Top five kids’ shows

Now that I’m a full-time stay-at-home dad, I realize there’s more to taking care of the girls than turning on the TV.

But you know what? A lot of times, the TV comes in handy to calm the girls down, or to distract them while I get their lunch ready (especially on days when they’re clingy).

Don’t get me wrong. We don’t watch a lot of TV. Over the course of a full day, it might be on for a total of 40 minutes, max. And that includes days when they’re fussy. Most of the shows they watch, it doesn’t keep their interest long enough, so I turn it off if they’re done watching. They usually watch about 15 minutes in the morning, and then 15 minutes in the late afternoon.

But I’ve quickly come to realize there are a lot of bad shows out there. But when there’s a good one, it usually turns out to be great.

I’d like to hear what other parents think. Are there any shows that your kids absolutely love?

The following are the girls’ top favourite cartoons:

5. WordWorld

A fun show, but it on comes on at an inconvenient time when we’re not watching TV, so the girls have only seen it once or twice. But it’s fun to watch that not only teaches lessons, but teaches words. Most of the objects is made up of the letters that form the word of that object. For example, a barn will be made of the letters B-A-R-N. A dog will be made of the letters D-O-G. And so forth.

4. Rob the Robot

Three robots and an alien go to different planets on a mission to have fun. While on the mission, they learn valuable lessons. My girls like the beginning of the show, but they usually start to tune out halfway through. Which is fine, because that means they would rather play than watch a lot of TV (this show comes on right after the girls’ favourite show). But they do enjoy it, and is one of their favourites.

3. Dinosaur Train

A fun way to learn all about the different dinosaurs. Lots of music and songs, with a focus on learning specifics about a dinosaur. A different type of dinosaur is featured in each episode. And it’s not like they learn about common dinosaurs. I remember is school learning about the Brontosaurus and the Tyrannosaurus Rex. In this cartoon, you learn about Pteranodons (the main family on the show), Corythosaurus, Ankylosaurus, Elasmosaurus, Cretoxyrhina, etc. So basically, a bunch of dinosaurs you’ve never heard about.

2. Charlie and Lola

A cute story about an older brother and his younger sister. Lola speaks in the cutest way, while Charlie tries to teach Lola about things that happen in the world. For example, one episode is called “I Do Not Ever Never Want My Wobbly Tooth To Fall Out.” Lola has a loose tooth, and she doesn’t want it to fall out. But when Charlie teaches her about the tooth fairy, Lola is in a rush to have the tooth come out. It sounds silly, but it’s pretty good.

1. Small Potatoes

Easily the favourites of my two girls. No matter what they’re doing, they stop and run to the TV to watch. A group of four (sometimes five) potatoes sing about different things. One episode could be about getting a haircut, or about punk rock music, or farming. There’s a wide variety. Each episode is about three minutes long, and at the end, the potatoes explain why they like what they’re singing about. Very cute.

Two more keeper pool deals

So I’ve made two more keeper pool deals in the last week, and the fine-tuning of my roster is nearly complete.

Johan Franzen was on my keeper pool team for about a week.

Deal #1

The first deal was my Johan Franzen for a third round and a fifth round pick in 2013.

It may sound strange to trade Franzen, a keeper on most teams, for only a mid- and a low-draft pick. But this is a different year than normal for my keeper pool.

This summer, we have two expansion teams joining The Greatest Keeper Pool Ever. Because of that, our normal rules for keepers are taking a backseat. Normally, we can keep 15 players plus two rookies (no positional requirements). This year, we can keep only eight forwards, five defencemen, two goalies and one rookie. It doesn’t sound like a big difference, but it actually is.

The other new rule for this offseason only has to do with dropped players. You can designate one of them to be a “draft” player. If that player is chosen by an expansion team, you get a sixth round draft pick (our drafts are normally five rounds). So you get an extra pick out of it.

But you can only designate one person to be that draft player. So if you drop 10 players, the most you’re going to get is one sixth round draft pick.

So my goals for the last two months have been to trade my extra players for picks and to upgrade any keepers I could. Even if I only get a fifth round pick for a player, that is still better than a sixth. But most of my trades have been for picks higher than that.

Franzen was a guy I couldn’t keep. My eight keepers are Malkin, Stamkos, Parise, Hall, Duchene, E. Kane, Ryan and Zetterberg, with Granlund being my rookie keeper. There’s no one on that list I would drop in favour of Franzen.

Matt, the guy I dealt Franzen to, is fighting for first with Kevin, where the lead seems to change daily. Right now, the difference between first and second is three points. Franzen gave Matt an extra seven points.

As a side note, I had acquired Franzen from Kevin as part of a deal that saw me get Letang. So I’m trading for players from one, and sending them to the other guy.

Deal #2

This happened about a day after the Franzen deal, and it was with Kevin.

Carey Price, welcome back to my keeper pool team.

I traded Antti Niemi, a second and a fifth round pick in 2013 for Carey Price. It gave Kevin a much better goalie option for the rest of this season, but it helps me out long-term.

My keepers before the trade looked like this:

Defence: Letang, Markov, Streit, Boyle, Murphy

Goalies: Miller, Niemi

I definitely wanted to upgrade both groups. But for defence, I’m going to wait until after the expansion teams draft their teams before worrying about improving that position. That way, I can try to trade a pick for a defenceman, or just wait until our regular draft and get one or two defencemen then.

