Matt Carkner's bar fight, and musings of a former journalism hopeful on sports blogs

Over at Pension Plan Puppets Saturday night, Julian [Redacted] promoted a FanPost, which is user comment in Sports Blog Nation speak, that told the funny story of Ottawa defenseman Matt Carkner. The story goes that part-time goon and part-time competent defenseman Carkner went to Moxie's after his Senators lost to the Leafs 5-1 and got in a bar fight.

There are no pictures of the incident, no video, no statement from the owner of the bar confirming that a fight broke out that involved a local celebrity, so the story is, in all possibility, total bullshit. That doesn't make it a bad thing. This is the epitome of the Internet and its possibilities. Friend of the Factor Ryan Classic pointed out with the first comment on the PPP story that the user tweeted "Matt Carkner likes to look at boys dicks..." just prior to announcing to the world that Carkner also picks petty battles with petty fans in bars.

My follow-up with Bill Daly on the Colin Campbell e-mails

Or, how to get involved in the 'access' debate

A lot has happened this week. Tyler Dellow kicked it off Sunday night with his post about the public Colin Campbell e-mails and connected the dots. There were three major points to take away from this:

A) Colin Campbell has a foul mouth.

B) Colin Campbell gets pissed off when calls go against his son.

C) Colin Campbell has harsh words for players who complain about calls.

Nazem Kadri is your saviour, Toronto

-Earlier this week, Toronto Maple Leafs blog Pension Plan Puppets went to town on potential first-round flop Nazem Kadri. The Puppets explain how poorly Kadri is playing compared to the average developmental curve of prospects and completely ignore the reasonable approach taken by the Toronto Sun.

Or something completely opposite of that.

Kadri scored twice and had an assist in the Leafs' 4-3 exhibition win against the Ottawa Seators last night. Kadri still probably won't make the team and may be better off playing a full season in the American League, but his three-point night set up for one of the stupider ledes of the preseason.

It most surely was a slump at the most inopportune time of his young career.

Oh, sure, that makes sense. God forbid Kadri ever goes a couple of games without a point in the preseason ever again.

-Meanwhile, in Calgary, Flames president Ken King has called out TSN panelist Michael Peca for calling out Flames designated problem contract Jay Bouwmeester.

The whole drama erupted Tuesday night when TSN panelist Michael Peca said he used to look forward to playing against Jay Bouwmeester, because he coughed the puck up so much.

Strong words, to be sure. And it didn't die there.

On Wednesday afternoon, in a radio interview with Rob Kerr and Dean Molberg on the Fan 960, Flames president Ken King lashed out at the audacity of Peca, a former player, saying such things.

“I think it was out of line,” King said in an interview with The Fan 960. “It was a guy talking about his peer. His colleague. Someone who he has played with.....To diss and take such a low-brow approach to laughing at or ridiculing one of the premier defencemen in the league, I just think is completely inappropriate.”

In fairness to Peca, King has probably never skated against Bouwmeester.

-In Montreal, Brian Gionta was named the 2nd ever American captain in Franchise history leading to more concerns that the captain of the Habs can't speak French. The only reasonable solution is to move to Tampa, commence covering the Lightning, drag Vinny Lecavalier down and force Steve Yzerman to trade him to Montreal.

Here's an old link on a Vincent Lecavalier to Montreal for Louis Leblanc RDS story.

This is a tall order for Gionta.

Toronto Sun lifts Czech translation from Leafs blog

Tomas Kaberle will be traded, but that isn't really the big story here. Dave Fuller of the Toronto Sun "broke" the story on Tomas Kaberle's father suggesting that the Leaf defenseman doesn't like Ron Wilson, attributing Czech website Hokej.cz.

SUN link

But a couple of days before that, Leafs blog Pension Plan Puppets ran the same story, but it was translated into English by a Canadian living in the Czech Republic known to the PPP boys as Romdgpce.

PPP link

Here is a quote from the PPP story:

The possibility of moving Tomas Kaberle from Toronto has already been discussed for many years now and it was generally expected to happen just after the end of last year. "I have to admit that I expected it a bit too. I really don't understand Tomas staying on in Toronto," said Frantisek Kaberle senior

PPP alleges that the Sun ran the same quote without attribution, and the online version of the story has that quote deleted.

This is the Google Translation of the same quote:

A possible replacement Tomas Kaberle of Toronto is talking for several years. Všeobecné očekávání bylo, že k němu dojde právě po skončení uplynulého ročníku. General expectations were that it occurs just after the end of last year. "Musím přiznat, že jsem to tak trochu čekal taky. Setrvání Tomáše v Torontu moc nerozumím," kroutí hlavou hráčův tatínek František Kaberle starší. "I must admit that I waited a bit too. Persisting Thomas in Toronto, you do not understand," the player's father shakes his head Frantisek Kaberle older.

What are the odds that the Sun does not only employ a Czech-to-English translator, but that that translator happens to be Romdgpce?

And as I am typing this, TSN continues to quote the Toronto Sun for breaking the story.

*CORRECTION - Romdgpce is a Canadian living in the Czech Republic who translated the article for PPP blogger blurr1974*

*UPDATE - Commenter Bower Power from PPP has a side-by-side comparison of quotes.*

*UPDATE x2 - Oh boy... it happened again.*