US President Barack Obama (C - duh), holding an NHL Boston Bruins jersey (again - duh),
poses with the six-time Stanley Cup Champion Boston Bruins
(including owners Jeremy Jacobs & son Charlie
at each side of the smiling Prez,
Cam Neely, coach Claude Julien and players -
oddly enough, it's a current Canadien
standing directly behind Obama:
call security...)
during an event to honor their 2011 Stanley Cup victory
in the East Room (appropriately enough)
of the White House in Washington, DC,
on January 23, 2012.
Photograph by: JEWEL SAMAD, AFP/Getty Images
The above picture graced a sad -extremely sad- attempt at satire
written by Postmedia News' Bruce Arthur for canada.com
and, as such, it has to be treated
as Canadien/Hurricane Kaberle should be
as he infiltrated the White House
and The Boston Bruins' line-up
on the wrongest of assumptions...
The satire got a flat tire very early on
(as the very first sentence goes like this:
The scene: The White House, January 23, 2011)
And no one bothered to correct that.
The only five comments blasted this piece
at a rate of 60% or 3 out of 5
which is a failing score at this level.
It is humor in an unintelligent way -
sort of like the way college students
with too much time on their hands
like it...
Not an editorial, not satire -
as it was purported to be, both -
definitely an article that you read
only for the pictures;
just as I did.
But there was only one picture:
the one above.
And even the caption beneath it
was lacking, a little and a lot...
So we improved it.
But enough about that - onward to the real controversy.
Even when dreams come true, something or several things can happen that deflect from that accomplishment and stir up... con-tro-ver-sy.
First, goaltender and number one reason why the Boston Bruins won the championship in 2011, Tim Thomas, decided against being present at the White House when his team was finally hosted by the suddenly very controversial himself president and (many say self-appointed, as also self-shooting-in-the-foot) leader of the free world, Barack Obama - as it is customary to have the United States President host every single champion of each of the four major sports (pros as cons, er, we mean college athletes; and that includes former team members that may be playing for the enemy now and never deserved to be part of the championship club in the first place, like Kaberle) in the country during the course of the year. Or the following year, as it may be required.
Next, come the all-star break and draft (since the format has been changed, there is a need for one - alas - during which two team captains -usually the two captains from the previous playoffs' finalists- choose players and form a team for the proverbial all-star game or "un-game" but that is another debate) and when Boston Bruins captain Zdeno Chara chooses as his second (of three) goaltenders the cerberus of the hated rivals from Montréal (Carey Price) the latter little creep fails to shake hands with his team-captain-for-a-day as he dons the jersey of what is simply called "Team Chara" for the (equally sad - as earlier or worse) purposes of the "all-star" skills week-end in Ottawa, on January 28-29 2012 (not 2011) - a week-end that comprises a skills competition the day before the actual "un-game"...
Now, let's back-pedal a bit and go back to the real controversy here: Timmy snubbing B.A. and his A-Team. Heck, even Tomas Kaberle left the grimey confines of Montréal and joined his former teammates for this one: so why wouldn't a player who actually contributed and belongs on the team bother with showing up?
It is all a statement that is not only political but logical - for Tim Thomas is an American citizen and one that is not blind to the truth. And that truth is not pleasant one iota for millions of Americans and many more around the world who know that they will suffer the whiplash of these harsh consequences when the bubble that Barack Obama has pumped to the limits eventually bursts. Tim Thomas protests against such a government that appears to willingly blindfold itself to that truth and the vast ramifications of it - a government that has brought it all about in the first place too! And he chose to protest the only way he could because, quite frankly, were he to verse political and economical after a hockey game - who would listen to him, really?
The act of protest via absenteism had much more of an impact though - perhaps considerably more than he wanted in the first place. For his act of protest has been analysed, debated, turned over and over and, to be honest, overdone by the media ever since: as it can be seen in an article here, even Boston Globe sports columnist Kevin Dupont took it the wrong way and went way overboard with it. In his piece about this diplomatic incident and Boston faux pas, he stated that only words such as “Shabby. Immature. Unprofessional. Self-centred. Bush league." could describe the stunt pulled by his hero, everyone's hero, Timmy Thomas. KPD, known as one of the best in the business himself, carried on with gusto: "Need I go on? (For) all that and more applies to what Thomas did on a day when Cup teammates Mark Recchi (now retired), Shane Hnidy (a radio guy these days in Winnipeg), and Tomas Kaberle (a member of some Original Six team in Canada), all gladly joined the red-white-blue-black-and-gold hugfest at the White House.