In nets, I have faith that Ryan Miller will be a beast again next season. He has at least 34 wins in each of the last five seasons, and at least six shutouts in each of the last four. So he’s having an off-year. It happens.

So that left me with the option of upgrading Niemi, and I believe I did that. Niemi generally doesn’t get a lot of starts. He only had 60 last year, and is on pace for 64. Thomas Griess has shown to be a capable backup, and actually has a lower goals against average and a higher save percentage than Niemi. So I don’t think Niemi will be getting more than 65 starts a year.

Now, because those 65 starts are with San Jose, that means he’ll get more wins because the players in front of him are so good. If you win a game 2-1 or 6-5, it doesn’t matter in our league. All that matters are wins and shutouts.

But Price is considered one of the top young goalies in the NHL, and wins games by himself. He played in 72 games last year, and is on pace for another 71 games this year. If Montreal can get a little better in front of him (and it shouldn’t take much to be a little better), he will get more fantasy points than Niemi each year. Even right now, under our league format, Price is only four fantasy points behind Niemi.

And honestly, as a Habs fan, I wanted Price back on my keeper pool team. I did own him, but traded him as part of a deal that gave me Miller and Parise.

So for me, that’s another good pickup.

I only have two players left that I can possibly drop: Kadri and Brodeur. I don’t know if I’ll be able to trade any of them, especially Brodeur, but I’m hoping I can.

Even if it means just moving up the draft by a round.

Trading Cammy will be a mistake

Pierre Gauthier’s job is on the line.

Mike Cammalleri is on his way back to Calgary.

The Habs general manager knows this. That’s why he’s desperate for a move. He fired an assistant coach hours before a game. He fired the head coach. He traded for Tomas Kaberle.

Last night, out of all his moves, he made the wrong one.

Gauthier traded Mike Cammalleri, Karri Ramo and a fifth-round pick in the 2012 draft for Rene Bourque, Patrick Holland and a second-round pick in the 2013 draft.

I don’t mind the assets the Habs got. I think Bourque will be an adequate second-line player. He’ll get 20 to 25 goals, finish with about 50 points, and be well-liked (although someone should tell the French media that despite his first and last name, Bourque is from Alberta).

Holland, a seventh round draft pick by the Flames in 2010, is tearing up the WHL this season. He’s ninth in the league in points.

And the draft pick was an added bonus. Moving a fifth rounder for a second rounder is always a  good thing.

And they save some salary cap space with the deal as well.

Looks like it should be a win for the Habs.

The problem is what the Canadiens had to give up. Mike Cammalleri is one of their biggest threats offensively. Yes, he’s having an offyear. But everyone on the Habs are.

Cammy was their best forward, especially playoff time. Two years ago, he led the league in playoff goals, despite not making it to the finals. Last year, he led the league in points after the first round. The problem wasn’t Cammalleri wasn’t scoring, it’s that no one else was. I even said at the time: When the Habs get into overtime, if Cammalleri doesn’t score, they’re not winning. And they didn’t win one overtime game.

That will be hard to replace. Gauthier went about this all wrong. He should have gotten complimentary players to play with Cammalleri, not trade him for those complimentary players.

Here’s why Gauthier needs to be fired now: If he’s not going to be here next summer, he shouldn’t be making decisions about the future of this franchise.

Of course, much of this stems from what Cammy said to the media the other day. He said:

“I can’t accept that we will display a losing attitude as we’re doing this year. We prepare for our games like losers. We play like losers. So it’s no wonder why we lose.”

He’s not saying anything that anyone watching the games wouldn’t have noticed. The whole attitude on the team is pretty bad. When Boston scored the first goal last night (off a fluke bounce), no one got angry. No one was saying “that’s okay, we’ll get that one back.

The players seemed to shrug their shoulders and ask “Again? Can’t we catch a break?” They think they’re going to lose, so they do. They play with no confidence. There have been many games this season when they have given up.

And if they’re down in a game, fans don’t really believe they can come back. And nor should they. The record is brutal. When the Habs are trailing after two periods, the have won only one game, lost 15 and lost in overtime/shootout three times, for a winning percentage of 0.053 (the only teams worse are the Leafs, Islanders, Ducks, Hurricanes and Jets).

That also means that, after two periods, the Habs are losing in 44 per cent of the games they play in. Think about that. Almost half the time they play, they’ll be losing after 40 minutes. That is sad.

Only 13 times have they been winning after two periods, for a rate of 30 per cent.

So yeah, they lose a lot. Having Cammalleri say it doesn’t make it any less true.

I think you’ll see Cammalleri find success again in Calgary. He’ll probably get 35-40 goals next year, flirt with 80 points, and Habs fans will be thinking, “wait, why did we trade him?” And the media will ask why he couldn’t flourish in a defence-first system led by a French coach.

I’m a pretty big Cammalleri fan. Two years ago, when writing about who should be the captain of the Habs, I wrote this :

It’s gotta be Mike Cammalleri.

There’s the numbers that back this up. He’s the most dangerous man on the ice for the Habs. He’s the only player on the roster one figures could pot 50 goals next year. He had a great playoffs. He’s signed for a few more seasons (which means he’s less likely to leave), and he never gives up on the ice.

