the 4th star

Hello.

The year is coming to a close and with so much going on in the House of Wazoo today, there will be no posts. Other than this one, of course. The year 2009 is ending on a better note than the 2008 campaign did, and that alone should be reason to celebrate this evening. Don’t know how many of you noticed, but a little anniversary passed over the last week. Hardcore readers will quickly point out that this blog has been in operation for a few years now, but that’s not what I’m getting at. A year (and one week) ago today, the 4th Star made a conscious effort to increase the frequency of posts to a quasi-daily regular schedule. It wasn’t every day but it was more often than not, so I guess the objective has been reached. Let’s see if we can keep this thing going.

The goal was simple: Keep trying out some new things with the writing, maybe offer a comment on a few touchy subjects, and keep the five people who care to visit interested. Maybe offer some laughs along the way through pictures of cheerleaders and self-deprecation, too.

It’s been a great year (plus seven days). Thanks to all who have dropped by to check it out, and thanks to those who continue to stop by. And a special stick-tap to those who are bold enough to state their own opinions to what’s going on in the comment section and through emails. I hope that interactive part of the site continues to grow moving forward. Discussion on things that don’t matter are the things that matter the most sometimes. Funny how that works.

Take care of yourself tonight. Don’t be an idiot. And watch out for girls in masks.

With the American Olympic men’s hockey team still to be announced (on New Year’s Day), it might be a good time to take a look at who the smart money is on as we prepare for an agonizing six weeks of waiting for the Vancouver tournament to begin. Longley points out today that Canada and Russia are the early clubhouse favourites:

The host Canadian squad will enter the competition as the prohibitive favourite at odds of better than even money. Mike Babcock’s team is listed at odds of 4/5 by online bookmaker, Bowmans.com, a much stronger choice than the Russian team, which is the second fave at 5-2.

The rest of the countries are prohibitive underdogs. Sweden is at 6-1, while the U.S. come in at 9-1. Next is the Czech Republic (12-1), Finland (16-1), and Slovakia (25-1). The longest odds are reserved for the punching bags. Switzerland (100-1), Germany (400-1), Latvia (1,000-1), Belarus (1,000-1), and Norway (2,000-1) have little chance to win a game, let alone a medal.

Let’s put some of these in real dollars. A $100 on Canada only gets you $80 return and the Russians will get you slightly more than the C-note you put down. The smart money might be on the Swedish entry. A solid line-up up and down the roster and the fact they are the defending champions makes them, I think, an attractive option. You measure Canada’s roster against the Sweden list and the gap isn’t as wide as you previously thought. And just like that, a $100 send on the Swedes for a $600 return isn’t a terrible decision. No one picked them to win the last time, right?

And for those with money to burn, try your hand at Norway. $100 will get you a cool $200,000.

Up in the Air
Globe Cinema

When that young, uptight over-achiever was filling George Clooney and the older other broad in about her life plan in front of a giant martini the size of her head, how she had this image of the picture perfect situation she wanted and how she had a the guy who she could “make it work” with, all I could do was laugh and laugh and laugh. Romantic comedies are my favourite. After the movie, we tried to leave the parkade only to find that there was no one to take our validated ticket. Unhappy with this development, I decide to feed the ticket into one of those machines — hoping that there was some kind of ticket reading device that could detect my validation. Nope. $5 please. SHIT! Reluctantly, I pull out the gold card and paid. EVEN THOUGH I HAD THE FUCKIN’ THIING VALIDATED! What am I supposed to do? I need to get out of the parkade! Just as the transaction was finishing, the parking attendant waddles up to my car and hands over my credit card, which had just been spit out the machine. I tell him about the predicament I was in. He doesn’t seem to care. Apparently, he had to go do something, putting theatre customers WHO WOULD BE LEAVING AT THE EXACT TIME BASED ON THE MOVIE START TIME with no other option but to pay for parking they shouldn’t have to pay for. Nice timing. Doubt it was his first day. Through my noticeable frustration, I try to explain the situation to him, again, hoping he would hand over the five bucks I feel I’m owed. Twenty-one hours later and I’m still not sure he understood what I was saying. Thanks for nothing, Portage Place.

