City of Ottawa closer to having terrible football team

It appears that the city of Ottawa has voted on the proposal to redevelop Lansdowne Park which will refurbish Frank Clair stadium and add 250 housing units.

This is an improvement to Joe Paopao's current standard of living, which is currently in a bus station on Bank Street.

Aside from possibly hosting a new Ottawa football team, this plan also brings Eugene Melnyk's wish to have a Major League Soccer team in Ottawa closer to a reality.

Which is good, because something needs to provide scoring in Ottawa. Since the Senators powerplay has gone anemic, nothing has scored in Ottawa since Maxime Bernier.

/hey ho political joke

Damien Cox offers interesting perspective at Wimbledon

Probably [one of] the worst thought out headline ever [this week]:

Serena stands out in Wimbledon

I think the article itself is about how Serena Williams is the only favourite left in the field, but the obvious just creeps into the back of our minds so hard it makes us chuckle.

Meet your 2010 Wimbledone women's singles semifinalists:









So, uh... which of these is not like the other?

Daryl Katz buys the lease to Copps Coliseum

The philanthropic owner of the Edmonton Oilers is doing well to put the city of Hamilton out of its misery.

The general consensus seems to be that Katz is attempting to either strong arm the city of Edmonton into helping them build a new arena or to "control the potential arrival of a relocated or expansion NHL team."

The idea that Katz wants a bargaining chip with Edmonton is pretty damn laughable, and Edmonton City Council should be able to see right through it. Northlands Skyreach Rexall may not be a luxury arena, but Copps Coliseum sure as hell isn't. It holds about 1,000 more people and has an ugly seat colouring scheme.

The way the NHL is today, neither Copps or Rexall should fit a team. It's a dissapointing reality. Even the Flames, who reside in a Pengrowth Saddledome that fits 19,000 people, are looking for a new place to not play hockey past April.

So if Katz is using this as a means to persuade Edmonton into buying him a lot (or part of the purchase price) for a new arena, it comes across as pretty thin. Mostly, this is something that Katz is likely using to stimulate discussion amongst Edmonton fans, with a renewed optimism and faith in the franchise thanks to Taylor Hall.

This gives me the idea to copyright the phrase "The House That Hall Built" so I can see some royalties in a few years when it eventually happens.

Tim Baines, wrestling columnist, is NOT anti-Spezza

I suppose that few people outside of Ottawa subscribe to the Ottawa Sun, and thus, few people really know whether the Sun is pro-Senators, anti-Senators or whichever. But it appears that they've become pro-sensationalism, with a ridiculous defense of the paper's sports section.

Earlier this week, the Silver Seven blog fired against the paper for its Jason Spezza coverage. and a couple of days later, back on Friday, Sun sports editor (and wrestling columnist, if you check out his bio on the right-hand side of the page) Tim Baines did his best to defend his turf. The result is not pretty:

So, it appears pretty overwhelming here. We are the bad guys for writing that Jason Spezza told Bryan Murray that he wouldn’t “object” to a trade. We are the bad guys for writing that he had a $4-million bonus coming July 1. We are the bad guys for suggesting that the Senators trade him.

That's a fair point, but you're getting way defensive way too early in your column.

We are the bad guys because an overwhelming number of people in this city, when polled, suggested that the Senators should trade their star centre.

An overwhelming number, which doesn't represent the majority at all.

And, many have said, Don Brennan is an idiot because he suggested the Senators should trade Spezza if they can get fair value. Brennan actually disputed what he considers an unfair label about Spezza’s defensive liabilities.

Personally, I don’t think they should trade Spezza. He’s a marquee player on a team that has too few of them. But, and call his sensationalism on my part if you want, be assured the the Senators GM is, yes IS, trying to trade him.

In these two paragraphs, the editor is sticking up for his columnist who suggested Spezza should be traded, and that Spezza is not a defensive liability. Then he goes on to suggest that Spezza should not be traded and that his paper is sensationalist for bringing it up.

Agreed.

The Ottawa Sun’s reporters are being blamed for breaking Spezza stories. Does it not seem curious to anyone why Bryan Murray would mention his conversation with Spezza in the first place. Do you think that ruffles the feathers of the team’s best player?

This is where Baines falls apart. When is he going to explicitly defend one of the Spezza stories, one of the broken stories that determined an irrefutable truth? This would be different had Jason Spezza been traded, which it doesn't look like is going to happen.

One blogger suggests the Senators should rid themselves of the real problem, Daniel Alfredsson. Geez, you rip on us for creating a problem with Spezza, then you try and trade the Senators’ captain, a guy who’s poured his heart and soul into the franchise?

And the Dany Heatley criticism persists? The guy freakin’ wanted out of town. He asked for a trade. Didn’t want to be in Ottawa. Was that the media’s fault. He made a lot of money here. We had no gripe with him until he gave Ottawa the middle finger and said he wanted out. Was that our fault?

I find it funny that, on one hand, we are criticized for being too home-teamish. And on the other, we’re over-the-top anti-Senators.

Baines switches from being ridiculously defensive to outright whining. This brings us to the end of the column, where he needs to take a parting shot at blogs.

We make decisions every day on which stories will be played up. Which stories merit space in the paper. You think the guys are making stories up. Unlike some local hacks who live in their mothers’ basements and throw enough crap out there until some of it sticks, our guys have sources — GMs, scouts, management-types.

