Stranger in a strange land: Inkless hockey

By Paul Wells - Tuesday, February 16, 2010 at 6:57 PM - 19 Comments

Understand here that I may actually know less about hockey than Angelo Persichilli does about national politics. Today’s USA-Switzerland game was my second trip inside a hockey arena in two months, and also my second in 30 years. (I have now already seen more hockey and more ballet in 2010, in person, than in the entire period from 1980 to 2009. The two endeavours are eerily similar. Basically I can’t do either.) Continue…

Don't count out Uncle Sam

By Charlie Gillis - Tuesday, February 16, 2010 at 6:45 PM - 0 Comments

Its economy might suck, but America’s hockey system is showing no signs of decline if today’s convincing 3-1 victory over determined Swiss team is anything to go by.

Clearly they have what it takes to run with the big dogs. Scratch that. They are big dogs.

In the weeks leading up to this tournament the Americans have been ranked in predictions below an upper tier of teams that includes Canada, Russia and—depending on who you’re talking to—Sweden or Finland.

What the U.S. showed this afternoon was depth that matches up well with any of the foregoing countries. If you get past the flashy top line of Zach Parise, Patrick Kane and Paul Stastny, you run into workhorses a whole lot more talented than anyone gives them credit for. Jamie Langenbrunner, Ryan Kesler and Dustin Brown on one line; Ryan Callahan, Bobby Ryan and David Backes on another.

“We’ve got guys playing on third and fourth lines who play on top lines on their various NHL teams,” U.S. coach Ron Wilson noted after the game. “I don’t think they should be lacking for confidence here.”

How deep are the Yanks? Phil Kessel, the best player on the Toronto Maple Leafs, could pry only 15 shifts out of Wilson, who happens to be his NHL coach.

Backes, perhaps more than any of them, characterizes the combination of size and ability that will serve the Americans well on the more narrow North American ice surface. The 6-2, 216-pound winger pumped in 30 goals for the St. Louis Blues last season. His pace has slowed this year, but he brought his A game this afternoon.

In the first period, he pounced on a rare gaffe by the Swiss defence and fired home the first goal of the Games. Then, after Ryan Miller made an eye-catching save on Swiss forward Ivo Ruthemann, Backes carried the puck the length of the ice, around defenceman Yannick Weber and slid it under Jonas Miller for what would prove to be the winner.

Ryan Malone added a third on the power-play—one of his patented goal-mouth efforts.

“The one thing we all have in common on this team is that we’re all hard to play against,” Malone said when asked to describe the team’s identity. “We’re going to play playoff-type hockey, where we throw pucks on net. We have enough skill to make the pretty plays when necessary, but we’re playing together and we’re all on the same page.”

Miller, who is a strong contender for the Vezina Trophy as the best NHL goalie, looked more than comfortable throughout the game despite facing only 15 shots (the Americans put 24 on Jonas Hiller). And anyone thinking the Swiss are no yardstick of the Americans should remember the 2-0 shocker they won against Canada in 2006 in Turin.

Questions remain about the U.S. team: will the hot-shot Kane line get going? Can their defence cope with bigger, better finishers than the Swiss have up front? (late addition Ryan Whitney could be particularly vulnerable; he saw 12:23 minutes of ice today, the lowest among U.S. defencemen).

Still, this U.S. side is a potential dark horse, and they had plenty of support today amid the 16,706 fans at Canada Hockey Place.

Canada plays the Americans on Sunday, after meeting Norway this evening and the Swiss on Thursday.

Canadian Maelle Ricker takes the gold in snowboard cross

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, February 16, 2010 at 6:32 PM - 6 Comments

Canadian Maelle Ricker has won the gold in the women’s snowboarding cross, beating out Deborah Anthonioz of France and Switzerland’s Olivia Nobs, who won the silver and bronze, respectively. The favourite going into the event, Lindsey Jacobellis, placed fifth overall. Ricker, a 31-year-old Vancouver-native, struggled in the first of two qualifying runs, finishing 1.02 seconds behind the leader, Mellie Francon of Switzerland. Ricker placed fourth in the women’s Snowboard Cross event at the 2006 Winter Olympics. Warm temperatures and fog made for a slushy, difficult course, causing delays to the event and thousands of ticket cancellations.

