College of Sports Media Game of the Night:

For the second straight week the NFL Monday Night-er will feature a team that once represented the city it’s playing against. Last week it was the Baltimore Ravens (formerly the Cleveland Browns) taking on the ‘new’ Browns in Cleveland. This week the Tennessee Titans (formerly the Houston Oilers) are in Houston to battle the Texans. Unfortunately like last week this game also features two teams at the bottom of their   division. This time it’s the AFC South. The Texans are 5-4 and sit a game behind the Jacksonville Jaguars for second spot in the division. Last week Houston was on a bye, but in week nine they suffered a heart-wrenching 20-17 to the Indianapolis Colts. They played the Colts tough and that game could have gone either way. Quarterback Matt Schaub has stayed healthy this season and he’s put up some pretty good numbers. Schaub is top ten in the league for passing yards (2653), touchdowns thrown (17) and completion percentage (67.5). Tennessee started the season 0-6, but they’re on fire winning three straight. Their defence has been a lot better and quarterback Vince Young has been behind centre for all three wins, including a 41-17 week 10 pounding of the Buffalo Bills. The word in the locker room is Young has comeback from last season’s demotion more mature and a better teammate. He’s also a match up nightmare for most defences. In his last three starts he’s taken chances at throwing the ball deep which takes away from defences cheating against the run. That opens up the running game not only for himself, but also uber-stud running back Chris Johnson. Johnson is already at the one thousand mark in rushing yards (1091), has eight touchdowns and is gaining a gaudy 6.4 yards per carry. Not good news a Texans defence that’s giving up over a hundred rushing yards a game.

If you’d rather watch some puck tonight, there’s a good divisional battle between the Detroit Red Wings and Nashville Predators. Detroit’s been pretty good as of late (7-2-1 in their last 10), but they still sit in the three spot in the Northwest division. The Predators come into this one red hot. They’ve won five straight and trail the Red Wings by a point. Nashville has dominated Detroit as of late. Last season they finished 4-2 against the Red Wings and come into this one with a three game winning streak over their opponents.

The good folks at the Fan 590 summed this one up pretty good today, with respect to the Maple Leafs, there’s nothing left to say. 20 games in and we all know the score. We all know where they stand. We all know what they face ahead. The reality is, this team with 62 games to go are in SALVATION MODE. Yes, it has already come to that. The season is now about small moral victories and good god, positive signs. It’s still only November!!!

Not sure if you heard Barry Melrose on the Fan this morning, but the most recent coaching success of your, Tampa Bay Lightning, forecasted a long, hard, cold winter in Leafs land. He talked about how hard it is to manage and coach teams in February when they are out of the hunt that early…STOP LAUGHING! He basically said that Wilson and Burke are going to want to off themselves.

Meanwhile, Damien checks in with his own commentary on the newless Leafs:

“Two things seem abundantly clear this morning.

One, this notion that sending big-money Leafs to the minors — Jason Blake is the most obvious target — will somehow fix what ails the club is just wrong. Blake may not be much use this season, but unless he is clearly a detrimental figure in the dressing room, just getting rid of him is essentially pointless and probably just symbolic.

Unless you have a replacement, dumping a player isn’t much of an answer.

Two, whatever is wrong with this team, Ron Wilson seems powerless to fix it.

The Leafs were the worst defensive team in the NHL last season and the worst penalty killing team. Today, they are the NHL’s worst defensive team and worst penalty killing team.

Faces have changed. Bodies have left town, others have been brought in. The blueline was rebuilt.”

Them’s fighting words, but true nonetheless. Now, in fairness, new faces doesn’t necessarily mean better faces does it. I mean look at the guys brought it. None have exactly been, ummm, effective save for Phil Kessel. Maybe the problem is Wilson’s assistants. I can think of one for example who has been around along time, and never seen a winning moment as an assistant coach…

“The off-season is when important change is made. Not November.

So Leaf fans can scream all they want, and they have good reason to scream.

But that won’t change much. In terms of the playing roster, the options are almost non-existent.”

Well, in that case, let’s go cancel our subscription to the Toronto Star. If the season’s as over as he alludes to, and there is nothing left to do until the off-season, then why bother reading the paper?

While on the topic of not reading or buying, check out this load of utter crap that Berger has, in all places, the National Post. No really, it’s the Seinfeld sports column, the one about nothing! As Steve Martin says to John Candy in Planes Trains and Automobiles, next time you tell a story, here’s an idea- HAVE A POINT! It makes it so much more interesting for the listener. What they hell kind of crap is this? Hell, it’s more readable when you call Leafs fans morons for listening to the Fan 590 and supporting their advertisers. This isn’t even fluff, it’s total and utter crap. Here’s what the guys at the post don’t get, for every great Bruce Arthur piece, there is utter crap from one Stay At Home Berger.

