Understood

Milos Raonic will play for his country.

But his career comes first. His health, as well.

The good thing is that while you may agree or disagree with the tennis star's priorities, at least they are now crystal clear.

UPDATE: Raonic will get a chance at his third career title on Sunday in San Jose after hammering Ryan Harrison of the U.S. today in the semifinals of the SAP Open. This is where Raonic captured his first ATP title last year, and after his 7-6, 6-2 triumph today over Harrison, he'll face either Julien Benneteau of France - who he trounced in three sets in Davis Cup action last weekend - or Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan in the final.

Raonic pounded out another 20 aces today against Harrison, who had beaten Raonic in their only previous meeting in Indian Wells last year. 

Raonic has fallen to No. 32 in the world despite winning in Chennai this year and getting to the third round of the Australian Open. Defending these ATP points in San Jose with at the very least an appearance in the final will go a long way to improving his ranking.

So he's healthy. That, naturally, will cause some to smart, or at least question why Raonic coudn't play on Sunday but he was fine on Wednesday. As a country that has had this patriotic debate many times with many different athletes - Mario Lemieux, Greg Rusedski, Owen Hargreaves, Lennox Lewis, Ray Bourque, Steve Nash etc., etc. - this one will conjure up similar heated opinions.

Clearly, Raonic could have played in the do-or-die fourth rubber against France's Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. He could have gritted his teeth, played through the pain and put it all on the line.

He didn't. He let Frank Dancevic play instead, undoubtedly disappointing to Tennis Canada execs.

We all would have liked him to play. In that way, not playing was a very mature decision. He could have given in to the pressure and played, and in so doing jeopardized his ability to play in San Jose this week and beyond.

But after missing fourth months of competition - and paycheques - last year, he doesn't want to go through that again.

In fact, Raonic told Tennis.com that had it not been for a misdiagnosis after an MRI, he would have played against Tsonga.

“After we lost to (The French in doubles on Saturday) I went to have an echography [in Vancouver] and I was told I had four-millimeter tear in the tendon and it was month-long recovery," he said. "I was told that if I played on Sunday it could completely snap and I’d be out for eight to 12 months. So it was a no-brainer not to play. So I spoke to my doctor in Spain and I came here because I knew the services were really good at the Stanford Medical Clinic. I did an MRI and I was told it was just misplaced fluid instead of a tear and it was just showing tendonitis and I could play through, it won’t get any worse. It was little a disheartening because I was in the dark and I wish I could have played. If I knew I wasn’t taking a risk, I would have played Tsonga. I was sore, but I knew if I could take a pain killer, I could probably have played through the pain."

So let's not paint this kid as an ingrate. He has answered the bell for Davis Cup a number of times, and even came back a little early from hip surgery last September to play in a Davis Cup tie against Israel. He'll almost certainly play for Canada this summer in the London Olympics.

It's not that he won't play for Canada. It's just going to have to be on his terms, and as long as Canadian tennis suffers from a lack of depth and Raonic remains far and away our best player, he's calling the shots.

He has a good working relationship with Tennis Canada, but he brings his own coach - Galo Blanco - and his own agent - Graham Cross - with him when he competes for Canada. It's a different setup than other sports, but tennis is different. These players are independent contractors who give up their time in the middle of grinding tour schedule to play, and there's just no point slagging them when they make other choices.

He's by far the best player this country has produced, and he has worn the country's colours in Davis Cup competition three times in the past 14 months, travelling from Mexico to Israel to Vancouver to play for Tennis Canada.

At the same time, he's trying to progress in the ATP world rankings, and there are more than a few who would rather see him become a top 10 player and win a Grand Slam rather than help Canada become a better Davis Cup country.

He's got his priorities. Maybe you wish they were different, that he'd play for Canada even if it jeopardized his career. But at least there's no confusion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beyond Lin

VANCOUVER--Tough to notice much of anything else with Jeremy Lin hysteria sweeping the world like sub-prime mortgage defaults.

But two terrific hockey stories worth noting slipped through the Lin-mania hurricane on the weekend.

First, the 20th consecutive home win by the Detroit Red Wings. Only two teams have ever done that before, and no one since the mid-1970s.

Detroit has a chance to set a new record Tuesday night against Dallas, and given how well this team is playing at the JLA, it would be hard to bet against them.