Times-Colonist

Over to you, Mr. Obama

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, February 16, 2010 at 6:18 PM - 47 Comments

The Justice Minister formally responds to the Supreme Court’s decision on Omar Khadr.

“In its ruling, the Supreme Court recognized the constitutional responsibility of the executive to make decisions on matters of foreign affairs, given the complex and ever-changing circumstances of diplomacy, and the need to take into account Canada’s broader interests. The Supreme Court did not require the Government to ask for accused terrorist Omar Khadr’s return.

“In response to the Supreme Court’s ruling, the Government of Canada today delivered a diplomatic note to the Government of the United States formally seeking assurances that any evidence or statements shared with U.S. authorities as a result of the interviews of Mr. Khadr by Canadian agents and officials in 2003 and 2004 not be used against him by U.S. authorities in the context of proceedings before the Military Commission or elsewhere.

“Omar Khadr faces very serious charges, including murder, attempted murder, conspiracy, material support for terrorism, and spying. The Government of Canada continues to provide consular services to Mr. Khadr.”

Two Bits of Showbiz News That Could Be Good Or Bad

By Jaime Weinman - Tuesday, February 16, 2010 at 5:25 PM - 1 Comment

1. The Oscars have announced that they’re dropping all the song performances this year, instead using pre-recorded excerpts of all the nominated songs. This, as usual, is an effort to make the show shorter and faster-paced, but I think it’s a bad idea. I hate sitting through bad song numbers as much as anyone (complaining about them is part of the fun), but we expect them, we sort of need them, and they’re part of the way these things are paced. The Oscars are essentially a variety show, and I don’t think anyone ever thought that the way to make a variety show more entertaining was to cut out all the songs and dances. If they’re afraid that people won’t sit still for the boring nominated songs, the answer is to find more imaginative ways to perform them. Let Jimmy Fallon do one as his Neil Young character. Or, as I suggested in an earlier post, bring back the old-school variety number where a beautiful woman in a weird costume uses the song to establish domination over all men. Seriously, how sad are the Oscars when they can’t do what the likes of Joey Heatherton and Lola Falana (or as SCTV put it, “Lola Heatherton”) did on a regular basis — make cheesy, schlocky musical numbers that you feel guilty for enjoying?

Also, bad as the Oscar numbers can be, the good ones can actually help make people famous, or make them famous again. Ann-Margret’s rendition of “Bachelor In Paradise” in 1962 (not online, unfortunately) is credited with turning her into a star. I realize that it’s harder to create stars at the Oscars because there are few movie musicals or TV variety shows, so a show-stopping Oscar number doesn’t actually get you much of anywhere in movies or TV. But still, if the Oscars want to look for young performers who can sell a mediocre song and surprise the audience, it can happen. And a surprisingly good or fun musical number is one of the few actual surprises that the show can usually offer.

Of course, knowing the Oscars, if they did try to create entertaining musical numbers, they’d probably come up with this instead. So maybe they shouldn’t even try. (I actually remember seeing this one at the time. Even though I was predisposed to like this kind of music, I couldn’t sit through a minute of it — the song or the number — before I gave up.)

2. Kevin Eubanks, “the guy with the guitar who laughs at everything,” is leaving The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, though it looks like he won’t leave until after it comes back on March 1. It will be interesting to see if Jay can rise to the challenge of doing a heartfelt, teary showbiz farewell. The Oscars are falling down on the need to provide old-fashioned lovable showbiz phoniness; I somehow doubt Leno can do it (Fallon seems like the best bet to really provide that kind of thing, once he gets a little older and can cry on cue), but someone’s got to at least try.

Your Daily Ice-Resurfacing Update

By Jonathon Gatehouse - Tuesday, February 16, 2010 at 4:40 PM - 1 Comment

The much-maligned ice-resurfacing machines at the Richmond Oval have actually completed their task without incident.

