You know, I’ve always thought “Molson Centre” sounded better than “Bell Centre” anyway.
Sorry PKP.
Now I gotta go put together a sports section. I wonder what the main story is going to be.
Category Archives: Sports
Aleksandra the great
Aleksandra Wozniak: Awesome
A little hometownprovince pride for Blainville’s Aleksandra Wozniak. A day after posting a huge upset to the No. 5 women’s tennis player in the world (who had just come from a Roland Garros championship), she took down another higher-ranked player today at an England tournament and is in the quarterfinals.
Canada’s male star in the tournament also advanced to the quarterfinals. Just imagine if they both won a title…
UPDATE (June 18): They win again! Off to the semifinals.
UPDATE (June 19): Wozniak loses to Wozniacki (again), but Dancevic is in the final.
What’s black and white while red’s all over?
Congrats, kids. You surprised everyone. Now go buy the DVD.
Red Wings merch is 20% off. That’s gotta hurt.
If you’re still in denial, feel free to order a Detroit Red Wings 2009 Stanley Cup Champions souvenir puck, or baseball cap, or T-shirt (also in red), or shot glass, or flag, or mouse pad, or license plate…
RadCan to air Quebec university football games
For those who think Radio-Canada hasn’t been doing enough to fulfill its mandate as a broadcaster of sports since the last Soirée du Hockey, the Queen’s network has announced that it will air live telecasts of Quebec University Football League games, including the annual Shaughnessy Cup matchup between the McGill Redmen and Concordia Stingers, and playoff games including the national Vanier Cup championship game.
Last year, these games aired on RDS.
The schedule includes two other games involving Concordia University, but no others involving McGill.
Which is as it should be because the Redmen suck.
Go Stingers!
National Post explores HNIC production trailer
Hockey Night in Canada production trailer graphic from the National Post
The National Post’s Graeme Hamilton has a feature piece on the behind-the-scenes technical production of a Hockey Night in Canada broadcast. It focuses on what happens inside the high-definition trailer (specifically, the rapid change of camera angles and the rush to get instant replays on air).
It includes the graphic above, which looks at the layout of the trailer and the positioning of the dozens of cameras in a given arena.
So … Habs in nine?
Maybe next century.
Oh, and you guys can get up now.
Natinals
Just when you thought the ex-Expos couldn’t embarrass themselves further, quickly grabbing the worst record in baseball by losing their first seven games of the season (and 10 of 11), they made themselves into even more of a laughing stock by misspelling their own name.
I’d laugh if it wasn’t so sad.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before
So a singer, a philanthropist and a media magnate walk into a banker’s office…
Though scarier than the thought of Céline Dion being the permanent national anthem singer or the Journal de Montréal getting exclusives on everything related to the Canadiens is this:
This trio of potential buyers is said to be contemplating a dedicated pay-TV channel in Quebec that would carry Habs games and other hockey-related content as one way to increase revenues from the team.
It’s just an idea, but it’s an idea that would be devastating to RDS.
RDS, check your standings
Sportnographe spots that RDS’s Canadiens page doesn’t have Montreal in the playoffs. (Montreal and Florida had identical records, but the tiebreaker is points against each other, and the Canadiens prevailed there 6-3 with two wins, a loss and an OT win)
Anyway, Habs in four, right?
Your 2009 Habs playlist
UPDATE: See the 2010 version here.
Since people seemed to appreciate last year’s list, here’s some Habs songs, most courtesy of your local radio stations, to get you in the mood as you prepare for the Habs-Bruins series which starts on Thursday.
And if public sentiment is any indication, our team is going to need all the help it can get. This time they’re No. 1 and we’re No. 8, we’re the ones plagued with injuries and will face each playoff round with the other team having home ice advantage.
In compiling this year’s list, I noticed quite a different tone from last year. In April 2008, the Canadiens were expected to finish out of the playoffs but surprised everyone with their strong season and first-place finish in the East. This year, the expectations were high (especially with the centennial) but a post-All-Star meltdown nearly put the Canadiens out of the playoffs. Some of the songs below reflect that.
I’ll start us off with Annakin Slayd, who produced a very popular video last year. This time he’s back with a French version, which thankfully removes obscures the Journey sample and adds a reference to Alex Tanguay to show it’s current. The production values (thanks to Aviva) are also noticeably better. But the song – and its magic – are still essentially the same.
A similar list is compiled on the Bébé Habs blog, though I’m doing my best below to respect copyright. Links to MP3s are on radio station or artist websites and YouTube links are to official videos only. Please let me know if I screwed up somewhere there or if there’s an iTunes link I should add.
Go Habs Go.
Est-ce que tu vois, toi aussi?
I’ve always been (easily) impressed with the Justiciers’ song parodies (well, most of them anyway), but this one taking on 1000 coeurs debout, the theme for Star Académie (99¢ download, of which I better get a cut for that link), is particularly good. It’s actually the second version, done after the Canadiens’ two-and-a-half-game winning streak forced everyone to jump back on the bandwagon. The first version was much more cynical about the team (the week before, the Justiciers were even more cynical).
You can see more Justiciers videos on their website or directly on their YouTube channel.
Impact broadcast schedule same as last year
The broadcast schedule for this year’s Impact games has come out, and it’s exactly the same as last year:
- Radio-Canada will broadcast nine home games and one away game, as well as all playoff games
- CKAC and the Team 990 will broadcast all 15 home games, two Canadian Championship games at Saputo Stadium (against the Vancouver Whitecaps and Toronto FC) as well as all playoff games
Both press releases talk about how the Impact has become more mainstream in Montreal and has attracted a lot of fans, especially thanks to its CONCACAF Champions League run this year.
But the news is still disappointing to me. None of the broadcasters has increased its commitment, and none of them will be broadcasting regular-season away games (besides the one on RadCan). Choosing only to broadcast home games during the regular season no doubt saves a lot of money, but it sounds pretty half-assed.
So for another season, Impact fans who want to catch away games will be forced to fork over money watch it online for free at USLLive.com
Go Stars!
In case you haven’t heard already, Montreal won the Cup.
That other hockey team? I don’t wanna talk about it.
Guy! Guy! Guy! Bye! Bye! Bye!
For those wondering, RDS had the scoop (and more importantly, the Twitter scoop) on Bob Gainey firing Canadiens coach Guy Carbonneau. They’ve cut scheduled programming of extreme winter sports on RDS and replaced it with a feed from its RIS all-sports-news network. A press conference is scheduled for 7pm.
Both RDS.ca and The Gazette’s Habs Inside/Out website are experiencing unusually high loads and are noticeably slow.
Deep Impact
They were up 4-1 after 135 minutes. Club Santos Laguna needed four goals in 45 minutes. Hard, but not impossible. The CBC analyst said it was probably not going to happen.
It was 4-2 with 20 minutes to go. Three goals in 20 minutes is extremely unlikely, but miracles do happen.
It was 4-3 with only a few minutes of added time left before the whistle. This game was over with a goal to spare (under the tie-breaking rules, they would have lost had it ended 4-4). The guy on Radio-Canada talked about people getting tickets for the next game at the Olympic Stadium, about how great it is that a Montreal-based soccer team would enter the CONCACAF Champions League final four.
And then, the meltdown. Choke. Of. The. Century. Humiliation.
I’m still proud of my team. They beat out Vancouver and Toronto FC to become the Canadian champion, and then slowly rose through to reach the quarterfinals, beating everyone’s expectations. I don’t regret buying my blue T-shirt at last week’s game, and I’ll cheer for the team during the upcoming USL season.
But what an awful way to end that run.
At least I know my disappointment is small compared to the heartbreak of the players who let it happen.