Johan Franzen's special touch on game-winning goals has helped power the Detroit home surge, as has stingy team defence. In those 20 wins, the Wings have allowed only 30 goals.

But really, this is about a tradition of excellence, an expression of superior organization and philosophy that has made the Wings the NHL standard to reach since the mid-1990s. Instead of wilting under the challenge of playing in the league's toughest division, strong NHL entries in Chicago, St. Louis and Nashville seem to have made the Wings even stronger.

Speaking of that division and the Blues, the second noteworthy story of the NHL from the weekend was St. Louis winger David Perron.

You remember Perron, right? This is the young forward concussed by a Joe Thornton elbow - Thornton received only a two-game suspension - who missed all of last season and the first part of this year with head injury woes.

Not surprisingly, Perron struggled when he did get back. But last week he scored six goals in four games, giving the powerful Blues another weapon as they take a run at the Red Wings atop the Western Conference.

More important, Perron's play is an inspiration to other NHLers and hockey players in general dealing with serious concussion problems. That's a story that reaches all levels of hockey.

 

 

Canadian Tennis Stunner

VANCOUVER--What shaped up as a huge day for Canadian tennis has been destroyed.

With a national TV audience anticipating a significant Davis Cup match today between Canada's Milos Raonic and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France, the Canadian team was hit with the shocking news today that Raonic has withdrawn with an apparent knee injury.

Raonic had his left knee taped all week and said it was an ongoing issue with a bone in his knee that was causing muscle problems. It wasn't an issue in Friday's singles match in which Raonic hammered France's Julien Benneteau or in the doubles on Saturday when the French team of Benneteau and Michael Llodra easily defeated Raonic and Daniel Nestor.

Raonic hasn't yet commented publicly, but apparently the knee flared up overnight and the Raonic team, which includes Spanish coach Galo Blanco and U.S.-based agent Graham Cross, announced that the 21-year-old from Thornhill wouldn't be able to face Tsonga, ranked No. 6 in the world.

"It was for his own best interests not to play," said Canadian captain Martin Laurendeau. "He's been taped up for a while. The guys learn to play with their injuries."

Raonic will be replaced by Frank Dancevic against Tsonga, with France needing just one more match victory to advance to the Davis Cup World Group quarterfinals. If Dancevic, booted off the team last fall, can somehow manage one of the biggest upsets in modern tennis history, Canada's Vasek Pospisil would then face Gael Monfils in the final and deciding match.

Presumably, Raonic will now be forced to pull out of the ATP event in San Jose this week, a tournament he won last year for his first tour win.

In the past 10 months, Raonic has struggled to stay healthy. He retired from a semifinal match in Estoril, Portugal, fell and injured his hip at Wimbledon, withdrew from the reverse Davis Cup singles against Israel in September because of the flu as he came back from hip surgery and then this weekend's startling withdrawal.

Dancevic, meanwhile, hasn't played Davis Cup for Canada since blowing a two-sets-to-love lead against world No. 439 Daniel Garza of Mexico last year. By late summer, he found himself in a dispute with Tennis Canada over playing Davis Cup and not getting a wild card into the Rogers Cup last summer.

It was assumed his Davis Cup career was over, but Laurendeau reached out to the 27-year-old Dancevic a couple of months ago and convinced him to return to the fold.

 

 

Climbing Everest

VANCOUVER--The good news is that it didn't take long.

Canada's Davis Cup doubles team of Daniel Nestor and Milos Raonic, hurriedly thrown together on Saturday, were whipped in three sets by the French tandem of Michael Llodra and Julien Benneteau in a match that started off looking like a marathon and ended in less than three hours.

That meant, however, Raonic wasn't on court that long, which should leave him with lots of energy Sunday afternoon - and he'll need lots - when he tries to keep upset-minded Canada alive against the powerful French by trying to defeat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, currently No. 6 in the world.

The bad news, however, was how poorly, in relative terms, Nestor and Raonic played in the doubles, beaten to the punch at every turn by the French. If Canada was to win, the two big servers need to serve big. Instead, neither could find any rhythm or efficiency, combining for a mediocre first serve percentage of 55 per cent while allowing the pumped up French to easily win two tiebreaks and then break Canada twice in the third to win 7-6 (1), 7-6 (2), 6-3.

The harsh reality for Canadian captain Martin Laurendeau is this; three matches have been played in this best-of-five Davis Cup tie, and in two of those, Canada has decidedly underperformed.

