Land of the Leaf

Shameless Plug
I love Scott Richmond, but mostly because he’s Canadian. That shouldn’t warrant him a spot in the Jays’ rotation. I did something about it. I went to the Bleacher Report and I spit some words out on why J.P. Ricciardi should make a move for Ben Sheets. Hold the cynicism and rising blood pressure for a minute, it’s the Bleacher Report, people have said much wilder things over there.

Leafs Prepared to Sign Christian Hanson
Joe Ross at NHL Rumours is on to something: the media scrutiny this poor Hanson kid is going to face for his entire career because his father was an actual Hanson brother from Slap Shot. Hanson projects as a strong two-way centre and he has posted 16 goals and 15 assists in 37 NCAA games at Notre Dame this season. Tyler Bozak could be heading to Toronto as well.

Alonzo Mourning Is A Piece Of Shit
From Doug Smith’s blog:

I didn’t hear the whole speech so maybe I missed it but I don’t think Alonzo Mourning thanked Rob Babcock and the Raptors for repatriating him to Miami, where they retired his number last night.
But how crazy is this?
Normal halftime breaks are 14 minutes; the Heat-Magic game was delayed 43 minutes at halftime for the Mourning ceremony.

Giving A Man Named Pops a Nickname?
Seriously, I thought Pops worked just fine. Nonetheless, he’s going to be the “British Bulldog”.

Should They Stay or Should They Go
Arsenalist runs down a list of so-so Raptors and gives some insight into who should be bought out, benched, and given playing time. I think I can agree with almost all of the suggestions, except Joey Graham… he can go stack shit for all I care. Quincy Douby “looks like Tupac”!

Blue Jays News and Notes
Jumping Jesus Murphy, the Blue Jays’ pitching rotation is starting to take shape.  Bastian reported earlier today that Ricky Romero has made the team by claiming the 4th spot in the rotation, slotting in after Jesse Litsch.  That leaves Canada’s first son Scott Richmond and another lefty in Brad Mills to battle for the 5th spot in the rotation.

Mopupduty hosted and posted an informative and rather excellent round table discussion of the upcoming Blue Jays season featuring a slew of Jays’ bloggers. They’re mostly optimistic, I’m optimistic, and maybe you’ll be too after checking it out.

Stoeten remains realistic about Dustin McGowan and the likelihood (there is none) that he’ll pitch for the Jays at some point this season.  Although, Shaun Marcum is actually ahead of schedule on his own rehab!

This is from yesterday, but it’s still got some awesomeness to it today: Bluebird Banter took a look at the Jays defensively heading into the season.  Also, if you need an awful reminder of just how convoluted things were in left field for Toronto last year, then they’ve got you covered.

Quickly On The Leafs
The annual ridiculously helpless and saddeningly hopeless shot at the playoffs: “11 points out of eighth with six games to go, the Leafs aren’t eliminated from the playoffs yet, weirdly enough. If Montreal, Buffalo and Florida lose out the season, and Ottawa loses a couple games (while beating Montreal in regulation in their head to head) Toronto only needs to go 6-0-0 against… Philly (2x), New Jersey, Buffalo, Montreal and Ottawa.” - [Pension Plan Puppets]

Burgundy from StayClassy is lobbing around names of teams that may be potential suitors for Ray Emery next season.  He drops Toronto as a possibility, I have to admit: I like it.

Four wins in a row!  The Raptors are rolling, too bad it wasn’t December when the games mattered.  Although they started playing some serious Sam Mitchell ball in the 4th quarter and allowed Chicago to get back in it (way back in it), Sunday’s 134-129 OT win was one of the best performances by the Raptors this season.  At least when looking at individual contributions from their stars.  Bosh and Bargnani both gave should-be Raptor John Salmons a lot of trouble in the post, and on the boards.  Jose Calderon showed a renewed sense of finding his open teammates, and even Shawn Marion managed to put up 16 points.

