.

There's probably nothing major coming out of this, but it's interesting to see the questions asked.

Lesser of two evils

The guys over at Pension Plan Puppets are having a field day with the news that Celine Dion is interested in buying the Montreal Canadiens. Me, I'm more afraid of Quebecor. Being owned by an uncaring monolithic company solely interested in making money is not the best situation for winning championships.

Calling Shenanigans

The NHL Trade Deadline was yesterday, with a bit of activity occurring. The most confusing trade of the day occurred when the Toronto Maple Leafs traded Richard Petiot to the Tampa Bay Lightning for Olaf Kolzig, Jamie Heward, Andy Rogers and a fourth round draft pick.

Normally, this wouldn't be a big deal. But Petiot is toiling in the AHL, and is not considered to be an impact prospect. So why is he worth a 4th round pick, let alone the additional players that were included? Money.

The trade moves the Lightning under the salary midpoint, which gives them access to more revenue sharing funds. So the Leafs end up with a fourth round pick in exchange for being an enabler of the Lightning's plan.

Both James Mirtle and Tyler Dellow are on the case, but I think both are missing the key story of the trade.

It's not that Brian Burke has taken on $400,000-$600,000 in extra salary in order to get a fourth round draft pick. This has happened in the NHL before (the Upshall/Carcillo deal, for example. The New Jersey Malakhov deal for another.) The NBA sees these sorts of deals, in an even more obvious manner.

The key is that these deals are normally done because one team is either over the salary cap, or so close to the salary cap that they would not be able to make any other moves. It's a strategic move, where a team has no leverage, but tries to create some flexibility. In this case though, the Lightning are trying to get under the salary midpoint so they can take more money from the league. It's not a strategic move which could lead to an improvement to the team. That's what the league needs to be looking at, not just the practice of moving players to clear cap space.

Uh, yeah

Bad call to give Philly a powerplay and they score the winner. But the refs are biased in favour of Montreal.

Pittsburgh makes the finals. Lock it up and throw away the key. Neither Montreal or Philly looks like much competition for the Sid and Geno.

For the love of Pete

The only way that R.J. Umberger is going to be stopped is if he is taken out by a sniper. And once again Montreal dominates only to have Philadelphia get the first goal. Pittsburgh has to be loving this - they either get a Montreal team who have a goaltending crisis or a Philadelphia team that was outplayed by their opponents consistently but rode luck and a hot goaltender to victory.

WTF?

No liveblog tonight, but Jaroslav Halak is starting the crucial game 4. Guy Carbonneau has to know something (is Price hurt? That's the only logical answer to this). I'll probably check in and officially freak out at some point.

(On the down side, Steve Downie is out of the lineup, which means the Canadiens will lose 1/2 of their powerplays.)