Ottawa is such a small town sometimes....just walk around downtown for about 15 minutes like I do every day and you'll run into someone you know....because of that, we sometimes fall into the trap of living in the Ottawa bubble and we lose perspective of what's happening around us....
When it comes to hockey talk around here, all anyone can talk about is the on-going saga of Dany Heatley and the highly-debated signing of Alex Kovalev...but just look outside the bubble for just a second and you'll see a franchise that's could be on the verge of going in a much worse direction than predicted only two months ago....
Just when you thought that the Sens might be having a tough off-season, it's becoming very clear that it could be a lot worse.....Just talk to a Blackhawks fan these days and you'll see someone with steam coming out of their ears....the news and stories happening within that organization are perfect fodder for the media in that town...
With that in mind, take a look at the news stories just from the first 22 days of July involving the Blackhawks:
July 1st - Hawks sign Marian Hossa to a 12-year, 62.8 million dollar deal that will conceivably lock up the winger until he's 42 years old....They also sign John Madden to a 1 year deal for 2.75 million dollars....The Hawks lose Marty Havlat to the Minnesota Wild when he signs for 6 years, 30 million dollars
July 3rd - Reports come out that then-GM Dale Tallon may have incorrectly filed qualifying offers to several Hawks players by using standard mail instead of overnight delivery or direct fax....As written on tsn.ca, "Overnight delivery via courier and direct fax to the players agent is preferred and certified or registered mail is acceptable only if the other means are unavailable"
Tallon says the qualifying offers were mailed to the players in time, on June 29th, but says because of the July 1 holiday, some of the players didn't receive them in time....
July 6th - The NHLPA files greivance against the Hawks over the mishandling of the qualifying offers and intends to fight for those who remain unsigned to become unrestricted free agents....this list includes 7 players (Kris Versteeg, Cam Barker, Ben Eager, Colin Fraser, Aaron Johnson and Troy Brouwer)
July 6th to 8th - Tallon manages to sign all seven players in question to a contract, but fans and people in the hockey world alike start to wonder how much the Tallon mistake cost the franchise as far as overpaying the players is concerned....
July 14th - The Hawks replace Tallon with assistant general manager Stan Bowman, who just happens to be the son of Hall of Fame coach and Blackhawks senior advisor Scotty Bowman....Tallon is reassigned and named a senior advisor of hockey operations
July 15th - TSN's Darren Dreger writes a great insider report on the Tallon move by getting great insight from Martin Havlat, who signed with Minnesota on July 1st....it's a must read!
http://tsn.ca/nhl/teams/story/?id=284740&hubname=nhl-blackhawks
The Coles Notes version: Team President John McDonough was looking to make this change for a long time and pulled the trigger after the contract mixup.....Marty Havlat tweets that the fans should know the truth and tells tsn.ca that McDonough hated how Tallon was given full credit for the turnaround of the team and wanted the spotlight for himself
July 15th - Tallon expresses "comfort" in his new position as an adviser and denies that he had to overpay for his error with the contract mixup...
Rocky Wirtz indicates that age was a factor as the younger Bowman is 36 years old and Tallon was 58....
July 22nd - The news breaks that recently signed winger Marian Hossa is rehabilitating a shoulder injury he suffered during the Stanley Cup playoffs while with Detroit....this news coming three weeks to the day that he signed a 12-year, 62.8 million dollar deal....
Like I said Sens fans, it could be a lot worse for the franchise..... :-)
What is going on with the Blackhawks?!?!
Pacquiao/Cotto Set for November 14
Anyone who knows me knows how much of a boxing and MMA fan that I am....if you don't, you do now and you know how elated I was to hear the news come out late last night that Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto are going to hook up for a superfight at the MGM Grand in Vegas in November....
Since Manny fights regularly at 135 or 140 pounds and Cotto has fought regularly at 140/147, the two have agreed to a catch weight of 145 pounds, so with that in mind, let's break this fight down:
SPEED/QUICKNESS
You have to give the edge automatically to the smaller fighter, but the edge is so vast for Pacquiao here.....Manny's speed was enough to absolutely dominate Oscar De La Hoya at 147 and then Ricky Hatton in less than two rounds earlier this summer at 140 pounds....This will be the major problem for Cotto and he'll have to try and neutralize this speed edge by trying to get the fight into a "phone-booth" type of war....a lot easier said than done...
Advantage: Pacquiao
DEFENSE
The speed and quickness go hand in hand with defensive ability....Pacquiao is so elusive with his head movement and overall footwork.....Oscar De La Hoya had such a problem with trying to catch Pacquiao that he and his corner threw in the towel after eight rounds....Hatton had so much problems in the round and a half that he hit Pacquiao only a handful of times in a round and a half....
