Professional Athletes and Their Charities
January 6, 2009
Total Pro Sports - As an avid sports fan, I am pleased to learn about some of the charitable work that professional athletes contribute to their local communities. As a Toronto native, it was refreshing to witness Chris Bosh of the NBA Raptors donate a hefty cheque worth $1 million towards establishing the Chris Bosh Foundation in 2004.
The Foundation's website describes the Foundation as "a non-profit organization promoting social enrichment, education and physical fitness among youth. The Foundation assists youth in reaching the educational and athletic goals they set through mentoring and setting examples in the community." The Foundation has programs in Toronto and Dallas, has worked closely with organizations such as the Toronto Special Olympics raising important funding for community projects.
NHL Struggling With Attendance
November 10, 2008
NHL Attendance From Previous Games
Buffalo @ New Jersey - 10,567
Columbus Blue @ New York – 10,184
Florida @ Atlanta – 10,584
Dallas @ Boston (On a Saturday) – 14,576
Chicago at Columbus (On a Saturday) – 14,680
Ottawa @ Florida – 13,567
Vancouver @ Los Angeles – 13,652
Anaheim @ Columbus – 10,494
Calgary @ Nashville – 12,042
Minnesota @ Florida – 12,106
Total Pro Sports - These are just a handful of games that have happened over the past couple weeks. As you will notice none of the home teams listed are from Canada. Canadians love the game of hockey so regardless of their teams record they sell out every game.
Looking at these numbers it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to notice that the NHL is struggling not only in a sinking economy but in markets that should not have an NHL team.
Is anybody tired of hearing Gary Bettman tell us all the NHL is fine and is not struggling to gain attendance, new fans and money? If he didn’t want us to know how bad of a state hockey is in the U.S maybe he shouldn’t publish attendance records on his site.
Over the past 6 weeks the Canadian dollar has been sinking, only making a recent surge. This has hurt Canadian teams, as they earn revenue in Canadian dollars and pay out player salaries, in US greenbacks.
GO MATS GO……T.O. Montreal?
October 17, 2008
Total Pro Sports - So here it is, my first blog on the exploding TotalProSports.com.
Now you ask, what is so important that I get off a comfortable leather couch, admist a gorgeous unit, in the 3rd period of a Penquins/Capitals game where the caps have tied it 3-3 in the third? The answer, the Toronto Maple Leafs and Leaf legend Mats Sundin.
So today I was at work in lovely downtown Toronto. My manager, who is pretty hot, was taking me on a counselling lunch at the fancy Bymark restaurant. As you now probably suspect, I see Toronto's captain Mats Sundin. Mats was looking good, in prime game shape. My first thought was the obvious, the guy is here to meet with Leaf brass and arrange his return to the line up. I was pretty jacked thinking the leafs will finally have the genuine superstar back and ready to make something out of nothing, also referred to as the Toronto Maple Leaf forwards. However, to my dismay I was quickly disappointed. To make a long story short the waiter at Bymark is a friend of my manager, and she revealed to us that the white chubby bald guy was not a Maple Leaf executive, instead he was a real estate agent discussing personal matters with Mats. That is the only factual information that I have, the rest is speculation, and Im thinking the worst. Mats Sundin is selling his house and will not play another game for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Tampa Bay Lightning Interested In Mats Sundin
September 9, 2008
Total Pro Sports - This I think this turning into a big joke now. "Mats, just pick a team and get this saga over with. You know you want to win a cup and in Toronto your gonna have a hard time doing so. Just sign with a cup contender and move on with your career. You deserve it, so do whats right for you and your family. Lord Stanley is calling for you!
The Tampa Bay Lightning are believed to be the latest club interested in obtaining free agent Mats Sundin – if he decides to play again.
While the NHL community awaits Sundin's decision, his agent, J.P. Barry, confirmed two more clubs have recently expressed interest in his client.
Barry would not reveal the two new teams that have joined the Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens, Vancouver Canucks, New York Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers in the pursuit of the veteran centre, but one is believed to be the Lightning.
Sundin not only met with Leafs general manager Cliff Fletcher last Friday and Canadiens boss Bob Gainey on Saturday in Toronto, he also played in the Right to Play charity game with his old buddy, new Lighting forward Gary Roberts, as well as new Tampa Bay owner Oren Koules.
True, the Lightning are close to the NHL's $56.7-million (all currency U.S.) salary cap and therefore don't have room to add Sundin's salary, which is expected to be in the $7-million neighbourhood. But the Lightning could save some valuable cap space if injured forward Jeff Halpern is unable to play this season because of his injured right knee and rookie Steven Stamkos is returned to junior.
Read the rest of this article here: The Globe And Mail
NHL Rumors, Who’s On Their Way Out?
August 24, 2008
August is usually the slowest time of the year for rumors, but there have been a few flying around the last few days that I think we should talk about.
