This month, in honor of Father's Day, just wanted to help get the word out about prostate cancer testing and early detection. Every male, age 40 and above, is encouraged to get screened for the disease. Prostate cancer is much more treatable the earlier it is detected.
Earlier today on The Randy Tieman Show (Team 990) he had former Montreal Canadien Robin Burns on to talk about PROCURE.CA, a Quebec based non-for-profit designed to raise awareness, support, and education for prostate cancer. According to Burns they've raised around $5 million in the last four years. He also pointed out it takes $1 million a year to keep one of their Biobanks (support network of hospitals, research facilities, and universities) running for a year.
Their 4th annual Walk of Courage will take place June 20, 2010, on Father's Day. The Montreal teams - Canadiens, Alouettes, and Impact - have helped support the non-for-profit and this year, former Canadien Yvan Cournoyer will act as co-president of the event.
Everyone is encouraged to join the walk, in honor of fathers, grandfathers, brothers, sons. To make a donation, register to walk, or learn more, please visit PROCURE.CA
For those living in the States, to find out more about screenings and prevention of prostate cancer, please visit The Prostate Cancer Foundation
Showing posts with label Team990. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Team990. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Random Hockey Thought of the Day - Vancouver Canucks and What May Have Been. . .
I was listening to Team990 this morning. (On a side note, I'm still suffering through the loss of PJ Stock on the station as he was my favorite 3 hour listen every day, but who doesn't enjoy Montreal radio when the Habs are in the playoffs, surprising people and doing well?).
Anyway, Tony, the host of The Montreal Forum, said that even though he's a Habs fan, he'd want the Canucks - Canada's only other representative team - to win the Cup if the Habs got knocked out. I get it. I'm sure many people would feel the same. I'm not a full-time Habs fan or a Canadian, but I know I rooted for Calgary in 2004 and Edmonton in 2006. I mean, why not see a Cup back in Canada if the team is able to win it, right?
His reasoning was interesting though. He said he'd root for them for all they'd gone through. Luc Bourdon's motorcycle accident (two years ago this month, unbelievably so). Coach Alain Vigneault's up and down trip to the NHL. And the tragedy of Taylor Pyatt's (who noteably no longer plays for the Canucks) fiance dying last year.
Now, granted, I didn't understand the last one. While I do understand Pyatt was well liked by his teammates and I'm sure they sympathized with their friend, I'm not sure a year later that is going to be a reason. This takes nothing away from the importance of Pyatt to either the Canucks (or the Coyotes he played for this season) or the extend of the tragedy, which was extreme, but I'm still not sure I connect the two.
Regardless, it got me thinking why - even though I'd surely love to see the Hawks win a Cup. I mean unless you hate them, why wouldn't you? - I wouldn't mind if one of these years turned out to be Vancouver's year.
I'm a Rangers fan, was a Rangers fan in 1994. Obviously I wanted 1994 to go exactly as it did. The good guys won. The guys that needed to erase a 54-year curse. Magic. And it may never happen again. Especially if the last 16 years are any indication.
But, I always hoped in the back of my mind that the Canucks would get back there. Probably in the early stages of my hockey watching I assumed that they'd be right back there next year. I mean why not, right? They came as close as you could to winning it all. I'm still curious how that happens, even though we've seen it before. Ask the Florida Panthers of 1996. Sometimes you just get there and no one knows why, and you don't get close since.
If you look at the Canucks though and the years that followed (and it's worth it) it was an odd journey.
The 1995 shortened season saw the team struggle, but make the playoffs to lose in a 4 game sweep to Chicago in the 2nd Round. In 1996 their leading scorer Pavel Bure was injured early in the season, struggles continued, and the Canucks didn't make it out of Round 1. The following year, 1997, they didn't even make the playoffs. They, as Rangers fans know, ushered in the Mark Messier years in Vancouver, which as we also know, didn't really go well for either team. They made the playoffs every year after that experiment, but never made it out of the 2nd round.
Post lockout, they'd narrowly miss the playoffs in 2006, causing the team be torn apart and re-made, and the start of the Roberto Luongo Era in Vancouver. They make it to the 2nd round in 2007. They narrowly missed the playoffs again in 2008, and the great Trevor Linden retired from the NHL. In 2009, the Canucks made the playoffs, swept St. Louis, before going on to lose the heartbreaker in Game 6 to the Blackhawks and Patrick Kane's hat trick.
