Sports Guy North

CTV Hypocrisy

I don't know if any of you remember, but last August there was a Hockey Enforcers battle in Prince George. When it was in the works, there were rumours of current NHL stars such as Domi and The Grim Reaper taking part in the event. The event, however, was put off a few times due to the questionable ethics of the event, and in the end it went down with such huge former NHL stars as Jason Simon who had a whole 5 NHL games under his belt. In the end, the final came down to Dean Maynard destroying Mike Sqroi, and 4 of the 15 contenders finding themselves out of the event due to medical withdrawals, to put it nicely.

Anyway, I mention this now because CTV is airing a show this weekend about the man who brought the event to fruition. The angle their television advertisements seem to take is that the event itself was not entertainment and didn't have a place in the mainstream. But then they themselves dedicate an entire show to the very exploitation they claim to be against. You have to love the hypocrisy that is the media. Mostly because you don't have any other choice.




Raptors Chat

This one's pretty funny. On the day where the Raptor's were officially eliminated from the playoffs, what were their message boards filled with? As always, talk about the mop girl. What's even funnier is that they managed to hook up to an old post of mine, and even stole one of my picture's of her off of it. I'm surprised that they just used the picture, and not the mop girl video that I also listed.




Dion "The New Prong" Phaneuf

OK, I must be the only one not on the Dion Phaneuf bandwagon at this point. Maybe it's my bias against the most boring team in hockey, or maybe it's because the talk just started way too soon. Personally, of the rookie defensemen I would take Meszaros and Seabrook over Phaneuf any day. Probably Kronwall too. He hasn't played many games for Detroit yet, but his defensive play is as solid as any veteran in the league. And that is not something that can be said about Phaneuf. At least not yet. Is that something that can change? Of course. Will it? Well, I'm pretty sure it doesn't have to. He is already getting the old Chris Pronger treatment in the press, to the extreme even. John Buccigross over at ESPN wrote an article about the 10 people under 30 who are Hall of Fame worthy, and sure enough Phaneuf was #4. Honestly. At this point it really doesn't matter if he develops any kind of defensive play. He'll get a Norris or two (that will surely rightfully belong to Meszaros or Kronwall), and will surely be the new Chris Pronger on any international team for years to come. I hope it turns out that the hype is right, but the odds seem strongly against it at this point. He's not even a top 10 rookie this year in my books.

I apologize to all the Phaneuf fans out there who I have just offended, and I know that the media sure has made a lot of you. He just does not deserve it yet. I had this battle with Pronger fans for 10 years, and I envision the same type of fights in my future with the "New Prong". I just hope he really proves me wrong so that I can concede my side, because I know no matter what happens at this point the other side isn't going to concede.