All-star report on the Canadian teams in the Western conference

Vancouver Canucks

Offense A - The Sedins brothers are top 10 in scoring with Henrik (eighth 52 points) and Daniel (tenth with 51 points) but of course it will come down to secondary scoring with Ryan Kesler (33 points) and Alex borrows (32 points) will need to continue put up goals especially in the playoffs. Then there are the grinders Cody Hodgson and Chris Higgins who can pop in a goal here or there to help the team succeed heading into the playoffs.

Defense B+ - the Canuacks has given up 118 goals in 49 games which is the 2.41 GAA a game which is the seventh lowest in the NHL and the defenseman has put up 116 points (25 goals and 91 assists) lead by Alexander Edler who has 34 points (7 goals and 27 assists) from the back end.

Goalies B- - Both Goalies are solid with Roberto Luongo with a GAA of 2.39 and saving% .918 with 20 wins and 4 OTL in 34 decisions and Cory Schneider with a GAA of 2.30 and saving% of .927 and has 10 wins in 15 decisions with both having two shutouts each. The end result is that one of them needs to do the heavy lifting in the playoffs and help the Canucks to lift the holy grail at the end of the season.

Management ? - it all depends if they make a deal at the deadline that helps them achieve the ultimate goal lifting the cup.

Calgary Flames

Offense C - Jerome started cold and picked it up and the only way that the Flames get into the playoffs is if Mike Cammalleri can be a good fit with Jerome. While Curtis Glencross has 18 goals to tie Jerome for the team lead and Flames are tied for sixth worst in the NHL in goals with 119 goals this season and they are very very old and do not look like they are going to get younger soon.

Defense C- - The Flames have given up the 14th fewest goals with 134 and have 70 points from their back end in 50 games and their point getting D-man Jay Bouwmeester has 3 goals and 21 points and needs to be much better.

Goalie B - they are 11th in the Western conference 3 points out of the playoffs and Miikka Kiprusoff has got the team points in 25 of 41 decisions and 22 wins along with a GAA of 2.31 and saving% of .920 and given up 96 of the 134 goals in his 43 games.

Management F - They continue to get older and older and they are picking up huge contracts for players like Mike Cammalleri whose 7 mil cap hit can not be moved if he fails to help Jerome for the two years remaining and they are still up in the air on if it is better to move any older players to get young or keep them and ride it out on trying to sneak into the playoffs and hope Mikka gets even hotter.

Edmonton Oilers

Offense D - with Ryan Smyth the only guy over the age of 21 performing to a decent performance as he has 34 points and part of the reason he has put up points is that he has sent time with Jordan Eberle (45 points), Taylor Hall (33 points), and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (35 points). Which leaves the rest of the team out in the cold and not able to put points together on their own and the Oilers need to get more veteran players who can score to help the younger players send this team to the playoffs.

Defense D - The D has lead to 140 goals against which 19th in the league and the D has 67 points this season and 16 of them coming from Corey Potter who is also minus 13 which is by far the worst on the team and they will need stronger puck moving D to help the goalies.

Goalies C- - Nikolai Khabibulin started the season well gaining a point for the team in his first 9 starts (7-0-2) and since then is 4-15-2 and the Oilers will need to see if Devan Dubnyk is the goalie going forward (2.83 and .911 in 24 games) or if they make a pitch for a guy like Cory Schneider in the off-season.

Management B- - Everybody is on the last year of their deal and it looks like there maybe a house cleaning from GM down to the assistant coaches and it will be interesting who of the underachieving performers will be sent out of town for a young player or even more draft picks to build the system. A change maybe what takes the team to the next step and stop getting top 3 picks and get into the playoff picture next season or the season after because it is time to take the next step.

All-star report cards for the Eastern Conference Canadian teams

Toronto Maple Leafs

the Offense B+ - Kessell and Lupul are both in the top 10 in the NHL scoring with Joffrey Lupul sixth with 52 points and Phil Kessel tied for eighth with 51 points and it would be better if the secondary scoring being more productive after the all-star break especially Mikhail Grabovski who has 17 points in his last 14 games.

