February 2009 Archives

With the Leafs rolling into Lawn Guyland tonite to take on the team that puts the 'tank' in 'stank', what better time to drop our latest installment of 'Ask an Isles Fan?' Once again, we'd like to thank Dick Ripietro for taking a few minutes away from buying preteens beer to go use the public library computer to uh, 'look up sports scores' and answer these questions from Kim, the readers, and your paragon of virtue, Godd Till.

Do you think the Isle are going to last in Long Island? With the talk of a preseason game being held in Kansas City, the writing might be on the wall.

I honestly can't see them relocating.  There is too much history and I think that the lighthouse project will go through on the end.  I think that it is just a powerplay move by the NHL/Isles to force Long Island into giving in.

If they do relocate, will you still be a fan?

I would still be a fan..What am I going to do, start cheering for the Leafs?

Have you ever been to Nassau Coliseum? I saw the leafs play there about 3 years ago, it was one of the most depressing spectacles ever. The arena is barely fit for an AHL team, never mind an NHL squad. The Islander fan - female - that leaned over and yelled in my ear "do you like that bitch? Do you like getting f8cked in the ass?" when the Leafs got scored on was the highlight of the night.

I haven't been to the hallowed halls yet, but from your description it sounds like I should fit right in.

Who is going to win tonight?

The Isles are pretty terrible these days but Danis played a kick ass game last night so if he is in net I will go with the Isles..otherwise...not the Isles.I think they are going to unload as much as they can.  I will be happy if they get rid of all the oldtimers..As long as they keep Streit, Witt, Martinek, Bailey, Okposo and Comeau..then I am pretty much OK with whatever they do.Bailey is really starting to look good.  I think we will be OK with him.  I actually haven't seen too much of Schenn yet, so I will reserve judgment for a bit on that one.

Are you bummed the Isles are blatantly tanking?
I am not bummed at all...I am not sure that they are blatantly tanking though..I think they are really just that bad.

I've got one - who are the worst players you've ever seen in the blue, orange, and white?

This is a good one...I didn't even give it too much thought but the first name that popped into my head was Claude Loiselle..Damn that guy was useless.

Brian Trottier: Traitor, or biggest traitor ever?

Yeah, Trots is kind of an anomaly.  For whatever reason he doesn't get the flack that anyone else would get for ditching us.  Personally he was probably one of my least favorite Isles of the glory years so I would say biggest traitor ever.  He also held up his jersey retirement since he wanted big money to do it and then topped it all off by becoming a dirty Ranger.

Why did the Centennials fail in North Bay? What the hell else is there to do up there?
 
I don't know much about the politics around it since I was gone by the time this all went down but there arena is worse than Nassau, and they had some pretty shitty teams in the last few years.  Besides it is too cold to go outside to get to the games.

Kim Jorn: I saw the Centennials last game in Peterborough. Their goalie let in a shot from the Petes goal line.

Godd Till: Huh, I didn't know Toskala played junior in the Bay.

During my years there, the big two players were Brad Brown and Vitali Yachmenev if that tells you anything.

It tells me you and brutal hockey go way back.
Remember, readers, you can post your questions for next time in the comments - it's your chance to tell your grandkids you once interacted with a Islanders fan outside a controlled laboratory environment!

During my first year living in Vancouver, one of the local rags marked Toronto's return to GM Place for the first time in a few years by dragging a Maple Leafs jersey behind a car, running it over, and setting it on fire in a garbage bin. They photographed the event and ran it in the paper alongside a poem, presumably written by a four year old, that mocked the Leafs' "washed up Swedish captain." I thought at the time that the great irony in this was a fan of a team captained by Markus Naslund mocking another teams Swede captain as "washed-up." Turns out, I was a bit premature...

This year, the same paper painted a car with the Leafs logo and gave one lucky reader (and by reader, I mean someone who has their mom read the paper to them) the opportunity to push the button on the compactor. The winner was both a Sens and Canucks fan, which, as Till pointed out at the time, is like telling the paper you're a child-molester who lights forest fires on weekends.
 
With the Canucks coming to the ACC tomorrow night, the Team 1040 in Vancouver has decided to once again stoke dying embers of a non-existent rivalry. Check out the poll on the right (click image for larger view):

Once you get past the fact that a group of people who are so uptight about being laid back are commenting about our attitude, it is worth noting that the second biggest reason for hating Toronto is the media. Maybe we're not that different after all?

Anyway, while we'll always maintain that we have no rivalry whatsoever with the only current Canadian team to never win a Stanley Cup (I`m counting Ottawa`s fake ones just this one time), we decided to put together a little poll of our own. Click on the link below to vote!

So a no-doubt Hall of Famer returns to a town where he's dominated in the regular season, scored vital goals in playoff wins, been the best player on the ice for over a decade - and instead of the cheers he's always heard from the fans that fill the rink, he's greeted by boos? It's unbelievable how things can change.

