Deep Thoughts
A few random thoughts for the weekend we celebrate National Pharmacist Day. Which really should be held on the first day of the Tour de France ...
Stupid, stupid rule
Can someone please explain how the NFL’s overtime rule hasn’t been changed yet?
New Orleans lost last weekend without touching the ball. Minnesota won the coin toss, scored a touchdown and the game was over. Which seems entirely ludicrous. What would be the downside to giving the Saints a chance to match that? An extra 10 minutes of game time? Does anyone with the league think fans wouldn’t be entertained by that? And if New Orleans scored to extend the game by another 20 minutes, is there anyone who wouldn’t be glued to their set?
This is the equivalent of a baseball game going to extra innings but the home team not getting to bat if the visiting team scores in the top of the inning.
Just stupid.
Superb word choice
Best quote of the year (and yes, we know the year is less than two weeks old but we’re guessing this one might stand up) comes from Winnipeg Jets’ coach Paul Maurice after his team and the Maple Leafs went end-to-end-to-end-to-end in overtime the other day.
“It’s a free-for-all of fecal matter,” he said.
No, it doesn’t
On a related note, a recently discovered video of Def Leppard’s frontman Joe Elliott saying FirstOntario Centre smells like “10,000 asses” has stirred some debate. For the record, I’ve been in the building hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of times for sports events and have never picked up the faintest whiff of posterior emissions. At least downstairs in the halls under the stands where the athletes and performers prepare and hang out.
The press box, on the other hand ...
Crazy turnaround
On Christmas Day, the Montreal Canadiens were three points ahead of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Today, they are 13 points behind them.
Pinstripe Advantage
According to an online tracker of baseball Hall of Fame voters’ ballots, Derek Jeter
presently stands at 100 per cent approval from writers. Talk about your recency bias and New York Effect.
Jeter is a Hall of Famer. He’s not a top-25 all-time player, though. Probably not top 50. He sure as heck isn’t one of the two best players ever to play. Yet, since only Mariano Rivera has entered the hall with a unanimous vote, that seems to be the message.
Had he been drafted by the San Diego Padres, Milwaukee Brewers or Pittsburgh Pirates and didn’t land on the big-spending Yankees at a time he was surrounded by great players and going to World Series after World Series, he’d be getting in, but maybe not even on the first ballot.
Nice head, nice game
Sunday was Isaac Nurse bobblehead game at FirstOntario Centre. The Bulldogs’ captain responded by scoring three goals for the fans holding his likeness in their hands. Washington centre Evgeny Kuznetsov had three assists last year on his bobblehead night and a bunch of NHL players have scored hat-tricks on a hat giveaway night but Nurse may be the first anywhere to achieve this feat.
Others, not so much
The Bulldogs have had two previous bobblehead nights. Robert Thomas didn’t play the night he was being honoured because he was already up with the St. Louis Blues. And Arthur Kaliyev was shut out the night his mini statue was handed out.
Your Question
Pekka Rinne became the first NHL goalie to score a goal since 2013 when he fired a puck the length of the ice into Chicago’s empty net on Thursday. What still-active goalie was the last to do it? (Hint: He did it for the Phoenix Coyotes)
Oops
Hey, mistakes happen so we’re not going to poke too much fun at the Russian public broadcaster that aired the 2011 World Junior Championship CanadaRussia gold-medal game rather than the 2020 version by accident, last weekend. A boo boo that had many folks over there erroneously celebrating another title.
But shouldn’t someone have recognized the names of now-longtime NHLers like Nikita Zaitsev, Dmitri Orlov, Vladimir Tarasenko or Kuznetsov and thought, how are these guys playing in a junior tournament?
Ryan Ellis, Tyson Barrie, Zack Kassian, Brayden Schenn and others were playing for Canada in that event. Surely we would’ve noticed, wouldn’t we?
Can’t buy success
Only four of the top 10 most-highlypaid players in the NHL are on teams currently sitting in a playoff position. And three of those are on the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Yellow bananas last longer
How short is the shelf life for an NHL head coach? There are 31 teams in the league right now. Thirteen of the head coaches have been hired since April. And newly installed Maple Leafs’ coach Sheldon Keefe already has seniority on five others in the fraternity.
Really?
Hockey teams often put out pronunciation guides so broadcasters can say players’ names correctly. Which helps with some of the most complicated ones. But looking at the Flint Firebirds’ guide that someone posted on Twitter the other day, does anyone really need guidance with Roberts (RAH-berts), Tucker (Tuck-er) or Morgan (More-Gehn)?
Your Answer
The last NHL goalie to score a goal before Pekka Rinne was Mike Smith, now with the Edmonton Oilers.