So, what this tells us is that, not including this year or the full lockout year, and since 1994, the Canucks made the playoffs eight out of fourteen years, but never made it out of Round 2. Never came even close to getting back to where they were in 1994. (Although besides the blip of 1997, neither did the Rangers, if we're being honest).
Just goes to show you, there really are no givens or guarantees in professional sports. You may really never get that chance again.
I think of those Canucks that I really liked, those that aren't there anymore. Legendary good guy Trevor Linden. Former Canucks turned Rangers Kirk McLean and Pavel Bure, who carried the team that playoff year. Even though those guys aren't there anymore today, I felt for them afterwards. Not many I've ever liked more than I like and respect Trevor Linden.
As for the current team, there are certain things you have to admire about them. Luongo, may not be perfect, but he's damn good at times. And he, last year when things went badly, stood up through tears to speak to the media post game. Only 2 players did. The Sedins (who I am actually pretty sure I can tell apart if I met them both face to face) are a great story. Not long ago, it was all about their contracts and how many years, and how much $$. Proving a few people wrong now, aren't they? A very well deserved Hart nomination for Henrik too. Alex Burrows, like him or hate him, is a good story, of a kid that was playing ECHL hockey years ago and is now playing alongside two of the league's best.
So, honestly, if the Canucks end up winning the Cup...I'm not disappointed. It may have just been a long time coming.
And...as we've just proven, sometimes you don't get a second chance.
**Note: This was not one of the segments I planned when I went into this season and said I had new, fun segments. You know the plan I had every intention of following unti life got in the way. We'll see how this goes. Also, major helmet tip to Sports Encyclopedia Vancouver Canucks for the info. What, you thought I remembered every single year of Canucks history over the last 16? If you did, I love you for it, but you gave me way too much credit. Great site, great info.**
Anyway, Tony, the host of The Montreal Forum, said that even though he's a Habs fan, he'd want the Canucks - Canada's only other representative team - to win the Cup if the Habs got knocked out. I get it. I'm sure many people would feel the same. I'm not a full-time Habs fan or a Canadian, but I know I rooted for Calgary in 2004 and Edmonton in 2006. I mean, why not see a Cup back in Canada if the team is able to win it, right?
His reasoning was interesting though. He said he'd root for them for all they'd gone through. Luc Bourdon's motorcycle accident (two years ago this month, unbelievably so). Coach Alain Vigneault's up and down trip to the NHL. And the tragedy of Taylor Pyatt's (who noteably no longer plays for the Canucks) fiance dying last year.
Now, granted, I didn't understand the last one. While I do understand Pyatt was well liked by his teammates and I'm sure they sympathized with their friend, I'm not sure a year later that is going to be a reason. This takes nothing away from the importance of Pyatt to either the Canucks (or the Coyotes he played for this season) or the extend of the tragedy, which was extreme, but I'm still not sure I connect the two.
Regardless, it got me thinking why - even though I'd surely love to see the Hawks win a Cup. I mean unless you hate them, why wouldn't you? - I wouldn't mind if one of these years turned out to be Vancouver's year.
I'm a Rangers fan, was a Rangers fan in 1994. Obviously I wanted 1994 to go exactly as it did. The good guys won. The guys that needed to erase a 54-year curse. Magic. And it may never happen again. Especially if the last 16 years are any indication.
But, I always hoped in the back of my mind that the Canucks would get back there. Probably in the early stages of my hockey watching I assumed that they'd be right back there next year. I mean why not, right? They came as close as you could to winning it all. I'm still curious how that happens, even though we've seen it before. Ask the Florida Panthers of 1996. Sometimes you just get there and no one knows why, and you don't get close since.
If you look at the Canucks though and the years that followed (and it's worth it) it was an odd journey.
The 1995 shortened season saw the team struggle, but make the playoffs to lose in a 4 game sweep to Chicago in the 2nd Round. In 1996 their leading scorer Pavel Bure was injured early in the season, struggles continued, and the Canucks didn't make it out of Round 1. The following year, 1997, they didn't even make the playoffs. They, as Rangers fans know, ushered in the Mark Messier years in Vancouver, which as we also know, didn't really go well for either team. They made the playoffs every year after that experiment, but never made it out of the 2nd round.
