Canadian Crossing

Canadian Screen Awards to replace Geminis and Genies

For those who follow the Geminis (television) and Genies (movies), this year, the two ceremonies are combined into the Canadian Screen Awards. While awards will be given out over three nights, the gala ceremony will be Sunday and broadcast on CBC at 8pm. CBC will stream the red carpet show (cbc.ca/live) from 4:30-6 pm Eastern.

Martin Short will be the master of ceremonies for the Sunday night event. Among the many stars who are presenting include Jay Baruchel, Enrico Colantoni, Catherine O'Hara, Kim Coates, James Cromwell, Arlene Dickinson, Erica Durance, Marc-André Grondin, Allan Hawco, Brad Smith and Meg Tilly.

More information: List of all Canadian Screen Awards nominees

Combining awards for films and television is more like the Golden Globes than the Oscars, but without the obscure and mixed categories that plague the Golden Globes.

Previous coverage: Reviewing the WIFF 2012 Canadian films

A few Canadian films that I spotlighted last fall are up for nominations, including "Rebelle," "Laurence Anyways," and "Still Mine," the film that came out as "Still" during the 2012 Windsor International Film Festival.

The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television covers all Canadian films and English language television.

This is one of those nights in the year that I would love to have a live CBC feed. We will tweet as much as we can on our Twitter feed and wrap up all the coverage and winners Monday morning on CanadianCrossing.com.

Gary Bettman should allow NHL games at Rogers Centre, Olympic Stadium

Montréal is in Toronto tonight for a divisional battle at the Air Canada Centre. The rivalry has taken a ugly turn lately with alleged biting incidents and increased fighting. But what if tonight's game were being held at Rogers Centre? Or a rematch at Olympic Stadium?

The NHL lost the Winter Classic for 2013, the first chance for a Canadian team to play in the game. But otherwise, Gary Bettman wants no Canadian outdoor presence, save the Heritage Classic, which the NHL buried at the end of the first Hockey Day in America.

Now there is talk of several outdoor games (Yankee Stadium, Dodger Stadium) for next year, which would further diminish the Toronto-Detroit matchup.

Canadian teams can't do their own version and they are (so far) not allowed in the American version. So why not an indoor version of the outdoor version?

Canada has a few attractive huge indoor stadiums, but very few huge outdoor stadiums. Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, the original home of the NHL Heritage Classic, is the largest outdoor only stadium in the country. But Rogers Centre, Olympic Stadium, and B.C. Place in Vancouver could serve a large audience in a Canadian setting and still not be outdoors.

Bettman doesn't like being upstaged, so having a huge indoor game won't ruin the outdoor spectacle that he stole from the Canadians. The beauty of the new Canada Classic is that since the games aren't outdoors, they won't have the same exact experience, still maintaining the Winter Classic mystique. The NHL gets some desperately needed publicity, and Bettman can look good to Canada for once.

The idea of having a regular season game at Rogers Centre or Olympic Stadium floated around on the Internet before the lockout was settled. Imagine 80,000 screaming fans at the Big O or a 50,000 + crowd that would outdo the Grey Cup.

Of course, if the Canada Classic happened without Bettman's blessing, there would be no more token Canada appearances in the Winter Classic and no more outdoor Heritage Classic events. Then again, was that going to happen anyway?

The Toronto Maple Leafs have been promised the 2014 Winter Classic as the visiting team for the Detroit Red Wings in Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor. On paper, there is no reason to think that won't change. But given the financial and other negative damage suffered from scheduling the game and then canceling the events, the 2014 Winter Classic will be tainted. Bettman is fully aware of that, but as long as his precious Northeastern buddies aren't harmed, he won't care.

The Canada Classic would have Toronto-Montreal, rivals on multiple levels, even language. Makes the Philadelphia-Boston matchup at Fenway Park seem fake by comparison. Those two teams don't even play in the same division.

NHL fans, regardless of which side of the border, will appreciate the owners and management allowing a grand gesture. Bettman will still get booed when he hands out the Stanley Cup, but he might not have to wear a hockey helmet when he goes out on the ice.

