Sports

Tonight we start an on-going series to look at the 16 teams which will contend for Lord Stanley’s Cup in 2011. Tonight, the league-leading Vancouver Canucks (part 1 of 16)

Can The Pacific Powerhouse pull off their first championship this year?

Since 1994, Vancouver has made the semi-finals five times, only to lose the series every time. Vancouver is used to being the top dog.  In the last decade, the Canucks have finished the season as the first place Northwest team four times, including during three of the last four seasons.  It’s all part of the frustration for the team which calls Canada’s third-largest city home.  No matter how hard the team tries, or how well it does, it seems that the system is always working against Vancouver.  Even this series bears witness to that fact: for the sake of consistency, post-1994 was chosen as the benchmark for evaluating the teams, just after the infamous 1993-94 run which saw Vancouver make it’s best play for the cup by getting to game 7 in the Finals against the New York Rangers.

Vancouver is a far different team from then though.  Unlike other NHL teams such Toronto, the Canucks don’t need to merely dream about making the Stanley Cup, they are currently improving their seasons regularly and guaranteeing the rest of the Western Conference a run for the money when the playoffs start.   The excellent performance that Vancouver has enjoyed this year also comes despite having some of its top players benched due to injuries, demonstrating that the team is well-rounded and has given even the second-plus lines a good chance to get experience and hone in on skills.  With that said, here’s what Vancouver’s attributes look like this year:

The Pros

On the plus side for Vancouver, it’s not only clinched its division spot again this year but it’s in the running to lead the league in points going into the playoffs.  Vancouver also knows how to turn on the heat, having won 8 of its last 10 games at the time of writing this post.  The team, as noted at the beginning of this article, has been here before and knows how to perform.

The Cons

Call it the Kryptonite factor, but for Vancouver, Kryptonite is spelled many different ways, including ‘Chicago’, ‘Anaheim’ or, most accurately, ‘the semi-finals’.  After pulling off outstanding seasons, the team always seems to choke by the time that it gets deep into the elimination round, usually losing badly to whoever its opponent might be (but especially Chicago).  Canucks fans hold out hope that if the team is capable of getting within a hair of the Stanley Cup as it did in the early 90′s, it’s just a matter of time before it does so again, but so far that hope hasn’t yielded any results.  Nonetheless, making it to the Stanley Cup is one thing, winning it is another — for a team which hasn’t been to the big round yet, it’s likely that Canada’s west coast beachhead will be beached on the long shore of Stanley Cup also-playeds in the event that they take it to the next level this year.  And that’s not even considering the team’s love affair with the injury roster!

Matthew Campbell is the founding editor of Score Target, an interactive sports news community that allows users to predict the winner of upcoming games and discuss their favourite league and sport games, news and players.

I intend to return to the NHL and its recent decision to pursue controversy but wanted to spend time today regarding the other issue which is causing Canadian sports fans great disappointment.  Announcing it’s 2011 schedule in mid-February, the Canadian Football League (CFL) had a lot of good will going into the draft season; ratings have never been higher, all eight teams are on relatively stable footing, including the oft-prone Ontario teams which will soon be rejoined by Ottawa, and a stable of sponsors which is finally growing into a respectable group of cash-flush backers, able and willing to transform the league from a stands-based revenue generator to one which could get significant cash through the developing relationship with TSN and the lucrative TV contracts associated with such activity.

I don’t want to overplay the significance of the gaffes that the CFL walked into so far this year with the release of this year’s schedule…Hamilton is still getting the Half-a-Dome (TM), Montreal isn’t going to fold and the 2010 Canadian all-star Andy Fantuz isn’t going to become the first of an exodus of talented players to the NFL…yes the league clearly dropped the ball in their reintroduction of some sour ideas from its dark days of the 1990s. With the return of Thursday night games, and even see the occasional scrimmage on a Wednesday night, it will stand to be seen if those ratings from Wendy’s Friday Night Football can survive the mid-week doldrums.  Thankfully both incidents are rare, indicating that the league is reintroducing the weekday games more so for Ottawa’s imminent return than out of a desire to retest ideas that clearly didn’t work back when the sport had to do the five game third and long at the beginning of the last decade.