Post lockout, they'd narrowly miss the playoffs in 2006, causing the team be torn apart and re-made, and the start of the Roberto Luongo Era in Vancouver. They make it to the 2nd round in 2007. They narrowly missed the playoffs again in 2008, and the great Trevor Linden retired from the NHL. In 2009, the Canucks made the playoffs, swept St. Louis, before going on to lose the heartbreaker in Game 6 to the Blackhawks and Patrick Kane's hat trick.
So, what this tells us is that, not including this year or the full lockout year, and since 1994, the Canucks made the playoffs eight out of fourteen years, but never made it out of Round 2. Never came even close to getting back to where they were in 1994. (Although besides the blip of 1997, neither did the Rangers, if we're being honest).
Just goes to show you, there really are no givens or guarantees in professional sports. You may really never get that chance again.
I think of those Canucks that I really liked, those that aren't there anymore. Legendary good guy Trevor Linden. Former Canucks turned Rangers Kirk McLean and Pavel Bure, who carried the team that playoff year. Even though those guys aren't there anymore today, I felt for them afterwards. Not many I've ever liked more than I like and respect Trevor Linden.
As for the current team, there are certain things you have to admire about them. Luongo, may not be perfect, but he's damn good at times. And he, last year when things went badly, stood up through tears to speak to the media post game. Only 2 players did. The Sedins (who I am actually pretty sure I can tell apart if I met them both face to face) are a great story. Not long ago, it was all about their contracts and how many years, and how much $$. Proving a few people wrong now, aren't they? A very well deserved Hart nomination for Henrik too. Alex Burrows, like him or hate him, is a good story, of a kid that was playing ECHL hockey years ago and is now playing alongside two of the league's best.
So, honestly, if the Canucks end up winning the Cup...I'm not disappointed. It may have just been a long time coming.
And...as we've just proven, sometimes you don't get a second chance.
**Note: This was not one of the segments I planned when I went into this season and said I had new, fun segments. You know the plan I had every intention of following unti life got in the way. We'll see how this goes. Also, major helmet tip to Sports Encyclopedia Vancouver Canucks for the info. What, you thought I remembered every single year of Canucks history over the last 16? If you did, I love you for it, but you gave me way too much credit. Great site, great info.**
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Some Radio Ramblings . .
Not as much time listening to sports radio this week as I would have liked, but I have a few things I thought I'd chat about for a little bit.
Team1040:
Lots of chatter on what a disaster the Kelly firing is for the NHL earlier in the week. During the afternoon hours I usually listen, it was like impending doom was going to fall on the NHL. And you know, I'll be honest. I didn't immediately think that, but with a league as seemingly fragile as ours, and let me think of a not to mean word - MORON - running it, it's hard to imagine anything is impossible. So I will just leave it as, I hope not. For the game we all love and for us in the states having seemingly no other option than the NHL, I hope not.
For the record, XM204 had similar sentiments as well. Scott Laughlin suggested it would have been best to dismantle the Players Association entirely - get all the people out of there that may be too comfortable or too involved - and start from scratch. Honestly...maybe that isn't such a bad idea.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
A big topic, obviously, today, was the 12-year signing of Roberto Luongo. Now, I ask, has anyone learned yet? From Rick DiPietro's contract that he may never even play out. From Hossa's contract suddenly not looking so good in Chicago. I think any contract of that length, unless given to someone like Ovechkin, is nuts. I just do. And a goalie, there is even more of a risk to it. So much can change with a given team, and with the league on a whole. Heck, I hate the 7-year contracts the Rangers gave out. I don't want to be saddled with anyone for that long. Again, you make exceptions for the Crosby's and Ovechkin's but other than that...too long, just too damn long.
Team1040 was making fun of Canucks GM Mike Gillis for referencing Luongo in the same sentence with Johnny Bauer and Dominik Hasek. Those wouldn't have been my first choices, but - you can read his quotes here.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
The rest of today's conversation was how Roberto Luongo differs from Trevor Linden or Marcus Naslund as Canucks Captain and how they the fans, the team, the ownership may be looking at Roberto as a savior of sorts. I think nothing but the highest of Trevor Linden. He was a fans player. A person truly devoted to the team, the city, and the people of British Columbia. He deserves every kind word he gets. They referenced this photo on air today; again, I didn't need to look it up. It is ingrained.
