NYT: Flaws in the Canuck Character?

Did you notice any Canadians yesterday wrestling "with questions about possible flaws in the national character after a riot in Vancouver?"

I didn't (and isn't that a bit of a racially - or at least nationally - loaded suggestion).

But like many, I sure was glad to see Tomas Kaberle win the Stanley Cup.

What team does he play for now, anyway?

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

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4 and 0

Leafs beat Rangers 4-3 in overtime.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

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Rose Coloured Hockey Visors

Pension Plan Puppets' tongue-in-cheek commentary on last evening's 4-1 exhibition victory by the Toronto Maple Leafs over the hated Ottawa Senators:

...Break Up the Leafs

The only fair thing to do after a performance like last night's is to force the Leafs to tear apart this juggernaut. No one likes watching a sport dominated by one single team.

PPP is one of the better of the many excellent hockey blogs now online. Smart, funny and insightful.

Now that hockey season is back, give it a read. You may never feel the need to pick up a newspaper sports section again.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

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The Newest Leaf

Former Chicago Black Hawk, Kris Versteeg, acquired by the Toronto Maple Leafs in a five-player trade last night:

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

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On Sidney Crosby, Olympic Hockey and U.S. Flag Desecration (!)

CTV News: Canadians in U.S. may face charges for hockey celebration

Police in California say two Canadians who took down an American flag and replaced it with a Canadian following Sidney Crosby's golden goal at the Olympics could face charges of vandalism and flag desecration.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

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Obama Spokesman Loses Bets, Dons Canada Hockey Sweater at White House Briefing

Meet Robert Gibbs, White House Press Secretary:

Feast your eyes, Canada...

MSNBC tells the story:

The White House spokesman came to his daily on-camera briefing on Friday wearing a red-and-white Canadian hockey jersey — the result of not one, but two losing bets on the U.S.-Canadian rivalry at the recent Winter Olympics.

The first wager was on the women's gold medal game. Canada won.

Then it was the men's contest, and Gibbs went double-or-nothing with Dimitri Soudas, who's the spokesman for Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Gold again for Canada.

I understand Mr. Gibbs is betting against the public option, too. With his batting average, perhaps there's still hope, yet...

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

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Canadian Water Consumption During Olympic Hockey Final

Another great Canadian tradition in action.

Apparently, we tended to wait - en-masse - for breaks in the action before visiting our restrooms.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

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Re: Hockey Celebrations at Dundas Square, Toronto

Memo to Phil Kessel, Dion Phaneuf, Luke Schenn, Nazem Kadri et al.:

See the video below:

I understand it won't be this year, but we'd like to do this again soon, please.

Yours very truly,

WISE LAW BLOG

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

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Canada Wins Olympic Hockey Gold!!!

Team Canada has just captured Olympic hockey gold, with a stunning 3-2 overtime win over Ryan Miller and his never-say-die American team.

Sidney Crosby scored the winning goal for Canada at 7:40 of the gold medal game's overtime period.

The gutsy Americans battled back from a 2-0 deficit, forcing overtime with a Zach Parise goal that tied the game with only 24 seconds to go in the third period.

The American team wins silver medals with the loss.

But Canada gets gold - and the last laugh, this time around.

Simply awsome!

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

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Sour Grapes In Beantown Over Phil Kessell

Departing briefly from our usual banter...

The Toronto Maple Leafs' acquisition yesterday of 21 year old right-winger and sniper, Phil Kessell, from the Boston Bruins has left a very bitter aftertaste with some in the Bruins' corner.

Boston Herald writer Stephen Harris:

If [Kessell] thinks changing teams will make everything better, he needs to contemplate the axiom, “The grass is not always greener on the other wide of the fence.”

Toronto longed seemed his likely destination. Kessel now has the privilege of playing in a city where hockey is more a passionate religion than mere sport; with fans presuming he’ll be an automatic 50-goal-scoring savior and anything less will be seen as failure; for a coach, Ron Wilson, who can be mean, sarcastic and nasty; and a GM, Burke, who can be as intimidating as anyone in the league.