The Defense B- - The Leafs are sixth worst goals against with 149 goals and the penalty kill was the worst by along shot going into the year 2012 and since then they are 16/16 in January on the penalty kill while the Leafs defense has 110 points (19 goals and 91 assists) this season.

Goalies C- - it has been hit and miss all season with James Reimer started well with 4-0-1 in his first five games before his concussion with 13 goals given up and a 2.50 GAA with a .913 save% and a shutout while in January Jonas Gustavsson is 7 and 3 with 3 and almost 4 shutouts along with GAA of 1.90 and save% of .932 but the rest of the season have been misses.

Management D - Burke and Wilson talk like they know everything and everybody else knows nothing and are basically putting themselves in the HOF already when only Burke has a ring because of trickery and Wilson has never finished the job anywhere not even close.

Ottawa Senators

Offense B - Jason Spezza (10th in the league in points), Erik Karlsson (leads all defenceman in scoring) , and Milan Michalek (before his concussion) have had a career pre all star season and all were in the all-star game and are part of the reason that the Sens are way better than expected this season while the pickup of Kyle Turris motivated the team.

Defense B - They gave up 52 goals in 12 October for a GAA of 4.33 and since than 108 in 40 games for a 2.70 GAA while Erik Karlsson has 47 points in 51 games which is second on the team in points to Spezza while Sergei Gonchar has 16 points in 45 games and they have 123 points (18 goals and 105 assists).

Goalies A- - Craig Anderson until the three games before the all-star game which were all loses he had a string of a point in 11 of 12 games where he gave up more than 2 goals only twice in that stretch and has had a 5 game win streak and 3 game win streak this season as well. Even after a horrible start he still has a .910 save% and a GAA of 2.70 and is 24-14-4 since his first 5 starts where he was pulled twice and gave up 22 goals.

Management B - Bryan Murray has turned little into a lot with his wheeling and dealing with trades like Craig Anderson from Colorado for Brain Elliot who is shining in St. Louis, Kyle Turris from Phoenix for David Rundblad (played two games for the Coyotes) and a second round draft pick and then there is Milian Michalek who was traded for Danny Heatley who was not able to do what the Sharks got him for which was to help the very talented Sharks into the Stanley Cup finals and is now wilting away in Minnesota. While Paul MacLean has turned this team from a laughing stock at the beginning of the season to a playoff team looking separation from the bottom pack.

Montreal Canadiens

Offense C- - They have four players with at least 30 points with Erik Cole (39 points and 19 goals) leading followed by Max Pacioretty (17 goals) and David Desharnais (9 goals) with 35 each and then Tomas Plekanec with 33 points (10 goals). The Canadiens with 129 goals are scoring more are still scoring 2.6 goals a game and are have squeaked into the top half of the NHL in goals with Scott Gomez with no goals in almost a calender year and he is making over a million dollars an assist with 7 assists and he is making 7.5 million dollars.

Defense C - The Montreal defense whipping boy P.K. Subban is even plus minus and has 19 points to lead the defense that have youngest in P.K. and Yannick Weber and then two over 30-years-old veteran players in Hal Gill and Tomas Kaberle who are minus 10 and 9 respectively while nobody else has lower than minus 3 while Josh Gorges is a plus 10.

Management FFFFFFFFF - The organization which used to be the staple of greatness is now the butt of everybody's joke with the Gomez trade, anything P.K. Subban (he is only 22 years old), Mike Camilleri trade where he taken off the bench during a game (did not come out for the period) and not told what was going on, and then hiring Randy Cunneyworth and immediately throwing his under a 200 pound avalanche and the intern is just that he is out as soon as Patrick Roy signs a contract.

Winnipeg Jets

Offense D - Evander Kane with 18 goals and 31 points needs to be the leader and scoring in bunches and the surprises of Blake Wheeler, Kyle Wellwood, and even Nik Antropov is nice but to have also Andrew Ladd your captain having 25 points in 50 games is unacceptable. It is also tough when your scoring at home with Kane with 18 of 31 points at home and Ladd 14 of his 25 at home while Wheeler has 19 of his 33 @ home, Wellwood 18 of his 30 @ home, and Niki 15 of his 26 @ home.

