ian andrew bell

Finally! It looks like Gary Bettman, whose tenure at the NHL was declared an unequivocal failure by the Toronto Globe & Mail, might be hitting the rocks. The Globe refers to a Toronto Star article which points out that, in a 30-team league, Canada’s 6 hockey clubs drive nearly a third of the NHL’s ticket revenue. Even more damning, it looks like the revenue gains that Bettman has been touting the past couple of seasons have come, by as much as half, from the increasing value of the Canadian Dollar.

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Like a lot of folks, I’ve never been a fan of Dominic Hasek. Whether it’s his refusal last season to wear his shoulder pads and chest protector while riding the pine backing up other goalies with the Red Wings, or whether it’s his insane attitude when he is on the ice… there’s just so little to love with him. This morning I read a snippet that really said it all for me about his character:

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Well, I’ve been predicting that Canucks General Manager Dave Nonis would be out and this afternoon at 4:45PM Pacific Time it happened. Facing the utter collapse of the Canucks as a team this summer Nonis was fiddling, chasing down yet another Swede on a team that hasn’t finished a check since Bertuzzi finished a guy’s career. Of Nonis’ four years as GM of the Canucks, they played only three — and made the playoffs once.

Thankfully the Canucks’ new owner Francesco Aquilini has also realized that Nonis has no coherent vision for the team and it’s time to move on.

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Apparently, the NHL is recruiting “celebrities” (and I think we need to stop ascribing this title to everyone who has a TV show, given that these days practically everyone does have a TV show) to blog about the NHL during the playoffs.

I guess, in some boardroom somewhere, this seemed like a grand idea. Among the celebrities teeing up to blog are Lauren Conrad (only known to MTV fans), Jason Reitman (who has directed one noteworthy movie), Kevin Smith (who brought is “Gigli”) and .. uh .. well, a list of people I honestly can’t be bothered to look up.

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The fans who bought tickets to the Canucks vs. Calgary this past Saturday night were not offered discounts. In fact, many fans present at the Garage last night paid extra to catch a glimpse of Trevor Linden’s last game as a Canuck — after two years of consistent abuse and neglect by Canucks management and coaching staff, it’s now become clear that his time with the team is done.

Apparently though, the real last game of the season was Thursday night at GM Place, when the Canucks’ first line inexplicably failed to deliver even a modicum of scoring effort against the Oilers, a team which won’t see the post-season this year but which still had the fortitude to end Vancouver’s shot at the Stanley Cup only one year after they won their Division.

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Last week I received a happy box in my mail from the folks at BladeTape. In April they’ll be launching their Goalie version of BladeTape, so I was interested to see how good of a replacement it was for my tried-and-true method of drowning each of my new sticks in traditional hockey tape.

The box I received contained two orders of GoalieTape (like BladeTape for goalies — about $20 per package), and two packages of GripTape (about $5). So, I figured what the heck and proceeded to set up two of my sticks to see how it would work for me. This is my review:

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We’ve finished version 1.0 of RosterBot, our RSVP system for sports teams… it’s generic enough to do league hockey, shinny, Ultimate, or any sport… but functional enough to make management of your team(s) easier. I’ve described it in the past as being “.. like eVite for sports teams”.

It’s a pretty simple system: You can paste in the email addresses of all the players on your team, input dates of your upcoming games (which is even easier if it’s a recurring event) and the system does the rest to figure out who’s coming and who’s not.

Please do try it out: http://www.rosterbot.com

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This past weekend, I and some friends played 9 hockey games over 36 hours on Greg Egan’s backyard rink. It’s an incredible rink with a gorgeous view of the Monashee mountains, and when you go there to play you stay at his comfy Bed & Breakfast where the beds are comfortable and the hot tub’s always warm. It’s truly a unique experience and an amazing getaway from Vancouver where you and your team can enjoy some shinny (3 on 3, it’s not a huge rink) while working up their conditioning and relaxing in the cabins. Read More

There are rumours circulating that the NHL season will start with games in Sweden and possibly other European capitals for 2008. This might vindicate my post from a few days ago which stated that the league needs to start a dialogue with fans in Europe. Looks like the NHL would start the season with a two-game series between Ottawa and Pittsburgh at Stockholm’s Globen Arena, and Ottawa would warm up for the game with an exhibition match vs. Frölunda in Gothenburg. This a still a rumour, but is discussed with little real substance in a Swedish daily called “The Local”.

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It ended this afternoon (early evening, Buffalo time) with a shoot-out goal by phenom Sidney Crosby on Buffalo goalie Ryan Miller before 70,000 freezing, mostly-drunk fans mixed from Canadians and the occasional actual Buffalo Sabres fan amid a blinding snow storm.

If you squint a little, that’s kind of how professional hockey began, more than 125 years ago, in the ponds and rinks of Ottawa and Montreal. Ironically it was in Buffalo where the beautiful game captivated the imagination of my favourite author, F. Scott Fitzgerald, inspiring him to become a sports writer. Even with more than 45 minutes of delays for snow clearing, hole patching, and refreezing, it was a great game which took hockey back to its roots. I think that’s an important point.

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