But it’s not just the numbers. More than any other player last year, he seemed to understand the history of the team and respect it. If there was something to do with the Habs 100th anniversary, he did it. If someone from the past came to the locker room, he seemed to genuinely be excited about it.

In short, he is proud to be a Montreal Canadien.

He also bought tickets for military troops and their families as a way to say thank you for serving our country.

He’s the team’s leader, on and off the ice, and should be made captain because of it.

Hopefully, Cammy can find success in Calgary that he couldn’t find in Montreal.

What would an all-Quebec NHL team look like?

So there was a protest in Montreal the other day.

The Habs tried to get Daniel Briere, but he preferred Philadelphia to Montreal.

Unlike the previous protest — held to show support for Alexei Kovalev – this one was to show that the new coach of the Canadiens should be able to speak French.

And it must have been a pretty big protest. I mean, it was covered by a lot of media, it made international news, it features some controversy… wait, only 200 people showed up? So Occupy Bell Centre wasn’t a success?

Oh, well despite the protest’s failure, it did get people talking.

Take this Yahoo story (which is in English, so that must have irked the protesters), that was written by a Montreal Gazette reporter. The reporter talks to the different protesters, and there was one that jumped out at me.

The woman, named Josée Racine, who admits she’s not even a big Habs fan (it would be kind of ironic if she was a Leafs supporter, but the article never tells us), said she wants to see a more francophone hockey team in Montreal.

Never mind the fact there are only 55 NHL players who have played at least one game this season who was born in Quebec (according to Hockey-Reference.com), and that Montreal has dressed at least three of them. No, the team must be more Francophone.

And never mind the fact that the Habs brass have tried in the past to bring in Quebec-born players. Daniel Briere shunned us for Philadelphia. JP Dumont decided he liked Nashville better than Montreal. Vincent Lecavalier wouldn’t waive his no-trade clause to come play for the Canadiens. And the list goes on and on.

That got me thinking: Could there be such a thing as a team made up of entirely of Quebec-born players? And if so, what would this Francophone team look like? And could they be successful?

Of course, I have to put in a mix of players: some skilled, some not-so-skilled, some tough guys, some stay-at-home defencemen, etc. Don’t be expecting an all-star team here, because the Habs wouldn’t be able to afford their salaries. I decided it would just be easier if we replaced players on the current squad with their French-born equivalent.

And I have to make sure the team stays under the salary cap.

And before I go even further, let me point out that no matter how much you wish it may be so because of their last names, Claude Giroux, Tyler Seguin and Matt Moulson are not from Quebec.

Goalies

Carey Price: Marc-Andre Fleury. Probably the closest to Price in terms of age and potential. Other NHL Francophone starters are either really experienced (Martin Brodeur) or really young (Corey Crawford). Cap hit of $5 million.

Peter Budaj: Jean-Sebastien Giguere. A serviceable veteran backup.  Cap hit of $1.25 million.

MIA: Roberto Luongo. Although he’s awfully similar to Price in the way they are treated by fans (getting booed when things are going bad, thinking each is the greatest goalie in the league when it’s going well), that’s where commonality ends.

Defence

Josh Gorges: Francois Beauchemin. Best I could come up with for a strong defensive player. Cap hit of $3.8 million.

Francois Beauchemin could come back to play for the Habs.

P.K. Subban: Jason Demers. Pretty close in career points and games, and only one year apart. Cap hit of $1.25 million.

Hal Gill: Alexandre Picard. Yes, not even close to the same type of player. But he’s the one with the most experience that doesn’t fit anywhere else. Cap hit of $0.6 million.

Raphael Diaz: Marco Scandella. A player most people have never heard of, unless you happen to be a fan of their team. Cap hit of $0.85 million.

Tomas Kaberle: Marc-Edouard Vlasic. After years of playing in San Jose, knows exactly what it takes to be a disappointing playoff performer, just like Kaberle. Cap hit of $3.1 million.

Alexei Emelin: Marc-Andre Gragnani. Although a different type of NHLer than Emelin, an exciting young player. Don’t like it? Try finding another hard-hitting young French defenceman. Cap hit of $0.55 million.

Chris Campoli: Marc-Andre Bergeron. A powerplay specialist who can’t really defend. Cap hit of $1 million.

Andrei Markov: Stephane Robidas. I couldn’t find an oft-injured Francophone defencemen, so I took Robidas, as he is the best veteran scorer out of all the ones out there. Cap hit of $3.3 million.

MIA: Kris Letang. If you think there’s anyone on the team that is as good as Kris Letang, you don’t watch enough Habs games.

Forwards

Max Pacioretty: Derick Brassard. Good young talent. No idea if he can be a consistent top line player, although all the signs point to them doing so. Cap hit of $3.2 million.

Derick Brassard was born in Quebec. Who cares if he's struggling, he's from Quebec.

David Desharnais: Already from Quebec, so he doesn’t need replacing. Cap hit of $0.85 million.

Erik Cole: Alex Tanguay. Older player that has surprised everyone with their scoring prowess immediately after being signed by a Canadian team. Cap hit of $3.5 million.

Michael Cammalleri: Daniel Briere. Seems to score in bunches. Every time I watch them play, they score. How do they not each have 100-goal seasons? Cap hit of $6.5 million.

