Well... the good news is I saw Roger...

...the bad news is that he choked like someone stuffed one of those oversized tennis balls down his throat and lost the 3rd set after being up BY TWO BREAKS.

*sobs*

Clearly, I am not allowed to watch Roger live anymore. Which is a real pity because he's just so much more awesome when you see him in person.

*sobs more*

How could you, Roger? How could you? You are breaking my heart.... And I can't even stare at my favorite Soxie tonight as he decided to take the night off. Bah!

Oh well. At least I have PICTURES of ROGER though. There really no such thing as a bad picture of Roger. He is just so... photogenic. Go look! XD

Rogers Cup

So.... yeah... GO ANYBODY BUT MUZZY! Hopefully Rafa. But I'll take the Real Andy or Nole or even Delpo. Or heck, I'll cheer on the Chubby French Dude too. Just not Muzzy.

Oh hey! Who's going to see Roger tomorrow?!

OH YEAH! The dudes in charge of the schedule decided to be nice to me and saw to it that I'd be watching Roger tomorrow. YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!

Anyway... So over the last couple of days, it was really "let's see how many times we can make countrymen play each other".

• Nadal took on Ferrer last night and won in 36 minutes. Mainly because the wrong Spaniard had the knee problems and had to retire.
• Nadal next faced the not-Spanish Philippe Pet..shc..Petschner... Petzschner... and won.
• Tsonga faced Simon tonight and the Chubby French Dude won. I loved how they were both yelling and making faces... and then they promptly kissed and made up at the end (hmm, I'll be honest though, it wasn't anything like the kiss Monfils gave Simon a few months ago).
• Roger faced poor Stan and he promptly beat poor Stan. Both were seriously cranky tonight though and as the errors piled up they were yelling away. They bothed also piled on the "oh why me?" looks. So cute.
• Delpo, Nole, Muz, and Davydenko all made it through without playing their countrymen (mainly 'cause Muz doesn't have any Brits to play and all the other Argentine's have disappeared)
• Verdasco and Roddick also had a great match which I missed most of...

Tomorrow I will get some doubles match that I might skip, Muz vs Davy aaaaaaaaandddddd Roger vs the CFD! AIEEEEEE! =)

Oh and... Look. We love Roger:

This picture is so full of win

...even if poor Niemeyer wasn't. But he gets major bonus points for showing up to his match against Roger in this:

Photograph by: THE GAZETTE/Alle McInnis

YAY! How could I have ever said a mean thing about this guy? He is CLEARLY full of win. Just not in tennis exactly...

What is almost as cool as live hockey?!

LIVE TENNIS!

Yup. So for anyone who cares, the Rogers Cup is in town for the week. This means BIG tennis names come to my hockey city at a time when us hockey fans are ready to check ourselves into the insane asylum because there is no hockey. Because all the big names are so cool, they got a bye into the second round which meant us people watching the first round didn't get to see them on Monday. HOWEVER! All was not lost! Nope. Mr. Marat "I have Anger Management Issues" Safin saved the night by blowing up when he lost to the Monfils dude. Not the highest quality match ever but totally fun just the same. I loved it when Safin blew up and tried to homer one of the balls. He should've takened up baseball instead *g*

Monfils vs Safin

My session was supposed to include Gilles "EP still hates you for knocking out Roger last year" Simon and Frank "Umm I'm the top ranked Canadian guy at 105th in the world. Yay?" Dancevic but the weather didn't cooperate so we left after the match being delayed TWICE.

I'm was a little mopey because STAN was playing in the earlier part of the day on Monday while ROGER was going to be playing on Tueday NIGHT when I had tix for the afternoon.... but as it happened, I was supposed to end up with Muz and Nole instead. Of course I was really worried about the weather and how that would screw up my plans to see these guys but I worried pretty much for naught.

