Canadian Crossing

CFL preview for 2011

The Three Amigos of Anthony Calvillo, Ben Cahoon, and Damon Duval that have led the Montréal Alouettes to Grey Cup wins in 2009 and 2010 and a Grey Cup loss in 2008 will not be together as the CFL season gets underway.

Oh, Calvillo is still the Alouettes QB, though Calvillo spent the off-season recovering from thyroidectomy surgery to remove a cancerous lesion. Cahoon retired from the CFL, and Duval signed a free agent contract with the Edmonton Eskimos.

(The video is a highlight from Cahoon's career that doesn't involve a catch. In 2007, Duval got kicked out of a game against Toronto for fighting. So Cahoon had to kick a FG in OT to win the game for the Alouettes. Thanks, Ben, for a great career.)

Still, the CFL is chasing Montréal, well, certainly the East is looking up to the Alouettes. The last non-Alouettes East representative in the Grey Cup was Winnipeg in 2007.

Calvillo has an outside shot at breaking the all-time yards mark for quarterbacks; he goes into the season with 68,161 career passing yards. Calvillo trails Damon Allen (72,381) by 4,221 yards. Assuming Calvillo stays healthy and productive, he should pass by Brett Favre (71,838) and Warren Moon (70,553).

For those new to the sport, the Eastern teams are Toronto (Argonauts) and Hamilton (Tiger-Cats) and the aforementioned Winnipeg (Blue Bombers) and Montréal (Alouettes). The West has two-time division champ Saskatchewan (Roughriders), Calgary (Stampeders), Edmonton (Eskimos), and BC (Lions-Vancouver).

The league will return to Moncton, New Brunswick for a regular season game, September 25 as Hamilton will take on Calgary. While the population of Canada is tilted eastward, the success of the CFL lies in the west. Ottawa is supposed to come back to the CFL in 2013. Quebec City and Halifax have been considered, but still aren't ready. Winnipeg has been in the West in the past, but has no choice but to be in the East these days.

And there is the crossover rule, where teams of one division can qualify in the playoffs of the other division.

You might recognize McMahon Stadium in Calgary from the Heritage Classic between Les Habs and the Calgary Flames in February. Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton hosted the original NHL Heritage Classic. And Rogers Centre in Toronto is also the home of the MLB Toronto Blue Jays and for one regular season NFL game for the Buffalo Bills.

TSN will carry every single game in Canada. We have mentioned the NFL Network's coverage, and we should know more depending on what happens with a potential NFL strike. If the NFL Network isn't carrying a game you want, you can catch the action on ESPN3.com (depending on your Internet service provider) and highlights from CFL.ca/video/index.

Playoffs start November 13. The 99th Grey Cup will be on November 27 from the newly refurbished BC Place in Vancouver

Prince William and Kate arrive in Canada tomorrow

Prince William and his bride, the Duchess of Cambridge (Kate), will bring Canada into the spotlight over the next 10 days. And unlike other royal visits, William and Kate will get more involved than traditional royal trips.

Speedboats and 10-gallon hats are on the schedule (no, not at the same time).

The royal couple start out in Ottawa, the nation's capital, where they will celebrate Canada Day on Friday. Will and Kate will also be in Montréal (July 2), Quebec City (July 3), Charlottetown and Summerside in Prince Edward Island (July 3-4), Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories (July 4-6), and Calgary, Alberta (July 6-8).

The 10-gallon hats will be part of the Calgary Stampede.

More: Details on the Royal Trip via the Government of Canada

The couple will miss Toronto and Vancouver on this trip, and will likely not hit too many Tim Hortons. Given that Ontario and British Columbia are the most "British" of the provinces, the itinerary has a different purpose in mind.

The prince has been to Canada twice but this is Kate's first trip to the Great White North.

While Canada still has ties to the homeland through the Governor General (the Queen's official representative to Canada), the visit is more symbolic than anything else. Still, this is the royal couple's first trip as a married pair, and a chance for Canada to be showcased as an ideal summer travel destination.

Previous coverage:

Notebook: Bono hitchhiking, Canada to get royalty tour

Don't forget Canadian TV options for Royal Wedding coverage

Ladies and gentlemen, (once again) the Winnipeg Jets

"Jets, Jets, Jets, Jets, Jets"

-- a phrase commonly said by Winnipeg hockey fans

Perhaps True North really wanted a nickname besides the Jets, but couldn't overcome the desire for Winnipeg fans for the new team to be the Jets.