Tomas Plekanec: Patrice Bergeron. A consistent 20-goal scorer, whose main job is to shut down the other team’s top line while adding defence. Cap hit of $5 million.

Andrei Kostitsyn: Gui Latendresse. Wait, you mean the Habs traded the wrong underperformer who gets booed by fans? Cap hit of $2.5 million.

Lars Eller: Mathieu Perreault. Good young third-line centre. Cap hit of $0.525 million.

Travis Moen: Maxime Talbot. Hey look. It’s the career third-liner who is has a reputation of being tougher than he is! Cap hit of $1.75 million.

Mathieu Darche: Doesn’t need replacing, as he’s already from Quebec. Cap hit of $0.7 million

Michael Blunden: Philippe Dupuis. Both can be sent down to the AHL with no problem. Cap hit of $0.65 million.

Scott Gomez: Vincent Lecavalier. Just because we need a cap-killing contract that people are going to boo when they realize a $7 million player isn’t going to break Wayne Gretzky’s records. Cap hit of $7.72 million.

Ryan White: Francis Lessard. Semi-permanent AHLer. Cap hit of $0.55 million.

Conclusion

The team doesn’t look like the greatest, does it? Especially on defence. As it is now, that French Canadiens team is at $54.145 million.

Sure, I know most people will say “Look, you’re obviously not including the superstars and the young talent. Where’s Paul Stastny, Martin St. Louis, Alex Burrows, Pierre-Marc Bouchard, David Perron, Jason Pominville, Mike Ribeiro, P.A. Parenteau, etc.” But those are upgrades on the above team, which wasn’t my point. And remember, for every Ray Bourque that is from Quebec, there’s a Patrice Brisebois too.

But let’s just do a top French players team, just to see what it looks like. Ignore the fact no one will ever put together a team of just top American players, or top Swedish players, or top Ontarians, etc. If they did, the French media would think there’s a bias against the French.

But just pretend the Habs did get the top players. Below would be the team (brackets are the cap hit for each player).

Goalies: Luongo (5.33), Crawford (2.67)

Defence: Letang (3.5), Robidas (3.3), Bergeron (1), Demers (1.25), Beauchemin (3.8), Gragnani (0.55), Vlasic (3.1)

Forwards: Brassard (3.2), Briere (6.5), St. Louis (5.6), Ribeiro (5), Burrows (2), Stastny (6.6), Bouchard (4.08), Perron (2.15), Pominville (5.3), Lecavalier (7.72), Latendresse (2.5), Bergeron (5), Parenteau (1.25)

Looks a lot better, no? Of course, that combined salary cap is a whopping $81.4, only $17 million over the cap. And some of those guys are due for raises next season.

Here’s the thing: As mention above, there’s only been 55 players this year who have played at least one game in the NHL that was born in Quebec. Ten of them have been goalies. It’s pretty hard to stock a team of Quebecers when there’s not that many of them in the NHL.

The team doesn’t need to get more French. They need to get more good players. No one would be complaining if the Habs had the Red Wings team. Even though there’s no Quebec-born players on Detroit, would Habs fans be booing Lidstrom if he didn’t speak French like they did to Saku Koivu? Would Quebec media say there needs to be more French players on the team, even though they have a Stanley Cup, a finals lost, two other semi-finals in the last four years, and are in second place in the Western standings this year? Would people really be saying, “you know, I like Mike Babcock, but he’s not French enough?”

If so, then that last paragraph shows you what the main problem with the Habs is. You get the best players and coaches possible, no matter what language they speak. End of story.

A review of Ron MacLean’s Cornered

So for Christmas, my daughters gave me a couple of books. One of them was the autobiography of Hockey Night in Canada’s Ron MacLean.

For those who don’t know, MacLean is the “sidekick” of Don Cherry on Coach’s Corner on the CBC. I use the term sidekick very loosely, as I am a big MacLean fan. I don’t think Cherry would still be on the air without his “sidekick.” MacLean is good at reeling Cherry in when needed, and the arguments created by the two of them makes for great television. I don’t think Coach’s Corner would work with anyone else but these two.

Plus, MacLean knows his stuff. I love it when he’s doing interviews and he really drives home the point. I remember at one of the Olympics years ago, MacLean was interviewing Sheila Copps, who, as Canadian Heritage Minister, was in charge of federal funding for athletes. The Canadian Olympic team was doing quite poorly, and there was a lot of talk about the fact the athletes weren’t getting enough funding to be able to train properly.

So MacLean interviewed Copps about it. At one point, he was asking why the federal government had cut money to amateur athletes. Copps responded by saying that the government had increased spending for amateur athletes by something like 15 per cent in the previous year. MacLean quickly responded by saying the funding was cut by 40 per cent before that, so it wasn’t close to what athletes were getting in the past.

Copps was dumbfounded. She had no response to that. Whereas most journalists would have let Copps slide with her “we’ve increased funding” remark, MacLean’s research showed that wasn’t the case, and was able to put her on the spot. It made her and the federal government accountable. That’s what more journalists should do.

So like I said, I’m a big Ron MacLean fan.

That’s why I was so disappointed with the book. It just seemed to be lacking something.

