Oiler fans for years have complained, there is no trigger man for Hemsky. In the Ryan Smyth years Hemsky Horcoff and Smith were a decent and sometimes potent line. With the loss of a true trigger man or even someone who can stand in front of the goalie Hemsky has struggled to find success with his linemates.
It is not Hemsky’s fault it just is what it is. He is not going to be the guy that stirs the drink known as the Oilers offence. He could however go to the next level if he is partnered with a pure crash into them take no prisoners type of winger, who just happens to have soft, fast, hands.
Yes you guessed it, Taylor Hall is the man in question. Hall has an ability to see the game in a way Hemsky just seemingly cannot. Where Hemsky looks for the good pass or skillful dodge Hall seeks the net first other things later.
While having a good centre who can take and win face offs is important having you most skilled forward playing centre in the modern game can at times be a hindrance. Centres need to have a mentality to help on defence when trouble comes. Your Wayne Gretzky type of centre is not as helpful as your Mark Messier dirty areas type.
So having two skilled wingers with a gritty defence forward, Shawn Horcoff, at centre works for the most part. I actually think that Hall would slip right into the Ryan Smyth roll being able to bring the scoring touch from somewhere farther than your average 2 feet.
The other thing I think Hall brings is a brash sense of attitude and will to win is something that has been lacking on the Oilers for a while. Having your best forward being your most competitive, meaning he is willing to set the example not be a part of the crowd, is important to any team.
In my opinion Hall brings that and whole lot more. Tambellini for the Oilers sake and long term health of the team needs to bring in a sniper. Just call me a member of team Hall.
Tags: NHL Draft, Oilers, Taylor Hall
For centuries the records of history that we had taught us that the Angles and Saxons (along with the Jutes but nobody talks about them) Germanic tribes landed on what was then Brittania hired as mercenary help against the Picts of Scotland for the Romano British. The British made a fatal error however, fighting a war with enemy surrogates lead to the Saxons and Angles to decide that Roman Britain was a pretty nice place.
So they started a wholesale slaughter which only one murky name stopped briefly the onslaught but by 600 AD saw the “British” pushed back to Wales and Cornwall and northern England. While the Angles and Saxons repopulated the island’s rich farm lands creating (eventually) England. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Gildas, Roman Britain, Saxons
You live in a city, in your life you have always had plumbing, under floor heating and your days are spent at the shops buying the newest shiniest toy. The world is your oyster, you travel the boundaries looking for interesting sites and you enjoy food and clothing from around the world. Weapons are banned and you rely on the local police to enforce the peace. On top of all that you follow your local sports with passion and follow all the local gossip about some starlet and her sports hero boyfriend.
No you do not live in New York, maybe London, or more accurately Londinium. You are a Roman Britain living in a place in the future to be known as England. And in 410, according to tradition, you are about to meet your end of days, welcome to your apocalypse. 
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: History, Roman, Roman Britain
The St. Louis Rams have the first pick over all, this is the reward for being a crappy team all of last year. In fact other than avoiding the Lions winless season the only points that made me happy cheering for the Rams last season was when they “won” the draft.
If you watched the team at all, I had Sunday Ticket so I watched almost every painful minute… ok I forwarded through a half or ten while watching on my PVR, you found yourself noticing two things.
1. The offence was awful and it did not matter who was the quarterback. How Stephen Jackson got over 1000 yards I will never know.
2. The defense was worn down by the half way mark of most games because of point 1. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Bradford, Golden Tate, Jackson, Rams, Shurmur, St. Louis Rams
I am going to out myself, I admit that in my younger years I played Dungeons and Dragons quite a bit. There I said it, mock me if you must but that is the truth. In a fantasy world whenever you are out of money the characters go on a quest which brings them fame and fortune. When they run out of money they do it all again.
The real world of course does not work like that unless you are Donald Trump. Even lottery winners find that there is no road back if you fritter it all away. Yet the Alberta government under the Progressive Conservatives has done it, twice.
They are wielding a massive 4.7 billion dollar deficit like it is something to be only mildly annoyed with. Two years straight they will need to dip into the sustainability fund to cover their butts.