Recently embattled cities Hamilton and Toronto might not feel so grateful though; the season-defining Labour Day Classic, which has come to define the pinnacle of the season for fans on both points along the QEW, will not be happening in Ontario this year, provoking fans to call up league commissioner Mark Cohon in an effort to have the decision reversed.  It’s a noble, but increasingly unlikely effort.  The decision to reinstate the ultimate rivalry game has been met with a poor and somewhat Toronto-centric excuse that the facility formerly known as Sky Dome won’t be available very often for the Argos in the fall due to Rogers owning both the facility and the Blue Jays, which gives the baseball team added advantage in having first picks on the home game dates (MLB wouldn’t likely take kindly to being told to go rearrange its own schedule due to a Canadian league of eight teams insisting on some more flexibility).

This leaves the Argos with little choice but to play their own home game during the September long weekend.  Comparing the Ti-Cats home game schedule with that of the Argos reveals that Steeltown will really be shafted this fall as a result; only four home games will be played inside Hamilton’s borders, while the Argos at least get six. The discrepancy is a little too obvious to be excused as a nasty plot between Rogers and the MLB planners.  The rest of the league doesn’t fare much better, with awkward clumps of home and away games that will steal from some of the exciting thunder during last year’s season (see Montreal’s frequent trips to Hamilton; a two in Saskatchewan/two in Calgary set of games that will hurt the building rivalry between those teams for other examples…)

As I had stated above, this won’t kill the league or lead into a decade of decline, but it does reveal a bit of a misfire on the league’s part.  For a city which was recently in a heated battle to find a new stadium which never materialized, the CFL is taking a risk on further alienating Hamilton’s strong fan base after it last year threatened to move the CFL team out of the industrial city in order to jolt Hamilton city council back to reason during the infamous stadium debate  Conspiracy theorists will no doubt suggest that Bob Young might be trying to get back at Hamilton for failing to deliver on Confederation Park, but it’s more likely that the league just took it’s historic Toronto-first approach (see the #1 spot that the Grey Cup gets played in).

What the planners failed to realize is that Hamilton, and southern Ontario as a whole, needs a greater saturation of CFL exposure if it’s the CFL is going to continue to thrive in the long term.  Moncton and Quebec City seem like obvious suitors for new franchises one day, and that they are, but with a third of the country’s population and untapped pockets like London, Ontario or US-border town Windsor, all with 500,000-sized populations, it’d be foolish to let the NFL have free reign on defining football in these areas if the CFL wants to outgrow the also-played league image that is sadly prominent down here and to continue to generate revenue. I say this as an ardent supporter of the league which has made some excellent decisions over the last five to seven years in particular; ignoring Ontario isn’t so much of a fatal gaffe as it is a squanders opportunity.  With 2011 kicking off shortly, perhaps the league should keep an eye on those overlooked fans come 2012 — it certainly couldn’t hurt the gate sales.

Matthew Campbell is the founding editor of Score Target, an interactive sports news community that allows users to predict the winner of upcoming games and discuss their favourite league and sport games, news and players.

 

By now, if you’re a moderate sports follower, you’ve heard about Pittsburgh Penguins chief Mario Lemieux’s passionate anger over the fact that the NHL wasn’t hard enough on last week’s foes, the New York Islanders, and that’s likely just the way that the NHL leadership likes it!  After the latter team pulled an amazing stunt last Saturday that saw the team fined US$100,000 and saw a good number of players suspended for what can easily be labeled the most violent game in years.  So why is Gary Bettman, commissioner of the National Hockey League, risking putting off Lemieux, who is one of the most beloved figures in recent hockey history, by publicly rebuking him today?  Simple — because you know about it now!