1. You like ‘em young, eh?
Here’s how the ages break down: The average age for the crease is 30-years-old. The average age for the blue-line is 28-years-old. The average age for the forwards is a surprising 25-years-old. You wonder how a little more veteran presence, say from a Shane Doan or Martin St. Louis, would look up front. Of the 23 players chosen, only five of them (Martin Brodeur, Scott Neidermayer, Chris Pronger, Dan Boyle, Jerome Iginla) are over 30-years-old. The youngest players is defenceman Drew Doughty, who at 20 is lucky the Olympics are in Canada. Should make for getting into the bars a little easier. Winnipeg’s Jonathan Toews is next at his young 21 years.

2. Is Steve Yzerman talking out of both sides of his mouth?
When speaking with TSN, the Canadian general manager justified the selection of Drew Doughty as “the safe pick” over a guy like Green. No argument here — Doughty is a stud — but wouldn’t the safe pick then be Jay Bouwmeester, who last we checked did not just turn 20-years-old this month? Just say Doughty brings more to the table than Green and Bouwmeester and leave it at that.

3. Does “playing at the top of your game” really matter?
Yzerman said Patirice Bergeron’s selection was based on the fact that each time he watched the Boston Bruins play, Bergeron was the best in all three areas of the ice. OK, that’s fine. But if that’s the case, and Yzerman puts him on the team in place of say a Vinny Lecavalier or Shane Doan (who I don’t really like), then how does Mike Richards or Eric Staal make this club? Neither of them are having any kind of season and in the case of Richards, his play is actually dropping off as the season moves into the New Year. The way he’s going right now, Richards is a reputation pick pure and simple. And I know I have the guy on my club, too, but I also have Canada winning the gold and silver medals in my hockey fantasy world. Real world implications are not my department.

4. Is this the best message I received post-announcement?
And I quote: “Well there you go… I hope you are happy. No Flames defencemen. No Monsters. No Elisha Cuthbert crowd shots. Viva Team Suisse!” This from a Calgary Flames fan and unapologetic Theo Fleury denier.

5. Can that be right: Only four players have Olympic experience?
Yes. But as Hockey Canada will tell you, the depth of resume for the Canadian entry is solid. From the release: All 23 players have international experience, including 53 gold medals, eight Olympians and, as a group, the players have played in 702 international games, 13,136 NHL regular season games and 1,219 NHL playoff games. What about Stanley Cups? At first glance, I think there are about 13 on the Red and White side.

6. Why is everyone so shocked that Mike Green is not on the team?
Not to beat a dead horse on the subject of reputations and playing well when it matters, but no one should be surprised Green isn’t on the club. For all his offensive attributes (league-leader in points for defenceman), he is a celebrated liability in his own end. Phaneuf-esque. The best line in his, um…defence came from noted NHL star apologist Pierre McGuire, who said last night that Canada would miss Green on the power play — pointing to their dismal PP percentage in Italy four years ago. That argument, of course, has little pop when you insert guys like Boyle, Keith, or Doughty on the Team Canada power play. I think Alex Ovechkin might have something to do with Green’s numbers, too. Just saying.

7. Canada’s starting goaltender is ________.
Gotta be Brodeur, but it would not surprise to see Luongo (or even Fleury — gasp!) supplant him as the tournament goes on. Look for coach Ken Holland to give the top two guys a game in the start of the tournament, and then run with one guy the rest of the way. On the broadcast today, Nick Kypreos said Fleury should be ahead of Luongo on the chart. Once you stop laughing, feel free to move on to Question No. 8.

8. Who has to be the most disappointed today?
Doan, St. Louis, Lecavalier, or Green would be on the list. Half of the Flames defence are probably feeling a little jilted right now. The glass is still half-full for those guys, though. If any injuries pop up in the next six weeks (before Feb. 15), they’ll probably be getting a call. The guy who has to really be wondering where he fits in (or if he does fit in) is Brad Richards. He has 44 points this year and is tied for sixth in league scoring. Canada is so deep at centre there’s no room for him on the top two lines, though. The two Canadian pivots ahead of him in NHL scoring are Crosby and Thornton. If one of them gets hurt, then Getzlaf slides in there, moving Toews and Mike Richards up a notch.