We still don't have a logo, so the picture is of the old logo. And when San Jose plays Winnipeg (January 12, 2012 @ Winnipeg), once again, it's a battle between the Jets and the Sharks.

Names don't get repeated in sports very often. The Oakland Raiders went to Los Angeles and back to Oakland, remaining the Raiders the whole time. The Chicago Cardinals of the NFL kept their nickname when they moved to St. Louis despite having a baseball team with the same name. There are several instances in the old NFL where the football team took the same name as the baseball team, the most prominent example is the New York Giants.

The Milwaukee Brewers existed in the original American League in 1901 and a different team came back 69 years later after moving from Seattle. The Colorado Rockies were a hockey team (1976-1982) and a baseball team (1993-present). And there is likely an example that I have forgotten.

Al Davis owned the Raiders the whole time, so when they came back to Oakland, there was no debate over the team's nickname. Winnipeg fans fought hard to have the Phoenix team return to Manitoba's capital so their Jets would literally come back. But Gary Bettman controls the fate, and even if he finally gives up on the desert hockey dream, the original Jets will never go back to Winnipeg.

When the Quebec Nordiques moved to Colorado, the folks could have gone with the Colorado Rockies, part II, alongside the MLB franchise of the same name. But they went with Avalanche.

The ex-Thrashers will have huge expectations in being the Jets, but they have an opportunity if they can have success in the playoffs. The Winnipeg/Phoenix franchise has been horribly snakebit when it comes to playoff success.

And that will be all the sweeter becaue in the United States, all playoff games will air on NBC, the renamed Versus, or a major NBC Universal/Comcast channel. So if Winnipeg plays Ottawa (or Edmonton after this year) in the playoffs, American viewers with cable can watch the game.

picture credit: Globe and Mail

NHL schedule released early this year; Winnipeg to travel a lot

If you are still feeling burned out from the NHL season, you might not care that the NHL schedule has been released. But if you do care, here you go.

We still don't know the nickname of the Winnipeg team, but we do know that MTS Centre will host its first regular-season NHL game against the Montréal Canadiens on Sunday, October 9 at 5 pm Eastern (4 pm in Winnipeg). That will be the 4th day of the season and potentially up against NFL football. Then again, if there is no NFL, more eyes may be on Winnipeg, Canadian and American.

The expected NHL Center Ice free preview would have that game for U.S. cable viewers, unless Versus or the NHL Network jumps into the equation.

In checking the "Jets" schedule, the first road game is in Chicago, where I am currently based. The true test of going to a hockey game is whether I want to see the sweaters of the players. In other words, if you had said "Let's go see the Atlanta Thrashers," I would have passed. In the second game of the season, they are the same players (a lot of former Blackhawk players) as the Thrashers, but they will be wearing Winnipeg of some kind. Are they then that much more attractive to watch in person?

Too soon to tell, though because Winnipeg is in the East, this will be the only time Chicago plays Winnipeg in the 2011-2012 season. But I will watch the game on TV if I don't go, and I wouldn't have watched that same game last year.

If it feels like the schedule is out earlier than normal, it is. Given the Atlanta/Winnipeg move (now official, by the way), there certainly would have been consideration to have the schedule release later than normal, not earlier. Could there have been time to realign the divisions for a year?

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.

picture credit

Michele Bachmann misses Canadian stimulus in clueless tweet

Lesson in economic recovery: Consider Canada. No stimulus & unemployment is 20% lower than US. is.gd/jxebtd #tcot #teaparty #canada

The magic of Twitter. Words are there, even if they're wrong, especially if they are about Canada.

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) — no relation to Randy Bachman (BTO-Guess Who) — sent the above tweet to make the point that Canada's unemployment numbers are better even if there wasn't a stimulus.

Even though there was a stimulus.

Some outlets pointed out that there was a stimulus under Conservative PM Stephen Harper. Those outlets that dug further point out that the stimulus came despite Harper, as the other three parties in Parliament threatened a no-confidence vote if a stimulus wasn't passed.

And the Canadian banking system remained strong during that period, where as the American banking system was weakened by legislation passed by the same conservative mentality that is associated with Rep. Bachmann.