Co-written by Kirstie McLellan Day, MacLean’s book is filled with a lot of Don Cherry — a little too much so — and not much else. There are topics that he never covers, and it’s a little sad to see.

For example, he talks about how much of a friend Brad Richards is. But he never talks about athletes that bother him. Do any get under his skin? Are there any that come across as jerks to him?

I can understand his reluctance to want to attack people in his book. After all, he deals with these people all the time. But it does make for a duller book. He mentions he’s not that type of person, he doesn’t hold grudges, he doesn’t like pointing out the negatives (unless it’s Gary Bettman), etc.

But as someone who makes his opinions known, he’s not supposed to be just positive all the time. It would have been nice if, when he was talking about covering the 1998 winter Olympics, what was his thoughts on using Ray Bourque in the shootout instead of Wayne Gretzky. Or, on the flip side, his opinion on when Canada won gold in 2002, the first Olympic gold in men’s hockey at the Olympics in 50 years. Or his thoughts on the expansion of hockey in the Southern U.S. How about when Hockey Night in Canada lost the theme song it had been using for decades?

Even when he tried to explain his side of things, such as the Alex Burrows brouhaha from last season, it feels like MacLean is simply telling us what happened, and not his opinion. There were no lines such as “I felt lousy that I had done that,” or whatever. It comes across as: This is what happened, this is what I meant to say, let’s move on to the next story.

The only thing he seems to argue against – and vehemently — is the salary cap. MacLean would rather see dynasties, like there was in the 1980s with the Edmonton Oilers. He looks back at the Oilers and thinks how great it was then, and doesn’t like the parity now. Of course, fans of teams like the Quebec Nordiques, Toronto Maple Leafs and the New Jersey Devils don’t look back on the 1980s with as much nostalgia.

Anyways, the book had another couple of flaws. One is the amount of stories about Don Cherry. There seemed to be more stories about Cherry than MacLean.

And one other thing that jumped out at me: Ron MacLean drinks… a lot. Every story seems to revolve around him drinking. Going to this bar. Meeting someone at this pub. Having beers with Cherry after every single broadcast. It seems to be one non-stop drinking binge. It got tired after a while.

The book was okay. Some of the background into his life  was interesting to read, and his stories flowed pretty well. I just wish he had given us his opinion on what he’s experienced.

I’d give the book 2.5 out of 5 stars.

Major keeper pool deal

So I made another deal this week in my keeper pool.

Kris Letang makes a nice addition to my keeper pool team.

With me being out of it this year, I’m not really looking to make some earth-shattering moves. But if I get a chance to improve my keepers, I’m going to jump on it.

And such an opportunity presented itself this week in The Greatest Keeper Pool Ever.

I traded Shea Weber and Jaromir Jagr for Kris Letang, Johan Franzen and a third and fifth rounder in 2013. The deal was with Kevin, who is in first overall, but not by much. As it stands now, it’s 15 points over second, and 16 points over third. And that’s after the deal. Before the deal, it was much closer.

Weber is now back playing after a concussion, so Kevin can get points from him, while Letang isn’t even skating. Franzen has two more points than Jagr, but has been slowing down a lot lately (only seven points in the last 30 days). And even though Jagr is injured, he should be back next week. I expect Jagr to outscore Franzen the rest of this season.

Plus, Kevin had made an earlier deal with a future consideration that stated if Kevin won the pool and Franzen finished in the top eight in scoring on Kevin’s team, Kevin owed the other guy his first round pick. So he wasn’t able to deal that pick. But by trading Franzen, it frees up the first rounder for him to try and make another move.

While it’s actually not a part of the stated deal, Kevin gained a first rounder of it.

So for Kevin, the trade was a good one.

As for me, it benefits my team in the long-term. I was going to have to drop Jagr at the end of the season anyways, so this way, at least I got something for him.

And Letang is, in my opinion, the better defenceman than Weber in a points pool. He plays with Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and whoever happens to be on a line with either Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin. Weber gets stuck giving the puck to Sergei Kostitsyn and David Legwand.

I expect Letang to be one of the best offensive defencemen for years. He was on pace for 70 points before he was knocked out with a concussion. He will be manning the powerplay on Pittsburgh for years.

Plus, Letang is about four years younger than Weber. Not sure if that really means much, honestly, but some people in my pool value youth above anything else. If I ever have to trade Letang, I should be able to get more value for him than I would have with Weber simply because of the age.

So as it stands now, my team looks like this (bold are keepers):

Forwards: Malkin, Stamkos, Parise, Hall, Duchene, E. Kane, Ryan, Zetterberg, Granlund, Franzen, Kadri

Defence: Letang, Markov, Streit, Boyle, Murphy

Goalies: Miller, Niemi, Brodeur

I now need to figure out what to do with Franzen and Kadri. I would like to keep Kadri, but I don’t think I will be able to. I may try to make a two-for-one deal so I don’t drop Franzen for nothing. Say, Franzen and Zetterberg for a keeper a bit better than Zetterberg. I’ve already tried to trade Kadri for a pick, but there’s been no takers.

I’m pleased with my defencemen. If I can upgrade there, I will. But I’m not activily looking to make a move. Streit and Boyle are consistent 50-point guys, but are getting a bit older. Murphy should be a dynamite defenceman in Carolina. The big question mark is Markov. If he can stay healthy next season, I’ll be pretty happy with his output.

