Hockey Season 2012

A civil case pitting former NHL player Steve Moore against Todd Bertuzzi and the Vancouver Canucks could finally see the inside of a courtroom late next year.

The target date for the Ontario Superior Court trial to begin if necessary is Sept. 24, 2012 if Bertuzzi is still an active player, and Oct. 22 if he's not, according to court documents viewed by CBC.

Court-ordered mediation between the sides has failed to lead to a settlement.

Moore, now 33, has never played again since getting hit from behind in a March 8, 2004 game by Bertuzzi, who was on the Canucks. Moore was in his first full season with the Colorado Avalanche.

Bertuzzi, now 36, is entering his 16th NHL season.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/story/2011/09/14/sp-bertuzzi-moore.html#ixzz1Y1hdS41X

Shanahan should suspend Cherry for 10 games.

Time to bring a new ex-coach in for Coach's Corner.

ETA: On both CBC and on TSN's facebook page, the comments tend to be running against Cherry at a rate of at least 4 to 1.

I live in winnipeg, and i can say that i've never been so pumped for the season to start since i was 15 years old.  The positive energy during the pre season games was unbelievable, people are seriously losing their minds (and their voices from cheering so loud!) over the jets being back, myself included.

luckily i was able to split season tickets with some friends so i will be able to be there in person for at least the next four years to go ape shit cheering for the little team that could.  The only thing that scares me is a possible repeat of the years that saw the jets lose in the first round of the playoffs to the eventual stanley cup champs year after year with edmonton rebuilding a helluva team...

i don't know what it is, i hate the military shit, i hate corporate hockey, but i can't help but love the jets.  it's hard to explain unless you're from winnipeg i guess.

Quote:

Three former NHL players criticized by Don Cherry on a recent episode of Coach's Corner have called the comments he made about them "baseless and slanderous" and are considering legal recourse.

Stu Grimson, Chris Nilan and Jim Thomson were called "turncoats" and "hypocrites" for their respective stances on fighting in hockey by Cherry, the bombastic star of the popular Hockey Night In Canada intermission segment.

In response, the trio released a statement early Tuesday through the Nashville offices of Grimson, now a lawyer:

"During CBC's broadcast of Coach's Corner on Oct. 6, 2011, Don Cherry inserted himself into a prominent debate involving the recent deaths of three (3) NHL players, drug addiction, alcohol abuse and mental illness. In doing so, Mr. Cherry targeted the above-named individuals, some of whom have suffered from such diseases, as a result of views they previously expressed. Mr. Cherry's comments were more than inappropriate; they were baseless and slanderous. Furthermore, Mr. Cherry's subsequent attempt to qualify his comments on Oct. 8, 2011, was entirely ineffectual. Mr. Cherry's conduct throughout has demonstrated a complete lack of decency.

"In light of the damaging and inflammatory nature of Mr. Cherry's comments, Messrs. Grimson, Nilan and Thomson are considering further recourse."

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/nhl/story/2011/10/11/sp-hnic-cherry.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwsAruHCHHw

Does anyone else miss Howie Meeker?

Winnepeg is in the East because there wasn't time to re do the schedule.  Next year, they will be in the west, and some team-- and I really hope it is Detroit, will move over to the east.

I like the Leafs so far, but that third period last saturday was a little disconcerting.    Adding Lombardi should bring up the penalty killing average to, well, at least average.  And there seems to be a power play now.  If that comes up to average too, then we're playoffs bound.

Pogo wrote:

Does anyone else miss Howie Meeker?

Yes. I always trusted his opinion of the game. He didn't dwell on the side shows and feuds, like Cherry does so often. With Meeker it was plays, plays and more plays. He was good at ordering up video on the fly and illustrating the set plays and clever opportunism of dishmeisters and their complementary snipers when artfully undressing the D and handcuffing goaltenders for a finale. I think that as far as Meeker is concerned, there are no other aspects of the game worth discussing.

for me the bigger question is why the hell is it okay that the team is called the neepawa natives and using the chicago blackhawks logo?  I don't know anything about the team, but i'm assuming they're not primarily FN people.  

Former junior hockey coach and convicted sex offender Graham James has pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting two of the players he coached in the 1980s and early '90s, including former NHL star Theoren Fleury.

James entered the guilty pleas in a Winnipeg courtroom on Wednesday afternoon. He and his lawyer appeared in court via video link from Montreal, where James currently lives.

James will be sentenced in Winnipeg on Feb. 22, 2012, the CBC's Marisa Dragani reported from the courtroom.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/story/2011/12/07/mb-graham-james-...

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/analyst+Milbury+charged+with+assault/5872288/story.html

Well I for one appreciate Brendan Shanahan's video updates informing us hockey fans of the reasons for player suspensions. They are brief and to the point and amount to so much,

Yep, it was an illegal hit to the head alright. And Elbows Magoon will receive a stiff fine of a few hundred bucks and a full week off from gladiator duties!

One stern word from the league and an easy week off, and they are right back out there to do it again.

I know. And I get the feeling that they are trying to encourage players to be more careful. Pacioretty's hit to the head on Letang was a good example. In Pacioretty's opinion, a puck carrier should not be allowed free reign to skate unimpeded into the high slot like Letang did without suffering some consequences. It's as if he felt he did nothing wrong, but then qualified it with saying he understands that hits to the head have to be curbed. Letang suffered a broken nose and probably rattled his brain as a result. I was almost glad for him that he came back on and scored the winning goal. 

the origins of of hockey violence?

