(Tom Anselmi was named MLSE president and COO on Tuesday: photo from MLSE.com)
Welcome to the top, Tom Anselmi.
It’s been an often tumultuous ride for your organization during your tenure at Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment that began when you came on board as Vice President, Project Director during the 1996-97 season.
Few could have predicted that nearly 16 years later, you’d inherit such a debacle of a sports empire.
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(Nail Yakupov, 2012 first-overall draft pick, dons his Oilers sweater)
Forty years ago Sunday, the Montreal Forum played host to the opening matchup of the historic eight-game Summit Series between Canada and the former Soviet Union. The collective jaws of the host nation dropped in gaping horror, stunned by a 7-3 defeat. In the four decades that have since elapsed, the two countries have collided in some of the most epic moments during the battle for international hockey supremacy.
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(Christine Sinclair, pictured, and Hayley Wickenheiser have both battled the USA. And referees.)
When the Canadian women’s soccer team was victimized awful by officiating in Monday’s semi-final against the United States, many Olympics fans north of the border felt an uncomfortable sense of dejavu. If you pictured the same opponents wearing hockey skates instead of cleats, changed the venue from Old Trafford to Salt Lake City, and rewound the clock by 10 years, now-infamous Norwegian referee Christina Pedersen is a dead ringer for Stacey Livingston.
Livingston of course was the referee who whistled Canada for 13 penalties – eight of them consecutive – in the women’s hockey gold medal game at the 2002 Winter Olympics. Just as the soccer players took to the pitch to begin extra time on Monday, I tweeted a message to Hayley Wickenheiser, who wasted little time calling out Livingston in an iconic rant a decade ago, and was pleasantly surprised to receive the following response:
Leafs defenceman John-Michael Liles was in Toronto for a screening of the forthcoming film “The Campaign” starring Will Ferrell. TMLfans.ca had a chance to speak with Liles.
Q: How much are you looking forward to this movie, and how big of a Will Ferrell fan are you?
A: I’m a big fan of Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis. I’m pretty excited to see the movie, and I think ever since the trailer came out, I think everybody’s been excited to see this movie. These two guys are pretty funny,
Q: Do you like the moves that Burke has made so far, including trading for your one-time Avalanche teammate Jay McClement?
A: Jay Mac’s a great guy. I got to play with him a little bit in Colorado and I think he’s going to be bringing a great presence in the room. He’s just a really solid guy. You know just what you’re getting with him. I think Burkie knows exactly the direction we’re heading and I’m looking forward to getting the season going.
Q: A lot of teams in the Eastern Conference have made upgrades, such as the Rangers (Rick Nash) and the Hurricanes (Jordan Staal). How do the Leafs stay competitive?
A: That’s Burkie’s department. My job is to make sure that I’m ready to go, and I think everybody is in our locker room is pretty confident that we’ve got a pretty good team in there.
Q: How have you been keeping in shape in the off-season?
A: Just the usual lifting, running, skating and biking. Pretty much the stuff that I do each and every year, and adding a few new things.
Q: You’re from Indianapolis, and you played in Denver. How do you feel about Peyton Manning signing with the Broncos?
A: I’m a huge Colts fan and a huge Peyton Manning fan, so now I’m a Broncos fan! I’m looking forward to seeing him play, and hopefully we’ll catch a game or two at some point, before the hockey season gets going.
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In her short life, Sam made many friends through her love of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Yet the vast majority of those with whom she communicated had likely never her met her in person. And sadly, they’ll never get the chance.
Word of Sam’s passing away from cancer broke on Tuesday via Twitter, where hundreds of messages from literally were offering condolences to the woman who went by the handle @leaferbeleafer.
Off The Post: 3-on-3 – a beer leaguer’s view.
This column is being written about two hours before the author takes to the ice for a weekly 3-on-3 pickup hockey game.
The timing seems fitting, given that the 3-on-3 format was just one of many rule changes that were tested this past week at the NHL’s second annual Research and Development camp in Toronto.
As reported in Yahoo’s Puck Daddy entry on Wednesday, the amount of open ice didn’t produce the amount of scoring chances as one would assume; however this could have been a result of the timing of the scrimmages, which were held towards the end of a two-hour session among 2012 draft eligible players.
But who wouldn’t want to see this format being used to decide games at an NHL level?
To provide some reference, the Sunday night games in which I participate are free-flowing and dynamic. Goals are scored at a rate of about one every 2 minutes; last week’s final tally was 23-21 after an eighty-minute session.
By no means am I daring to compare our group of players to the NHL (well, except for me playing like either Steve Smith or Chris Phillips accidentally putting the puck into my own goal – that I can do).
It’s just difficult to compile stats of 3-on-3 ice time at the elite level, given that the situation occurs so rarely. In fact, only one goal has been scored at 3-on-3 in the NHL in the past two seasons. Do you know who scored it? (answer given at the end of the column).
There are a few differences between our game, and the professional game, apart from none of us being worthy enough to carry the jockstrap of even a fourth-line pro.
* The rink on which we play is three-quarters the size of an NHL rink. (The Richmond Hill facility is owned by NHL alumni Mike Gartner and Wes Jarvis, in a partnership with Memorial Cup winning coach Rick Cornacchia. The Leafs held a mini practice there in October 2009).
* The neutral zone is drastically shorter; the centre red line is a mere two strides from either blueline.
* Each team is divided into three groups of 3, with each trio allotted shifts of 90 seconds at a time, indicated by a buzzer.
* The rule on offside is – once the attacking team gains the blueline, the centre red line defines the zone for offside.
As you may expect, the play is offense-driven. Almost every sequence within a shift consists of either a breakaway or an odd-man rush. Bring your ladders boys, ‘cause we’re going cherry-picking.
The earlier part of a typical game features teams attacking with two players high, and one defender back. However towards the later half, with one team protecting a lead, you’ll often see only one man forecheck with two defenders back – thus “inverting the triangle”.
At least that’s the intent. In the event of a turnover, who can resist the temptation to cheat on their assignment and jump into the rush going the other way? And if it’s turned over at that point with all three players caught moving forward, guess what happens (apologies to Nick, our goalie).
To reiterate, our beer league style of play is no accurate comparison to the NHL.
However, given the dynamics of 3-on-3, anyone can appreciate the excitement it generates.
The league isn’t likely to implement any of the recently tested rules this year. When the time comes, 3-on-3 should be at the top of the list of changes.
Trivia answer: Mike Fisher, then with Ottawa, scored a 3-on-3 goal in overtime on January 30, 2010. The Senators and their opponents – the Habs – each had a player serving non-coincidental penalties.
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