Canadian Crossing

Toronto Blue Jays welcome Boston Red Sox to Montreal

Toronto Blue Jays at Olympic Stadium in Montréal

Date	Opponent	Score	Attendance
April 4, 2015	Cincinnati	Toronto 9-1	50,231
April 3, 2015	Cincinnati	Cincinnati 2-0	46,314
March 29, 2014	NY Mets	Toronto 2-0	50,229
March 28, 2014	NY Mets	Toronto 5-4	46,121

The Toronto Blue Jays again are ending their Grapefruit League season at Olympic Stadium in Montréal. This year's opponent is the Boston Red Sox, the first American League opponent to be part of the Montréal experience.

Boston is a logical choice given how intertwined the sports histories are between Beantown and Montréal.

The Red Sox are certainly aware of the Canadian influence in their fan base. Not that Olympic Stadium can hold that many more people, but fans from New England and the Maritimes will certainly come to Montréal and not to root for the home team. The New England fans are much more likely to have a passport, given their proximity to Canada, than most of their American cousins.

The Boston Red Sox are also significant since they would be a huge rival with the return of the Expos, if the team is placed in the American League East Division, as the rumors stand now.

Friday night's game starts at 7 pm and the Saturday afternoon game starts at 1 pm. Rogers Sportsnet will carry both games in Canada and MLB Network will show the Sportsnet feed in the United States.

Saturday's game in Montréal will be available in 4K in Canada. Rogers says it is offering the 4K feeds to all cable, satellite and IPTV providers across Canada.

J.A. Happ will pitch on Friday and minor-league call-ups will pitch on Saturday.

We've heard that about 106,000 tickets have been sold for the weekend, with a few tickets remain for Friday’s game and a sold out game on Saturday. Each of the previous 2 years sold just over 96,000 tickets. Ticket prices ran from $24-$99.50 … for an exhibition game.

Montréal Mayor Denis Coderre believes the next step for Montreal is to get regular-season games, which he believes would be possible as of 2017. We were arguing for this back in 2010, so after this level of success, the argument is a lot stronger.

Montreal shows off its worth again as an ideal baseball city

Blue Jays ready for Cincinnati at Montreal's Olympic Stadium

Montreal shines bright in hosting Blue Jays exhibition games

MLB is back in Montreal with Blue Jays exhibition games

Toronto Blue Jays playing in Montréal now a remote possibility

G20 summit forces Toronto Blue Jays to Philadelphia; Why not go to Montréal?

CanadianCrossing.com MLB coverage

Friday night's honourees will be a baseball Hall of Famer and one who should be. Tim Raines and Pedro Martinez will receive the accolades before the game Friday night. Martinez entered the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2015. Raines should get into the Hall in 2017.

Former Expos manger and executive Jim Fanning will be posthumously honoured before the game on Saturday. Fanning is in the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.

photo credit: MLB

Meeting Maxime Giroux, director of 'Felix and Meira'

"Felix and Meira" is about 2 different worlds in 3 countries in at least 5 languages. Even though I had seen the film twice before, with the help of director Maxime Giroux, I saw a lot more in my third viewing of the film.

Turns out there is a connection between Montréal and Brooklyn in the Hasidic community featured in the film. So having the protagonists shift to Brooklyn part way through the film has validity.

Venice was a "romantic hideaway," according to Giroux, for the main characters. The city also served as a neutral territory, a necessary vehicle for the couple.

"Felix and Meira" was Canada's entry to the Best Foreign Language Film category for 2015 and won Best Canadian Feature Film at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.

Best Foreign Language Film Oscars category gateway to great Canadian film

'Felix and Meira' is Canada's 2015 Oscars entry

Previous TIFF Canadian film awards winners

'Felix and Meira' hits U.S. theatres

2014 Windsor International Film Festival wrapup

2014 Windsor International Film Festival preview: Xavier Dolan showcase

Hadas Yaron, who played Meira, is from Israel. Yet the actress didn't know French or Yiddish before starting the film. Giroux pointed out that the community in Montréal speak Yiddish, not Hebrew. So the dialogue had to be in Yiddish. Yaron was nominated for Best Actress in the Canadian Screen Awards earlier this month, but lost out to Brie Larson for "Room."