The Winter Classic was seen as a way to help save the NHL from the last lockout. The Canada Classic can be a tool to help save the league after this lockout. The current menu of token gestures for home openers, discounted access to Center Ice (with shorter free windows) and GameCenter Live, and fewer Canadian games on U.S. television isn't helping people to want to go back to watch the players on the ice or at home.

The Canada Classic won't solve every issue with the lockout. But it would be a nod to Canadian NHL fans and NHL fans in general. They could use some love. Hard to find a downside to 80,000 screaming fans for your product instead of half-empty arenas in Phoenix, Miami, Columbus … .

2013 Chicago Poutine Fest: Not the real thing

What poutine is supposed to look like: poutine de Montréal.

Editor's note: This column is simulcast on our sister blog, BalanceofFood.com, given the shared commonality of food and Canada that is poutine.

The idea of celebrating one of Canada's better-known foods in the 3rd largest city in the United States sounded magical to me when I first heard about the event. In the end, the experience left me pining for a road trip to Montréal.

Previous coverage: Poutine in Montreal: Sampling through the city's finest

In a room full of "poutines," only one came close to be remotely similar to what you might find in Quebec. And that version isn't something the restaurant is offering.

In some circles, poutine has become the whim of high and mighty variations to the classic fries, cheese, and gravy combination. This approach to poutine was on display on Sunday.

The most authentic was from El Ideas with the basic ingredients topped with a smoked duck sausage and foie gras gravy. You could easily see that on a menu in Montréal. (Sorry I didn't get a picture.)

This is a place with a constantly changing menu, and the Web site doesn't show any poutine has been served at the restaurant. Too bad.

Some of the places offered up a poutine that either wasn't on their current menu or had never been on its menu.

The least authentic was from the Pleasantry. The place went with smoked onion, blue cheese, and thyme gravy with duck confit, crispy onions, and scallions. Most of that subtlety was lost in the blue cheese sauce, and I love blue cheese. I couldn't pick out any other taste.

The Publican, a renown place in Chicago, offered up fried chickentail, fried cheese curds (really?), hot sauce, and Dunbarton blue cheese. The actual taste was not as good as the ingredients would suggest. This didn't even belong at a poutine competition.

Haymarket, the host of the event, submitted its own approach with smoked ham hock gravy that was topped with in-house andouille sausage and lemon soaked apples. A nice dish, but poutine was the furthest thing when eating this.

The Boarding House had a lobster poutine. I told the guy I couldn't possibly compare it to the other lobster poutine I had — Chuck Hughes' Garde Manger lobster poutine. Hughes' version was a lot better. The guy went through a long description of what goes into the lobster presentation, but the dish was more about lobster pieces on top of French fries. I don't even remember either the cheese or if there was a sauce in this dish.

Scofflaw had a bacon, eggs, and clam topping. This could have been a carbonara poutine, which doesn't sound that bad. This dish was okay, but admittedly I only had one bite.

Little Market went with braised short ribs, a nice choice if you going in that direction, and red wine gravy, but with fried cheese curds. Sigh.

Leopold went with a lamb marquez gravy and pickled peppers on top of fries and cheese curds. A lot of strong flavors, but nothing resembling poutine.

The judges went with the Gage, a place that knowingly offers different versions of the dish that changes as the menu changes. The Gage version had wild boar on top with smoked celery, carrots, and onions. Wild boar is good, but the cheese was barely noticeable. I'll admit this is the only poutine in the room I had before the fest, so I knew it pretty well.

I didn't get to try two of them. Red Door had a duck confit with chorizo verde and pickled jalapeno. And the Pleasant House served what it called deluxe gravy chips. British chips (square fried potatoes) topped with hangar steak, red wine gravy, and shredded cheddar. Both sounded good, but not authentic. And kudos to the Pleasant House for not calling it poutine.

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I met Canadians, people who like Canada, and others who just wanted to eat. One guy had a Habs jersey, another had an old school Expos hat. I might have broken out my Montréal gear if I weren't on duty. One woman had a Jonathan Toews shirt; I asked her if she wore the shirt on purpose. She had no idea what I was talking about. I explained to her that Toews was Canadian (from Manitoba).