Today started off with Hewitt and Ferrero. I was hoping for a bit more from Hewitt but it was not to be and he lost to Ferrero. No worries! Muz was next! Oh wait, I don't like Muz... But Muz is a talented player and now I can say I've seen (and quietly) booed Muz. It's nothing personal Muz. It's just you know.... you're not nice to Roger. ANYWAY. Muzzy smushed Chardy and the hot weather smushed me... And I wanted to smush those annoying group of kids across the court who kept screaming "ANDY MURRAY". Poop. At there were long rallies! And no more fail dropshots of last night. And no more failsmashes from earlier.

Chardy and Muz at the coin toss

Because the weather stopped working after Muz won, we had to wait an HOUR before Nole could come back onto the court and win.

I am the weather. I suck.

So after wondering if the weather would clear up... It did! So they dried the court up...

They dry the courts with a billion of these things!

And play got underway!

I am Super Novak! POW!

Umm excuse me? Umm over here! Yeah. I exist you know *pouts*

Anyway... despite actually liking Nole, I had a problem. Because Nole was playing a canuck. Never heard of poor Peter Polansky before today (and apparently neither had the umpire as he kept on forgetting his name *G*). I didn't really know who to cheer for. It wasn't easy. Mind you...we Canadians are NOT patriotic about our tennis. Mainly because we suck at tennis. But we tried to back our guys a bit. Even if they were getting beat up. Simon ended up decimating Dancevic after I left yesterday, Polansky put up a good fight - probably the best out of the three Canucks even if I missed most of Roger/Niemeyer match - but lost in straight sets... and Niemeyer? Well, he was killed tonight by the Fed. Speaking of which....

While I was trying to cheer for Polansky while hoping that Nole would win so I could go home and eat dinner (it was 6:00 by this time), guess who showed up in the box seats not that far from me? ROGER! HE WAS THERE. Probably like... 50 feet from me. I was going to be content with being in the same city as him but NO. He just had to SHOW UP! I guess he was wondering how long Nole was going to take... While the stupid rules said I wasn't allowed to use my awesome camera during the match, I just ignored it and took a pic of Roger anyway. It's Roger. I may not get a chance to take a pic of the TMF (the Mighty Fed) this close again. Behold:

I am Roger. I am reading something. You can see my perfect hair through the glass even

So really, spent a good part of Nole's match looking at Roger. Didn't want to get into any trouble (the dudes are seriously strict at this stupid event) so I didn't take any more pics of the TMF. So sorry to my Canuck and to Nole. You're just not in the same level of awesomness as the TMF.

CONLUSION: I LOVE LIVE TENNIS! Even if it follow no time frame whatsoever. And even though the weather can screw you over. And even if they hire dumbos. I will be back Friday with a final assement =)

Two random things:

• There were WAAAAAAAAY too many people in Yankees stuff. There was a kid in a Crysob shirt. And there was a guy in a Leafs hat. I went insane.
• However, I did see this among the items that they were randomly auctioning off:

OVIE!!!! There was some Crysob failthing too but Ovie was cooler. Obviously.

Stewie is staying!

WHAT TOOK SO LONG?!!!!! Whatever. Doesn't matter. Stewie is OFFICIALLY staying!

Canadiens General Manager Bob Gainey announced Monday the signing of forward Gregory Stewart to a one-year contract (2009-10). As per club policy, financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Last season, Stewart took part in 17 of the Canadiens’ final 25 regular-season contests after being recalled from the Hamilton Bulldogs on February 17. In 2008-09, the 23-year-old registered one point (1 assist) with 32 penalty minutes and averaged 8:36 of ice time in 20 contests with Montreal. He also scored 17 points (7 goals, 10 assists) and posted a plus-8 rating while leading the Hamilton Bulldogs with 170 penalty minutes in 51 AHL games. Stewart skated in two NHL (Canadiens) and two AHL (Hamilton) playoff games in 2008-09.