Now of course they are talking about taking 14 billion of this money and using it over the next two years to muffle the protests that they are free spenders. Of course when one looks at the budget at first blush there is a “so what” perception.
The problems start with the hiding of deficit amounts under the heading of capital costs. Let’s act like a bridge or a road or even a school or hospital could be considered a resalable asset. So it is really not a deficit to spend money on those things.
The government says they are increasing funding in health, yet they are making it more difficult for new doctors and nurses to enter the work force. Who will take advantage of all this “new” money in the system? Will it be Alberta grown doctors and nurses or some middle manager in the Alberta Health Services monolith?
The cuts to post secondary education and the removal of the graduate forgiveness of some of Alberta student loans are a knife in the back of students who are already facing tuition hikes. It is the government’s way of saying seniors and hockey moms vote, post secondary students do not. So no one cares if we screw with them.
The final point on this budget being made by some here, here and here is that the budget is a middle ground safe budget, in a way one could draw that conclusion after all the rhetoric. However, this government has always been long on rhetoric short on results. Nothing has changed here. Even their mild savings are chewed up by the increase to health.
After all the talk of being compassionate conservatives the Ed Stelmach Tories are not competent conservatives. I think we all understand that this budget is about polls not compassion. It will be interesting to see what the public response will be when everyone starts to realize that health increases do not mean other areas were saved. Of course the rosey view of resource revenues also will play a larger part in this discussion.
If the Tories are wrong on their optimism, if oil and gas continue to stay sluggish into 2011 does that mean we will face another shell game budget? If the deficits actually start to turn into debt then what will the Tories do? Whistle in the dark or choose between taxes or cuts?
My favourite moment in the budget address is when the Tories in unison chanted “no new taxes”. That is something that should be remembered all the way to the next election, which I suspect may come sooner than 2012 if the government is still headed for the red.
Tags: Alberta Budget, Alberta PC, Politics, Wildrose Alliance
I have been a Rams fan for about 30 years now. My long obsession started after watching the old Warren Beatty film Heaven Can Wait. I was hooked on the Los Angles Rams. It was something that continued through ups 
and downs and moves. Through three Super Bowls and last place finishes.
However, I have never really been excited about just one player. I liked Dickerson, I liked Willie “Flipper” Anderson and even Chris Everett (Mr. Brittle) barely registered beyond a do well front. Then along comes Kurt Warner. The guy who like so many of us just had a dream and some ability and just wants to play.
Kurt began his post college career as a walk on with Green Bay who did not stick. Then in the 1990s he played in Arena Football with the Iowa Barnstormers. There he seemed to do all the things a normal person does. Fall in love, work at a grocery store and live life while trying desperately to hang on to a dream.
Then finally in 1998 he was brought on board with an NFL team. The St. Louis Rams needed a backup, a cheap one, and Kurt fit the bill. He would be asked to go on a stint over to Europe for the Amsterdam Admirals. In all these teams he lead at his position. So the Rams may not have known what they had but it was already obvious the boy could play.
In 1999 as most NFL fans know he went from bag boy to NFL starter thanks to an unfortunate injury to Trent Green, the starter for the Rams that season. Dick Vermiel, head coach, had a tearful press conference in which he stated they would rally around their new starter Kurt Warner. That as they say is history.
Warner blasted NFL teams that year. He shocked the world winning the NFL MVP on his rookie season, coming at the late age of 28.
My first introduction to Mr. Warner came through a fantasy draft right at the start of the season. My sister-in-law needed a starting quarterback so I picked him up for her. Ha ha burned by my own generosity. Her team won both the regular season and pummeled me in the final of our playoffs.
Live and learn.
The Rams went on to win it all that year clinching the Superbowl during a period where I was in the UK and without a TV. Saddest day of my life was to know they won without me watching. And this guy Kurt was awesome.
The Superbowl game came down to the last second as the Tennessee Titans came within a yard from winning the game themselves. Kurt did not have a bad game in yards but this was not the high flying offense everyone expected.
However, Kurt was now without a doubt my favourite player. He did everything a fan could want. He was clean, honourable and won championships. In the NFL that can be something hard to come by. The Rams still did well for two more years as he once again won the MVP and in his third season brought the Rams back to the Superbowl in 2002. This time to play the “underdog” New England Patriots.