I met a young woman from Canada had been in the States for 10 years; she had lived in Toronto and Vancouver. She explained to me that poutine was continuing the stereotype about Canada about eating fatty foods, even if it was true but not what we should think about when we think of Canada.

I wanted to find people who had never had poutine. One described her impression before as poutine being gravy fries. After having had poutine, she thought it was a vehicle for gravy and cheese. Another person thought it was better than she thought it would be, and had heard about poutine when the Bad Happy Poutine Shop opened up about a couple of years ago.

Yes, Chicago has a place devoted to poutine. The place tries hard to be truly authentic, but I and several other "experts" feel the place comes up a little short. But you can get fries, cheese curds, and gravy there along with other variations.

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Poutine is a food of the masses: simple food for cheap prices and eaten to keep warm in the cold Quebec winters. The poutine I've seen in Chicago is mostly about hoity-toity variations for expensive prices: the exact opposite of what poutine is in Montréal.

I've had paid about $6 for a wonderful plate of poutine that fills my stomach and fulfills my taste buds in Montréal. I have paid almost double that for plates that didn't fill or fulfill.

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The money went to charity, about $8000 to Common Threads, which does a number of cool things, including teaching about cultural diversity through cooking. I'd like to think poutine, real poutine, can play a part in cultural diversity.

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All pictures taken by me with all the proper copyrights.

2013 Oscars notebook: Thank you, Canada

"Thank you, Canada."

Canada certainly had its share of thanks at the 2013 Academy Awards ceremony Sunday night.

Ben Affleck thanked Canada in accepting the Oscar for Best Picture for "Argo." Chris Terrio for Best Adapted Screenplay for "Argo" thanked Canada and Ken Taylor. Ang Lee thanked Canada via Yann Martel and the Canadian crew in accepting the Oscar for Best Director for "Life of Pi."

"I want to dedicate this to him (Tony Mendez) and the (Ken) Taylors and the (John) Sheardowns and the people all over the world in the U.S. and Canada and Iran that use creativity and intelligence to solve problems non violently," said Terrio.

John Sheardown was the First Secretary at the Canadian embassy. Argo makes no mention of Sheardown and his efforts. Sheardown took the first call from the American diplomats and agreed to take in the Americans.

Mychael Danna gave a thoughtful and beautiful speech after he won for Original Score for "Life of Pi."

Christopher Plummer brought grace to the stage, despite a ill-conceived Sound of Music joke, to introduce and give away the Best Supporting Actress award. Plummer won the Best Supporting Actor last year for "Beginners."

William Shatner made a cameo as James T. Kirk to tell host Seth MacFarlane how bad the Oscars were. The comedy sketch set up moments that would have wrecked MacFarlane's stint. MacFarlane's nerdish tendencies, especially in pop culture terms, must have been salivating with the Star Trek reference.

Shatner did a good job; why not make him a future Oscars host? Shatner hosted the Junos in 2012 and the Genies in 2011, so he does have award ceremony hosting experience. And older academy people have heard of him, unlike MacFarlane.

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Canada nominees for Best Foreign Language Film
Film	Year**
War Witch	2012
Monsieur Lazhar	2011
Incendies	2010
Water	2006
Barbarian Invasions*	2003
Jesus of Montréal	1989
The Decline of the American Empire	1986
* Oscar winner **Year of the film, not the ceremony.

"Rebelle" or "War Witch" lost out to "Amour" for Best Foreign Language Film. "Amour" had the momentum on its side, also being nominated for Best Picture. "Rebelle" wasn't the easy film to watch.

Canada has had an incredible 3-year streak of making the top 5 cut for Best Foreign Language Film, with "Rebelle," "Monsieur Lazhar," and "Incendies."

"Barbarian Invasions" remains the only Canadian film to have won this award.

"Rebelle" was also nominated for Best International Film at the 2013 Independent Spirit Awards, but lost out to "Amour" for that award as well.

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There were 5 nominees for live action short with Canadian connections. Yet "Curfew" beat out "Buzkashi Boys" (Ariel Nasr) and "Henry" (Yan England). "Mirror Mirror" was shot in Montréal; Eiko Ishioka, who died in January 2012, lost for costume design.

