Another Win for the Juniors

Canada's junior hockey team is looking for a sweep in Russia after a 6-2 win in Game 3 of the Super Series on Friday.

The Canadian team had four power-play goals, including two to open the scoring. The Russian goal in the first period was Russia's first since the first period of the series-opener.

To make matters worse, star Russian forward Alexei Cherepanov is out for the series due to a concussion he suffered in a massive collision with Brandon Sutter (watch out for those Sutters) in the last game. Sutter was penalized for charging on that play which was in retaliation for a cheap shot earlier in the game.

Game 4 is Saturday. Game 5 is in Winnipeg on Tuesday, followed by Saskatoon on Wednesday, Red Deer on Friday and Vancouver on Sept. 9.

Where the Stanley Cup Went on its Summer Vacation

There is a website, of course, that covers the travels of the Stanley Cup over the summer. Each player gets to take it home for a day - whether you are from Moscow or Wawa. This year, for example, Teemu Selanne took the Cup to Helsinki and Corey Perry took it home to London, Ontario. Interestingly, Perry got stuck in a traffic jam on the 401 (yeah just like you and me) and was running alongside the cars showing the other drivers the Cup (see picture below).

There some pretty bizarre parties that spontaneously start up during this town by town tour. One of the most unusual ones this summer was with George Parros, a fringe NHLer who happened to have landed with the Ducks last season. He took the Stanley Cup to his uncle's pig roast in Scenery Hill, Pennsylvania, last weekend.

I would bet the Vince Lombardi Trophy never made it to a pig roast.

Canada Up by 2 Games

Canada had excellent goaltending for the second game in a row with a 3-0 win over Russia. Lewiston's Jonathan Bernier earned the shutout.

The Canadians cut down on their penalties from the series opener in which they were short-handed 14 times. But special teams were again difference in the game as Canada continued to hold the Russians scoreless a man-up while scoring their first goal of the game on the power play. Russia went 0-for-5 in the game and is 0-for-19 in the series.

For those who go back that far, this series celebrates the 35th anniversary of the 1972 Summit Series between Canada and the Soviet Union. The first 4 games are in Russia and then they come to Canada for the last 4 games. The timing of the Canadian based games will work into my work schedule better.

Pictures of the Lunar Eclipse

Canada Takes Game One

Penalty killing will clearly be an important part of Canada’s game in the Super Series.The Canadian team had to play through eleven short handed situations, including a couple of five on three situations in game one of their eight game series against Russia.

As seems to be the case in Internationally officiated games, any form of contact can suddenly send you to the box, particularly anything to do with the hockey stick. Canada played almost one third of the game down a man on the ice, but still managed to not only weather the storm, but to turn the flow of the game around and move the game into the Russian end of the ice.Game one saw Canada fall behind two to nothing before storming back to score four unanswered goals on the way to a 4-2 opening night victory.

Lunar Eclipse

If you're able to get up really early tomorrow morning, you may be able to see the moon go copper red during a totak lunar eclipse. The big event will occur in Toronto - before sunrise, in fact, at 4:51 EDT. It will reach full eclipse stage an hour later. In about 90 minutes, the moon will change from its grey-white colour to a coppery red.

Pirates?

Maybe the Leafs Curse Will End Now?

A treasure hunter searching in Florida waters came across a true Canadian find - a Stanley Cup ring marking the last time Toronto's Maple Leafs were able to clinch the hockey championship.

The ring has been missing for some thirty years. It belonged to former Maple Leaf right-winger Jim Pappin, the player who led his team during the 1967-68 season playoffs with seven goals and 15 points.

Pappin was so disillusioned with the Leafs after they traded him to the Chicago Blackhawks, he gave his ring to his father-in-law.

A Toronto Maple Leafs Stanley Cup ring is a rare piece of jewelry, indeed.

I can't imagine giving one away. So now maybe the curse over the Leafs will finally end.

Another Prediction for 07-08 NHL Season

From The Hockey News Yearbook

Eastern Conference
1 Ottawa*
2 N.Y. Rangers*
3 Pittsburgh
4 Buffalo
5 Carolina*
6 Tampa Bay
7 New Jersey
8 Atlanta
9 Philadelphia
10 Washington
11 Toronto
12 Florida
13 Montreal
14 N.Y. Islanders
15 Boston

Western Conference
1 Detroit*
2 Anaheim*
3 Calgary*
4 San Jose
5 Minnesota
6 Vancouver
7 Nashville
8 Colorado
9 St. Louis
10 Chicago
11 Dallas
12 Los Angeles
13 Edmonton
14 Columbus
15 Phoenix

I like some of these predictions better than McKeen's. Not so sure if Nashville will make the playoffs with their talent sell off and ownership distractions. Maybe most suprising is that the Leafs are rated 11th in the East after upgrading in net. This likely reflects the aging Sundin, continued weak team defense and penalty killing, and their ongoing mangement distractions. What do you think?

