Well this is a bit of an awkward situation. I'm a big fan of the weekend road trip, you know, maybe take a Friday or Monday off and go to a different city and do something. So when I saw that The Tragically Hip were playing in Cleveland (a city I've been to before and liked) and the tickets were readily available and only $25 (compared to them instantly selling out 6 nights here in Toronto for 4 times the price) I polled my friends, found 3 willing to go for sure and 2 more that were on the fence. So I bought 6 tickets, two guys since bailed out, but the tickets weren't that expensive anyways, and that meant the 4 of us that were still going could fit in one hotel room and keep things relatively cheap so no big deal.

Cut to today, I get an e-mail from one of my friends who is already coming: "Do you still have extra hip tickets? CBC (his girlfriend) and A (her friend) are interested." I've written about this CBC girl before, I don't like her. None of us really like her. However my friend of course knows none of this (or if he does, he doesn't let on). I've spent weekends with CBC and it is not my idea of fun. But on the flip side, we also know A and really like her since she's pretty much the exact opposite of CBC: smart, funny, cool, etc.

So, what am I to do? Of course I'd like to get rid of the 2 extra tickets and on road trips, usually the more the merrier right? On the other hand, 2 extra people means an extra hotel room, means either taking 2 cars or finding someone with a van. So far, I responded to his e-mail that I do still have the tickets, but I need a definitive answer whether or not they are coming sooner than later because I need to book the hotel. I really, really would rather CBC not come, but really, what legitimate excuse could I feed my friend short of telling him 'I can't stand your girlfriend and she'll ruin my weekend if she comes'? Dammit.

Why does Jim Balsillie seem to want to do everything he can to piss off the NHL in his pursuit of owning a team? He's already been rebuffed by the league twice because of his openly stated intent to move whatever team he ends up with to southern Ontario. You would have thought his best bet would have been just buying a struggling team and keeping it where it was for a while, and then if it kept struggling move it. That way he could make it look like he really tried, maybe along the way gain the trust of some of the other owners, etc.

Nope, instead he went and executed what looks like some sneaky backdoor play on the NHL to try and take the league completely out of it and put the sale and movement of the Coyotes in the hands of a bankrupty judge instead. Of course this got the NHL's back up and now they are saying that the Coyotes owner might not have been able to put the team in bankruptcy protection by himself anyways, that this is contrary to league rules, etc.

It seems so odd that someone like Balsillie who apparently desperately wants to get in on the NHL is so seemingly disdainful of all their normal procedures. If he's willing to do all these shenanigans just to get into the NHL, what the hell is going to happen once he's actuall IN? Plus if this bankruptcy/move does actually go through, it makes the league look kind of mickey-mouse and sets a bad precedent doesn't it?

Then there's the actual issue of where the team would actually go? Everyone seems to think its a no-brainer that an NHL team would have no trouble surviving in Hamilton, Kitchener or even somewhere in the GTA such as Vaughn. I'm not so sure. The strangest suggestion seems to be Kitchener-Waterloo, which with a population of 500,000 seems pretty small to be home to a team.

Another team in greater Toronto probably makes the most sense population wise, but I'm pretty sure the Leafs would be way more up in arms about a team being here than say in Hamilton. Not necessarily because of splitting the hockey market, though that would be a pretty big concern, especially if it meant it might siphon off some corporate sponsors/seat holders. I think the biggest worry the Leafs would have about another team in Toronto would be that would mean there would be another venue for concerts and the like, which is a major source of income for MLSE.

Plus, would Leafs fans in Toronto really turn out in droves for a transplanted Coyotes team? It's been said time and time again that Toronto isn't a hockey town, its a Leafs town. Sure there would be an initial surge of interest, plus people probably eating up season tickets trying to get in on the ground floor, hoping they become as valuable as Leafs season seats. But really, outside of people living in Toronto who cheer for another team and want to see them when they swing through town or fairweather/disenchanted Leafs fans, who would really want to cheer for the Vaughan Coyotes or whatever?

So really, if Balsillie does get his way and moves the team, I can't really imagine it going anywhere other than Hamilton. They almost got a team once before but were beat out by Ottawa. They are probably far enough away from Toronto that the Leafs wouldn't object too much though they'd probably want some sort of compensation. It would probably hurt Buffalo though I'm not really sure how many fans regularly cross the border to see a game unless they are playing the Leafs. They also have Copps Coliseum, though from all reports it needs a major renovation to be up to snuff.

But all this may very well be a pipe dream if the NHL has its way anyway. Despite the Prime Minister and Ontario's Premier going on about how southern Ontario deserves and can handle another team I've got the feeling that because its Jim Balsillie and because of the way he's trying to go about this the NHL will do pretty much anything they can to find another way out. Whether that means staying in Phoenix or relocating to Kansas City or wherever.

Great weekend of playoff hockey, with every team I was pulling for winning. Game 1 of Pittsburgh versus Washington was pretty good. As much as I dislike him, it seemed Crosby was really the only one on the Penguins trying, where's Malkin? Not entirely sold on the Caps' Varlamov, he seems to give up a lot of rebounds and be out of position often, but you can't argue with results I guess.