Bachmann is from Minnesota, which borders Canada (Ontario and Manitoba). Then again, Sarah Palin is from Alaska, which borders Canada (Yukon and British Columbia), and often gets things wrong about Canada.

If we were to rank the most extreme statement by an American female conservative about Canada, the winner and still champion is Ann Coulter, who told CBC's "The Fifth Estate" that Canada sent troops to Vietnam.

However, Coulter isn't running for president, and Bachmann is running for president. And presidential candidates should know enough about the U.S.' largest trading partner. 

photo credit: AP

CFL to have stronger presence on NFL Network

Usually we don't get news of where (if) the CFL will be on in the United States until days before the season starts. This year, we got the news a whole 9 days before kickoff.

The NFL Network will carry two games per week, with the option to carry extra games, playoffs, and yes, the Grey Cup.

There is some tip-toeing since the NFL Network may need more programming than normal if the NFL doesn't play for awhile and/or at all. So there will be some give and take.

The two sides have only announced the first 5 weeks of games (listed below) and one of those games is tape-delayed. If/when the NFL does come back, this may be part of the new reality: more games, but not all of them live.

I remember a few years back when the local sports channel showed CFL playoff games in the middle of the night a day or two after the broadcast. Still better than watching them on a computer.

Two games are better than one, and we will take as much of the CFL as we can get. Last year, the channel showed 14 regular season games and 0 playoff games; the NFL Network will show 10 games before July 31. And unlike last year where the BC Lions got shut out from U.S. TV, the Lions are on three times in the first 5 weeks.

The NFL Network will feature telecasts from TSN, the exclusive Canadian TV home of the CFL. And the games are available in HD in both countries. If the coverage was anything as good as last year, you are in for a treat.

And the most exciting finish to a football game in a long time was one of the NFL Network featured games as the Montréal Alouettes beat the Toronto Argonauts on a last-second TD off a missed field goal, where Toronto kicked the ball out of the end zone and Montréal kicked it back into the end zone.

Here is the initial schedule (all times Eastern):
Thursday, June 30 BC @ Montréal 7:30 pm
Saturday, July 2 Toronto @ Calgary 8 pm*
Saturday, July 9 Montréal @ Saskatchewan 4 pm/Hamilton @ Edmonton 7 pm
Saturday, July 16 Saskatchewan @ Hamilton 4 pm/BC @ Edmonton 7 pm
Saturday, July 23 Edmonton @ Calgary 7 pm
Sunday, July 24 Saskatchewan @ Montréal 7 pm
Thursday, July 28 BC @ Winnipeg 8 pm
Saturday, July 30 Calgary @ Saskatchewan 9:30 pm
*tape-delayed, game played on July 1

Special thanks to Tim, who gave us the heads up on the CFL press release.

Canadians are passionate about hockey, good and bad

I wasn't going to go beyond what happened in Vancouver after the riots last week. Thought I would leave things as they are.

But too many people have come up to me with a variation of "gee, I didn't know Canadians got upset like that." So let's set the whole record straight, good and bad.

Yes, Canadians do get upset and sometimes they protest and riot like many other countries.

We mentioned Montréal's riots from last spring, and there have been ones before that related to hockey. Though in the post Quiet Revolution days, the riots were about politics, rights, and sovereignty.

And we also mentioned the G20 protests from last summer in Toronto. Canadians made up a large portion of that group, but had visitors from multiple countries.

This was the first riot for Vancouver since 1994, and that one was about hockey, the last time the Canucks were in the Stanley Cup finals.

When you hear about sports-related riots in the United States, they usually involve people who go out after the game is over to cause mayhem. One significant detail was left out of the U.S. coverage of the Vancouver riots: the people were already out in the streets.

That's right. Hundreds of thousands of people were in the streets for every single game. This is how passionate Vancouverites and Canadians are about hockey. Downtown Vancouver was wall-to-wall people for all 7 games of the Stanley Cup finals. And after 6 of those 7 games, they peacefully dispersed.

Boston turned down a chance to have a crowd for Game 7 because it feared similar actions to Vancouver in its streets — for one game.

You could argue that Boston made the smarter choice, and that Vancouver should have learned its lesson from 1994 and not had crowds in the streets. But you can't deny the passion of Vancouver fans, the majority of which were well-behaved even after Game 7.