Vasek Pospisil, over his head in the opening match against Tsonga, was simply steamrolled, looking nothing like the inspired Canadian who had carried Canada to victory in Tel Aviv last September. Tsonga is the better player, but Pospisil made countless unforced errors and beat himself as much as he was beaten by the Frenchman.

He seemed to be bothered by a sore right shoulder as well, and it was no shocker when it was announced Saturday morning that Pospisil had been benched for the doubles and replaced by the power-serving Raonic. 

Raonic overwhelmed Benneteau in the second match on Friday with a terrific display of serving excellence, but then came the average - at best - performance from Raonic and Nestor in doubles. By contrast, Benneteau bounced back brilliantly from the spanking he absorbed in the singles and returned serve brilliantly, albeit largely against second serves as the two Canadians simply could not impose their will on serve.

Now, the chances of Canada advancing to the quarter-finals of the Davis Cup to face the U.S., which eliminated Roger Federer and Switzerland on Saturday, have gone from small at the beginning of this tie to remote.

Canada trails 2-1, which means Raonic would have to upset Tsonga to even the competition, and then Pospisil would have to bounce back spectacularly and win the final reverse singles. Right now, that's slated to be against Benneteau, but almost certainly the Frenchman for that match, if it's necessary, will be Gael Monfils, ranked No. 13 in the world.

After three matches, this Davis Cup tie is about where most believed it would be. The disappointment for Canada is that the performances in two of the three matches has been substandard. In with the World Group big boys for the first time in eight years, Canada now needs history-making performances from two 21-year-olds to advance.

 

 

 

Game On

VANCOUVER--Jo-Wilfried Tsonga schooled a very nervous Vasek Pospisil.

Milos Raonic, meanwhile, did what a top player is supposed to do and what he didn't do in Australia last month; facing a player he was supposed to beat, he took him to the woodshed.

Now the intrigue begins.

See, with all the focus on Canada - at least in Canada - slightly forgotten is that France certainly doesn't want to be the victim of a monumental Davis Cup upset this weekend.

These guys haven't won the title since 2001, almost got knocked off by Austria last year and now are being forced to deal with pesky Canada.

So maybe the pressure's a little on them now heading into today's doubles. And maybe, just maybe that might force captain Guy Forget to change his hand a bit.

There seems to be at least the possibility that Forget might pair Tsonga, instead of Julien Benneteau as scheduled, for the doubles today along with veteran Michael Llodra. Forget knows, you see, that if France wins the doubles, there's almost no chance they'll lose this tie.

But if Canada wins. . .

And that's why Canadian captain Martin Laurendeau has to at the very least consider putting Raonic in the dubs as well instead of Pospisi on Saturday.

For starters, Pospisil was obviously demoralized by his very forgettable performance against the powerful Tsonga. He wondered aloud in post-match interviews whether he'd be chosen to play doubles. More to the point, he's just not playing very well at the moment, and hasn't delivered a great deal of elite tennis since his magical Davis Cup performance for Canada in Israel last September.

So the smart move for Laurendeau might be to wheel out Raonic, a strong doubles player himself, and that awesome serve.

Beat the French in doubles, and Canada still has a shot at the huge upset.

The final choices don't have to be announced until noonish on Saturday, with the match set for 2 p.m. local time (5 p.m. in Toronto). But after a day on which the pro-Canada crowd at Thunderbird Arena on the grounds of UBC started to get the feel of what's permissable in Davis Cup and the kind of difference they might be able to make this weekend, expect Saturday and Sunday to be filled with raw emotion along with pounding drums, bugles, thundersticks and manner of things not usually associated with this sport.

While Pospisil wilted, Raonic had the crowd in full roar by the end of his triumph over Benneateau, with his powerful serve hammering out 24 aces and frustrating the overmatched Frenchman every time he got a sniff. What Raonic didn't deliver against Lleyton Hewitt at the Australian Open - a dominant performance - he most surely did deliver against Benneteau.

Hard to say what the lineups will look like on Saturday. But what we can say is two exciting days for Canadian tennis await.

 

 

 

 

If Ya Gotta, Ya Gotta. But Leave Me Out of It.

VANCOUVER--Never been a fan of the NHL's Winter "Classic." Never will be.

So if you're thinking you've got a convert on your hands just because the team in the city where I spend most of my time, the Maple Leafs, is going to be in the 2013 version, no chance of that happening.