Naslund, they said, was loved when he was scoring, and certainly not beloved when he wasn't. He kept himself separate from the fans, not showing much emotion either way. Sound familiar Rangers fans? I always liked the guy because he was respected for doing his job and being a good person and player in this league. It's not easy to play hockey in Vancouver. He was a quiet-type person, who had a few remarkable years, a few not so remarkable ones, but who always led as a professional, in my memory. And despite his only being in NY one season, that is how I viewed him coming in, and that is how I will choose to remember him.
Roberto Luongo, they discussed, can be fickle at times - and they didn't mean on the ice. Sometimes he gives a lot, sometimes he closes off. Not at all untypical of a goalie. But when I think of Roberto Luongo, I think of a couple things. I think of a guy who was harassed for wanting to be with his wife when she was going through the end of a difficult pregnancy during the All-Star game a few years back, which I thought was a horrible thing for him to have to endure. And I think of a guy who was one of only two or three players that came to the locker room to speak to the media after they lost to Chicago in that game last spring (the Kane hat-trick game), and the guy who had to, subsequently, leave the room after he choked up in tears because he was so upset. I'll take a guy that cares that much any day.
There may not be a perfect leader. Or a perfect player. A perfect captain. And we'd certainly be hard pressed to find a perfect person. But, I'd like to think that pinning all hopes on one player is not the only way. You can look to them to lead, to be the best player they can be, to make their teammates better, and to care. And I think all three of them did that or can do that in their own right, and in their own time. I do.
I follow the Canucks when I can. I do wish them luck. While I'd never take back 1994, a tiny part of me always felt for Trevor Linden being on the wrong side of that. I hope, someday, they can get there too.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Team990:
Monday had a lot of chatter and what Tony called "the best 10 minutes of radio [he's] had in a long time."
They were talking Tom Cruise, Top Gun, reading, vocabulary, speeches, and whether or not PJ had gone to McKibbins (Irish Pub in la belle city for those of you not from MTL) before the show, as he kept screwing up John F Kennedy's "Country" speech. Apparently he bought a book of best American speeches and read that one the first night. And he had a really hard time saying "ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country."
=)
I'm with Tony. That was fantastic radio.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
In hockey related topics, two things we can elaborate on here.
I already posted on Twitter what PJ said: "Coaches are stuck with these players. Yes you want them to win, you want them to be successful...But you just don't have the talent to win." "I think everything falls on the GM"
Now, if you are a fan of the Rangers, you have got to be nodding your head. I said often enough last year that the Rangers, while not the utter train wreck that was the Canadiens, still paralleled that team a lot. Questionable decisions. Lacking passion from those supposed to lead the team. Questionable chemistry. The firing of a coach, but more questions for the GM. A lot was similar.
So, I thought about PJs comment. And, despite knowing - absolutely knowing - that Glen Sather can be blamed for a great portion of the Rangers ills, he simply cannot be blamed for them all.
He may have overspent unhealthy sums of money, over, and over, and over, and over again, on bringing in older, suckier, crappier, lazier crops of past-their-prime or never-had-a-prime athletes, yes.
And he might have done this without ever standing up for his decisions, or showing his face in public, prompting thoughts that he, much like a Meyer-esque vampire, could not go out on sunny days - or, well, frankly, on any types of days, yes.
And he might be still clinging desparately onto a status he gained by building a team of nothing out in Edmonton, in the model of a team like the Winnipeg Jets of the one-time WHA, while instead in his time in NY seems to be modeling the team's success after another local team of the same name.
*sigh* - where was I going with this again?
Okay, back on target. While Mr. Fischer-Price calculator and I-love-$7 million has his faults - many, many faults - last year's disaster can be blamed on two other groups just as easily:
The players themselves - and they know who they are - who refused to try, sometimes, seemingly at all to even be worth half of what they were being paid.
The coaching staff - finally and justifiably fired in February - who somehow continued to play the same horribly lazy and inefficent players in the same horrible and inefficient ways over, and over, and over, while perfectly good and hard-working players wasted away in street clothes, over, and over, and over...
Look. A new season is less than a month away. In fact one month tonight, the Rangers will open their season on the road. I will not spend tonight dwelling any more on the particulars than I already have.