'Room' 'Schitt's Creek' dominate 2016 Canadian Screen Awards

Luzer Twersky, who played Meira's husband Shulem, knows this world well since he grew up in a similar community. Twersky, who is from Brooklyn, also served as a technical adviser to the film. Giroux said 5 actors in all from that community, people who had left, were in the film.

The actors also helped with some of the smaller details from the washing of hands before leaving the bed to the blue jeans scene (worth watching the film just for that scene).

Despite the multiple countries involved, Giroux noted that for Quebec films to get grants, there is a minimum of people needed on screen who live in Quebec.

Martin Dubreuil, who played Felix, is a Quebec native. Anne-Élisabeth Bossé, who plays Felix's sister Caroline, is a veteran of a pair of Xavier Dolan films: "Laurence Anyways" and "Heartbeats." Bossé was nominated for a Genie Award for Best Supporting Actress. She was also in "The Passion of Augustine," which I saw last November in Windsor.

Giroux has directed a pair of feature films, though he has also directed short films. I saw his last full-length film "Jo for Jonathan" (2010) and am almost sure I met Giroux that night. I thought that film was OK; I remember the film as being very serious with a plot that I just never could get into, no matter how hard I tried. That was certainly not a problem with "Felix and Meira."

His initial full-length film, "Demain," came out in 2008. Dubreuil was also in that film.

CanadianCrossing.com film coverage

The world of Canadian film is rather small so you often see connections with actors and directors. The Quebec film world has an even tighter intimacy. So it's fun to see how careers progress. I didn't initially make the connection with Bossé and the other 3 films where I have seen her, but now I have that connection. I had forgotten about Giroux's earlier film until the hosts mentioned the connection.

You can certainly enjoy "Felix and Meira" on its own merits, but often having some context makes you appreciate a film on a broader scale.

photos credit: me

NHL the week in preview March 25, 2016

For the first time in the second half of the season, the NHL Network carries a Hockey Night in Canada game with an Original 6 game as the New York Rangers are in Montréal. The channel will pick up the Rogers Sportsnet feed.

CBC gets the Maple Leafs back after a week hiatus with an Original 6 matchup with the Bruins at the ACC. The late game spotlights Drew Doughty as the Kings host Edmonton. That would have been prime territory in the CBC days with "After Hours."

City TV gets its own game this week, an Ottawa Senators home game as Anaheim comes very far north.

Besides the Habs on Saturday night, Rogers Sportsnet carries a distinct late game with the Hawks in Calgary for the late game.

Chicago will also be a part of Hometown Hockey from Prince Albert, Saskatchewan as the Hawks are in Vancouver Sunday night. The Wednesday Night Hockey doubleheader starts out all-Canadian as the Senators are in Winnipeg followed by the Calgary Flames in Anaheim.

NHL Network will carry the Hometown Hockey pregame.

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NHL Network

Saturday
NY Rangers @ Montréal, 7p

Tape delayed
Friday Edmonton @ San Jose, 2p
Montréal @ Detroit, 4p
Sunday Chicago @ Calgary, 3p
NY Rangers @ Montréal, 4p
Monday Chicago @ Vancouver, 2p
Thursday Ottawa @ Winnipeg, 2p
Calgary @ Anaheim, 3p

CBC

Saturday
Boston @ Toronto, 7p
Edmonton @ Los Angeles, 10p

City

Saturday
Anaheim @ Ottawa, 7p

Rogers Sportsnet

Saturday
NY Rangers @ Montréal, 7p
Chicago @ Calgary, 10p
Sunday
Chicago @ Vancouver, 8p
Wednesday
Ottawa @ Winnipeg, 7:30p
Calgary @ Anaheim, 10p

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The Comcast Sportsnet Chicago feed was used last Friday for the Hawks in Winnipeg. So the country got the same feed your humble narrator had. Usually the home team gets the feed, but the NHL Network chose to bypass TSN3.

In a surprising move, the Rogers Sportsnet East feed was used in the Habs game at Detroit. The NHL Network used the Montréal feed in the last Habs game the channel carried over a month ago.

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The NHL finally fixed its schedule page to list U.S. and Canadian TV feeds. When the updated site first went through, each country had their own feeds but not ones from the other country.