Adam Gopnick, a fellow McGill '80 grad, elaborates on a current thesis regarding its origin as ethnic rivalries in Montreal:

 http://publications.mcgill.ca/mcgillnews/2011/12/08/how-montreal-perfected-hockey/

In one way we expect sports to mirror the social arrangement of their society. But sports are a hammer as much as a mirror, breaking social conventions as they invent them. Baseball was shaped by 19th-century Irish and German immigrants to the United States, who gave the game its character, but it later acted as a conduit for Jews and Italians, who entered the game to take on Americanness. Sports preserve the pressures of the era that they're made in, but they alter some of them too. Hockey reflected the social order of late-19th century Montreal, but it disturbed that order too, in healthy and invigorating ways.

For there was a kind of free-valence atomic shell at play in Montreal life at that time. Between the pious French and the prosperous English stood the Irish, who occupied two positions at once, in a way that would prove potent for the making of the winter game. As English-speakers they were in one way aligned with the anglo elite. But they were also Roman Catholics, and that meant they were educated with (and sometimes married to and buried alongside) the French. To be Irish was to have a kind of double identity. On the one hand you belonged to the English-speaking minority and on the other hand you despised your masters in the English-speaking minority; you were a fellow worshipper with the French-speaking majority but at the same time you were reluctant to identify with the French underclass.

When you played hockey, you wanted to beat the Brits at McGill . . . but the way to do it might be to look for help from the francophones across the hall. And so the Irish played a central role, in some ways the central role, in the invention of ice hockey.

Tim Thomas skips visit to White House

Quote:

Professional sports crossed over into the world of politics yesterday when Boston Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas refused to join his teammates at the White House for a ceremony with U.S. President Barack Obama honouring the Stanley Cup champions.

Thomas explained his absence in a short posting on his Facebook page, writing: “I believe the Federal government has grown out of control, threatening the Rights, Liberties, and Property of the People. This is being done at the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial level. This is in direct opposition to the Constitution and the Founding Fathers vision for the Federal government. Because I believe this, today I exercised my right as a Free Citizen, and did not visit the White House. This was not about politics or party, as in my opinion both parties are responsible for the situation we are in as a country. This was about a choice I had to make as an INDIVIDUAL.”

LOL

Quote:

CSNNE was doing a piece weeks ago on Andrew Ference’s efforts to recycle and encourage his B’s teammates to live environmentally-conscious lifestyles in their day-to-day existences as hockey players.

Several of Ference’s teammates, like Tyler Seguin and Zdeno Chara for instance, smiled and spoke about the nuanced ways the forward-thinking defenseman had affected them in a positive way. Seguin said he now shops for all his groceries at Whole Foods for the environmentally-agreeable organic foods recommended by Ference, and Chara mentioned taking his bicycle everywhere rather than driving.

But Tim Thomas politely declined when asked his opinions about Ference’s efforts, and admitted “we’ve got pretty opposite viewpoints on that kind of stuff.”

Thomas went on to say – with the wonderful usage of paraphrasing in hindsight – that he didn’t believe in the scientific theories powering the greenhouse effect and global warming. Instead Thomas felt like the efforts behind both notions were being pushed by those interested in growing the current green industry that’s turned into a cash cow in the United States over the last decade.

Tim Thomas, Radical.

Thomas is also a big glenn beck fan i hear.  Though it doesn't shock me that a hockey player would be into that.  They're bred for conformity, acceptance/submission to authority from the time they're born.

I guess no one cares about hockey anymore. Fair enough. The Canucks sent a franchise rookie to Buffalo for, er, playoff grit or something.

The Habs ghosted their horrible season by sending Kostitsyn to Nashville, who are apparently trying to become the Habs circa. 2009. Expect them to land Halak next. A second round pick for Andrei. That makes three plus their first rounder, which will almost certainly be top 5. Hopefully Gauthier won't be the one making the selection. It's very depressing to think that our best chance in improving our team rests in Scott Gomez's inflated salary which one day, we hope, will expire.

Rick Nash didn't go to Toronto, who seem happy to let Winnipeg make the playoffs before them Such class from an original six team.

I'm not sure about that, Caissa. There is an advantage to finishing last in the NHL. Not so in the Scottish Premier League...

Sidney Crosby could be about to become the NHL's most-watched No. 3 line centre.

The Pittsburgh Penguins star will end his second extended concussion-related playoff Thursday to play against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden.

Crosby's return alone would make Thursday a date to circle. But the Penguins also have won nine in a row without the former NHL MVP and scoring champion, and they've closed a once-formidable 10-point gap behind the Rangers to four points in the race for the Eastern Conference's top playoff spot.

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/nhl/story/2012/03/13/sp-nhl-penguins-cro...

I might be persuaded to watch the NHL and CFL again if there were an equal number of women as men on every team. That goes for the basketball league as well, whatever it's called.

man, the molsons have just ruined the habs.  seriously, everything has come off the rails.  please let them not draft a tiny forward with their guaranteed top 5 pick.

anyway, now that the habs are out, don't really care, though i'd like to see winnipeg do well, especially because people in quebec are starting to get excited about a team returning to that city and a nice little winnipeg run would only increase the excitement.

The Habs lacking scoring punch. I expect another lacklustre season next year.

How could I be so wrong? -12 on scoring.   Maybe the world isn't coming to an end after all.

Also, Rene Bourque? Quel désastre.