It’s not like the Raptors are giving their fans much of reason to care anymore, but we can all admit that a strong finish to the season would help their chances of retaining, re-signing, and attracting any free agents that aren’t plucked from Europe or the NBDL.  Bryan Colangelo intimated to Elliotte Friedman that he was happy with Jay Triano’s work as head coach, and that he’s prepared to handle the Bosh situation this off-season. Triano will most likely be back for next season.  I can’t think of anything that would deter Colangelo from sticking with him, unless Mike D’Antoni somehow falls out of favour in New York.  Stranger things have happened in Knicks land.

You can get full post-game analysis and more on Colangelo from Arsenalist at Raptors Republic.  I’m happy Chris Bosh showed some emotion… on the court.

Justin Pogge is built like a milk-bag.  Alert - he’s not the goalie of the future.  He’s unworthy of Potvin’s 29, he’s not even Jeff Reese.  He’s soft, marshmallow soft.  He’s a bag of holes.

Cue the pundits that will want Brian Burke to re-sign Alex Ponikarovsky.  I think he should go somewhere else to score 22 goals for the near $3,000,000 he will command on the open market.  Jason Blake can go pound sand too.

Don’t get me wrong, I love a good 1987esque 7-5 drubbing, but those are the games when you should win a few fights.  Watching a Milan Lucic beat the piss out of Phil Oreskovic like a coked-up lunatic was predictable, but 19 year-old Luke Schenn having to be the knuckle-chucker for a veteran team is just plain lousy.  Brian Burke pulled out the binoculars to see Schenn trade blows with Steve Montador, you have to wonder who he was watching.  Lucic would have pummeled Brad May.

Justin Pogge is a floppy, fat-assed, salt & vinegar chip eating piece of crap.

Curtis Thigpen: Oakland A’s!
Thigpen wasn’t on the outside looking in for long.  The Oakland A’s picked him up earlier today from the Blue Jays for some cash and a player to be named later.  Thigpen will probably look across the diamond at some point in a series versus the Blue Jays this season and say, “I told you so”. [MLB Trade Rumors]

Some attractive names heading for NHL free agency this off-season
Assuming that the Leafs will look to solidify their defense core this off-season, there will be number of NHL veterans under 30 years old for the Leafs to target. Start the rumour mill, because Brian Burke could go after Mike Komisarek and/or Jay Bouwmeester. (Nod to Puck Daddy via USA Today)

Green Day Sucks
Hoop Heads North has the Top 5 FRESHEST & CURRENT NBA Alternate jerseys. The Raptors DO make the list, but for their slick black alternate. Oddly enough another abhorrent green top, the Chicago Bulls’ St. Patrick’s Day alternate, makes the cut.

Shaq on Greg Oden’s ninja level:
“So what did Shaq think of Oden?
“I don’t. I’m a Shogun. You can’t ask me about a low level ninja. I still have to worry about Yao Ming, Dwight Howard.”  Yup, the Blazers did wallop the Suns 129-109 last night.  (Sports Frog via Hoops World)

Dave Feschuk: Smug Prick
Feschuk literally made headlines this past week by referring to Chris Bosh as a “deadbeat dad”, now it’s actually starting to look more like Ms. Mathis is a “gold-digger”. Feschuk is on the other side of bloggers’ headlines with his latest act of smuggary: Leafs AbomiNation, a book by himself and Michael Grange (I know, two Raptors’ beat writers).  They cover all of the Leafs’ ownership and management blunders this side of 1967, they probably manage to say a few things that are funny and true.

Good Old Dorm Boxing
This video from YepYep rocks the very existence of males at its fundamental core: raging idiocy. I remember attending organized “Fight Nights” in university, man they sure got your testosterone pumping. It was for the better of the human race, as all of the proceeds (beer sales and $2 admission) went to a shelter for abused women.  Alcohol CAN solve problems.

Garner Leaves The Score?
According to The Toronto Star’s Chris Zelkovich, Drive This!’s other watchable personality and Producer, Richard Garner is leaving the show and ticker-laden sports network. He left a message to staff cryptically outlining plans to: “provide programming that focuses on the many similarities that all human beings share instead of the few differences.” Garner appeared on the program today. I don’t know what’s happening… anyone?

Steve Simmons Opts For Drive-Thru Over Journalism
Read this if you must, but beware; Steve Simmons says Wilson has done a remarkable job with the lousy Leafs roster. He also explains how Wilson could make himself more likable to the media and the fans, as though Wilson should give a fuck.