59 Year Old to Play College Football

Thank you Mike Flynt for making my dream of playing for the Leafs one day come alive again.

His biggest regret of his life was getting kicked off the college team before his senior year. So Flynt returned to Sul Ross State this month, 37 years after he left, at age 59, and six years before he goes on Medicare.

Flynt is eight years older than his coach and has two kids older than any of his teammates.

Ouch!

I woke up this morning and heard the score thinking it was a NFL exhibition game. Texas breaks a 110 year old record but reality will set in this morning - they are 15 games out of a playoff spot.

I noticed Baltimore couldn't hold a 3-0 lead going into the 4th.

You will never see me dressed like this

Peca joins list of local boys who career fizzles out as a Leaf

Player signings at this point of the summer tend to be players at the end of their career matched with teams that either have huge gaps in their line up or some cap space left to spend. So the signing of Mike Peca by the Columbus Blue Jackets is a perfect fit.

Peca joins Shayne Corson, Eric Lindros, Jeff O'Neill, Jason Allison, Joe Nieuwendyk, and Drake Berehowsky as local boys who got to live out their childhood dream of putting on a Leaf uniform. In each case they left Toronto disappointing themselves, management and the fans.

Sidney Crosby Launches Reebok Clothing Line

At the age of 20, Sidney Crosby has already become the face of the NHL. The PR machine behind him will likely tightly control his image to prevent another Ed Belfour or Michael Vick.

The Wayne Gretzky of the current generation has already won the Hart Trophy and the Art Ross Trophy (though robbed of the Calder in his rookie year). So expect to see lots of kids wearing clothes labeled "Rbk SC87".

First Prediction for 07-08 NHL Season

From the McKeen's Hockey Yearbook.

Eastern Conference
1 Pittsburgh*
2 Ottawa*
3 N.Y. Rangers
4 Buffalo
5 New Jersey
6 Toronto
7 Carolina*
8 Montreal
9 Tampa Bay
10 Philadelphia (tie)
11 Florida (tie)
12 Washington
13 Boston
14 Atlanta
15 N.Y. Islanders

Western Conference
1 Detroit*
2 Colorado*
3 Dallas*
4 Anaheim (tie)
5 Vancouver (tie)
6 San Jose
7 Calgary
8 Minnesota
9 Los Angeles
10 St. Louis
11 Nashville
12 Chicago
13 Edmonton
14 Columbus
15 Phoenix

In case you haven't seen Barry Bonds' rookie card

Obvious Attention-Seeker

Average Olympic Medals Won Per Million Inhabitants

This map illustrates the average number of medals won per million people in an Olympic Summer Games between 1996 and 2004. Medal counts from the last three Olympic Games were used. So the Bahamas were on top with 5 medals over the last 3 Olympics with a population of 331,000 which works out to 5.04 medals per million people per Olympic Game.

Top counties are:

1. Bahamas 5.04 (Per Million Per Game)
2. Cuba 2.40
3. Australia 2.35
4. Jamaica 2.21
5. Hungary 1.83
31. Russia 0.57
36. Canada 0.49
46. United States 0.33
78. China 0.04

Etobicoke 3-on-3 Girls Hockey

With still 22 days until our first practice, I decided to drop by the 3-on-3 league at Canlan Ice Sports last night to watch some hockey (ok, I have no life). Afterall, the league includes 13 current or former Storm Midget B players and 5 are in league's top 10 scorers.

Going over the stats I noticed that the Black team which is pretty much made up of Storm players was in first place. Mari was 4th in league scoring and had a league leading 10 game scoring streak. Jessica B recorded the most goals in a game. Marley and Maryssa were tied with the most penalties in a game (in different games) and Marley had the league lead in PIM. Is there some sibling rivalry going on there?

Watched last night's first playoff game between Black and Blue. The Blue team had only 3 skaters including Genevieve but held the Black team to a 5-5 tie in regulation time. The game was won by Black in overtime with the winning goal scored by Stephanie. Genevieve lead all scorers with 3 goals and 45:34 minutes in ice time. I'd say she's in mid season form already. Other Storm scorers were Vanessa R (2) , Sheri (2), and Mari.

The other game last night was between Red and White with Red taking the game 8-6. Marley and Maryssa did not score for Red last night but Maryssa did manage 2 penalties. Next week's final is between Black and Red will played at Canlan Ice Sports on Sunday evening at 8:30.

Redesigned Storm Website

Check out the new Storm website at northyorkstorm.com.

The rep teams will be posting team information on the site. But you should check out this site for the best info on the Midget B team.