Then there was Chicago not screwing up a second straight comeback like they did in game 1. This time once they tied it up the kept the pedal down and took it to Vancouver. The Cancucks have to be feeling a little uneasy don't they? They blew a 3-0 lead in the 3rd period of game 1, only to be saved by an absolute collapse by Chicago in the dying minutes of the game. This time Chicago came back from an early 2-0 deficit.

Carolina rebounded nicely from a pretty poor showing in game 1 to even up their series. Cam Ward has been playing pretty well, while Tim Thomas didn't have a particularly good game. Should be a good series though.

But the series that has me most interested is Anaheim vs. Detroit. Mainly because my friend is a Red Wings fan who always goes on and on about them, and we have $20 riding on the Red Wings repeating as champions. But I also like the Ducks, they seem to be a good combination of skill and toughness (hopefully what the Leafs will be soon under Brian Burke). This series has generated a lot of discussion because of the hit on Jiri Hudler by Anaheim's Mike Brown. Brown got 5 minutes and a game, but no suspension. Personally I didn't think it really even deserved a penalty, it looks like Hudler made the pass, had his head down, and got nailed by Brown, but whatever. Yeah there was a bit of blood, but that was more his visor cutting his face than the hit itself. I don't really see anything horribly cheap or late about it at all.

Of course now this has resulted in various media types like Damien Cox of the star saying this is yet another example of the NHL being soft on hits to the head, etc. Hudler was already half crouched over and pretty much only at Brown's chest level, how is that head-hunting? Should players not be allowed to make big open-ice hits anymore just in case someone might get a concussion? It's silly. What's even sillier is that both Cox and Bruce Dowbiggin in the Globe & Mail criticize the people on Hockey Night In Canada for all agreeing it shouldn't be a suspension, while praising the TSN talking heads for at least somewhat disagreeing amongst themselves. As if its somehow totally impossible that someone could look at that hit and not seeing anything horrifically wrong with it.

The other great thing about the Ducks/Red Wings series? Triple overtime in game 2, with the Ducks eventually coming out winners. I love overtime in the playoffs. Its just so great being on the edge of your seat, knowing that every bounce of the puck could potentially be the end. Which is why I was aghast to hear Bob McKenzie on TSN after the game proposing that the NHL look into altering OT by eventually going to 4-on-4, either immediately or, as he suggested after the 2nd overtime. Is nothing sacred in the NHL anymore? Overtime marathons become the thing of legend, so we should look into fucking it up right?

Even worse was James Duthie then floating the dreaded shootout in the playoffs idea. The day shootouts decide playoff games in the NHL may be the day I say good riddance to watching the NHL. I was initially against shootouts during the regular season, still don't particularly care for them and never knew what was so bad about a tie, but whatever. But the playoffs are a completely different animal and should never ever be left to a shootout. Canada losing in Nagano in 1998 in a shootout was bullshit, partly because Marc Crawford is retarded for not putting Gretzky or Yzerman out there, but mostly because hockey's a team game that shouldn't be decided by a glorified breakaway relay.

The sad thing is, playoff shootouts are probably inevitable. I'm sure NBC wasn't too happy that Sunday's game went until almost 6:30 instead of being over before 5pm. I'm sure they (or whoever is broadcasting the game in the US) would be totally in favour of anything that could give them a guaranteed end time so they could be sure not to cut into other important programming like horse jumping (what was scheduled to follow hockey yesterday) or local news. The NHL under Gary Bettman has time and time again proven willing and able to kowtow to whatever they think will make the game more marketable south of the border.

Miss California to campaign against gay marriage

So the girl who became semi-famous for giving a convoluted answer to a question about gay marriage during Miss USA is going to work with a group to "protect traditional marriages." I haven't heard of anyone wanting to get rid of traditional marriage, didn't realize they were under attack? The notion of 'traditional marriage' doesn't carry much weight these days anyways, what with half of marriages ending in divorce and whatnot.

For the life of me I just can't figure out why this issue bothers these people enough that they'll devote so much time and money to fighting gay marriage? Maybe its against your religion, but what if I don't follow your religion, do I still have to do everything your religion says? No. Maybe its a social thing, its just not done, etc? Well, I don't know about you, but it seems society is changing pretty fast, and perhaps its time for the laws to catch up? Wherever its been legalized, things haven't descended into anarchy. The gates of hell haven't opened up and swallowed Canada whole.

Who does gay marriage hurt? No one that I can think of. Quite the opposite, it would seem to allow gay people to experience all these wonders of being married that opponents of gay marriage are so fervently trying to uphold. Why withhold such a wonderful thing from people just because they happen to be gay? I think there are far more pressing issues in the world today than who should be able to get married to who.

This morning, the police finally moved those Tamil protesters off of University Ave in front of the US Consulate. Its about time. Of course everyone has the right to protest, but shutting down a major street in downtown Toronto for 4 days is absolutely ridiculous and inexcusable.