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"Life of Pi" won 3 Oscars overall, including best cinematography and visual effects. David Magee was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay for the Yann Martel book, but lost to Argo's Terrio.

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Daniel Radcliffe and Ellen Page introduced the nominees for Best International Film at the 2013 Independent Spirit Awards. Radcliffe and Page were very appropriate people to introduce an international film segment since Radcliffe is British and Page is Canadian.

Long-time readers might remember two years ago when the IFC ceremony tried to pass off Sandra Oh as an American in introducing the Best Foreign Film.

They didn't call out Page as a Canadian, but at least they didn't make her into an American.

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Previous coverage:

Will 'War Witch' and 'Life of Pi' bring Canada Oscars in 2013?

Canadian films should tell more stories about Canada

Likelihood of seeing the Canadian film class of 2012

Reviewing the WIFF 2012 Canadian films

photo credit: Oscars/ABC

Toronto Blue Jays 2013 spring training games on MLB Network

Toronto Blue Jays Grapefruit League on MLB Network
Date	Opponent	Time
February 24	@ Detroit	Midnight
February 24	(ss) @ NY Yankees*	1p
February 28	@ NY Yankees (ss)	10p
March 2	Philadelphia	4p
March 3	@ Philadelphia (ss)*	1p
March 11	NY Yankees	3a
March 28	@ Tampa Bay	7a
March 29	@ Philadelphia	10a
March 29	@ Philadelphia*	7p
All times Eastern. All games tape-delayed except * for live telecasts. (ss) split squad

Unlike Fox, MLB Network isn't afraid to show the Toronto Blue Jays in action. The U.S. cable channel will carry 9 Blue Jays games in the Grapefruit League, 3 of them live.

With the limited number of teams in Florida, we'll see Toronto play Philadelphia 4 times and the Yankees 3 times with single appearances with Detroit and Tampa Bay.

All feeds will be local, so some of the feeds could come from Rogers Sportsnet.

The Blue Jays will also be featured on "30 Clubs in 30 Days" on March 2 during MLB Tonight on the MLB Network.

ESPN released its limited Spring Training schedule, and while all of their telecasts will be from Florida, none of them feature the Blue Jays.

NHL the week in preview: February 22

This is the first week since Opening Night that the NHL Network won't carry a Hockey Night in Canada game. The U.S. cable channel is allergic to the Battle of Ontario and the New York Rangers at the Bell Centre didn't hold enough interest.

The NHL Network will air Nashville at Detroit in the time slot. The cable channel has stated that it will show Coach's Corner and Hot Stove during the breaks of that game. If not, you can catch the segments online via cbcsports.ca.

Also, in taping Hockey Tonight on weeks where the NHL Network will not show the 7 pm Eastern game, tape an extra 15 minutes in case the channel shows a bit more coverage before switching viewers to the American game.

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NHL Network

Tape delayed
Friday NY Rangers @ Ottawa, 1p
Monday Vancouver @ Detroit, 1p
Tuesday Toronto @ Philadelphia, 1p / Montréal @ Ottawa, 3p
Thursday Montréal @ Toronto, 1p

CBC

Saturday
Toronto @ Ottawa, 7p (nationwide except Quebec)
NY Rangers @ Montréal, 7p (Quebec)
Minnesota @ Calgary, 10p

TSN

Monday
Toronto @ Philadelphia, 7p

Tuesday
Winnipeg @ NY Rangers, 7p

Wednesday
Montréal @ Toronto, 7:30p

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We criticize the NHL Network for their lack of enthusiasm of showing Canadian teams live. The key word is live. The channel has shown enthusiasm of showing the teams on tape delay.

This week, the channel is showing 5 games on tape delay. Most weeks, the channel is offering 3-4 games. The channel has had a decent amount from Canadian feeds, though we got MSG feeds in the 2 games this past week.

The other nice change for the NHL Network is that the bottom bar is thinner, and they aren't showing the previous night scores. So if you worked hard to not know the score, you can watch the game without knowing which team won.

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Don Cherry says what Matt Cooke did to Erik Karlsson was an accident. "It was a freak accident. No human being would do that."

