Does this sound at all familiar to you?

“Belak’s minutes are way down, he only played six-plus minutes last night and didn’t get in at all in the third period. He thinks this stems from him skipping optional skate Thursday in New Jersey (he thought he was playing that night instead of being a healthy scratch because of Kamil Kreps) and for not fighting and sticking up for Nick Boynton after he got beat up pretty good in his scrap with Milan Lucic. ”I tried to fight guys there and they refused to go,” Belak said. “What do they want me to do, fight and take a penalty? We were trying to win that game. I’m not a rookie.” Also: “They bring me down here to play, and I’ve seen my time dwindle from eight minutes to three shifts a game,” Belak said. ”I’m not a liability. I’m tired of hearing how we need offense. Other tough guys play and are contributing. It’s tough to fight from the bench.”

Sounds like a familiar story for Belak, despite a lot of sun, doesn’t seem that too much has changed in Wade’s World.

Listen even to his GM, a familiar foe to Leaf fans, Jacques Martin:

“Obviously, I’m not happy with the club’s performance so far,” Martin said Saturday night. “We need to change some things. Maybe that’s a start. We need to perform better. We’ll see what happens. We’ll see if he clears.” I asked JM why Belak since he doesn’t play a whole lot as it is: “He’s not playing a lot of minutes, not playing every game. This indicates we want to change things. It’s part of the business. People have to realize things are too comfortable around here. “This is part of the whole situation. I thought we turned a corner winning in Anaheim and Tampa. We lost to Detroit, but that’s a great team. Then we won our first game [at Tampa] on the road [before losing two straight]. We need to play better, get more urgency in our game.”

All I can say from a far is that with a lot of passengers on the bus, hard to imagine that Belak is the problem right? Except, is there more to the story. Was Belak part of the locker-room problem here in TO???? I don’t know the answer, but I do know Cliff shipped him out pretty quickly. I also know that Cliff was quick to say “no chance” when asked if he would pick up Belak on waivers (thank god). Interesting banter in any event….

I love this last part….

“”We’ll wait to see what happens on Monday. If he gets picked up, I don’t have to deal with it. If he doesn’t get picked up, I have the flexibility to send him down. It’s not a money issue. We’re trying to get the team to understand they need more urgancy in their game.”

So let’s get this straight, JM is trying to get his team to understand the need for more urgency by waiving Belak???? Sorry, I can’t stop laughing. For the record, Belak has played in 14 games this year. In 2 games he had more then 10 shifts, 11 and 12 respectively. Only 2x has he played more then 8 minutes (8:11 and 8:03). After that, he had 2 games where he had just over 6 minutes on the ice (6:40 and 6:41). The rest of his games his ice time ranged from a high of 4:59 to :42…that’s 42 seconds… I don’t know, maybe a panther fan can answer this, but how can waiving a guy who is averaging 4:21 of playing time a game show anything other then pointing the finger at the wrong guy? I mean, if you want to say he can’t play anymore, that is fine (I said that about Belak 5 years ago). To say that you are going to make him the scapegoat is NUTS… Look guys we are going to waive the guy we don’t play….ooooohhhhhh….What’s the lesson?

Meanwhile, for a real laugh, check out the message board on a panther beat writer’s article…. Looks like the fans love this guy Gorten as much as we do Howie….

For more on Belak check out George Richards awesome blog here…

It’s interesting reading all the articles about how the league should move teams from the southern USA to Canada.  With a strong Canadian dollar it’s an easy thing to suggest.  There is a piece about it at the Hockey News, and George Richards comments on it in his post at On Frozen Pond today.

I lived in Miami and and have visited Atlanta, Nashville, Phoenix and Tampa.  All markets that have been (rightly or wrongly) target as potential franchises that should move.  The truth is that, the owners collectively failed each market by not demanding that any city or ownership group that was part of the bid to land the franchise did not have to establish youth leagues.  This should be mandated by the league.  The only way the NHL can survive in a non-traditional market is if people, especially kids start playing.  In each market, leagues have started to grow, however, like all things it takes time.  The league should require a serious investment in community hockey programs, including the building of areans, funding of equipment and establishment of leagues.  The argument in Miami was, who will play hockey in Miami.  The easy answer was no one when there aren’t any rinks!  As a few rinks started to pop up, they got filled and more kids started to play.  That is how you grow your base.  It is easy for kids to play football, soccer, baseball and basketball, there are no barriers to playing the sport.  Ice hockey is tougher.  It is more expensive and in a lot of areas it isn’t native.

Moving teams to Canada may be an answer.  Keep in mind the dollar wasn’t always where it is now, and teams in Canada have struggled to the point of extinction as a result.  If folks were to rash in leaving, the lesson learned should be not to be too rash in rushing back.  The key, is that before any team is either moved or established that a foundation is laid for the team to succeed.  Its great to have corporate buy in to sell sponsorships and boxes.  If today’s kids aren’t interested, they won’t be interested when they are adults.  Kids who weren’t into hockey here in Toronto, aren’t likely to be in to it today either, so it isn’t a guarantee.  However, I can assure you that if affordable hockey is available to be played in a city there is a much better chance of it catching on then the alternative.