Not that I object to the Winter Classic on moral or philsophical grounds. It's just that I've always seen it for what it is rather than what the NHL tries to sell it as.

The league wants you to believe in this thing like the Easter Bunny. It wants you to believe this is an homage to a purer, simpler time when the game was played outdoors on rivers and lakes with cow patties and frostbitten fingers. It wants you believe in the mythology, and there are lots and lots of people in my business more than willing to spread the myth, to get the public to ingest this along with motherhood, apple pie and hockey in June.

Well, I don't know anybody who grew up playing in a stadium designed for other sports, although they did once play an NFL championship game at the now disappeared Chicago Stadium. So I'll never see this as getting back to any roots I recognize.

I see it as a way to use big football and baseball stadiums to make a big score, to get crowds twice as large or more than a regular NHL audience to pay ridiculous prices and buy seats from where you can't actually see the game and clamour to pay yet more for merchandise designed for that one game.

Then the game itself is a compromised bastardization of NHL hockey. Sometimes it is played in the rain, sometimes in the wind, always the ice is chipped and crappy and almost always the end product, the quality of the game, is sub-standard and essentially unwatchable. Never watched one from beginning to end. Seriously, other than being a coming out party for Mike Rupp, was there anything memorable at all about the Winter Classic played in Philly last month? And now they're dragging oldtimer games into the mix, re-packaging them as "alumni" contests. Ick.

The nicest thing I've ever been able to say about outdoor games is that they've sometimes struck a chord in individual markets, like Edmonton, and produced pretty pictures for television, like the year it snowed in Buffalo.

The worst thing I can say about them is that I still believe that forcing Pittsburgh and Washington to play late at night in the rain two years ago at Heinz Field was a contributing factor in the concussion/neck injury sustained by Sidney Crosby that still threatens to destroy his career. How the NHLPA just goes along with this stuff, permitting it's players to be put in a compromised work situation, is beyond me. Then again, this is a union that defends the right of players not to wear equipment that would protect their eyes.

Outdoor games, meanwhile, are gradually turning into a stale cliche. Everybody has them. Junior hockey. College hockey. Minor pro hockey. The NHL. You name the league and it is breathlessly announcing a plan to play a game without a roof. These football/baseball parks can't believe their good fortune as dates once dark in the middle of winter suddenly become filled.

The cliche will be taken to new heights in Detroit next year when all of those leagues play an outdoor game in a gigantic festival, most of them in Comerica Park in downtown Detroit - who didn't dream as a child of playing hockey outdoors in that bleak, scarred urban landscape? - with the Leafs and Red Wings skating at the Big House on the grounds of the University of Michigan on Jan. 1st.

That's the really big score. More than 100,000 fans coughing up their dough in tough economic times at absurd prices in a spectacular, brazen Ann Arbor shinny score that would make Harold Ballard blush.

Well, good for them, I guess. If people want to buy, they want to buy. The consumer is never wrong, I suppose. Then there's the more applicable P.T. Barnum, theory. . .

That there's finally a Canadian team involved is, at least, somewhat of a good thing, as NBC is forced to recognize the existence of teams in Canada. Or even teams other than the Wings, Hawks, Pens, Caps, Flyers, Bruins and Rangers.

But this game had to turn to the Leafs because they're one of the few franchises that offer a real opportunity to sell the record number of seats this game will try to sell. Moreover, this event, rather than expanding its scope, has shrunk, becoming mostly about the city in which it is played rather than something to appeal to a much larger, continental audience that was the original idea. Involving the Leafs, with that team's legions of supporters across the U.S. and Canada, may help accomplish that. The Wings, meanwhile, are similar, and probably the club most sellable in the southern U.S. for TV purposes.

The HBO 24/7 coverage is part of the deal, and goodness, isn't that what we need? Yet more coverage of the Leafs. The team with the league's least open dressing room suddenly bares its soul. The team with its own TV channel now purports to show it's subscribers what they're not already seeing. The team that believes it should be a Criminal Code offence to speak to the blood relations of any player now wants to invite the world into it's living room for an inside peek?

That said, people do seem to like this HBO coverage, completely fascinated as they are, apparently, by the notion that professional hockey players swear, and swear a lot, thus making it negligent parenting to allow a child under the age of 12 to watch. 