The Dutch coach, let without anything to complain long and hard about, is skating the track with his hands in his pocket, during a break in the women’s 500m.

Still, organizers aren’t exactly betting on the Olympia-brand machines that have been causing such problems. Last night, they announced plans to truck in a Zamboni from the Olympic Oval in Calgary. It should arrive later today.

On the upside for Olympia, their machines certainly are doing their part to keep Vancouver 2010 “green.” Zero emissions when parked.

The politics of disaster (IV)

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, February 16, 2010 at 4:29 PM - 65 Comments

An excerpt from the Prime Minister’s speech to Canadian troops today in Haiti.

This fleet of new aircraft, the C-17 fleet, is a big part of making this response possible.  I single out the C-17 for a reason.  There was a time when that kind of heavy-lift aircraft didn’t fit Canada’s soft power policies, but our government bought them for the hard power requirements of today’s world.  Now we’re using them for relief work.  What is the moral of the story?  To do soft power, you need hard power.  You need a full range of capabilities.  These days, the Canadian Forces have the power they need to do the good our country desires you to do, and to do whatever our country asks you to do.

Full speech after the jump.

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Men's hockey: USA 3 Switzerland 1 (F)

By Charlie Gillis - Tuesday, February 16, 2010 at 3:50 PM - 0 Comments

3rd Period

Switzerland showed some moxie in the third, with Roman Wick scoring as Domenichelli went to the net. They were in the same rink as the Americans, but still outmatched and outhustled.

2nd Period

Well that settles that. The score is three-zip but the shot clock tells the story. 22-9 U.S.

Ron Wilson teams—with the notable exception of the Toronto Maple Leafs—are known for playing a simplified, but high-paced game. That’s what the Americans did in the second period, and they’re on their way to a win over a none-to-shabby Swiss team.

That forecheck I mentioned? It paid off big time. The Swiss could keep up the pace in this period,  and when they did, Ryan Miller came through for the U.S. Ivo Ruthemann had a glorious chance for the Swiss five minutes into the frame, only to get stopped and watch Backes carry the rebound rink-length for his second straight of the game.

Ryan Malone, a somewhat talented lug with Tampa Bay, stuffed in a rebound on a mid-period power play, but you can credit Joe Pavelski for parking his arse square in Jonas Hiller’s face to make the goal possible.

Interesting to note: the hot-on-paper line of Zach Parise, Paul Stastny and Patrick Kane hasn’t really caught fire, though Kane looks as nifty as ever.

If there’s anything for Canada to worry about from these Americans, it’s their pace. If Wilson could get the Leafs to play at this tempo, they’d be laughing their way to the playoffs.

1st Period

Give the Swiss some credit. They gave no quarter in the first period against a U.S. team front-loaded with talent (their blue line is another matter, but more on that later). They maintained body position in their own end despite a heavy U.S. forecheck, and threw a few hits of their own.

Mark Streit and Yannick Weber got good point shots on Ryan Miller. Hnat Domenichelli, an Edmonton kid who played his junior up the road in Kamloops, B.C., had one glorious chance as the puck scooted through the U.S. crease. But no luck.

Then, with just over a minute left in the period, that forecheck came through for the Americans, as Swiss defenceman Rafael Diaz knocked a puck down with his glove right into the slot, and onto the stick of David Backes. Top shelf, blocker side. 1-0 Americans.

First goal of the 2010 Olympic tournament.

But man, don’t count those Swiss out yet. They’ve got good support in the arena here, and a bit of sandpaper in the lineup. Stay tuned

VANOC voids 20,000 tickets to Cypress Mountain events

By Ken MacQueen - Tuesday, February 16, 2010 at 3:20 PM - 2 Comments

It’s snow-go on Cypress Mountain. The Vancouver Organizing Committee has reluctantly cancelled 20,000 standing-room tickets this week for snowboard, halfpipe, ski cross and parallel giant slalom at the weather-cursed mountain site.

