Greetings from sunny south Florida. Pardon the couple of days of silence, but I have to admit it’s nearly impossible to get much Toronto sports news or even hockey news in these parts.

Consider if you will that my hotel is comprised of at least 50% canadians, of which the majority are Torontonians (based on the number of toronto maple leaf hats and tshirts around the lobby and pool). Yet Im thinking that the vast majority are using this stay as a vacation from more than winter back home, seking shelter from our sports teams. While they are wearing the logo’s of our teams, no one is following what is going on the ice or the court. A tour through the lobby as an experiment asking those wearing Toronto garb if they knew how the leafs or raptors did over the last couple of days resulted in blank stares, one guy said please don’t remind me. I asked a few people if they heard any wjh scores and they said Gasp- no interest while I am here.

So I went to the concierge to see if he could get me Florida panthers tickets for this afternoons game, I was met with “who”

We watched the local news the last couple or days to get our fill of terrorism updates and not a menion of the panthers or team USA at the toruney. To be fair I haven’t picked up a local paper. The only sign that I have seen that the panhers actually exist is a billboard on I 95 near my hotel. We took our kids to sawgrass mall yesterday afternoon and despite the fact the arena is “around the corner” we saw no evidnce of a team. I went into 2-3 sports stores and found no panthter items for sale.

So but for Twitter (a daily glance) and a quick review of my rss reader I’ve reached the conclusion hockey is further down the list then when I lived here back in 1997 to 2000. The test will come today and tonght when they play. Unfortunately for the cats, so too do the heat and dolphins.

Tsm

Man, I thought it was quiet over the holidays, there is nothing but crickets tonight. Everyone must be gassing up their snow-blowers (look out mr. Sakic). It is dead tonight. Not one interesting thing in one paper, in one media outlet anywhere(it is 12:20 am right now)

So here are some random thoughts:

Leafs were lousy last night vs. the Panthers. I have no problem with the losing. This is the first time in a long time where they didn’t even bother to show up. I sense another long skate in practice coming up.

To boo or not to boo. I am pretty tired of this argument. With very little exception every player who returns to their old team should expect to get razzed a little. Is it right? Who knows. It sports. As Seinfeld said, we don’t root for a player we root for a jersey. When the player changes teams he who we used to cheer for we now boo. McCabe made a lot of dough here, and really made his career here. Others have been treated way worse.

One of the reasons he was a thorn in the public’s side is that he just wasn’t that bright. He would have done much better with a no -comment, ummmm whenever he was asked a question. For him to call out Leaf Fans who may boo Sundin is just another example of the lack of brains in his melon. To say it’s ok to me just not Mats is just dumb. Who do you think you are? You don’t need to take one for him anymore. Fans are going to do what they want to do, so mind your own business. I give him credit for this, he said that he waived his NTC clause because he didn’t want to hijack the team. He is the only player who last year said, if there is a deal there to be made bring it to me. The reality is no one wanted him.

Is it just me, or is anyone else out there really hoping the Buds honor not only Team Canada but also Pat Quinn. I know there is no Saturday home game for a bit. I hope, the next chance they get they really whoop it up for old Pat.

I loved the Winter Classic. The all star games excites me about as much as going to the dentist. Really, if you are doing one, why the other? I know, it’s a big sponsor event for the league… The debate about who should be on the team or not is about as interesting as the never ending debate about fighting in hockey. Someone a hell of a lot smarter then me (and that is a BIG group) has to be able to come up with a better format then the current all star bore.

The fact that the NHL Poster boy isn’t Alexander Ovechkin is just a crock. There is no better player in the game right now then AO. The race isn’t close. As good as some of the other younger guys are, AO is the man. I find it hard to watch non-leaf games, but I do to try to keep an eye on the younger talent and other on-goings in the game (sorry Howie). I really try to watch as many Caps games as I can to catch a glimpse of AO on the ice.

Anyone else been listening to Roscoe Toth on the fan this week? He is miffed at all the attention the WJC’s get. He goes to a ton of junior games all season long (good for him) and feels that the folks who rave about junior hockey for these 2 weeks aren’t real junior hockey fans. Guess what? He is right. Compare if you will the NCAA basketball tournament. Those of you reading this from work, turn left, now turn right, how many people around you enter some sort of NCAA basketball tourney pool? Of those, how many are die hard fans all season long??? Fans get caught up in the hype, and we Canadians have such an inferiority complex that we will really pay attention in those areas where we may actually excel. I think it’s great Roscoe goes to a couple of junior games a week. If the local GTA area teams want to drum up support, look at this little gem. My son is in 3 different hockey programs right now. We get all kinds of stuff in the mail as a result. We have never, ever seen or heard a thing from any of the teams in our area. If those teams want to increase their fan base there is a huge hockey market they don’t tap into right in front of them.