Now that's growing the sport and contributing to our culture, all in one enormous f-bomb.

Think about this, however. What if there's a lockout in the fall? What if that lockout stretches into December? Or later? Maybe this is a way of the league leaning on the union a little bit, putting more chips into the pile to try and motivate the players to cut a deal and avoid killing this particular payday.

Just a theory.

The battle for me will be trying to avoid having anything to do with this game. My boss might insist, as he does from time to time, and it will be difficult to fight back against the idea that Toronto's biggest newspaper needs to provide comprehensive coverage for it's readers.

But why force a guy who doesn't believe in the fairy tale to recite the fairy tale? Why invite an unrepentant Grinch to Christmas? Instead, how about Rosie? She's our franchise player, after all. Or that Feschuk guy might be free. Cathal's a much better writer than me and surely could capture the joy better. Zorro and McGran can easily provide the necessary reports and insight. Surely Doug Smith would love a break from the Raptors, plus it will allow him to realize his dream and work 365 straight days.

I'm gonna start my own ABC (Anybody But Cox) movement. Yeah, that's the ticket.

I'm thinking instead of an eco-trip to Costa Rica over the holidays and getting as far away as I can get.

Boss, are you listening? Boss, don't make me!

 

 

 

 

Monday After Madonna

It was a good game. Watched it. Enjoyed it. There was drama, some of it real, some manufactured, and this year's Super Bowl (sorry, can't do the Roman numerals) was indeed a hard-hitting, teeth-jarring contest that was generally well-played by both sides.

But it wasn't a great game. A classic? Not a chance. Sure seems like the overall hype of what was apparently a terrific week in Indy helped a few in the media get a wee bit carried away. It happens. It's happened to me. You want to write or broadcast on something meaningful in a sports world in which so much is not, so you see it that way. Plus, you want the boss to send you again, never guaranteed in a world of shrinking budgets.

It was better than the CFL's championship game to cap last season, but nothing as wildly exciting as the 2011 Vanier Cup or last month's Rose Bowl. There were lead changes between the Giants and Patriots, which always contribute to a sense of special competition, and the presence of two elite quarterbacks and two veteran coaches already in possession of Super Bowl rings gave the game a certain cache. A special catch by Mario Manningham provided a signature moment and Ahmad Bradshaw's oops-I-scored TD was a little unusual.

But to me, Giants-Patriots I was substantially better than Giants-Patriots The Sequel, just as Alouettes-Green Riders I (the 13th man) was better than Montreal-Saskatchewan II.

Sequels, as we all know, almost never are as good as the original.

Kelly: Giants hold off Pats in Super finish

Brady's supermodel wife defends her husband

Brady supports Patriots gamble on Bradshaw's winning TD

 

Which brings us to some other Monday morning wanderings and wonderings:

• How about Sam Gagner, huh? He brings his personal three-ring circus to Toronto tonight as part of a collision between two of the NHL's fastest teams. But c'mon, Gagner doesn't become untradeable after his career game - only two points short of a record - anymore than Luke Schenn suddenly would be a top four D-man on most other NHL clubs just because he had a good week and scored on Saturday night.

At some point, Oilers GM Steve Tambellini will have to move one of his talented young forwards for help on the backend. Maybe that time is now, maybe it isn't. It's unavoidable, if only because within a couple of years, because the Oilers accelerated the progression of Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, all those players will be making $5 million or more per season and Edmonton will have to make some cap choices.

That all doesn't take away from Gagner's achievement, or the fact he followed it up with a multi-point outing against Detroit. But you don't hold on to a player because of one game anymore than you would trade away a player because of one game.

• The suspension of Sarnia forward Nail Yakupov, quite likely the No. 1 pick in next summer's draft, didn't get nearly the coverage it deserved. Imagine if the same had happened to Nugent-Hopkins in his draft year?

The Sting tried to hold Yakupov out of the CHL Top Prospects game in Kelowna last week because he had just returned from injury. Quebec Remparts owner/coach Patrick Roy felt the same about Mikhail Grigorenko, ranked No. 2 behind Yakupov, but allowed Grigorenko to go when informed by CHL boss Dave Branch that if he was too injured to play in the top prospects he must be deemed too injured to play for the Remparts and would miss the two games following the top prospects game.