In 2007-08, in his first AHL campaign, Stewart amassed 17 points (10 goals, 7 assists) and served 137 penalty minutes in 69 games with Hamilton. The 6-2, 200-pound right-winger completed the season by making his NHL debut with the Canadiens on April 5, 2008.

Born in Kitchener, Ontario, Stewart was selected in the eighth round by the Canadiens, 246th overall, at the 2004 NHL Entry Draft.

YAY!

Why this Phoenix thing has Canadians mad

So I knew my previous post about wishing for a separate league for Canadian teams would raise some hell. I was sort of prepared for it. But I wasn't exactly prepared to be told that I was acting like a bit of a snob about the sport. It surprised me because I never considered myself a hockey snob before. As far as most Canadian fans go, I always thought I was very open. But upon thinking about, I had to admit that I was coming to this issue with a certain bias. It got me thinking about what hockey meant to Canadians and why we were so upset over this issue.

Even before I started following NHL hockey, I grew up hearing about hockey. I grew up with this belief that hockey somehow our sport. Regardless of whether I watched it, it was still my country's sport. It was still something that country did. It didn't necessarily mean that we were always the best (although we really wanted to be) or that other countries shouldn't be allowed to play the game. But there was this underlying belief that we Canadians had some type of special connection with the sport. I'm not saying that we're right to hold these beliefs but that's the way it is around here.

Canadians are not blatant about their patriotism. That is a fact. We do not often go on TV and start saying things like "We're proud to be Canadian" or similar things. We seem to find it slightly distasteful. However, there is one thing that pretty much every Canadian will get behind. And that is hockey. When I got into watching the Habs, I wasn't at all prepared for the legions and legions of fans of the team. I was quite honestly shocked. Having the whole city back a hockey team seemed crazy to me (who always seemed to get into things that nobody else seemed to like). But it was crazy awesome. It was crazy awesome that people of all kinds of different backgrounds would get together and talk about this team. I met people from Germany and the UK - people who hadnt' really heard of hockey before coming here - who watched the team. Look at poor Nazem Kadri, the Leafs top draft pick this year. His family is from Lebanon. His grandparents had never heard of hockey before. Apparently they know all about hockey now and they watch him all the time. Hockey is something that Canadians - who generally prefer to keep to themselves - will actually bond together over.

Now bring in Gary Bettman. Since Bettman has been commisioner, four teams have been added to the NHL (two appeared to already be in the works just before he came in) as well as four teams have been relocated (two from Canada). With the exception of the Wild, all these teams are in non-traditional hockey markets. Dallas, Phoenix, Nashville, Tampa Bay.... these cities dont' even get snow (and no, it's not exactly a sticking point for Canadians but it sums up our feeling about these teams). But it's not necessarily the untraditionalness of the franchise locations that's irksome to Canadians.

I think there really is a feeling that "our" sport is being taken away from us to a certain degree. We see all these teams going into markets in the USA. We see OUR teams leaving OUR country for the USA. We have to sit by and watch as our former teams either gain success in another place (like the Avs) or struggle epically to get people in the building (like the Coyotes). We see our players, players who many of us watched and supported as juniors, players who WE developed, leave in droves for teams in the USA - either because they were drafted by one of the 24 American teams or sought the nice big payrolls with American teams (that latter problem has been solved to a certain degree by the salary cap although Canadian teams are still at a disadvantage). We feel like they're trying to take over and push us out. Some of us feel like they're trying to turn it into a hockey version of the MLB, NBA or the NFL- which are very "American". We don't like it. We're not anti-American. We don't hate our neighbors. But when we see these teams in places where nobody goes to watch them and we see the league repeatedly defend them and say that it's feasible to keep a team in there, we wonder why our neighbors are being so mean to us.

