A couple of quick points, first, to the fine folks at CityTv who lost their jobs today, best of luck, may you find work quickly! Especially Anne Mroczkowski, the 23 year vet. How she loses her job while the town bike keeps her job is beyond me.

This issue with violence in junior hockey- if you want to end it, start with parents and coaches of the littlest kids who play the game. You know the ones, they sign of their kids up for skating and hockey 5 days a week or more at the age of 5. If players at 17 have no respect for their opponents, start with where they learned the game. We as a society are totally nuts when it comes to teaching our kids hockey. Practices, skates, games, hockey hockey hockey. The pressure, the expectations is nuts.

I help coach my son’s team. He plays house league. HOUSE League. You know 1 day a week. The odd practice here or there. Our team is pretty relaxed, but you should hear and see the other kids/parents/coaches. You would think this was the NHL. the yelling, the screaming the PUSHING. These kids are 7!

If you think the hits you have seen in junior have been bad lately, seriously, go to your local rink and take in a pee-wee game. The cement head, John Brophy wanna be’s coaching these teams…..that is where it starts. Parents screaming from the stands at Pee-Wees! It’s nuts. In one of our games the other teams coach literally almost leaped off the bench when the referee (who may have been 11) missed an offside- I thought the coach was going to kill the poor kid!

To me it’s really quite simple.Throw the book at these kids who play like idiots. Every time someone does something like this, throw the damn book at him. Hockey is a privilege not a right. Make that the example. Teach kids to play hard but to play clean. Parents, the odds of your kids making to the show are slim and none, just like they were when you played. I heard a parent ask an opposing coach in my son’s league if they could work on their power play a couple of days ago- We don’t even have penalties in our league!

Now, that that is over…..

Curious, if you have been listening to the radio in this town lately. I know, I was away for a the holidays then I had the knee surgery, but wow- what happened???? Where has the quality gone? It’s really nasty out there.

Now, I will grant you the fact that there is nothing to talk about with respect to the Maple Leafs. They are out of the hunt this year. They have no draft picks this year. They claim to be unwilling to trade their only tradeable asset. What is there to talk about?

Still, man is it weak out there.

In listening to the morning show on the Fan the last couple of days, there wasn’t one segment that I thought was the least bit interesting let alone thought provoking. Do the boys have the post holiday blues? Are they mailing it in until their contracts are up???? WOW

The Bullpen is what it is. It doesn’t really change all that much. I will say this in Mike Hogan’s defence, no one can do what he is doing solo. It’s just not good radio. Toth isn’t the answer, but give him someone, he needs a foil of some sort.

The two lunch time shows are also both so tired. I like Darren Dreger. If he says a team is interested in a player, or something is happening in a room, I believe it. He is not a host. Having him on with Wilbur just isn’t good radio. He doesn’t play well to Wilbur, and he isn’t a good interviewer. More importantly, he really doesn’t share an opinion. Down the dial, it’s the same shtick every single day. The names change, but the ripping on Kipper for this, talking about someone’s basement hockey jersey’s and MacLean interrupting to talk about how much money he has…..

I am warming up a little bit to the gameplan. It’s a little bit forced and only because they can’t talk NBA/Raptor basketball all day. If this was a market and they could talk hoops for the entire show it would be good. In another market it would be good. You do your hockey show, your NBA show. These guys would be fine.

The shows that I think are suffering the most are the drive homes. Here’s a bombshell for you- I miss Mccown taking calls. I do. I thought it humanized him a bit. His screeners did a good job of blocking out most of the crap for him and to be honest he didn’t kiss anybodies butt and it was good to hear his opinion.

Today was painful. I know Jim Kelley is unwell, and I wish him the best of health. McCown talked to him today for over 30 minutes. Kelley just isn’t that interesting to talk to for that long. It was, in a word, awful. AWFUL. It wasn’t interesting, it wasn’t compelling and it wasn’t funny. It was more like let me talk to my buddy down the road to kill time cause I don’t want to speak to the fans.