NHL second half off to horrible start from media standpoint

As many things that went wrong, we're glad this one eventually got fixed. As for the $49.99 price, or whatever NHL Center Ice would have cost, if we had known the NHL Network would boycott HNIC in the second half until this week, the price would have been worthwhile. But since the NHL Network releases its schedule in a piecemeal fashion, especially in March, we didn't know. Could have made a few more NHL Center Ice and NHL.TV sales that way.

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Kraft Hockeyville 2016 is down to a pair of cities: Saint-Isidore, Quebec and Lumby, British Columbia.

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Chris Cuthbert, along with his old TSN partner Pierre McGuire, will work the Sunday night game for NBCSN.

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NHL Network matinee feeds

Sunday Montréal @ Ottawa (Sportsnet*)
Monday Anaheim* @ Winnipeg
Thursday Ottawa @ NY Islanders*

Jian Ghomeshi not guilty of 5 sexual assault and choking charges

Former CBC Radio host Jian Ghomeshi has been found not guilty of 5 sexual assault and choking charges this morning. The decision came down from Ontario Court Justice William Horkins, who presided over the case.

There were problems with conflicting testimony from the victims. As an example, one complainant, who met Ghomeshi in 2002-2003, recalled a "love bug"-style Volkswagen Beetle. That detail proved to be considerably incorrect.

For those who followed the trial, today's decision is not a surprise. The significant level of communication between two of the complainants didn't help. As was recently explained to me, Canadian justice requires a higher standard of guilt than American justice provides. Probably guilty is not enough, Horkins told the court.

CBC parts ways with Jian Ghomeshi

As for a potential return to the CBC, the public broadcaster made it clear that isn't happening.

"The charges that were before the court in this trial and the judge's ruling are unrelated to our decision to end Jian Ghomeshi's employment with CBC. Based on the evidence that came to our attention, Mr. Ghomeshi's actions were not in line with the values of the public broadcaster nor with our employee code of conduct," said Chuck Thompson, head of public affairs for CBC English Services, said in a written statement. "We stand by our decision."

Of the initial 8 charges against Ghomeshi, 2 sexual assault charges were withdrawn ahead of the trial. The former "Q" host faces another June trial on a remaining count of sexual assault involving a workplace incident.

For more details, you can check out the reporting from The Toronto Star and CBC News.

Our look back at former Toronto mayor Rob Ford

"And the last thing was (Ford's former staffer) Olivia Gondek. It says I wanted to eat her pussy, I've never said that in my life to her, I would never do that. I'm happily married, I've got more than enough to eat at home."

Rob Ford, who was mayor of Toronto from 2010-2014, has passed away from cancer at the age of 46.

Ford was the Ward 2 city councillor member from Etobicoke North since 2000, when he wasn't mayor, until his death.

Ford had a really horrible battle with the cancerous tumor that was found in 2014 that knocked him out of the mayoral race. By every imaginable measuring stick, he suffered a lot before his death.

The former mayor is survived by his wife Renata and two children.

Ford lived a very short life but was filled with unimaginable events and stories, a few of them with the details listed below. He lived his life as he wanted to before he got sick. It might seem untimely to focus about the crazy things Ford did, but that was what Ford was in his life.

Here are some stories from 2014 followed by our retrospective that goes above and beyond, even with events before he became infamous in the world's eyes.

Canadian political notebook: Rob Ford's cancer battle

Rob Ford drops out of Toronto mayor race; Doug Ford will run

Rob Ford in graffiti, T-shirts, and art

Rob Ford turned away at U.S. border

Rob Ford to get help, hopefully

Rob Ford on Kimmel: Sticking to the script

Robyn Doolittle talks 'crazy' about Rob Ford on Daily Show

Rob Ford retrospective (December 9, 2013)

Post-crack

Canadian politics notebook: Rob Ford's alleged crack use (5/19/2013)

Daily Show pokes fun at Rob Ford's (alleged) crack (5/22/2013)

Rob Ford (finally) admits smoking crack cocaine, but lies continue (11/6/2013)

Rob Ford: Liability to Toronto Argonauts (11/15/2013)

Rob Ford makes negative impact on Toronto's Grey Cup quest (11/18/2013)

Rob Ford looks better in the eyes of the U.S. media (11/20/2013)

Pre-crack

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford wins Keith Olbermann's 'Worst Person in the World' (11/1/2011)

Toronto has more than usual number of gun deaths, but still safer than U.S. (7/25/2012)

How Rob Ford spent (part of) my summer vacation (8/21/2012)

Battle of intense mayors: Toronto's Rob Ford visits Chicago's Rahm Emanuel (9/19/2012)

Toronto highs and lows: Argos way up, Rob Ford down and out (11/28/2012)

photo credit: me

Some thoughts on what could go into a Canada music national playlist

Canada wants a national soundtrack for the country's sesquicentennial in 2017. What songs would be on your Canadian national soundtrack? What songs would truly represent a cross section of Canada to celebrate its sesquicentennial?

