A not with a bang but a whimper week!

I had high expectations that last week would result in news from the political and sports worlds worthy of much commentary, but by its end, with all apologies to T.S. Elliot for the misquote: "This is the way the week ends not a bang but a whimper."
TYPICALLY CANADIAN
On Parliament Hill, the possibility loomed of a summer election as Opposition Leader Michael Ignatieff made noises that he would bring down the minority Harper Conservative government in a vote of confidence on Friday by having the Liberals join the New Democats and Bloc Quebecois in voting against the government.

Such was not to be as Harper and Ignatieff held a couple of face to face meetings and in typical Canadian fashion decided to appoint a committee to look into Employment Insurance changes and report back in the Fall. Both, of course took credit for the compromise, but what about those who may have benefited from EI changes now.
BALSILLIE BID QUASHED
Meanwhile, a judge in Phoenix, Arizona, squashed Jim Balsillie's plans to buy the National Hockey League Phoenix Coyotes saying there wasn't enough time to get the deal done for the 2009-2010 season, and move the team to Hamilton, Ontario. So for the moment NHL Gary Bettman can relax but Balsillie says he will be back.

As an observer, I predict that the Phoenix Coyotes mess is the tip of the iceberg for the NHL. Other teams are in deep trouble, and Bettman won't be able to keep his leaky hockey ship afloat forever. Stay tuned.
WHIMPERING WINGS
Still with hockey, rather than let Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins enjoy their Stanley Cup victory, the media kept alive a totally nonsensical story about Crosby not shaking hands with Detroit Red Wings player(s). Gordie Howe finally stepped in and said to lay off and give Crosby a break already. Whimpering Wings!
PAMPERED PLAYERS
And in Ottawa Dany Heatley goes public about wanting a trade ostensibly because he wasn't getting along with Cory Clouston, the new coach of the Senators. Apparently Clouston put Heatley on the second power play unit. I know Cory from the years he spent in Cranbrook as assistant and head coach of the Kootenay Ice of the Western Hockey League.

He is a great coach who is absolutely committed to the game and his players, and yes, he is demanding but no more on others than he is on himself. I hope pampered players like Heatley get their just reward -- a trip to the minors for a year or so.

For sure the dog days of summer are with us!

Totally relaxed on nostalgia trip during Game 7 of Stanley Cup Final

For those readers who may recall how calm I always was on the bench in my years with the Chapleau Intermediate "A" Huskies, and Chapleau Midgets, you will know that I was totally relaxed while watching Game seven of the Stanley Cup finals between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings. Not likely! I am not a huge fan of the present National Hockey League, but once I decided to cheer for the Penguins, I was right into it, bringing back memories of games won and lost going back 60 years or so in the history of Chapleau hockey.

And the Penguins and the Red Wings did not disappoint. It was anybody's game right up to the final buzzer with Marc Andre Fleury making another fantastic save with less than six seconds left to give the Penguins the cup by a score of 2-1.

Between periods I ignored the pontificating of Don Cherry who is one the major reasons why I don't watch NHL hockey, and shook my head when league commissioner Gary Bettman had to make a comment about saving the (Pittsburgh) franchise while presenting the cup to Sidney Crosby, the Penguins captain. It was neither the time nor the place for Bettman to subtly raise the Phoenix Coyotes issue, as nobody really cared about it.

I could just as easily have been cheering for the Red Wings as Detroit holds fond memories for me in the years that I was a daily newspaper reporter and editor. But I chose Pittsburgh, more out of nostalgia than anything else, for it was there that I was introduced to the reality of the American Dream and met the best of the best in the American people.

As a kid I spent some summers in Pittsburgh with my Mom where we went to visit friends of my parents from World War II days. Iven and Arlene Nichol came to Canada after the war started and Iven was a flying instructor with my Dad as part of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. After the United States entered the war, Iven returned home and joined the US military. After the war, Mom wanted me to know their friends even though my Dad was killed on active service in the RCAF in 1943, and off we would go to spend time with Iven and Arlene and eventually their family of six girls as Iven climbed the corporate ladder. For a time Pittsburgh was like a second home to me, and then we followed them to Stamford, Connecticut, where Iven commuted to New York City as a senior executive. In the midst of Game seven of the Stanley Cup I had a rush of memories from more than 50 years ago, and am so thankful to my Mom and Iven and Arlene for letting me have a real taste of American life.

In 1968 I was at the Chatham Daily News as a reporter and editor, arriving shortly after the race riots that devastated parts of Detroit. But in 1968 the Detroit Tigers were in the World Series, and I was assigned to accompany the late Reyn Davis, one of my best friends ever and surely among the greatest sports writers of the 20th century, to games in Detroit. On our first trip to Detroit both of us were shocked at the damage done from the race riots -- we saw another side of life in the United States and itwas ugly indeed. Quite an experience for a kid from a village in Northern Ontario and for Reyn who was from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. Reyn went on to the Winnipeg Free Press where he was named the best hockey writer in North America by the University of Missouri School of Journalism and is also a member of the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame.

As you can see it was quite a night for me as I watched Game seven, full of nostalgia really, and not just about those hockey games won and lost. But if NHL games were as good as that one, I would really be getting excited again.

Balsillie may be NHL's Bettman worst nightmare over proposed Phoenix Coyotes move to Ontario

Jim Balsillie, the co-CEO of Research In Motion, maker of the popular Blackberry may have become National Hockey League Commissioner Gary Bettman's worst nightmare once again by offering to pay $212.5 million for the Phoenix Coyotes as long as he can move the team to Southern Ontario.

Balsillie who has previously offered to buy the Nashville Predators and Pittsburgh Penguins and move them to Canada, has also likely got the owners of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Buffalo Sabres and Detroit Red Wings on the phones to their lawyers advising them to prepare to do all they can to block such a move. Better to let the Coyotes die of thirst on the desert than have another viable NHL franchise in Canada.

Bettman, the American who runs the NHL, has never supported another franchise in Canada, as he tries to turn hockey into an American game in the most unlikely of places -- for example, Phoenix, Arizona. At one time Bettman is quoted as saying he would "fix" the Coyotes, who apparently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection under U.S. law on May 5.

Here's one for you and it might give Bettman pause to consider the popularity of NHL hockey in the United States. President Barack Obama, basketball player extraordinaire, admitted that he had never watched an NHL game -- and he lived in the NHL cities of Chicago and Boston, where he attended Harvard University.


Greg Wyshynski of PuckDaddy.com provides an inside look at the situation
http://ca.sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/Coyotes-file-for-Chapter-11-Balsillie-bids-to-m?urn=nhl,161402

I believe Southern Ontario can support another NHL team and it is likely Winnipeg can too -- maybe even the lower mainland of British Columbia.

Let's bring the NHL home to Canada to cities where it will thrive.

Email me on this one or post comments: mj.morris@live.ca