TrueBlue4ever

Just how long did you have this queued up? Still 2:30 left in game 7. 🤣

Thought it was 3 weeks for the Pfizer.

Not sure. If I recall, CBC gutted pretty much all of its sports coverage save for HNIC because it was not profitable for them. And CTV had been virtually sport absent. I am not talking about just televising a sport (yes CTV has the NFL) but rather their own broadcast productions. Not sure how much it costs to put together your own broadcast (cameras, directors, producers, on air talent) but I suspect the reason they pick up the NFL in part is that they only pay rights fees and do not have to worry about production costs. Now with hockey or the NFL, those production costs are offset by advertising rates for a massively popular product, but the CFL may not create a good enough return on the investment to dive into. But a 24 hour sports network is more in need of a tent pole program to build their brand, so they invest. Again, I don’t know the hard numbers so I am just spitballing here. Anyone with better insight?

From what I read, they slightly altered the lyrics, but the magic D word was intended to be “deuce”. It was a production problem in recording that slurred it and made it sound like a feminine hygiene product. When the producers said it need to be changed so as not to offend, they discovered that fixing the problem for that one word messed up the rest of the track entirely. So they opted to keep it in, and some band members acknowledged that the mini-controversy likely helped get it to become as popular as it was.

Actually saw him on VH1 Storytellers special talking about it. Said “So I write a song about street racing. Put in the lyric ‘Cut it up like a deuce, another runner hits the light’. Song goes nowhere on the charts. Manfred Mann comes along and sings ‘Wrapped up like a d0uche, another runner in the night’. Number 1 on the charts. Well, the people have spoken!”

But would anyone want to see a bidding war between TSN and Sportsnet for the CFL of the end result was a Sportsnet product that is as inferior as their NHL coverage is? Maybe so since this league needs the money badly, but not sure I would want a Sportsnet panel of Arash Masani, Jessy Ferguson, and Marty York covering the games.

Imagine how Bruce Springsteen felt hearing Manfred Mann’s re-wording of “Blinded by the Light”. 😱

Singer BJ Thomas Original version of “Hooked on a Feeling”, “Raindrops Keep Falling in my Head”, and the theme from Growing Pains! https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/29/entertainment/singer-bj-thomas-death/index.html

Leafs’ Twitter blowing up today. Marner needs to go. Blow up the team. Fire the coaches since the power play is too predictable. Looks eerily familiar to what swept through Jets land during the 7 game losing streak. Fans gonna fan.

More fun with numbers: The Jets 3 OT wins was the 32nd time in NHL history that a club has accomplished that feat in a single series. Only once in the prior 31 occurrences has a club lost despite 3 OT wins in a series (Philadelphia in 2020, who lost all 4 regulation games but won all 3 OT games). Of the other 30 times that a team has won a series with 3 OT wins or more, 4 have happened in the Stanley Cup Final. Of the remaining 26, 16 times that team has lost in the next round. and 5 more have ultimately gone on to win the Stanley Cup in a later round. 22 of the 31 times a club has gone 3-0 in OT in a series, 7 times 3-1, once 3-2, and Toronto in 1951 won the Stanley Cup 4-1 over Montreal with every game going to OT. The Jets are the 5th team ever to win 3 consecutive games in OT in one series (no team has ever 4 OT games in a row in one playoff year), and they are the 4th team to win 3 OT games as part of a sweep. Chicago in 1995 swept round 2 with 3 OT wins and lost in the next round, Detroit in 1997 won 3 in OT as part of a second round sweep and went on to win the Stanley Cup. The teams with 3 consecutive OT wins include the aforementioned 1951 Leafs in the Cup final, the 1993 Islanders in round one who would lose in round 3, and the 1994 Canucks in round 1 who would go all the way to the Cup final before losing. And there is only one other team that has ever won 3 consecutive OT games in one series as part of a sweep. In 1993 the Montreal Canadiens swept Buffalo in round 2, winning games 2-4 all in OT. They would then become the only team to ever win 3 OT games in a series twice in one playoff year when they beat the Kings in the Cup final by winning 3 in extra time. Again they did it in consecutive games, winning games 2-4 in OT after losing the opener, then clinching the Cup in game 5 in regulation.

Interesting stat. Since the onset of the four best-of-7 series (1987), a team that just completed a sweep is 30-30 in the next round, but has lost the last 6 times it occurred. And when a team that swept plays a team that won in 7 in the next round, the team that swept goes 4-7. They have lost the last 5 times in a row going back to 2001.

17 more admitted to the ICU in the last 24 hours. At least 20 have been shipped out to Regina, Thunder Bay and Ottawa.

