This  medal also gave Canada a 14th gold medal – the most any country had ever earned in a Winter Olympics.   This is an incredible feat, considering that Canada previously hosted a Summer Olympics in Montreal and a Winter Olympics in Calgary without winning a gold on homesoil. This has been a controversial Olympics, given some of the problems that occurred (especially with regards to the bobsled course).   However, things turned out pretty well, I’d say.

During the Olympics there were some incredible stories – such as Joanie Rochette who won a Bronze medal despite the death of her mother during the Olympics (in Vancouver no less).  Here’s to London 2012!

By the way, Canada is officially ranked on top of the medal table, meaning Canada wins the Olympics.

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Regardless, any predictions for this year?

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The blackberry owner is willing to put alot of money into his bid.  Last number I heard was around the $230 million range, which was about a million more than the next guy.  Trouble is, the NHL – at least its commissioner Gary Bettman – doesn’t want Balsillie as an owner.  They want to keep tight control over who is allowed into the small group of owners (which to me seems like bad, monopolistic business).  It’s not entirely clear if this is because of real concerns, or if we are simply witnessing personal grudges and a clash of character coming into effect.  However, the court battles have been quite amusing.

Recently, the NHL was taking shots at Jim Balsillie’s character in order to gain an upper hand over him in court.   However, Balsillie took none of it.  According to reports, Balsillie pointed out that out of the current owners, a number of them are convicted felons.  One gentleman has done prison time for fraud, another one forged financial documents, and another has been fined under Canadian Securities Act.

This isn’t exactly the high ground – it’s kindergarten like name calling.  However, this case has been quite amusing, and I draw everyone’s attention to it.  Does talent + success = maturity regression?  It seems so.   However,  Balsillie seems to look better in every round of this arguement, so it might be time for the NHL to simply cut its losses, let the guy in, and find a cloth to wipe the egg off their collective faces.

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Here are my predictions for the first round (albeit late):

West: San Jose over Anaheim, Columbus over Detroit, St. Louis over Vancouver, Chicago over Calgary

East: Boston over Montreal, New York over Washington, Jersey over Carolina, Pittsburgh over Philadelphia

I’m iffy on the San Jose and Columbus, but I’m relatively confident on the others.  Let’s hear all of your thoughts.

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Most readers probably knew that.  Why I am I talking about this?

Until a few years ago the NHL allowed games to be tied.  A tie was worth one point for both teams.  There was overtime, but if the game was tied at the end, it was a tie.  If you lost in overtime, you got nothing.  It was exciting.   At some point, the system was changed so that both teams were awarded one point regardless and the two teams were playing for the bonus point.  After the NHL lockout, the current system of suddendeath with a shootout was brought in.  I ask: What’s wrong with a tie in the first place?  I went to many games that ended in a tie – I never saw anything wrong with it.  I see no reason to force a silly tournament-style shootout for a regular season game; it almost cheapens the 65 minutes played before it, in my mind.

But what I am really going to discuss today is the point system.   Why is losing in overtime half as good as winning?  When did we start giving rewards to coming in last place?  Why is losing in the 60th minutes worth a point, when losing in the 59th is not?  It makes no sense to me – it is rewarding mediocrity.  Why do I feel this way?  How many NHL games been played, especially in this late time in the year, when teams simply sit back in the third period if the game is tied and wait for overtime.   Take the point, that’s good enough.  That’s boring hockey.

Here is what I (and many others) propose:  adopted a modified variant of soccer’s three point system.  In Soccer, a win is 3 points, a draw is 1.  This means that teams that try to ride out ties find themselves falling in the table very quickly.  If we adapted this to the NHL and gave 3 points to a win and one point for a tie (with overtime), you would see teams really trying to get the wins, because to take the one point wouldn’t be good enough.  In a pinch, they could even allow only two points for a win that is achieved in overtime, and maybe even one point for the loss in overtime since it would only be 1/3 as good as winning. 

I think a reevaluation of the current system is in order – I remember a few years ago when Pittsburgh shot into the playoffs and it seemed all they did was sit back and wait for the shootout.  They weren’t actually any good that year (which is why they lost in the first round to Ottawa) and only got where they were in the standings because the shooutout was like free points – they didn’t have to score goals, they got in the ‘bonus’ point shoot-a-thon.