As for my goalies, they could be stronger, but I’m content with them. Antii Niemi should be the #1 in San Jose for at least a couple more years. And I’m hoping Ryan Miller can go back to his Vezina-winning form sometime soon.

No more fan-on-fan violence

Many years ago, I worked at a small community newspaper.

See how easy it is to support two different teams without violence?

One of the reporters I worked with was a big Toronto Maple Leafs fan. One day, she and her then-boyfriend (now husband) went to see the Leafs play against the Ottawa Senators here in Ottawa.

She was wearing her Leafs jersey. During an intermission, she ran to the bathroom. As she was washing her hands, someone snuck up behind her, yelled Leafs suck, and suckerpunched in the back of the head. That person then took off.

She wasn’t able to enjoy the rest of the game. The incident made her pretty upset, and she told me she was in tears and some pain.

I don’t know if she reads my blog, but she should take solace in one thing: There are a lot of ignorant people attending NHL games all over Canada and U.S. She’s not alone.

A story came out a few days ago about a Canucks fan who lives in San Jose. She’s 16 years old. When she was 12 years old, she had surgery to remove a tumour from her brain. The Vancouver Canucks players visited her in the hospital.

According to the Mercury News, and reposted on Yahoo:

One intoxicated woman wearing a Sharks jersey, who appeared to be in her 40s, kept bumping into the teens and yelling curses at them, the two sisters said.

Then, as the fans jumped up to celebrate a second period Sharks goal, the sisters said, the woman behind them brought down both her hands and smacked Maggie in the back of her head “really hard,” forcing Maggie to fall forward and leaving her dazed. Her sister then rushed to an usher. Maya said she heard the woman tell the usher “she’s a Canucks fan,” but that she “didn’t mean to” hurt her.

… Maggie said that after being hit, ushers and paramedics rushed her into an ambulance, and that’s when another Sharks fan walked by and noticed the girl’s Canucks gear.”He looked in and said, ‘You’re faking it, you don’t need an ambulance, suck it up,’ ” she recalled, tearing up.

Maggie ended up with a concussion. According to the Yahoo story, which quotes the Associated Press: “According to the Sharks, the other fan told police and arena staff the contact was accidental and occurred during the celebration of a Sharks goal.”

I don’t want to call anyone a liar, but if you look at the box score, the Canucks took a 2-0 lead. How could it be in celebration of a Sharks goal when they hadn’t scored a goal?

Hey look. Being able to celebrate without being beat up.

There are stories like this at arenas all over. Philadelphia has a reputation for being stupid to opposing fans. I’ve heard of fights in the stands between Habs and Bruins fans at both arenas.

Of course, it’s not limited to just hockey. A San Francisco baseball fan was attacked at a game in L.A. this year and had to be in a medically-induced coma. He’s now undergoing intensive rehabilitation therapy.

In the NFL preseason this year, two Oakland Raiders fans were shot in the parking lot, and one was beaten unconscious in the bathroom, during a game in San Francisco.

And the history of soccer hooliganism is well documented.

Rivalries are great. A little fun smack-talking can be a great thing, as long as it’s all in jest. And when the game is over, you shake the other fans’ hands and tell them you had a good time.

But you don’t attack someone. People should just smarten up. If your happiness or sadness in life depends on a hockey game so much that you need to attack other fans to feel better, you need to get a life. Just enjoy the game. It’s not worth potential jail time.

But first, you need to stop being a hockey fan. Because you’re not worth it to anyone, especially the NHL.

My New Year’s goal

The year 2011 was a big year for me personally. It was the full first year with my twin girls. I became a stay-at-home dad. I was misdiagnosed with Guillian-Barre Syndrome, and eventually correctly diagnosed with Lyme disease.

But with so much on the go, my blogging took a hit. I didn’t have enough time to write. But I’m not the only one. A lot of my good friends have cut back on the blogging as real life interferes. A lot of popular blogs I follow have decided to call it quits for various reasons (Five for Smiting, Four Habs Fans, Melt Your Face Off).

I’m not big on New Year’s Resolutions. I think it’s more realistic to have a general goal. Instead of saying something like “I want to go to the gym everyday,” it’s better to say “I want to lose 20 pounds in 2012.” That way, you don’t feel like as much as a loser if you can’t go to the gym for a few days for whatever reason. You’re also more likely to keep trying for the goal, instead of stopping early on.

So I’m going to try and blog as often as possible. I don’t have a set number in mind. I’ll write some shorter things, but I really enjoy the longer pieces (such as 23 reasons why the Canadiens should fire Bob Gainey). So hopefully I can get at least one or two of those a month. And hopefully, you’ll have more to read this year.

How about you? Do you have any goals for 2012?

33 NHL thoughts

Not a lot of time lately, but there have been a lot of stuff I wanted to touch upon. So here are 33 NHL quick hits going into the Christmas break. 

Oh happy day. Jacques Martin is no longer the Habs coach.

1. Jacques Martin had to be fired. There are numerous reasons why, many of which I have mentioned before. Cowhide and Rubber had a good list back when Martin was still the coach.

2. One of the final nails in his coffin was his unwillingness to play the young guys. Louis Leblanc has looked good when he plays. And he scores a goal against Philly. Yet Martin only played him for four minutes that game. What’s the point of that? Leblanc would have been better off spending the whole season in the AHL getting 20 minutes a game.