A full list would require its own blog. In lieu of a full list, we've assembled some thoughts on Canadian music, mostly from the last 50 years.

Songs that invoke Canada

These are songs that are or feel like they are about Canada. These are not necessarily the best songs, but songs that scream Canada.

Hockey Night in Canada theme/Dolores Claman: writer (1968)
The Hockey Song/Stompin' Tom Connors (1973)
Subdivisions/Rush (1982)
Canadian Railroad Trilogy/Gordon Lightfoot (1967)
Take Off/Bob & Doug McKenzie with Geddy Lee (1981)
If I Had a Million Dollars/Barenaked Ladies (1992)
American Woman/Guess Who (1970)
Quebec Language Police/Royal Canadian Air Farce (1993)
I am Canadian/Royal Canadian Air Farce (1979)

Honourable mention: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently noted that only in Canada could Justin Bieber have a hit called "Sorry." The title feels Canadian.

Cool Canadian songs

These are songs that you would want on your playlist, regardless of whether there was a Canadian connection.

Black Velvet — Alannah Myles
Life is a Highway — Tom Cochrane
This Beat Goes On/Switchin' To Glide — The Kings
Rockin' in the Free World — Neil Young
I Feel It All — Feist
Constant Craving — k.d. Lang
Sweet Surrender — Sarah MacLachlan
If I Had a Rocket Launcher — Bruce Cockburn
Everybody Knows — Leonard Cohen
Big Yellow Taxi — Joni Mitchell
Brian Wilson — Barenaked Ladies
Fantasy — Aldo Nova
Lunatic Fringe — Red Rider
Turn Me Loose — Loverboy
Somewhere Down the Crazy River — Robbie Robertson
Spirit of Radio — Rush
Takin' Care of Business — BTO
Mummers Dance — Loreena McKennitt
Cuts Like a Knife — Bryan Adams

Rush gets the long overdue Rolling Stone treatment

Leonard Cohen proves you're not too old to win a Juno

Rush makes first U.S. appearance in 33 years on U.S. TV

Some unique takes on Canada

The Beaver Song from Robin Sparkles on "How I Met Your Mother" ties in the many Canadian mentions. The singer is real-life Canadian Cobie Smulders, who played Robin Sparkles on the show.

"Canada Is" truly is about Canada, even if the song is sung by Roger Whittaker. Steve Hyde wrote the words and Eric Robertson wrote the music.

100th Grey Cup

This was a widely varied major all-star lineup of Canadian music. The halftime show had legendary singer/songwriter Gordon Lightfoot along with pop sensations Justin Bieber and Carly Rae Jepsen, as well as Marianas Trench. Country artist Johnny Reid performed as part of the pre-game show and Burton Cummings performed a creative version of O Canada.

Toronto wins 100th Grey Cup on home turf

While things did not go smoothly that day from a music standpoint, having a bunch of Canadian artists performing live, perhaps around Canada Day 2017, would get a tremendous showcase for Canadian music.

Random collections based on title and lyrics

Love Song to Canada — Jason Collett
Oh Canada — Classified
416 to the 905 — Maestro Fresh Wes
Sudbury Saturday Night — Stompin' Tom Connors
Neighborhood #3 (Power Out) — Arcade Fire
One Great City! — The Weakerthans
The Canadian Dream — Sam Roberts Band
Running Back to Saskatoon — Guess Who
Northwest Passage — Stan Rogers
Alberta Bound — Gordon Lightfoot
Big-Boned Gal From Southern Alberta — k.d. Lang
Montreal — Blue Rodeo
Spadina Bus — Shuffle Demons
The Maple Leaf Forever — Michael Bublé

The first 100 years

While most of Canada's music success has come since the country's centennial in 1967, there were some successful artists who made their mark before that time.

