blogovich

Berkobits: On the Habs, the Ducks, the Olympics, and the term "unbelievable"

I used to write a print sports column this way, many moons ago. It was called Berkobits. I’m returning to it, at least for this post.

Random rumblings on a variety of topics accumulated while wondering why perfectly good hip checks are now considered “low-bridging” in hockey and warrant a penalty . . .

• Speaking of penalties, back in the Montreal-Boston NHL playoff series, two players got a penalty on the same play. One was nailed for tripping. The other for unsportsmanlike conduct (diving). It’s got to be one or the other, not both, doesn’t it?

• Is it just me or are penalty shots called too easily in hockey these days? Case in point from the Washington-Philadelphia first-round series. Mike Richards scored on a penalty shot awarded on a breakaway in which he got a shot off. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought if you managed to get a shot away, no penalty shot.

• Why is Canadian media treating the Montreal Canadiens as overwhelming favourites in coverage.?

Sure, they finished first in the NHL East, though who knows how good anyone really is in this era of overtime and shootout loss points.

Bottom line, though: 10 points separated first from the final playoff position of eighth in the East this season. So how can any result be considered an upset?

• Does anyone else hate it when sports commentators -- or anyone, for that matter -- label something as “unbelievable”?

If it happened, how can it be unbelievable? Amazing, maybe. But not unbelievable.

• Good to see the Anaheim Ducks out of the playoffs.

Reasons to dislike them.
• Blowhard GM Brian Burke
• How could anyone like a team that features Todd Bertuzzi?
• or cheap-shot artist Chris Pronger.
• or robo-overpadded goalie J.S. Giguere.
• or a team that features half-season or less unretirement wonders like Teemu Selanne and Scott Neidermeyer. Looks good on ‘em.

• Good for a chuckle in media stories: that the Olympics shouldn’t be about politics. The Olympics are all about, and always have been, about politics. If you truly want to depoliticize it, remove the flags and national designations and have the athletes compete for themselves.

• Did Pittsburgh’s Sydney Crosby take a dive in Game 1 against the New York Rangers on a play that saw New York’s Martin Straka sent off? Whatever. But Brendan Shanahan was trying to sell the media on Saturday, before Game 2, that there was never such talk.

Dunno about anyone else out there, but I clearly heard Shanahan, on a post-game TV clip, say “It was a weak call. Sydney embellished a bit.”

Hmm.

How far Hab fans have fallen, going nuts over a first-round win

OK, it's definitely and obviously despicable that Montreal "fans" went overboard and vandalized the downtown last night after the Montreal Canadiens finally subdued the Boston Bruins in Game 7 of their playoff series.

The more pertinent point, however, is this. Habs fans are about on the level of Toronto Maple Leafs fans now, dancing in the streets over a first-round playoff victory. First round. You have got to be kidding. What an embarrassment.

Oh, and slight apology to Habs fans -- Leafs fans go dancing into the streets after a victory in a single game in the first round. If they happen to have even made the playoffs.

But Habs fans doing this in the first round? Sacre bleu. Used to take a Stanley Cup to prompt such action. That happened in 1993. Before that,  back in the old, regular Cup-winning days, Canadiens fans would have been trashing things because their club had taken so long to eliminate a first-round playoff opponent, particularly perennial personal playoff patsy Boston. They would have been angry at their club, not celebrating it. But now we have transplanted goofball baseball mascots like Youppi! in the stands, contrived towel waving and all the other accoutrements that make the Bell Centre, unlike the old fabled Montreal Forum, just like any other run-of-the-mill professional hockey rink.

Whatever happened to that good, old time, arrogance of expectation and entitlement?

In those good old days, a first-round playoff win was greeted with a shrug. It was expected. Demanded, even. So were Stanley Cups, which in my memory never prompted riots, until the 1993 event.

How standards of excellence have fallen. Almost makes you want to turn in your Hab fan credentials. Almost.

Back in late April

On vacation. Back then.

And I will write about Dread Zeppelin. Then.

I support the Earth Hour concept, but it's become like Live Aid, Live 8, etc.

There are still poor people in Africa, more than 25 years after Live Aid.

And to be honest, I've forgotten what Live 8 was about. Other than the Pink Floyd/Roger Waters reunion and I'm not trying to be dismissive. I know it was about making poverty history.

Has it?

Soon to come: Water-Aid, as the world has some concerns in that area, all tied of course to environmental issues and are there any other kind?

These hours and aid events are all well and good in terms of awareness, and how can anyone today not be aware of environmental issues -- and be doing something, in their own small way, to attempt to improve things?

But it's good to see that, more and more, critical thinking is being employed. This came to mind this past week while reading an excellent, comprehensive article in Canada's MacLean's magazine, What It Will Really Take to Stop Global Warming.

As you can read, the article poses and tries to address some key questions as it analyzes what we must do, how we must think, and where the environmental movement has erred to date. Just briefly, most startling and revealing are items such as MacLean's suggesting that, "If every home in the U.S. put in one compact fluorescent light bulb...the savings in greenhouse gas emissions would be wiped out by fewer than two medium-sized coal plants. The kind of plant that is being built in China at a rate of one a week."