Yeah, it sure must have been tough for Mats Sundin in Ottawa last night.

According to Damien Cox's column in today's Toronto Star, the best thing for Leafs fans to do on Saturday night when Mats Sundin steps on the ice at the ACC wearing that orca whale on his chest (does he get paid extra for carrying Kyle Wellwood around like that?) would be to get on their feet and give a big standing ovation.

Fine. I'm sure some people will feel that way. Others will sit on their hands, and of course some will boo. I know some people have been counting down to Saturday night since the minute Sundin signed with the Canucks, prepared from the get-go to voice their displeasure, while others have continued to love Sundin for what he did while playing for Toronto rather than focusing on his ugly departure. I'll be watching on TV, and it seems kind of ridiculous to boo a television. I myself might throw some Doritos if Sundin scores, but that will probably be the extent of it.

The way Cox sees it, there are only two things Leafs fans need to consider when deciding whether or not to let their anger rain down on Mats Sundin this coming weekend:

Leaf fans, really, should care about only two Sundin related issues. First, that the classy Swede grew sick of the screwed-up manner in which the Toronto operation was being run. Are things different under Brian Burke? We're still learning the answer to that question.

Second, as with any number of good players in recent years, Sundin left town without fetching any assets in return. This is an organization that has consistently been unable to understand that the best time to move athletes is at the peak of their value, not when they've outlived their usefulness.

Lets look at that second point, because, well, I mean, umm, well...did I imagine everything that happened last February? Fletcher publicly asking Sundin to waive his NTC, Sundin looking worn down and on the verge of tears as he stated for the thousandth time that he didn't want to go anywhere, Godd Till writing Rosie-esque mash-notes to the beleaguered Swede, and so on. This all happened right?

If, as Cox suggests, the lack of assets in return for Sundin are what Leafs fans should really care about, isn't there really one person to fault here (well, two, because JFJ deserves his share of blame here too, but I don't think there is much debate as to whether or not he will be barraged with boos when he ever steps foot back in the ACC)? Fletcher tried to move Sundin for assets, but he wouldn't go. Correct? Huh? Cox?!?!

Maybe Cox means that the Leafs should have traded Sundin earlier, that Sundin was well past the peak of his value and had long outlived his usefulness (and, before he had an NTC). Should the Leafs have traded Sundin back in 1997, after he put up a career high 94 points? "Hey Mats, you had a great year, and we're building this team back up so that we can compete in a year or two, but we've decided to trade you to the Panthers for a couple picks because your value will probably never be higher. Thanks for everything."

Or, when we're discussing Cox, we'd have to look at Sundin's 98-99 season when he registered a career best +22. I mean, what better way to value a player than plus/minus. The Leafs should have shipped his ass out of town following their loss to Buffalo in the Eastern Conference Final. So what if he was the key player on a strong team with a chance to compete for five more years. We needed assets. Stat!

The Leafs did try to trade Sundin when they felt he had outlived his usefulness to them. We can argue as to when his value was at its highest, but you also have to consider how valuable he was to the Leafs themselves (you don't simply trade a player because he can fetch assets). The fact that Sundin got the contract he did in Vancouver leads me to believe that he was still rated highly by other teams in the league. 

But, I am really over-thinking this one. Cox's column in a nutshell: Leafs fans shouldn't be upset with Sundin, they should be upset with the people responsible for not fetching any return for Mats Sundin. Those people, of course, are Mats Sundin and... But we shouldn't be upset with him, because it wasn't really his fault. We should be upset because the Leafs let Sundin go for free and didn't receive anything in return. And we know who is to blame for that. Right?

Jesus, I'm getting dizzy trying to follow Cox's logic on this one. It's like watching a flushing toilet bowl, going round and round and round and round with a great big piece of crap floating around the middle.

Most people dread Friday the 13, especially teenagers indulging in illicit drug use and premarital sex in idyllic lakefront settings. Myself, I cherish it. For it's a chance to celebrate the life and work of my first mate on this pleasure cruise we call the Cox Bloc - Admiral Kim Jorn.

It's amazing to see how much Kim shares with his birthday mates. Like Henry Rollins, he used to be punk until he started doing Gap commercials. Like Peter Hook, he loves maudlin 80s synth-pop. Like Randy Moss, he is a humble team player. Like the city of Louisville, Kentucky, who had two streets demolished by a sewer explosion this day in 1981, he is plagued by gaseous eruptions down below. Solzenhytsin was exiled from Russia on this day, eventually to return. Kim experienced an exile that make's Andy S.'s look like being locked out of your apartment for an hour, from Peterborough to Vancouver, and is back going to Mr Bob's Pizza and larging it at Zeke's Thunder. Like Feist, Jorn is edgy and hip... for people who live in the Annex and crank it in their Volvo going through the drive-through at Starbucks.

Like Mats Sundin.... no, even I have limits.