Glenn Gould is without question one of the most celebrated classical pianists of the 20th century, especially for his interpretations of Johann Sebastian Bach.

Many Canadian and Americans couldn't have celebrated New Year's Eve without famous bandleader Guy Lombardo.

Oscar Peterson had an outstanding career as a jazz pianist and composer.

Paul Anka certainly has had a fine career well beyond 1967 but his biggest hit "Diana" and his most well-known song, the theme from "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson" came before 1967.

Hank Snow had a career that spanned nearly 50 years in country music.

Gil Evans played an important role in the development of cool jazz, modal jazz, free jazz and jazz fusion, and collaborated extensively with Miles Davis.

When Canada celebrated its centennial in 1967, the national soundtrack would have been a lot of old-time folk songs and non-PC songs such as "Indian Love Call" from Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald.

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Special thanks to my friend, Leroy Fields, for providing some of the music research for this article. Seriously, he knows his Canadian music. Also, if you feel like we missed something or want to provide your own take on the question of a Canadian music national playlist, please leave your thoughts in the comments section.

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videos credit: Royal Canadian Air Farce/CBC; "How I Met Your Mother"/CBS; YouTube/Antonio Vendramin

Who knew Canadian pride would come in the form of ketchup?

I have regularly brought back ketchup from Canada for several years, so I am surprisingly an expert on Canadian ketchup.

Heinz Canada was my choice because the regular version had sugar and not glucose-fructose and vinegar (at the time) was the 2nd ingredient instead of the aforementioned sugar.

At that point, Heinz Canada was made in nearby Leamington, Ontario (was buying my ketchup in Windsor). The tomato/ketchup pride extended to Leamington and southwestern Ontario but wasn't well-known throughout Canada.

Heinz pulled out of Leamington in June 2014. French's came in to Leamington in January 2016.

Brian Fernandez stepped up on Twitter in February proclaiming Canadian pride over French's using Leamington tomatoes from Canadian farmers. Loblaw's had to reinstate French's ketchup in its stores after social media flooded the Internet with negative reaction.

The company had cited low sales for removing French's ketchup from its shelves. Then again, a leaked memo points out that French's was cutting into sales of President's Choice ketchup, owned by Loblaw's.

French's says the Ohio plant makes ketchup from Canadian tomatoes in a separate run from its U.S. counterpart. That ketchup is sold in stores. Its Toronto plant makes ketchup from Leamington tomatoes for use in restaurants.

So we have French's ketchup made from Leamington tomatoes and the ketchup is made in Canada and the United States. President's Choice ketchup is made in Canada from tomatoes from Canada and the United States. Where is a patriotic Canadian supposed to dip French fries?

A nice malt vinegar made in Canada would solve some of this problem.

I've never tried French's ketchup in either Canada or the United States. We used to get President's Choice ketchup in the United States, but I've never knowingly tried it.

The tiebreaker in the United States is whether the ketchup has high-fructose corn syrup. Mainstream versions of ketchup in the United States have high-fructose corn syrup. Heinz, French's, and President's Choice have liquid sugar as the sweetener in their Canadian ketchups.

All 3 ketchups have liquid sugar as their second ingredient. As we mentioned earlier, Heinz used to have vinegar as its second ingredient.

Miracle Whip with sugar found in Canada; Heinz Canada moves sugar up to #2 in ingredients

If the choice is tomatoes over where the ketchup is bottled, French's is the winner. If where the ketchup is bottled, PC Ketchup is your winner. If the choice comes down to taste, is Heinz the winner?

The frustration over Heinz has been there since the company announced the closing of the Leamington plant in 2013. That frustration had nowhere to go until French's launched in its place. The social media outburst may be only the beginning.

While Heinz did take its ketchup away from Leamington, thanks to Canada’s Agricultural Products Act, Heinz still produces tomato juice in Leamington. Heinz sold the plant to Highbury Canco, which produces the tomato juice for Heinz and other tomato products, including the tomato paste for French's ketchup, in Leamington.

The Agricultural Products Act requires that all tomato juice sold in Canada has to come from "sound, whole, ripe" tomatoes. The United States, to no one's surprise, has lesser standards, only requiring that tomato juice be made from tomato paste.

