While working out this morning, I was watching Sportsnet news. They had a hockey crew on there talking about the Cup finals, when former NHL goon and current Sportsnet hockey analyst Nick Kypreos started ranting about how the Edmonton players should warn the Hurricanes that their goalie is next and maybe after their goalie, someone like Erik Cole. (Cole is already out for the season, so perhaps he said or meant Eric Staal.) This kind of brain-dead comment just shows that while Kypreos may have changed from a player to a TV hockey analyst, he’s still a goon at heart. The injury to Roloson was completely accidental; nobody ran their goalie, so Edmonton shouldn’t be looking for revenge.

I’m not a fan of fighting in hockey (or lacrosse), but I will admit that there are some cases where it’s… well, necessary is too strong; perhaps understandable, to some extent. If someone really runs your goalie, or hits your star player with a cheap shot, then I can see sending Tie Domi or your team’s equivalent out to have a conversation with him. Note that “cheap shot” here is important — if someone hits your star player with a clean hit, no revenge is warranted, even if that hit ends his season. I also think that whatever revenge may be warranted should only apply to the current game – once that game is over, the opportunity has passed. This whole “so-and-so hit our star player last game, so the next time our teams play, we’re going after him” is moronic and childish. For a prime example of how this is a bad idea, just reread the previous sentence as “Steve Moore hit Markus Naslund last game, so we’re going after him”. Todd Bertuzzi kept the promise that his team made, and ended Moore’s career by breaking his neck. (Note for the record that Moore’s hit on Naslund was clean.) For all Bertuzzi’s apologizing and crying during press conferences and stuff, he meant it, and would do it again in a heartbeat, though perhaps not from behind next time. I was disappointed in Gary Bettman for lifting his suspension during the lockout, and embarrassed to have him on the ice for Team Canada at the Olympics. I think his suspension for such a blatant cheap shot should be as long as Moore’s injury keeps him out – if Moore’s career is over, then so should Bertuzzi’s. He’s a great player, but nobody should be allowed to get away with that kind of crap.

I’m thinking Nick Kypreos would disagree with that.

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I used to hate the Montreal Canadiens. Just hated ’em. There were two teams that I always wanted to lose — no matter who they were playing, no matter whether it was playoffs or early in the season, I wanted them to lose — the New York Yankees and the Montreal Canadiens. I still hate the Yankees (watching Boston take them out in four straight after being down 3 games to none two years ago was just awesome), but for whatever reason, my dislike for the Habs has waned in recent years.

I can’t tell you why this has happened. There isn’t a particular player on the Habs that I like, nor any that I really dislike (other than Mike Ribeiro, after his exceptional acting performance during the playoffs 2 years ago). Maybe it’s because of Saku Koivu’s battle with cancer. Maybe it’s the fact that they really sucked for a few years, while the Leafs were making the playoffs every year, though that’s what I used to wish for, so I don’t see why that would be the case. Or maybe it’s just because I’m older and more mature, and so hating a team for no other reason than because I always have just doesn’t make sense to me.

But I still hate the Yankees.

Ed Belfour is out for the rest of the year with a back injury. His backup, Mikael Tellqvist, has been playing pretty well as a starter in the meantime, and last night, his backup, Jean-Sebastien Aubin, played in his first game as a Leaf, and was named the first star. I only watched the last 4 minutes of the game, but the Devils had a two-man advantage for most of that time because of Leaf penalties plus pulling their goalie. They had all kinds of scoring chances, but Aubin kept them all out – other than one that he missed but Tomas Kaberle scooped away just before it went in.

I wonder if Leaf management will look at the performances of Aubin and Tellqvist and finally decide to buy out Belfour’s contract and let him go. It makes fiscal sense too — they’d need to pay Tellqvist either way, but Aubin doesn’t make much, so the $1.5 million it will cost to buy out Belfour plus Aubin’s salary is still way cheaper than the $4.5 million they’d have to pay Belfour. Given their play over the last couple of weeks plus Belfour’s less-than-stellar play over the rest of this season, and the fact that Belfour is 41, it should be a no-brainer.

I went to the Leafs game last night. Great game – the Leafs played pretty well, and Mikael Tellqvist was great in net. Brendan Bell made his NHL debut in place of new daddy Wade Belak, and I thought he played very well – some nice hits, a couple of shots on net, he looked pretty comfortable out there. Jeff O’Neill had a pretty good game as well, with two assists, and Jason Allison scored the game winner, though I thought he made a lot of sloppy passes. Mats Sundin was a non-factor once again – in the new higher-scoring NHL, Mats has only 17 goals and 36 assists.

Montreal lost last night, so the Leafs gained 2 points on them and are now only 4 back. Their next 2 games are both against Montreal, so they could be tied by Sunday; however, we also have to hope that Atlanta starts losing as well. Beating Montreal for 9th place while Atlanta takes 8th doesn’t help much.

I wrote a couple of weeks ago that the worst thing to happen to the Leafs this year would be to make the playoffs, since it would give management the ability to claim that the team just needs a tweak here and there, rather than a complete overhaul. I still believe that, but as a lifelong Leafs fan, it’s awfully hard to hope for them to lose.

