JIM LANG ON SPORTS!

By: Jim Lang

THE CANUCKS AND THE LEAFS

Tuesday the Vancouver Canucks dropped the hammer on President and G.M. Mike Gillis. Does this mean John Tortorella is next? Who replaces Gillis? There are a lot of questions that need answering in Vancouver over the next few months.

The Canucks one of those questions on Wednesday with the hiring of Trevor Linden as the team’s new President of Hockey Operations.  The fans might be happy about the move but the hiring of Linden does little to solve the problems in Vancouver.

That leaves us with the mess that is the Toronto Maple Leafs. And I do mean mess.

Tuesday night another Leafs season ended in bitter disappointment with their loss to the Lightning. For the eighth time in the past nine seasons the Leafs are not going to the playoffs.

As Adam Proteau of the Hockey News pointed out on Twitter Wednesday, the Leafs have hosted three playoff games at Air Canada Centre since the spring of 2004.

Three home playoff games in 10 years!

For some reason this one hurts a lot more than it has in previous years. Last season’s return to the playoffs whetted the collective appetite of the Leafs Nation. Leafs fans yearned for more love-ins outside the ACC. They desperately wanted to take road trips to support their team on the road to playoff glory.

Instead they watched in horror as the Leafs proceeded to go an inexcusable 2-10 run with the playoffs within their grasp.  Not only did the 18-wheeler go off of the cliff; it burst into flames.

Fans in Toronto called their local talk radio stations, screaming for change. But as many have pointed out, changing the Leafs front office and coaching staff is one thing; changing their players is another thing altogether.

Is there another General Manager in his right mind that would make a trade for Dion Phaneuf and take on that contract? The answer is no, not bloody likely.  Meanwhile my oldest daughter will be in University when David Clarkson’s contract finally comes to an end.

If Tim Leiweke decides to toss a grenade into the Leafs front office and start over again, any new G.M. that comes in is going to have a real mess to clean up.

The saddest thing about being a Leafs fan right now is the bitter realization that you are going to have to adopt another team for the playoffs. Out of principle there is no way I will be rooting for the Habs.
So I am open to suggestions.


THE ROUGHRIDERS AND THE CFL

Back in April of 2008 Rod Pedersen wrote about the “Save the Riders” telethon on 1997. http://www.rodpedersen.com/2008/04/rodpedersencom_07.html

As Rod notes, the Riders were a financial mess in the spring of 1997.

Fast forward to 2014 and the Riders staged a mini-camp in Florida. That speaks volumes of how far the CFL has come in the past two decades. It wasn’t that long ago that the thought of a CFL team, let alone the Riders, flying down to Florida for a spring mini-camp would have been laughed at.

In early May the Argos will be holding their mini-camp at the Detroit Tigers spring training facility in Florida.  The expansion Ottawa Redblacks meanwhile are holding their mini-camp in Virginia. To see where the league was financially as recently as 1997 and to see where it is right now is incredible.
Once upon a time sports columnists in Toronto took great pleasure in ripping any CFL team that was in any kind of trouble. They would have equally ripped any team that dared to suggest they were going to Florida for their mini-camp.  Well that was then and this now.  The sad truth is that cutbacks in the sports department at newspapers in Toronto have greatly reduced the amount of CFL coverage you get in Southern Ontario.

In Tuesday’s edition of the Toronto Sun for instance the only CFL story was written by the excellent Kirk Penton of the Winnipeg Sun.

But isn’t just the Argos and the CFL wondering where the coverage has gone to? The Raptors, a team that has already made the playoffs, have a right to beef about the amount of coverage they get. In Toronto all of the focus is on the Maple Leafs. As a matter of fact there is even more coverage when the Leafs are losing as everyone tries to dissect what is wrong with the team and how to solve all of their problems.

It is what it is in Toronto and there isn’t much the Argos or the CFL can do to change it.  While the newspapers in Toronto are ignoring what’s happening with the CFL I am not.

Now a CFL team holding a mini-camp isn’t news. But a CFL team having the financial ability to fly everyone down to Florida to hold camp is definitely news to me.

I still have vivid, and scary, memories of a league that was on the brink of financial collapse not that long ago. For all of the financial success a team like the Roughriders are enjoying these days their fans should realize that 1997 wasn’t that long ago.  So forgive me if I want to celebrate the over-all health of the league and the sight of team’s practicing in Florida in April.


THE CFL CBA

Contrary to the opinion of some, football players are not stupid.  The players are well aware of the new, and generous, television deal the CFL has signed with TSN.

They also know that if there are teams with enough money to fly them down to Florida for mini-camp, then they have enough money to give them a raise.  And money is one of many issues on the table as the CFLPA and the league try to hammer out a new CBA.

For years the players have been asked to take a haircut in order to support the overall good of the league. Based on the relative financial health of the CFL in 2014, it will be hard for Commissioner Mark Cohon to argue against giving the players more money.

It is times like this I wish I was an owner. I have always dreamed of winning big money in the Lottery and then going out and buying a share of a CFL team.  Of course this would have to be negotiated with the Commissioner of my house, my wife.

But I figured if I win $50 million dollars on Lotto Max she wouldn’t really mind if I take $10 million dollars and buy a share of the Argos.  My first order of business would be to build the Argos a proper practice facility, complete with indoor practice bubble. Next I would hire Rush to play halftime at the home opener. They would only have to play one song; the entire first side to 2112.

I would also do whatever it takes to make sure they get out of Rogers Centre into BMO Field.

I would also bring Doug Flutie back to town and retire his number.  Oh I have a ton of ideas of what I would do if I owned the Argos. All I have to do now is win that lottery.

Hey, a man can dream you know.

(Follow Jim on Twitter at @JimLangSports)