Former Detroit Lions Head Coach Rod Marinelli had his son in-law on his coaching staff for the past 0-16 campaign. After a loss on Dec 21, Rob Parker an eight year vet with the Detroit News, asked Marinelli in the post game press conference if Marinelli “wished his daughter had married a better defensive coordinator?” As a result of that question, Parker was demoted from from columnist to general assignment reporter. Parker, as a result of that demotion resigned. I, as you may recall lived in the burbs of Detroit for several years. Mrs. TSM was born and raised there and both little TSM’s were born there as well. I have never been a Parker fan (surprised? I love sooooo many columnists…)I will say this, Parker has written and said a hell of a lot worse things then this. To lose his job, in this economy, in that market for this comment is so thin skinned it is hard to believe. Parker has said that he will remain in Detroit. That whittles his writing options down to 1 (the Free Press is owned by the same company as the News), The Oakland Press at least as far as local papers go. He does do some work on ESPN. Here is hoping that he finds work really soon….

Since I started this blog I have had the good fortune to chat with some folks who cover the NHL. I asked one today to assess for those of us up here the seasons of Mr. Tucker and Mr. Raycroft in Colorado thus far. His response:

“Tucker has looked slow and taken lots of bad penalties. Raycroft is
6-1, maybe the most deceptive won-lost record of all time so far, but
wins are wins.”

Hope you all have an easy commute tomorrow. Sounds like the roads in the GTA are going to be hell

Canada won gold at the WJC…yadda yadda yadda. Congrats to all the kids and to good guy Pat Quinn. I really hope this lands you back in the NHL to a team of your choosing. Personally, I would love to see you in Pittsburgh Pat, a box of Cohibas if you go there and not Ottawa (but that is illegal jerry!)

Our old friend Bryan McCabe returns to the scene of the crime tomorrow night. Amazing how quickly the guy turned south. Acquired for Alexander Karpotsev and a 4th rounder, McCabe quickly became a fan favorite. Then 3 things happened. One the league rules changed, one change banned his favorite move, the can opener and two the guy got a BIG contract. The rest as they say is history. Someone out there will remind me of another player who fell from grace so quickly, but I can’t name one. To me, McCabe lost my respect when during the lockout he stated that he would rather retire then accept a salary cap, and that the PA would never, ever accept one (that is not a direct quote by the way). Of course, Caber didn’t have to waive his no trade clause that JFJ gave him but his unwillingness to do ensured his place in TML fans hearts forever.

It’s nice to see that Mccabe still has the brains “”The only thing that kind of stinks [in South Florida] is there aren’t too many people in the building,” said McCabe, who mostly has been paired with the shot-blocking Skrastins. “You miss the buzz, the sold-out, loud building for every game. But I don’t miss 30 people in the media scrum every day.” I am sure the 2 people who read Florida papers are gonna love that (even though it is true). No offense to Panthers Fan, but, ummm, when $17 buys you a ticket, parking, food and a gas card and you can’t fill a building the writing is clearly on the wall. At 80.6% of capacity on average, the Panthers are above only the Trashers and Bluejackets as the worst drawing teams (based on % of capacity).

So, there I was watching the NBC pregame for the big NFL tilt over the weekend and whom do I see in the studio??? Matt 0-16 Millen. Come on folks. This has to be a joke. Did he offer to do the gig for free??? How does a guy who’s record as GM was 31-97, the worst 8 year tally since World War II, get a gig on national TV. This isn’t the WFL, or the Arena league, this is the NFL. How does he have any credibility? Shame on NBC for putting him in the box and my sincere apologies to those who had to work with him. That crew’s credibility just nosedived.

Then on my drive home from cottage country I got to listen to one Jonas Siegel in studio hosting a show. The guy certainly is trying hard, I will give him that. Man is he green. He needs to be a little bit more confident and start to use his own shtick. His referring to Ottawa in the same tone as Wilbur is beyond lame. He does this all the time and it really needs to stop. Be original, come up with a catch phrase, a name or two of your own… Here is the reality, he has a job that many of us would kill to have. He follows the buds on a daily basis. His competition is Howie. He travels with the team. No one cares that he was a closet JFJ lover. Either spend a lot more time in front of the mirror or ask some of the folks at your station for some lessons. I can’t imagine that the flagship station of the Leafs is going to be much more patient with the guy. Having said that, based on his A&F wardrobe maybe he is an intern!

640 Toronto's Jonas Siegel

Speaking of creating names for folks, we have a new co-host with Jack Armstrong on the after lunch show on the Fan. The show is now hosted by Jack Armstrong and Richie Rich. Seriously, this show would be FANTASTIC, as in really, really good if Richie could, for one segment STOP talking about all the money he has. Has anyone else noticed that besides the phrase “back when I was a GM” his references to his money is his favorite moniker??? Instead of Hey Now Hank, it’s I’m loaded Doug “Richie Rich” MacLean.

Anyways, I can’t wait to hear what Archie Bunker has to say tomorrow night on 640!

Bill Watters