Good luck, Phil. You may be in for an unpleasant surprise or two.

...Kessel got a heck of a deal financially. But it seems obvious what would have been the best outcome for him: Take the offer from the B’s and stay right where he was. It’s unfortunate that won’t happen, maybe for Kessel most of all.

Bruins blogger, Jess Connelly, shares his pain:

It didn't have to end this way. Phil Kessel could have remained part of the core, a key cog to build around for years to come in the city of Boston. He could've helped bring the organization it's first championship in nearly four long, arduous decades. He could've ruled this town, representing the Black and Gold at All Star Game after All Star Game, contending for the Maurice "Rocket" Richard trophy season after season. His efforts and accomplishments over the next decade and beyond would've meant the world to championship-starved fans of the B's. With $27 million making it's way to his bank account over the next five years, however, we now know what really matters to Phil Kessel.

Hmm..

For the first time in years, I have a feeling the Leafs are about to make a bit of noise around the NHL.

I might actually start watching hockey again.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

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Canadian Competition Bureau Has Eye on Coyotes Puck

As the hockey world awaits the reserved decision of Arizona Bankruptcy Judge Redfield T. Baum on Jim Balsillie's auction bid to buy the Phoenix Coyotes, the Toronto Star reports that the Canadian Competition Bureau may investigate and intervene if the Toronto Maple Leafs veto a subsequent relocation of the NHL franchise to Hamilton:

The Canadian Competition Bureau is keeping an eagle eye on Jim Balsillie's fight to buy the Phoenix Coyotes, and is ready to swoop in if the Maple Leafs veto the franchise's move to Hamilton.

..."We are seized by the matter, and we are monitoring it very closely," Richard Taylor, the deputy commissioner of competition, civil matters, told the Star yesterday.

"We are concerned," Taylor said. "We are looking at all the paperwork that's coming out of the proceedings and we will take action if we believe that the veto that Toronto thinks they have is exercised and blocks a team. The exercise of the veto that effectively blocked a team from moving would raise concerns for us and would be something we would investigate."

...Taylor would not go so far as to say the Competition Bureau would definitely investigate the Coyotes case.

"We have to be presented with an anti-competitive act, not the possibility of an anti-competitive act," he said.

"We can't go off pre-emptively and stop something that hasn't happened yet just because it may happen, just because the Leafs say they have a veto, and just because many people believe they will exercise it. We have said and continue to say that if a veto is exercised that effectively blocks a team coming into another team's territory, we will look at it and that includes using all our powers to investigate it and determine whether it violates our act."

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

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Balsillie Back in Coyote Hunt

Research in Motion owner Jim Balsillie appears to be very much back in the game after a ruling Wednesday by U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Redfield T. Baum.

Judge Baum held that all bids to purchase the Phoenix Coyotes will be considered in a September 10th auction of the team, including bids by prospective owners who intend to move the team outside the Phoenix market.

If successful, Mr. Balsillie seeks to relocate the hockey club to Hamilton, Ontario.

Hockey Buzz' writer Steven Hindle argues Jim Balsillie Will Outbid Everybody For the Phoenix Coyotes:

Balsillie really will do everything and anything he can to make sure no one else gets the Coyotes. Now that he is legally allowed to bid, what is going to stop him?

He is by far the most hungry of all potential owners and he will have no problem increasing the amount he is already willing to pay, if he must.

The Board of Governors have sent Balsillie their seal of disapproval many times, yet this time around, Judge Baum has truly given Balsillie's 'Make it Seven' campaign some serious life.

The Globe and Mail's take - Smart lawyer is Balsillie’s ace in the hole:

It isn’t tough to find someone to malign Richard Rodier, chief counsel to Jim Balsillie in his quest to secure an NHL franchise for Hamilton.

He has been described as a “rogue” lawyer, has been blamed in some circles for Balsillie’s failure to make friends among the NHL’s governors, has rubbed people the wrong way, has been accused of leading the billionaire down a quixotic path that can’t possibly end in success.