We could stand for more courtesy on our roads

Cooking by Numbers

Found an interesting website. You fill out the form on what ingredients you have in your kitchen , and it will tell you what you can make with them.

The actual website can be found here.

Interesting Name

Bonds Hits Number 756

Yahoo posted the graphics immediately after Bonds broke the record including the asterisk....

...then within a half-hour it was gone!

Value of NHL Teams as Calculated by Forbes Magazine

1. Toronto Maple Leafs $332 (in millions)
2. New York Rangers $306
3. Detroit Red Wings $258
4. Dallas Stars $248
5. Philadelphia Flyers $246
6. Boston Bruins $235
7. Montreal Canadiens $230
8. Colorado Avalanche $219
9. Los Angeles Kings $205
10. Vancouver Canucks $192
11. Tampa Bay Lightning $172
12. Chicago Blackhawks $168
13. Minnesota Wild $163
14. Ottawa Senators $159
15. Anaheim Ducks $157
16. St Louis Blues $150
17. Buffalo Sabres $149
18. New Jersey Devils $148
19. Edmonton Oilers $146
20. San Jose Sharks $145
21. Carolina Hurricanes $144
22. Phoenix Coyotes $143
23. Florida Panthers $142
24. New York Islanders $140
25. Columbus Blue Jackets $139
26. Calgary Flames $135
27. Nashville Predators $134
28. Pittsburgh Penguins $133
29. Atlanta Thrashers $128
30. Washington Capitals $127

Interestingly, the spread between the bottom 15 team ($23 million) is less than the spread between the top 2 valued teams ($26 million).

It was announced today that Tampa Bay has been sold subject to league approval. No sale price has been made public but it will be interesting to see if it sold for the Forbes valuation figure. The franchise price was $115 million and the owner has lost a total of $60 million so the Forbes value would allow the seller to walk away at about the break even point.

Jim Basillie's bid for the Predators was higher than the value of all but 5 or 6 teams and almost double the franchise's actual value. Still the current bid is $193 million which is more than the value of 20 other franchises and about $60 million above the Forbes value.

Edit: The price paid for Tampa Bay has been made public and it is $206 million which is over $30 million above the Forbes value. So despite the fact that few teams make money (and the profitable teams are never up for sale), there are buyers willing to over pay for the right to own a NHL team.

Minor League Baseball Promotions

The Long Beach Armada of Los Angeles of California of the United States of North America Including Barrow, Alaska reacted to the recent NFL dogfighting scandal by hosting Michael Vick Animal Awareness Day. Fans were encouraged to bring their dogs to the game and anyone who brought a Vick jersey or shirt was given free admission. The in-game promotions were changed to make the dogs more welcome, including a doggie first pitch, a wiener dog race and dog washes. And don’t worry about the dogs leaving a mess on the field.

The Lowell Spinners put on Political Correctness Night. The names of the positions were changed, leaving the Spinners playing “first base-person” or “vertically challenged stop.” In a classy touch, errors weren’t announced to the crowd so the players didn’t get embarrassed.


Mullet Night is the kind of promotion only Jeff Foxworthy could love. Fans seeing the Portland Beavers are urged to dress up like rednecks and participate in toilet seat horseshoes and the unofficial hub-cap tossing world championship.


Drag in Drag Night has been in the works for a long time. Brave volunteers from the Winston-Salem Warthogs front office volunteered to dress up in drag for this game, but only four will get the, um, honor. Throughout the month of July, fans could donate money to one man’s jar; the four lucky winners will get to drag the infield in dresses. And no, it’s not all for kicks; all the money raised is going to the Special Olympics.




Finally flocculent fans can show of their unintentional sweaters at the Hairiest Back in Louisville Contest at this Louisville Bats game. The winner of the contest gets free hair removal courtesy of Avanti Skin Centers.

A-Rod Will One Day Pass Bonds

It seems only appropriate that Alex Rodriguez becomes the youngest player (and the 22nd player) to hit 500 homeruns, on the same day that Barry Bonds hits homerun #755 to tie Hank Aaron. Because it becomes the wish of all baseball fans that Rodriguez will someday surpass Bonds and remove his tainted record from the books. There is no question Bonds is a great players but his relentless pursuit of the Aaron record has hurt not only his reputation but that off the game of baseball.

I wonder what’s around the corner…

Caffeinated Diet Drinks

If you are moderating your caffeine intake - it's worth noting that most diet soft drinks have as much (or sometimes even more) caffeine than their sugar-filled counterparts.

Diet Pepsi MaxPer 12oz can : 69mg caffeine
A can of regular Pepsi-cola contains 38mg caffeine


















Diet CokePer 12oz can: 46.5mg caffeine
Diet Coke has significantly more caffeine in it than regular coke (34.5mg).