So Blocheads, please join me in sending birthday wishes to a true friend, clutch third baseman, lover of fine cinema, and the best blogging partner I could ask for - HAPPY BIRTHDAY KIM!

I even brought a cake!



Note: Kim is not 42. I'm sure you can figure that one out....

Welcome to DVD Korner, where we tackle the best and worst in recent releases, in many cases without even watching the DVD in question! Today we discuss:

New York Islanders Greatest Games




























The first thing I noticed on the Amazon page?

No customer reviews yet. Be the first.

The rabid Islander fan base once again shows that, even with the team in the basement, they are the league leaders in apathy. So we reviewed it for them! Just like the Leafs will do all this losing and blowing leads to the Panthers and running good players out of town, and the Islanders will get Tavares anyways. He will arrive just in time to help load the moving vans for Kansas City, where he will score 145 points in front of 145 people. Bitter? Wrong blog, Charlie!

To the review!

Godd Till: I tried to order this collection, but when I opened the case I got a note saying Mike Milbury had traded the discs for half a carton of chocolate milk and three menthol cigarettes. Then I got an email from Garth Snow saying they could send me the discs, but only if I took out a 15-year, $950.00 membership in the "Isles AV Club".

Kim Jorn: I wanted to know if I could get it in Beta, just to make it an authentic experience.

Saucy! Dick RiPietro could not be reached for comment.

As Manchester City continues to appall the world of football by being the first club ever to attempt to improve by buying good players, thank God for UEFA president Michel Platini, a true guardian of the game's soul:

City could only make their unsuccessful bid last month to sign the Milan playmaker for some £91m because of the wealth of their owner Sheikh Mansour. Platini called that attempt "ridiculous" from football, social and financial points of view.

"City can have a young player from Manchester who comes to their training centre and becomes Kaka," the Frenchman claimed. "They don't have to buy someone for €150m [£131m] because they have their academy."

Ah yes, AC's Kaka, the Milanese boy from the banks of the River Po. How could City dream of despoiling the game by tearing him from the Milan team of fellow local heroes Ronaldinho, Shevchenko, Beckham, and Dida? We all know the tales of their youth: urchins kicking a ball of rags about behind the Teatro la Scala, wearing their homemade Gullit and Van Basten jerseys and dreaming of the day they might join the pantheon of great homegrown Rossoneri.

 Remember, too, the example of Michel himself, who stayed at Nancy, his the team who gave him his start, spurning the temptation of riches, personal recognition, and European Cups dangled by the likes of ..... Juventus, to pick an example completely out of thin air.

After the Ottawa Senators tanked the 1992-93 season, making a mockery of the league, regulations were put in place to prevent teams from tanking in the future. Today, we see that those efforts have been futile. The St. Louis Blues, perhaps frustrated at occupying dead last in the West but still behind four hapless Eastern teams in the Tavares lineup, have gone nuclear:

ST. LOUIS BLUES-Recalled D Steve Wagner and D Andy Wozniewski from Peoria (AHL).






























We're through the looking glass here, people.

I was thinking about Howard Berger the other day and how he is a bit of a riddle wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a mustache. I've been listening to the Fan590 a lot lately and I've been struck by the fact that Howard is a very good beat reporter and a decent analyst when he appears on various programs throughout the day. His radio appearances are pretty much the complete opposite of the trolling we often see in his lowest-common-denominator blog at Eklund's Magical World of Make Believe. Well, it turns out that I was wrong. Howard can still bring the bullshit on-air, as evidenced by his appearance on the Team1040 in Vancouver this morning:

Morning Show Dude: Howard, how is this story of his struggles out here playing in Toronto, and is there a nyea-nyea factor?

WCH: No, I don't think so. Not among people who have an ounce of maturity to them. You know, of course, you know, if you look at the internet chatboards and, you know, you see the loonies online of course you're going to get that but those are people that are, you know, 16 years old and no social life and sitting at their computers all day long but anybody who has a bit of a life understands, I think, what, you know, what we're discussing here today. And in Toronto people will boo him on February 21st here only because that is what they do here. You know, the Leafs haven't had anything to cheer about for 41 or 42 years, so when you get a chance to boo, you do it and you don't remember, you know, what people did for you until someday that Sundin will come back here and like Doug Gilmour did on the weekend he'll have his banner raised to the ceiling and then they'll cheer him you know for three-quarters of an hour but in the interim they'll boo him because hey we can show you that we're loftier and Mats Sundin you should have left at the trade deadline last year. You haven't done enough for us by being the only good player on the team for a decade, you should have left at the trade deadline and made sure you also played General Manager along with being the best player and got us a whole big package for the future. So, again, people in Toronto are called at times hockey's most knowledgable fans, uh, I don't know. Maybe I shouldn't say anything more than that.

On and on and on and on...what side are you on? Thanks to Wohn Jensink for the tip.