Weekend Wrap-Up: 2008-01-07

For sports fans everywhere, this was a great weekend. The IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship wrapped up with a Canadian gold for the fourth time in as many years. The National Football League's playoffs kicked off. The National Lacrosse League's regular season began. Perhaps most importantly, the ramifications of the Mitchell Report continued to be felt as Roger Clemens was besieged with mainstream press coverage demanding answers.

I'll touch on all these topics, but I need to talk about my road-trip to Pittsburgh, since it was so very sports-centric.



Pittsburgh is undoubtedly a sports town. In every window was a flag, a sticker, something supporting the Steelers, the UPitt Panthers, or the Penguins. Everywhere I went, someone had something to say about one of their teams, or about sports in general. People weren't just willing to talk about sports either. They were willing to listen as well. I had great conversations about the difference between the Pittsburgh market and the Toronto market, as well as different styles of play. I met one guy who loathed Vincent Lecavalier with a fiery passion. It was fantastic.

The thing that struck me most about Pittsburgh was just how different a market it was compared to my hometown Toronto. With the Steelers hosting the Jacksonville Jaguars for a play-off game, there was a strong football focus. But that focus wasn't just because of the playoffs. Pittsburgh loves its football, whether it be college or NFL. In my quest to catch the World Junior semi-finals, my friends and I went to six different bars, and only after we found the Prumanti Bros. in Southside could we find anywhere that carried the NHL Network.

This is what worries me. The good people of Pittsburgh love sports. It's a blue-collar town that will support any team bearing its colours. It's in the northern United States and there were hockey rinks everywhere. But no one had heard of the World Junior Hockey Championships. Worse yet, most bars were not carrying the NHL Network. This is a problem.

Most Canadians and true hockey fans talk about how lethal Gary Bettman's Sun Belt Expansion has been for the NHL. But for the NHL Network to be a non-entity in an ideal location like Pittsburgh? That means the NHL is in bigger trouble then we thought. After all, the Penguins have NHL poster boy Sidney Crosby and top picks Marc-Andre Fleury, Evengi Malkin and Jordan Staal. This should be the hottest NHL market in all the land. But it's not.

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

Anyway, here are some of my point form thoughts from this weekend:

- Darcy Tucker and Jarkko Ruutu had a hell of a tilt on Thursday night at Mellon Arena. The crowd went absolutely wild for the fight, and IO have to admit I was pretty happy that the refs let the fight last as long as it did. I didn't see Tucker after the fight, but Ruutu is an absolute mess right now. It was maybe a draw, or maybe a win of Ruutu. I love Tucker, but I also think age is catching up with his hard style of play and I've got a sneaking suspicion he is playing hurt.


- Roger Clemens should re-consider his current claims of innocence in relation to the Mitchell Report. There's an awful lot of evidence piling up against him, and in this current baseball climate your word is no longer good enough. If you're clean, only the hardest of evidence is going to be enough to keep your name clear. Unfortunately, baseball fans have become so jaded and cynical that you're now guilty until proven innocent.

- Mark the time: The Toronto Maple Leafs are not going to make the playoffs.

- I love the Pittsburgh Steelers' style of play. Smash-mouth football with a focus on running and defense. I was sorry to see them get knocked out of the playoffs so quickly, since I thought they had a good shot at knocking off the dreaded New England Patriots. Wait a second. The Jacksonville Jaguars have a strong running game and solid defense.


- The National Lacrosse League kicked off its season this weekend with the Colorado Mammoth taking out the Calgary Roughnecks 10-9, and the Toronto Rock in Chicago taking out the Shamrox 11-9. It's a great relief to me to have the NLL back after the very real threat of a lost season. I'm also pleased to see my Toronto Rock winning their opening game, even if it is against the expansion Shamrox. You've got to start somewhere.

Shoot-out Specialists

About ten days ago, Sports Illustrated's Michael Farber dedicated some space in his On The Fly column to talk about the Edmonton Oilers' domination in the shoot-out this season.

Combined with Christmas Day highlights of Jonathan Toews' dominant shootout performance in the 2006 World Junior Championship, it's clear that modern hockey franchises - NHL and otherwise - have to face the reality of the shoot-out.

Although the Oilers are currently a glum 16-18 this year, and are deep in the cellar of the Western conference, they are an impressive 10-1 when the game goes to a shoot-out. Consider how pathetic their record would be if they hadn't won those games in the 1-on-1!

Today, Canada beat Slovakia for their twentieth consecutive victory in the World Junior Championships. A record that would've been snapped four games ago if Jonathan Toews hadn't been so dominant with three goals to beat Team USA in the 2006 semi-finals.

Farber discussed the idea of teams employing shoot-out specialists. I agree - - that is an idea whose time has come. Every NHL team should now dedicate a large section of practice to the shoot-out. It'd be good for both the goaltenders and the shooters to practice.

With more then half of the Oilers' wins coming from their skill in the shoot-out, it's clear that the potential is there for the skills competition at the end of a game to make or break a team's season. General managers, coaches, and players should take notice and begin to adapt to an aspect of the game that is quickly growing.

The third and fourth-liners of the NHL should start dedicating chunks of their off-season to practicing their dekes and breakaway shots, while goalies across North America should start practicing as well - - the game is changing, and for the better.