BUT - yes, the GM has, as PJ suggested, every opportunity to wreck and disable a team by his poor choices. This is evidenced well in NY. But if these players tried just a bit harder; if the coach stopped trying to be so damn nice and tried to actually fix what could be fixed - I don't think it would have been as painful as it was. I just don't. Everyone is to blame. Some more than others, perhaps, but...
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
And lastly, to close, PJ speculated today on what had perhaps gone on in Ottawa. (The great mystery of them all!) He said that if you looked at Jason Spezza's wedding party - which we did, back when photos were first posted - you'd notice two familiar faces. Former Senators Ray Emery and Brian McGrattan stood up for their one time teammate.
Now PJ speculated that these might not have been the guys Ottawa would have deemed the most harmless, let's say. (That's my word, not his). But he said, perhaps, Spezza being young and impressionable, started hanging with particular company and got away from being focused on the game. Split groups. Tension arose in the lockerroom. Perhaps a divide among all the top players that we never knew for sure about.
Trust me, lots has been speculated about Ottawa, and whether Heatley talks or not, whether he moves teams or not, I'll always be curious. Curious how a team that went to the Final led by Ray Emery in 2007 and started the following year so hot, could fall from grace so horrifically by the end. And not only not recover, but fall further in such speculation of some greater evil than just bad ice hockey.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Just some things to think about with less than one month to go til the regular season opens...
I can't wait! =)
Team1040:
Lots of chatter on what a disaster the Kelly firing is for the NHL earlier in the week. During the afternoon hours I usually listen, it was like impending doom was going to fall on the NHL. And you know, I'll be honest. I didn't immediately think that, but with a league as seemingly fragile as ours, and let me think of a not to mean word - MORON - running it, it's hard to imagine anything is impossible. So I will just leave it as, I hope not. For the game we all love and for us in the states having seemingly no other option than the NHL, I hope not.
For the record, XM204 had similar sentiments as well. Scott Laughlin suggested it would have been best to dismantle the Players Association entirely - get all the people out of there that may be too comfortable or too involved - and start from scratch. Honestly...maybe that isn't such a bad idea.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
A big topic, obviously, today, was the 12-year signing of Roberto Luongo. Now, I ask, has anyone learned yet? From Rick DiPietro's contract that he may never even play out. From Hossa's contract suddenly not looking so good in Chicago. I think any contract of that length, unless given to someone like Ovechkin, is nuts. I just do. And a goalie, there is even more of a risk to it. So much can change with a given team, and with the league on a whole. Heck, I hate the 7-year contracts the Rangers gave out. I don't want to be saddled with anyone for that long. Again, you make exceptions for the Crosby's and Ovechkin's but other than that...too long, just too damn long.
Team1040 was making fun of Canucks GM Mike Gillis for referencing Luongo in the same sentence with Johnny Bauer and Dominik Hasek. Those wouldn't have been my first choices, but - you can read his quotes here.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
The rest of today's conversation was how Roberto Luongo differs from Trevor Linden or Marcus Naslund as Canucks Captain and how they the fans, the team, the ownership may be looking at Roberto as a savior of sorts. I think nothing but the highest of Trevor Linden. He was a fans player. A person truly devoted to the team, the city, and the people of British Columbia. He deserves every kind word he gets. They referenced this photo on air today; again, I didn't need to look it up. It is ingrained.
Naslund, they said, was loved when he was scoring, and certainly not beloved when he wasn't. He kept himself separate from the fans, not showing much emotion either way. Sound familiar Rangers fans? I always liked the guy because he was respected for doing his job and being a good person and player in this league. It's not easy to play hockey in Vancouver. He was a quiet-type person, who had a few remarkable years, a few not so remarkable ones, but who always led as a professional, in my memory. And despite his only being in NY one season, that is how I viewed him coming in, and that is how I will choose to remember him.
Roberto Luongo, they discussed, can be fickle at times - and they didn't mean on the ice. Sometimes he gives a lot, sometimes he closes off. Not at all untypical of a goalie. But when I think of Roberto Luongo, I think of a couple things. I think of a guy who was harassed for wanting to be with his wife when she was going through the end of a difficult pregnancy during the All-Star game a few years back, which I thought was a horrible thing for him to have to endure. And I think of a guy who was one of only two or three players that came to the locker room to speak to the media after they lost to Chicago in that game last spring (the Kane hat-trick game), and the guy who had to, subsequently, leave the room after he choked up in tears because he was so upset. I'll take a guy that cares that much any day.
