Bizarre press release from the Green Party

So this press release just showed up saying Georges Laraques will be making an announcement Saturday at an event in Montreal.

The only thing I can think is he's announcing his foray into politics. Stay tuned.

Georges Laraque to make an announcement in Montreal

MONTRÉAL – Montréal hockey player Georges Laraque, actively involved with a number of social and humanitarian causes, is inviting the media to a screening of TERRIENS, the French version of EARTHLINGS. Mr. Laraque, who is hosting the event alongside many prominent guests, will make an announcement.

Georges Laraque: www.georgeslaraque.net

What: Screening of TERRIENS, the French version of EARTHLINGS narrated by Georges Laraque

When: Saturday, February 13, 2010 at 1:30 p.m.

Where: HEC Montréal, IBM Amphitheatre, 3000 Côte-Sainte-Catherine Rd., Montréal, QC, H3T 2A7; Université de Montréal metro station.

Jennifer Casey was born and raised in Halifax. She loves all sports but tries to stick to writing about hockey for sanity purposes. You can follow her on twitter @jenncaseyhfx

Prorogued.

Sorry about the long break here on the blog. It's been a busy month good and bad.

Let's just say I prorogued the blog.

So a lot has happened since the last post.

First of all the Olympic flame has just crossed the Ontario-Manitoba border. Wait... really? This really is taking forever. One thing I did notice is one of the torch bearers was tackled by a protestor and the newsmedia with Olympic rights (the CTVs and TSNs of the world) kind of pretended it didn't happen.

World Juniors.

There will be no second use for makeitseven.ca any time soon. The Canadian boys failed to win a sixth straight gold, losing in overtime to the Americans.

Should they have even been in overtime? Probably not.

Besides that totally awesome (sense the extreme sarcasm?) goal that Jake Allen let in, in the third period to make it 5-3... the team didn't really give him much help.

Now I cannot blame one kid. Jordan "the babyfaced assassin" Eberle came out with yet another last minute heroic (he scored with 5.4 seconds left last year in the final). Really the Oilers should just call this kid up now -- lord knows they need it.

But in all seriousness, I think the downfall of this team was a mix of format and coaching. Looking at the roster the Canadians are extremely talented. Did they play like a TEAM in the final? Sure... for about 4 minutes at the end of the game. How many times did the Canadians try to break into the US zone by skating it in, only to be foiled. More times than I care to count. In fact it's probably around the same number as the number of odd-man rushes the US players ended up with.

The Canadians never really had to play as a team to win. Their first three games were a dance, and sure they looked good. But who doesn't look good against Latvia.

Lets throw one more problem into the mix. This is the superstitious side coming out.

Coach for gold medal 1 and 2: Sutter
Coach for gold medal 3 and 4: Hartsburg
Coach for gold medal 5: Quinn

Quinn you threw off the time-space continuum of coaching. Clearly you are being of no help to the Edmonton Oilers. Perhaps coming back for your required second gold would've been the proper thing to do.

Ok enough.

The Olympic Team.

I love it.I was at work when the team was announced. There were some surprises and my colleagues balked at the idea that Patrice Bergeron was named to the team.

But in my mind you can't just take the top 12 scoring forwards, because that will get you nowhere when the other team is killing you in faceoffs and winning the battles.

Bergeron is a faceoff man, he's used in every situation in Boston, and he's not afraid to get into the corners. I can see him doing anything that the coaches ask. And I think he would work out well on a line with someone like Mike Richards.

Anyways, I like the balance of old and young. And the choice of Scott Niedermayer as captain is appropriate.

I like Canada's chances with these guys on the ice.

For the political junkies

Just read this in MacLean's Ottawa Outtakes:

"Liberal Mark Eyking was a serious farmer before becoming an MP. Now the Cape Bretoner maintains a hobby farm where, for the first time, he raised a few turkeys. They have names like "Cuzner" after Liberal whip Rodger Cuzner, and "Deepak" after Calgary Conservative MP Deepak Obhrai. On Thanksgiving, Eyking ate "Harper".

You're a mean one... Mr. Grinch.

I'm sorry. I couldn't help myself.

from cbc.ca,

Prime Minister Stephen Harper plans to fill all 18 vacancies in the Liberal-dominated Senate before Christmas, a spokesman for his office told CBC News.

A peice of the story from here in PEI, Hon. Percy Downe one of the Senator's has told the cbc that he's receiving phone calls from "prominent conservatives" asking for advice on how to get a Senate spot.