We need to blow up the Leafs. Now and again, every team has to go through the pain of “rebuilding”, and I think it’s the Leafs’ time. A friend of mine said recently that the worst thing that could happen to the Leafs this season is to make the playoffs, and I agree. It might give management the false belief that the team is just fine as it is, and just needs a bit of tweaking – it doesn’t. It needs a complete overhaul. The economics of the NHL has changed dramatically, and the Leafs old style of throwing money at over-the-hill veterans (and in some cases trading away draft picks and prospects to get them) simply will not work anymore. Look at Brian Leetch, Joe Nieuwendyk, Gary Roberts, Eric Lindros, Shane Corson, Ron Francis, even Ed Belfour. All veterans past their prime when they were acquired, and except for Roberts and (to some extent) Belfour, none really contributed much of anything.

I say we buy Belfour out and let him go, get rid of fan-favourite Tie Domi, who is a hard worker but is vastly overpaid, and get rid of Allison, O’Neill, Lindros, Czerkawski (who never plays anyway), Belak, Berg, and Antropov. We’ve already signed Kaberle (that’s good), and if we can afford to sign McCabe do it, otherwise trade him now while his trade value is high. I’m not even averse to trading Sundin if we can get some good prospects in return. Start over with a core of Colaiacovo, Ponikarovsky, Stajan, Steen, Tellqvist, and Wellwood, and keep Darcy Tucker (who’s playing really well this year), Sundin if not traded, and maybe Ken Klee cause we’ll need some veterans. Yes, the team will suck for four or five years, but if we get some good prospects and early draft picks in return for the old guys listed above, the Leafs might win a Cup before my kids hit university. If they keep trying to use the old Leafs style, my grandkids will be blogging about “no Leafs Cup wins in 75 years”.

Update: Oh yeah, and fire Pat Quinn.

I’ve heard quite a bit about Alexander Ovechkin recently. He was the first pick just before the “season that wasn’t”, but then seemed to have been forgotten about, what with the lockout and then the end of the lockout and then the whole Sidney Crosby mania. He won’t be forgotten about for long though – he’s rivalling Crosby for most points by a rookie this year. The way they talk about him on the radio is impressive – he’s a scoring machine, who has as good a chance as anybody of scoring 70 goals in the next couple of years. Considering 50-goal scorers have been rather rare in the last couple of years, this would be quite an accomplishment. Anyway, I heard an interview with him the other day, and he said that he wants to play as much as possible – forward, defence, on the PP and PK, anywhere. He just loves to play. His coach said that he’s adapting to life in North America quite well – he’s working hard on his English, and even turned down an offer to be roommates with one of his Russian teammates, figuring that if he’s bunking with a native-English speaker, his English will improve that much faster. Nice to hear about a hard-working athlete who is playing because he loves to play, and doesn’t consider himself God’s gift to his sport (are you reading this, Terrell Owens?).

Also heard another nice story about the Leaf game yesterday – Carlo Colaiacovo took a shot towards the net that Alexei Ponikarovsky seemed to deflect into the net. Ponikarovsky was given credit for the goal, but immediately went to the ref and told him that he didn’t touch it, and that Colaiacovo should be given credit. He also knew that it would have been Colaiacovo’s first NHL goal, so he went and grabbed the puck. After talking to the ref the second time, he gave the puck to Colaiacovo, and credit for the goal was changed. He could easily have just taken credit, but went out of his way to make sure the right person got the goal. Attaboy.

No, I don’t mean that Canada lost in the IIHF World Hockey Championships. In fact, they won today. The loss is the thousands of hockey fans around North America, of which I am one, who are slowly losing interest in hockey thanks to the lockout.

I grew up a Leaf fan, and loved to watch Leaf games with my dad as long as I can remember. When the Leafs won their first round playoff series in about 1986, I even painted my hair blue before going to school. (Some friends said they were going to as well, but chickened out, saying that they meant the second round. Whatever.) I lost interest in university for some reason, but then started getting back into it in the mid-90’s, and became a rabid Leaf fan once again a year or two after that. When the lockout first started, I was quite distraught – how was I going to make it through the winter with no hockey?! I have lacrosse, which I loved even more than hockey even before the lockout, but that’s only 16 weeks plus playoffs (and that ends two days from now). Gradually, I discovered that I would survive just fine without hockey. I missed it, no question, but not as much as I thought I would. Right now, we’d be into the second round of the playoffs, the time of year that I thought I’d really miss hockey, but, meh, not really. The Jays are playing well and as I mentioned in a previous entry, I’m more excited about baseball this year than I have been in a few years, so lacrosse got me through the winter, and baseball will get me through the summer.

I am hoping the lockout gets resolved and we have a real NHL season this fall, but right now, I almost don’t care. If the NHL completely vanishes, I’m sure another league will pop up to take its place. That would be a real shame though – all the history of the NHL will be lost.

I just cannot get interested in the World championships though. Maybe it’s because Canada has been a powerhouse in international hockey for a few years so it’s not unlikely that they’ll win it all, but it’s more that this seems like a made-up tournament. It’s not the Olympics, it’s not the Canada Cup (or is it? The Canada Cup tournament hasn’t existed for years, but I don’t know what replaced it), it’s yet another world championship, similar to the World Cup of Hockey they had in the fall, which I wasn’t all that interested in either. It just seems like (a) a cash grab for the promoters, and (b) something to do for a bunch of bored currently-unemployed hockey players.

Do I hope Canada wins? Sure, but I doubt I’ll watch the final game even if they’re in it, and if they don’t win, I won’t lose any sleep over it.