Canadian Crossing

2012 Stanley Cup notebook: Vancouver gone, all eyes on Ottawa

We always have a few tears every spring when a postseason ends for a Canadian team. Doesn't matter if it's a Calgary team that barely made it or a Vancouver team that won the Presidents Trophy. But this one hurt a little more.

After last year, the consolation appeared to be "well, they can come back next year." But every year is different. Vancouver can point justifiably to Duncan Keith's cheap shot that knocked out Daniel Sedin for the rest of the regular season and the first 3 playoff games. Or the trade of Cody Hodgson on a team desperate for offense. Or an underrated Los Angeles Kings that didn't deserve its 8th place status. Or a goalie controversy that wasn't really that controversial, unless the team trades one of the goalies next year.

If the Canucks had won last year, this would be an easier pill to swallow. But they didn't, and it's not.

Canada's quest to retain the Stanley Cup is in the hands of the Ottawa Senators.

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I tried to stir things up by throwing out the name of Gord Miller for NBCSN's coverage of Game 6. Canadian Sports Media reported that Miller will be in Chicago with Ray Ferraro on Monday. Oops.

Still, the idea was brilliant. Dare to dream.

The schedule is winding down for the first round. You have to figure that Doc Emrick and Pierre McGuire will be in Boston Wednesday night. Some team will have the Panthers-Devils Tuesday night, the only game scheduled that night. Dave Strader and Brian Engblom might be in Chicago, but we deserve them to be in Ottawa. (Updates on our Twitter feed.)

The Ottawa Senators hope that CBC will only carry two more games in the first round. Dean Brown and Greg Millen will call their final game for the network this season for Game 7 of Washington at Boston Wednesday night.

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I have missed Daryl Reaugh.

His color analysis wasn't that noticeable on Versus. But I did enjoy his guest appearances on CBC this season, until the NHL Network stopped carrying the late HNIC game.

Compared to Brian Hayward, who worked Game 1 of the Canucks series, Reaugh was sunshine after 40 days of flooding. Reaugh has one huge advantage that the other U.S. announcers haven't had: he had actually done Canucks games.

John Forslund (Game 1) and Rick Peckham (Game 5) did one Vancouver game each this year for their local teams.

Reaugh's sharp analysis has been missing from the U.S. coverage.

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Peckham and Reaugh meant no CBC simulcast by the NBCSN on Sunday night. The prime time slot forced NBC's hand to send a crew. Kings fans wonder why that didn't happen for Game 4, but the rest of the country benefited. The loss of Hughson/Simpson wasn't good, but one of the unanswered questions was why Hughson/Simpson was OK to sim sub, but not Cole/Galley.

We've seen our last CBC sim sub of the year, though a potential Ottawa-Florida series might prove tempting.

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Can't leave without mentioning NBCSN's coverage of a different Canadian team: Toronto FC. The Toronto contest on Saturday is one of two games involving Canadian teams as part of NBCSN's deal with MLS.

This isn't a good time to show the Toronto FC team, having gone winless so far this season. The Chicago Fire handled Toronto FC 3-2 at BMO Field.

The coverage was good. Soccer announcers with British accents aren't freaked out by being in Canada, and you have to love the Toronto skyline east of the stadium, especially the CN Tower. Would have been nicer if it was sunny.

The other MLS game will be at BC Place on September 29 on NBCSN as the Seattle Sounders travel to play the Vancouver Whitecaps.

'Goon' is no 'Slap Shot,' but a pretty good movie, if you can deal with fighting

 

It's no "Slap Shot," but "Goon" is a heck of a lot better than "Score: A Hockey Musical."

This is a movie about fighting; if you like fighting, there is a lot of fighting.

Seann William Scott is surprisingly decent. Scott's character is a fighter, true, but he is nice otherwise and dumb. The film contrasts this by portraying his brother and father as doctors.

The film attempts a number of sub-plots that aren't really fleshed out too well. Alison Pill plays the female lead; the trailer paints her out to be a "slut," for lack of a better word. However, you never get the impression that she is that kind of person. Pill's talents are clearly wasted in this movie, a doubly sad point since Pill is now engaged to Jay Baruchel, co-writer of the script and also appears in the movie as Scott's sports-obsessed friend.

