Posts tagged canada
Leafs 2010-2011 Schedule Breakdown
Jun 22nd
Lost in the news of pretty much anything else imaginable today (Nathan Horton to the Bruins, Scott Niedermayer’s retirement, an increase in the salary cap, Pat Quinn’s lack of a head coaching job and an awful Hall of Fame class) was the announcement of the entire 2010-2011 NHL schedule for all 30 franchises.
The Toronto Maple Leafs kick off the season in a style similar to last season, hosting the Habs on October the 7th. It’s definitely a schedule different than last season’s as the Leafs don’t make anything that remotely resembles a home-stand until they host the Canucks, Predators and Devils from Saturday November the 13th until Thursday November 18th. And again, that’s barely a home-stand considering that’s only three games.
As for a road trip, there isn’t one that lasts more than two games until a Western-Canadian road-swing that sees the Leafs play the Oilers, Flames and Canucks from December 14th-December 18th.
The Leafs make a bit of a longer road-trip in mid-January when they play the Thrashers, Sharks, Kings and Coyotes over the course of six days.
The Buds next so-called “home-stand” takes place all the way in March, when from the 10th to the 14th the Leafs will host the Lightning, the Sabres and defending Eastern Conference Champs, the Philadelphia Flyers.
The blue and white will close out the regular season against their most hated of rivals, facing off against all other four teams in their division once apiece in their last six games of the season.
The longest break from action will be five full days without hockey as the Leafs play the Atlanta Thrashers at the ACC on December the 20th and don’t pick up again until boxing day in New Jersey.
The ACC Needs a Trademark
Jun 12th
Sure Brian Burke and the Toronto Maple Leafs are building towards the on-ice trademarks of playing with truculence, pugnacity, belligerence and testosterone, but who really cares? The same “on-ice trademark” argument can be made about the 2010 Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks who play with speed, energy and cockiness. The same can be said about the Philadelphia Flyers who, much like the Leafs try to build around toughness, but the difference between the Blackhawks, Flyers and the Leafs is that one of them don’t have an off-ice trademark, or something that makes their place to play unique. That one team is the Leafs.
Look, even if you go back to 2007-2008, the four teams that have appeared in the finals since then all have something that makes their arena special. The Pittsburgh Penguins have the white-out (perhaps not original but something to hold onto nonetheless), the Detroit Red Wings have the throwing of the octopus, the Philadelphia Flyers have God Bless America and in addition to that all fans wear orange, and with the Blackhawks they’ve got the large-scale anthem-singing, the Fratelli’s Chelsea Dagger and to add to that, the United Center is more commonly known as the Madhouse on Madison.
So what do the Leafs have? Burkie dogs? Excruciatingly long ceremonies? The most expensive tickets in the NHL? How about fans with bags on their head? No, no, no and no, the Toronto Maple Leafs have nothing of significance that makes the Air Canada Center unique, not the way they do their anthems, not the goal song, the goal horn and the place doesn’t even have a nickname.
Some might say, “who cares?”, but the fact of the matter is that we all should. If the Toronto Maple Leafs truly are the hotbed of hockey, the most fabled franchise and greatest team in all of sport, why is their nothing to separate them from everybody else off the ice? Now do the Maple Leafs need a trademark of their own to succeed in hockey? Will they crash and burn without being unique? Absolutely not, but it can’t hurt to try.
Listen, when it’s all said and done, when the Stanley Cup Finalists are ready to duke it out for hockey’s greatest prize, you’ve gotta think there’s something behind these trademarks. These are trademarks that the fans feed off of, the players feed off of and the energy in the building rises significantly due to these factors. These trademarks may in fact give the home team that extra little push, that extra little energy needed to close out a game or come from behind. These trademarks may very well decide games for the home team, and if the 29th-best team in the league can give themselves an extra advantage to help them win, then why not?
You can follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/raskofalltrades
Nikolai Kulemin Leaving: (Maybe) Not the Worst Thing
Jun 8th
Let me start off by saying that, as Jeff pointed out just yesterday, you have nothing to worry about when it comes to Nikolai Kulemin. All this hype about contract disputes and the KHL being a factor and everything like that is pretty much covered in the article he wrote yesterday (check it out, awesome read), and all the hype is probably for nothing. All that the lack of a new contract and money/term disputes means is that we’re probably gonna see the negotiations grind out in the summer, but one way or another it still looks like Kulemin wants to stay, Burke wants to keep him and one way or another he should still be dawning the blue and white next October.
But that’s not what I’m here to talk about. I’m here to talk about the hypothetical, the “okay, so what if Kulemin doesn’t resign?” factor of the whole ordeal. Well, I’ve been thinking about it more and more, and the way I see it it doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing. More >
Loading ...