Bankruptcy law is Rodier’s world. When it became clear that there was no direct route to NHL ownership for Balsillie – or at least NHL ownership in Hamilton – the entire strategy shifted to finding a club teetering on the brink, to find an owner who had lost faith, who needed to get out and get out fast.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

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Phoenix Judge Rejects Balsillie's Hamilton NHL Bid

Via CBC:

Canadian billionaire Jim Balsillie's bid to buy the Phoenix Coyotes and move the NHL team to Hamilton was rejected Monday by an Arizona bankruptcy judge.

Balsillie, the co-CEO of Research In Motion Ltd., maker of the BlackBerry smartphone, had imposed a June 29 deadline to complete the sale — hoping to speed up the process and have the team ready to play in Hamilton for the 2009-10 season.

But in a ruling handed down late Monday, Judge Redfield Baum said "this court is unconvinced that it should order that the NHL must decide the relocation application to meet the June 29 deadline."

"The motion is denied, without prejudice," Baum wrote.

Judge Baum's ruling is now online in PDF format.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

UPDATE:

Judge Baum's ruling notwithstanding, Mr. Balsillie indicates his bid to purchase the Coyotes will be moving forward.

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NHL, Balsillie Litigate Phoenix Coyotes' Future

The battle between the National Hockey League and Canada's Blackberry billionaire, Jim Basillie, over the future of the Phoenix Coyotes franchise is shaping up as one of the most interesting - and important - professional sports litigation cases in recent history.

While its current venue is an Arizona bankruptcy court, the case may ultimately break now ground in establishing the conditions under which professional sports leagues will be permitted to limit the mobility of their franchises and protect the territorial exclusivity of member teams.  

Sports writer Howard Berger provides his take:

The battle for control of the Phoenix Coyotes has simmered for the moment, but will pick up with a vengeance when the opposing sides re-convene in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Arizona on May 19th. If Judge Redfield T. Baum rules that the Coyotes belong to Jerry Moyes, and can therefore file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and be sold to the highest bidder [Jim Balsillie], the NHL will surely appeal the decision, delaying not only the potential movement of the franchise, but the timely completion of a schedule for the 2009-10 season.

It’s anyone’s guess as to how the dispute will be won, but I am most intrigued by Balsillie’s accusation in a separate claim that the NHL is running an “illegal cartel”. For many years, I have wondered about the unilateral declaration of territorial claim that is common in all professional leagues, but doesn’t appear to be constitutional. In a free-enterprise system, competing factions are encouraged to exist in proximity to one another; it’s the reason a Burger King restaurant can set up shop across the street from an existing McDonald’s franchise. Such an arrangement satisfies anti-trust regulations by discouraging monopolistic tendencies.

Professional sport, however, is largely built on monopolizing lucrative territory; its clubs command astronomical indemnification from groups that wish to invade turf that is already “owned”. It is believed that team and league executives liberally collude to prevent competition – a charge, in the NHL, that is frequently brought against the Maple Leafs and the commissioner’s office. This appears to contravene the rules the rest of our society lives by and it isn’t clear how it might withstand a vigorous legal challenge. What is clear is that such a challenge could be fashioned by money-bags Balsillie, and there’s no telling how it might impact the accepted rule in pro sport. 

The reversal of such a long-term practice could affect the most routine elements of sport – those which are overlooked in legal circles for being internally policed...

The Burger King-McDonald's analogy doesn't quite hold up - while McDonald's franchisees may well bear the risk of competition from other arm's-length businesses, they typically have contractual protection from the possibility that the franchisor will open another McDonald's outlet across the street. 

Canada.com's John Mackinnon worries that Balsillie's alleged end-run around the NHL's procedures could cause "untold damage" to the NHL boardroom:

It's a Canadian conceit that placing franchises in Winnipeg, Quebec City and southern Ontario is a patriotic imperative, while hoping the sport will bloom in the Arizona desert or flourish under Florida palm trees is outright lunacy.