Scott's character is supposed to help this French-Canadian hockey player who plays like a spoiled brat that is wasting his talent. Eventually, the young gun learns his lesson, though even after seeing the movie, I have no idea how that happened.

"Goon" does a good job at setting up the battle that will end the film, Liev Schriber's veteran goon vs. Scott's young goon.

This movie would have made more sense in the landscape a few years ago. The tragic deaths of NHL fighters in the past off-season made for bad timing. The juxtaposition  of real-life fights from book co-author Doug Smith is worth sticking around for the film credits. The fighting in the movie is set up with the theme of retaliation, not fighting for the heck of it.

You might recognize former Montréal Canadiens enforcer Georges Laraque, who has a cameo in the film. Laraque assumes the role of a fighter on the ice, a role for which he didn't need to do any more research. Eugene Levy is the most well-known Canadian to have a role in the film, playing Scott's father.

"Goon" was filmed throughout Manitoba, in Brandon, Portage La Prairie, and Winnipeg. You see exterior shots of Halifax, Nova Scotia and probably St. Johns, Newfoundland and Labrador.

Most of the hockey is fairly realistic. Even if you aren't a hockey fan, "Goon" is a pretty good movie. The screenplay flows well, minus the previously mentioned flaws. The actors are clearly enjoying their roles in the film; Schriber really looks like he is enjoying being in "Goon."

"Goon" might be the second best hockey movie you'll ever see, though that isn't saying much.

"Goon" is playing in select cities and is available, where available, On Demand.

MLS soccer welcomes third Canadian team in Montréal Impact

Two years ago, Major League Soccer (MLS) only had one Canadian-based team: Toronto FC. You might recall the 2010 MLS Championship from BMO Field in Toronto.

Last year, the league added the Vancouver Whitecaps. And now, the Montréal Impact begins its inaugural MLS season today against the Whitecaps in BC Place.

The Impact will play at Sapputo Stadium once that field is ready. In the interim, the Impact will start out at Olympic Stadium. The home opener is March 17 against the Chicago Fire.

The Impact hope for a better opening season than the Whitecaps. Vancouver went 6-18-10 in its inaugural season.

Toronto soccer got a boost from the exhibition game on Wednesday against the Los Angeles Galaxy (re: David Beckham) at Rogers Centre. Toronto FC drew over 47,000 people — a new Toronto soccer record — for the 2-2 tie. Toronto FC has missed the playoffs in all five MLS seasons; the team tries once again starting March 17 in Seattle. Last year, the team finished with a 6-13-15 record.

MLB and NBA have only one Canadian-based team, two in its history. Outside the NHL, this is the first major U.S.-dominant professional league to have three Canadian-based franchises at one time.

Americans who live in a MLS market or get a Spanish-speaking network might have extra opportunities to see one of the three Canadian teams. NBCSN will carry two games featuring Canadian teams (Toronto and Vancouver), and Galavision will have a Toronto FC game.

2012 MLS soccer (all times Eastern)
April 21 Chicago @ Toronto FC 3:30p (NBCSN)
June 30 New York Red Bulls @ Toronto FC 7p (Galavision)
September 29 Seattle @ Vancouver 9p (NBCSN)

'Goon' is more violent than typical Canadian films, yet may find a U.S. audience

So "Goon" won't likely win any Oscars, but might pick up a Genie or two. While the Canadian film may sufficiently cross over into the American audience, its purported violence level won't be a good example of other Canadian films. Still, my radar is up on what the reaction of "Goon" will be on both sides of the border.

Given its hockey and fighting theme, you wouldn't be surprised to see lots of commercials for the movie during last week's NHL Center Ice free preview. The fact that the film stars American actor Seann William Scott as the goon is part of what is attracting interest on the American side.

The vast majority of this film is Canadian. Written, directed, stars, location = Canadian. Liev Schriber is in this movie, and while he is American, he did live in Canada as a very small child. Eugene Levy is definitely Canadian. Jay Baruchel co-wrote and stars in the film with his now-fiancee Alison Pill (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Milk, Midnight in Paris). While Baruchel and Pill are both Canadian, it would be a mixed marriage since Baruchel is a Habs fan and Pill is from Toronto. The film was shot in Winnipeg.