Defense C - Dustin Byfuglien has been on the ice for too many even strength goals as he is a minus 8 in only 35 games but does have 24 points in those 35 games while Tobias Enstrom has 19 points in 30 games so the Jets have lost a lot of man games on D as 8 players has played more than 20 games this season.

Goalie B - With everything changing it is not surprising that Ondrej Pavelec has faced 30 shots a game but still has 3 shutouts this season and carried the Jets to 6 extra points just by getting them to overtime and has 2.84 GAA and .909 Save% for a team not set yet.

Goalies B - If it was not for Carey Price the Canadiens would be even worse situation as his goaltending has gotten them a point 8 times this season as he has helped them to overtime and that is with no 20 goal scorers yet in 49 games and his 2.47 is good and his .914 save% is solid as he has faced the 8th most shots in the league with 1,185 and saves with 1,083.

Management ? - With the move they basically still have the Atlanta Thashers and it will be interesting to see what they do in the off-season with some extra cash and see if they can get a solid defenseman to help cut down on the shots and a good scorer to go along side Ladd and Kane.

The Leafs and Sens might both make the playoffs

Tom Mehegan

Kharma returned and Sheamus wins the Royal Rumble

In the silver anniversary of the Royal Rumble there were some surprises like Randy Orton, the Big Show, Jim Dungan, Road Dogg, and The Great Khali and then there were SURPRISES like Alex Riley and the annouce team of Booker, King, and Cole all in the match. Then there were surprises of Ricardo Rodriguez to Alberto Del Rio's music and coming out in a car and he got huge pop and eliminated Justin Gabriel with help from Mick Folly but the biggest surprise of the night went to Kharma who eliminated Hunico and had Michael Cole Eliminate himself because of her. The shortest was Epico who lasted like 15 seconds and Cody Rhoades with Dusty at ringside lasted the second longest and eliminated the most in 5 and The Miz lasted the longest with over 45 minutes with Cody and Miz both being eliminated immediately when the Big Show came in at 30 and at the same time while Kofi got the John Morrison by doing a hand stand to the stairs. The final four were Big Show, Y2J (29), Orton (28), and Sheamus (22) and it came down to Sheamus and Y2J and if McMahon would be scared by the marks who said it must be Y2J and he was as Sheamus surprised everyone and won the Rumble and will most likely will fight Daniel Bryant @ WrestleMania 28.

The undercard was just to move along story lines as in a bonus match was Brodus Clay continuing Drew McIntyre losing streak and it was a very quick match. Daniel Bryant won the cage match with Henry not a factor and it ended with Big Show having Bryant's neck in his hand as Big Show sat on the top of the cage and Bryant was danging outside of the cage and Bryant got loose and fell to the floor so squirmy heel Bryant kept the title. Kane and Cena were both counted out and fought to the back where it was shown just before the match where Zach Ryder dressing room and after Kane took out Cena he pushed Ryder in his wheelchair with his neck brace on and took him out to the ring and dumped him on the ramp and hurt him again. The 8 diva match ended with Beth Phoenix slapping one of the Bellas and came into the ring glamslamed Kelly Kelly for the win and ignored the rest of her team to setup her going solo against Kharama.

Then it was CM Punk and Swagger with Johnny Ace as Ref but Johnny decided to be an outside enforcer and sent Vicki back to the locker room at the beginning of the match and Swagger hit and knocked out the Ref. Ace did not want to get into the ring and decided to relived the ref while Punk pinned Swagger 3 times for a three count and Punk doing the GTS hit Ace with Swagger and then when it was time for the finish the Ref started to count the three and Ace came in to finish the count to continue him trying to get in the boys favor going into his review tomorrow night.

It was a not so exciting Royal Rumble as there was no real stand out event in the under card and Y2J would of been a better choice as Rumble winner

Tom Mehegan

Sidney Crosby situation is complicated

So Sidney Crosby on the biggest stage in the US which is the Winter Classic of 2010 could of possible had his NHL career ended with a concussion even if the NHL do not want to admit as they want to believe it happened in the next game on January 5th.