Bastian Reports That B.J. Ryan’s Velocity Is A Concern To Jays
Oh man, I don’t think this is good. Cito Gaston and Brad Arnsberg let their concerns be known about Ryan’s loss of velocity, his fastball is topping out at 86 mph. We might get to see what Brandon League can do in the 9th, I’m trying to be optimistic.

Weighing Potential Draft Options For The Raps, phdsteve Likes Shooting Guards
Steve the doctor at Raptors Republic discusses the possibilities of the Raptors pursuing a SG with their first-round pick. It makes sense, Anthony Parker is a free agent at season’s end and the crop of 2’s is pretty deep.

PPP’s Leaf of the Day, Luke Schenn He is Not
Poor Drake Berehowsky, his rookie card probably never fetched more than a dollar. If it did, it was surely before he ever actually played a game in the NHL.

Chris Bosh faced the media in Toronto yesterday amid allegations that he was a “deadbeat dad”.  He handled the throng of reporters well, I mean it was awkward as hell (you could hear nothing but basketballs bouncing in the background), but he was in decent spirits and it was his birthday.

“All I can say is I’m willing to take care of my responsibilities like I’ve been doing in the past and in the future and have respect for everyone,” Bosh told reporters Tuesday. “I love my daughter, I love myself and I respect her mother.”

This will all likely sit somewhere simmering for a good while, and the truth will play out in court.  I’ll say this though regarding newspaper headlines:  If Chris Bosh were a Toronto Maple Leaf, that “deadbeat dad” would likely be an estranged father.  Read what you will into that.

Martin Gerber lost his temper and got bounced for pushing the referee and shooting the puck at him.  This was after allowing the game tying goal to Brooks Laich with under a minute to go.  Enter the Joseph.  Old man did well, making 8 saves in overtime against the Capitals and then slamming the door closed on Alex Ovechkin in the shootout.

Heading into overtime there was an air of camaraderie around the Leafs’ bench, as Brad May was leading the charge joking with Curtis Joseph when he was entering the game like a relief pitcher.  The Leafs are now 31-30-13, and while they don’t stand a puncher’s chance at the playoffs, that record is a lot better than what many pundits expected it to be at this time.

Obligatory Ovechkin Notes:
Pierre “La Douche” Maguire claimed to have asked Ovie: “Are you going to score 3 tonight?”, or something like that from his post between the benches. He claimed that Ovechkin responded with: “No way, I’m going to score 4″. I guess we can believe him, but regardless, they’re both a bit douchey.  In related news, according to a source Maguire was spotted trying to enter both locker rooms stating that he is the coach of the Hartford Whalers and that he just wanted a word with Robert Petrovicky.  The same source told me that Vincent Lecavalier and Evgeni Malkin will both be Leafs next season.

Jeff Blair posted a brief message to Twitter this morning stating what most Blue Jays’ followers thought would be coming: Jays cut Matt Clement.  More on this later, or not.

In a stunning display of journalism, Dave Feschuk of the Toronto Star has increased traffic to the paper’s website and probably set newsstands ablaze with his latest display of typed-diarrhea entitled:  “Raptor Bosh a deadbeat dad, lawsuit says”.  According to a lawsuit filed by Bosh’s former girlfriend Allison Mathis, she and Bosh planned on having a child and that Bosh had paid for fertility drugs, then he dumped after the Olympics leaving her pregnant and “destitute”, and there is a bunch of other shit that has yet to be proved in court.

He then goes on to answer the riddle on everyone’s mind, what happened to the Toronto Raptors’ season with pure investigative journalism:

“The case, perhaps, is the missing piece in explaining a sometimes puzzling decline in the on-court performance of Bosh and the Raptors. Bosh, an iconic figure in Toronto and beyond known both for his athletic prowess and his gift for starring in viral Internet videos, was proclaiming himself a candidate for league MVP in the midst of a stellar November. But (Allison) Mathis filed suit on Nov. 26, 2008, and, not long after, Bosh and the Raptors fell into an abyss.”

Oh, by the way, today is Chris Bosh’s birthday!  Happy 25th Chris from the loving and painfully fledgling Toronto media.