What a night, 2 paper subscriptions canceled. We are a Gary Loewen column away from a weekend of big savings. If I lower my Rogers bill to the point where I don’t have to get Leafs TV I may be able to afford Directv and get some good old US television. As a recent road warrior, I have to tell you that the US verison of the History Channel kicks the Canadian’s ass.

Tomorrow (today now) is the littlest TSM’s 5th birthday. Hard to believe but 5 years ago my little one was born in Royal Oak Michigan and my family was complete. Almost more amazing is the fact that it has been a little less than 5 years since I relocated the clan to Toronto.

Time flies….

TSM

@yyzsportsmedia

here is Melrosebarrymelrose-ms-20091120

Listen to the Chat here

You have to watch this- and you will love the “Toronto” is calling clip- In any event, if in fact the league guru’s watching the video did call they too blew it and this stuff has to be fixed:

College of Sports Media Game of the Night:

From 1981 to 1993 the Toronto Maple Leafs and Chicago Blackhawks were in the Norris Division and one-time bitter rivals. Tonight in the Windy City the Leafs and ‘Hawks renew the rivalry. Toronto is coming off a tough home loss to the Minnesota Wild. Before that the Leafs had collected points in seven straight including a Saturday night win over the Detroit Red Wings. Much can be attributed to the play of first-time Leafs Phil Kessel and Jonas Gustavsson. Although Kessel was shut out in his first game, he’s scored two goals and added two assists over the last three games. Over nines games, Gustavsson has a 2.77 GAA and a .912 save percentage. More importantly he’s earned the confidence of the players in front of him, making many of the tough stops. Chicago’s won two straight at home and looks to make it three tonight. The Blackhawks have benefited from the return of their captain Jonathan Toews. Toews missed two weeks with a concussion and since his return he’s registered points in both games. Chicago is sitting a top the Central Division in the West. They’re one point ahead of the Red Wings.

College of Sports Media Game of the Night:

It may have taken 15 games, but the Toronto Maple Leafs finally…won at home. They look to make it two in a row as they face the Minnesota Wild tonight. In fact the Leafs picked up their first W at home since April 11 when they dummy-ed the Detroit Red Wings 5-1 on Saturday night. Toronto got fantastic performance from goaltender Jonas Gustavsson. The Monster turned aside 35 shots en route to his third win of the season. Expect Gustavsson to be between the pipes tonight. Saturday night was full of firsts for the Leafs. Of course there was the first home win, forwards Phil Kessel and Wayne Primeau notched their first goals in the blue and while and d-man Jeff Finger scored his first goal of the year. Toronto has collected points in seven straight games and hopes to take advantage of a Minnesota team that struggles on the road. In nine games away from home, the Wild are 1-8.

Quick tour around on the night after a huge win vs the beast, Detroit Red Wings.

“I see people who I have always admired for their work within and on behalf of the union, good people who have worked together for a common, necessary and progressive agenda in a time in which the NHL has amassed more management power than any time since the 1960s, I see people like Ian Penny, Steve Larmer, Glen Healy, Eric Lindros and Chris Chelios cannibalizing one another, and I quite frankly couldn’t be more sad about it.”

is that cause your sources are soon going to be out of loop Larry? The biggest union topologist is sad??? does anyone care?

Still with Brooks, I love this gem?:

“I’m sorry, but Phil Kessel became Frank Mahovlich, when?”

Umm, right after you won your first Pulitzer. No seriously, who – no really, who is labeling Kessel the savior??? The media is way more gaga over Kessel then Leaf fan is…

You see this from Damien Cox?:

“Much of that is owed to Gustavsson, possibly a genuine Calder Trophy candidate. He’s a wall along the goal line and in 462 minutes of NHL play has yet to give up a soft goal.”

If any fan mentioned Calder and Gustavsson in the same sentence ,the fan would have been all over them.. No Cox is saying it himself????

No, i’ts not just Leaf fans who liked what they saw from Kessel so far:

“Kessel off and running
An absolutely electrifying season debut Tuesday for Phil Kessel in Toronto’s blue-and-white silks. Back from offseason shoulder surgery, he darted around the ice as if he hadn’t played a game since May (well . . .), and though he didn’t record a point, he landed a career-high 10 shots in a 2-1 OT loss to Tampa. Seven more of his shots were blocked. Leaf fans hadn’t seen that kind of excitement since the likes of Alexander Mogilny or Mats Sundin (makes one wonder when they’ll have a good Canadian-born lad work them into a lather). Frightening, though, to see the ex-Bruin transition toward the offensive end, with head down, and get smoked by a thunderous straight-on check from Tampa defenseman Mattias Ohlund in the first period. “Clean hit, he got me good,’’ said Kessel, who needed a couple of minutes in the dressing room to gather himself and return only slightly worse for wear (cut lip). Kessel’s play was far bolder and more relaxed than anything we saw of him in Boston – reminiscent of Joe Thornton’s first few games with the Sharks when Jumbo flashed unfamiliar speed and zeal in the offensive end. If that’s the Kessel the Leafs get every night, they’ll have the best bargain in the NHL, even at $5.4 million a year and the possibility of yielding the No. 1 draft pick to Boston next June. Thornton has continued to be pretty much the same player who infuriated Boston management. Kessel is young enough (22) to keep pushing the envelope, and it looks as if coach Ron Wilson will make him a permanent fixture on the left half-wall for power-play duty. His development, or stagnation, will be fascinating to watch.”