“We’ve exhausted all avenues but it just wasn’t possible to make the area safe for spectators,” said Caley Denton, vice president of ticketing and consumer marketing.

The bad news comes after 4,000 tickets were cancelled Monday and Tuesday for snowboard cross—again because rain and warm weather have turned the site into a mess of mud, slush and sodden hay bales. Those who paid extra to plant their bums in temporary stadium seating aren’t affected by the cancellation.

The news is a disaster on several fronts.

Local TV channels have shown pictures of weeping children whose families had traveled to Vancouver for these events, some of the most popular tickets in town. The International Olympic Committee can’t be pleased. It had banked on ski-cross, which makes its debut at these Games, to lend a new, hip image to the Olympics.

As for VANOC, it’s a financial mess. The minimum price for these tickets is $50, with the halfpipe tickets going at $65 a pop. All told, VANOC will take a revenue hit of about $1.4 million in lost ticket revenue alone, and a body blow to its reputation.

Vancouver’s Games continue a “downhill slide from disaster to calamity,” wrote Lawrence Donegan in London’s Guardian newspaper. Just one example of increasingly bad international reviews.

VANOC officials put on their Games faces Tuesday saying they did all humanly possible, but even five years of planning couldn’t contend with Mother Nature. It’s worth noting, too, that the IOC approved those plans every step of the way.

There’s plenty of blame to go around, but it’s not much consolation for 24,000 disappointed fans. Full disclosure here: that group includes my two disappointed sons.

'Dear Minister Flaherty'

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, February 16, 2010 at 3:06 PM - 22 Comments

The NDP files its suggestions with the Finance Minister, including pension reform, EI reform, municipal funding, an extension to the home renovation tax credit and a repeal of planned corporate tax cuts.

In addition to job creation measures, the Government must address the looming structural deficit, as identified by Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page. The deficit was caused, in part, by previous reckless reductions in corporate income tax rates. Like most Canadians, New Democrats recognize that in the long term, we cannot spend more than we collect. Yet your government has not only attempted to deny the existence of the structural deficit, it has aggravated the imbalance by reducing revenues despite the absence of any evidence that those tax savings have led to investments in jobs for Canadians. Your unbalanced corporate tax policy is exacerbating our overreliance on oil extraction, and contributing to a high dollar, which in turn hampers job creation and exports in the value-added sectors of manufacturing, forestry, aerospace and others. We propose that you announce the government will not proceed with additional cuts to the corporate tax rate in 2011 and 2012.

Aim at the oil sands, and you hit Quebec

By Andrew Coyne - Tuesday, February 16, 2010 at 3:00 PM - 24 Comments

One guess what lesson Pauline Marois drew from Jim Prentice’s recent criticism of Quebec’s environmental policies. Why, yes: it just clinches the case for sovereignty. “Quebec is a leader [on the environment]…and Canada is dragging us down,” the Parti Québécois leader declaimed. “If we were independent tomorrow, we could speak with our own voice…We could have signed the Kyoto agreement ourselves.” Etc., etc. “Federalism does not suit the Quebec reality…The real solution for Quebec is sovereignty…” zzzzzzzzz.

But if Marois’s response was predictable—in a sovereign Quebec, the very air would be purer—so was that of the rest of the province’s political class. In La Presse, Alain Dubuc found it “surreal” that a federal environment minister would “harshly attack” the province for “doing too much” for the environment. My sometime colleague Chantal Hébert agreed in her Toronto Star column that the minister’s “attack” was “unprecedented,” even suggesting on our CBC panel that it verged on “Quebec-bashing.” Le Soleil’s Raymond Giroux diagnosed the minister as suffering from “Quebecophobia.”

All this, over one paragraph in a half-hour speech! Prentice’s harsh and unprecedented attack on Quebec was to suggest it is “folly” for provinces to pursue their own individual strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions rather than the continental approach the feds prefer, citing as an example “the new and unique vehicle regulations in the province of Quebec.” That’s it. That’s the Quebec-bashing that set off this firestorm: a brief critique of a particular policy of the government of Quebec, delivered half a continent away in a speech at the University of Calgary.