To top it off- Brunt is away again this week and we are graced with John Shannon. Now, clearly the guys at Rogers (probably the same ones who fired Anne Mroczkowski and not the bike) messed up the memo. Shannon, I would think would make a fine replacement for Nelson Millman, NOT Jim Kelley! Have you seen the Sportsnet promo on Shannon? Touting him as an INSIDER- it’s INSULTING. Shannon is a television executive. He is a damn good one at that. He is not a sports radio co-host. Again, he’s not funny, he’s not interesting and he’s not informative. Unless the topic relates to, sports broadcasting, television rights or camera angles.

Up the dial, with the Leafs in their predicament, Wilbur has no ammo. Is it just me or is Bill Watters the real life Cosmo Kramer? He talks about all these guys with funny names or nicknames. Today for example, he is talking about a former colleague who passed away. I thought, here is Wilbur going to show that he is human. Instead he rambled on about some other guy Cheech ( I was praying he was going to then refer to Chong- at least that would have been funny). Bill Watters isn’t every guy. The every guy can’t relate to him. Yet he rambles on as if we do.

To finish it off you have the after hours on the Fan. Does anything make you hit the flip button faster than Lajoie, Faulds or Eric Thomas? Seriously, the fan finally has some younger guys that should be all over the air during these hours- hell do round-tables. On espn radio on Sundays they would have a bunch of guys talking about the games going on. Do that. Anything would be better than what I have been listening to lately- the Fan has gotten stale my friends.

Well, there’s my rant for the day- We sports fans in Toronto are getting screwed with our sports radio. We deserve better.

I feel better.

TSM

@yyzsportsmedia

In addition to an off-ice personnel complete overhaul(perhaps only the PR folks saved) at the Toronto Maple Leafs, I am hearing from multiple folks in the industry that changes are coming to the Fan 590 (amongst other outlets). There is a lots of talk out there in general. How much is concrete? I have no clue. On previous occasions I have inquired of management about the truth of these stories and I have been told that they don’t comment on rumors. In this case however, there seems to be some consensus in what I am hearing on a couple of points:

Don Landry doesn’t appear to be sticking around for too much longer. Word is that if he leaves it will be his own doing in that it he isn’t loving the morning gig all that much anymore (anyone else think it shows?)

Hogan appears to be very safe. His work is steady and his overhead – reasonable. Not only that, there aren’t too many around who can do the Argo thing.

There is no consensus on Toth, in what I am hearing at all.

Some out there believe that cutting at the Fan could be deeper and include the night time guys, cash can be saved by going to either repeat programming or international programming (ESPN/FOX etc), same with weekends.

The most common thing I am hearing is that despite the beating Hockey Central at Noon is laying on Leafs Lunch, there is going to be a change here. It sounds like Doug (Richie Rich ) MacLean is going to be joining Kypreos and Millard for the show which may run from 12-2 in a the new world order. Almost everyone who contacted me about a change had this same scenario.

Following that show would be the Deacon, Doug Fairway from 2-4. Notice that MacLean and Armstrong’s show disappears??? Notice that Armstrong totally disappears except from Raptors broadcasts???????

Mccown obviously isn’t going anywhere but there seems to be a common belief that Jim Kelley won’t be staying at his favourite Marriot on Bloor much longer.

How or when this all shakes out is anyones guess. It’s one thing when one person emails or calls me about this type of thing. When it’s 2 or 3 I start to notice. 4-5 I am pretty sure that where there is smoke there is some fire… Let’s keep our eyes and ears on the folks at the fan for the next little while.

The one name that keeps getting mentioned as the new Marlie coach is…..drum roll…..Craig Hartsburg….. Don’t be overly surprised if he becomes the next coach of your Toronto Marlies….