That’s from Kevin Paul Dupot. Hard to say anything after 2-3 games about the trade itself. We do know this, when he is on the ice, he is so far above and beyond the next best maple leaf that it’s scary.

From Simmons:

“The minute by- minute Phil Kessel updates, what he ate for lunch, how many shots on goal he had at practice, how many towels he uses, are a little much and a whole lot over the top. One word to remember people: Perspective …. ”

People??? umm who is reporting all Kellse all the time??????

“What a terrible hockey market Long Island is. The Islanders are actually winning games, John Tavares is contributing and the Isles still aren’t drawing”

I thought this was all about a lousy arena deal? I don’t remember the deispute about being much less than that. If the arena sucks, one can imagine how years of mismanagement would stop the fans from coming out. When you build the arena that is why people come right???

http://www.boston.com/sports/hockey/articles/2009/11/08/in_relief_role_raycroft_shows_the_canucks_that_he_still_has_the_goods/?page=full

Brooks is here

Kevin Paul Dupont is here

Simmons is here

More from London.

College of Sports Media Game of the Night:

It’s a battle of the last two President Cup winners in Motown tonight as the San Jose Sharks take on the Detroit Red Wings. San Jose comes into this one on fire. They’re looking for a sweep on their three day road trip and have won six in a row. One of the reasons for the Sharks’ success is the play of their goaltender Evgeni Nabakov. Nabakov was the NHL’s third star last week, posting a 3-0 record to go along with a 0.97 goals against average. They’ve also been getting some pretty good play up front. In his last nine games former captain Patrick Marleau has six goals and ten assists. The Red Wings have been good, but not great. Injuries continue to plague the team and goaltending has been somewhat of an issue. Top defensemen Brian Rafalski and Jonathan Ericsson are battling the flu and are day-to-day, while forwards Valtteri Filipulla and Johan Franzen are on the injured reserve. Starting goaltender Chris Osgood has been decent this year. He’s been especially good as of late. Osgood has only allowed one goal in two games and on Tuesday night he earned his 50th shut out blanking the Boston Bruins. This season he’s started ten games and has a 5-2-2 record with .902 save percentage. The question for Detroit is what happens when Osgood is off his game or needs a rest. Back up Jimmy Howard has been average at best. In five starts he’s 1-2-1 with a 3.42 goals against average.

College of Sports Media Game of the Night:

With only three games remaining for most teams in baseball it’s tough to ignore what’s happening in the AL Central. The Detroit Tigers still have a two game lead over the Minnesota Twins. So if the Tigers win and the Twins lose tonight the division title and final playoff spot would be claimed by Detroit. Both teams are at home. Detroit welcomes the Chicago White Sox, while Minnesota hosts the Kansas City Royals.

If baseball is not your thing you can always turn to hockey. The NHL season kicked off last night. Tonight the two teams that battled for the Stanley Cup last season are in action, just not against each other. The Detroit Red Wings are on the road tonight, a long way away from Detroit. They’re in Sweden to take on the St Louis Blues. Even though there are more Swedes on Detroit, St Louis is the home team. The Red Wings lost a little depth over the off season and hope that Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk and Nicklas Lidstrom have enough in the tank to lead the winged wheel back to a third straight final series. The defending champs, the Pittsburgh Penguins, open their season at home as they battle the New York Rangers. Pittsburgh lost some depth at the blue line, but with superstars like Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin leading the team the Pens should be a lock for postseason play.

Here’s your bikini of the day from bikinibeat.org:

On Fan 590 Tonight- thanks to Mike S.