On the other side, Cotto is the kind of guy that makes for great TV and PPV fights, but will be more of a sitting target for Manny....defensively, he knows how to cover up and make as little of a target as possible, but he has a bad tendency of just standing still instead of bobbing and weaving....problem for Cotto is that he can't stand still in this fight or else Pacquiao will just tee off and it won't last long....
Advantage: Pacquiao
POWER
The naturally heavier guy more often than not gets the edge by default, but in this case, it's not so clear cut....
Because of his great hand speed, Pacquiao offers elusive knockout power....he relies on the punch that his opponent never sees coming to do the major damage....Ricky Hatton never saw that punch coming a couple months ago and was put to sleep, but as much as he dominated Oscar De La Hoya at 145 pounds, he never put DLH down in that fight...
For Cotto, if he can get the flow of the fight to turn into a brawl inside a phone-booth, he wears out opponents with vicious body shots and big combinations....but he doesn't have the one-punch knockout power that can change a fight or even end it....hell, he never hurt Joshua Clottey in his last fight even though he scored a knockdown...
Advantage: Pacquiao
JABMiguel Cotto is fundamentally sound in the sense that he uses the jab and builds everything around it....so it's a big weapon for him in fights...in his last fight against Joshua Clottey, he managed to knock down someone who has never been knocked down in his career on a jab....the jab is not meant to be powerful, but if you can knock someone down that has a granite chin just on a jab, it's a nice little weapon to have....
In Pacquiao's case, trainer Freddie Roach has tried to preach the idea of using the jab as a tool for the other punches and in the last handful of fights, Pacquiao has embraced the idea and has had great success for it....but if it were to become a pure brawl, I have my doubts as to whether he can stick to that plan or if he reverts back to his wild-man days where everything would start behind his straight left as a southpaw....
Advantage: Cotto
CHIN
This one is hard to judge because we really haven't seen Pacquiao in troubled situations lately....he just doesn't get hit all that often anymore, but 2 of his career losses were by knockout in the 3rd round....they were early in his career, but the KO's are still there...
For Cotto, he was knocked out by Antonio Margarito last year, but the issue surrounding that is whether or not Margarito used a plaster of paris like substance in the wraps to make his hands that much harder....I think Margarito was cheating at the time, so I will give Cotto the benefit of the doubt here.....he held up well against Clottey last month amongst a barrage of big punches, but he's had problems with his chin against lesser opponents in the past....
Advantage: N/A
INTANGIBLESPacquiao is coming off the two biggest wins of his career by far and in dominating fashion....he couldn't be any more confident coming into the fight, but is there the danger here that he takes Cotto for granted, looks past him and sets his sights on Floyd Mayweather too early?
For Cotto, he's been in big slugfests 2 of his last 3 fights....the loss to Margarito took away his invincibility despite the fact that Margarito probably cheated.....he was lucky to come away with a decision victory against Joshua Clottey in a fight where he was badly cut and battered at times....does he enough gas left in the tank to take on the best pound-for-pound fighter in the sport right now?
INITIAL PICK
Manny Pacquiao by stoppage in 8 rounds
November 14th can't come soon enough for me!
A little bonus before I go and plus I miss hockey too much already....
The top 2 feature Ottawa Senators....so enjoy!
Top 5 places Michael Vick may end up.....
Just before I left this afternoon, Lee Versage and I had a quick debate on whether Vick would be picked up by anyone, what his role would be and what teams would be interested....it's the million dollar question around the NFL after he finished his 23 month sentence today on dogfighting charges....so let's break this down....
First off, he will get his chance to play somewhere.....as we've seen since the salary cap has been introduced to different sports, owners and GM's are always looking for the guy that offers the most amount of potential for the smallest price....he would be someone that would be signed for the league minimum in the hopes that he could get back to close to the stats that he had in the 2006 season before he went to jail....
Let's not forget that in his last season, he threw 20 TD passes (the most in his career) and ran for over 1000 yards, which is just unheard of for a quarterback....
Alright, what is his role going to be then? Is he going to change positions or is he going to continue going on as a quarterback? I can't see him being asked the change positions, but let's look at the options for that argument.....If he were to change, he would either become a running back or a wide receiver....to me, the running back position is way more plausible...
With the running back position, he would be undersized and would have no experience with running the ball inside the trenches, so he could never be a 25-30 carry kind of back....but it's much more realistic to ask him to be a third-down back....he wouldn't work in goal-line or short-yardage situations, but line him up in a shotgun formation and all of a sudden, the offense has a couple more options for trick plays....
