NHL – mackaycartoons

Wednesday April 5, 2017

April 4, 2017 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday April 5, 2017

Don’t Let Politicians Rewrite National Anthems

Some members of the Senate are determined to stop Parliament from changing the words of the national anthem, with one senator deriding the late Liberal MP Mauril Bélanger’s proposed amendments to O Canada as “clunky, leaden and pedestrian.”

May 10, 2013

Bélanger, who passed away last summer after a battle with ALS, sought to make the anthem gender-neutral by removing the phrase “all thy sons command” and replacing it with “all of us command.”

The bill passed in the House of Commons largely along party lines, with all Liberal and NDP MPs voting in favour of the changes, while most Conservatives opposed. Some notable female Tory MPs, including Michelle Rempel and Lisa Raitt, backed Bélanger’s bill.

Nearly a year later, the bill is now in its last legislative phase — third reading in the Senate — awaiting a final vote. As per the Senate’s procedural policy, debate on the bill can be continually adjourned by critics, punting a vote on the matter to a later date. (Source: CBC News)

Meanwhile, after nearly three years of talks, the NHL announced Monday it will not participate in the 2018 Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, a decision that is turning out to be incredibly unpopular with many players.

June 7, 2008

“It’s crap. I don’t understand the decision,” said a clearly disgruntled Erik Karlsson to CBC Windsor.

The Swedish player and captain of the Ottawa Senators is among many high-profile players voicing discontent in the wake of the announcement.

One of the most outspoken against the decision has been another Swede — Henrik Lundqvist. The New York Rangers goaltender tweeted that “a huge opportunity to market the game at the biggest stage is wasted.”

Carey Price, who helped lead Team Canada to a gold medal at the Sochi Olympics in 2014, said it’s a particularly tough blow to the younger players.

“I feel like we’re short-changing some of the younger players that haven’t had that opportunity,” he said. “It’s tough to swallow for some of those kids, I’m sure. At a human level, this is a big worldwide event that the world takes part in and you know, we want to shine our light too.”

Marc Savard, a Canadian who is under contract with the New Jersey Devils, joked that tryouts for the team will be posted at local rinks.

Canada has long dominated the game, winning nine gold medals for men’s hockey since 1920 — including consecutive wins in 2010 and 2014.

This will mark the first time NHLers won’t participate in nearly 20 years. (Source: CBC)

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

March 11, 2014 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday, March 11, 2014

George Stroumboulopoulos to host Hockey Night in Canada next season

George Stroumboulopoulos said it will be a “dream” to anchor next season’s Hockey Night in Canada.

Rogers Communications introduced Stroumboulopoulos at a press conference on Tuesday as one of the new faces of Hockey Night when the telecom and media firm takes control of Canada’s NHL broadcasting rights.

The multiple Gemini award-winning talk show host of CBC’s George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight will join Hockey Night’s Ron MacLean and Don Cherry, along with Sportsnet’s Daren Millard and Jeff Marek as the “cornerstones” of the new hockey coverage, Rogers said in a release.

Stroumboulopoulos said that a big role in the hockey media world was a long-standing dream of his and Marek’s since they started their careers in promotions at the Fan 590 radio station.

“It took 20 years to get to this place,” Stroumboulopoulos said. “What a dream.”

The hiring of the fast-talking Stroumboulopoulos as the new face of Hockey Night is the first major personnelchange made by Rogers after acquiring the NHL Canadian broadcasting rights in a blockbuster 12-year, $5.2-billion deal in November.

Scott Moore, president of Sportsnet and NHL properties for Rogers, introduced the “top line” of his hockey broadcasting scene during a live telecast from the CBC studios. While the CBC may have been “where the tradition of broadcasting hockey began,” Moore said, he’s hoping to bring a “fresh face” to the game.

Hockey fans can look forward to big games being broadcast on different channels such as Citytv and on additional days, including Sunday, Moore said. More announcements to come will include new technology for mobile devices.

“You do have to be aware that people are watching hockey differently. They’re watching it with two, three or more screens.”

Moore also faced a sharp question about the absence of women on a broadcast team he called “the face of hockey on Rogers.” (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

SOCIAL MEDIA

Shared on Yahoo News Canada and National Newswatch. Also, on Yahoo Canada’s Facebook page:

Post by Yahoo Canada.

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

November 26, 2013 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday, November 27, 2013

What the new Rogers-NHL deal means for the CBC

National broadcaster to earn no revenue from hockey

The CBC is in trouble. It is losing all of its hockey revenue – but keeping about 320 hours a year of hockey, including Hockey Night in Canada – under the NHL’s new Canadian broadcast rights deal.

Rogers is making big moves to control ever more Canadian media and the announcement on Tuesday that they’re essentially taking over hockey rights across Canada is an enormous move.

Losing hockey is a big deal for the CBC. They’ll keep Hockey Night in Canada for four years on a sub-contract from Rogers, but they don’t own the content anymore. They will not even get the advertising revenue from the broadcasts. They also will not pay for the rights to the games. All that falls to Rogers.

CBC President and CEO Hubert Lacroix acknowledged that the next season of Hockey Night in Canada will be very different.