For the sake of comparison — or for comparison’s sake, if you will — here’s how my selections stacked up against Steve Yzerman’s picks. I got the goaltenders and six out of the seven defencemen right, but the forwards were way off. Patrice Bergeron and Eric Staal? Wowsers. Here’s the actual team. The ones in bold are different than what I thought was going to happen.

Brenden Morrow, Rick Nash, Corey Perry, Patrice Bergeron, Sidney Crosby, Ryan Getzlaf, Dany Heatley, Jarome Iginla, Patrick Marleau, Mike Richards, Eric Staal, Joe Thornton, Jonathan Toews, Dan Boyle, Drew Doughty, Duncan Keith, Scott Niedermayer, Chris Pronger, Brent Seabrook, Shea Weber, Martin Brodeur, Marc-Andre Fleury, Roberto Luongo.

This is how I saw it shake down earlier this month. Three forwards wrong.

Sidney Crosby, Rick Nash, Jarome Iginla, Ryan Getzlaf, Mike Richards, Corry Perry, Dany Heatley, Martin St. Louis, Shane Doan, Joe Thornton, Brenden Morrow, Jonathan Toews, Vincent Lecavalier, Scott Neidermayer, Chris Pronger, Doughty, Keith, Shea Weber, Dan Boyle, Jay Bouwmeester, Roberto Luongo, Martin Brodeur, and Marc-Andre Fleury.

I was going to open up one of those Cover It Live things for the 2010 Canadian Olympic men’s hockey team selection, but I figured the four people I know would be watching the picks on television — not on their computers. I was also going to try to incorporate some kind of live-blogging thing, but it doesn’t really work for something like this. That’s stuff works better for the games (more time to write during whistles and commercial breaks). But I still wanted to do something in the first-reaction vein. So I came up with this idea. As soon as the player is chosen, my first reaction will go down here.

Let’s try it out: Wayne Gretzky — I have bow-legs, too.

See, works like a charm. Oh, the show is about to start…

Goalies
Martin Brodeur, New Jersey — Yawn.
Marc-Andre Fleury, Pittsburgh — I’m going to get a chocolate milk.
Roberto Luongo, Vancouver — Might not get more than a game.

Defence
Dan Boyle, San Jose — This is why Mike Green is not going to be picked.
Drew Doughty, Los Angeles — YES! Love it.
Duncan Keith, Chicago — I thought he was from Winnipeg.
Scott Niedermayer, Anaheim — Best choice for captain.
Chris Pronger, Philadelphia — Wouldn’t be upset if he wasn’t on the club.
Brent Seabrook, Chicago — Over Bouwmeester. More on this pick later.
Shea Weber, Nashville — Lots of BC kids on the back end.

Forwards
Patrice Bergeron, Boston — What the fuck is that? Not a great start.
Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh — Will he wear No. 9?
Ryan Getzlaf, Anaheim — That means Perry is on.
Dany Heatley, San Jose — Ottawa loves this pick.
Jarome Iginla, Calgary — Four goals in December, I think.
Patrick Marleau, San Jose — This is a surprise.
Brenden Morrow, Dallas — If he can play like he did in the post season a couple years ago, look out.
Rick Nash, Columbus — Sure.
Corey Perry, Anaheim — The over/under on stupid penalties per game is three.
Mike Richards, Philadelphia — Not playing very well right now.
Eric Staal, Carolina — Is he still in the NHL?
Joe Thornton, San Jose — Toews next?
Jonathan Toews, Chicago — YES! So who is the 13th guy then?

The last Hump Day of the year and I’m settling for this Katy Perry broad. Let me be the first to say I’m sorry. With the Olympic team announcement and the subsequent reactionary analysis that you won’t care about coming later today, I just haven’t put any time into the search this morning. Katy Perry < Corey Perry. In a way, though, putting Perry up here pretty much describes the past decade to a tee. Bubblegum celebrity + Hipster trash = Earth destiny. Wow, is that depressing or what? LOL

The issue is the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and the new management regime for 2010 and beyond.