The WR position makes sense if you only look at the optics of it....a tall and speedy guy with tons of athletic ability, but the question that these people fail to look at.....CAN HE EVEN CATCH A FOOTBALL? Yes Yes, I know the Matt Jones situation in Jacksonville, a converted quarterback from Arkansas, but the WR position takes so much time to learn and master....does Vick really have the time at this point of his career to make that tough transistion? I can't see it....
So, he would come back as a quarterback, but let's not get ahead of ourselves, he's not going to compete for a starter job any time soon.....he would be a backup or even third string somewhere, but again, the potential that he brings to the table would allow for owners to take a chance....but who would those teams be? I give you my top 5 predictions on where he'll go....
5) New England Patriots
Look, we all that Tom Brady is the man here, but what we found out last year is that even the posterboy for the NFL is not immune to injury....luckily for the franchise, Matt Cassel was able to emerge as the starter and put up numbers....problem is that he's moved on to Kansas City for big money....there's no Matt Cassel among the backups this year....
Brady's backups include Kevin O'Connell and Matt Gutierrez.....if anyone can tell me where they went to school without looking it up, a tip of the cap to you 'cause I had no idea (San Diego State and Idaho State respectively, just so you don't have to look it up)
The question will be: Why would New England want the headache? The answer is simply because of need.....if Vick shows any talent off, he could easily vault himself into the number two spot....and let's not forget, Bill Belichick had to deal with a headache named Randy Moss a couple of years ago and look how it's turned out for them.....
4) Jacksonville Jaguars
David Garrard is coming off his best season ever and was able to play all 16 games last year for the Jags, but the problem is they are very thin at the position after Garrard....the backups include journeyman Todd Bouman and some guy named Paul Smith....They are in a ton of trouble if Garrard were to go down with any long-term injury.....
Another aspect is that the fan-starving Jags would all of a sudden have a bargaining chip for people to come out to their games if there was a chance of seeing Vick play for the first time in almost three seasons.....The Jags are a struggling franchise and the bottom line would win out over the PR backlash that they would be sure to endure by signing him.....
3) Miami Dolphins
The team that brought back the Wildcat formation are very thin at the quarterback position....Chad Pennington is the starting quarterback with Pat White, a great collegiate quarterback from West Virginia, and Chad Henne, out of Michigan....
Pennington has great knowledge of the game and has great instincts, but has little mobility and his arm strength is still a problem....he's also in the later stages of his career at 33 years old...
Pat White was drafted in the second round of this year's draft and the belief is that he would take over the wildcat duties from Ronnie Brown....but if Vick could prove to be more of a threat than White, Vick could easily vault himself into the backup role here because White has always been slagged for his lack of ability for passing the football.....
2) San Francisco 49ers
The three quarterbacks here include Shaun Hill, Alex Smith and Damon Huard....Hill is the starter, but has had his troubles with consistency....Smith was the number one overall pick a few years ago, but has shown to be more of a bust than anything else....Damon Huard is a journeyman who has never really shown anything in the league and is now 36 years old....
Based on depth chart alone, this is the best chance for Vick to land somewhere....plus I like the idea of a hard-nosed coach like Mike Singletary to come in and be the disciplinarian that Vick would need to help mold him back into the quarterback he once was.....
It's a team that's destined for a 7-8 win season again this year, so there's no risk of interrupting a championship season here by bringing in Vick.....they might as well take the gamble and see what he's got.....worst-case scenario, they now have four QB's on the depth chart that don't deserve to be starters in the NFL...
1) Oakland Raiders
First and foremost, Al Davis is always looking to remake guys with bad reputations....why else would he sign guys like Javon Walker, draft someone like Darren McFadden and keep someone like Sebastian Janikowski?
When you look at the quarterback situation, Jamarcus Russell is pegged as the starter, but anyone who has seen him can tell you that he will struggle yet again this season and we'll eventually see backup Jeff Garcia get some time....
But the situation doesn't matter.....I get the sense that Davis sees the dollars that this could bring to a franchise that is primed for yet another 4 win season and he would be willing to take the backlash as he's done several times in the past....For the record, I think Garcia will take the starting job away from Russell by the halfway point of the season, but it could be an interesting twist if Vick makes his way to the Bay Area.....
For those who have forgot what he could bring to the football field, here's a little sample of his highlights throughout his career....