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Interesting to watch the overnight ratings tonight as the NFL season kicks off against John McCain’s speech at the Republican Convention.  NFL football vs. politics.  Should be an interesting battle for the remote in the USA to be sure.

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Check out our new store.  The new TSM logo with our favorite media members, Cox, Simmons,Howie, Kelly, McCowan…  50% of any proceeds will be donated to the MS society of Canada…

I was fortunate enough to be at the TED tonight to take in the Bills/Steelers game. OK, there, I said it. Not trying to be anti-CFL or anti Canadian, but I was there and I had a blast. Truth be told, I lived south of the border for 15 years, with all but 4 of those years in cities with an NFL franchise (If the Leafs count as an NHL franchise then the Detroit Lions count as an NFL franchise too!). I really enjoy the NFL. It’s not the game per se as much as it is “The Show”. Everything about the games is fun. The tailgating, the environment, the fanatical fans and so on.

With little expectations I headed down to the TED around 530 to see what was going on around the stadium. In all honesty, it was not the same tailgating I am used to seeing in an NFL parking lot. Having said that it was really fun. There were people all around the dome in various parties. The smell of beer and BBQ was impossible to avoid. People were behaving. It was a great atmosphere. Was it perfect? No, of course not (but what is), it was fun though.

Inside the stadium, the game was as good as exhibition anything gets. To my surprise the starters lasted 3/4 through the first half. Unfortunately the roof was closed about 15 minutes before the game started and it was uncomfortably hot inside throughout the game. I expected to be marketed to death and I wasn’t. There were no promotions, not freebies. The only real sponsor of the event was Rogers. There was one give away for a Samsung MP3 player (stop laughing), but other then that it was Rogers, Rogers, Rogers. The dome wasn’t filled with 10,000 vendors selling over priced food, always in your face. All in all a great night for a sportsfan in Toronto. Wouldn’t it be nice to not have to read or hear the predictable NFL vs. CFL analysis tomorrow?

I have to stick to a fellow blogger. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but man is the guy off base. Check it out here at your leisure but here is the gist:

The guy makes some predictions for the upcoming season, keep in mind the article was written last night but still…

He lists seven questions all on a scale of 1-10 with 1 being low probability of that item occurring and 10 being the most likely to happen. On the issue of McCabe playing for the buds, Jeff Finger’s signing being viewed as bad and Luke Schenn playing this year for the Buds, Lukas Hardonk the “analyst” rates the probability of each of those occurring at 5 out of ten. Here is the rationale:
“The reason that the Luke Schenn, Jeff Finger, and Bryan McCabe questions are a 5 is because they are all 50/50 propositions”

Ummmm, yeah, they are 50-50 propositions. Either Schenn will play for the leafs, or he won’t, similarly, McCabe either will play for the leafs or he won’t (unless he gets traded mid-season) and well, the Finger question is just plain dumb. McCabe won’t be a leaf this season, I would say the odds on Schenn are less then 50-50 and the Finger signing is already being viewed by all the pundits as being brutal (which I think is a tad premature given how few games of his any of these geniuses actually saw)

The Analyst rates the odds of Sundin coming back as a 6 out of 10 and the odds of Matt Stajan being named Captain in the event #13 is elsewhere is 7/10. The rationale:
“Mats Sundin is a 6 because he has been with the Maple Leafs his whole career and says that Toronto is like a second home to Sweden. Matt Stajan would be likely to become captain because he just seems like the perfect choice.”

On Sundin, he is wrong on the facts. He has not played his entire career in Toronto. The rationale for Stajan is silly.

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I was really happy to learn today that Doug MacLean and Jack Armstrong are collectively the replacement for Chuck Swirsky. I can’t speak to Armstrong’s work on basketball, I have no clue if he is good or not, on the basketball issues. I do like listening to him, and on issues I have an opinion on I respect his point of view. I think hiring MacLean is a home run for the Fan 590 and fans in Toronto. Unfortunately they are in the death valley 2-4 slot, where next to now one listens. MacLean, is smart, he is credible and he has no reason to constantly bash the hell out of the buds unlike a certain someone who was fired by them not so long ago. He brings a unique perspective having been a GM and coach in Florida and Columbus. He doesn’t seem like a dumb jock, and having done call in shows in every city he worked in he is polished enough to sound professional. Great hire Nelson.

I have to laugh, I am watching prime time sports on replay on sportsnet as I write this and MacLean is being interviewed about his new gig and issues in hockey in general by McCowan and Ed McMahon (I mean Jim Kelly). Maclean was saying how a friend of his just got his invoice for his season tickets in Columbus and it was $16,000 and MacLean was saying how $16,000 for hockey tickets is a tall order given the state of the US economy right now, and Kelly starts to laugh and said that $16,000 would pay for medical school! Ummmmm, Jim, what planet are you on? $16,000 wouldn’t cover the labs fees for medical school…..He then said how great Sundin would look in Vancouver centering the 2 Sundins!

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For those of you out there who don’t believe we leaf fans are suffering given our current hockey blogger, take a gander at this example from THE beat writer for the Florida Panthers. How great would it be to have someone who wrote like this covering the Buds on The FAN? Can we throw Howie into the deal with McCabe and get George back too?