Sports Logic

Written by Shaun Deering

What in the name of Mike Brophy is going on with the Canadian media this season? The year is not even a week old and in almost every Canadian city, there is an apparent crisis. Of course, the national television networks aren't far behind in leaching these stories and trying to fill airtime with nothing. Forget about the swine flu H1N1, the real pandemic in the country is hockey nonsense.

The main story on TSN.ca yesterday is "Hodge Mail" asking the question "Is there a goaltending controversy in Toronto?" Two bloody games into the season, and TSN not only asks such a stupid question but makes it the top headline. Allow me to answer that question for you TSN. No, there is no goaltending controversy in Toronto. They have played two game and they never really had a clear cut number one to start with. I don't know if you are familiar with this while you all live inside your Toronto-centric bubble, but that's not a controversy anywhere else, it's a platoon.

Goaltending is the issue in Edmonton as well, but instead of taking two games for their fans to crow, it took one. It's true that Nikolai Khabibulin wasn't exactly sharp against Calgary on Saturday night, and it was capped off by a stick-handling blunder with 50 seconds left to directly cost the Oilers the game. While it's not a great way to get the fans to embrace him, the fans need to realize it's not worth jumping off the High Level Bridge over.

What's more puzzling is what took place in Vancouver on Monday night. After allowing 4 goals on 4 consecutive shots against Columbus, Roberto Luongo was booed by the Canucks' fans. I understand there would be some frustration with an 0-3 start. I also understand that Luongo hasn't looked particularly good in any of those three games, but to boo the guy who will probably retire the greatest player in Canucks' history is downright idiotic. Without Luongo the Canucks are a 10^th to 12^th place hockey club, and I hope the people of Vancouver realize as much. Would they prefer to go back to the days of Dan Cloutier, Garth Snow or Felix Potvin? Do they forget that this guy is their MVP year after year? Again, I understand you're frustrated, but grow a damn brain. Luongo will bounce back and those same jackasses who booed him will fawn over him like a high school boy with his first girlfriend.

Amazingly, something equally dumb as what's happening in Vancouver is happening in Calgary. After two games, in which the Flames won both might I add, there was an article in the Calgary newspaper with the headline "What's Wrong With Iggy?" Amazed by this sight, I read the article and it seems that the writer in question, who doesn't deserve my time to type her name, thinks that on Saturday night versus Edmonton, Jarome Iginla was replaced by a body double because of how poorly he played. Has Iginla been good this year so far? Not really. If you don't think Iginla is going to get 35 goals and 80 points as a minimum this year, you are equally as dumb as those fans in Vancouver who booed Luongo.

So Iginla scored a goal last night, and I think the story is done. Well, the folks at Sportsnet/Fan Radio Network will have none of that. Today on Hockeycentral At Noon, Daren Millard and Nick Kypreos have Edmonton journalist Mark Spector on to talk about the Western Canadian teams. I bring up that be is an Edmonton journalist for obvious reasons; he is biased and he likes letting his biases be known. In addition to that, he is about as big of a bandwagon jumper as there can be. So Spector and Kypreos were aghast at how Iginla can only play 16 minutes last night, and how Brent Sutter is trying to get Iginla to play a defensive game as well. To which Spector replies "If they want to pay me 7 million dollars to play defence, sign me up guys." This is coming from the man who fawns over Shawn Horcoff (a guy who arguably plays neither offense nor defence and also makes 7 million) on a regular basis, but I digress. Not that I really expect anything better out of the Sportsnet crew, but guys it's 3 games into the season. I have a suggestion that you guys quit trying to make literally every little thing a story and focus on the real issues, like how great the Washington vs. Philadelphia game was last night.

To the hockey media and fans, I beg you all to calm down and wait a month or two so that something called a "trend" can take place and you can see what your respective teams are all about. Why can't you just enjoy the early season for what it is, like they're doing in Montreal. That's right Canada, you need to calm down...and start acting like the fans in Montreal.