From the trailer and the many different variations of said trailer during the hockey games, the film will have plenty of fighting, some sexual tension (Pill's character describes herself as being horny a lot and liking to sleep with a bunch of men), and people yelling to encourage more fighting. The plot is about a black sheep of otherwise really smart people. He gets discovered after a fight, and told that he isn't there to play hockey but to fight.

To make this clear, I am not a Seann William Scott fan; he usually plays obnoxious characters and he hasn't seemed too talented. In the trailer, Scott seems well-suited for the role, so I will give him the benefit of the doubt. And I realize that Scott is the reason why this movie will get some play in the States … and the fighting, of course.

"Goon" opens in Canada today and is available on demand in the United States starting today. The film will get a limited release in the United States starting March 30.

Sarah Burke, 1982-2012, pioneer in freestyle skiing

Watching the outpouring of spirit after the passing of Sarah Burke was beautiful. The response in the United States was stronger than what I expected, even with her track record on the ESPN X Games.

Many tragedies abound from this shortened life, but the idea of Burke being a major reason why superpipe was added to the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, and her not being able to be a part of that is rather cruel.

Burke was a pioneer for women in freestyle skiing. Her legacy will live on in others, both men and women, in the sport.

Her injuries from the accident were too much to overcome. Burke was 29.

NBC Sports Network will carry 2 Canadian MLS games

Major League Soccer now has three Canadian-based teams as of 2012, and two of them will be featured on the NBC Sports Network's MLS coverage.

Toronto FC welcomes the Chicago Fire on April 21 to BMO Field for a 3:30 pm Eastern start. The Seattle Sounders go to B.C. Place to take on the Vancouver Whitecaps on September 29 at 9 pm.

NBC and the ESPN networks are also carrying MLS games in English this season, but none of them involve Canadian teams.

For those who get Galavision, and can follow the game in Spanish can catch the New York Red Bulls at BMO Field on June 30 at 7 pm. I saw a Vancouver Whitecaps game on Galavision in 2011, and could follow it fairly well.

The games should air exclusively, though if not, I'll know with the Chicago telecast in March.

The chances of all the Canadian-based teams playing in Canada on those games is pretty slim, but somehow that happened. Then again, Toronto and Vancouver feel more accessible to U.S. cable networks.

The other Canadian-based MLS team is the Montréal Impact, playing its first season in the MLS in 2012. The Impact is scheduled to play at Saputo Stadium, but since the stadium won't be ready, the team will play at Olympic Stadium until June.

For those who remember the 2010 MLS Cup being held at BMO Field in Toronto, the MLS won't have the championship at a neutral site. So if the MLS Cup will be held in Canada, it will have to be one of the teams in the championship that has the better regular-season record.

CFL Week 7: Tape delay all the way

The CFL on the NFL Network goes from all-live last weekend to all-tape this weekend as the NFL begins its pre-season schedule.

U.S. insomniacs are excited about the prospect of watching Edmonton at Montréal Friday morning at 3 am Eastern and the Battle of Ontario on Sunday morning at 4:30 am Eastern.

You should realize that the NFL Network has allowed 3 hours for the Eskimos-Alouettes clash but only 2½ hours for the Argonauts at the Tiger-Cats. The influx of taped pre-season NFL games is likely the reason for the odd slot. If the game ends in regulation, and the halftime is taken out, you could get a game in a 2½ hours timeslot, but the only other time the NFL Network did that this year, we lost a few minutes of the game.

We had mixed emotions about the NFL Network decision last Friday to switch games. The chance to see Vancouver's Empire Field in beautiful HD was too good to pass up, but the Roughriders-Lions game featured the league's two worst teams while Edmonton at Winnipeg, the previous scheduled game, featured the CFL's two best teams.

We were also hoping to see Arland Bruce in a Lions uniform, but he spent the game in street clothes on the sidelines.