Continue…

VANOC and anti-Olympic protesters make for unlikely allies

By Jason Kirby - Tuesday, February 16, 2010 at 2:06 PM - 2 Comments

I passed this on the way into the office this morning. Question: Is it the work of marauding protesters hell-bent on disrupting the Olympics? Or has VANOC come up with a new way to combat Olympic ambush marketing? One can almost imagine official paint-bomb squads fanning out across the city on the hunt for counterfeit Quatchis and unlicensed Olympic O’s, like these ones, which have been hanging in this eyeglass store on Denman St. for the last couple of weeks.

Let he who is without half-a-trillion sins

By Andrew Coyne - Tuesday, February 16, 2010 at 2:05 PM - 49 Comments

The government of Canada is worried that Canadians are taking on too much debt. I repeat: the government of Canada is worried that Canadians are taking on too much debt. Folks, you couldn’t make this stuff up….

Mr. Harper's best-seller

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, February 16, 2010 at 1:57 PM - 35 Comments

NBC reported today that the Prime Minister is working on a book about hockey. This June, coincidentally, will mark the fifth anniversary of Stephen Harper’s book about hockey. For the record, here’s how the Globe reported the tome into existence on the morning of June 18, 2005.

Conservative Leader Stephen Harper is known for his intellect and policy-wonk ways. However, he is also an armchair sports fan (the Toronto Maple Leafs come to mind) and is planning to publish a book that has nothing to do with politics or policy. Rather, Mr. Harper is penning a tome on the history of professional hockey in Alberta. Harper insiders say that he began researching and writing the book as a hobby but it has become a more serious venture as he acquired more and more information. He is researching it from primary sources, and firsthand accounts dating back to the turn of the last century, says a friend, who is familiar with the progress of the book.

The secret life of Colonel Russell Williams

By Martin Patriquin, Anne Kingston, Cathy Gulli, Michael Friscolanti with Kate Lunau, Tom Henheffer, Philippe Gohier, John Geddes, Patricia Treble and Michael Barclay - Tuesday, February 16, 2010 at 1:08 PM - 124 Comments

In the early 1990s, years before Col. Russell Williams was an accused double murderer, he was a young, eager lieutenant stationed at the Canadian Forces flying school in Portage la Prairie, Man. A rookie instructor in the old CT-134 Musketeers, Williams was an obvious standout, quiet but intense. “He was super,” says Greg McQuaid, a retired major who was chief flight instructor at the time. “I wrote the personnel evaluation reports that got him promoted to captain. He was smart, hard-working and skilled. He could be so focused that sometimes it was like he could look right through you.”

Continue…

Harper pledges another $12 million for Haiti

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, February 16, 2010 at 1:07 PM - 2 Comments

On Tuesday, Stephen Harper visited the town of Jacmel, Haiti, where Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean was born. The visit kicked off Harper’s second day in the earthquake-ravaged country, where he will visit Canadian forces providing aid on the ground. In Jacmel, Harper will visit a clinic and a water-purification camp before heading to the town of Leogane. The Prime Minister announced on Monday that Canada will donate $12 million to construct a building to house Haiti’s national government.

CBC News

Summer is no time to be consulting with Canadians

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, February 16, 2010 at 1:04 PM - 10 Comments

Presented with a petition demanding he return to Ottawa, Conservative MP Larry Miller offers to sit for an extra 12 days this July.

Reached by telephone, Miller said the past few weeks have been among his “busiest on record.” He said he has met with many constituents. He said the Conservative government plans to “make up” 10 of the 22 sitting days missed by prorogation. ”If the issue is the 22 (missed) Parliament sitting days, we already have plans to make up 10 of those days and, as far as I’m concerned, we can make up the other 12 in July,” Miller said. “We’ll take them out of the summer break. It doesn’t matter to me.”

Dean Del Mastro, even more committed to Parliamentary democracy, is willing to sit through all of July and August.