Branch then had to deliver the same ultimatum to Sarnia, all the more so after Yakupov played three games last weekend. Now the Sting won't have him for a big match against Plymouth on Friday, and they've managed to surround the kid with some unnecessary controversy in his draft year.

• What to make of Tyler Bozak? He's 25 years old, will soon surpass his scoring numbers from last season and is plus-35 better than he ended last year, to boot. On Saturday, his spectacular second period goal showed his flair for the flamboyant. Yet all you hear is that he's not good enough to play between Joffrey Lupul and Phil Kessel, and how the future of Mikhail Grabovski is more meaningful to the future of the team.

But Bozak is scrappy, improving and competitive and has more points than Mike Richards or Derek Roy, and in fewer games. At $1.5 million this year and next he's very cap friendly. 

In sum, there's lots there to like. But apparently not enough to love?

• Cap considerations in the CFL can squeeze the best teams, and certainly Hamilton had to make some moves after bringing in Henry Burris. But it's hard to imagine how cutting the ultra-competitive Avon Cobourne (presumably he wasn't willing to swallow a pay cut) makes the Tiger-Cats a better club. Martell Mallett better be awfully good his second time around.

• Hard to hate the French. We're not talking politics or culture or even history. Just tennis. And it's not easy to portray the French Davis Cup team as a bunch of bad guys as they arrive in Vancouver this week to take on Milos Raonic and Canada in Canada's first World Group tie in eight years.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is a gentleman. Gael Monfils is wildly entertaining. Julien Benneteau and Michael Llodra are anything but controversial figures.

Still, Canada and Vancouver will have to try. Half the job of winning a Davis Cup contest is using home court advantage, and unlike regular tour events, this is a competition in which screaming for the home team and AGAINST the visitors is not only part of the scenario, it's encouraged.

For Canada, it may be necessary. The French are huge favourites. Those that gather at UBC arena for the matches beginning Friday need to understand making the French uncomfortable is just the start of trying to manufacture this upset. 

• Interesting how Ted Leonsis was perceived as a very successful hockey owner until he decided he wanted to own the whole enchilada once controlled by Abe Polin and added Washington's arena and the NBA Wizards to his portfolio. Now, the Caps are shockingly sitting out of a playoff berth after a turmoil-filled season, and the Wiz are, well, even worse than the Raptors.

Leonsis had more competitive success when he limited his reach to hockey.

• Haven't read a lot of good hockey fiction over the years. Maybe it's because I never considered it worth the effort. But Gare Joyce has pulled it off with "The Code." If you know the industry, you'll see through a few thinly-veiled characters and recognize some well-known NHL personas. That makes it fun, the good writing makes it more than readable.

• Best decision of the weekend? Joey Crabb electing not to drop 'em with hulking Ottawa D-man Matt Carkner. Smart choice by the Alaskan Crabb.

• Ron Wilson will be happy today because his team's penalty killing is so much better. But he has to be distraught over Gisele Bundchen publicly ripping New England's receivers after the Super Bowl or Archie Manning discussing his sons and their health all week in Indianapolis.

Wilson made it clear early this season after the James Reimer/mother controversy that media must never, ever, ever talk to family members of star athletes.

Or was that just self-serving crap? 

• As of today, five teams in the Eastern Conference - Philadelphia, New Jersey, Pittsburgh, Ottawa and Toronto - have more points than the Florida Panthers, but all sit behind the Panthers because that team leads the Southeast Division.

This is a giant hole in the NHL's playoff qualification process that has never been addressed. Sure, guarantee division winners a playoff berth. But don't necessarily give them one of the top three seeds.

• Leaf prospect Greg McKegg is ripping it up with the London Knights after being traded to the Knights from Erie. Leaf management, however, is still unsure whether McKegg skates well enough to make it to the NHL. He'll get his shot in the AHL.

• Those same Erie Otters, by the way, might look to shift operations to Hamilton if the owner of the AHL Bulldogs, Michael Andlauer, looks to move that team when its Copps Coliseum lease expires in 2013. Andlauer has publicly denied speculation he's looking to move the team to Laval.

If a junior team did move to Hamilton for yet another kick at the can, it would be wise to do so only in a new, smaller area, and if possible, in conjuction with McMaster University, which ices neither a men's or women's varsity hockey team because of the absence of a usable facility.

The other team theoretically eyeballing Hamilton might be the Mississauga St. Mike's Majors. They can't survive much longer at the Hershey Centre drawing flies. Sadly, hosting the Memorial Cup last spring didn't do much for the franchise.