Bryan McCabe waives his NMC to go to Florida
I don't doubt for a second that he has waived it, however there is a clause in his contract that says at the beginning of September he will receive a bonus of $2 million from the Toronto Maple Leafs. So unless something can be worked out where the team trading for him agrees or is allowed to pay him that bonus, don't expect a trade to be made official until September. Also, don't expect Jay Bouwmeester to be coming to the Leafs in return. This guy is going to be a Norris trophy candidate one year and the Leafs just don't have enough assets to trade for him. In fact, expect this trade to be more of a incentive for Bouwmeester to stay in Florida because the only reason he wants to leave is he feels that they aren't playoff contenders. They have a good starting goalie with a solid defense core, all they will need to work on is putting the puck in the net. The addition of Stillman should help, I can see him doing well as the go to guy and with an expanded roll, expect Horton to thrive.
Mark Parrish is Vancouvers' "Plan B"
There is no surprise here as he would never have been their Plan A. Vancouver needs a player to be "THE GUY" on that team. They have some guys that can be secondary scorers but lack the consistency and presence to be a #1. The twins are probably the closest to fit that mould but seeing as they haven't been able to take "the next step" since taking over from the famous Naslund - Bertuzzi era..has the Canucks organization concerned.
Mathieu Schneider to Ottawa
The Sens only have five defenseman under contract and one of them is the rookie Brian Lee. Mezsaros is asking for a ton of money and Ottawa won't budge. That's not a situation that the Sens are comfortable with. I can see them dangling Chris Neil as bait and I think he would be a good fit with Anaheim's aggressive style of play. If this rumor comes to fruition, it would be a good trade for both teams.
Hemsky/Higgins deal and Nylander on the move
I can see the Edmonton Oilers being interested in Chris Higgins as he is an Oiler type of player, but I don't know why the Habs would be interested in Hemsky. If this is true, it has to be a plan B incase the habs don't land Mats Sundin, in which case I totally understand. As for the Nylander rumor, maybe he likes to invest and flip homes in his spare time...Not likely! After the Capitals played extremely well without Nylander during the second half of the season, and the re-signing of Sergei Fedorov, I think the writing is on the wall for Nylander's departure. Will the Oilers have any hard feelings after they thought they had signed him during the off-season before he bolted to Washington for more money?
hmmmm....Things could get interesting in the coming weeks.
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WSOP No-Limit Hold’em w/ReBuys (Event 44) Results
June 23, 2008
Congratulations to the World Series Of Poker No-Limit Hold'em w/Rebuys Event #44 winner Maxwell Greenwood of Toronto, Canada. Max beat out 879 entrants capturing first prize for $693,392, his first WSOP gold bracelet and his 5th ever WSOP cash.
Hockey Night In Canada a Retirement Home?
June 3, 2008
Now I understand that the maple leafs are the highlight team of CBC's Hockey Night in Canada, but does that mean that they have to run their broadcasting crew in the same way as the inept leafs have been running their team for so long? And in case you are wondering what i mean by this, its the persistence to continously keep on aging veterans who have clearly seen better days. now before some of you traditionalists fire off at me and tell me that i must be out of my mind for blasting some fo the great tv personalities in hockey history, consider this for a second: CBC has some several great younger broadcasters, color commentators and analysts but they still insist on sticking with Bob Cole and Don Cheery.
I know what you are thinking at this point. How can this guy insult the greatest voice to ever commentate a hockey game? Well my answer is that although his voice sounds great, a true hockey fan should be more concerned with hearing the real facts of what is happening on the ice rather than caring about what the guy sounds like. While he might have established his voice as one of the greatest, he has seen better days. When you repeatedly mistake an offside for a penealty, a penealty for a goal and a goal for an icing, maybe it should be time to hang up the mic. Many time you may also find him taking those long delays and preaching the obvious, like "they are battling hard to score the next goal (pause for about 8 seconds) both these teams out there". I think we could do without some of those lines. I think the man has done great things but his time is over. Lets give some of the younger guys like chris cuthbert and jim houghson a shot. These are two guys capable of doing what Cole was once capable of doing.
As for Don Cheery, i think his time came to an end when he started claiming that Domi should be on the powerplay for the leafs. If that is ever the case for any team, then that team should probabely consider folding not only their NHL team, but also their AHL and ECHL teams as well as anything else associated with the organization (in the MLSE's case i guess that would include the raptors and some condos). The man also seems to have a crush on Gary Roberts. While i admire the grit Roberts play with (although i would consider him over the boarderline dirty many times) how can you claim he and his 4 playoffs points should be out there on a 5 on 3 powerplay when you have players like crosby, malkin (although i think i might rather have domi out there over him right now), hossa, gonchar, sykora, whitney, malone and staal. Well Don thinks so and this is the hick attitude that has fans either loving him or hating him. He preaches grit and dump and chase hockey, but i thik the red wings are disproving all of that as he speaks, and they are also showing him that a team doesnt need to be 95% canadian to win in the playoffs. Sorry Don, while, but while the league has grown and changed, it doesnt look like you have. I think its time for a changing of the guard at the CBC's Hockey Night In Canada. �
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