For anyone who has been following the NHL from a business model perspective over the last decade, Bettman’s off-colour choices aren’t without their reasons…or their flaws.  While the NHL has seen a 12% growth in attendance between the years 1999-2008, the US TV ratings tell a different picture as regular season ratings have flat-lined in the 1.0 range since the league returned from the 2004-2005 lockout and mixed results during the playoffs.  Garry Bettman is in business if nothing else, and results like these aren’t boding well for the aging hockey chief’s desire to move the NHL up to the third most-popular sports league in the US (behind the NFL, MLB and NBA) and, more recently, to keep it from falling to fifth behind the young Major League Soccer that is catching fire across North America.  This is why a game notable for its icy overtones is being played in such obvious locales as Dallas, Phoenix and L.A, but it’s also why the ever-continuing debate about violence in hockey is allowed to continue. While not a natural fit in the game originally, the punches allow the NHL to spice up its product in the eventual hopes of luring a major network contract along the lines of those offered to the big three leagues mentioned above.

The tunnel-vision characteristic of this decision is on full display for the country to see; after all, if having players going around knocking each other upside the head regularly is the true path to ratings then why is America’s favourite pastime not its favorite pastime by now?  The hockey league’s other decisions are, of course, fair game for scrutiny as well, but if I were an NHL owner or stakeholder, I wouldn’t be looking at the uptick in press coverage from the last week as anything to be proud of — to the coveted southern sports fan, the news of a few players getting rowdy last weekend barely hits the radar and does nothing to encourage viewership patterns to change.  The rougher, tougher hockey scheme has run its course by now and, as noted above, hasn’t had nearly the impact of something like a lockout which the NHL has far more control over.  While it may yet prove true that the sunny side of America is open to the great Canadian game (these folks are starting to invest in soccer after all!), it will take someone far more creative than Gary Bettman to pull it off…and someone with far more business sense for that matter!

Matthew Campbell is the founding editor of Score Target, an interactive sports news community that allows users to predict the winner of upcoming games and discuss their favourite league and sport games, news and players.

This list courtesy of Funny Or Die. (P.S., I think I’m #10)

1. Guy who is way too excited for the halftime show.

Overheard: “I can’t wait for the Black Eyed Peas! Ten bucks says they open with ‘I Gotta Feeling.’ I hope there’s some sick surprise, like Bon Jovi playing a mashup with them. That would be tight!”

2. Guy who still thinks commercials are the best part and forces laughter at trite beer ads to prove his point.

Overheard: “Cedric the Entertainer just chose Bud Light over his hot girlfriend! HAHA! CLASSIC!”

3. Degenerate gambler glued to his phone/laptop, betting on every play and prop bet.

Overheard: “click click click click. YES! click click click click. FUCK!”

4. Guy who won’t shut up about his office pool and how he almost won it last year.

Overheard: “Dude, I was this fucking close! This dork from accounting beat me by one point, and he doesn’t know ANYTHING about football. I was so pissed, bro!”

5. Girl who hates football, but cheers for her dickhead boyfriend’s team because he’s a manipulative prick who makes her beg for validation.

Overheard: “Look, honey, they’re making a touchdown kick! Please love me.”

6. Guy who coaches youth football and eagerly breaks down the game’s strategy for the rest of us mere pedestrians.

Overheard: “See, the Packers want to score before halftime, but they don’t want to leave TOO MUCH time on the clock and give the Steelers a chance to score, too. I did the same thing against Springfield in the playoffs. I wasn’t gonna let little Jimmy Burke burn me again!”

7. Guy who saw Drew Brees at the airport and thinks he’s overrated because “he’s not that big.”

Overheard: “I’m telling you, he’s MAAAYBE 6’1” with shoes. He wasn’t even the biggest guy in the terminal. I saw him in line at Jamba Juice, and I totally could have tackled him from behind, but his kid was there and I didn’t want to embarrass him.”

8. Guy who spews esoteric football terms, but can’t explain what they actually mean when pressed.

Overheard: “They need to use zone blitzes to counter those delayed slip screens!”

9. Desperate girl with no self-esteem who pretends to love football and beer so guys will think she’s super cool and fall in love with her.

Overheard: “I’m TOTALLY addicted to football! Most girls spend weekends shopping and working out. Not me. I’d rather chill and watch sports. And I make the BEST game snacks!”

Extra point: She has no idea which teams are actually playing in the game, and the only football players she can name are the ones involved in tabloid gossip.

10. Fat ass who just came for the snacks.

Overheard: “Dude, you can’t eat wings without blue cheese! Ever dip pizza in ranch? It’s phe-NOMINAL!”