The CBC showed this crowd before, during, and after every game. NBC had a brief shot of the crowd before Game 7. Unlike the NBC viewers, those with NHL Network and/or CBC saw the whole picture. Huge crowds in the streets having fun and not causing trouble. Ask yourself how many U.S. cities would have pulled that off, or even wanted to do so.

And I can speak first-hand, having lived in a city when that team ended a 49-year Stanley Cup drought. There were no major riots, but no extensive spontaneous celebration. People didn't hit the streets, though the parade was well-attended and peaceful.

The after effect from Vancouver: people who stood in front of windows during the riots trying to prevent damage, those who went to clean up the mess the next day, people without direct incentive to help other than they lived in Vancouver and didn't like what happened in their city. They had a "thank you" party on those same streets in downtown Vancouver for the people who bravely tried to prevent damage in the area. Riot? Yes. But a civilized response afterward.

And while the negative behavior can't be condoned, there was something about watching a huge crowd of people having fun, united in one common goal to root on their team in the Stanley Cup finals. That part of Vancouver makes me proud, even if the rest of the behavior makes me not proud.

Harper attack on strikes reminder of Reagan and air traffic controllers in 1981

The Internet's savviest people may have been too young to remember the 1981 air traffic controllers strike in the United States. The air traffic controllers went on strike shortly after Ronald Reagan became president in 1981. Reagan ordered them back to work, threatening to fire those who remained on strike. And so Reagan fired the vast majority of air traffic controllers.

The chill of that memory came up recently when Canada's Labour Minister Lisa Raitt proposed back to work legislation in a rotating Canada Post strike and an Air Canada strike.

The Canada post strike had been rotating to various cities, so this wasn't deeply disruptive. Canada Post is owned by the Crown corporation, similar in the way the United States "owns" the post office, but not quite. So Canada Post locked out its employees. The Air Canada strike involves counter personnel and not pilots, flight attendants, etc. Again, this was a strike where service was slow, but flights still took off and landed.

Raitt cited the uncertain economy as the reasoning to introduce back-to-work legislation in Parliament, the same economy that the Conservatives touted during the spring federal election. But the quick, swift government action is less about the economy and more about sending a message to labor that a new sheriff is in the capital. And while this isn't on the scale of the U.S. air traffic controllers, by Canadian standards, this is a rather dramatic

While the Conservative government has been in power for 5 years, the small difference between minority government and majority government is often huge. This proposal would not have been stuck at the gate under the parliamentary allocation last year.

In the United States, a Secretary of Labor (minus the u) has one of the easiest jobs in a Republican administration (most Republicans couldn't tell you who was the Labor Secretary under W) because they are invisible. In Canada, Raitt is making a name for herself, but it isn't on the side of labor.

Those who label themselves as "conservative" on both sides of the 49th parallel don't like government interference, especially when the reasons given are very bogus. Let's see if they cry out against this government intervention. And whether this will be a pattern for the Harper government that, thanks to its majority will be around until at least 2015.

picture credit

CBC video close to 2010-2011 hockey season

Watching NBC bail out as soon as the network can is a very sad way to end a season, especially one as hard and grueling as this postseason was.

After all, this was the year that only 2 Canadian-based teams advanced to the playoffs, the fewest since 1978. And both of them could have floated away in OT in a 7th game in the first round. Yet one of them survived to the finals, and the other could have been there too if it had survived that Game 7.

There is still a lingering bitterness as to how the season ended for the Vancouver Canucks. There will always be disappointment when you are the team in the finals that doesn't get to hoist the Cup. The 2010 Philadelphia Flyers, the 2009 Detroit Red Wings, the 2008 Pittsburgh Penguins know that feeling. And the 09 Red Wings know what it's like to win the first two games at home and lose; in fact, the 2011 Cup finals fit the exact same model as 2009.

But the bitterness beyond the disappointment stems from a lack of a fair standard. Whatever you might of Canadians inferiority complex as they are treated by Gary Bettman and the NHL, the bias from the referees and Mike Murphy showed serious ethical violations by the NHL.

Still, there was a great Stanley Cup playoffs run, the TV ratings were up in both countries, there is a 7th Canadian team coming this fall, every playoff game will be on NBC or Versus or another Comcast station, and well, maybe, hope that the Stanley Cup streak won't reach 19 years.

So we leave you with the year-end montage courtesy of CBC. And kudos to Fang Bites for posting the video as well.