There may not be a perfect leader. Or a perfect player. A perfect captain. And we'd certainly be hard pressed to find a perfect person. But, I'd like to think that pinning all hopes on one player is not the only way. You can look to them to lead, to be the best player they can be, to make their teammates better, and to care. And I think all three of them did that or can do that in their own right, and in their own time. I do.
I follow the Canucks when I can. I do wish them luck. While I'd never take back 1994, a tiny part of me always felt for Trevor Linden being on the wrong side of that. I hope, someday, they can get there too.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Team990:
Monday had a lot of chatter and what Tony called "the best 10 minutes of radio [he's] had in a long time."
They were talking Tom Cruise, Top Gun, reading, vocabulary, speeches, and whether or not PJ had gone to McKibbins (Irish Pub in la belle city for those of you not from MTL) before the show, as he kept screwing up John F Kennedy's "Country" speech. Apparently he bought a book of best American speeches and read that one the first night. And he had a really hard time saying "ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country."
=)
I'm with Tony. That was fantastic radio.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
In hockey related topics, two things we can elaborate on here.
I already posted on Twitter what PJ said: "Coaches are stuck with these players. Yes you want them to win, you want them to be successful...But you just don't have the talent to win." "I think everything falls on the GM"
Now, if you are a fan of the Rangers, you have got to be nodding your head. I said often enough last year that the Rangers, while not the utter train wreck that was the Canadiens, still paralleled that team a lot. Questionable decisions. Lacking passion from those supposed to lead the team. Questionable chemistry. The firing of a coach, but more questions for the GM. A lot was similar.
So, I thought about PJs comment. And, despite knowing - absolutely knowing - that Glen Sather can be blamed for a great portion of the Rangers ills, he simply cannot be blamed for them all.
He may have overspent unhealthy sums of money, over, and over, and over, and over again, on bringing in older, suckier, crappier, lazier crops of past-their-prime or never-had-a-prime athletes, yes.
And he might have done this without ever standing up for his decisions, or showing his face in public, prompting thoughts that he, much like a Meyer-esque vampire, could not go out on sunny days - or, well, frankly, on any types of days, yes.
And he might be still clinging desparately onto a status he gained by building a team of nothing out in Edmonton, in the model of a team like the Winnipeg Jets of the one-time WHA, while instead in his time in NY seems to be modeling the team's success after another local team of the same name.
*sigh* - where was I going with this again?
Okay, back on target. While Mr. Fischer-Price calculator and I-love-$7 million has his faults - many, many faults - last year's disaster can be blamed on two other groups just as easily:
The players themselves - and they know who they are - who refused to try, sometimes, seemingly at all to even be worth half of what they were being paid.
The coaching staff - finally and justifiably fired in February - who somehow continued to play the same horribly lazy and inefficent players in the same horrible and inefficient ways over, and over, and over, while perfectly good and hard-working players wasted away in street clothes, over, and over, and over...
Look. A new season is less than a month away. In fact one month tonight, the Rangers will open their season on the road. I will not spend tonight dwelling any more on the particulars than I already have.
BUT - yes, the GM has, as PJ suggested, every opportunity to wreck and disable a team by his poor choices. This is evidenced well in NY. But if these players tried just a bit harder; if the coach stopped trying to be so damn nice and tried to actually fix what could be fixed - I don't think it would have been as painful as it was. I just don't. Everyone is to blame. Some more than others, perhaps, but...
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
And lastly, to close, PJ speculated today on what had perhaps gone on in Ottawa. (The great mystery of them all!) He said that if you looked at Jason Spezza's wedding party - which we did, back when photos were first posted - you'd notice two familiar faces. Former Senators Ray Emery and Brian McGrattan stood up for their one time teammate.
Now PJ speculated that these might not have been the guys Ottawa would have deemed the most harmless, let's say. (That's my word, not his). But he said, perhaps, Spezza being young and impressionable, started hanging with particular company and got away from being focused on the game. Split groups. Tension arose in the lockerroom. Perhaps a divide among all the top players that we never knew for sure about.
