Rogers dabbled in the brave new world tech briefly in 2013, blanched at the cost of being creative and largely went back to doing hockey the way it had always been done. Taking no risks. If you were expecting dashboard cameras and drone shots you were sadly disappointed. This new contract means more of the same till Bettman retires.

While it’s true that the sun can’t shine on the same team every day, Blue Jays fans across the nation believe it would be nice if the great orb would find their club as it did in 1992/93. Instead of the reflected glory of past stars winning for other teams. Patience is thin. Excuses are many. But time is short.

George Foreman’s rebound story was uniquely American. Where Canadians are enthusiastically damning Bobby Orr and Wayne Gretzky for political reasons, Foreman never became a captive of angry radicals or corporate America. He went his own way, thumping the bible and his famous grill. It’s unlikely we will see his like again.

It remains to be seen if a Canadian federal election held alongside the NHL playoffs will have any repercussions on the ice. But in the current manic mood of Canadians freaked out by Trump nothing is beyond possibility. 

In geezer news this past week 39-year-old Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals— who suffered a broken fibula in November— is at this writing within nine goals of breaking Wayne Gretzky’s record for  most regular-season goals (894) in a career. Meanwhile, QB Aaron Rodgers is in search of a new perch after the New York Jets told him to scram. With available spots with the Rams, Raiders and Jets off the table, where will he land?

First Orr, now Gretzky. At this rate Canada may run out of hockey gods who decamp to America. And heaven forbid Canadians ask how it is that their stars who have a chance to look at the True North from a different view come away with a new perspective.

Only Game Eight of the 1972 Summit Series can match the explosive political and sports combination of Feb. 16, 2025.  Guesses are now being accepted over just what Canada and Canada’s hockey team’s program might look like by the end of the 2020s. Once certainty— if the game Saturday is any indication fraternal friendship between the U.S. and Canada will be on hold for a while.

When props first began to catch the public interest, they were a novelty. Snobs saw them as sucker bets for squares. In Vegas, books would stage a glitzy launch ten days before the game to announce their props. No more. The first props for SB LIX were out minutes after the conference final games were decided. The brushfire is now a conflagration.

The fate of hockey stars may be only a small piece of any future U.S. trade deals. But they will be very visible to Canada’s hockey fans. Not being able to satisfy them is a political price no politician wants to face. But given the current intransigence by Justin Trudeau scrambling to stay in office it is far from improbable.

Society is in the eye of the trans contagion right now, so most people can't see the damage being done, says Mia Hughes of the MacDonald Laurier Institute. But soon, all the young people emerging from this contagion sterile and missing body parts will be visible for all to see, and people will be horrified that they supported such evil.

Play this drinking game. Every time some football analyst on TV says during the course of a game, “He’ll be a star for this team for years” take a drink. You’ll be tipsy in a hurry. The concept of the players you’re loving now lasting very long with NFL, NHL, NBA or even MLB teams has come and gone.

What might be of interest to Canadians is that people in the development system of American hockey are similarly distressed about the problems of developing players in their country. Cost, bureaucracy and the sheer time commitment for families is breaking a lot of people. The culture of big-money development has taken hold with a vengeance.

Watching the grim progress of DEI social engineering in commercials has been a wake-up call to the public. The disgust with mass indoctrination via the marketplace is one of the factors that propelled Trump back to the White House and has led to Justin Trudeau’s engineered exit from the PMO. Governments led by Trump and Pierre Poilievre will be expected to reverse the DEI folly.

For Canadian fans on holiday, unsettled by Donald Trump jibes about making them the 51st state, the Latvia loss portends something deeper and darker. Canada has owned the tournament for much of its being, winning five golds in the past decade. But now the U.S. is suddenly king-in-waiting, winners three times in that decade, including last year. It’s gut-check time.

Consumers cutting the cable wanted to punish cable/ satellite providers. So they made the change. Then a funny thing happened. It was now only some of what you wanted. The expansion of multiple carriers pissed off viewers just as much as the arbitrary cable companies. the magic solution of cable cutting is now the tragic solution.

MLB has no trouble with the financial big boys in New York, Los Angles, Texas, Toronto, Atlanta and Chicago shelling out money no small market dare pay. In the MLB cheap seats, Tampa, Pittsburgh  and Miami can’t send out quality players fast enough. But MLB is cool with that too as those paupers get a healthy slice of TV money.

Where it was rare for QBs to gain more than a few years running it’s now common to see six or seven QBs in the Top 50 rushers in the NFL. Currently six QBs are in the Top 50. But where the competition have been race cars, Josh Allen has been a snow plow, going through, not around, defenders. 

Ask yourself, at what other position in what other league would the three best players at a vital position be allowed to switch team from 2023-24?. That’s what happened last winter when top candidates for 2024 OPOY— Barkley, Jacobs and Derrick Henry— all departed their former teams for slightly better paydays on the Eagles, Packers and Ravens. Doesn’t seem to make sense.

Damn that Tom Brady. Because of the now-retired NFL GOAT it is widely believed that an athlete in his 40s can still triumph over younger men. That a good diet, plenty of sleep and keen desire can sustain you against twenty-two year olds. It ain’t so.

Over the decades we’ve spoken with many parents and players trying to parse this CHL/ NCAA equation. It was a heartbreaking scene when they gambled on a CHL career that gave them no life skills or permanent physical problems. Or the promised NCAA golden goose never appeared after playing in a lower league for prime development years.