Strange day here in TO from a sports perspective anyways. I happened to spend the better part of 3 hours in the car this afternoon, so I got to listen to both noon hour lunch shows(flipping back and forth) and then caught a big chunk of The Gameplan on the Fan 590 too. Why was it strange? Consider this:

Word broke fairly late in the morning that Tony Granato had been let got as head coach of the Colorado Avalanche. Not huge news in terms of shock value or surprise. I mean they had all but given the job to Patrick Roy while Granato was still in place, so how surprised can you be that he has now been fired? Two things got me to thinking. One, this was the leading story on the Fan 590 news most of the day, after it broke. It lead the sports news on 680 news and on 640 news. Hockey Central at Noon covered this story for an entire 20 minutes from the top of the show. Leafs Lunch did a huge segment on it as well. All the Toronto papers had it as headline stories on their respective sports websites. Now, I flew home from Las Vegas on Sunday. We took a flight from Las Vegas to Denver, and then another flight from Denver to Toronto. That second leg took almost 4 hours. Denver is not a neighboring city or state to Toronto. The shops at the airport in Denver didn’t have 1 single piece of Av’s merchandise in them. I checked, little TSM likes his hockey hats and jerseys. This story dominated the sports media in this city. That is quite remarkable if you think about it. Seriously, ask yourself this..name another city in North America where local media outlets (not national) get so wrapped up in a story that is a 4 hour plane ride away?? I am not saying Mike and Mike on ESPN radio in New York (or any of their affiliate stations), I am not talking about the Dan Patrick radio stations either, or Jim Rome…I am talking L O C A L coverage????? The focus on all things hockey in this town is insane. Not bad insane, just insane. In case anyone cares, besides the lying commish, there was a Stanley Cup Final game last night! No really, there was. Hockey Central at Noon did 20 minutes, all the way up to the first news break on the Granato story. Barely a mention of the game last night or the series….. I wonder if the coverage in Denver was anywhere near as in depth as we got here today….

Secondly, not that it really matters, but, man did the Avalanche take it on the chin today from a PR perspective. Did anyone hear or read 1 positive thing said about Pierre LaCroix, the ownership group, the new GM, how this was handled, Eric LaCroix etc???? Bill Watter’s was vicious in his attacks on LaCroix. Elliot Elliot Friedman was on with Brady and Watters and when they discussed this issue, even he got in on the slagging. Kypreos on Hockey Central was equally as negative and I just read Kevin Allen in the USA today saying much of the same stuff. I mean, WOW. I thought the Leafs got shit on. I kind of feel badly for this guy Sherman. The entire organization got a stoning from the international hockey media today. Not a single nice word was said or written. Don’t get me wrong, I am not suggesting any of it was undeserved. The negativity was relentless though. I was trying to think of the last time a team got bashed this badly across the board. I would say, if anyone in the AVS PR department gets wind of the type of coverage they got here today the odds of any of their staff coming on our waves is zero to none. Hell, even when the Roger Clemens hearings were going on there were one or two folks out there trying to back the Rocket. This was 100% all the same stuff.

I read tonight that the Canucks are about to start talking to the Sedins about an extension. Would they please hurry up!!!! I don’t want them on the free market anytime soon. Judging by my poll results, neither do the majority of you.

A caller to the Watters show today said he had heard a rumor that Mats Sundin wants to sign a one year farewell contract with the Maple Leafs. Anyone else think that caller is a certain other Toronto Sports Blogger who graces us with his comments here from time to time??????

I know they are just rumours right now, but if I were a betting man, I would lay a few shekels that when the Toronto Raptors start their 2009-2010 season Chris Bosh will be wearing a different uniform on opening night. I have no clue what they can get for him. Or what value is…Here’s hoping Dan can.

Have a good night

TSM

Something in the water tonight I think. A very strange evening as people saying all kinds of stuff making us raise our eyebrows…

Craig Hartsburg, “Those guys cost us the game, you try to trust your best players and they cost you the game, it’s happened before.” Those guys are Spezza and Alfredsson. Their line was a minus 10 tonight.

Folks, this guy is TOAST and he knows it. Stick a fork in him, he is done. The only question is, is this a solo execution or is Mr. Murray going with him? I would not be the least bit surprised that by the time I am sitting in my kids parent/teacher conference tomorrow am that this changeover is underway. Remember what the Sens owner did the Leafs dressing room after being beaten in the playoffs???? I wouldn’t want to see what his house looks like right now.