3. It is interesting to note, that in Randy Cunneyworth’s first game as coach, Leblanc had 13 and half minutes.

4. A lot of people are blaming Gauthier for this mess the Habs are in. They point out the Kaberle trade as the prime example, but Kaberle has been pretty good as a Canadien. Erik Cole was a good signing. He won the battle of Halak vs. Price, even though most people thought he was wrong at the time. The real problems with this team starts with Bob Gainey. He’s the one who signed most of the guys long-term with no trade clauses. Cammalleri, Gionta and Gomez all came on Gainey’s watch. Gauthier continued that trend, with no trade clauses to Plekanec, Markov and Cole.

5. With that being said, Montreal will have to get rid of Gauthier at the end of the season. Following Gainey’s blueprint is not a good idea.

6. Remember, Gainey is still a special advisor to the team. I’m pretty sure he thinks all these faults of Gauthier’s is actually a virtue.

7. Cunneyworth will also be gone at the end of the season. He could lead this team to the Cup, but he doesn’t speak French, and that’s all that matters to many of the media in Montreal. Unfortunately.

8. Patrick Roy seems to be one of the frontrunners for the head coaching job. To me, this is the exact opposite of what Montreal needs to do. Enough with bringing in coaches who have no previous NHL coaching. Look at the last 10 coaches: Jacques Demers, Mario Tremblay, Alain Vigneault, Michel Therrien, Claude Julien, Bob Gainey, Guy Carbonneau, Gainey again, Martin and now Cunneyworth. Of those coaches, who had the best success? The ones with previous experience. Demers brought the team a Cup. Martin brought them to the semifinals. 

Marc Crawford would be a good coach for the Habs. And he's a snazzy dresser too!

9. If I was Montreal, I’d look at bringing in someone like Marc Crawford, Randy Carlyle and Bob Hartley. All with previous coaching experience. All have won the Cup. Who cares if they know French.

10. For the record, Crawford knows French from coaching the Nordiques, but isn’t that fluent. Hartley is French, and has worked for RDS. I have no idea about Caryle.

11. Back to the on-ice product, is there anything more frustrating than watching Travis Moen playing on the top two lines? When he has the puck and he tries to thread it to a teammate, it doesn’t usually make it. Frustrating to watch.

12. Speaking of frustrating, that brings us to PK Subban. Almost every game I’ve seen this year, I’ve seen him make a horrible mistake that leads to something bad for the Habs, whether it be a goal, a shift in momentum, a penalty, or whatever. I always say to my wife: “Subban needs to score a goal here in the third period to make up for the game he’s playing.” Not sure what is going on with him. Trying to do too much?

13. What’s peculiar is that Subban played his best hockey last year when a lot of his fellow defencemen teammates were injured. His worst stretch of games last season, I thought, was those seven games in December when Markov came back. It’ll be interesting to see how Subban reacts when the d corps is healthy.

14. Moving on to other teams, I was surprised that Ottawa gave up so much to get Kyle Turris. David Rundblad and a second rounder? I can’t believe they added the draft pick, especially if it turns out to be a high second round. Runblad had 50 points in 55 games in the Swedish Elite League last year. That’s the second highest point total for a defenceman in league history.

15. What I find funny is that in Ottawa, the media is calling this a win for Ottawa. Everywhere else, they say Sens GM Bryan Murray got hosed. Does the Ottawa media ever think the Sens lose a trade?

16. I realize Murray believes he needs to rebuild the team. But why does he need so many reclamation projects,hoping guys will find their niche again while in Ottawa. Jonathan Cheechoo. Nikita Filitov. Alexei Kovalev. Marek Svatos. Now Turris. So far, Murray is zero for four with these projects.

17. To me, Turris has been overrated his whole career. I think he’ll be a solid player, but he’ll never live up to his #3 overall draft billing.

18. By the way, it’s not just Turris. If you take away Patrick Kane and James van Riemsdyk, that 2007 draft hasn’t produced a lot of top quality players. A lot of serviceable players, but not too many potential all-stars there. Right now, Kane is the only player from that draft to be an all-star. The 2006 draft has 3, while 2008 also has three.

Brian Elliott has to be the biggest surprise this season.

19. Biggest player surprise of the NHL season so far has to be Brian Elliott. He bombed in Ottawa and Colorado last year, but in St. Louis, it’s like he’s the second coming of Jaroslav Halak circa 2008. He leads the league in goals against (almost half a goal better than Tim Thomas), save percentage and is tied for first in shutouts. In 16 games, he has a record of 13-2. If he had more starts, he’d be up there in wins as well.

20. Everyone’s talking about concussions, and whether there is more now than ever. I’m not saying it’s not a serious issue, but I wonder in years past, how many guys just continued to go out and play because that what tough hockey players did.

21. Worth noting by the way, that none of these concussions are coming from fighting. Just saying.

22. Can we just rename the Jack Adams trophy (given to coach of the year) the Dan Bylsma trophy. No one does more with his players than him. He loses Sidney Crosby, the best player in the world, it doesn’t matter. Evgeni Malkin need some time off? Sure, take a week. Jordan Staal misses half a season? No problem. Their best defencemen in Kris Letang gets a concussion? Take your time coming back. Another top defence, Zbynek Michalek, gets a concussion? No worries. I swear, you could give him a team full of AHL players, and he’d get them into the playoffs.