...Permitting an undeniably bright, deep-pockets entrepreneur like Balsillie to dictate his own terms of entry and set up shop where he darn well pleases could do untold damage to the dynamic around the board table. It beggars common sense to think the governors are anxious to welcome a partner whose approach to franchise ownership is Robert Irsay meets Al Davis.

Irsay was the man who literally packed up the assets of the Colts in Baltimore back in March 1984 and executed the old midnight move to Indianapolis.

Davis ("Just win, baby") successfully used anti-trust legislation to move his Raiders from Oakland to Los Angeles and back again.

There was nothing the NFL could do about it.

Irsay and Davis succeeded, all right, but that sure doesn't make them role models.

Perhaps, but isn't it clear that the real reason for Mr. Balsillie's aggressive tact is that he's become justifiably convinced the NHL will never, under ordinary circumstances, award a franchise to Hamilton.  Plainly, the unbending and long-established territorial-exclusivity claims of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Buffalo Sabres organizations are not far beneath the surface of this litigation. 

The pending Coyotes litigation will likely put these territorial rights - and the NHL's ability to protect them - to their ultimate, and perhaps overdue, legal test.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

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Hockey Anthem Finalists Online

The submissions of CBC's five Hockey Anthem Challenge finalists are now online.

Check them out. Numbers 1 and 4 get my nod.

For those of us in Toronto Maple Leaf - land, the music had better be good, because what we're seeing on the ice probably won't be getting us on our feet very much....

It is starting to look like another year of cheering for ABM.*

*Anyone but Montreal

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

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Toronto Hockey League Threatens Suspensions over "Discriminatory, Offensive" Facebook Postings

I'm taking holiday break from serious blogging over the next few days, but will be returning to the free speech fracas that has been ongoing here and elsewhere in the blogosphere.

In the interim, I came across this short article from Garth Woolsey about threats of suspension by the Greater Toronto Hockey League over "offensive" Facebook postings by its players about opposing teams and individuals.

I expect it will be relevant to subsequent discussions. See Facebook fouls get warning from GTHL:

Minor hockey officials are blowing the whistle on Facebook faceoffs before they get out of hand.

Alerted to players using the social networking website to post comments about other players and teams, the Greater Toronto Hockey League has issued an alert to its member teams.

"Many of these discussions are productive and in good taste," reads the memorandum, dated Dec. 20, a copy of which was obtained by the Star, "there are also many that are not.

"The GTHL has already taken action against several players because of discriminatory language and threats that were posted utilizing this site," continues the bulletin signed by GTHL executive director Scott Oakman.

Recipients were asked to pass the message along to all players and parents.
Oakman wrote that the league had already taken action due to the "indiscretions of certain players," and set a deadline of Jan.5 for the removal of any Facebook comments "that could be considered discriminatory or threatening in nature."

After Jan.5 offenders will be subject "to immediate suspension, or other appropriate discipline, regardless of when the posting was made."

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

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Happy Saturday

Via Canada's answer to Perez Hilton (as if we needed one...), who caused quite a stir last week with unmentionable pics of a certain professional hockey player in Toronto.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

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Is Saku Koivu a Threat to the French Language?

I believe the appropriate response to this kind of silliness is "stick a puck in it..."

CBC has the story:

The Montreal Canadiens are defending team captain Saku Koivu after his poor French was criticized at a "reasonable accommodation" commission hearing.

In his testimony at the Bouchard-Taylor commission hearings in Quebec City Tuesday, lawyer Guy Bertrand used Koivu as an example of how Quebec is forced to make "unacceptable" linguistic accommodations that threaten French.

When called to speak in front of fans at the Bell Centre, Koivu speaks English, even though Quebec's Bill 101 enshrines the right of Quebecers to be spoken to in French, Bertrand said.

... Parti Québécois Leader Pauline Marois suggested Tuesday that Canadians players who don't speak French should perhaps take lessons to learn.

I would be surprised if attacking the beloved Habs makes for good politics in Quebec.

On the other hand, here in Toronto, it might score a few points.

But definitely not on this issue.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

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