Extra point: Will try to flirt with the no-self-esteem girl. Unfortunately, she’ll eventually realize how little he knows about football and that even she can do better.

11. Guy who already has the Packers’ offense solved because he’s “crushed them on Madden a million times.”

Overheard: “Dude, all you need to do is collapse the pocket with the nose tackle, then switch to the blitzing linebacker and knock the shit out of Rodgers with the Hit Stick button.”

12. Socially awkward guy who tries too hard to fit in by overreacting to mundane things.

Overheard: “Offsetting penalties?! We’re all fucked!”

13. Guy who thinks his terrible team is one key draft pick away from winning next year’s Super Bowl.

Overheard: “I already booked my flight to New York for the draft! We were 4-12 last year, but we were SO CLOSE to being 12-4. Three of those losses were by less than four points, and the refs basically handed two more to the other team. If we snag that right guard from Notre Dame, we’ll be unstoppable!”

14. Guy who high-five rapes everybody, even when celebration isn’t warranted.

Overheard: “That’s a 4-yard gain, right up their ass! Don’t leave me hanging, bro!”

15. Guy who tries to teach the token hot girl about football because he thinks she’s impressed by his condescending tutorials.

Overheard: “See that guy with the ball? He’s trying to throw it to one of those little fast guys before the other team tackles him. That’s called a sack. Don’t worry; I didn’t really understand football until I made captain in high school.”

16. Guy who thinks his (obviously premeditated) sexual puns are hilarious.

Overheard: “Time to penetrate the end zone! LOL! They should double-team the tight end! HAHA!”

17. Obese slob who thinks he could be an NFL lineman because he’s “heavier than those guys” and “used to wreck shop in JV.”

Overheard: “People always ask if I play football because I’m such a big guy. I wear 5XL T-shirts. Most of these guys are only 3XLs. I weighed 350 in high school. I would have gone pro if coach didn’t bench me because of my asthma.”

18. Guy who hangs on every word the broadcasters say, praying they’ll misspeak so he can ridicule them.

Overheard: “Did you hear that? He just said this is Roethlisberger’s third Super Bowl in six years. This is his seventh season. Fucking morons!”

19. Guy who is SO FUCKING INTENSE about football that you BETTER NOT FUCKING TALK to him when his team has the ball!

Overheard: “Shut the f&ck up, everybody! I want to hear Rodgers’ audibles and all the offensive-line calls! This is the Super Bowl, not fucking happy hour!”

20. Guy who spent the last two weeks memorizing obscure stats to casually rattle off.

Overheard: “Yeah, Rodgers is pretty good, but his passer rating is only 78.2 when rolling to his left in domed stadiums.”

21. Guy who wears a zany wig, shoulder pads and face paint because he’d rather prove he’s a die-hard fan than comfortably enjoy the game.

Overheard: “What do you think of my outfit? I spent two weeks putting it together. I can’t wait to post these pictures on Facebook!”

With Super Bowl 2011 upon us, I wanted to take a moment today to look at the most classic part of the modern game, the ads!

While there have been many creative and entertaining contributions over the years (the budgets put into purchasing the airtime for, and in developing these ads have become something of a legend), there can only be one winner. Below are my top five, in reverse order, from roughly the last decade. Enjoy:

#5. The Green Police (Audi) (This ad not only made some eyebrows turn when the ad was released, but has climate change skeptics amusingly suggesting that this is the world we would get if Al Gore ever became anything more than a former Vice President)

#4. The Ocean (Bud Light*) (Being from Canada, I’m not sure what this product is, but I understand it’s some sort of children’s soft drink or diluted baby formula…)

#3. Staff Motivation w. Terry Tate (Reebok) (This blog is not responsible to answering the question that most younger readers will undoubtedly be asking: “who is Terry Tate?”)

#2. Fist Bump (Bud Light) (Yeah, that baby formula company ended up making two really good ads…)

#1. It’s Time (CareerBuilder.com) (Packed with a continual barrage of real-life pet peeves we’ve all experienced, well, except for punching that koala bear who went on to become an internet meme in his own right, CareerBuilder.com’s ad was an obvious choice for top spot.)

