CampusIntel

Now that I have everybody’s attention I have some important stuff to say about my Leafs. I have loved the Leafs for a long, long time and it’s really starting to wear on me when people bash the Leafs. I get that they aren’t the best team and that’s it’s disappointing when they don’t make it to the playoffs, yet again… but honestly people enough is enough!

The Leafs have something that seems to be lacking in the NHL the hockey fans that just wont quit! The thing is I am disgusted by some of the things I hear coming out of “real” fans mouths. Come on people fairweather fans are what the Sens or the Habs have, not the Leafs.

Instead of saying “oh wow, the Leafs lost yet another game they absolutely SUCK” look at it realistically. The Leafs may have lost another game, and sure that is not a great feeling, but some nights their playing isn’t bad at all, in fact even in the game last night they played really well, they just got OUTPLAYED by Boston. Outplayed is definitely something that people should take into consideration when talking about the Leafs. I mean seriously, we aren’t the best team in the league, but just because we lose doesn’t mean we suck.

Another thing that really bugs me about Leafs fan are those who feel entitled, I have yet to meet a fan of ANY team in the NHL (granted my range at the moment is small living where I am) that will say, “ok yea, maybe my team didn’t deserve to win, did you see how great that goal was on the other team?” Give the other players credit where they deserve credit!

Finally, the Leafs are my team. I have supported them for as long as I can remember. So if you are going to bash MY team (like so many have done before)…. I’d prefer that you’d just LEAF me alone!

There are battles of Alberta, Summit Series’, and “Magnificence” vs “Greatness”; but is there an NHL rivalry greater than the current individualistic battle between Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin?

The two phenoms entered the league as at least respectful rivals of each other. Prior to their simultaneous NHL arrivals, they had only ever competed against each other on the international stage, playing for Canada and Russia, respectively.  With cameras and tape recorders rolling, making campy NHL commercials and delivering birthday cakes at the NHL All-Star game together slowly morphed into on-ice physicality and off-ice verbal sparring.  Welcome to the business of “selling” the new NHL to the American market.

It’s a protagonist-antagonist scenario that seems to be inspired by Vince McMahon himself.  In one corner, you have the abrasive, exciting, inimical Ovechkin; equipped with infinite energy and a talent level he must have exchanged his soul for, hailing from Mother Russia, a country that, according to Hollywood, produces more bad guys than perogies.  His opposition, the humble, hard-working, and traditional Crosby; hailing from Canada, playing and interviewing the way the Canadian hockey heroes of the past did before him.  Of course, as the NHL panders to the North American market, it’s easy to portray Crosby as the “good guy”, though Ovechkin, Federov, and every other Russian NHL star has been adorned in their homeland.  Most Canadian fans would likely admit that there’s Russian NHL’ers that are better than Canadian NHL’ers, but they’d feel like they were betraying their country if they ever uttered it publicly.

Forget all the media hoopla; shouldn’t the NHL be sending royalties to the parents of Sidney and Alexander for deciding to have children that grew up to capture the attention of their entire audience?  In the ongoing battle to procure American advertisers and cable network broadcasters, the NHL can count on at least Penguins and Capitals games as easy ratings sells; providing that Crosby and Ovechkin are in the lineup.  Did anyone care about the Capitals before Alexander the Great?  A team with no Stanley Cups, and nothing more than a conference championship in 1997-98, former Hart and Art Ross Trophy Winner Jaromir Jagr couldn’t even make hockey exciting in Washington.  All of a sudden, the Verizon Center has sell-out crowds, and the team is a contender.  Ovechkin plays with a wreckless abandon that has resulted in a kneeing suspension, but what is coach Bruce Boudreau going to do with his star, bench him?  Tell him to ease up?  Come on.  The Penguins at least got to pair Lemieux and Crosby together in 2006, but the Steel-Town had been pretty dismal since the back-to-back Stanley Cup championships in 1990-92.  Sure hockey’s a team game, but to suggest that the individual ability and rivalry of Crosby and Ovechkin isn’t largely responsible for the teams’ success and the league’s rising interest, is naive.