Isn't it enough that you have your own sports? We wonder. You have the MLB, the NFL and the NBA. We admit that the NBA is YOUR sport. We admit that Toronto's NBA and MLB teams suck. You may have ruined my baseball team, but you can keep your streroid ridden MLB. And by all means keep your NFL too. But why are you trying to take away OUR sport from us? Why do we have to BEG for a chance to get another team in our country? We might not have the oodles of money that you have (err had) but we love our teams. It sounds cheesy but it's true.

It's hard for other people to get why we get up in arms about hockey. To most other people it's just a sport. But for Canadians, it's more than that. It's something we bond over. It's the one thing we're not shy to be patriotic about - and that is seriously saying something. So when we feel that the league is trying to take take away or hog a game that means way more than Bettman can understand, it makes us mad.

Make it Seven a new league?

A few days ago I picked up the book "A Hundred Years of Glory" from the library. It's about the Canadiens (duh) and it goes through their history. Of the many interesting bits in the book, one that caught my interest was the creation of the NHL. I'm sure I had heard about it before, but this was really the first time that I was paying attention. Basically, Eddie Livingstone, who owned a team in Toronto, got into a dispute with the four other teams in the NHA. Instead of suspending Livingstone from their league, the other owners created a new league - the NHL - and excluded Livingstone.

After reading the latest in this whole Phoenix soap opera - in which the BOG voted 26-0 against Balsillie owning a NHL team with the Bruins and Wild stating that they don't want Basillie to own a team because they don't think he is trustworthy - I have to ask: Why can't we just create our own league and leave out Bettman and all these teams that are failing epically because they're in places where the majority of people dont' care? Why do we have to put up with this crap from Bettman and co?

Bettman seems to be trying to create a hockey version of the MLB and the NBA. The only problem is, it's not working very well because well, hockey isn't particularly big in places like Phoenix. The situation with these teams - which isn't limited to Phoenix, but is definitely highlighted by this franchise - is getting ridiculous at this point. There is no reason why teams who are doing well financially (particularly those here in Canada) should be trying to pay life support for floundering teams in the desert or on the beach. And there is no reason why they should even be in that market when someone is offering to spend a lot of money to move them to a city in which people might actually want to go watch them (shocker, I know).

A report in 2008 has the six Canadian teams generating a third of the league's ticket revenue. Another report from the year before, had the Leafs paying up between 9 and 10 million to the league's revenue sharing fund (which is apparently the most of the Canadian teams). So Canadian teams pay to keep the Phoenix and Atlantas teams alive and what do we get for it? We get to watch our money go down the drain as these teams lose millions of a year. We get to watch as the players that we spend years developing get to play for these crappy teams who wind up dead last. And we get to hear people tell us that it's not financially feasible to have teams in Canada.

If Canada can have it's own (American/Canadian) football league then I think Canada can definitely support it's own hockey league. Sure, it'd be be smaller. Sorta. We could add teams in Winnepeg, Hamilton and Quebec City among other places and once Gary's Sunbelt League fails, then we'd just absorb the not faily teams. We'd probably have way less money to spend on players (which is fine. Who getting paid 10 million dollars a year makes you a better player?). But we'd have people who cared. We would have people filling the buildings. And in this perfect hypothetical scenerio, we wouldn't have another version of Gary Bettman.

Look, I get that there's a lot of logistics into forming a seperate league but it's something to ask least talk about for the heck of it. I'm just getting seriously fed up of Bettman and his stupid ideas. And if the BOG wasn't stuck inside Bettman's pocket, then I'd say they should stand up to him as well.

Edit: Here's a lovely rant by number31 on the same topic. And Preds on the Glass has an interesting "nightmare" scenerio for Bettman.

Quote of the Day

Some poor stinker who commented on a TSN story about the WJC (who's summer camp got underway this week) had this to say:

As much as I love the world juniors more than anything, I really don't care about the summer camp. Its summer, can we go...two weeks without talking about hockey?

I had to mention it here because I think it's like the antithesis of what happens on this blog. It may be hot outside and there may be very little hockey being played, but that is no excuse not to talk about the wonderful sport. There is no offseason.