In restaurants throughout Canada, you see Heinz bottles. To be fair, Heinz had a reputation for producing a Canadian product for more than 100 years. Change is as slow as pouring a Heinz ketchup bottle in the 1970s (ask your parents or grandparents).

Ketchup on store shelves much better; restaurants slow to change

As an American who studies Canada, I've been amazed as to how little pride Canadians have in things that come from Canada. There is pride about Tim Horton's and Canadian Tire but the backlash against Canadian film and television is only part of the negativity. People flourished to Target Canada but rejected the company in part because the company didn't act like it did in the United States. Where was that love for Zeller's, which Target replaced in a number of locations?

Target Canada underestimated Canadian shoppers

 As much as I love Canada and ketchup and Canadian ketchup, my tiebreaker will be taste. The reason I lugged bottles of Heinz Canada ketchup is that the taste was less sweet than the U.S. version. Picking Heinz in the U.S. has even come down to being less sweet than other brands. Since the switch in ingredients order, even Heinz Canada isn't as good as it once was.

Levels of sweetness: U.S. vs. Canada

I can be swayed to jump ship to French's or PC Ketchup if they aren't sweeter than Heinz Canada. I would be willing to bring some French's or PC Ketchup across the border for a taste test. Restaurants in Canada aren't likely to have anything but Heinz, so buying some might be my only option.

Regardless of your taste in ketchup, so glad to see a battle over "Made in Canada" mean something again.

photo credit: smartcanucks.ca; @brianfernandez Twitter

NHL the week in preview March 18, 2016

The NHL Network extends its short-term love for the Winnipeg Jets as the team hosts Chicago Friday night. A TSN3 feed would be amazing, even if the game is blacked out for your humble narrator. The Montréal Canadiens return to the NHL Network for the first time in a month but not on Hockey Night in Canada. The channel will carry the Habs in Detroit Thursday night.

The CBC was supposed to take its "hey, it's March, let's take the Maple Leafs off CBC just this once" game, but Rogers chickened out … again. So the CBC will carry the Maple Leafs at home against Buffalo. Buffalo Sabres fans with a strong antenna have an option for the over-the-air telecast from CBC Toronto. The CBC feed will also be shown on City TV.

St. Louis goes out west to Vancouver in the CBC nightcap.

Rogers Sportsnet takes the better game with the Montréal Canadiens in the Canadian capital against the Ottawa Senators Saturday night. Hometown Hockey is in Calgary this week, convenient since the Flames are in Montréal Sunday night. Wednesday Night Hockey finds the Ottawa Senators in Brooklyn.

Rogers Sportsnet One runs a late Sunday game with the Avalanche in Edmonton.

Rogers Sportsnet 360 helps out with a Thursday contest as the Vancouver Canucks are in Music City.

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NHL Network

Friday
Chicago @ Winnipeg, 8p
Thursday
Montréal @ Detroit, 7:30p

Tape delayed
Sunday Montréal @ Ottawa, Noon
Monday Anaheim @ Winnipeg, 2p
Thursday Ottawa @ NY Islanders, 2p

CBC

Saturday
Montréal @ Ottawa, 7p
St. Louis @ Vancouver, 10p

City

Saturday
Montréal @ Ottawa, 7p

Rogers Sportsnet

Saturday
Buffalo @ Toronto, 7p
Sunday
Calgary @ Montréal, 7p
Wednesday
Ottawa @ NY Islanders, 7p

Rogers Sportsnet One

Sunday
Colorado @ Edmonton, 9:30p

Rogers Sportsnet 360

Thursday
Vancouver @ Nashville, 8p

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Brooks Laich was mentioned for the Toronto Maple Leafs in the NBCSN open, not because he's well-known in the NHL but known to the NBCSN announcers. Laich played for Washington for a long time; the Capitals are one of the NBC core teams. The young Toronto core came up a lot in conversation. After a pounding on Saturday night, the Toronto Maple Leafs looked good in the 1-0 win. Given the national audiences in both countries, Toronto picked a good time to win.

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Yahoo Sports will show 4 free NHL games per week as part of a new partnership with the league. This has some potential to help out given the NHL Network reluctance to show games, especially in the second half of the season.