Trust me, lots has been speculated about Ottawa, and whether Heatley talks or not, whether he moves teams or not, I'll always be curious. Curious how a team that went to the Final led by Ray Emery in 2007 and started the following year so hot, could fall from grace so horrifically by the end. And not only not recover, but fall further in such speculation of some greater evil than just bad ice hockey.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Just some things to think about with less than one month to go til the regular season opens...
I can't wait! =)
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Radio Ramblings: The Debate of Sweet Caroline
There was a wonderful surprise waiting for us fans in the 1:00pm hour of the Team990. PJ Stock made a surprise appearance on the show bareing his name, after 2 months of staying in hotels and working on the CBC for the playoffs.
As thrilled I was PJ was back, I was even more thrilled when it became a vintage PJ day. Vintage how? In that another one of the days that you'd never be able to get away with on radio in the States. =) And I loved it!
The debate of the day, literally, was whether it was proper to, when singing along to Sweet Caroline, sing "Sweet Caroline - bom, bom, bom" or "Sweet Caroline - Oh, Oh, Oh."
The rest of the Team990 gang felt it was definitely of the "bom, bom, bom" variety and that PJ had obviously been going to the wrong type of weddings.
Andie was the only Team990 member to agree with PJ. They others said it was only because she missed him.
They went to the phones and 3 of the first callers immediately sided against PJ.
Not to be outdone - is he ever? - PJ continued, on and and off for the next hour and twenty minutes, to have them play, pause, stop, re-play "Sweet Caroline" and sing along.
He even asked Vinny Lecavalier's brother, an agent and guest on the show, his opinion. Phil agreed with PJ.
On the Sweet Caroline debate:
"Are you going to give this up?"
PJ: "Not until I get everyone in Montreal to change it to oh, oh oh!"
=)
Thatta boy PJ.
Other highlights included some of PJs assessment of the playoffs:
*In the "hat-trick game" Ovechkin's goals were "sexier" than Crosbys.
*Chelios got a very nice send-off after warmups during the Finals in Detroit/Chelios was one of PJs favorite players growing up (I will not hold this against him).
*He didn't agree with the Crosby not shaking hands of all Detroit but said from his pearch in the arena he saw he was being overwhelmed from all angles. He said if he were Crosby he would have gone over to the bench to say his remarks. And that there is "not a more classy guy in the game than Lidstrom. I would have gone over to him." He hopes there would be a text message or a phone call later to apologize, even if it was circumstances.
Plenty more but I can't even do justice to today's show.
Again, I love it.
As PJ would say:
Peace.
As thrilled I was PJ was back, I was even more thrilled when it became a vintage PJ day. Vintage how? In that another one of the days that you'd never be able to get away with on radio in the States. =) And I loved it!
The debate of the day, literally, was whether it was proper to, when singing along to Sweet Caroline, sing "Sweet Caroline - bom, bom, bom" or "Sweet Caroline - Oh, Oh, Oh."
The rest of the Team990 gang felt it was definitely of the "bom, bom, bom" variety and that PJ had obviously been going to the wrong type of weddings.
Andie was the only Team990 member to agree with PJ. They others said it was only because she missed him.
They went to the phones and 3 of the first callers immediately sided against PJ.
Not to be outdone - is he ever? - PJ continued, on and and off for the next hour and twenty minutes, to have them play, pause, stop, re-play "Sweet Caroline" and sing along.
He even asked Vinny Lecavalier's brother, an agent and guest on the show, his opinion. Phil agreed with PJ.
On the Sweet Caroline debate:
"Are you going to give this up?"
PJ: "Not until I get everyone in Montreal to change it to oh, oh oh!"
=)
Thatta boy PJ.
Other highlights included some of PJs assessment of the playoffs:
*In the "hat-trick game" Ovechkin's goals were "sexier" than Crosbys.
*Chelios got a very nice send-off after warmups during the Finals in Detroit/Chelios was one of PJs favorite players growing up (I will not hold this against him).
*He didn't agree with the Crosby not shaking hands of all Detroit but said from his pearch in the arena he saw he was being overwhelmed from all angles. He said if he were Crosby he would have gone over to the bench to say his remarks. And that there is "not a more classy guy in the game than Lidstrom. I would have gone over to him." He hopes there would be a text message or a phone call later to apologize, even if it was circumstances.
Plenty more but I can't even do justice to today's show.
Again, I love it.
As PJ would say:
Peace.
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