Now the whole gotten even more complicated after his visit to Dr. Robert S. Bray who is a neurological spine specialist based in Los Angeles who has diagnosed Sidney with a neck injury as a MRI performed in Utah has shown an abnormality with his C1 and C2 vertebrae which people are hoping to help figure out how to get Crosby back to health. The next step in the process is to have the MRI examined by a third party as soon as Monday and we will know then where the Crosby situation is at and then it will be up to Crosby's neck to heal and then he will know what symptoms that remain if any will be because of the concussion that he suffered on New Years Day 2010.

Sidney still is hoping to be back before the playoffs and the reality is that the earliest he will return is at the beginning of the 2012-13 season in October and that is simply the best case scenario. The reality is that Crosby maybe the next Eric Lindros or Pat LaFontaine who will play sparingly the rest of his career and the incident that created this situation happened the game after he had his 25 game point steak (26 g - 24 a - 50 p) ended by the Islanders which was the longest streak since Matt Sundin's 30 game streak in '93.

Lets hope he gets back to where he once was but the past examples are not very possitive

Tom Mehegan

Logan Couture last pick in the All-star game fantasy draft

So it came down to Jamie Benn and Logan Couture with team Chara and Chara picked Jamie Benn who just had an appendectomy done recently and that is why Logan Couture was the 22-year-old left @ the end of the draft and got the big key and 20,000 dollars for a charity of his choice.

The highlights of the draft for Chara allowed Joffrey Lupul to make a lot of the team announcements and he got booed and went with it and team Chara choose all the Leafs, the Bruins, and the Slovakian players while they choose Shea Weber of the Nashville Predators.

The highlights for team Alfredsson choose all Swedish players, Vancouver Canucks, and Ottawa Senators and Milan Michalek got a huge hand. They also choose Ryan Suter which split up the dynamite duo of the Nashville Predators while assistant captain Henrik Lundqvist will be facing his sniper Marian Gaborik who went the wrong way and almost sat with Lundqvist's team which made everybody laughing.

Tyler Seguin was one of the final four and when Chara choose him they hugged it out and Tyler and Phil Kessel will be on the same team which is interesting because they will allows be linked together as Tyler was one of the draft picks the Leafs gave the Bruins for Phil Kessel and hopefully they will be put together even though they both play right wing. Henrik Sedin comment when asked he liked being on the opposite team as his brother Daniel last season and he said at least last year he played with talented players.

It maybe a good game on Sunday

Tom Mehegan

Tigers get their Prince and the Giants give Lincecum a giant two-year deal

Prince Fielder is a Detroit Tiger for the next 9 seasons at a price tag of 214 million dollars and he will be a beast in the middle of the lineup with Miguel Cabrera and will be a great one-two punch especially if Cabrera stays on the non-drinking track. So Prince will be playing for the same team that his father Cecil played for and had his most productive seasons hitting 51 homers in his first season and 44 homers in his second season as a Tigers and the two Fielders are not on speaking terms right now.

With the Tigers getting the Prince they are going to be the odds on favorite to win the AL Central as the Chicago White Soxs, Cleveland Indians, Minnesota Twins, Kansas City Royals are a couple of steps behind the Tigers and they may run away from the rest of the division.

In the other news Tim Lincecum has been resigned by the Giants for two years and 40.5 million dollars so the Giants may have a bounce back season with their two-time CY Young award winning Ace on the mound every five days.

The gap between the haves and haves not gets even bigger

Tom Mehegan

28 Anniversary of Rock n' Wrestling

Hulk Hogan 28 years ago today beat the Iron Sheik @ madison square garden on January 23,1984 and it began Rock n' Wrestling which lead to the beginning of the franchise of WrestleMania and Hogan did not even have his infamous real american theme song yet. Hulk Hogan after the 5:20 squash match against the Iron Sheik where Sheik got a Boston Crab and Camel clutch on Hogan who muscled out of both big Iron Sheik moves and Hogan control the rest of the match he ended up keeping the title for four years plus with the title. In that time WWF started doing wrestling on MTV and PPV of Wrestle Mania and the first Survivor Series that killed the NWA as Vince McMahon said to the cable companies that they could only show the first Survivor Series and not Starcade '87 that were both on November 26, 1987 and if they did not choose his then they would not get Wrestle Mania IV and almost all Cable companies choose to carry only the Survivor Series which lost lots of money for NWA's Starcade '87. The first Royal Rumble just happened on January 24, 1988 which happen just before February 5, 1988 when Hulk Hogan lost the title to Andre the giant and the first Summerslam was in place for August of 1988 and the WWF/WWE franchise was in place for years to come.