How original. At no point, though, does Baines mention that anybody at the Silver Seven blog eat doritos.

Sure, we run rumours in our paper. It would be safe to say that somewhere upwards of 99% of trades that are discussed in NHL circles never happen. So does that make it wrong that we report some of the deals that are at the discussion level? And are we wrong for reporting that Peter Regin’s agent suggested that his player could earn a Tomas Vanek-like contract? The notion he’ll get that kind of money is ludicrous. But the fact his agent said it is newsworthy.

You're probably wrong for not calling the guy out on it at all, whether it's in print or via interview. One major difference between print and blogs is that the print guys supposedly have access to major sources.

Baines is the sports editor for a major big-city newspaper, yet his defensive column has no more exclusive quotes or access points, and so his piece could have been crafted by somebody in my position, who has his own blogspot and gets a dozen readers on a good day.

I'll give him the last word, though. Enjoy the rest of your Monday:

It’s great that fans are so passionate about the Senators. They just have to be open-minded enough to hear the good and the bad.

The selective memory of James Sharman

James Sharman, The Score's number one soccer analyst, is an English transfer to Canada, if you will, and was twittering his thoughts during today's England/Germany game.

Particularly, when Frank Lampard's shot hit the roof of the crossbar, fell down clearly a yard beyond the line, which would have tied the game at 2.

Completely opposite to what happened to Geoff Hurst in the 1966 final against the Germans:



So, Sharman got a little angry, understandable:

To all the moronics suggesting revenge for '66; Eng won that gm 4-2 for the record.

So the insurance goal added in the end made all the difference to how we should perceive the game. Which is a fair argument. Except when you come out with this one after your team loses 4-1:

Gutted. Eng not good enough, but make no mistake, that non-call changed everything! Should not be dismissed due to scoreline. #worldcup

Oh well. Sucks to be English today. This 2010 World Cup for our cousins across the pond is pretty well exactly how we did in Olympic hockey in 2006. Dissapointing start, bow out early to your rivals in the knockout stage.

BMO Field one third full due to riots

For some reason, MLS never thought to reschedule last night's Toronto FC/Los Angeles Galaxy game due to the G20. And while the Blue Jays were able to win their first ever home game at Citizen's Bank Park last night, the Reds didn't have quite as good luck.

On a night when violent political protests rocked their home city, Toronto FC kept their composure and gutted out a 0-0 draw with the league-leading Los Angeles Galaxy before an announced crowd of 18,809 at BMO Field.

Actual attendance at the match was sharply reduced. At kickoff, the stadium was barely one-third full. Protesters and police had been clashing in downtown Toronto, which is hosting the G20 summit of world leaders.

Rising security concerns forced the cancelation of most public transit in the downtown core, as well as all commuter trains in and out of Canada's largest city.

Keep in mind the people staying home simply because they were too scared to go outside. A few hours before kickoff, the 24th minute confirmed that the game would still be played, despite the riots.

FC cited the arrival of the Galaxy players and officials in a letter to fans who couldn't attend the game, posted on their website at halftime. Ticket holders, which should be about 10,000 or so, should be able to attend a game on a later date.

And hopefully, that one will have a frigging goal.

Edmonton's draft pick surprises us Jeff Skinner fans

So Steve Tambellini steps up to the podium. We've all read in the newspapers and heard from the TV boxes in the leadup to the NHL Draft about the debate between Tyler Seguin and Jeff Skinner.

Seguin, the Plymouth Whaler, scored 48 goals in the OHL last season. Skinner had 50, in just 64 games with the Kitchener Rangers.

So imagine our surprise when not only did the Oilers select some no-name called Taylor Hall, but Edmonton's reaction was cheers, not boos and confusion.



Who is this guy? I haven't heard of him in all the years I've followed hockey, watching TSN to get all my junior hockey updates and throughout the Memorial Cup. What's so special about this guy? Is it the mohawk? It's the mohawk, isn't it?

==

Other observations:

-Ottawa's Bryan Murray deferred to trade away his pick for Dave Rundblad, some Swedish defenseman who sounds like a urinary tract disease. The word out of Ottawa is that Murray was scared that Brian Burke would take his guy again.

-The Toronto Maple Leafs were deceptively quiet on draft day, surprisingly not trading Tomas Kaberle and surprisingly not making a pick. Both were apparently really legitimate possibilities, or enough so to make Leaf fans watch a bunch of old guys sit around and talk for three hours.

-The Heckling Line almost got it right when they predicted Montreal might take "A defenseman? American? Native of Minnesota? Not too small? Not to [sic] big? Sounds like a good fit for the Canadiens' organization." Jarred Tinordi is 6'6" and 800 lbs.

The weird thing is that Tinordi was the ONLY pick made by a Canadian team that didn't spawn some stupid headline on TSN. [Hall of a future? Get over yourselves.]

-Calgary didn't have a pick, mercifully saving us from a Darryl Sutter interview.

-Vancouver opted to trade their 25th overall pick and two useless wingers for a slap-happy defenseman and a useless winger. Credit to Puck Daddy for reminding us of Keith Ballard's place in history on the blooper reel:



-After the draft, Philadelphia traded Dan Hamhuis to Pittsburgh. Here's Eklund's take on it. Yes Dwayne, at some point next season the Penguins will score on the powerplay against the Flyers. No, it will not make us remember draft night.