The field and the stands looked really nice and was great to see the mountains in the background. I remember a similar landscape when I watched the Vancouver Canadians minor league baseball team play at Nat Bailey Stadium in Queen Elizabeth Park a few years back. Vancouver is truly a beautiful city that loses some of that charm when broadcasting from an indoor stadium.

And if you did tune in to see Friday night's game, you saw TSN sideline reporter Farhan Lalji doing play-by-play. Chris Cuthbert's father had passed away earlier in the week. Lalji has roots in Vancouver, and under the circumstances, called a pretty good game. Cuthbert has called hundreds of hockey and football games, but Lalji did rather well, given his comparative inexperience.

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Depending on your cable package, you had another chance to see Empire Field over the weekend. The expansion MLS Vancouver Whitecaps played on Galavision Sunday night against the equally inept Chicago Fire. What made this even more surprising was that based in Chicago, the game wasn't on local TV but I was able to see the national telecast.

Now my French is not that good (Je parle tres petite Francaise), but my Spanish is even worse. Still, you could follow the soccer game pretty well, despite the language barrier.

The feed was a little blurry and definitely not in HD, but the field looked even better for soccer than football.

You didn't see much of anything outside the stadium. When the ball was at the far right on your screen, and the goalie was kicking it down the field, you could see the mountains in the background.

Amazingly, both the Lions and Whitecaps will give up Empire Field once BC Place is back and running in September. The football move is expected and totally understandable. But soccer in the United States thrives in more intimate settings. If the Whitecaps continue to struggle, their fan base will seem really tiny inside huge B.C. Place.

Better to watch CFL on computer live or TV on tape delay?

Is it better to have a CFL game tape-delayed than to not have a CFL game at all?

Our Canadian readers with cable that get every single contest (subject to local blackout) live probably laugh at that statement, but with the settlement of the NFL strike, U.S. fans of the CFL have to ask that question.

Over the weekend, we saw the NFL Network wait until the end of the weekend to air the Thursday and Saturday night telecasts. This looks to be a pattern, especially when the NFL preseason and season kicks into gear.

We saw what happened the first time the NFL Network showed a tape-delayed CFL game, and it was not pretty. And we will have another example this weekend when the next tape-delayed broadcast comes the late night of August 5 (early morning of August 6). Since the game is earlier that evening, having a short amount of time to turn the broadcast around decreases the likelihood of monkey business.

This assumes the NFL Network will stick to this schedule. Literally, stay tuned.

Last year, the NFL Network took August off from the CFL to show NFL preseason games, so having games in August is an improvement. The assumption is that after the first weekend of August 2011, tape-delay may be the only way to see the CFL on U.S. television.

Maybe you are one of those "Americans" who watch the game you want on ESPN3.com, not sweating whether the NFL Network will carry your game of choice, live or tape-delayed.

So how do you like to consume the CFL?

a) Watch the games in HD on the NFL Network
b) Watch the games on the computer on ESPN3.com
c) Both
d) Watch the highlights on cfl.ca/video

Let us know in the comments section on whether the NFL Network should handle tape-delayed games or just stick to live action.

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For those who went without football this weekend, you missed the Lingerie Football League (LFL) all-star game Saturday night. The league, tying into its expansion in Canada, held its all-star game at Copps Coliseum in Hamilton, Ontario — the first LFL game ever in the Great White North.

The Eastern Conference beat the Western Conference 24-18 before a sparse crowd at Copps Coliseum. The league has a brand new team in Toronto, the Toronto Triumph that plays at Ricoh Coliseum. The plan is to have 5 other teams along with Toronto to play starting next year.

Copps Coliseum would be small if Hamilton ever got a NHL franchise, so if the crowd was sparse, the attendance couldn't have been good. And I know this because I walked by the arena during my trip to Hamilton last year.

If the only Canadian team is in Toronto, choosing Hamilton was a surprise. And based on the crowd size, Hamilton could have been a better choice if it already had a team. And with 6 teams for next year, Hamilton wouldn't have been a top 6 choice.