Some of my reaction on the Twitter feed got a little irrational, which is unlike me. The frustration went beyond Erik Karlsson getting hurt and Matt Cooke doing the damage.

The issue isn't the hit, but more than certain players and teams aren't going to get punished. So their players can do whatever they want, accident or on purpose, and get away with their actions.

Also, so many rushed to Cooke's defense, citing his 18 months of non-incidents as opposed to his 5 suspensions. Maybe Cooke has changed, maybe, but too many were too quick to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Ottawa owner Eugene Melnyk was brutal in his assessment about Cooke, and didn't get reprimanded.

The Canadian teams don't seem to have as much depth as some American teams. Some American teams make it a point to do cheap shots, and know because they belong to a select group, their players won't get punished, or if they somehow do, the punishment won't fit the crime.

Pittsburgh is one of those teams. Matt Cooke is one of those players. Even if Cooke did what he did on purpose, Cooke knows a punishment isn't coming.

Yes, players should wear Kevlar socks and tape. But the NHL needs to address the perception that certain players and certain teams want to deliberately inflict damage on other players and other teams.

Boston won a Stanley Cup after Zdeno Chara went unpunished in his deliberate elbow to Max Pacioretty. Duncan Keith non-hockey hit dealt a fatal blow to Vancouver's 2012 playoff run. The more this behavior gets rewarded, the more it will continue.

This wasn't going to be Ottawa's year even before the skate slash on Karlsson. But this still has a bad taste in our mouths.

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"Because we're here in Western New York, a couple hundred yards from the Canadian border, the Sabres honor both countries before every game, regardless of who is playing."

Gord Miller introduced the NBC audience to the Buffalo custom. Miller is Canadian and does a lot of games in Buffalo. The Sabres also draw a significant portion of its fan base from Southern Ontario.

Still, pretty cool to see O Canada broadcast nationwide on Hockey Day in America. And I couldn't help but tweet that the first 3 goals of the first game were scored by Canadians.

The telecast promoted future games on the NHL properties, but conveniently ignored the Carolina-Montréal game on NHL Network. I can respect the idea of Hockey Day in America, but if this means that Canada isn't part of the mix, well, that is ridiculous. In mentioning college players, the graphics counted Jonathan Toews and Duncan Keith as "American" because they went to U.S. colleges. Lame.

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Kudos to the NHL Network for using the TSN-Habs feed for the live Canadiens telecast. Was funny to see Mike Johnson in the NHL Network studio. After all, Johnson works some local Montréal games for TSN-Habs.

Dave Randorf worked with Bobby Dollas. I had my concerns about Randorf as a play-by-play guy but he's pretty good. Bobby Dollas was new to my ears; he sounded a little nervous early in the game, but at his worst, he's light years ahead of Brian Hayward.

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One occasional perk of living in a NHL city is seeing the alternate game on the NHL Network feed. When San Jose was at Chicago Friday night, viewers in the Bay Area and Chicago got to see the Rogers Sportsnet feed of St. Louis at Calgary. The Blues-Flames started 30 minutes after the primary game, so you had to sit through studio coverage.

In fact, Billy Jaffe was explaining his take on Ottawa owner Eugene Melnyk's remarks on Matt Cooke when the channel went to commercial in the middle of Jaffe's sentence. We never heard the rest of what he had to say. Probably a coincidence, but it felt like the network didn't want us to hear the rest of Jaffe's remarks.

The only disappointment with the game coverage was the game itself. St. Louis coasted to an easy win.

Words is the theme of the inaugural Canadian Dinner Party

A while back, there was a show called "Dinner for Five" where Jon Favreau would talk with 4 different people about various topics. We've seen that type of show ranging from the original "Politically Incorrect" to "Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn" on Comedy Central.

While no one ate on "Dinner for Five," the conversation was rather fun. The dynamic of the four guests and Favreau could sometimes be really quiet or really loud.

I remember one particular set of guests on "Dinner for Five" that had Dave Foley from "Kids in the Hall" and Neve Campbell. I was hoping that they would bring up the sketch that Campbell as a Canadian unknown actress before she made it big, and they did talk about it.

