Pierre Mcguire Update
As I promised, here is the update to the Pierre Mcguire story that I wrote a few weeks ago.
While at the Team Canada Olympic orientation camp Red vs. White game on Thursday, I managed to get Mcguire’s attention for a second and asked him about the incident.
Me: “I heard you got punched out in Saskatoon a few weeks ago when you were there for the Juniors thing.”
Mcguire: “Where did you hear that?”
Me: “A few posts online.”
Mcguire: “That’s retarded. I talked to 96 coaches that weekend and no that’s retarded. No.”
(uh, coaches? what? who asked about that?)
Me: “Thanks.”
It doesn’t take a world class investigator to figure out that Mcguire had something to hide and wasn’t being truthful in his response. So yeah, I’m 99.9% sure that this happened, just need some video to tack the 0.1% on. And what do you think the chance of getting video is? Probably zero…
Looks like TSN is protecting their own as I sent an email to TSN a few weeks ago for comment on and didn’t hear back.
Team Canada Olympic Hockey Camp
When I heard that Hockey Canada would be holding their orientation camps in Calgary this August, I knew that I would be going down for at least one day. I couldn’t get confirmation about getting into the arena for the daily skates, so I left it to the last day when the mens team held their Red vs. White scrimmage.
I drove down from Edmonton to Calgary, and arrived at the Saddledome pretty early. I was tempted to head over to 17th ave to stare at the hot broads in Calgary, I mean get something to eat, but I figured I’d stick around and see if there was anything going on. I lapped the outside of the stadium a few times until I found a few people hanging around the South East corner of the building. They saw my SLR and were like “Get over here! This is where all the players are coming in!” So there I waited for about 12 second, and then of course security came and told us to beat it… Just as they were tossing us, Darren Dreger of TSN told us that all the players were inside already so it wasn’t a big deal that we had to move. Prior to leaving one of the other guys that was waiting around for pictures/autographs asked Dreger if he could hook him up with a job at TSN. Dreger simply responded, “Send your resume.”
They didn’t open up the doors until 6pm so I just continued to hang around until I could get in there and do a litmus test on the herion content in the beer at the Saddledome. More on that later…
Prior to heading inside I saw this obvious jersey foul outside… Yeah your kid and his girlfriend are wearing Iginla jerseys, which is ok because there were about one billion different hockey jerseys in the stadium, but you decide to wear your Stampeders jersey? Yeah it’s red, but come on!
So as soon as I get inside I make a b-line to the “famous” hotdog stand, and get something that looked like this. I always knew people in Calgary were weird, but this hot dog just confirmed that for me. Pretty disgusting.
Anyway, after getting inside I immediately got jacked up by security again saying that I couldn’t take pictures with my “professional camera.” Take a look at any of these pics and you’ll see that you could probably get better results with a 0.2 megapixel motorola camera phone. So yeah, he walked away, and I started taking pictures. The usher in my section didn’t give a flying one that I was snapping away and taking video. Anyway, here are some other’s that I got from inside the rink:
Yes, that’s a hot hockey mom/wife… couldn’t figure out who she belonged to though.
This guy is a beauty!
Corey Perry likes what he sees…
Yeah as you can see it was a beauty night. Oh, you can’t really see? How about some video?
Oh yeah, I spoke with Pierre Mcguire as well… that’s going to be saved for a separate post. Until then…
Dany Heatley’s True Thoughts
Hahaha, gotta throw a hat tip out to @hockeycardshow on Twitter for pointing this one out. Not too safe for the workplace so be careful where you open this one up. And now, Dany Heatley’s true thoughts:
Iginla Should Lead Team Canada
With the 2010 Team Canada camp starting today in Calgary, may as well start the discussion for who is going to captain the Olympic team.
TSN listed off the 10 NHL captains that have been invited to camp saying that they all have a shot at the C, but I really don’t think that guys like Morrow have a chance.
The two that lead the charge for the C are Jarome Iginla and Sidney Crosby. There has been a lot of discussion on Twitter this morning about who should get the C, with a lot of support for both guys. I think that Crosby would be a good choice, but I know that Iginla is the best choice and without a doubt will lead Team Canada this winter.