UFC 100 Recap
I'm not afraid to admit it....my whole weekend was planned around this fight card in Vegas on Saturday....I was very tempted to just buy myself a plane ticket, get the media pass and head down there, especially since my good buddy from Montreal was down there for the fight....but after just being on the trip for two months and then in Lake Placid at the start of the month, I figured that I have to spend a weekend in Ottawa from time to time..... :-)
Most people will know me as a big combat sport kind of guy, but I'm actually one of the few people that will give equal amount of time for boxing and MMA.....they're two different disciplines and I treat them as such....I just can never turn my back on boxing 'cause it was one of my first loves growing up as a sports fan....For those who think I'm behind the times by supporting boxing, here's some evidence that I'm not the only one....
Top 10 North American Pay Per View Buys for 2008
1. Boxing: Oscar De La Hoya vs. Manny Pacquiao, Dec. 6, 1,250,000
2. UFC: Brock Lesnar vs. Randy Couture, Nov. 15, 1,010,000
3. Wrestling: WrestleMania, Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Paul "Big Show" Wight, March 30, 670,000
4. UFC: Georges St. Pierre vs. Jon Fitch/Lesnar vs. Heath Herring, Aug. 9, 625,000
5. UFC: Lesnar vs. Frank Mir, Feb. 2, 600,000
6. UFC: Quinton Jackson vs. Forrest Griffin, July 5, 540,000
7. UFC: St. Pierre vs. Matt Serra, April 19, 530,000
8. Boxing: Felix Trinidad vs. Roy Jones Jr., Jan. 19, 500,000
9. UFC: Chuck Liddell vs. Rashad Evans, Sept. 6, 480,000
10. UFC: B.J. Penn vs. Sean Sherk/Tito Ortiz vs. Lyoto Machida, May 24, 475,000
As much as the UFC has become the kings of Pay Per View....put two boxing superstars together and you'll have just as many (if not more) pay per view buys for that event as you would have for a card like UFC 100
Just in case you wanted to know, it was only 500 dollars for my good friend to sit in the upper level of the Mandalay Bay Event Center.....I don't wanna know how much it would have cost to sit ringside, but this was such a big event that they could command so many dollars....give credit to the fighters though 'cause the fans were given as good of a fightcard as they will ever pay for....
Anyways, quick thoughts on each fight....
Brock Lesnar defeats Frank Mir by 2nd round TKO
When I looked at this fight, it looked as it was a classic battle between brain and brawn.....Mir represents the guy that would have used sound technique and a gameplan to beat Lesnar, who is nothing but raw strength and power.....problem is Mir either chose the wrong gameplan or failed to stick to the plan he drew up in the first place.....he ended up on his back against Lesnar for a round and a half and got thoroughly beaten....
At this point, Mir has a major hill to climb as he'll need a few fights before he ever gets a chance at the title again, while the UFC has to find stiff competition for Lesnar....at this point, no one knows who will be next for Lesnar.....the only one that could really be credible short-term would be Fedor, but can Dana White and Fedor ever get a deal done for the Russian to make his debut with the big boys of the game?
For those who may have heard the post-fight comments by Brock, but not the subsequent apology in the post-fight press conference, here's the video of the presser....
Georges St-Pierre defeats Thiago Alves via unanimous decision
What can you say? Pure domination by GSP even with an injured groin for the last couple of rounds....a lot of people thought Alves would pose a problem because of his overall size and strength advantage, but it's another perfect example of how technique beats pure size and strength every time out....as everyone saw, Alves had no answer for GSP's repeated takedowns....
To be fair, I'm always weary of a "live" underdog who is being billed as the "toughest test ever"....it's a classic case of the promoter trying to beef up someone to be better than they really are and GSP proved he's way ahead in class over Alves....
Quickly, here's a link to the video in which GSP announces that he hurt his groin....
Much like Brock, GSP is in a situation now where he has no real credible opponent to face at his weight class, but there are two big differences in his situation compared to Lesnar....
1) Due to the groin injury, it's unlikely that we'll see GSP fight until 2010, so there's time for someone to maybe seperate themselves from the pack and become an opponent...
2) Unlike Brock, GSP can move a weight class and explore the possibility of a super-fight with Anderson Silva.....By the way, if GSP went down this route, he would understand the frustration that BJ Penn must have felt when he lost twice to GSP....GSP would simply be too small and he wouldn't have enough skills to overcome the size difference....GSP is highly skilled, don't get me wrong, but Silva is just as skilled....
Dan Henderson defeats Michael Bisping via KO in Round 2
I didn't think Henderson would dominate as much as he did over a round and a half....I'm not sure if this had anything to do with it, but I commented to the boys that Bisping looked way leaner and less muscular than he had in the past....almost too lean and unhealthy......then he looked so tentative throughout the whole fight that it was only a matter of time before he was going to get caught...