The theme of this debut quartet is "words." The first three are obvious, the fourth is not just a pretty face. And they're all Canadian.

Leonard Cohen -- Cool is the closest you can come to describing the impact of Leonard Cohen. The lyrics, rhythm, and ooooo that voice. Just wonderful.
Margaret Atwood -- If you asked casual book readers to name their favorite Canadian author, chances are Margaret Atwood would come up first.
Neil Peart -- If rock and roll had never been invented, Neil Peart would be one of the top Canadian poets. Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson get most of the limelight (pun intended), but Peart is a drummer who write the most amazing lyrics. Writing amazing poetry is a gift in itself. Writing amazing poetry that can be set to the rhythms of music takes a skill rarely found.
Jacqueline Hennessy -- Thinking of Jacqueline Hennessy, twin sister of Jill (whom we highlighted in our Valentine's Day special), as just a pretty face ignores most of what Jacqueline brings to the table. True, they are identical twins. While Jill dropped out of high school, Jacqueline has a doctorate in French literature. She works as a journalist. And she has a few acting experiences without being a whole-hearted part of that world. Pretty cool.

Celebrating the Priestley

Famous Canadians during the 1996 Grey Cup

Canadian	Location	Donut
Steven Page	Wawa, ON	blueberry fritter
Geddy Lee	Halifax, NS	walnut crunch
Luc Robitaille	Victoriaville, QC	sour cream plain
Alex Trebek	Sudbury, ON	honey dipped
k.d. lang	Red Deer, AB	chocolate glaze
Jason Priestley	Squamish, BC	Priestley

 

Canadians love their Tim Hortons and Tim Hortons has become a Canadian stereotype to Americans.

So when you combine How I Met Your Mother, donuts, Tim Hortons, and Jason Priestley, well, you get an Internet sensation.

"Crammed a Timbit into a strawberry vanilla, and invented the Priestley. Should have been the best day of my life."

Putting a donut into another donut sounds Canadian … and American. The indulgence felt almost North American (with apologies to Mexico and the Central American countries).

So what if the donut is only available at the Squamish, BC Tim Hortons. Americans can dream.

The topic of donuts in donuts fell well into last week's column of the Temptation of the Week segment on our sister blog, BalanceofFood.com.

photo credit: Tim Hortons

NHL the week in preview: February 15

Hockey Day in America is this Sunday and once again, the day will have at least one Canadian component. Gord Miller of TSN will call the Pittsburgh-Buffalo game in the early time slot. Miller will work with Joe Micheletti on the broadcast.

Unlike last year's regional madness where Canadians had better luck in watching Hockey Day in America than Americans, each daytime game will go coast-to-coast on NBC while NBC Sports Network carries a third game at night. No Canadian-based teams need apply.

Too bad Detroit at Minnesota was moved out of the HDIA slot since that would have meant that the Red Wings would have participated in both Hockey Day in Canada and Hockey Day in America.

For our Canadian friends, both NBC games will air on TSN2.

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NHL Network

Saturday
Philadelphia @ Montréal, 7p (CBC Montréal simulcast)

Monday
Carolina @ Montréal, 7:30p

Tape delayed
Tuesday Ottawa @ New Jersey, 1p
Wednesday Montréal @ NY Rangers, 1p

CBC

Friday
Pittsburgh @ Winnipeg, 7p

Saturday
Ottawa @ Toronto, 7p (nationwide except Quebec)
Philadelphia @ Montréal, 7p (Quebec)
Colorado @ Edmonton, 10p

TSN

Tuesday
Los Angeles @ Edmonton, 10p

Wednesday
Los Angeles @ Calgary, 10p

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The NHL Network has many phobias, none more pronounced than refusing to carry the Battle of Ontario. This week, the NHL Network will carry Philadelphia at Montréal instead of Ottawa at Toronto. Next week, Toronto is at Ottawa and the NHL Network won't carry the first Hockey Night in Canada game for the first time since Opening Night.

The NHL Network is scheduled to show every Canadian team live at least once in the season, but the channel will not touch a battle of Ottawa vs. Toronto.

