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Originally posted by chuckv97

Schneider wieners on those dogs,, I knew a guy in Kitchener that worked there,, said he’d NEVER eat anything from that meat plant.

Well, I likes me some street meat. One time when we went back to T.O. on our anniversary, I was wandering around on my own and finally succumbed to hunger at a cart. That night we went to Ruth's Chris - big mistake - for overpriced steak. That street dog was waaaay better.

Good on the boys for getting baseballs. Pat Keon once gave me two tickets to Jays vs. Chicago WS (courtesy of brother Dave, no doubt) - took the daughter, first row, first and second seats in the 100, overlooking home plate. Pricey. Best non-box seats. A foul ball whipped over the net right at my face. Some guy with a glove stuck it right in front of me and caught it. No objection  here - he was welcome to it. The various parts of my face collectively thanked him.

It's sad/ironic/weird/insert your own expression - to see fans who were earlier planning the parade turn around and trash their team. Boy, are they ever dumping on them.

Head down the road and see fans excited by the Habs just making the playoffs - and dreaming about their future.

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Originally posted by Paul R

It's sad/ironic/weird/insert your own expression - to see fans who were earlier planning the parade turn around and trash their team. Boy, are they ever dumping on them.

Head down the road and see fans excited by the Habs just making the playoffs - and dreaming about their future.

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Perfectly said, Sir.

Championships in ANY major sport are incredibly hard to come by, and if there's a sport in which the path to victory is longer or more grueling than that of the NHL, I never heard of it.

The NHL has 32 teams, likely to increase to 34 within the next few years. Leaving all of the passion aside, on a strictly actuarial basis, the life expectancy in Canada averages 82.88 years - roughly 85 years for women and 81 years for men. In the US, it's a 79.66 year average - 82.1 years for women, 77.2 years for men.

Mathematically, this means that a kid born after the League's last expansion (Seattle, started 2021-22 season) can expect to see their team of choice win The Cup exactly twice in their lifetime - whether they're cognizant in their prime or in the drooling-and-diaper stages at either end of the ride.

Of course, that's assuming random distribution, and we all know that the universe is neither caring or fair. Nor does the math take human foibles such as hubris, greed, or poor judgment (among other factors) into consideration.

In Noo Wingland, those of us of (ahem) a certain age know this well. The drought of the Red Sox was the stuff of legends. I had come to the conclusion that if they ever won the World Series, the magnetic poles would flip to the equator and life as we knew it would be over. That didn't happen. Or maybe it did, and nobody noticed. Doesn't matter. We knew that there was no birthright to a World Series win. All there was was hope - that next season would be better - and that hope was tempered by a strong (now mostly gone) regional streak of the Calvinist ideal that our rewards will be in Heaven, and not on this earth.

Then Tom Brady showed up.

And we started expecting - no, DEMANDING - win after win after win. For an almost unfathomably long time, we got just that - and became as corrupt in our expectations as everyone else.

That T.O. expects victory given its history seems borderline psychotic to me. And the point about the Habs and what's happening there is being received gratefully by fans - especially considering the Habs were once as unstoppable as the Patriots - is the way it SHOULD BE. For us Broons fans, there was resignation setting in about midseason (despite all kinds of hope before the season started) and, once Sweeney blew up the team at the trade deadline, merely a sense of hope for the future. That's enough to keep us going. It's enough to make me dream that I MIGHT see the Cup in the hands of the Spoked B once more before my last trip around the sun ends.

Here's your reward for making it all the way through my little diatribe.

The aulder I gets, the more I’m becoming less ! dependent for my sports happiness on Blackhawk wins or losses (wins, of course, trumps ! losses, but not earth-shakingly so). I just enjoy watching a close, hard-fought game, no matter who’s playing or who wins. I think about half of the NHL is comprised of Canadian players, so that was always my default position when American teams won the Cup, not that it mattered that much. But now that Toronto and Winnipeg (my Cup favourite this year) are out, the Oilers are carrying the hopes of a nation on their collective backs. It might be time for the McDavid era in Edmonchuk to reach the pinnacle before fatigue, demoralization, injuries, and just plain age and loss of mojo push them into the “coulda, shoulda, woulda” category.