- McCown is on vacation again this week, Rob Faulds is guest host

- Open phones with Faulds in the first hour

- Co-host at 5:05 is Jim Kelley

- Stacey Allistar, CEO of the Women’s Tennis Association

- A discussion on the San Jose Sharks captain situation

- Don Banks of SI.com on Brett Favre

- CPGA executive director Steve Carroll on the state of the Canadian golf industry

- Stephen Brunt from Newfoundland

On 640 with Brady and Watters:

Hayes hosts

4:05 – Bill Watters

4:20 – Brian Billick – Fox NFL Analyst on Favre

4:40 – Jerome Williams – Former Raptor on Raptors moves this summer

5:10 – Dave O’Brien – Red Sox’s & ESPN Annoncer

6:40 – Ken Holland – Wings GM

Doug MacLean was on the fan’s morning show this am with Don Landry and Gord Stellick. Richie Rich was asked his opinion on Burke’s offseason his response was quite interesting:

MacLean said that Ken Holland, the Detroit Red Wings GM always says that you don’t invest to much money in non point generating defencemen. Brian Burke has brought in multiple non-point generating defenceman. Michael Komisarek signed on for $4.5m/year for 4 years and he has never put up more than 20 points in the NHL. Don’t shoot the messenger, I am just telling you what you have missed on the radio this am. Francois Beauchemin is a little bit better, having put up over 30 points, however, according to MacLean, he did so with some pretty other defencemen named Progner and Niedermayer, Beachemin’s $3.8m /year for 3 years is hefty again for a non point producing defencemen according to MacLean. The same comment was made about Garnet Exelby.

Maclean said that the Leafs (maybe not the fans) are really going to miss Pavel Kubina in that he was a point producing defencman. He also questioned Kaberle’s ability to produce points as the only guy on the team. He said that yes they are tougher, but the pressure on the defence to generate offense (not necessarily in terms of actual points) is going to be great. His point was that guys like Nik Lidstrom, which admittedly are one in a million generate about “200 points a game”. No he doesn’t get that many points, but goals are scored as a direct result of his plays.

This weakness on the blueline, according to MacLean will make it way more difficult for the limited offensively gifted forwards that the Leafs have. They haven’t really added any guns up front who can be counted on to score.

MacLean suggested that the biggest question mark for the Leafs will be in net. Toskala, he said is a number one goalie. Question is, can he play like one. Secondly, until Gustavsson actually plays some games, no one knows how good he will be. As goes the Leafs goaltending, according to MacLean, so to will go the Maple Leafs.

The Leafs, MacLean said may be in the hunt for the playoffs but certainly aren’t a shoe-in to make it. They have to pass a lot of teams including teams like the Senators who didn’t make the playoffs last season. A tall order he suggested.

Of greater interest was MacLean’s take on Nikolai Zherdev. Zherdev, is the reason MacLean got fired. At least, according to MacLean. The contract situation and the fallout from it got him canned. MacLean said that he should have known that Zherdev was going to be a handful when he asked him at the draft after he picked him at 18 years of age what car Zherdev drove and the response was “a Mercedes”. It was interesting that when MacLean told that story, there was silence after the “punch line”. Nikolai Zherdev, according to MacLean is one of the most talented kids he has ever seen. He is also one of the biggest enigmas. MacLean said that he tried literally everything to motivate Zherdev and instill a work ethic in him. He even signed Sergei Federov whom MacLean considers the greatest Russian born NHLer of all time. MacLean took lots of lumps for signing Sergei, but thought if only he could get through to Zherdev… One day Federov came to MacLean and pretty much gave up. Federov said that he couldn’t talk to Zherdev anymore, that Zherdev simply didn’t want to listen. Then MacLean out a real gem. He said that when he went to Zherdev’s place after he was gone, the landord of Zherdev’s place said that he was called to change the locks on Zherdev’s apartment 6 times in the one season he played there! The guys asked MacLean if perhaps Zherdev was guilty of poor judgement, MacLean just laughed and said “ohhhh the book I could write!”

MacLean talked about how the role of the media has made a GM’s job so much more difficult. He said that he has had some time to reflect on his life after being out of the game for a bit. He said that the pressures of the job are one thing, but that the intense media scrutiny on everything really makes it more difficult then in the past.

It was a good interview with MacLean. The problem is, it was the exact same interview MacLean gave only hours earlier with Bob Mccown. As I have said about Bill Watters, you can’t over-expose these guys. No talent is good enough to be on multiple times, especially in the off-season. If you listened to MacLean the other night, there was no reason to listen again today. As I flipped back and forth this am, I heard the same jokes, the same stories and analogies that he used with Mccown. It’s not a knock on MacLean. It’s just over exposure.

In the same vein, have you noticed that Mccown seems to be spending more time with his guests on PTS? Over the last couple of days he has been taking longer, fuller segments with guests and even running later than usual breaks. While he may be driving his producers nuts in doing so, the results, in my opinion anyway are significant. He did it again tonight with Dan Shulman in talking about the Blue Jays. Mccown maybe the only radio host who spends considerable amounts of time on the Jays and seems to think they are going somewhere(and I don’t mean Portland) He made it clear again tonight that he strongly believes that the Blue Jays are not only going to spend the Rios and Rolen money just saved but get to a payroll between $100-120m.

I have to admit, I am not a soccer aficionado, but the Champion League banter tonight on 640 was good stuff too. If only I understand who the hell they were talking about.

Have a good night.

TSM

@yyzsportsmedia