NHL Draft Reflections

I confess that I did not watch the draft live on TSN this year as we were at the PCA Graduation Banquet. However, I was glad that the Islanders took John Tavares first overall, especially for my brother Tim's sake as he told me he would have officially "given up" if the Isles had gone for anyone other than Tavares. Also, I think my Calgary Flames had a decent draft, though the best part of the draft for the Flames was picking up the rights to Jay Bouwmeester, though they did give up a good defenceman in Jordan Leopold. If the Flames can sign JayBo, their defence looks even more impressive with him, Dion Phaneuf, and Robyn Regehr.

As I went through a few team-by-team analysis of the draft, I noticed a couple things. First of all, the Leafs chose no (zero!) European players... way to go, Brian Burke! (Don Cherry and myself are proud of you!). To me, that's a statement after the Leafs have been drafting Europeans for years... and then trading any of the good talent away (though they've done that with lots of Canadian and American players too!)

Secondly, I noticed that none of the Canadian teams took more than two players under six feet tall... yet the Detroit Red Wings took four players listed under six feet in height, including their first two picks, Landon Ferraro who plays for the Red Deer Rebels and is the son of former NHLer Ray Ferraro, and Slovakia's Tomas Tatar who was impressive at the World Juniors this past year. If you look at the Red Wings current roster, they have five regular forwards under six feet and two defenceman. So you say, "oh, this is the new NHL so we just draft small players!" No, that seems to be the New York Islanders' former strategy... they have eight players on their current roster less than six feet tall... and look where they ended up (with the first overall draft choice!). It seems that success is having key talented/skilled players under six feet yet combining them with a number of "average" size players who provide balance in skill, grit and size to the roster.

Finally, this year was not identified as a strong draft for goaltenders. And so, guess who did not draft a goaltender this year - Detroit! Interestingly, of the Canadian-based teams, only the Maple Leafs did not draft a goalie this year.

Just a few interesting observations... and perhaps some encouragement and hope for Leafs fans!

Gracious in Losing

At a press conference this afternoon, my favorite hockey team, the Calgary Flames, are expected to announce that Brent Sutter will become the new head coach of the team, working under his brother Darryl, the Flames GM. The Calgary Herald's report today seemed to indicate that the New Jersey Devils' players had two things to say about Brent Sutter: 1) He will be as tough and hard-nosed a coach as his brother, Darryl and 2) None of the players hold any grudges about him leaving New Jersey with one year left on his contract to be closer to family and then turning around just a few weeks later and agreeing to coach the Flames.

The NJ Devils response to losing an excellent coach and being so complimentary and understanding when he begins to coach a new team is such a stark contrast to the Detroit Red Wings who were so ungracious and seemingly "sore losers" when Sidney Crosby did not get in line fast enough for their liking to shake hands with them... so they could get off the ice in front of their hometown fans who were stunned that the Red Wings had lost game #7.

The Red Wings' players criticisms of Crosby were also in contrast to their coach, Mike Babcock, who commented to Crosby as they went through the line "Congratulations! You played well and showed great leadership of your team" (or something close to that is what I overhead with the good ole CBC mics). Wonderfully, Hockey Canada is expected to name Babcock as the head coach for the 2010 Canadian Men's Olympic Hockey team. Good choice, Steve Yzerman... admittedly, you didn't have to look to far :-)

Thank You Harper & Ignatieff

As I commented a few months ago, I believe Canada currently has two very intelligent and thoughtful men leading the main two political parties: Stephen Harper, Prime Minister and leader of the Conservatives, and Michael Ignatieff, Leader of the Liberal party. They again proved that today by agreeing to bring about some changes to the EI system rather than have yet another national election. (Of course the Bloc Quebecois & NDP are upset... but what else is new?)

Again, I think Ignatieff is being very shrewd and strategic. With a budget deficit that increases hourly, arguably due to the recession, the Conservative Party is gradually losing the favor and trust of Canadians. Unless the economy turns around in the next six months... which most finacial forecasters seem to think is unlikely, the Liberals will have lots of unhappy Canadian voters to appeal to and can run a platform of "we will throw money at the problems to make things better" which many Canadians will likely vote for. And unfortunately, it is not just the economy that is causing the Conservatives problems. They seem to have monthly, if not weekly, "blunders" by an MP that must make Harper wonder if he's trying to lead a parliament or a junior high school.

Last but not least, a couple weeks ago CBC (admittedly not known for their thoughtful journalism but...) featured a story on the Canadian company in Thetford Mines that sells asbestos products to India... and the fact that Canada is the only "developed" country that still exports this material. OUCH!

In case you are wondering, yes, I did send an email to our MP suggesting that the Conservative Party cease their attack ads on Ignatieff for being "un-Canadian" because he worked in the USA (I think at a fairly reputable school named Harvard University) for so many years.

Interesting blog about "Emerging Churches"

A really interesting challenge from Mart DeHaan (RBC Ministries) on his blog, responding to "emerging churches." In short, I would agree that while there are many areas to be concerned about with "emergent" churches, there is great diversity both practically and theologically among congregations that would identify themselves this way. And they connect with dissatisfied Christians for a reason.