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Originally posted by chuckv97

The aulder I gets, the more I’m becoming less ! dependent for my sports happiness on Blackhawk wins or losses (wins, of course, trumps ! losses, but not earth-shakingly so). I just enjoy watching a close, hard-fought game, no matter who’s playing or who wins. I think about half of the NHL is comprised of Canadian players, so that was always my default position when American teams won the Cup, not that it mattered that much. But now that Toronto and Winnipeg (my Cup favourite this year) are out, the Oilers are carrying the hopes of a nation on their collective backs. It might be time for the McDavid era in Edmonchuk to reach the pinnacle before fatigue, demoralization, injuries, and just plain age and loss of mojo push them into the “coulda, shoulda, woulda” category.

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I understand completely.

And the cards are stacked against Canadian teams - for two reasons, both involving money.

First: Canadian metropolitan areas are small. The three largest markets (Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver) COMBINED aren't as big as the second-largest US market (Los Angeles area). Toronto, the largest in Canada, would rank #10 in size if it was in the U.S.

Market size is huge in running a successful team.

Then there's the tax issue. Players for Canadian teams fork over more than 50% of their AAVs to the Canadian and Provincial governments. There's a reason why teams like Vegas, Florida and Tampa Bay can get so much talent: there's no state income tax, so a smaller AAV contract still produces more money in the players' pockets. Obviously, it's a bit more complicated than that, because when Vegas players take on the Canucks, the Canadian and BC governments take a chunk. Even so, the US-based teams - especially those in Nevada, Florida and Tennessee - offer a real financial incentive to play here rather than Yon Frozen North.

That those tax-free states also offer a nice lifestyle is another bonus.

And this is why I fully expect that Brad Marchand, a UFA at the end of the season, will sign a two- or three-year deal to remain in Sunrise, although I've seen some scribes positing - praying, even - that he should end up in Toronto. He's having a ball in Florida, and he'll get to keep more of the money.

The all-to familiar story living in Canada re sports figures and singers/musicians. The draw of more greenbacks and nicer climate to the south is always tempting. But we’ve had a few players offer “hometown discounts”, but not many.
With music there have been more deciding to reside (all or part time) in Canada while plying their trade in the U.S. and around the globe,,, Buble, Lightfoot, Joni who came back to live, Tyson, Murray, etal.

Well, Skip, I guess I can be quite satisfied that I have lived through nineteen Stanley Cup wins by my Canadiens. But there's always room for more.

(And my parents lived through two Cups by the Montreal Maroons.)

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Originally posted by Paul R

Well, Skip, I guess I can be quite satisfied that I have lived through nineteen Stanley Cup wins by my Canadiens. But there's always room for more.

(And my parents lived through two Cups by the Montreal Maroons.)

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At the risk of belaboring the obvious, one's odds grow much better with a smaller league. All other considerations notwithstanding, the Original Six stood one-in-six chances of taking home the Cup each season.

But yes, Les Habs were fearsome, and brilliant, and we Noo Winglanders hated them almost as much as we envied their fans, and the team's history is certainly one of which Montreal can be proud - even if they never reach that level again.

Heck, no team can do that again. Not in this era, in which I'd argue the rigidity of the cap structure not only provides the closest thing to parity in any major sport, it also adds a whole 'nuther thing for us to jawbone about in the few scant weeks between the last game of the Finals and Free Agent Day (which can be nearly as exciting as the playoffs themselves). And then comes Development Camp and Rookie Camp and then Training Camp/preseason games, and before you know it, the grind starts all over again. Show me another sport that does that!

Oh, and in case y'all hadn't heard, the Broons extended Don Sweeney's contract by another two years, out to the end of the 2026-27 season. Many Boston fans are unhappy about it, but I don't see as how the team had much of a choice what with a head coach search (multiple reports that one of the reasons Rick Tocchet passed on Boston was due to Sweeney's uncertain future), the draft and the quest for free agents.

C'est la guerre, eh? They can always fire him later. I've little doubt that they will.

Well, no other team forced a rule change because they were so good. I'm referring, of course, to the power play change, where the penalized player came back onto the ice when the advantaged team scored a goal. The Canadiens often scored more than once under the old system, when the sinner stayed for the whole two minutes.

The Bruins were my second favourite team when I was a kid, simply because that's the first sweater I got. Back then they really were sweaters - heavy wool turtlenecks, in fact. (The Bruins totally lost me with Chara's stanchioning of Patches. In the Fifties I didn't mind the Bruins, 'cause they lost to Montreal.)

Edited to add: Lately I've seen more than one commentator state that the Bell Centre is the best place to play - for both home and visiting teams, because the atmosphere is so electric/exciting. It seems to charge up both teams.

Of course, Larry Robinson once remarked that Habs fans "are with you all the way, win or tie."