Not too surprising. Lalji and Dave Naylor were driving the bus for the XFL expansion from a media standpoint by all appearances, so he would be supportive of a commish pushing that agenda.

I don’t know how anyone could expect more concrete plans from the league with all the uncertainty surrounding every other aspect of life in each province right now. Target date is still August 5. By mid-July of training camps show no sign of opening then we may have an idea that things are being pushed back. And as always, dependent on Health Canada, not what the league decides to announce or not announce.

If the Leafs closed it out Saturday, it would not surprise me to see them start Monday to keep up with the other 3 divisions, then play Wednesday and force a back-to-back again Friday and Saturday in Winnipeg to get them on HNIC. Unless the powers that be see that as too taxing on Toronto, in which case they will have a 2 day break and jump right to Saturday. The first 2 US series can start on Sunday if the league wanted to.

So we are seeing the numbers in US arenas climbing, and even Montreal has said they could put 2,500 in the Bell Centre in the next round if they get that far. I know the Bombers have developed a partially filled stadium protocol that is supposedly acceptable once a league-wide return to play model is approved. New York has its arena divided into vaccinated (full) and non-vaccinated (socially distanced) sections last night. All this to ask the question: should the Province allow fans to attend Jets’ games in person if they have been vaccinated (and can offer proof) or should we wait until all restrictions are lifted?

Not sure I’d want to ride the ride there anyway, even if I met the height requirement.

They will want the Leafs playing every Saturday on HNIC, so I could see them pushing them to play this weekend if they finish off the Habs tomorrow. The Colorado/Vegas-Minny series likely starts Sunday, as would Boston/Pit-NYI. The other two could go Monday unless the Leafs get stretched to 7, but then we would see a 3 day gap to get Toronto-Montreal/Winnipeg on the Saturday cycle. I am happy to see us get any extra rest we can.

If the Leafs win Thursday, does the league start the series Saturday night, or have they already decided that it will start as late as Wednesday already planning around a max series?

We saw a bit of the opposite attitude in 2019. When I heard that the Ticats were practicing indoors for that week in Calgary and the Bombers were outside, that was my first inkling that we would be more ready to play. Then I heard that the Ticats were actually practicing the victory formation in each session, and I became more and more convinced that we were going to take out the 15-3 juggernaut. That no-nonsense style was like the days under Cal Murphy. Chris Walby talked about training camp under him - one day it was pouring rain and the players were all relieved because it meant a break from two-a-days and only film session. Cal walks into the dressing room and barks “why isn’t anyone suited up? On the field in 5 minutes.” Everyone is pissed off, but drag themselves out there. Then Cal marches out in his cap and golf shirt, no rain jacket, and runs a full practice getting soaked to the bone. Afterwards he pulls the team together on the field still in the rain and essentially says “we are going to play games this year in all sorts of weather - rain, snow, wind - so why would you expect that we won’t practice in those conditions to be ready when it comes? Because other teams won’t be ready for it.” Come the November playoffs, and the Bomber o-line is playing in short sleeves in sub-zero weather and their opponents are huddled by the heaters, and Walby says the team knew before the first snap that they had the game won. Because Cal would not allow them to take any short cuts and gave them that championship mentality.

Me three. I heard that Robert Pattinson was quoted as saying he did not understand the movie as he was doing his scenes, and Nolan himself has been quoted as saying “I don’t care if people don’t understand my movies”. So if the director is more concerned about doing cool effects than telling a coherent story, probably not worth your time. Final thought - one reviewer said of Tenet “We can now say that Interstellar is no longer Nolan’s worst film”.

Knowing some of the fans on the site, forgiveness will only last until they are behind in a future game. Then the wolves will be at the door again. Don’t believe me? Re-read the posts in the first 3 pages of the game 3 thread, or check out the first few pages of the 2019 west semi final thread in the Blue Bomber discussion page. Whoever called this fan base bi-polar nailed it. Any adversity our teams face and some will see it as a much larger systemic issue that requires an overhaul/blow it up/mass firings.

Fun facts: - Jets tie an NHL record with 3 consecutive OT wins in one series - Connor Hellebuyck made 28 saves on 28 shots in OT in the series - Edmonton led for 48:11 and trailed for 0:00 in games 2 and 3 and lost both. Tonight they led for 9:24 and trailed for 9:06. - Draisaitl led the Oilers with 2G 3A 5P. McDavid was 1-3-4. They were a combined -4. Scheifele and Wheeler each went 2-3-5, and Connor 2-2-4. That line was a combined +7. Guess they figured out how to defend the best 2 players in the league.

Should the Jets roll out their 4th line now? Lewis and Thompson have not played in 2 periods and at least would be fresh.

Even more free hockey.