“Starting next year, Rogers will assume all editorial control (all editorial decisions with respect to the content, on-air talent and the creative direction of HNIC – we have the right to be consulted and there is a commitment to excellence) under the new agreement,” he wrote to CBC staff in an internal memo.

“While this deal will result in job losses, the staffing impact would have been much greater had we lost hockey entirely, as CBC is still producing hockey. Preserving HNIC also allows CBC to maintain a capacity to execute a sports strategy and fulfil lits existing contractual obligations (i.e. Olympics, Pan-Am, FIFA),” he continued.

Lacroix was unclear on which jobs, and how many, would be cut as a result of this deal.

Later, in a press conference with Rogers, Lacroix tried to remain positive but had little to add.

“Rogers takes on all of the revenues from all of the properties. We have no costs that come with that. We don’t pay any broadcasting rights,” he said. “Our friends at Rogers pick up all of the revenue.”

Asked what CBC gains from the deal, he said the CBC has maintained the right “to promote some of our programs through the iconic Hockey Night in Canada.”

That was it. Rogers refused to comment on any specifics of Don Cherry’s future. (Source: Canada.com)

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

January 8, 2013 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Idle no More meets Idle no More

It almost looks like a toy. The agreement between the NHL and its players’ union that ended a painful and unnecessarily long lockout has been met with far more skepticism and bitterness than any rejoicing. Many fans, and even sportswriters, are calling for boycotts of games and of NHL merchandise, the belief being that the league cares only about money and hitting it in the pocketbook will be the retaliatory gesture that hurts it the most. But is it really such a shock that a professional sports league, along with its owners and players, would focus on the bottom line? The most sensible things to do is be thankful the entire season wasn’t lost and just get back to enjoying the game.

Not that there aren’t things to be miffed about. The intermittent and half-hearted negotiations came across as a grudge match between two factions that put pride before everything else. The final deal amounts to little more than the moving around of a few numbers and does nothing to solve the long-term problems facing the league. The most obvious of these problems is the continued existence of bankrupt teams in southern United States cities, such as Phoenix, Arizona. Why Canadian fans will be forced to continue to subsidize this failed experiment through revenue-sharing remains a mystery.

As the aboriginal movement, Idle No More protests continue to grow, comparisons are being made to the grassroots Occupy Wall Street movements that sprang up across the globe in 2011 and helped fuel public discourse on the issue of economic inequality.

But while that issue, if not the Occupy movement itself, found a receptive audience among many, including many Canadians, it is not clear that a protest dedicated solely to aboriginal issues will have a similar impact or spur any kind of change. (Source: CBC News)

Wednesday September 29, 2010

September 29, 2010 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday September 29, 2010

Is that Bettman or Booman?

The ideas have taken a few days to take root, but that’s because so many thoughts came to mind when NHL commissioner Gary Bettman was introduced at the J.L. Grightmire Arena in Dundas Tuesday night before the Kraft Hockeyville game between the Ottawa Senators and Buffalo Sabres.

To a chorus of boos, of course.

Why does Bettman insist on putting himself through the humiliation of hearing the catcalls? He heard them on the biggest stage when he presented the Chicago Blackhawks with the Stanley Cup in June. Tuesday he heard them at the 1,200-seat venue, which was full of children.

We understand why Bettman needed to be in the building on both occasions.

Obviously, he needs to be in the house when the league’s champions are crowned.

In the Dundas instance, he wanted to show he believes in the grassroots of hockey. We get that. Not to be overly cynical about it, it was also an opportunity for TV time.

Yet in hindsight, does it really help the image of the NHL — and the future of the NHL — when the guy running the league is being booed in front of several hundred children? Why bring on the hatred by taking centre stage at centre ice?

Surely, Bettman couldn’t have imagined the crowd was going to seranade him. Remember, Dundas is only a long slapshot away from the Copps Coliseum in Hamilton, the place where the NHL commissioner so steadfastly refused to consider as a landing spot for the bankrupt Phoenix Coyotes franchise last year.

Dundas is, in fact, now part of the amalgamated city of Hamilton. (We can imagine Bettman was jumping for joy when a community connected to Hamilton won the rights to the game over every other Canadian possibility).

The Dundas-Phoenix-Bettman connection also serves to highlight the raw joy children feel for the game and the uglier big business side of the sport. There was such a passionate fan base in Dundas that hundreds of fans lined up outside the arena in the pouring rain — the children played hooky to watch hockey, with the support of their parents — waiting for the arrival of the Sabres early Tuesday.

Meanwhile, as much as Bettman tries to convince the hockey world that the NHL can survive in Phoenix, save the franchise rallies in the desert sun have drawn smaller crowds than the one which stood in the rain to catch a glimpse of the mediocre pre-season lineups.

Can it really still be a surprise that another NHL season is about to begin without any concrete developments in the pursuit of new ownership in Phoenix?

Oh, and speaking of another unfulfilled passionate NHL hockey audience, 50,000 fans are expected to show up on the Plains of Abraham Saturday for a rally to support the return of a team to Quebec City.

Hockey in the South versus hockey in the North. The more things change, the more they stay the same. (Source: Ken Warren, Ottawa Citizen)