Moose Droppings

No jokes this morning, just straight to the point. Grab a coffee and let’s go!

1. FRONT PAGE

– What’s hot? I’ll admit that my mind has been a few different places over the past week. I’m working on a side project that’s been taking up some of my time and attention and while that’s been fun I’m finding myself a little all over the place with my sports attention. March Madness continues to draw my focus on the weekends and my bracket is still very much intact (go Duke!). The NHL playoff races have fizzled out a little bit but I was following the Leafs road trip through California quite closely (more on that shortly), and this week the NFL has probably been most top of mind with league meetings happening. Oh, and opening day was Thursday which, despite the Jays failing to show up, was a fun day where the sun came out in Toronto (+13 in the afternoon!) and hot dogs were broiled (not boiled) at the Dupont household. Mix in some junior hockey playoffs and that’s a full slate. What am I missing?

2. REPLAY

– Video review is under fire again in the NHL after a recent New York Islanders vs Columbus Blue Jackets game ended in controversy. Kyle Palmeiri appeared to have scored but the goal was waved off and went to review. Palmeiri was outside of the crease and it was the Columbus goaltender who initiated the contact (and also had time to reset). It was pretty obvious that the call would be overturned and the goal would stand. It was not. Isles coach Patrick Roy was most furious and that was a big two points with New York in playoff contention. Every point matters.

I don’t know if there is an easy solution to video replay but one thing I’ve been thinking about a lot lately is the possibility of speeding up the replay process. I feel in the spirit of replay the idea is to correct egregious missed calls. Judgment calls happen all the time and I understand. Replay is meant to fix obvious goaltender interference that wasn’t called. Replay is meant to catch Matt Duchene being six feet offside, which was missed. It’s not meant to zoom in to see if a skate blade was 3mm offside or a goalie was grazed ever so gently as the puck was coming to the net. I understand the argument that offside is offside, etc. but we’ve gone too far. Speed it up. If you can make the call in real time speed on one replay then make the call. If it takes so many looks and so much time let’s let the call on the ice stand. Good?

3. REBUILD

– Ok, to the Leafs recent road trip through California. First, it wasn’t a convincing stretch of hockey but the team did pick up five of six points through the three games and have seven of a possible eight points over their past four games to climb into first in the Atlantic. Meanwhile the San Jose Sharks had played 73 games and have 49 points (Tuesday night not included) while the Chicago Blackhawks had played 74 games and have 51 points. The two are well back of Nashville at the bottom of the NHL standings. Both teams are clearly in a rebuild with recent top draft picks and consecutive tough seasons.

There is one big difference: San Jose is a fun, exciting team on the rise with a clear sense of optimism for the future. We don’t know what Chicago is. When I watch the Sharks I can see their future. They are fun to watch and that brand of hockey, built around exciting young players, is an easy sell to the fan base. I’m not so sure what the Blackhawks are or when it’s going to get better.

San Jose is a fun team to watch and are going to get better with another top pick this summer.

4. NEW HOCKEY DEAL

– Reports have surfaced this week that the NHL and Rogers are nearing a record 12-year extension to their TV rights deal in Canada that would be in the neighbourhood of $7.7b USD or over $11b CAD.

How do we feel about this?

It seems like this came out of nowhere. I was thinking we were going to see a fierce negotiation between Sportsnet, TSN, Amazon and perhaps others but that is not the case. Clearly it’s a great financial deal for the NHL and its teams. Amazon swooped in and picked up Monday night games this season and by all accounts it’s gone well. I’m sure there will be opportunities for them to pick up games again and maybe even add to their deal but that’s something we don’t know yet.

It’s easy to see how it came together though. Any partner with an existing deal would have a window to negotiate an extension and Rogers’ window clicked in earlier this year. They came to the table with a great deal and Bob’s your uncle.

Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff posted an interesting point in an article discussing the deal: “we’ve seen no indication from anyone yet that it’s exclusive, meaning that there could still be a sliver or slice out there depending on what Rogers didn’t get in their package.”

Interesting.