Or, "What we need by 2013 to meet minimum targets for emissions reductions: 30 new nuclear plants, 17,000 wind turbines, 400 biomass power plants, two hydroelectric projects the size of China's Three Gorges dam, 42 natural gas plants with carbon capture -- and we'll have to build that much every year until 2030. It's an almost comical proposition. A new nuclear plant hasn't been built in the U.S. in 30 years and in Canada, nuclear power is a political minefield."

Very interesting article. And this is coming from someone who leans left.

Tiger, and all pro golfers, should relax and shut up

From a late-March wire service article . . .

It wasn't just Tiger Woods' winning streak that snapped on the weekend in Miami. So did his temper, during an expletive-filled threat aimed at photographers lining the tee box during tournament play. "It's been frustrating because that's what been happening lately," Woods told ESPN's First Take. "It's one of the things that comes with playing in the last group, one of the distractions we have to deal with." After lipping out a putt on the ninth green during his final round at the WGC-CA Championship at Doral on Sunday, reports had a steaming Woods ranting: "The next time a photographer shoots a f------ picture on my backswing I'm going to break his f------ neck." During the ESPN interview, Woods said the distractions have affected his play – in this particular case, teeing off on the short, par-3 ninth, a camera's shutter went off during his backswing. His PGA Tour winning streak of five tournaments was halted at Doral, Geoff Ogilvy winning while Woods finished two shots back. "Each time it's happened, well, three out of four times, I made bogey," Woods said. "At the time I needed to make birdie, I flinched on it. (The photographer) got me in transition on my downswing."

I like Tiger Woods as a player. He's been great for golf, brought untold attention, TV ratings and money to the game and all who have a stake in it.

But, hmm. I thought Tiger Woods was supposed to have nerves of steel and was able to block out all distractions. Nothing fazes arguably the best golfer ever, we are told.

But he's fairly typical, in his often immature rants, of the pampered players of this country-club game. Players who seem not to be bothered if a jet passes overhead, or a bird chirps, or the wind rustles leaves on a tree, or many other such examples, while they are hitting or putting.

Yet have a human being so much as sneeze and all hell breaks loose. There are many ridiculous examples, one of which always comes to mind -- Davis Love and his caddy walking into a crowd (ooops, sorry, a gallery of patrons) asking "Who said that, who said that..." because someone either heckled him or uttered a peep which affected his, er concentration. Oh, to have been there to reply, "I did, you goof. What are you going to do about it?"

Imagine these guys trying to hit a 100 mph fastball with 50,000 fans screaming expletives at them during a baseball game? And don't give me this nonsense that golf is different. Shouldn't be. Tennis is supposed to be different, too, yet they allow crowd interaction at events like the Davis Cup. It's encouraged, in fact and they should allow it in individual tournaments. Just like they allow golfers to make fools of themselves with their contrived and awkward looking fist-pumping celebrations during team events like the Ryder Cup.

Even in tennis, in individual events crowds sometimes get out of control, particularly at the U.S. Open, because who's going to tell rude New Yorkers to shut up? Or who's going to tell the jets to stop flying over the U.S. Open tennis venue?

But golf? No. It has to be quieter than a church.  Nonsense, particularly  if you're going to praise these guys for their powers of concentration. The game and its players, Tiger in particular, should grow up.

Todd Bertuzzi, Paul Mulvey, lawsuits and hockey culture

As you are aware, Todd Bertuzzi has named former Vancouver Canucks coach Mark Crawford in a lawsuit stemming from the infamous incident in March 2004 where Bertuzzi attacked Steve Moore.

They once all rallied behind each other, now it's every man for himself for those involved in one stupid moment in time that will have repercussions for the rest of the lives of all involved.

How it all could so easily have been avoided. If Bertuzzi was indeed "sent", all it would have taken is some real leadership, vision and fortitude on his part. He could have sent a real message (hockey is very big on sending messages) by just saying "no". But of course, had he done so, Bertuzzi risked being blackballed from hockey.

As Paul Mulvey was.

Mulvey was a 6-foot-4, 225-pound (interestingly, close to Bertuzzi's size) forward who, back in 1982 while playing for the Los Angeles Kings, refused to jump off the bench when exhorted three times by coach Don Perry to attack Tiger Williams, then playing (interstingly again) for the Vancouver Canucks.

"I don't want to be known as a designated assassin," Mulvey was later quoted as saying.

He never played another NHL game. Chastised by Perry in front of the team between periods for his refusal to enact hockey's "code", Mulvey was immediately placed on waivers with a ticket to the minor leagues.

"I don't want a player on my team who won't stick up for his mates," Perry was quoted as saying.

Mulvey played out that season and one more in the minors before retiring. He sued the Kings for $20 million over what he perceived to be blatant blacklisting, with a settlement eventually reached.

What a sad waste for Mulvey, for Bertuzzi, for Crawford, for Steve Moore, for all involved in such incidents. What a sad comment on the game of hockey.