"It's just good business"

I don't watch a lot of movies but I was forced to sit through the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. If you ever saw the 2d and 3rd movies you might remember a certain Beckett guy who was rather fond of saying "it's just good business" or variations on that.

The point is?

Hockey is a business.

And since I've been thinking about that a lot, his stupid quote kept popping into my head (which is stupid but that's how my brain works).

As much as part of me really wanted to think that it was something else, at the end of the day, the bottom line is hockey is a business. It's a business that relies on people to invest emotionally in it (because when people are engaged emotionally, they will spend money). On the one hand it asks you to invest your emotions into the players, into the team. But on the other hand, it also plays the business the end when things don't work out. If a player leaves without a backwards glance to take a bigger paycheck somewhere else "just business". That's why we feel hurt. But we don't want to believe that hockey is merely a business. We've been told and we want to believe that it means more than that.

Of course that's how it works, right? The fans need to believe that hockey means more than just being a business. I'm not talking about for the fans emotional well being here. I'm talking about as a business, the fans need to believe it. Because if they don't then they won't pay. If everyone believed that hockey was just a business they wouldn't be willing to fork over the cash for the tickets to see these players. They wouldn't be willing to pay for the over-priced merchandise.

Does this mean that I'm going to stop watching hockey? Probably not. I think I can still enjoy the sport. But I think it's something to think about the next time a player gets traded or a UFA leaves. It's just business.

Although we all know how Beckett's business venture went... BOOM!:



How come all the "baddies" get the best death scenes?

(insert sappy title about Roger here)

©AELTC / B. Martin

Pete's taking this awfully well. Not that he has a choice *g*

Well, that certainly wasn't one of the prettier matches Roger has played in despite Roddick's very strong performance and the sheer length of the match (particularly set 5). I still didn't think it had the same drama as last year's final. But it would've been impossible to repeat that sort of drama from that match. So this year was a good match. A better match than anyone had anticipated. And I'm glad that Roger was made to work for his 15th title.

I also want to say I have huge amount of respect for Roddick right now. I admit he wasn't my favorite player but he's earned a lot of my respect during this tournament. My heart just broke for him after coming *this* close to winning it. That's definitely a heartbreaker. But I hope to see Andy around for a while yet. Keep it up, Andy =)

Love this video here that the ATP did. And Roger looks so cuuute as a little kid!

OH! And let's not forget a CANADIAN guy won something in tennis this weekend. Lost in the Roger drama was the men's doubels final on Saturday which pitted the creepy Bryan twins against the way cooler Canadian Daniel Nestor and Serbian Nenad Zimonjic. So big congrats to Danial and Nenad for winning =) I liked Nenad's little scream when he served up an ace after dumping the ball in the net repeatedly during the last game. Way to go guys!

15

Rafa germs? What Rafa germs?

(photo from here)

I missed the whole damn thing because I was at work, but Roger now has his record breaking 15th Grand Slam.

More sappyness to come soon =)

Roger vs Andy for the finals!

Whoo! Amid all this gloomy Habs stuff, I'm very happy to say that Roger is doing JUST what I wanted him to do. He's made it to the finals once again (7th straight!) with minimal stress. I've been a little underwhelmed by Wimbly this year if only because Roger was behaving like Good Roger instead of like Sick Roger for the most part. But Wimbly semi-finals are special because I first got into tennis during Nadal's semi-final match last year against.... Schuttler I think. Anyway, it's great to see Roger back in another final =)

Also in really good news, there will be no Andy Murray in the finals. Nope. Andy Roddick smashed him in 4 sets (and two tight tie-breaks). Still not sure if it was because Roddick has been playing some of his best tennis in a long time or if it was because Muz wasn't up to par. Maybe a mix of both? I think all the pressure was getting to Muz.

"*sighs* I'm getting bored hitting this..."

"Okay, how about a lovely Roger smash?"

"Load the ball on my racket, slave, and don't screw it up"

"Oh god... I'm actually breaking out into a sweat."

"I FLY!"

Haas: "ROGER! ROGER! Can I have one point? Please? Just one? I mean really, what do I have to do, imitate Sean Avery here?"
Roger: "Aww, alright, fine. But just one, okay?"

Mirka: "My boy is so much more awesome than your boy".

Meanwhile... Roddick finishes a tight 4 set win over Muz only to find out that he will be playing Roger.

"Ohmygod. Ohmygod!"

Looch for Team Canada?

It could happen. He was invited to the training camp in August. Seeing as I have Looch on the brain right now, I'd like to say that if he can promise not to take anyone's head off, he could be a good addition to the team. All he has to do is stand in front of the net threatening the goalie with physical harm, while the more talented people score.

