They chase a puck around a rink for multi-millions and reside in the U.S. preventing the imposition of Canada’s high rate of tax while you tote the j.o.b. for nickels in comparison. You pay into Canada’s social welfare state and sometimes irresponsibly pony up a three figure event ticket for an apparent privilege of sitting in beer and mustard stained seats. All the while your backdrop is emblazoned by the corporate logo of Scotiabank. Your neighbour to the left needs a pee break again because getting wasted is his idea of a night out on the town at the good ol’ hockey game. You lest not wait yourself for period intermission should the bladder be acute to line up anxiety. By the way – those multimillionaires want you to pay more tax for their new age arena and as for the Olympics….forget about it – the spirit doesn’t quite align with the profit motive and the violent spectacles for which you cheer, pay and celebrate. The hockey establishment has successfully marketed a strategy with a belief that in the absence of your own progressive realization of a life purpose, you will annually pay thousands for season tickets and the opportunity to witness another’s actualization of a capitalist ideal transmuted through a game. As a bonus you might get to see a street fight on skates and the manifestation of legal thwarting and impunity from assault laws.
Category Archives: Sport
Reburbished Deleted Post Flames Arena
Naturally, the Calgary Herald deleted my sarcastic post on Gary Bettman’s Calgary appearance. Hence; I reproduce it here. Oh Yes, BTW Ken King of the Calgary Flames apparently used to work for the Calgary Herald.
This is what I said “Expect the Calgary Herald to delete posts representing articulate opinions against the construction of a new arena. Apparently Gary Bettman knows what you need and cerebral folks have provided him a forum to patronize.”
Federer’s Backhand In Australia
Prior to his injury, Federer had dropped his number one ranking but today he has won the Australian Open. Tennis pundits in recent years have bestowed the best one handed backhand drive in the game to Stan Wawrinka and Richard Gasquet. Wawrinka most likely today generates the most power from the back hand wing and Gasquet utilizes more torque from a smaller physique. However; Roger Federer today demonstrated the importance of a compact back swing and set up to deal with the immense power generated by today’s tour players. While enjoying the highlights this morning, I noticed that Roger was always delivering the drive on the backhand side during service return when in years past he would often deliver the more defensive blocking style of return. It’s evident that in the run up to his tour return that his team put a focus on absolute conviction of the backhand drive from every backhand position on the court. This would have lead to more repetition in practice and mastery of set up. Today he delivered fluid cross court backhand winners at will with acute angles while managing points with sustained depth from the base line all in the context of that human back board on the other side, Rafael Nadal. Not only now a legend of the game, in Roger Federer tennis has never had a better ambassador of the sport.
Some Credit To NHL
Some credit to the NHL is in order as I took in a couple of periods of the Flames vs Hawks last night at Big Al’s pub over at International Avenue. No fights! Some inspired play by John Goudreau of the Flames. Fairly tight checking with low scoring and the O/T shoot out didn’t conclude until the 7th round. The goalies prevailed over the course of thirteen straight one on one encounters. Some sharp stick handler tallied the winner with a somewhat controversial deposit following a deke which arguably entailed backward movement of the puck – hence testing the rules. In fact, I’m surprised that officiating didn’t utilize video replay for confirming the game winning goal.
The game has taken positive steps to enhance the entertainment value. In spite of there being regulations around the size of goalie equipment, in my opinion those goalie pads are still too big. The Hawks may have won the game had the Flames goalie been fitted with a smaller catching glove. There weren’t many penalties and much to my surprise the game was played quite cleanly. Moments of suspense were endured by Flames fans when their team was shorthanded in the overtime period. However; the dump and chase style of play is still evident asking one whether coaches believe that offense can penetrate to the net with the three on two rush. This particular game was defensive dominant thereby limiting the excitement factor. The four on four format for the overtime is a definite positive. Advertisement interference was pleasingly tolerable – especially when matched up against the adjacent screen carrying the Broncos and Texans. I did not witness any acts of poor sportsmanship and coverage by Sportsnet was good. Given my criticism of the NHL, some balance was due. A shout out to Big Al’s for your warmth as my host!
Ad Hoc Tennis With Kids
Sitting at the computer this Saturday night thinking….it’s way too nice out tonight not to get outside. Reached for my tennis bag and headed over to the community courts. Figured if there’s nobody there, I’ll just hit against the board. Nobody there and the board was gone. Had a silent chuckle. It does indeed need replacing due to chips, cracks and holes. My balls were forever veering off due from such. Watched a group kick a soccer ball around and then looked back at the court and there were three kids sitting on one of the tennis nets. Oops….they were gonna catch it. Headed over and talked to them about how tennis players like to keep the net at the same height and hence nobody sits on it. They asked what I’m doing here anyway. I mentioned that I thought I might catch a game but nope. They asked if I had another racquet and if they could play. Hard to say no under the circumstances and yes my spare was in the kit.
It started out as three enthusiastic boys. We set up mini tennis boundaries (the services boxes) for some back and forth. There was some chat about whose turn it would be next. Then “Slam” came along who set up the rules. I thought how ironic of a boy’s name on this evening in the context of the most celebrated of tennis competitions. There was going to be five misses each before they handed off to the next in line. Skateboarders appeared and organized mayhem ensued. The three boarders all of whom knew clearly that skate boarding is disallowed on the court but they cooperatively heeded my request to skate the perimeter. Slam showed great promise while making his shots. Then came along five more cousins including I’d say a three year old little boy and a six year old girl. Of course all kids were tracking the balls and this girl intuitively knew exactly how to one bounce a ball back to me with the straight arm in the air just like at Wimbledon. If she only knew she needs no ball girl lessons.
With dimming light I huddled up the clan and exclaimed they all have great potential to learn tennis skills and suggested that they inquire with their parents for racquets. Upon packing my bag, a skateboarder gave me one last reason to smile when he whizzed by and said thanks for not yelling at us.