How could the Toronto government allow the protest to go on for so long? Doesn't this set a horribly dangerous precedent? I mean, there always seems to be one group or another wanting to protest the US, is everyone now going to be allowed a few days? What if the next group isn't allowed as much time or space, how soon will the cries of discrimination fly? Where was David Miller in all of this?

Sad to see Columbus get swept last night, seemed to be a real feel good kind of story, they just had the unfortunate luck of meeting up with the Red Wings powerhouse in the first round. From all accounts it seemed like it was an exciting last game though, I say seemed like though since I couldn't actually watch it since it was on TSN2 which isn't available on Rogers. Maybe I'm remembering wrong or we've just been spoiled in the past, but every first round game has always been available on regular channels haven't they? This sucks, and is a dangerous precedent.

The other thing that sucks, TSN goes out and gets the rights to these playoff games, but just simulcasts the US broadcast, whether it be the VS. network (what a stupid name btw) or one team's local broadcast. Again, call me spoiled but American broadcasters just don't seem to call the game as well as on a Canadian broadcast. Give me Bob Cole, Jim Hughson or Chris Cuthbert damnit! Yes I'm biased, and maybe its more familiarity than anything else, but Canadian play by play guys don't seem to get as hyper, as super-worked up. They seem to just stick to calling the game and they don't over-explain every little detail. Same with the colour commentary guys. With the exception of Pierre Mcguire, it seems the Canadian colour guys stick to analyzing what's actually going on instead of just making outlandish statements or rambling on about god knows what. Again though, much of this is probably just my familiarity and comfort with the way I've grown up watching hockey.

"To blame Carey like that, singularly, is very frustrating," Laraque said. "We have the best fans in the world because it's sold out every game; but best fans means they are proud of the team, whether you win or you lose.

"The best fans don't embarrass our coach, they don't embarrass our team, they don't embarrass the players, they don't embarrass the goalie. When you're a proud Montreal Canadiens fan, you bleed the Canadiens; you don't do stuff like that."

So what you are saying then, Georges, is that actually you don't have the best fans because they constantly embarrass the team? Or they don't actually sell out unless the team is winning? Exactly. They are fickle, fair weather douchebags who love to brag about their 24 Stanley Cups like number 25 is just around the corner.

As glad as I am that the Habs got swept out of the playoffs, I have to admit I did feel a little bad for Carey Price. There are many many reasons the Habs got swept, but outside of a few questionable goals, Carey Price wasn't all that bad. When the team in front of you is can only score 6 goals through 4 games, I don't care how much a goalie stands on his head, you likely won't win.

He certainly didn't deserve the ridiculous jeering he got from the Montreal jackasses. Even more puzzling was the announcers reaction after Price did his Patrick Roy imitation and threw his arms up in the air after the crowd got on him for making an easy save. I didn't hear them once comment how stupid the fans were being, nope, just that Price shouldn't be doing that, he's got a long way to go, etc. The poor guy is in front of his own fans and he's getting booed mercilessly, what's so bad about showing that you actually give a shit and basically telling the fans to fuck off? Maybe it wasn't the smartest decision since it pretty much lets them know they're getting to you, but in my mind that's better than just not caring at all.

As for the rest of the Habs, that last game was just about the worst way you could go out. They started out well, scored 30 seconds into the game and dominated the first two-thirds of the first period. But Boston scored two late goals off of Montreal complete defensive breakdowns and that completely took any fight that was left out of them. From then on out, it almost felt like the Habs were just praying for the game to end, and Boston seemed to really let up.

Ahhh well, yet another year that Montreal won exactly the same thing as the Leafs, nothing. What a wonderful end to Montreal's centennial year that was supposed to end with the team's 25th cup! Oops. Though apparently next season is part of their 100th year celebrations too, so maybe that'll be the time.

Gainey asks Habs fans to stop being douchebags

Apparently Montreal Canadiens fans have renewed their retarded tradition of booing the US anthem, prompting coach and GM Bob Gainey to ask them to stop it. I really can't understand what the motivation even is to boo an anthem. First of all, this isn't an international tournament. It isn't USA vs. Canada, its a team full of players of mixed nationalities representing the city of Montreal versus a team full of players of mixed nationalities representing the city of Boston. Hell, Montreal has 4 American born players on their roster, are Habs fans booing their own team (they usually wait until later in the game to do that)? Regardless, even if this was an international tournament, you still don't boo the anthem.

What's the point anyways? Do you really think any of the Americans on the Bruins' roster are going to be so emotionally destroyed by some drunk frenchmen booing the Star Spangled Banner that they'll be unable to perform? It's silly, immature and disrespectful. It accomplishes nothing other than generating some bad press for your own team and your city.

Party Erupts in Downtown Vancouver

Why is it that Leafs fans get mocked relentlessly if we celebrate on Yonge Street when the Leafs win a series (hurr hurr that's all we have to celebrate, been a long time, etc) yet Vancouver (and Calgary, and Edmonton, and every other Canadian city) does it and its just a spontaneous outpouring of emotion and all great and wonderful and in good fun?