• Finally, Madonna. Too bad some idiot singer destined for nowhere had to steal the moment with an obscene gesture.

Otherwise, the Material "Girl" - she's 53 and, like us all, doesn't quite shimmy the same way any more - put on quite the spectacular show. It was more Cirque de Soleil at times than rock concert. But pretty entertaining. Sadly, it was lip synched, as usual. Still, it was wild enough and long enough to make you wonder if the two teams were still in the building when it was over.

 

Prospects and Suspects

KELOWNA--Nail Yakupov didn't show, and in the end, it probably doesn't matter.

Mikhail Grigorenko did show, but not really, and that probably won't matter either when it comes to the 2012 NHL entry draft.

But there were those who participated in the 2012 NHL/CHL Top Prospects game on Wednesday night who might have helped their cause just a wee bit, given that one game shouldn't make up any scout's mind.

Who were they? Well, you could include: 

--Portland Winterhawks D Derrick Pouliot. Others may have garnered player-of-the-game awards, but Pouliot was brilliant and easily the best player in the game. In a draft year loaded with blueline talent, Pouliot surely made a statement that will make those drafting in the top five in June wonder whether he's the best of the lot.

--Plymouth winger Tom Wilson. He's no Nureyev with the puck. But he's big, he hits, he can fight and did all of those things on Wednesday. In other words, the 6-foot-4 Toronto native came to compete and to do what he does, and did that well.

--Sault Ste. Marie goalie Matthew Murray. Murray has to fight for playing time behind U.S. junior star Jack Campbell, who joined the Greyhounds via trade this year. But Murray relieved Victoriaville's Brandon Whitney at the halfway mark and threw up a wall, although he was victimized on the winning goal. The prospects game often allows draft eligible players to showcase themselves more than is possible with their club team, and Murray did just that.

--Seattle Thunderbirds winger Brandon Troock. He scored the winning goal with 24 seconds left to play and is a remarkable comeback story. He missed all of last season with concussion symptoms until - ripples of the Sidney Crosby story - he was diagnosed with a different neck-related problem that was ultimately improved through treatment.

He's 6-foot-3 with wheels, and may find himself shooting  up the NHL rankings after going into the top prospects game rated No. 90 among North American skaters.

 

 

Yo-Yo Leaf

KELOWNA--Even out here on the west coast you can feel the frustration of Nazem Kadri and those who want him to be a Leaf.

This was supposed to be the time he came to say in the bigs, so his demotion to the Marlies on Wednesday along with defenceman Keith Aulie, ostensibly to make room for Colby Armstrong and John-Michael Liles to come off the injured list, came as a bit of a surprise.

But if you thought it meant GM Brian Burke has finally run out of patience with Kadri, you'd be wrong.

"Naz is going to be a good NHL player," said Burke in an email. "But young players need to bring urgency and energy to the game, and those components have tailed off.

"He's going to be just fine."

One point in 10 games just isn't the kind of production Kadri is going to need to stay in the NHL, and the solid 14 minutes he was getting every night alongside good offensive players provided ample opportunity to do more.

He's also at the stage of his career where he doesn't require waivers to go down, so when a veteran is healthy and ready to go, it's not surprising the youngster who isn't producing gets the boot.

This won't help Burke in his ongoing war with Don Cherry, as Cherry has been an unabashed supporter of keeping Kadri in the show. Might hear more about that Saturday night.

Those who would accuse Burke of refusing to give Kadri opportunity haven't been watching the games, and to a larger point, haven't noticed that over the years the Leafs have often been accused of rushing their youngsters and rarely credited with demanding their top prospects get the necessary minor-league lessons down before sticking in the NHL.

Still, nobody would be stunned if Kadri were the prospect to move if the Leafs pull the trigger on a deal. He's going to play in the NHL. The question is whether he's going to be able to play in Toronto for this coaching staff, or whether, as often happens with young players, he'll need a change of scenery before the light goes on.

That said, this is also true. Kadri still needs to acquire greater body strength through training, and the lack of that may be why his "urgency and energy" haven't been in recent days what they were when he was first recalled.

The team that gets him to realize that and spend more time in the gym will be the one that reaps the rewards of his undeniable skill and, as shown by his big hit Tuesday night, nose for a gritty style of game.