The NHL Network is willing to show a Canadian team against an American team or Toronto-Montréal on the Hockey Night in Canada feed. The only exception this year is April 6 when the NHL Network will show Calgary at Vancouver as the second half of the HNIC doubleheader.

The difference in ratings can't be that high on a Saturday night. Heck, the difference for the NBC Sports Network might be 200,000 people nationwide.

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Speaking of Ottawa, Erik Karlsson is out for the season and most if not all the playoffs thanks to what some are calling a cheap shot by Matt Cooke, cheap shot taker extraordinaire. In a move I've never seen on a hockey rink, Cooke lifted his skate and came down hard on Karlsson's left calf, cutting his achilles tendon.

The NHL Network did show the game tape-delayed, though with the ROOT Sports Pittsburgh feed. We don't know what was spoken in between periods, but the game coverage treated Cooke's action as being accidental at worst.

As bad as what Cooke did, we should note that the play should have been whistled dead before the hit because the puck hit the netting above the glass. The Penguins announcers noted that before the hit.

Cooke's rap sheet is too long to list here. Despite that track record and the video evidence, Cooke received no penalty, no suspension, and no hearing. If the argument is that star players need to be protected, Karlsson is one of the best defensemen in the NHL, yet no punishment. Cooke is a thug, and one who won't even fight back, especially given the damage and ruined careers he has caused. Cooke is also a considerable repeat offender, and yet he get off scot-free.

Cooke plays for Pittsburgh, one of the protected teams in the league. Heck, Cooke couldn't even get suspended for the Marc Savard hit. If the skate were on the other foot, and a Senators player did that to a Penguins player, there would be a punishment.

Yes, Karlsson is a star, but he plays for Ottawa, so the NHL isn't as concerned. This is the issue when you have a team that is on U.S. national TV for 29 of the team's 48 games vs. 1. Pittsburgh will always get the benefit of the doubt over Ottawa with the current NHL management, even with a repeat offender thug and one of the game's brightest young stars.

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Carolina at Montréal is carried on TSN-Habs, so we are hoping the NHL Network uses that feed. John Forslund is the Carolina play-by-play announcer so that is a realistic possibility. Still, even objective fans know which feed will be better.

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Don't think anybody had the CBC announcers matchup correct for Hockey Day in Canada. Even if you thought that Jim and Craig would stay out west, no one had Bob Cole and Kelly Hrudey working together in Montréal.

Cole is great at letting the colour commentator talk a lot, and Hrudey has a lot to say. Hrudey and Glenn Healy do have chemistry, and not just because they're former goalies.

I did call the split correctly for the two matinee games.

Dean Brown made his 2013 CBC debut reuniting with Garry Galley in Ottawa. Jets fans could not have been happy with the current and former Ottawa TV voices in the booth. Usually when Brown is calling a Sens game, the opponent is American and the feed is only going back to Ottawa.

Mark Lee and Greg Millen are vanilla, even by Canadian standards. But I figured they would be together at some point.

Dean Brown has now done as many CBC games in 2013 as Rick Ball has. If you are playing for a prize of any value, don't pick Ball until you hear his smooth voice.

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I didn't get NHL Center Ice this year because I wasn't contributing $ to Gary Bettman. But if I did have Center Ice, I wouldn't have known which channel carried the extra Hockey Day in Canada coverage. I heard second-hand that not all places had the extra coverage and couldn't find out if GameCenter Live subscribers got the extra coverage. Another second-hand report couldn't get the CBC feed for the Oilers-Red Wings game on Center Ice.

We lost about 10 minutes of Hockey Tonight thanks to the San Jose game going to OT. An ideal solution would be for the NHL Network to blow past the lame ads it runs and start Hockey Tonight tape delayed and catch up to live action before the game starts.

Planning and consistency are both missing from the NHL/NHL Network approach. CBC does a Hockey Day in Canada every year. Don't have to wait until the last minute to get your act together.

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Watching Toronto-Montréal has been sad in recent years because a) the Leafs are bad and the Habs are good or b) the Leafs are bad and the Habs are bad. Saturday night's game was the first time where the two teams met where both teams were above .500 since Rememberance Day 2006 (November 11). Toronto hasn't made the playoffs since before the lockout before last.