During the game Warner is hit, he takes a pounding because he is not mobile and so he injures his thumb and cannot hang on to the football. Even still he leads the Rams into the lead with less than two minutes left but his own defense collapses, Patriots become a “dynasty” Warner goes quickly from the Rams after another two seasons of injury and problems with holding on to the football.
Still in all this most of the problems appeared to be from the Rams end. I saw them giving up on a solid player because of injury and not allowing him to properly get back to his position. So they allow him to go the New York Giants. I am left with a decision I have never had before.
Do I follow the player or do I follow the team? Remember the Rams really had been only a somewhat middle of the road team before Warner. Without him they return to that position and worse yet fall flat into oblivion because they cannot replace him. So my loyalties were conflicted.
In the end the Warner to the NYG is a failure because they only wanted a place keeper not a leader. So off he goes to the Arizona Cardinals where he is also expected to be a place holder. In the mean time his thumb is healed finally, and importantly he changes how he delivers the ball by wearing gloves.
Yet considered a mentor and not a leader he is not allowed to develop even when he is obviously the best quarterback 
in Arizona. Still he does not complain, he preservers and pulls on eventually justifying my belief in him by becoming a starter once again.
Last year was for me a rebirth with the NFL finally my favourite found a home and he showed that he was big enough to win there. He took an even sadder franchise to almost the promise-land. Once again the defense could not make the stop after he had taken the lead.
Yet as he retires today I am sad for me and the Cardinals but not for him. I think he will have a great life. He will remain a model for people outside of sports and someone who people can point to and say “hero” about.
Kurt Warner was a good player but is a great person. He should be in the Hall of Fame and while I will miss him I am grateful for what he did for my team. His story is one of my favourites.
#13 have a nice life.
Tags: Arizona Cardinals, Kurt Warner, NFL, St. Louis Rams
Talk to the players who were in Brooklyn’s Dodgers moved to Los Angeles they do not talk about it as a great day. None of their all star greats wanted to go down as anything else as a Brooklyn Dodger if they spent most of the best part of their career their.
Yet for Andre Dawson and Gary Carter the only two Montreal Expos brought into the Hall of Fame they both wanted to be displayed as a Cub or Met respectively. They seem to perceive their time in Montreal as a way-station to a “real” team. Imagine if George Bell or Ernie Whitt wanted to go into the Hall as something than a Toronto Blue Jay. (just an example)
It is insulting to the Expos. Yes they are completely wiped from the history books in Washington, sadly they did not take any of the Montreal records with them. Still Montreal has a great baseball tradition. Just because some dumb or devious owners, stupid politicians and Major League Baseball could not honour that tradition does not make them somehow less worthy.
Keep in mind that Jackie Robinson first broke the professional baseball colour barrier not in Brooklyn but in their AAA affiliate the Montreal Royals. Baseball has had an important place in the history of the city. The big O was a huge mistake for a stadium. There is little doubt that it had a large effect on the death of the Expos as it did for the Montreal Alouettes.
Of course special mention must go to the 1994 lockout/strike which destroyed the last best chance for the Expos to compete for a World Series.
Given all that I find myself reflecting on the team, and baseball in Canada which has slowly started to disappate after the halcon days of the early nineties when both Canadian major league teams were top ranked, as well as the numbers of teams across Canada which played at various feeder levels.
I think the Justin Morneau’s of the MLB probably came out of that era.
I think Canada and MLB lost something with the loss of the Expos. It should not be ridiculed or treated as a joke. The Expos do not deserve that and Canadian baseball does not need that. I would much rather look at them like people in Winnipeg see the Jets or the people of Quebec City value the Nordiques.
Gone but not forgotten.
Tags: Dawson, Expos, Hall of Fame, MLB
over 100,000 Haitians live in Canada. One of them represents us as the Queen’s representative in Canada. For that reason, along with a few others I think the situation in Haiti means a lot to Canadians.