The 2008-09 playoffs were an absolute treat to watch, and many people would point to the Pens/Caps Eastern Conference showdown as a highlight, as well as an indication of who would/did become the eventual Cup winner.  Fans got to see Sid and Ovie go at each other for seven consecutive games rather than once a season, and they got to see both players at the top of their respective games; Game 2 featured both players notching hat tricks, and Sid’s 13 series’ points and Ovie’s 14 equaled the highest single-series point total since the 1995 NHL playoffs.  It was awesome.

Penguins win the series 4-3, and the “evil” Ovechkin, was banished back to Russia (well, Washington), screaming promises of revenge (actually he wished that the Pens win the Cup, but just work with me) while he was being dragged away. Meanwhile, the “heroic” Crosby was adorned on a mountain top, cape waving, a dark curl dangling from mid-brow (just above his perv-stache), all while giving an interview where he characteristically puts over his opponents, commenting on how well they played, and not giving himself any selfish credit. Wouldn’t it have been great/justified if he had finally just snapped, either after that series or after winning the Cup, and said, “YOU SEE?!?! I AM BETTER THAN HIM!!”

Ovechkin wins rookie of the year, Sid’s named the youngest captain in history.  Sid wins the Art Ross and the Hart, Ovie wins the Richard and Pearson awards.  And so they dance.  We’re still waiting to see what Ovechkin’s equal to Sid’s Cup win will be.  Alexander’s pursuit of a championship, Sidney’s defence of his, and their continued rivalry will continually be fun to watch, and is easily the best rivalry in the NHL today.  It’s Canada vs. Russia, tradition vs. new school, team vs. team, and man vs. man, all wrapped into one ongoing showdown.  If the NHL can’t sell that to Americans, then tearing fans away from the baseball diamond and football field for the hockey rink is a fruitless endeavor anyways.

read more of Dave at Serenity Now… The SDC Blogs http://davecunning.wordpress.com

By: Dustin Pollack

For hockey fans, it’s always a bitter sweet moment when any of the games big stars decide that the buzzer has sounded and its time to call it a career.

A few months ago the game said goodbye to Joe Sakic, who is 8^th all time in NHL scoring with 1641 points and his lethal wrist shot was known as arguably the best ever.

And a little more recently the game said farewell to Brendan Shanahan who sits 23^rd on the all time points list with 1354.

But for a lot of these retired stars, although leaving their skates, sticks, and helmets behind, their lives will forever be entrenched in the hockey world in some way or another.

Shanahan is now the NHL vice president of hockey and business, Mario Lemieux is the owner of the Pittsburgh Penguins, Wayne Gretzky was the former part owner of the Pheonix Coyotes and Ron Francis sits as the assistant coach of the Carolina Hurricanes, just to name a few former hockey heroes who have remained close to the game.

About a month ago it was announced that Mark Messier, 2^nd all time in regular season points with 1887, will lead Team Canada at the 2010 World Championships. Messier was named the general manager of the team.

Messier seems to be following in the footsteps of fellow former superstar Steve Yzerman who sits as the GM of Team Canada at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. Yzerman was the GM of the World Championship team in 2007 and sits as the vice president of the Detroit Red Wings.

The announcement about Messier shouldn’t come as a shock to experts around the league as it was only a few months ago that Messier was named special assistant to the general manager of the New York Rangers.

Messier’s recent interest could only bring the same type of assumption that is of Steve Yzerman, that one day Messier will find himself to be the general manager of an NHL franchise.

But until then it’s nice to see another one of the games greatest leaders leading once again.

I’ve been playing Yahoo fantasy hockey for a couple of years  now, (thank you Yahoo for finally keeping live stats free) in a variety of leagues and different formats (points, head to head, keeper).  This year in my NHL league there are 14 teams; Head to Head format with 7 Forwards (2C, 2RW, 2LW, F, 4D, 2BN, 2G) and I currently sit first with a record of 82-33-15.  My team stands as this:

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