Watters: ” I wouldn’t trade Tomas Kaberle straight up for Dany Heatly”

Ummmmmm. Ummmmmm. There has to be more to this story. You know I am not a huge DH fan. I am not going to get into that again. I am alone in thinking that Brian Burke would make that move in a split second??? That would be a no-brainer. Would Wilbur trade Blake for DH? Hollweg?? Mayers??? Mayers, by the way had his best night as a leaf tonight.

Mike Brophy to Pat Quinn: “I know for a fact you didn’t talk with any other teams about coaching after leaving the maple leafs.
Darren Millard/Pat Quinn (Together): “BOSTON
Brophy/Quinn/Millard:” ____________________________________________”
Enough silence to leave force Pat Quinn, the guest to explain the Boston situation.

What the hell was Brophy thinking??? (I smell a minus/down arrow in the new media power rankings). Even my dog new about the Boston story. Good on Pat Quinn for rescuing the moment. Please land in Pittsburgh PQ.

The constant bickering, eye rolling between Nik Kyrpos and Bill Watter is PRICELESS….I would love to hear these guys off the record speaking about the other..By the looks in their respective eyes whenever the other is speaking is awesome!!! Seriously folks, watch a segment…

Oh, and what is the over on the number of mentions, comments, questions about Grabovsky getting fined/suspended for shoving the lineman? Will it be higher then the number of times Hogan mentions grey cup visits tomorrow, or the money references Richie MacLean makes on his show tomorrow? It says here Grabs gets fined, but not suspended (if anything at all).I for one think he played a great game by the way. Yeah he got too riled up, but at least he should a little bit of heart. Interesting clip seeing Brad May trying to pull him back a bit. I thought May looked AOK in Maple Leaf blue and white and not too bad in the fight either.

What Mike and I will be listening to tonight, AKA the battle of the Ralph’s

On 640:

David Nonis, Senior VP/Hockey Ops – TML
Brian Duff, NHL Network
Ryan Ellis, Team Canada/Windsor Spitfires
Rob Higgins, Fantasy Hockey Expert
Joe Bowen &; Jim Ralph

On 590:
Nik Kypreos,
Dan Ralph (CP),
Bob Nicholson
David Branch
Jack Armstrong

It’s over… Really over. Even John Belushi’s Animal House Character John “Bluto” Blutarsky would admit It’s over. Really folks, we haven’t seen anything like this around here for a long time. The trading of Vince, the trading of Gilmour, the trading of Felix Potvin, all come to mind sort of. Never, and perhaps becuase of the digital age has a bigger mess of a situation ever been made. Personally, I think there are a lot of people out there who in retrospect look pretty foolish. This constant need to be first is just not journalism. The quality of reporting goes way down and the fans suffer. I think lots of folks should be embarrassed.

Let me start with the easiest target. Hanky is an easy target. To his credit he built a very solid audience. He is proof of the hunger there is for knowledge in the great game of hockey. Whether it is only in Canada and a select group of US markets and then a handful of die hards in other US markets, we are a dedicated bunch who live online looking for anything, literally anything to fill that hunger. However, (and for the record I am not calling Hanky a journalist) the Sundin Saga has also painted Hanky in the worst of light. I am not sure how many people out there read his column tonight after the signing but mannnnnnnnn. How can he say once “as I told you” with any degree of dignity. I mean come on. Yesterday he gave Sundin to NYC his highest rating E5:

“I was told it is done by three sources. Mats to the Rangers. Stay tuned much more to come including how the Rangers will make it work. Update: I am told that one of the teams involved in these sweeps has been informed of Mats decision…”

As the fine folks at hockeyanalysis.com pointed out, Hanky had him going to almost every team in the league at one point. It became an industry (hockey) joke. It takes a big man to admit when he is wrong….That clearly isn’t the case here. (and I don’t buy the my job is to only report what I hear crap…)