Some of our fearless leader Prime Ministers were heavily involved in hockey. I even bought Harper’s book,,, unfortunately his bland personality came through in his writing….

Or a certain cabinet minister who won several Stanley Cups tending goal for Les Canadiens. Ken also went on to write books on topics from hockey to education, and even produced a CBC Radio documentary on Pete Seeger. (How's that for connecting sports and politics with banjos?)

I chatted with aforementioned Liberal CM on a TTC streetcar coming back from a BooYays game back in the 1980’s. (how’s that for connecting hockey, baseball, les ‘abs, Toronto streetcars, politics, and name-dropping…. )

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Originally posted by chuckv97

I chatted with aforementioned Liberal CM on a TTC streetcar coming back from a BooYays game back in the 1980’s. (how’s that for connecting hockey, baseball, les ‘abs, Toronto streetcars, politics, and name-dropping…. )

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What? You didn't talk banjos?!

I don’t know about you guys, but the Panthers are some kind of force. Carolina looks out of their league playing them. Whew!

More hockey history. Oliver was from Hamilton and played for the Junior A Hamilton Tiger Cubs , , with many tilts against the ,,, wait for it… TeePees.
“ While in Boston, Oliver centred the B.O.W. line with wingers Johnny Bucyk and Tommy Williams”. Sheesh, ya learn somthin’ every day. (btw, Tommy Williams was one of the first USA-born players in the NHL, and played on the Olympics champion team in 1960 at Squaw Valley)

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Originally posted by chuckv97

I don’t know about you guys, but the Panthers are some kind of force. Carolina looks out of their league playing them. Whew!

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Yeah. Kinda dormant through the regular season, but woke up in the second season. Relentless on the o-zone.

Killed off a major penalty, too.

USA wins World Championship for the first time since 1933. Congratulations!
cbssports.com/nhl/news/usa-hoc...1LMW339dw

See what happens when we let guys like Tommy Williams play in the NHL back in the 1960’s,, next thing ya know they’re runnin’ the asylum … ;-)

cbssports.com%2Fnhl%2Fn...0-in-ot%2F" target="_blank">x.com/TSN_Sports/status/192674...-in-ot%2F

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Originally posted by chuckv97

USA wins World Championship for the first time since 1933. Congratulations!
cbssports.com/nhl/news/usa-hoc...1LMW339dw

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As one Boston sportswriter tweeted this morning, "Jeremy Swayman actually turns out to be a pretty good goalie if you put a decent team in front of him."

Somebody else must also have thought he was pretty good to pay $8 million+.  

Re. NHL playoffs, is the difference in officiating between playoffs and regular season real or imaginary? 

IF it's real, is that the way it should be? 

IF it's real is it affecting the Ws/Ls?

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Originally posted by chuckv97

USA wins World Championship for the first time since 1933. Congratulations!
cbssports.com/nhl/news/usa-hoc...1LMW339dw

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And thank the Danes for ploughing the road.

I’d like to think the refs are not influenced by the pressure and media scrutiny, but alas, methinks they could be at times.
Penalties, whether earned or not, can affect the final outcome,, otoh,,, a good PK by a team can boost their confidence and possibly demoralize the opposition.
Is a bad call by a ref akin to a bad bounce / lucky bounce? Sports can have elements of luck,, ie,, if’n Brett Hull’s skate in the crease was called “no goal” …..
Babe Ruth & Mickey Mantle were “lucky” that they played in a ballpark with a short right porch,,, Gordie Howe was lucky he was born big & strong,, etc, etc, ad nauseum

I'm thinking more along the lines of a "let 'em play" mindset .... more leeway w.r.t. "finishing" a check. etc.

As far as luck goes, I like Tim McCarver's take: "Bob Gibson is the luckiest pitcher in baseball. He always pitches when the other team doesn't score any runs.”

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Originally posted by Owen

Somebody else must also have thought he was pretty good to pay $8 million+.  

 

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$8.25mm AAV, if we're being precise.

And yes, there was thought that he was pretty good when the deal was struck. His performance this past season indicated that the optimism may have been misplaced.

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Originally posted by Owen

I'm thinking more along the lines of a "let 'em play" mindset .... more leeway w.r.t. "finishing" a check. etc.

As far as luck goes, I like Tim McCarver's take: "Bob Gibson is the luckiest pitcher in baseball. He always pitches when the other team doesn't score any runs.”

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I like that quote ....... about one of my favorite all time pitchers.