The side story is that the Iron Sheik only had a month with the title because Bob Backlund who held the title from 1978 - December 26, 1983 and he lost the title to the Iron Sheik because Backlund did not want to lay down for the Hulkster.

Hulk Hogan used to a fan favorite for years and now he just is annoying

Tom Mehegan

Sarah Burke's medical bills paid off

It is heartwarming to hear that after the issue of her medical bills which was around 200,000 dollars and then when the request for donations happened almost immediately the medical bills were paid off and now there will be a charity setup in her name which is simply amazing.

It was a very horrible day on Thursday when the news broke that freestyle skier Sarah Burke had passed away after her crash during practice last Wednesday in Utah when one of the arteries sending blood and oxygen to the brain was ruptured. It was supposed to be all about her two years from now at the Olympics in Sochi city, Russia where her half pipe event is going to be put in the Winter Olympics and she was the spoke person for that cause.

In closing it was sad that none of her coaches were at the sponsored practice setup by Monster energy drink and maybe if a coach was there maybe the incident may of been avoided and in two years she would of been all over Canadian TV and radio so that she would of had her moment in the spotlight.

Sad day take a long time to be taken over by happy days

Tom Mehegan

MLB AL WEST will be very tough this season

Texas Rangers have signed Yu Darvish to a 6 year/60 million dollars contract and the Rangers are looking for him to replace CJ Wilson in the pitching rotation as they look towards trying to make three World Series and to better their offense they may be looking @ Prince Fielder to take over at first base or designated hitter. It looks like Prince Fielder might be looking @ a 6 year/150 million dollars with a players' option in the middle of it contract so he may still get a Red Sox or Yankees contract after the contract is up and all this could match the Angels attempt to win the AL West of CJ Wilson and Albert Pujols.

So if Darvish is able to figure out MLB batters and give the Rangers strong outings and not have the ballpark in Arlington eat him up along with if they can get Prince's name on a contract he would be able to power the ball and put up massive stats then the AL West. Instead of a 50/50 team making the playoffs and the rest of the division dead and buried it will be like the Yankees and Red Sox battles over the last decade in which they are both powerhouses and be like the best two or three teams in the AL.

It will be interesting

Tom Mehegan

Dan O'toole and Jay Onrait taken over TSN radio 1050

Dan O'toole and Jay Onrait are doing the afternoon drive home show on TSN radio 1050 Toronto for the week of January 16-20 replacing Cybulski and friends as Cybulski goes on a week holiday and he should be scared for his job because O'toole and Onrait are crazy amazing and are great radio. It will be on from 4-7 PM (til 6 on Leafs night) and it is also under Cybulski and friends under podcasts @ TSN radio 1050 and if the first show is any indication it is much different than what usually is on as they had a Chad Kroeger contest for Nickelback tickets with callers actually on the phones which does not happen much on other shows on TSN 1050 AM. Then had a witch hunt for where Buffalo Wild Wings in Southern Ontario and had tweets from listeners tell them where they are and former Jets/Chiefs head coach Herman Edwards and was brought in with Loverboy and he said he did not know Loverboy but was at a Jimmy Hendrix concert where Hendrix lite a guitar on fire.

Going to be a good good week

Tom Mehegan

Maple Leafs and Red Wings in the Winter Classic @ the Big House

Reports are that the 2013 Winter classics will be held in Michigan with the Dead things and they will face the beleafers and it will be a huge event and not because of the Red Wings who fans will be there but it will be the travelling Maple Leafs who have fans that will follow them anywhere even if the Leafs let them down time after time. No matter where it will be held it will be sold out and TV ratings will soar and might be the highest rated Winter Classic in history and the HBO/The Movie Network Red Wings & Leafs 24/7 will be watched more than the other 24/7s have been in the past because the Leafs Nation is completely nuts.