I hate to do this, as it is totally unfair, but the next guy who blew this one is McCown. When I say I hate to do this, I mean to jump from Hanky to McCown. There is no comparison between the two and they are so far apart, Hanky at the North Pole, McCown at the South. And too much in between to mention. For that reason alone, McCown has some splaning to do. He is the most listened to sports talk show in the city, hell maybe even in the country. He said on his show today that the syndication of the show on sportsnet may be the largest audience that network gets for non live sporting events. He is huge, he is entertaining and he is the measuring stick. Yes he has had a long head start, but I am sure that the fine folks at 640 have their eyes squarely on his show when the books come out. For McCown to be so bold, so confident and so wrong….. OH MY. The guy is clearly connected. I don’t doubt for one second that someone high up whispered in his ear. No one, and I mean no one opened his lips on the air. That prediction sat out there uncontested for 4 days until fact proved it fiction. The night after his prediction (or maybe 2 nights) Kypreos was on the air and McCown said (after Barry clearly disputed the accuracy of the report) “Oh, it’s happening. It’s like your dinner tonight, you may not know when or where, but it is happening.” Even the director of communication for the nhl twittered about McCown’s bold statement when he went it. In essence the league itself broadcast what McCown said. Does this hurt McCown? probably not. Do his rating go down? no. Do his sponsors care? no. Does he credability take a shot- you betcha. I am not in the media business. I just have to believe that when you are about to go on the microphone you have to pretty sure when are going to be this bold given whom you are..Bobcat blew this one big time.

No one in the Toronto Papers really ran amok with this story. There were no bold predictions per se. They were more followers then leaders. There was a ton of useless fodder on whether he should come back here, whether he would come back here, whether he would be welcome back here….yadda yadda yadda. Larry Brooks was really the first one who publicly brought up the Rangers (Hanky aside, and he brought up the winnipeg jets at one point i think). He never said done deal that is for sure. He did say last night that Sundin would give them until the end of the month. That didn’t happen. Some egg on his face too I guess. Berger doesn’t watch TV so who knows what he was thinking. Not much was said, but man did this story eat up time, energy and kill a lot of trees.

In the end, Mat’s proved he is human. Kyreos said it perfectly tonight about the guy he got to interview over in Sweeden. “Mats was upset about giving the Leafs a discount last season and he wanted to make up for it.” Despite the money, I never really thought he would go to Vancouver. I just didn’t see it. I should have though, because like it or not, this came down to one issue; MONEY. Had the rangers gotten the MONEY up, he probably would be a Ranger. They couldn’t and he isn’t. I don’t begrudge Mats that. The guy is entitled to make what the highest bidder is willing to pay. I think a lot of people painted Mats with rose colored brushes. In the end, he isn’t so unlike the rest of us. He followed the buck. In fairness, he really hasn’t done it before. He never bolted the buds despite the fact he probably could have gotten more elsewhere. At 38, if someone is willing to pony up 10 million why the hell not. Give Gillis credit. He is a former agent and he knew the most important lesson. He set the bar. I don’t care who else was in the game. Their offer was being compared to 10m. Is whatever team offers the next highest amount worth taking less money? That answer is usually no. Gillis did what he as an agent would want a gm to do. Open the market high and wait. Keep the dialogue open and remain patient. Say all the right things, keep them interested and eventually it will come down to $. It almost always does.

I can’t believe how quiet the papers are all at 11:50pm. The story broke around 6pm and with the exception of Damien and the Hat, no one else of major consequence has anything posted. Damien is right in his column. After the obligatory shot at the leafs (at least he admitted he hates Toronto) he says that this should be good news for the buds”

“The signing of Sundin, you see, breaks the logjam. Everyone who didn’t get him can aggressively turn to Plan B, and a team like the Maple Leafs, who will most certainly be sellers between now and the March trade deadline, just saw their assets increase in value.Nik Antropov, for instance, is now worth more than he was yesterday. Unless Atlanta decides to trade Ilya Kovalchuk or Tampa tries to move Marty St. Louis or Minnesota opts to dump Marian Gaborik, Antropov might end up being the best forward available by the deadline. ”

I agree in principal. It takes two (or sometimes three) to tango though. I do find it curious how a guy is a proverbial stiff when he is HERE but has real marketability when it comes to the deadline. It smells a little of the setting of the table for the first Burke attack. Can’t you see it coming? I can’t believe that Burke couldn’t get more for __________? Take the positive spin fro Damien, at least he has an article up.

