King Arthur Movie Tristan

Too bad the local good guys, the Kitchener Rangers, couldn't solve the Spokane Chiefs to win the Memorial Cup in Kitchener yesterday. But there was entertainment for everyone when the cup fell apart during the on-ice celebrations.



The look on those poor kids faces, and lets face it, they are kids. Captain Chris Bruton, who is 21, was handing it too Trevor Glass, who is 20. They look like they are thinking, "oh man, were in trouble now."



h/t to Joanne for the video clip

The first team to make it to the 2008 Stanley Cup Finals? The Penguins of Cambridge!

Of course, Jim Balsillie hasn't gotten around to buying and moving the team yet. But it's coming, it's coming.

And to think, in a year when I never got the rink built in the backyard, I could have been hosting the Stanley Cup Finals.

The Kitchener Rangers, 2008 Ontario Hockey League Champions.


Peter DeBoer's Kitchener Rangers beat the Belleville Bulls 4-1 tonight in game seven of the seven game series. Kitchener had gone up 3-0 in the series, but allowed Belleville back into the series, losing the next three games.

In game seven, Kitchener scored late in the first period and again early in the second to take a 2-0 lead that they would never relinquish.

Congratulations Rangers!

You've played in your last playoffs.

Speaking of which, will you Leaf fans please shut up now - you are really REALLY not going to make the playoffs, and anything cannot happen once you get there.

The last month has been about nothing except getting a worse draft pick, hope you enjoyed it.

Last April I posted about the Maple Leafs returning to the glory years of the 1980's. As I noted, the only thing worse than the music back in 1987 was the Leafs. And since I posted that article less than a year ago, things have gotten so much worse; so much so that a few weeks ago the Sun had a full page picture of Harold Ballard on the cover of the sports section.

Things, however, are looking up Leaf fans, as the team today fired John Ferguson and announced it is bringing back Cliff Fletcher as the teams interim GM. It's like 1991 all over again, optimistically leaving those dreadful 80's behind, a brighter future, the pride returns &tc. Oh glory days!

Far be it for me to pooh-pooh this idea too much. Frankly, Fletcher is tailor made for the kind of tearing apart and trading away the Leafs need right now. But feel free to wake me when the Leafs enter the 21st century. Then, and only then, may I maybe care again.

Has it really been 35 years?



Video link.

Sometimes it feels alright to feel old. Today, I am grateful that I'm old enough to remember this one, and why it was such a big deal.

Street hockey on the driveway at 24 sussex.

Sean O'Donnell, the Anaheim Mighty Ducks' defenceman who is an Ottawa native, brought the Cup to the house (24 Sussex Dr.) on Thursday.

"He got to take the Cup anywhere he wanted for 24 hours and we were fortunate to have it here for an hour and a half," said Stephen Harper's wife, Laureen. The Harpers invited friends and their son Ben's hockey team, and people from the neighbourhood, to touch the Cup.

"We had over 250 people line the driveway with hockey sticks," Mrs. Harper said in an e-mail. It was a private event with no media. While waiting for the Cup to arrive, the Harpers served hot dogs and ran a mini hockey tournament on the semicircular driveway outside the house.

"We had three street hockey games going. It was fun," said Mrs. Harper...

Mr. Harper and his son attend NHL hockey games together, he goes to Ben's games at the local arena, and his kids and their friends play street hockey outside the home on a regular basis.

Three street hockey games were played on the driveway at 24 Sussex, Ben's friends play street hockey there, "on a regular basis."

One question, where's the pictures and video? This is the kind of story the PM's image needs. Why haven't his people got it out there better?

The Hamilton predators? Don't do it Jim. It looks like Jim Balsillie's big NHL venture is going to bring a team to Hamilton instead of K-W/Cambridge. I have been an advocate of the latter, and have explained my reasoning elsewhere. Basically, however, it's location, location, location - and brand. K-W has a quality brand, many GTO residents universitied in the area and think fondly of it. Others have relations in the area, or work with K-W residents, a huge chunk of whom commute to the GTA.

But Hamilton? Hamilton has the exact opposite problem. It has a dirty image, and it is not a popular destination. Examine it from this perspective. Who, outside of Hamilton, is a Hamilton Tiger Cat fan? Nobody! Ten minutes from Hamilton people cheer for the Toronto Argo's. In order to succeed, Jim Balsillie's team will have to draw from a disgruntled Maple Leaf base - the Hamilton brand simply won't do that. If your in Mississauga, you don't drive to Hamilton to see a game, and more so in Brampton and London - not to mention Waterloo which is a good hour from Hamilton.

Sorry Jim, big mistake. Southern Ontario is a great NHL market - as long as your team isn't in Hamilton.

Hmm, maybe it is me.

Lets see, became a Leaf fan around 1970, they have won zero cups since. Other years I have picked a team, only to watch them lose immediately thereafter. Some years I have changed teams every round, the team I pick to cheer for loses about as soon as I pick them.

This year, the Senators looked good, real good. I said so. I jumped on the bandwagon: the wheels fell off.

Sorry Sens fans, it's my fault. It has nothing to do with Anaheim hitting your guys, like the Leafs used to. It was all me, sorry.

And congratulations to the Ducks who are not to be called Mighty: you looked awful mighty this year.

Who said it first: Jim Balsillie will move his new NHL team to Cambridge?

If you guessed At Home in Hespeler, who said, way back in early October of last year,

Jim Balsillie, owner of RIM of Waterloo, is moving the Penguins to Cambridge...

This may sound crazy but... Cambridge is outside the 50 mile boundary from both Toronto and Buffalo, yet about 20 minutes from Hamilton.

give yourself ten points (sorry, no prizes. Who do you think I am, Jim Balsillie?)

Of course, if you don't want to get your poop early, you can always read the CBC:

Waterloo? No rink. Yet. Interestingly, Research in Motion, the company for which Balsillie is the co-chief executive officer, recently bought a large parcel of land - more than 25 acres - in Cambridge. Draw your own conclusions.

It's a funny world when my old jokes are todays news. I laughed all the way home today, as Kitchener's News Talk 570 was running a news person from Townline Road and the 401, walking distance from my computer. I know what blog they finally got around to reading.

Oh, and of course, I still have the architects graphic for what the new Blackberry Arena will look like.

Coming from a guy who said this last October, this post may be construed as a big deal

Normally a Leaf fan, I have all but given up on professional hockey. I can't get an emotional attachment to any other team, I can't cheer for team corporate Toronto any more; the game has gone lame, the refs still call the score and the NHL is sucking up to markets that don't give a rats a**, while sticking it to those that do.

However, I was in Ottawa at the beginning of the playoffs, actually like the town, and talked to a number of nice Ottawanians who are big Sens fans. For a Leaf guy, this is like cheering on the Canadiens (won't happen, don't ask - there fans are too big a jerks), but I'm going to do it.

Daniel Alfredson is still a clown, but I kind of like this team anyway - hey every team has their joker - and the family I have in Ottawa would love a Stanley Cup parade to go to. Don't ask me to stay in and watch it on TV, but I'm pulling for the Senators, and fellow Leaf fans who don't like it can stick it in their golf carts and go putt themselves.

And you, on the Ottawa bandwagon, move over I'm jumping on.

And who had a better mothers day - Shane Doan's mother, or Gilles Duceppe's?