And if Looch really really wants to be nice to me.... then he smash Crysob before the Olympics start so I don't have to worry about cheering against my country. C'mon Looch, you know you want to! We'll have enough other players who can score.

Anyway... the list of the remaining 46 players:

The goalies

Martin Brodeur (ew)
Roberto Luongo (yay?)
Marc-André Fleury (not Floppy Flambe)
Steve Mason (do we really want baby Steve?)
Cam Ward (Faily)

The D...

Jay Bouwmeester (he's Canadian?))
Dan Boyle (isn't he kinda ancient?
Scott Niedermayer (Surprise, surprise)
Chris Pronger (so he can elbow all those nasty Russians?)
Robyn Regehr (I totally didn't know he was Canadian either)
Dion Phaneuf (okay...)
Marc Staal (the non-creepy Staalclone)
Shea Weber (I want)
François Beauchemin (is he going to be a Hab?)
Brent Burns (erm..... I had no idea this guy existed)
Drew Doughty (oh I remember him)
Stéphane Robidas (hmmm)
Mike Green (YES! I WANT)
Dan Hamhuis (Yes)
Duncan Keith (He's a Peachhawk!)
Brent Seabrook (Peachbrook!)

The Twerpy Forwards

Sidney Crosby (UGH. DO NOT LIKE)
Shane Doan (hiii!)
Simon Gagné (hmmm)
Dany Heatley (EW. Do not want!)
Jarome Iginla (okie!)
Rick Nash (yes)
Joe Sakic (do they have snowblowers in Vancouver?)
Martin St-Louis (I want Shorty Marty)
Eric Staal (Staalclone..... eh)
Joe Thornton (No.)
Vincent Lecavalier (No)
Jeff Carter (hiiii)
Ryan Getzlaf (ew)
Milan Lucic (see above)
Patrick Marleau (erm)
Andy McDonald (I had no idea he existed either)
Brenden Morrow (wasn't he broken a lot last year?)
Corey Perry (twerpy!)
Mike Richards (eh, what the heck... can we have him?)
Derek Roy (ummm)
Patrick Sharp (oh yes!)
Ryan Smyth (umm)
Jordan Staal (ew)
Jonathan Toews (Captain Peachy!! Me want!)
Dan Cleary (sure)

My irrational thoughts about Komisarek the Leaf

See this? This is EP's hate-meter. It took about 5 seconds to think up. ANYWAY. As you can see, the Leafs rank the highest on the hate-meter followed by the Pens and then the Bruins (not sure what to do with the Flyers as their recent roster changes have made me slightly rethink how I felt about them last week.

Do you know what this means, Komisaurus?


It means, should Milan Lucic fight you when the Bruins and the Leafs play each other, that I will have no choice but to support Looch. I'm sorry, Mike. But I can't cheer for you. I can't. Leafs hate trumps everything. Everything.

I wished that you could've stayed. I really do. I liked you. A lot. I think you didn't live up to your potential this year, but not many players did. You're one of my Habs and I wished that it could've stayed that way. As it is, I'm kinda feeling a tad betrayed here. You could've picked so many teams. They told me that around TEN teams were interested in you. But you picked Toronto. You picked the Leafs. And in my very irrational state of mind right now, I'm very hurt by this. I respect that you're a free agent and have the freedom to chose whichever team you want but damnit, Mike, why the hell did you pick the Leafs? Damn.

I wish I could wish you the best of luck with your new team, but I can't. I'm sorry.

And Gainey.... I'm not happy with you right now. Not at all.

Disclaimer: I reserve the right to change my mind should Komisarek ever choose to leave Leafsnation. I also reserve the right to change my mind slightly once this has sunk in somewhat.

No words...

Komisarek is a Leaf.

And Begin is a Bruin.

And we have Gomez, Spacek, Cammalleri and... Hal Gill.

No news on our other UFAs/RFAs.

okay, I'm going to get sappy for a second here

Look, we all know that this is only my second time going through free agency. The first time, the only major player that we lost was Streit and I didn't know enough about the Habs to care that much.

This time is different.

This time I've watched these guys for a whole season. Especially after the season that we've had, I feel like they're almost family at this point - sounds silly, but remember I've watched them almost every night, talked and wrote about them every day. I know I say I'm a fan of the Montreal Canadiens, but in truth, right now, I'm a fan of the guys on the ice. It may sound like a slight difference, but it's totally different as I'm sitting here, less than one hour away from when most of our 2008-2009 Habs are about to walk away as free agents. I know it's all part of the whole thing, but it's still making me sad right now. These are the guys that made me love this team. For me, this guys were the Montreal Canadiens.

I'm sure I'll get over this at some point, but right now, I'm just sad....