5. OHL PLAYOFFS – We have a great Dub column on this site so I’ll leave the WHL updates out of my column other than to say it’s so great to see the product available for free on Victory+! We haven’t had the product available on our televisions so this is a great new deal to have for the playoffs. Well done WHL!

Series have shifted venues for games three and four in opening round series which continued Tuesday night. No surprise the London Knights have jumped out to a quick lead in their series with Owen Sound. Barring something shocking, you should be watching the Knights for a while this spring. Elsewhere Oshawa and Brampton are locked in a great series loaded with NHL prospects. Former Humboldt Broncos head coach Scott Barney and the Sudbury Wolves are on the ropes against Kingston while Kitchener, the other team I’ve probably covered more than any other this year, is up on Flint after taking care of business at home.

6. FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING

– Are you following any of what’s been going on with the Niagara Ice Dogs? Try to keep up. I’ll do my best to summarize.

This spring, during the OHL playoffs, the team and league have mandated a one period suspension for all players on the team following an off-ice incident. Apparently it stems from actions of players at a local movie theatre. So, during the IceDogs first round playoff series, players were forced to sit for an entire period. This even included their starting goaltender who came into the game for the first time after 20 minutes. Wild.

This off-ice incident happened prior to the league putting its staff member in the building, which was later uncovered by the league and they found no punishment was issued to the players. So here we are.

7. MORE TO THE STORY

– Back in 2022, the team’s GM and head coach were suspended until July 1, 2025 and the team was fined $150,000 for violating the league’s harassment policy. In May of 2023, team owner Darren DeDobbler was fined $100,000 and their team captain and starting goaltender were both banned from the OHL for violating the league’s bullying and harassment policy. DeDobbler, who appointed himself as GM, was suspended from GM duties until June 1, 2025. Fast Forward to early March of this year and the OHL has retained a law firm which specializes in workplace culture cases to investigate the IceDogs after multiple reports of a negative workplace culture. A week later the league placed a staff member in the building on a daily basis to ensure the team was following league directives.

This all adds up to one crazy story… and the ending is not nearly in sight.

8. TUSH PUSH – Ok, to football. The “Tush Push” is on the ballot at NFL meetings this week. Will it be banned? It’s a glorified QB sneak and, for the most part, has been unstoppable. Here’s the issue I have: there hasn’t been any data to support an increase in injury risk with the play and nobody else has been able to replicate it. If it’s truly unstoppable then every team will start using it and banning the play will follow. Until that time… can’t ban it. Turns out that 16 teams voted in favour of banning the play which is eight less than the required number to pass the motion. They have tabled it and will likely discuss it again in May.

9. NFL vs CFL

– In the NFL, pushing a ball carrier is legal, but pulling or lifting them is not. In the CFL they call it tandem blocking, which involves “assisting a ball carrier’s forward progress by providing impetus from behind or in front, is illegal and results in a 10-yard penalty.” RP mentioned on the show Tuesday that the CFL rules are far superior to that of the NFL and I’d have to agree. I’m in the camp that loves both leagues and appreciates them for what they are. I don’t live in a world where I have to choose. But, the CFL is winning this one.

There are already two changes to NFL rules though: expanded replay and overtime will now include each team having possession but overtime is now limited to 10-minutes.

10. Randoms

– I knew I missed something off the top. The men’s World Curling Championships are happening in the home province this week and Canada is off to a great start. I haven’t watched as much as I would like but I’m sure that will change heading into the weekend… Just starting The Studio on Apple+. One episode in and I’m hooked… Watched the movie “Wicked” this past week (really good… 7,1/10) and “Anora”, which won the Oscar for best picture (also very good, 8.4/10). The Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown” is next on my list… Don’t look now but the Blue Jays are 4-2. They look for the sweep of the Nationals Wednesday afternoon…. Flames remaining games: Ducks, VGK, Sharks, Ducks, Wild, Sharks, VGK, LAK. It could happen. Canucks remaining games: Kraken, Ducks, VGK, Stars, Avs, Wild, Sharks, VGK. They’re done…. Montreal and Ottawa are both getting in, aren’t they? Do both go farther than the Leafs?…. Rodgers to Pittsburgh… Tennis and Golf both had good weekends but not good enough to earn their own point this week.