Vegas Golden Knights may be the biggest story in sports
BULLS OF THE WEEK
It was another good week for the Vegas Golden Knights, the impressive expansion franchise that has never lost a Stanley Cup playoff game — now a perfect 5-0 — and appears headed for Bulls of the Year territory as the biggest news of 2018, not only in hockey but in all of North American sport.
Thursday was also a good night for current and former Pittsburgh Penguins goaltenders, with Matt Murray pacing the two-time defending champions past the Washington Capitals and his former teammate Marc-Andre Fleury recording his third shutout of the post-season for Vegas. Fleury and the Knights have given up just three goals against in five games.
Meanwhile, the NFL — the first to move its entry draft into prime time eight years ago — continued to reap the rewards of that move with a strong 8.3 overnight rating on ESPN, FOX Sports and NFL Network.
Wednesday was the mostwatched April 25 in Canadian TV history, with Game 7 of the Boston-Toronto NHL playoff, NBA Game 5 between the Raptors and Washington Wizards, Blue Jays-Red Sox regular season baseball and Toronto FC in the CONCACAF Champions League final combining to engage more than 10 million Canadians.
Yet there was nothing more impressive than the actions of first responders to the van rampage that killed 10 people in Toronto on Monday, including Tennis Canada/Rogers Cup volunteer extraordinaire Anne Marie D’Amico, a multi-talented 30-year-old professional at the investment firm Invesco Canada. Next were the “second responders,” the players, coaches and executives of Toronto’s pro sports teams. Their tributes and dedications to the lives lost and to the City of Toronto as #TorontoStrong served as another reminder of how sports can bring people together in times of crisis .
BEARS OF THE WEEK
The best way to describe the silliness around the NHL’s announcement that it will stagger its Draft Lottery on Saturday is to ask if you could ever imagine any other major sports league doing the same? Breaking up the 15 announcements of drafting position into two segments more than two hours apart disrespects hockey fans looking for a more efficient payoff in their investment of weekend TV time.
It is bush league, plain and simple.
More bearish is the latest instalment of stadium financing politics. This week Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred followed up previous pronouncements by Blue Jays CEO Mark Shapiro on the need for upgrades at Rogers Centre.
Shapiro is wrong when he suggests “all 29” of the other franchises in MLB receive public funds for renovations or new builds. And when the solution of selling off private naming rights is raised as an option, he underestimates our intelligence by suggesting the Rogers Centre is named after a person, not a company.
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