Hawks are in Tronna for an Original Six game on good old Hockey Night in Canada. One problem: the NHL's new HUMONGOUS BEEG television deal (which was supposed to shoot the salary cap into the stratosphere before the Canadian dollar sank) sort of made it less old and less good.

You remember that Rogers, which is sort of like Canada's Comcast if Comcast also owned everyone's cell phones, bought the exclusive rights to national hockey coverage in Canada, paying more than Comcast pays down here. Their rights fee replaces not only TSN (who still carry the Jets and some Leafs locally, plus the Senators now) but the CBC, who had been paying for their package of Saturday night games and the choice cuts of the playoffs: basically whichever series had Canadian teams. Remember that the CBC is taxpayer-supported, and even in Canada, it's been a dicey proposition getting the public sector to pay for hockey on TV. The CBC has become a relic, churning out bland but thoughtful Canadian Content while the privately owned CTV, Global, and City give the people what they want (this isn't even getting into the francophone side, where I have it on good authority that Quebec's private broadcasting makes American Idol look like Firing Line), which is often American in origination, and it's only via the ad revenue of Hockey Night that the public broadcaster can even produce any content. Still, it's been a hard sell for years, getting what's supposed to be a public service to engage in such high-level capitalism when the private sector can take it on.

So finally, the private sector did. But in one of those gestures of Good Corporate Citizenship that has a way of feeling more like pity, Rogers agreed to produce Hockey Night in Canada for the CBC free of charge. (An unaffiliated Quebec network, TVA, does subcontract French coverage.) All the CBC had to do was cede the timeslot and all editorial control to Rogers, and they'd put a bigger, better Hockey Night over the public airwaves for the good people of Canada. Oh, and Rogers would get all the ad revenue, of course. They're not that generous. Oh, and also, Rogers will be doing everything out of the CBC's television facilities. And at some point, they might take HNIC off the airwaves and move it all to cable. Oh, and they cut back Don Cherry's screen time by two thirds. And they replaced longtime host Ron McLean for being critical of Gary Bettman and replaced him with THIS fuckface:



If there's one thing in this world that Toronto loves more than Good Hard-Working Canadian Boys, it would have to be Good Hard-Working Canadian Boys Who Are A Little Ethnic But Not Too Ethnic I Mean Jesus Christ Let's Not Get Carried Away Here. This is why Leafs fans labor under the misconception that Nazem Kadri is a superstar. This is why a Persian-Canadian talk show host on public radio (CBC Radio is even more staid and ivory-tower than the TV side) was venerated as some kind of great cultural ambassador before the news came out that he beats women at his apartment and won't even let his teddy bear watch. And this is why George Stroumbolopoulos, a man in his late forties who wears leather and earrings like he's half his age and does insipid fawning interviews of the "dude man bro I totally feel where you're coming from" variety, is doing Hockey Night. I guess the best comparison would be a cross between Ryan Seacrest, Ira Glass, and a golden retriever, and somehow this guy has wound up anchoring hockey coverage, hangin' out with his BFFs Sid and Jonny in a tasteful lounge setting where handsome men go.

Here's a whole article from the G&M about how this whole Rogers/CBC thing went down, it's pretty interesting: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/h ... /?page=all

As for the Make-Believes, they seem to be playing well enough, I guess, though I don't think their roster is that special. I've only watched one of their games this year, a loss to the Habs, who are even more smoke and mirrors than the Leafs are. You may remember the Hawks coming in and getting thumped here last year. Let's hope for the inverse this time.

Hawks: 6-3-1 (13), 4-4-2 adjusted (10), 12.91 expected
Leafs: 5-4-1 (11), 5-5-0 adjusted (10), 11.187 expected

Hawks: 38.1 shots for (1st), 27.5 shots allowed (7th)
Leafs: 30.7 shots for (11th), 1.0 shots allowed (21st)

Hawks: 2.500 scored (19th), 1.900 allowed (4th), .600 differential (6th)
Leafs: 2.900 scored (T-9th), 2.600 allowed (16th), .300 differential (14th)

Hawks: 7.6 PIM/gm (2nd), 16:32 more PP time than PK time (2nd)
Leafs: 10 PIM/gm (8th), 2:54 more PP time than PK time (14th)

Hawks: 7/43 16.3% on the power play (19th), 29/32 90.6% on the kill (3rd)
Leafs: 7/39 18.0% on the power play (18th), 32/38 84.2% on the kill (11th)

These guys are whatever. Go Hawks

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Someone had to replace Jian Ghomeshi , CH.

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

I really liked Moxy Früvous back in the 90's, so it was pretty hard to read the stories about Jian.

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Look over there! A dry ice factory. A good place to get some thinking done.
Did I forget to mention, forget to mention Memphis? Home of Elvis and the ancient Greeks.

I've watched a lot of those Q TV interviews and thought Gomeshi was an excellent interviewer. Most famously the Billy Bob Thornton one.

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

Thanks, Oduya.

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Not a mult.

So, Sharp doesn't want to shoot anymore??

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Not a mult.

Thanks, Oduya.

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Not a mult.

Shoulda won, but another opposing goaltender performance, plus Oduya having a derpy night, and here it is again.

Genrally, you can't fault the offensive aggression so far this season, but they need to get their shit straight in their end.

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Not a mult.

Reimer 45/47 on the night, 26/26 in the third, the period where this year's team appears to give a shit. Another game where the shots should have gone in but didn't. The Hawks are now under .500 without inflation. Minnesota and St. Louis won their games. At least Winnipeg is next, but even they just won a shootout 1-0 tonight.

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I noticed certain players on the ice tonight, most notably Kane. But there was a certain guy with a C who didn't seem to be prominent. In any case, the Hawks have to find a way to get 8% or more of their shots to go in. It should have been a 4-5 goal night. They can't get to three goal consistently.

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Hawaii (fuck) You