What is missing? The attack on the point that matters:

“I never believed in rent a player to start with, if you wanna be part of a team thats going to have a chance to win the stanley cup or a team that will go far in the playoffs, uh my opinion has always been that you be there from training camp at the start of the season to be part of the group and uh that’s another reason too”

That is what i am waiting for. It will be interesting to see who takes the time to really call him on it. Simmons did a little bit. The sun has such a brutal website that it isn’t up yet if it is going to be so I can’t tell you. Mat’s is entitled to change his mind. To say that he has never believed in something is as strong a statement as you get. Sundin used that as his main reason not to leave last year. He probably sold all the others on the same thing. He then turned his back and did just that. At the very least, had he signed over the summer you could say he would have been true to his word. Now, the guy who Cox told us has always been an honest guy is, ummmm, a liar?

I am interested in seeing what Cliff has to say. So far I haven’t seen anything from him. Burke’s response was irrelevant. I am more interested in his reaction to the brutal exhibition in Boston then his opinion on Sundin that’s for sure.

Then there is the issue of course of what will this do to his legacy. Will he be Ray Bourque and win a championship? Will he mirror Borje and Cujo and curse the day he left? Only time will tell. You know my opinion, the odds are way against him. The good news is he has lots of dough to hedge those odds with right?

I am really glad this over. It will a nutty day tomorrow with all the press to talk about. I will try to post as best i can. I am taking the family south for 10 days and am going to try and beat out the storm so the trip to the airport begins at 445am. about 4 hours and 35 minutes from now. I don’t know how well I am going to be able to post from the ocean (assuming i make it down there) so LT has graciously accepted my begging to help out.

Let me say this however. I started this blog in May or June I believe. It has been a blast every minute. It hasn’t been a chore in my daily routine like others can be. To those of you who are kind enough to read what i have to say and especially those who feel compelled enough to comment or email I can’t thank you enough. I hope everyone out there and your families have a happy, healthy holiday season (Damien, Steve, Howard, bob, Brady, Wilbur you guys too).

well my bags are packed I’m ready to go………………….

This is getting nuts…everyone trying to be first, making announcements on what Sundin has decided. Sportsnet ran a story that it was a done deal then yanked it. Do people think at this point the public cares who gets the story first? One claims they have the scoop, the other gets a denial. Give me a break… Here at TSM we are proud to present Mat’s choices….

Door Number 1

Door #2

Or…my personal choice…

Door #3

Man, did Luke Schenn nail a guy on the sharks. I will try and get a video tomorrow am. It was a clean hit, but with about 12 seconds to go in a 5-2 game it was a little unnecessary and caused a small melee at the end of the game.

Anyways, this wasn’t a great game for TML. It was over about 3 minutes in. Wilson left Toskala in net as things settled down quite a bit after the 1st. Schenn, Grabovsky and Hagman were all each amazingly plus 2’s. Antropov, Kubina, Ponikarovsky and Stajan all finished at -3. Ian White led all Leaf players with double Todd Gill in ice time (23:23).

This wasn’t a good night for the Leafs. I have to think (and this is no excuse) they were a tad off from the travels and back to back nights. Kypreos was bang on in his assessment, the Leafs saw what they aspire to be. The sharks are a great team to watch. They are tough, they are strong and they are fast. Is there a better team guy then Joe Thornton??? What an impressive performance.

Ok- this idiot is tired…

Type at you tomorrow (or later today)

Why write after 2 periods? Well I am doing the best I can to stay away. The first period was as bad a period as I have seen the leafs play all season. Seriously I thought it was 2007 and Paul Maurice was behind the bench….

I can only imagine what Ron Wilson said to the fellas in between periods as they leafs played much in the second, and actually won the period 1-0.

Interesting stats of the game so far:

Antropov
Kubina
Ponikarovsky
Stajan

All minus three (-3) so far…

Can someone tell me what the bozos in Tampa where thinking when they dumped Dan Boyle?

Leading the Leafs in ice time (14:54) Luke Schenn

I think Kypreos drank too many red bulls before the telecast, did he just suggest that the Sharks took it easy on purpose in the 2nd?????

I have the sharks winning 6-2; LT says 5-4 leafs….. question is can I last another period….