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Parental pressure in sports has always been a problem for many youths, and parents becoming too involved has been a negative thing in the past.  It seems like every few months or so we hear about parents getting into fights in Canadian hockey arenas, and apparently the same kind of thing goes on in the UK over football.

In England, a documentary is being made on this exact topic.  According to experts, parents are trying to live their dreams through their children and in turn placing too much pressure upon them.  Kids have to be able to learn and discover things themselves and make their own mistakes to suceed, but in today’s highly competetive structure many parents are getting carried away.  It seems that some kinds of changes are in order.

In the case of England, the Football Association has been involved this year with a ‘respect’ camapaign aimed at all levels including the Premiership to protect officials from abuse and model positive behaviour.  This is a good thing, I think, but is it just a stopgap measure?  Perhaps competition has been poorly organised.  It’s not like it’s generated the best talent anyway – neither Canadian hockey nor English football have really been THAT succesful all things considered (Canada has only won olympic gold once in the last fifty years, and England has only won the World Cup once ever)

photo credit: Ingy The Wingy

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This has been a interesting year for even casual American football observers.  I’m sure you’ve all heard about Mayor Ravenstahl of Pittsburgh changing his name to Steelerstahl for the week they played the Baltimore Ravens.  Beyond that, we’ve seen Michael Vick go to prison for involvement with a dog fighting ring, another game played in London as well as a regular season game played by the Buffalo Bills in Toronto.

There’s been lots of speculation in the past about a potentional NFL franchise moving to Canada (to Toronto specifically).  The Buffalo Bills currently have an agreement to play a number of games there over the next few years, and I’ve even heard some people talk about moving the Bills to Toronto permanently.  While I don’t think that is likely to happen, I would not be entirely surprised to see a team come up to Toronto.

The question is: What would happen to CFL?  I don’t think it would die, as Toronto people would tell you – Toronto is after all only one city in Canada – but it may run into trouble.  It would be a little sad to see the CFL run into problems – but it is after all not highly regarded in many circles; the calibre just isn’t as good as the league to the South.

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1- The Inauguration of President Obama – Barack Obama became the 44th President of the United States of America On Jan 20, 2009.  He was the first African-American man to be elected to that position.  Obama’s Presidency also marks the return to office of the Democratic Party after eight years of Republican management under President Bush.  Early into his term, Obama has so far closed all foreign CIA detention centres and urged economic action in dealing with the financial crisis.

2. The Financial Crisis Continues – We’ve heard about partnerships forming between Chrysler and Fiat, major government bailouts, talk of government nationalization of British Banks such as Northern Rock, economic stimulus packages, etc.  The moral of the story: maintain your savings and try not to get yourself in debt.  We’ll all see the end of this eventually.  As mentioned, President Obama has promised economic action – and since the Americans are the ones dragging down the world economy they’d better get out there and fix it.

3. Palestinian – Israeli Gaza Conflict: This began in January where Israel invaded Gaza in retaliation for recurring rocket attacks (70 a day) launched at them by Hamas from the Gaza strip.  After a ceasefire was declared, an Israeli frontier patrol was attacked on Jan 27 prompted the Israelis to use jet attacks on Palestinian tunnels to Egypt.

4. Unions – We’ve commented on Unions a few times this month, so I thought it deserves a mention here.  In Ottawa, a bus strike has continued for almost two months now.  We’ve heard about similar problems in California.  Unions have become an especially important issue in light of the economic crisis – I’ve heard unions blamed for a number of problems in the American automotive industry for example.

5. Sports – Arizona and Pittsburgh both advanced to the NFL Superbowl; the NHL all-star game was a financial success; the NHL’s Phoenix Coyotes have entered dire economic straits and I’ve heard talks about possibilities of moving the team, new ownership, or even a dispersal draft; one player was killed in a hockey fight and another one was recently hospitalized in an American Hockey League game.

These are of course only a sample of things that have happened this month – I could have also included earthquakes, crimes; or even positive things for that matter.  These are simply the broadest spanning issues that Ignorant Mouth looked into in January 2009.

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Man went to space, and subsequently walked on the moon; , has surpassed the sound barrier, the British Empire disappeared, the Civil Rights movement, the Cold War heated up, the Cold War ended, the United States elected an African-American to be their President, the White Sox won the world series, anyone reading this was probably born, etc.

It must be painful for their fans to have supported a team that sucked for so long.  I guess they’re due, but it could be worse – they could be Toronto Maple Leafs fans.  Alas, I jest.

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