Honourable Mention. Mother-in-Law (yup, another Bud Light one…)

I had to put this one up, even though it didn’t make the top 5, just as a warning to all of the young men out there who are about to pop the question…make sure you know where things are going!

Don’t agree with the top picks above?  Feel free to leave your choices in the comments below!

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Matthew Campbell is the founding editor of Score Target, an interactive sports news community that allows users to predict the winner of upcoming games and discuss their favourite league and sport games, news and players.

If to talk to a southern Ontario football fan right now, chances are you won’t hear much about either the Leafs’s latest winning streak or the NFL playoffs, but rather about an off-field campaign being waged by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats like no other they’ve played before. Rather than trying to survive playoff elimination, the team has spent a good part of the last year desperately trying to find an economically viable and accessible solution to where their new home will be when the nearly-condemned Ivor Wynne Stadium in Hamilton’s east end hosts its last CFL game as expected in the next four years.

What has been most strikingly absent about the debate over various site considerations, costs and whether the City of Hamilton even wants to fund a new stadium for the team or not is an understanding of the facts and figures behind the proposal that was instigated by Toronto’s reception of the right to host 2015′s Pan Am games.  While most followers of the debate now understand that a 22,000-ish seat stadium will cost around $120 million to build, most aren’t aware of just how much of the city’s operating budget it would take to build the stadium (just over 9%, for those keeping score.) Right now, the city is finding itself hard-pressed though to come up with even $30 million dollars as the recent recession and poor planning on the part of the city council has seen Hamilton’s population practically stagnate in comparison to other parts of the region as its unemployment cruises past the national average.  The poor planning reared its head in November when the city, thinking it had a plan involving some old CN rail yard plots near Highway 403, came to discover that it didn’t have the money needed after all.  With a hard-set Feburary first deadline approaching, something needed to change, and fast.

Enter Burlington, Hamilton’s northerly smaller yet healthier neighbour.  In the time it has taken for Hamilton to tear itself into an all-out civil war over the stadium debate, Burlington’s well-financed council has already hatched a study to build the stadium itself in Aldershot, just five kilometers from the Hamilton border. Beyond offering instant GO train service, access from the 403, QEW Toronto & Niagara and 407, the proposal would also allow the Tiger-Cats to remain the Hamilton tabbies and wouldn’t cost Hamilton a cent — a sweetheart deal if there ever was one.

Burlington is far from certain, but many outside spectators are now expecting Hamilton to give one last attempt to building the stadium itself this week as it votes on the team’s original choice site at Confederation Park, off of Lake Ontario. Once that fails, as the council math almost guarantees, the Pan Am planning committee will be expected to include Burlington in the shortlist of cities from which a successor to Hamilton’s portion of the games will be chosen. Showing a bit of wisdom and foresight rarely seen in Hamilton itself, Burlington’s new mayor Rick Goldring has already proposed making the bid a Hamilton-Burlington bid, which would all-but-ensure Burlington will not only get the rights/funding to build the stadium but that it will actually break ground when the weather starts to warm this spring. It’s a clever move on the mayor’s part, but even goodwill this bold isn’t always enough to overcome Hamilton’s red tap. The city notorious for taking 50 years to build a simple highway has a way of always clutching defeat from the jaws of victory, and that was before the Tiger-Cats entered an unprecedented 11-year Grey Cup drought!

The only way that the CFL is going to adequately survive in the Hamilton-Burlington area is for a bit of common sense to endure. Perhaps what is most telling is that things have been allowed to sink to this level to begin with and why even with an effective team play ready to go in Burlington, there’s still lots of time left at the three minute warning!

Matthew Campbell is sports contributor for Strictly Pop and editor of ScoreTarget.com, an online sports information and fantasy league site.

For all of the CFL fans who are looking for a dose of 3-down action now that the season is over, the Toronto Argos are looking for your help!  Already having changed their logo four times over in twenty years, the team is asking fans whether they want to keep the current Sheild ‘A’ logo or move back to one of their retro logos.