The real question is where to put the game and the only place to hold this game is the Big House which holds over 100,000 seats that will all be filled and it will not be the first hockey game to be played @ the Big House as Michigan played Michigan State played a house game in December 11, 2010 and they set the record for the Big House with an attendance of 113,411 that is also a World Hockey attendance record.

It will be a huge thing for hockey and it may get attention in the States with the size of the crowd and the 24/7 ratings along with being on a national network in NBC and would be no problem to setup because NCAA football regular season ends in like mid-November so there will be plenty of time to setup the rink in the middle of the field with all around the field and it would break the 113,411 record without a question.

It will be cold but great decision

Tom Mehegan

Mike Cammalleri traded for Rene Bourque

Mike Cammalleri was traded to the Calgary Flames and in return the Montreal Canadiens got Rene Bourque and it looks like a head scratchier for both teams.

So the Montreal Canadiens get Rene Bourque who has a cap hit of 3.3 million dollars for the next 4 seasons and it gives the Canadiens 8.2 million dollar cap hit @ the trade deadline which might mean they go after Vincent Lecavalier at the trade deadline. This because the Lightening maybe out of the playoffs and Montreal need a good pub after a non-french speaking head coach and then they dressed Cammalleri for a game in Boston last night and then vanished after the second period from the bench and sent him back to the locker room and sent back to the hotel and nobody was talking after the game and the media was not allowed into the Canadiens' room for a long while. Rene Bourgue right now is suspended for 5 games for elbowing Nicholas Backstrom in the head and will miss Saturday's Canadiens game against the Senators and big reason for the trade was Cammalleri comments the day before when he said “We prepare for our games like losers. We play like losers. So it’s no wonder why we lose.” about the Canadiens players and it may of been a hasty move and it may all come down to the second round pick in 2013 draft.

Then there is the Calgary Flames who now have Cammalleri who they had for the end of the 2008-09 season and now have two forwards with cap hits of at least 6 million in Jerome Iginla and Cammalleri who are very good friends and means the Iginla will not be traded from the Flames but they will need to make a salary dump and it might mean that Jay Bouwmeester is going to be out of town if they can find a trade partner. If Iginla and Cammalleri are put together they may pick up the struggling offense as the Flames and Canadiens both have scored 110 goals this season with the Flames playing two more games and there goals a game is fifth worse in the league with the worse teams in the league below them with the exception of the Wild as they are ahead of Columbus, Kings, and Islanders. The thing is if Cammalleri does not better then his 22 points in 38 games then the Flames will have two seasons of Cammalleri @ a cap hit 6 million which will tie their hands in moves going forward but if plays like he did in one season in Calgary (a career high with 39 goals and 43 assists in 81 games) it may get the Flames into the playoffs.

It is going to be interesting going forward

Tom Mehegan

The Baseball Hall of Fame ballot will be interesting in 2013

Next season will be a very interesting Hall of Fame ballot for major league baseball in 2013 with Roger Clemons, Barry Bonds, and Sammy Sosa all on the ballot for the first time and the question is not if they get into the Hall of Fame next year because they will not get in next year because the voters will not give these three votes. The more interesting part will be to see how close they will get to the 75% of the voters to vote for them and will they get 75% in the next 15 years before gets into the hands of the legacy committee and I believe that Barry Bonds will get in in about 2 to 5 years because the public still believes that Barry Bonds was a great player before his head got bigger. While Roger Clemons problems that has been documented happened in Toronto after having solid 10 seasons with the Red Soxs and his two seasons in Toronto and then his time in New York put him in the consideration in the Hall of Fame argument as he won 41 games in Toronto and 77 games which is 118 wins of his 354 career wins and that is 33% of his career win so it will be more interesting as it is a 50/50 situation and it may more likely be if he not in 5 years he will not get in. Then there is Sammy Sosa who it took a few seasons as it was his 10th season when he hit 66 homers after his seasons' high was 40 homers and then it 66, 63, 50, 64, 49 in a 5 season run and then the numbers dropped down hard after that and was done three seasons later and then on top of that he had that whole corked bat situation and hit over .300 in 3 of the 5 seasons so he will not make it in just like Mark.