Everyone on the gravy train!!!


ok, back to work. I'll post some hockey news later.

Friday Recap

Douche McGee Update

A few comments from Avery's teammates:

Dallas forward Brad Richards went on record in Dallas yesterday, saying the team "doesn't want to talk about him any more ... hopefully it will be handled and that will be the end of it."

Off the record, one teammate told TSN: "We hope it's the last time we ever see him."

Another Stars player said, "Our locker room is the happiest it has been all year right now." And still another added, "An apology to the team won't work."


He's a cancer to any dressing room he's ever been in. And the Stars are nuts to have signed him in the first place. Let him head to Russia to play with Ray Emery.



Duthie-isms

I told my nine year-old son I was going to interview Bobby Orr on Wednesday. His response, word-for-word: “You mean that guy on the car commercials?” (Heavy sigh.)

I wish they’d make it a mandatory course in Canadian Elemetary School. “Your Thursday timetable, son: Math, Science, English, French, Orr.”

I’ve played weekend beer-league sports for my entire life. (I know what you’re thinking: “His whole life? Aren’t beer leagues inappropriate for nine year-old soccer players?” Hey, we grew up fast in Gloucester.) I’m still pretending to be an ath-ell-ete, playing in a couple of touch football leagues in the Toronto area.


Sundin Saga and #2 collide

One thing is for sure. Brian Burke has no intention on having Mats Sundin back on the leafs. No word from the man himself whether he's going to finally show up on a team and just play orrr retire into the background and play online poker.



Habs remember how to pass?

Last night the Habs won a convincing victory of 6-2. All the goals were nice passing plays. It appears (let's be cautiously optimistic...) that the Habs have taken my advice. Looked down at their sweaters. and remembered to pass to the players wearing similar colours. we'll see.

Canadian History, or lackthereof

And finally, this is for all the geeks out there. Parliament is now prorogued. And after a week of spin from both sides of the coalition, i'm astonished with the ease that some people lied and their lack of Canadian history knowledge. I think a few people need to get sent back to university to take Canadian History 1000.


One of the interesting things i heard was from Don Newman who said some spin doctors targeted Justin Trudeau who said that his father, former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau would have never sat down with the "separatists".


ummm. The elder Trudeau sat down numerous times with Rene Levesque to negotiate.



"and they wouldn't even have the Canadian flag behind them," said Stephen Harper... in the House of Commons.

Looks like a Canadian flag to me.....







And finally in Stephen Harper's address to the nation on Wednesday night he said that never has a government formed in parliament that was not elected by the people.

Oh ya?

coming to you live from dialup internet in PEI.

Saga #2 ends. Saga #1 continues.

Here’s the biggest surprise of 2008. Brian Burke is the new General Manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs. (Can you feel the sarcasm?)

Now, since this is such a big surprise, nobody’s been really talking about it for months and months. This, of course, means every possible angle of his tenure has not been talked about by every sports analyst in the country.

So this all means that I have a lot to say about this.

It's funny, saga #2 has resolved itself and yet Saga #1 is still going. Mats Sundin “says” he’ll be back in December. (Tomorrow is December). But he also said he’d make a decision by Aug 1. Soooo, don’t hold your breath.



Favourite quote of the week:

“The opposition has every right to bring down the government. But Stephane Dion has no right to take power without going to the people.”

Is Stephen Harper high? The opposition outnumbers the Conservatives.

In fact, I would say that whoever the coalition chooses to lead, they will have more of a right to govern than Stephen Harper. The majority of the country actually voted against him.

Finally some juicy drama out of Ottawa.

A few notes from last night.

I am currently watching Crosby play in his first game back, and although his hands seem to be a bit rusty... he looks great! Although my enthusiasm was just curbed when I noticed the standings:

Just a few tidbits from last night: ovechkin got his 50th goal... then 51 and 52. He would finish the night with 5 points; and after winning 6 in a row, the Bruins received a smackdown from the Caps, 10-2

As for the Montreal vs. San Jose game last night. The game didn't start until 11:30 pm my time, so I couldn't stay up for the whole thing, i left the Habs at the end of the first period where they were safely tied, 2-2. But from what I saw, WHAT - A - GAME! Lots of hitting, 4 goals in a period, and these guys never play each other. (have i mentioned lately how much I hate the NHL schedule?). Also, our favourite purse-snatcher (O'Byrne) even got his first NHL goal!

Alright, back to clicking back and forth between the 10 games on tonight (and a little bit of the US Presidential Primaries that seem to also be infatuating me.)