In light of Head Coach Jim Barker’s unwavering loyalty to their QB in what has been a stormy season for the franchise, may I humbly submit this offering to the team as the unofficial Strictly Pop vote:

Starting on a new blog is always an awkward experience (this shall be the third I’m involved in now).  When Andrew Lawton invited me to join Strictly Pop to provide sports content, it couldn’t have come at a better time for me — having successfully launched my own sports site, Score Target, I was actually looking to get back into the world of commentary and sharing information through this great tool that we know as the internet.

I’ll spare you all the huge biography which seems to be the natural thing for someone to post on their first blog entry, but isn’t entertaining enough in my case (especially for a site called Strictly Pop!).  Needless to say, if you’re interested, feel free to check the small bio I provided through my profile on this site. Instead, I would prefer to offer what you can expect of me in the coming days, weeks and months…

As I inferred, the internet is a great tool, especially for information-sharing.  A blog is at its best when it provides value to the reader, so expect a lot of information and analysis, but only a little commentary.  Of course, I welcome any information that I can get my hands on so please feel free to email me via editor@scoretarget.com.

With the Ryder and FedEx Cups on the horizon, it is difficult to predict which one will be more underwhelming. The Ryder Cup should be exciting, as it is a nationalistic competition. And while it has gained popularity in North America over the last decade, to many, myself included, it remains just an exhibition match of no real value. Many remember Phil Mickelson’s infamous equipment switch in 2004, when he decided that the Ryder Cup would be a great place to test a driver, woods, and a ball from a new equipment sponsor, Callaway. Some ridiculed Phil, others realized how insignificant the Ryder Cup is and let it slide. Tiger Woods put the Ryder Cup into perspective in 2004 when he asked the press room, a crowd of, allegedly, the most knowledgeable golf fans in the world, if they knew what Jack Nicklaus’ career Ryder Cup record was. They did not. Tiger then asked how many Majors the Golden Bear won. End of story.

That being said, this year’s Ryder Cup does have some drama attached to it. The world’s number one player, Tiger Woods, did not qualify for one of the 8 guaranteed spots on the US roster. The only way Woods can make the team now is if US captain, Corey Pavin, selects woods as one of his 4 ‘captains picks.’ A year ago not picking Tiger would never even be contemplated. However, with Tiger’s up and down year on the course (remember, it’s only ‘awful’ by Tiger’s standards. How many players on the Tour wouldn’t take two top 5s at the Major in one year?), there is talk of leaving Tiger off the team. Sports writers from around the world are urging Pavin not to pick Woods, pointing out that Tiger is not playing well and claiming that he would be a distraction. They actually want to exclude the most dominant athlete of this generation.

In reality, a place seldom visited by most of the media, selecting Tiger Woods for the team should be the easiest decision Corey Pavin has ever made. Tiger Woods has won 14 Majors. He is still the number one ranked player in the world. He will go down as the best golfer to ever pick up a club. He’s Tiger Woods! When Pavin said that Woods was not a lock to be a captain’s pick Jack Nicklaus said “he’d need a brain scan if he left Tiger out of the team.” The Golden bear is right — you don’t pass over the best golfer of all-time.

That being said, it is the Ryder Cup. Does anyone this side of the Atlantic really care?

(H/T September 2010 issue of Golf Digest)

Cross-posted to TenDollarBeers.com

I don’t know why people are so surprised that Tiger Woods and Elin Nordegren decided to go down the divorce route. If he had had one affair, forgiveness may be in order. If he had cheated on his wife with two women, forgiveness following a smack upside the head. However, when over 20 women are speculated to being Tiger’s ex-mistresses, I think a permanent separation was the only option.

Tiger and Elin released a statement following a meeting at a Florida courthouse this morning where they finalized their divorce. This comes a little over 9 months after Tiger got into an unfortunate car accident (i.e. was chased by his wife with a golf club,) sparking the whirlwind of revelations about just how many holes-in-one the golfer was getting.

Most amusingly, the ex-couple’s joint statement said, “We are sad that our marriage is over and we wish each other the very best for the future.” I don’t doubt that Elin is happy — she stands to pocket more than $100 million in assets through this. Tiger, on the other hand, will be fighting over the next little while for joint custody over their two children.