23. It’s funny how expectations can make things seem worse than they are. Ottawa was supposed to suck, but they’re a Cinderella story at 36 points. Washington was supposed to be a top team, but the world is crashing down as they sit at 35 points. Given everything though, wouldn’t you still rather Washington’s team for the rest of the season?

24. It’s not just the East. In the West, the Coyotes are a marvellous team, with 37 points. The Sharks, despite playing three less games, are a travesty at 37 points.

25. The most surprising team to me is the Florida Panthers. Most had them pegged for a brutal season, but Brian Campbell is playing like a man possessed on the back end.

26. On the other side, the most disappointing team has got to be the Anaheim Ducks. They had a top goalie, great youth, solid defence and what should be the scariest line in hockey. But it’s not amounting to much. Only 23 points so far, only one point ahead of the Bluejackets.

27. Heard a lot of people talk about Tomas Kaberle lately. One thing that makes me laugh is how people question the fact he never wanted to leave Toronto to have a shot at the Stanley Cup (until last season). They think he might have preferred staying on a losing team, and think he should have wanted to leave, and it brings him down in their eyes. But no one thinks the same about Mats Sundin. And I wonder, if the Sens asked Daniel Alfredsson to leave, and he said no, if people would look down on him. Not likely (and nor should they). That’s why it doesn’t make sense to me that they look down on Kaberle for the same reasons.

Cal Clutterbuck leads the league in shorthanded goals.

28. Hey, three quick guesses who leads the league in shorthanded goals. Cal Clutterbuck. He has four shorthanded goals. Total career shorthanded goals before this season: Two. Safe to say, no one saw that coming. He also has two powerplay goals this year. So six of his nine goals this year have come on special teams. That’s a crazy percentage. (Side note, he leads the league in hits as well).

29. A lot of teams have been underperforming this year, and it’s led to a lot of coaching changes. But this is actually a good thing for the league. It shows there’s a lot of parity. Most of the teams doing the firings were playoff teams last season, and are out of playoffs right now.

30. Yes, the winter classic is a great thing for ratings and selling the game. But I get tired of all the promotion for it when the actual game is dull and choppy due to ice conditions.

31. Also a downside, it feels like the same teams every year. Didn’t the Flyers just play in one two years ago? I’d like to see Dallas at Minnesota. Mike Modano can drop the ceremonial puck.

32. I’d like to see Brendan Shanahan go back to the way he suspended guys in the preseason. What was eight games then is only a game or two now. If you want to remove hitting from behind, headshots and the like out of the game, these guys need to be suspended for longer. It worked for Matt Cooke, who has turned his game around after last season’s massive suspension.

33. Alexander Ovechkin is up to his old tricks. I once called him the dirtiest player in the game (you can read that blog post here). When he gets upset on the ice, he hits guys from behind, slewfoots them, elbows them in the head, etc. You name it, he does it. He’s been suspended in the past because of it, and he should have been suspended when he speared Chris Neil a couple of weeks back (video here). It’s disgusting that he plays this way, yet Matt Cooke gets all the negative media attention.

Bobby Ryan traded… in my keeper pool

Hello Bobby Ryan. Welcome to my keeper pool team. Try not to suck.

So I recently made the decision that I needed to make a move in the keeper pool.

I was in eighth place out of 10. I tried to make a move to move up in the standings, but no one was biting. So I decided that I needed to make a move the other way, and try to trade players that I couldn’t keep at the end of the season anyways.

So I made said move: I traded Joe Thornton, Teemu Selanne and a fourth rounder in 2013 for Bobby Ryan and a first in 2013.

This was a move designed to help both teams. It gave Andrew more depth, as he makes a run at first place. As for me, I get a great young player in Ryan (a former #2 overall pick, selected just behind Sidney Crosby). He’s young, had tremendous talent, and should be a solid keeper on my team for years.

I couldn’t keep Selanne at the end of the year. Because of expansion (we’re going up by two teams), we can only protect eight forwards, five defencemen, two goalies, and a rookie. So Selanne was dead weight on my team, so to speak.

The way I look at it, I traded Thornton and a fourth rounder for Ryan and a first. To me, that’s an upgrade on a keeper (maybe not this season, but in a couple of years as Thornton starts to slow down due to age) and an upgrade on a pick. For Andrew, he looks at it as trading away an underachiever and a first for two solid players who could get him 80 points this year.

Right now, my team looks like this (players in bold I plan on keeping):

Forwards: Malkin, Stamkos, Parise, Hall, Duchene, E. Kane, Ryan, Zetterberg, Granlund (rookie), Jagr, Kadri

Defence: Weber, Markov, Streit, Boyle, Murphy

Goalies: Miller, Niemi, Brodeur

Of course, all this could still change. A major trade offer comes my way that sees me improve upon a position. Or my guys magically stop sucking (I’m looking at you Parise and Zetterberg) and I make a run at it. Or my players stay healthy all season (ie- Miller, Markov, Hall, Jagr).

But I’m happy with my team. It’s pretty solid. I could use improvement at defence, but I think those are five solid defencemen once they’re all healthy and playing.