Oh, it’s complicated. An old friend is looming large on the horizon, ‘causing everyone to wax poetic about the good old days. Listen. I don’t know Brendan Taman. I only spoke with him a few times during the first go-around and on the basis of those interactions, I found him to be quite media-friendly and personable. He gets it. Unlike M. Kelly, Taman understands the game. Hand a little bit of information out, get a lot of positive press back. Simple concept. Everyone is happy.

And I understand the need for some stability in the Bombers organization moving forward, and everyone involved in the hiring process is no doubt a little gun-shy of putting another inexperienced man in a position of authority on Maroons Road, but why recycle Taman into the front office? Great guy, sure, but last I checked, the Bombers didn’t win anything under his watch. The good old days of not winning are just as good now as they were back then. Check that: If the 2009 circus proved anything, the hi-jinx (and resulting copy) can actually be better!

It seems Taman isn’t the only former Bomber employee about to be placed in the blue box. Greg Marshall, the former defensive co-ordinator and a guy who struck out in a bid to be a CFL head coach a couple times in his career, seems to be the front-runner for the Winnipeg head coaching gig. He certainly has the backing of a few of the *team leaders* — even as they try to downplay the support they went out of their way to provide when the M. Kelly shit hit the fan earlier this month. Play it cool, guys. Don’t campaign too hard, you might not get what you want. Per Power 97:

Now, I’m not implying that any of us, if queried, would go out of our way to mislead or direct the board to applicants that we believe would lead the franchise astray, but just how many of us are actually capable of giving sage advice while putting our own benefit beneath the team?

I wonder that, too. Seven years and counting.

Like Taman, Marshall’s resume looks to have more than enough meat on the bone to qualify for the gig, but bringing in former assistant coach who is loved by the players on a team with no tangible leadership circle could be a recipe for disaster. Who is going to crack the whip — Taman? We’ve been down this road already. You know, the one that leads to the country club. That’s exactly what the Bombers need. Hey, let’s bring back Khari Jones as an assistant, too. Look at the progress Quinton Porter made last year (hint — he didn’t make any). Another step back into the past. A return to the history of mediocre results and no accountability. I find it laughable that players would lobby for their future boss, but I guess they have their reasons for doing so. Column freedom!

Funny. Did I hear anyone speaking on Marshall’s behalf after Doug Berry was let go?

Following the M.Kelly mess, Bombers board of directors chair Ken Hildahl hit on talking points of a fresh start and a new beginning when discussing the next move for the franchise. One has to wonder if the football operations selection committee — that of Joe Poplawski and Paul Robson — will make a point of backing up those words.

CHICAGO — Chicago Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews (right) succumbs to the fist/knuckle bump peer pressure that can only come from a hungover comedy genius who is obviously looking to capture what little street credibility he has left after a few terrible movie choices including one called Couples Retreat that left most wanting their $10 back. Through this tired male handshake substitute and a budgeted ceremonial face-off appearance in a second-hand Bobby Hull replica, Nashville captain Jason Arnott (left) looks on and wonders “What the fuck is wrong with these guys?” before removing himself from the Chicago pleasantries and skating back to the Predators bench with his own brand of cool firmly intact.

Thanks to the Blackhawks (via PD) for the photo.

It’s rare that professional athletes demonstrate any true feelings in the public meeting place that is the media common. They just don’t do it that often, and when they do, the knee-jerk reprisal from either the team they work for of the fans who follow them isn’t worth the straight-forwardness in the first place. Do players get pissed off from time to time? Of course — they’re just like us. It’s not often, though, that you hear someone give you an honest answer when dealing with a obvious disappointment. When that slight comes on such a grand stage as an Olympic omission from your home country’s hockey team, though, then it’s understandable that the delicious honesty may find its way into comments when emotions run high.

Team Sweden was announced the other day:

Notably absent from the list is Detroit’s Johan Franzen, who is currently nursing a knee injury. Another notable absentee is Vancouver’s Mikael Samuelsson, who pulled no punches in discussing the snub. “Probably going to get in trouble for this, but they can go (expletive deleted)* themselves,” was his reaction following the Canucks win over Calgary Sunday night.

*fudge