Don Cherry on Coach's Corner said Leafs fans need to embrace their team more at the Air Canada Centre, especially coming off a perfect road trip, something also pretty rare for the Maple Leafs. Cherry lambasted Leafs fans for chanting "Go Jays Go."

Cherry is correct, but the Leafs have two problems. The team needs to do well on a regular basis to draw the crowd back, and too many of those in the good seats at the ACC are there to be seen rather than watch hockey.

The Toronto crowd was more into the team and game when the Leafs returned home on Tuesday against the Philadelphia Flyers. Kudos to the NHL Network for using the Rogers Sportsnet Ontario feed in the rebroadcast.

Let's see where the Maple Leafs are in a month. Of course, by then, spring training will be well underway. So the crowd may yell for the Jays and the Leafs.

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We had another David Amber interview where the NHL Network joined in progress. This was the interview after the ad break following Coach's Corner. Pay more attention.

The start of the second period was also cut off, though that might have been a CBC error.

2013 NHL Center Ice free preview: 12 days of Canadian ads

Though we only had 12 days for the 2013 NHL Center Ice free preview, we had some fun and new ads. Starting things off with Tim Hortons in its Welcome to Canada spot. During the promotion, you could get a 49¢ donut with purchase of a hot drink. Sounds like "Welcome to Canada" to me.

Opening Day on CBC had most of the great ads during the period. Funny how ads that run on the CBC were so different from TSN and the Rogers Sportsnet feeds. We only had one full TSN network game and about 80% of one TSN-Jets feed, so perhaps we didn't have a good sample size.

One of the funniest ads that I couldn't find online was for the CAA (travel) Northeast Ontario edition, where a woman imagines herself going to Brazil. She cries out "Brazil" as we see her daydream where she is wearing a bikini top and a wrap. She is on a beach swinging with a good looking guy in a bathing suit. She finds out that the price she thought she was getting left out a few extra charges.

Realizing the new price, she cries out in the same tone, "Edmonton." She is wearing the same outfit except she is in snow alongside train tracks. She is swinging with a homeless bum who isn't good looking. A good example of a regional slam; apparently the opposite of sunny and good looking is "Edmonton."

P.K. Subban was out for the NHL Center Ice free preview, but he was still on our TVs with an ad for Hyundai Hockey Helpers. Along with his dad and brother Malcolm (we saw him for Team Canada for the World Juniors), they talked about helping people who can't otherwise afford to play hockey.

We don't hear much from Molson in the United States. Can't remember the last time I saw Molson in a U.S. bar. But Molson lives in Canada. I enjoyed the Molson Canadian 67 ad for "Guyet," a diet as seen through the eyes of a guy in a beer commercial. He runs so he can eat juicy burgers with fried onion strings on top. Molson Canadian 67 is the company's lighter beer.

Boston Pizza has clever commercials though I've never eaten at one before. I love the pompous guy who does "finger cooking," going online to order food from Boston Pizza. The newest one was where a guy changes into a foodie.

The dish the guy is eating is pulled pork penne, though it looks like he's eating spaghetti. There is a significant difference between penne and spaghetti. An odd juxtaposition.

McDonald's had what seemed to be an innocent commercial about value that ends with a muffin and coffee special. The spot talks about searching for a bargain and then we see "Bridge to USA ." This reflects the exodus of Canadian bargain hunters to cross into the United States thanks to the exchange rate and how much more expensive some items are in Canada.

A&W promoted its "Burger Buddies," an inexpensive burger with grilled onions. The customer keeps coming through the drive-thru to wonder why A&W was charging such a low price for such a burger.

CBC ran its own promos along the theme of Canada Lives Here. The video is "Jeannie's Dad" — a nice immigration story. The better video was Hay West, from last summer when Western farmers were desperate for hay because of the drought and Eastern farmers had plenty of hay. All about Canadians helping Canadians.

ATB Financial ran more of its NHL tough guys defending those who need help. The funniest of those was one of the Calgary players taking on the Vancouver Green Men, the ones that haunt the penalty box at Rogers Arena.

The next preview will either be in early April (same time as MLB Extra Innings) and/or the last week of the NHL season, this year in late April.