Often I have wished that Canada would take up a lead role in the Americas to build up nonthreatening relations with various countries across our American continents. To me it makes sense to use our position as the smaller guy to build up democratic and safer countries to the south of us. It is a self interest as well as an important thing to do. One, because it would be useful in our relations with the United States. Two it would allow us to concentrate on creating a more unified set of nations.
Haiti to me is now a perfect example of what we could do. This is some fancy dreaming I know but to me this is an opportunity to repair a failed state in a way that is totally different than many others.
I would call for Canada to take a protectorate roll. The idea being to help set up infrastructure, rebuild the buildings for the most part and change the way the country works. I would have bilingual or french speaking bureaucrats, soldiers, businessmen and farmers sent out to help rebuild.
I suspect an honest rebuild would cost a large fortune so obviously this would be difficult but if we headed a UN driven initiative to raise the financing for a portion it might make sense. To me this is similar to the way the US took on the rebuild of western Europe after WW2.
Second process:
I would build schools across the island. Once again import Canadian Francophones teachers in to help educate the country. One of the biggest things Papa Doc and Baby Doc did was to destroy the education system in Haiti. To me it is job one. Similar to what has been done in Afghanistan.
I would then offer scholarships to several universities in Canada to help them reach a better potential. Educated doctors, nurses and other key level people would be key to getting the country beyond the stone age.
As well I would build two technical colleges in Haiti first. I would also continue the process of making Haiti a tax haven and set up a Free Trade Agreement to establish a market for Haitian goods in Canada.
Then, probably after 10 years or so I would set up a referendum in the country on what form of government they want and on a constitution. With this aid and with continual support I think this would work well to get the country back to a level where they are not flattened by Hurricanes (better building materials and infrastructure) and where the state could stabilize.
After 10 more years or earlier if desired the country could have a referendum on removing protectorate status, going it alone , or becoming a full territory of Canada if they chose that angle. Personally I think they would do well at this point as a separate and free country.
To me this is where Canada can shine a beacon of light past the aid and emergency period to the hope period. Right now people just want to eat, and have their basic needs met. The rest will take time and demand a change in the way Haiti has worked and that can only be done by a mass influx of control. Even this means abandoning our commitment in Afghanistan completely I would like to see this done because of how chronic this situation is and how close it is to home for many Canadians.
Ok off my soft soap box for now.
I was first really introduced to steroids in 1985. A friend of mine at high school introduced to me the idea of taking them to get “big”. Personally I was more concerned about the side effects than I was about the positive growth aspects. So I never got past a discussion.
In 1988 I was reintroduced to them thanks to Ben Johnson, the sprinter for Canada who ballooned up using steroids to win the 100 metre dash. At first like many Canadians I thought it was a conspiracy. But that ended as commission after commission proved Johnson had taken an easy road to fame and fortune.
25 years later I am still dealing with my thoughts about the use of steroids and how they effect records and success in sports. Where people denied Johnson was on the “juice” in 1988 most now suggest you are guilty until proven innocent when it comes to steroids, human growth hormones and the like. Now a whiff of going to a weird doctor, quick recovery and or bulking up and people are immediately suspicious.
Steroids has killed many professional wrestlers, it still to this day causes huge problems for those organizations. Football as well has been and probably will always have to deal with it one way or another. But baseball has taken it to a whole new level.
Now we have an “era” of steroids. Calls have come from everywhere that Bonds home run records and McGwire and Sosa should be struck from the record book because they have tainted the game.
However in baseball, where records are sacrosanct, it may seem painful to admit it but all the records are tainted. Not just in steroids, but in the spitball era, the amphetamine era, the era of Negro leagues and so many others. We will never escape the judgment of history with baseball because all eras are problematic for different reasons. It may be that we will never truly be able to call the steroid era over and we may be forced eventually accept the statistics. We are no longer pure, no longer able to just say no.
If sports leagues are honest they must recognize that they cannot fully eliminate cheating with performance enhancers. They can really only limit it is with hardcore testing regimes. So they either must recognize steroids and accept the stats or set up testing at an Olympic level and wipe out all the steroid records for anyone caught or admitting to use.
The innocent days are gone now. This problem is here to stay and we have to live with it but how we accept it will determine how we move on.
Tags: Mark McGwire, MLB, Sports, steroids