Remember Joe Sakic’s performance back in 2002? I can see Iggy pulling something like this off in 2010. Let’s reminisce a little shall we?
So yeah, I’m 90% sure that the captaincy is going to go to Iginla for the following reasons:
- He is one of the most respected leaders in the game.
- He has the Olympic experience that the team needs.
- It’s just his time. The #2 choice will have his, but it’s not this year.
There, I said it. Iginla will be captain. Anyone want to wager on this? 
Jersey Database
Came across the Jersey Database the other day, and figured it would be of interest to a lot of the readers here. The site is packed with jerseys from the NHL (and every other sport for that matter), and it lets you customize and create your own if your favorite isn’t already listed.
You can create forum signatures, avatars, iPhone wallpapers (like the Whalers one on the left), and numerous other flash based combinations.
So now you can rock your favorite team or player on your iPhone, or show your support in whatever hockey forum you frequent or in your gravatar for commenting on websites.
Team Canada 2010 Jersey
Well it took a while for them to nail it down, but the new Team Canada jersey for the 2010 Olympics has been released. I remember being pretty pissed when I heard they had to stop using the old logo, and figured the new jersey would be a big disappointment, but this thing is a beauty! I want one right now! Too bad the olympic store doesn’t have a wish list kind of thing so that all my loyal readers could chip in and buy me one haha just kidding.
Stanrey Cup!
I won the Stanrey Cup! Wait, this is just golf bag.
ROR
(wow this is bad… but had to do it)
Hockey in a Baseball Diamond Sucks
Does anyone else love the idea of the NHL Winter Classic, but absolutely hate that it was played in a baseball diamond last year, and is slated to be again this year? Look at the picture above and you can probably see why I think this is a stupid idea.
One of the beauties of hockey is being close to the action, so you can witness the speed and sounds first hand, not have to rely on the jumbo-tron to fill you in. Hockey on a ball diamond takes all that away due to the position of the ice in relation to the stands. Look at those poor guys out in center field! Think they have a good view of what’s going on? How about the guys that are behind home plate?
Now, let’s take a look at what really works:
and
Hockey is much better in football stadiums, especially NFL over the CFL (due to field width, and how close the fans are to the action. So why does the NHL insist on throwing these games out into the ball parks? Due to the nostalgia of Wrigley Field or Fenway Park? Who gives a flying one. This is about our game, not theirs and whatever may have taken place on those diamonds. As long as the games are going to be played outside, put them in the football stadiums and get the fans experiencing the game the way it was meant to be. Hell, go out to Lambeau Field next season next year over a ball diamond in an NHL city. You’re telling me that people wouldn’t travel to that game. OF COURSE THEY WOULD.
1991 Stanley Cup Final
I’m not sure if this is new or not, but it’s new to me and I’m going to show it to all of you. Head over to NHL91.com Game 6 and watch this masterpiece. If you played the old NHL hockey games, and have ever watched the Stanley Cup finals, you are going to appreciate this.
Pierre McGuire Got Punched Out
Ok if this turns out to be true I’ll have to throw out a major hat tip to the guy who emailed me last night saying that Pierre McGuire got punched out by a TSN cameraman. Apparently while in Saskatoon, and at a random bar on Friday night, with Luke Schenn in the bar too, Pierre McGuire ate a few knuckle sandwiches.
I don’t have any more info other than Schenn having words, but not getting physically involved. So with basically no info on how or why this went down, why not make up my own version of events?
Pierre: I’m the reason TSN exists.
Cameraman: Yeah whatever.
Pierre: No seriously, I’m the greatest thing that’s ever happened to TV or hockey.
Schenn: What?
Pierre: Without me none of you young kids would ever get any lip service on TV.
Schenn: Why so self righteous?
Pierre: Do I come off that way? You wanna go?
Schenn: Gladly
Cameraman: Lukey, may not be the best PR move for you to do this…
Schenn: Yeah good point.
Pierre: Schenn you pussy!
Cameraman: Alright, I’ve had enough of this. BAM!
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Twitter
@JamienSanders Yeah that's not too far fetched. Or even CHL...after this one I'll give it a shot.
4 hours ago Time to vote for the most annoying NHL fans in the league! http://bit.ly/9UjIi9 #nhl #hockey @nhl
4 hours ago