NHL.TV is showing some free games. If Yahoo ends up showing the same games, there isn't much of a stretch. So we'll see how that goes. The catch with Yahoo is that you have to watch the game live, but if that fits your schedule, that will be a boost.

We do know the Yahoo deal only applies to the United States, not Canada. Then again in Canada, watching Canadian teams isn't too much of an issue.

The NHL Network has been experimenting with a new idea to show live action of the 3rd period, mostly in West Coast games and weekend matinees. This has been a nice idea, especially with peeks into the late Hockey Night in Canada game, which recently has been persona non grata to the NHL Network.

Unfortunately for NHL fans, the network has changed the listings that it provides and no longer advertises specific games for a particular night. This is tone deaf at best. If I don't know the teams playing that night, I might not remember to tune into the channel. Tell me that Vancouver or Calgary is on a specific night, I'll tune in and watch.

The idea is that all NHL fans should tune in every night on the off chance your team is on that night. That won't happen.

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Dennis Wideman got his suspension reduced to 10 games. Wideman served 19 games. The arbitrator process took forever, but the decision reflected the reality that Wideman suffered a concussion just before the hit, and didn't have intent to injure. While the NHLPA wanted 0 games, 10 made sense.

The Calgary Flames are furious as they should be. Wideman gets his money but the team loses the 9 games the defenseman was out.

To no one's surprise, the arbitrator disagreed with Gary Bettman's finding on the matter. If Wideman had worn a Chicago or Boston jersey, this never would have been this horrible.

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Elliotte Friedman reported June 24-25 as the dates when we'll know if or how many expansion teams will come in 2017-18. We have a better sense of how many players teams can protect in an expansion draft. 

This doesn't come close to predicting whether the Quebec Nordiques will return in 2017. Our preference is a relocation from the Florida Panthers or New York Islanders or Carolina Hurricanes, especially with the $500 million U.S. expansion fee. The low Canadian dollar will make any Quebec Nordiques return a challenge, though Quebecor could handle that kind of money. Still, a decent team relocating would be better for Quebec City than expansion.  

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NHL Network matinee feeds

Friday Buffalo @ Montréal*; Winnipeg @ Detroit*
Monday Toronto @ Detroit*
Thursday Winnipeg @ Calgary*

Schitt's Creek Season 2 debuts tonight on Pop TV

"Schitt's Creek" is a staple of the CBC winter schedule, but most Americans have to wait a bit to get the episodes on Pop TV. Last year, we waited until mid-February for Season 1. This year, the wait has lasted until mid-March.

Season 2 of "Schitt's Creek" makes its debut on Pop TV tonight at 8 pm Eastern. The combined episodes will run for an hour.

We've seen a few Season 2 promos thanks to Hockey Night in Canada promos but have tried to steer clear of the content to be surprised the first time I hear the jokes.

'Room' 'Schitt's Creek' dominate 2016 Canadian Screen Awards

'Room' 'Schitt's Creek' lead way in Canadian Screen Awards 2016 nominations

Previewing the 2016 CBC winter schedule

If you are new to the world of "Schitt's Creek," the Rose family has a lot and then loses everything. The joke town they bought years ago is the only place they can live.

Eugene Levy and Dan Levy co-created the series. Catherine O'Hara and Annie Murphy complete the family. As wonderful as they are, the townspeople offer great shades of colour. While there are many fine actors on the show, we want to spotlight the efforts of 3 fine Canadian actresses (Emily Hampshire, Jennifer Robertson, Sarah Levy) and classic American comedian Chris Elliott. Yes, Sarah Levy is the daughter of Eugene and sister of Dan.

To briefly catch up on Season 1, click here.

Based on that Season 1 effort, "Schitt's Creek" won 9 Canadian Screen Awards, including Best Comedy Series. Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Emily Hampshire, and Chris Elliott swept the major acting awards. Dan Levy, who lost to his father for Best Actor, won Best Writing.

The only bone of contention is that Pop TV isn't available in HD in a lot of places, including for your humble narrator. "Schitt's Creek" is funny in SD, but would be even funnier in HD. We'll be trying to find ways to see the show in HD, either through on demand or online through Pop TV.

If you find that you still don't know where Pop TV is on your cable or satellite provider, click here.

photo credit: Schitt's Creek/CBC

Breaking down ads from 2016 midseason NHL Center Ice free preview

The 2016 midseason NHL Center Ice free preview came too late and got off to a rough start. But we still got quite a few cool Canadian ads in the preview.