It's just unfortunate that Hendo had to get in the extra and vicious shot on Bisping while he was clearly knocked out and in no position to defend himself.....but I'm assuming that with that one shot, Henderson gained five times more fans than he lost....it's just the nature of the beast with this sport....
Alright, finally, anyone who has watched a UFC pay-per-view has by now noticed that UFC announcer Bruce Buffer gets a little animated with his fighter introductions including 180 spins and major leaps in the air....
But there was big talk surrounding the pay per view that Buffer would do the unthinkable and do a 360 jumping spin to introduce one of the fighters sometime during the pay per view....many of those who were big fans of the sport even put down friendly wagers on whether Bruce would actually go ahead with the plan or not.....Well, the video evidence is in and those who bet with confidence that Bruce would step his game up were not disappointed....here's the video of the incredible 360 spin.....
All in all, a great card and no doubt, we'll be seeing UFC 200 before we even know it!
Lake Placid for 4th of July!
First off, so sorry for taking so long to write since my last entry.....I can't believe it's been over a week....that's way too long since we had Canada Day, free agent frenzy and other big things happening around the sports world, but lots of exciting stuff going on for me right now that I've been working on....
During the trip, I decided that I was going to get even more into business and investing, so I've been sniffing around for different opportunities.....luckily, there have been a couple of people to help me out with getting started with ideas.....so hopefully all of these little projects come to fruition starting in August/September and I can fill you guys in on all that....
Anyways, I figured that being in Ottawa for more than two weeks was too much, so I went on the road again for a weekend in Lake Placid....it was my first time there and I had a great time, and I didn't even get a chance to take advantage of any of the great golf courses that they have to offer....
I never thought that I would fall in love with a place that only has 3 thousand people, but there's so many activities for an active guy like me, so I could never get bored....I'm such a city person and have basically lived downtown all my life, so I like the hussle of it all, but there's a charm that comes with the town that I could see myself staying there for a good chunk of time if need be.....
Got there on the Friday night and we ended up at the one real bar called the Zig Zag Bar.....it has a Budweiser Bobsled in front that you can sit in and take pictures (as long as you don't mind sitting in cigarette butts and other dirt) ..... there's actually three or four of them around town that you could sit in and take the touristy picture....
I must admit, I fell in love with the prices for American beer again and enjoyed several Rolling Rocks as we walked through the bar and looked at the different bobsled/luge memorabilia that the bar had picked up over the years....
Saturday was the day to do all the touristy stuff....our hotel room just happened to be right across the street from the Miracle on Ice Arena and the 1932 arena, so we went there first....I didn't think I would be awe-struck by being in that arena considering I'm not American, but the emotion of that game against the USSR in 1980 was so palpable that I guess in retrospect, I shouldn't be surprised that I was struck with the thought of "I'm actually here...."
After that, we ended up at the bobsled run and decided to pay the 50 dollars and pay to go down the 1/2 mile bobsled run....it's a rickety old bobsled on wheels with a driver and brakeman....I didn't think that we would end up going as fast as we did, but the last three turns, we were actually sideways as a real bobsled would....definitely worth the money for the experience of doing it...
We then headed down to the 120m ski jump structure....we took a chairlift up to the top of the hill, then an elevator to get to the top of the structure....then you can walk out onto the platform where the ski jumpers would actually sit and you get to see what their vantage point would be as they prepare to lauch themselves into the air.....all I can say is, "Those jumpers have got to have a screw loose in order to do that...."
After a dip in the hotel pool and hot tub, we headed down to the lake to check out the 4th of July fireworks....I didn't know what to expect since the town has only 3,000 people, but one of the locals told us that the show would last 30 minutes.....well, let's just say that their fireworks show put our Canada Day fireworks to shame....I have never seen a firework show like that in my life.....just incredible! I guess the Americans really know what they're doing when it comes to fireworks.... :-)
After the fireworks, it was back to the Zig Zag Pub to end the night with a live band....I finally got to experience drinking in a small town with the locals.....it was an odd experience filled with tye-dye shirts, guys in green overalls, people stumbling all over the place and a live band with a guy playing the washboard with spoons.....wow! Not gonna find that in the market anytime soon....
Again, my apologies for taking so long....just one last thing....if you're a big gamer like me, you're geeked about NHL 10 coming in September....I can't wait! I got up to be the 243rd ranked player in the world for NHL 09, so we'll see if I can duplicate that for this game when it comes out.....so here's a little preview for it.....ohhh my god! I can't wait! 