The kicker to this story: the LFL has a TV contract with MTV2. And I even get MTV2 in HD, though I didn't tape the game on the HD channel because I didn't know I had it until after the game. The LFL, women in bras and panties playing football, has a better potential TV deal in the United States than the CFL. That is discouraging.

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Better late than never summed up this past weekend's coverage of the CFL. The Lions-Blue Bombers game featured a new announcing team. Hockey fans recognize Gord Miller's voice in the play-by-play chair. Good to hear Gord when the weather is really nice. Miller was teamed up with Matt Dunigan, a former CFL QB who usually works in the studio.

Dunigan gets a little excited in the booth, a trait not found in the reserved nature of the other TSN color commentators. In fact, Dunigan is almost the anti Glen Suitor, TSN #1 color guy.

Though Suitor's professionalism would have come in handy as Dunigan was rooting for a TD on a play. An audible burp was heard and Miller made it too clear that it didn't come from Dunigan. And we're leaving out Dunigan's admission of a fear of sharks (you had to be there).

Seriously, Dunigan had come out recently and admitted that he has suffered personality shifts linked to concussion symptoms. So we appreciate his enthusiasm and forgive most of his transgressions — no rooting in the press box.

The Calgary-Saskatchewan game appeared fuzzy, not quite in HD, early in the broadcast. Not sure if the problem was with TSN or the NFL Network.

We are critical of some of what the NFL Network has done in its coverage, but the channel did show the games without too many distractions. They showed them late, very late, but we didn't know the score. We want to see more cooperation as both the CFL and NFL seasons progress.

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2015 Women's World Cup will be in Canada, but still not sure where

The Women's World Cup got more than expected attention in the United States, thanks to the Americans reaching the finals, and losing in rather close fashion to Japan. Hopefully, some of that excitement will extend to the 2015 Women's World Cup that will be held in … Canada.

And you may have heard in passing that the 2015 Women's World Cup will be held in the Great White North. But they don't say where the tournament will be held. Because we don't know.

Several quality facilities are on the list. After all, by 2015, Canada will have three MLS franchises. Olympic Stadium in Montréal, BC Place in Vancouver, Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, and Rogers Centre in Toronto are the four biggest facilities. The Wikipedia page puts the game likely to be in Montréal, either at Sapputo Stadium or the Big O.

When we know where the 2015 Women's World Cup will be, CanadianCrossing.com will let you know.

B.C. Place still in roof transition, but should be ready by autumn

With all of those beautiful shots of Vancouver from the last two weeks, thanks to NBC, CBC, and the NHL Network, when they panned near Rogers Arena, you might have wondered what was going on in the building next door.

The building that had no roof and had sticks of some kind — what is going on with that?

You might not realize it, but that building is BC Place, home of the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2010 Winter Olympics. As you may remember, BC Place was scheduled to undergo renovation right after the Olympics to install a retractable roof, such as the one that have at Rogers Centre in Toronto and what was supposed to be in Olympic Stadium in Montréal.

The retractable roof looks extensively different than what we are used to since they won't be able to close the roof during rain or high winds.

More: Click here to see updated photos of BC Place.

Last year, the BC Lions of the CFL had to move to the new temporary home of Empire Field, built quickly to serve the temporary purpose. In the NFL Network's coverage of the CFL last year, BC was the only team that wasn't featured, home or away. So the only way you would have seen the new stadium is watching a CFL game via ESPN3.com.

This year, you may have already seen Empire Field if you saw a Vancouver Whitecaps home game. Vancouver is one of the expansion franchises of Major League Soccer (MLS). Both the Lions and Whitecaps will share Empire Field until BC Place is ready, then share BC Place. The CFL season starts June 30 and the Lions' first home game is July 8. In the initial 5-game NFL Network schedule, BC is on three times, though all of them on the road. The Whitecaps' original long-term plans were for a separate stadium, but it looks like they will play at BC Place.

The BC Lions are scheduled to make their return to BC Place on September 30; the Whitecaps in their debut on October 2. We should know soon the plans for U.S. television for the upcoming CFL season. Hopefully, we will see Empire Field in 2011. We are guaranteed to see the new BC Place in 2011 since the facility will host the 2011 Grey Cup.

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