This ad from the BCAA (think AAA but for British Columbia) was a nice sweet simple ad. Conveying benefits visually is not an easy task. Saving money is even harder to portray. Having money fly out of a bouquet when the woman sneezes was a cool visual method to showcase both elements.

The beauty of Canadian TV ads is that they aren't obnoxious; they are often nice even when selling a product or service.

A&W Canada is always touting the quality of its meat in terms of what it doesn't have. In this case, A&W Canada has bacon made from "pork raised without the use of antibiotics."

Having a fast food place care about the quality of its food still sounds odd to the ear, but could break a close tie in deciding where to eat.

The added twist in this ad is that the commercial is set in Vernon, BC with that city being the first to try the new bacon. Nice way to personalize the ad.

This ad is pretty horrible but worth mentioning since this is a pro-pipeline ad without saying the word "pipeline." ICBA.ca (Independent Contractors and Businesses Association) wants to build things, a noble cause. Clearly, the organization feels like the concern over pipelines is not justified, but phrase it in awkward angry terms such as "Our projects are being held hostage by a loud few with too much free time and very few facts."

The imagery of protesters yelling at a pipeline worker is meant to be infuriating, though the protesters concern is about the companies that might hire the worker, not the actual worker. The ad feels like having an argument and saying the same thing over and over, but louder, and not acknowledging there is an other side.

Guess not every Canadian ad is free of being obnoxious.

McDonald's Canada has a Mighty Angus burger where people on the D Ranch from Longview, Alberta are asked to "certify mighty" the burgers: "lots of flavour" and a woman who is happy Canadian beef is used. 

Similar to the A&W ad, the idea is to be proud of what you are eating, even in fast food. Using Canadian beef is logical, especially with the low loonie, but maybe every place doesn't use Canadian beef. Americans are good at bragging about their food; you are getting a bit of that in these Canadian ads.

CanadianCrossing.com advertising coverage

Some other tidbits of note:

— Wendy's Canada promoting the freshness of its Single burger, though some of the language is rather unusual. What is even more surprising is that there are 2 different versions running in Canada with some intriguing subtle differences.

This ad is what the chain has posted online, but the ad shown in some of the NHL games was even better. The commercial has the tagline "a bun that tastes like it was made in a boulangerie, which sounds way more delicious than a bakery" as opposed to a "bakery style bun" in the other ad. The bun is exactly the same, but the language is more flowing in one version. I'd rather eat the first bun. The idea of using the French word "boulangerie" for bakery would never be heard south of the 49th parallel, but in Canada, you can do so.

The ad talks about "produce prepared fresh by hand every day" in the boulangerie version but leaves out "fresh" in the other version. Either way, the phrase is pretty useless. You don't eat a fast food burger for the quality of the produce.

— Tim Hortons latest RRRoll Up the Rim to Win contest ended up with a modern twist. A woman in Conception Bay South, Newfoundland and Labrador posted a picture of her winning cup on Facebook. Someone spotted the code in the picture and went online to claim her prize before she could. Tim Hortons ended up giving her a $100 gift card. The "new rule" is claim the prize, then brag about it on social media.

— Swiss Chalet touting its ribs and rotisserie beef but using a rarely used food description that can cause North Americans to salivate: "all you can eat fries" though for a limited time. In a separate deal, you could get a pair of quarter-chicken dinners for $14.99.

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We have found in the Rogers takeover that there are fewer "Canadian" commercials in the hockey telecasts. That plagued the Rogers local versions but the CBC games used to have the most intriguing ads.

One dreadful looking film that got a ton of ad space on the Rogers telecasts was "Gods of Egypt." The movie looks awful yet the ad campaign was aggressive. The movie is not Canadian, which isn't the surprising part. True, Rogers can't turn down money, but it cheapens the ad breaks.

Boston Pizza had a strange campaign with a general manager that you've shown in a dozen U.S. ads; their commercials are usually a lot more fun.

Rogers promoted its phone products and service on its telecasts; Bell did the same for its TSN broadcasts. U.S. carriers don't mix in with cable TV; in Canada, this is a dominant theme.

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videos credit: BCAA/A&W Canada/ICBA/McDonald's Canada