Going to be interesting

Tom Mehegan

Jim Popp and Marc Trestman heading to run the Colts

Jim Popp who has been the only GM of the Montreal Alouettes since they were brought back into the CFL in 1996 is going to be the new GM of the Indianapolis Colts in the National Football League and will be bring the head coach of the Alouettes Marc Trestman with him to become the new head coach of the Colts. Jim Popp has a great track record in scouting talent and managing a football club that in the CHL has to have 11 Canadians on the field between offense and defense and since the turn of the century he built a team that has played in 8 of the Championship games since then and if he can find talent Canadian and non-Canadian then he will be able to build a winner around either Payton Manning or Andrew Luck or even both. Jim Irsay Friday tweeted that Popp was a dark horse for the job and that he was going to be interviewing 7 candidates for the job on the weekend and when he is done interview all 7 candidates for the job he will realize that Jim Popp is the man for the job. There is a little tiny problem with Jim Popp's contract in Montreal and that is that it goes it the end of the 2014 season after he was in line for a front office position in Washington but there is no way that the Montreal Alouettes will stand in Popp way of advancement to the NFL as The Colts could buy out the rest of his contract. Then there is Marc Trestman who has been head coach of the Alouettes for four seasons and made the Grey Cup the first three seasons he has been there and won it in both 2009 and 2010 and has given the Alouettes' quarterback Anthony Calvio the tools to win the big game because before Trestman he would get to the dance and then not be getting to dance with the princess but in 2009 and '10 he got to dance with the beautiful princess. Trestman has been linked to NFL jobs almost immediately after his second year as head coach and he could better Payton Manning and teach Andrew Luck how to refine his skills and in a couple of seasons he will be like Arron Rogers untouchable.

Colts will make the right call

Tom Mehegan

Charles Barkley torched the Hawks on TNT when he did not know when he was on air and does not like weight watchers

So for some reason the TNT producers were not taken last night Thursday Night Basketball game between the Heat and Hawks and it may of been because the Heat were not taken the game seriously as they sat out Wade and James for the game. So for some reason the announcers thought that TV had gone to a commercial break and instead the cameras kept rolling as Barkley talked about losing 32 lbs and said that weight watchers is a scam and Marv Albert talked about how bad the Hawks were and that the Hawks were a group of nice guys.

So this was more interest than Chris Bosh going off for more than 30 points in a three overtime game with 30 points and 14 boards and it continued at the end of the game the announcers said that the game was a huge win for the heat and that it was a black eye for the Hawks and Barkley did not stop with that and added that he would like to give the Hawks a black eye in their other eye.

I do not know what was going on last night but it was crazy

Tom Mehegan

Montreal Canadiens stop worrying what language the coach speaks but if he can win games

Look it is simply that if the Montreal Canadiens had Mike Babcock, Berry Trotz, or John Tortorella were the Canadiens winning game and getting them into the playoff it would not matter that the head coach does not know how to speak French and if they needed someone speaking French then get an interpreter so the French newspaper guys get their story. Also RDS (french TSN) put on BRIAN GIONTA speaking English with french subtitles so if Randy Cunneyworth gets fired then it will because he can not get wins out of his players. The only thing to better the Canadiens is when Scott Gomez is off the injury reserve he should be put on waivers and no other team would pick up his contract of 7.5 million dollars a season and if they did then the Canadiens simply just have to say thank you and if he clears wavier then the Canadiens can put him where he belongs in Hamilton with the Bulldogs and the Canadiens can use the money to get someone who puts up points. If the Molson family do not want to spend the extra money having Gomez off the books then they should realize that the Leafs has put Jeff Fingers 4 million dollar contract and the Rangers stuck Wade Redden 6.5 million dollars in the AHL and it does not count against the hard cap.

Don't worry be happy

Tom Mehegan