Helping the players with their CBA proposal, and other Leaflets
Cam Charron
October 09 2012 04:16PM
The salary cap is frustrating to some. I find it frightfully interesting, and I'm not sure if Donald Fehr's threat to remove the salary cap really benefits most of the players in the NHL.
What's ended up happening in the capped league is that the best players signed contracts for millions of dollars, locking them into a set dollar figure even while the cap around them rose. That gave teams the room to sign depth players, who make up the majority of union membership.
So perhaps Fehr's threat is harmless. It throws a wrench into this lockout speculation though, and I'm sure one of our lawyer friends speculated that the Players' Association might look into removing the cap.
PDO, or why the Leafs fell apart last spring
Cam Charron
October 09 2012 12:50PM
He's playing with a relatively newfound commitment and dedication in all three zones – the 200-foot player as Brian Burke likes to describe it. Winning battles along the boards, chipping pucks out in the defensive zone, back-checking with vigour, [He] is dedicating himself to the finer elements of the game.
Which Toronto Maple Leaf is Jonas Siegel writing about in this paragraph from October 16, 2011? Click past the jump to find out.
The "Hockey Not in Canada" protest is mis-guided and counter-productive
Cam Charron
October 08 2012 10:43AM
The Toronto Marlies home opener. The Barrie Colts and the Sudbury Wolves. Drive a little north, and you get the Oshawa Generals on the road against the stacked Belleville Bulls. That doesn't count Friday night's game where Ottawa visit Mississauga, or Sunday's matinee where the Saginaw Spirit pay a visit to the Brampton Battalion.
This also doesn't include the countless minor hockey and junior games taking place around the province and country. Yes, next Saturday's "Hockey Not in Canada" protest organized by some folks over at We Want A Cup dot Com is not only counter-productive, but also shortsighted and indicative of Canada's dirty secret.
Video breakdown: Marlies beat the Bulldogs 3-1 in Cobourg
Cam Charron
October 07 2012 08:25AM
Well, the Toronto Marlies defeated the Hamilton Bulldogs 3-1 in Cobourg Saturday night. If the highlight video is any indication, it may be useful to not watch any highlight videos without first turning off your computer speakers. This is the time of year when the familiar sounds of sticks, pucks and skates are expected and perhaps the Marlies would have been better off letting the sounds of the game explain themselves.
So, what happened in each of the above clips? Well, I'll break down the video, quite literally:
0:00 - 0:02: Ben Scrivens and Mark Owuya lead the team out onto the ice.
0:03 - 0:04: Nazem Kadri, Greg Scott and Jesse Blacker are seen lining up for the national anthem.
The Toronto Maple Leafs after 78 games
Cam Charron
October 05 2012 01:29PM
So we all know that the National Hockey League has cancelled the schedule on 82 games, which has, in essence, cost the Toronto Maple Leafs four games on the schedule unless the league pretends they can tack those games somewhere once a deal gets done October 24th. (right?)
Let's pretend for a brief second that the NHL season last year was only 78 games. What would have happened to the Leafs? We do know that Toronto had a very strong and unsustainable first half of the year, so would they have been closer to the playoffs?
Eastern Conference standings after 78 games:
