with his urgent Mats Sundin-related bulletins.
Some of us are working alone in the Sports department late at night, hoping beyond anything else that an announcement doesn’t come out of the blue to screw everything up.
As editor-in-chief Andrew Phillips explains in a blog post, The Gazette is jumping on the bandwagon and has launched an Olympics website to cover the Beijing Games that start next week, at www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/sports/beijing2008/index.html. Most of the web content is provided by Canwest, which has a similar page (as does the Ottawa Citizen, Vancouver Sun, etc.)
Other media outlets have already launched Olympics pages, which I have almost universally panned. That said, it’s clear the news media is making a much bigger effort toward these games in terms of online coverage. (It remains to be seen which of these websites will have better live coverage of the Games.)
As part of local coverage of the Games (and to justify the oodles of money spent sending him there), The Gazette is also starting a blog for photographer John Mahoney, who will accompany reporter Dave Stubbs to Beijing (Stubbs already has a blog up with funny little stories leading up to the Games). Mahoney has a first post relating Beijing to his first Olympics in Lake Placid in 1980.
The paper, of course, will also have special coverage. Mahoney has photo profiles of different athletes each day starting Saturday, there will be a special Olympics preview section on Wednesday, and each day of the Games will have special Olympics sections with pages of coverage (some of which will be edited by yours truly).
Stephanie Myles, who was once the full-time baseball writer for The Gazette and is now mainly covering Tennis, wrote last week about how she’s become disconnected from baseball ever since the Expos left for Washington.
The piece generated a lot of response from letter-writers, many of whom feel the same way.
The Gazette is trying something new tonight, live-blogging the Impact vs. Toronto FC game at Saputo Stadium BMO Field in Toronto. The copy is a bit dirty (note to marketing dept.: “Pat Hickey RAW”), but at least you get the news of what’s going on.
La Presse is doing similarly with blogger Pascal Milano, as is Radio-Canada, with at least a half-time report from each.
Unless I’ve missed something, Le Devoir, Quebecor’s Canoe portal, CTV Sports and even the sports networks (TSN.ca, RDS.ca, Sportsnet.ca) have nothing on how this game is going.
The Impact is the unpopular little brother of the Alouettes and Canadiens, and the media tends to half-ass coverage of the team (in most cases, only covering home games so they don’t have to spring for airfare). Since this is a non-league game, it’s not on TV. RDS and TSN have Rogers Cup tennis, and CBC/Radio-Canada have regular non-sports programming. Fortunately, though, CBCsports.ca has a free live broadcast of the game online.
UPDATE: 1-1 draw gives a victory in the CONCACAF Canadian championships to the Montreal Impact. SUCK IT, TORONTO!
Rad-Can and Milano win the race for breaking news, having the result up within minutes (seconds?) of the game ending.
CBC Television is also replaying the game at midnight.
Blainville’s Wozniak wins Bank of the West Classic tennis tournament.
Yeah, it’s a Tier II tournament, but it’s still a title.
UPDATE (July 22): Oh well.
Anyone want to provide a home for a junior hockey player for $100 a week?
La Presse unveiled its Beijing Olympics blog, noting that it’s sending a team of reporters, including columnist Pierre Foglia, to China next month. (Ten years ago, a newspaper sending reporters to the Olympics wouldn’t be news, but with the industry suffocating and cutting back, every plane ticket and hotel room has to be justified as a Newspaper Reporting Event.)
The Star, meanwhile, is putting links to its Olympics website on every page, including a logo next to its flag. Sadly, the website from Canada’s largest newspaper has about the same design finesse you’d expect from a YMCA bulletin board.
The Gazette’s Dave Stubbs, meanwhile, is still milking the Chinese news sources for weird stories relating to the Games on his Five-Ring Circus blog, which contrasts with Canwest’s matter-of-fact topic page.
The Globe and Mail hilariously has its Olympics coverage in a section called “Others“. Their Olympics blog is better, at least, though I’m not sure what “Wb” stands for in the URL.
The best Canadian Olympics news website unsurprisingly goes to the CBC, which not only has a general Olympics website, but has separate related sites for each major sport at the Games, each filled with stories. These will be the last Olympics the CBC has broadcast rights for.
And for completeness sake, Quebecor’s Canoe portal has yawnable websites in French and English for the Games with stories from its newspapers and wire services.
But even that’s better than CTV’s Olympics website, which doesn’t exist. (CTV has rights to 2010 and beyond, so you’d think they’d take advantage of the opportunity to get some practice online)
With Canadiens development camp open to the public, we’re getting our first taste of amateur video of some of these new prospects, including 6′8″ goaltender Jason Missiaen, seen above looking like King Kong in front of the net.
Some skater shooting drill highlights, courtesy of a very dedicated fan:
UPDATE (July 14): Some video of the team drills, showing how even the young unproven players can totally pwn the rest of us at hockey.
The Bluffer’s Guide this week, courtesy once again of yours truly, is about NHL free agency, which began on July 1 as it does every year. Our beloved Canadiens got its star power-play quarterback snatched away, but have acquired a thug enforcer to toughen the team up.
Because NHL contracts are complicated, I figured some training might be useful for us less-than-insane fans and well-wishers. In order to do that, of course, I had to read the collective agreement that was signed in 2005 after the lockout.
Unfortunately, I failed to realize that the agreement is over 450 pages long (PDF).
Didn’t get a lot of sleep that night. And I’m sure I still got a bunch of things wrong.
Not that I’m worried. If I fail at journalism here, I can always sign in Russia, right?
As the NHL free-agency period began yesterday, and players’ contracts expired allowing any team to sign deals with them, some pretty wacky numbers started to appear:
And yet, someone is going to make more next year than all of these people put together: Rush Limbaugh. And that’s not even including his $100 million signing bonus.
The Boston Celtics are one win away today from winning the NBA championship. The Boston Red Sox lead the AL East and trail only the Chicago Cubs in number of … wait, what? The Cubs? Really? The Cubs? You sure it’s not the White Sox? The Chicago Cubs? Best in the entire league right now? Wow. OK. Wow.
Anyway, add to that the Boston-based New England Patriots went 18-0 last season before fucking it up in the Super Bowl, and it’s a pretty sweet time to be a Boston sports fan.
Unless of course, you like hockey.
And this is a perfect excuse to bring back my favourite Ryan Parker song. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you haven’t read this blog enough.
Enjoy.
After being dead, then maybe-not-dead, then absolutely positively dead (as I tried to explain previously), the Hockey Night in Canada theme is once again maybe-there’s-hope, as the CBC brings in a lawyer to maybe hammer out a new deal.
It shows, I think, that the CBC vastly underestimated people’s connection with the song, and wants to do everything it can to save it.
UPDATE: Looks like it’s closer to dead again. CBC negotiators aren’t very optimistic.
UPDATE: CTV has just announced it secured rights to the song and plans to use it on TSN (and RDS). Wow.
UPDATE (June 12): Thank you Stephen Colbert. (CTV owns the Canadian rights to the Colbert Report through the CTV and Comedy networks, so he’s actually being half-serious about licensing the song.)
I know Getty Images likes to … play … with its photos to enrich their colour (make the Red Wings’ red uniforms look like they’re almost glowing).
But this photo by Bruce Bennett really takes the cake.
Unless Dallas Drake really did get his teeth ultra-whitened before lifting the Stanley Cup. (And Johan Franzen really is a vampire.)
TSN and the NHL have reached a contract extension through 2014, which provides the network with 70 regular-season games, of which 15 involve the Canadiens. That puts us second behind the Leafs (no surprise there). The remaining Canadian teams get 10 games each. (We’re assuming, of course, that there will be some overlap as the teams face each other)
The deal also opens a (slight) possibility of TSN covering a Canadian team during the playoffs. Basically if all three teams in one conference (Leafs/Sens/Habs or Oilers/Flames/Canucks) make it three teams make it to the playoffs, the CBC will pick two and TSN will get the third. If it’s four, CBC gets the fourth pick, then TSN, then CBC, then the last two go to TSN. Previously, CBC had rights to all playoff games involving Canadian teams, as well as the entire Stanley Cup final.
The Globe has details (thanks Josh)
The deal also gives TSN “broadband rights,” which might mean being able to watch some games online. But the media release doesn’t go into detail about that.
UPDATE: The NHL has also renewed its agreement with its “official beer sponsor” Bud Light, which will see crappy American beer marketed all across the league.
Among the sporting matches you won’t be seeing tonight, Canada faces Brazil in a soccer match.
Even without three star players on Brazil’s side, the odds against Canada winning are 15:1.
Can someone say “inevitable slaughter”?
UPDATE: 3-2 Brazil. That’s pretty impressive, actually. Imagine if Brazil almost beat us in hockey.
Please folks, let’s not let this happen again.
Just as the St. John’s Telegram sings his praises (the article is reprinted in today’s Gazette), comes the unconfirmed-but-they’re-really-sure-about-it news from the Globe that the CBC is phasing out veteran play-by-play announcer Bob Cole. This will be his final Stanley Cup broadcast, though he’ll stay on for regular-season games next year.
Listening to tonight’s game, it’s hard to challenge the decision.
For those who haven’t heard it yet, the Great Canadiens Conference Quarterfinal Riot of 2008 has been immortalized in song, thanks to The Paul Brown Show on Edmonton’s The Bear.
Unfortunately.
Should we add it to the Habs song list, or just hope we can forget about it before next year?
No need to keep stealing car flags.
OK folks, this time they really need us. The Canadiens today sit on the brink of elimination. Down three games to one in the series, the team has to win three games in a row to survive in the playoffs. One loss in three games, and they’re going straight to the golf course.
Super Cauchon is doing his part, but that’s not enough. We all need to contribute.
To help warm up your fan muscles so you’re in top shape tonight, I’ve compiled some Habs-related songs from local radio stations. (Local radio stations being as useless as they are, hockey-related parody songs are one of the few things left that they can do pretty well).
I had a larger collection, but sadly most of them refer to a victory off the back of Cristobal Huet (or worse, José Theodore). So I had to scrap those.
Here’s what’s left, in no particular order:
Parody of The Monkees’ I’m a Believer
via Q92
by Annakin Slayd
samples Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’
via Q92
by Rick Hugues
via Radio Énergie
by Ruck Hugues with Dominic et Martin
via Radio Énergie
(UPDATE: thanks bebehabs for the link)
by France D’Amour
via Rythme FM
by Justiciers Masqués
by Justiciers Masqués
by Alain Dumas
via RockDétente
a parody of I will Follow Him, which in turn is the English translation of Petula Clark’s French song Chariot (you learn something every day)
by Daniel Iorio
via Team 990
by Christopher Pennington
via Team 990
via CKAC
via CKAC
Parody of Brown Eyed Girl
by Daniel Iorio
via Team 990
Parody of Celebration
by Bob Olivier and Sylvie Choquette
via Team 990
by Daniel Iorio
via Team 990
Parody of … well, isn’t it obvious?
by Speedhair
via Team 990
by Tag Radio
via 98.5fm
Any other suggestions? Or more detailed information on some of the songs linked to above? Let me know in the comments.
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