Debt for days

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, February 16, 2010 at 1:04 PM - 21 Comments

That’s gotta hurt! According to a study released Tuesday by the Vanier Institute of the Family, the average Canadian family has a whopping $96,100 worth of debt. Or, measured another way, that means the average debt-to-income ratio for Canadian families is 145 per cent. And that’s not all. The study found a 50 per cent increase in mortgage payments that were more than 90 days late (compared to 2008). There was also a 40 per cent increase in credit card holders more than three months behind in payments. “For far too many, there is too little income, too much spending, too little saving and too much debt,” the report read. On Tuesday, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced a new scheme to make it harder for Canadians to take out mortgages: an effort to prevent unwieldy household debts from piling up.

CBC News

Stephen Harper stops by 'The Today Show' to talk hockey

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, February 16, 2010 at 1:02 PM - 1 Comment

And the gold medal in "Waaaah!" goes to…

By Scott Feschuk - Tuesday, February 16, 2010 at 12:55 PM - 79 Comments

The story so far: The luge track was too fast and dangerous. Now the luge track is too slow and boring. Olympic organizers denied foreign skiers sufficient opportunity to train on the downhill course. The downhill course is too bumpy. The cross-country skiing course has too many turns and too many hills. The ice at the speedskating oval is terrible. There wasn’t enough French in the Opening Ceremonies. The Germans are cheating at skeleton by Continue…

Plagiarism? What’s that?

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, February 16, 2010 at 12:37 PM - 3 Comments

Guardian Books columnist Robert McCrum weighs into Europe’s latest plagiarism scandal and focuses on it’s most unsettling aspect: the accused is not pleading innocence, she’s claiming not to know what the fuss is about in the first place. Passages in the German cult teen bestseller Axolotl Roadkill by 17-year-old Berliner, Helene Hegemann, a gritty exploration of the Berlin nightclub scene in the aftermath of her mother’s death, are plainly lifted wholesale from another novel, Strobo, the work of a German blogger who goes under the name of Airen. So far, so usual. What fascinates McCrum is that “it’s clear from the reports I’ve read that Hegemann, a child of the Internet age, simply does not understand, or recognize, the charge of plagiarism. To her, coming from the cut-and-paste world of blogs and Facebook, what she’s done is no more than ‘mixing’ (she seems to use the English term, by the way.)” Does that mean, the columnist asks, that Hegemann is simply following a line of argument now gaining momentum: copyright is meaningless when everything is available free online? For adult readers raised in an established print culture, copyright is “the bedrock of the European intellectual tradition,” but Hegemann’s response indicates that those who have come of age “outside that cultural inheritance, or at odds with it, feel, as Hegemann said, that ‘Berlin is here to mix with everything.’” McCrum feels that attitude can no longer be ignored in the Brave New Google-World of the contemporary book business, which urgently needs to “renegotiate” the way writers control their work and its economic value. “Some will say that ‘The barbarians are coming’,” he adds. “I don’t take that line, but I think the renegotiation is increasingly urgent.”

The Guardian

Olympic mailbag anyone?

By Scott Feschuk - Tuesday, February 16, 2010 at 12:23 PM - 26 Comments

Ask your Olympic-themed question in the comments below. In the spirit of events taking place at Whistler, I’ll postpone my responses several times before actually revealing them.

Please try to keep up

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, February 16, 2010 at 12:20 PM - 4 Comments

The Heritage Minister would prefer you stop talking about what he said on Sunday.

Top Taliban commander arrested

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, February 16, 2010 at 11:53 AM - 0 Comments

Pakistani and U.S. intelligence officials have announced their arrest of the Taliban’s top military commander. Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who is outranked only by the Taliban’s founder, Mullah Muhammad Omar, was captured in a joint operation in Karachi last week. The arrest comes as Canada and NATO lead a massive offensive against the Taliban in Afghanistan, and is considered to be a major victory that underscores the Pakistani government’s commitment to fight terrorism. However, the Taliban claims that Baradar is still free, while organizations supporting the terrorist group say he will be easily replaced.

CBC