Impayable, that Kevin Paul: he so gallantly dismissed exactly which team Tomas Kaberle wound up on after being dispatched out of Boston in the months that followed the Cup conquest: originally, he'd been traded to Carolina (another hated rival, one that kept the Bruins from fulfilling their destiny a couple of years earlier than they actually did) in return of new Bruin defenseman Joe Corvo. But then even the canny Canes hated their investment and shipped him to "some Original Six team in Canada" as KPD says; the kind of team that we don't need to name, right Dupont?
Funny that he has such a French-sounding name himself, though...
And it is equally amusing to note that, just like his namesakes from Belgium, Dupond & Dupont, he seems to contradict himself once in a while, as he is now effectively chastising and censuring a goal-keeper he has praised ceaselessly, even before he led the team to the promised land or ice rink...!
But let's just move on...!
“Thomas needed to be there in solidarity, and celebration, with his team,” served up Dupont, confident that his reputation makes him right on all of these non-truly-sports-related issues. “It was the same government yesterday, and will be today, that protected his country, his security, his family, and his right to make $5 million a year. In his absence, he stole his teammates’ spotlight." he added before pontificating one last time in style with the age-old mantra for all sports teams to build team spirit upon: “Win as a team. Lose as a team. And when asked to stand up and take a bow, then stand up there and suffer if need be, even if you don’t like the setting, the host, or any of the political trappings and tenets that come with it."
In a word, KPD - no. Winning or losing, and facing the consequences related to either, are two hugely different things. You can refuse to talk to the media after a loss; so can you refuse to see the corrupt politician after a win. What happened on the playing field -or rink as it may be here, even when it's a Winter Classic game which the Bruins won last time they were involved, 3-2 over another hated rival that prevented them from fulfilling their destiny a year earlier than they did; Philadelphia- has nothing to do with what is happening in the REAL WORLD, KPD!
You should know that. But then you're a Kevin - it is my experience that Kevins know diddly squat, no matter what their reputation gets to be or what they've achieved, really... But that is another story.
Tim Thomas has been quoted stating that "[the controversy] is all media-driven and it has been from the start." He has maintained that everything that he has said and everything that he has done was "as an individual." And so everything KPD and others have objected to has no reason to be for Tim acted "not as a representative of the Boston Bruins," and he repeated that on Friday at the All-Star Weekend in Ottawa. "All it has to do is with me. But it's separate from hockey. That's my personal life and those are my personal views. Those are my personal beliefs. It has nothing to do with hockey. It has nothing to do with this All-Star Game. It has nothing to do with the Boston Bruins." People do not seem to be hearing though (I told you they wouldn't...!) For Thomas has been nothing less than "chastised publicly by the likes of Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and Sen. Scott Brown" for not being there for the "honor" of standing next to Barack Obama...! Through all this, though, Thomas has remained unfazed Friday by the controversy that seemingly won't die. He ended on the topic with these words: "I would really appreciate if people would leave my teammates and my family out of it. I'm looking forward to getting back on the ice because that's what I do and that's what I love. I'm still going to have a lot of fun with it." Despite the putrid political atmosphere all around, that is - inside as outside of hockey!
For the media could not contain itself and launched a quest for commentary on this: and each and everyone would oblige them too! Former teammates (such as Phil Kessel, now with another Original Six team in Canada) were sympathetic to Timmy and respectful of his opinions - and guts! Current teammates (such as captain Chara) did the right and obvious thing, of course, and offered support for their suddenly "beleaguered teammate" as they all expressed a bit of surprise over the extent of the backlash over this. They all agree that it will not change the way that everyone relates to one another on the team (if anyone is of a different opinion on the B's team, he has yet to come forward with that! Truth is that, ever since they won it all, the media has tried to find something to "expose" about the Boston Bruins...! Well, they got their wish!)
Not surprisingly at all, rivals and foes were definitively not sympathetic: chief among them Flyers winger Scott Hartnell who declared that he was not "a big political guy or whatever" but that, for him, "it's a team event and should be an honor to be in the White House no matter what your political views are," proving with this statement that he is indeed a zero in politics. He added that, in his humble opinion, "it would've been the right thing to do to go there and enjoy the day, and who's gonna say he'll ever have another opportunity like that to go there again?" Of course, he hopes that Tim Thomas and his teammates never again get such a chance - he hopes that his gruff, rough, all-together hairy bunch of Broad Street Hillbillies get that great honor soon - or next! Not going to happen, Scott...
None of these opinions matter though, ultimately - for the truth is another.
For the truth is the following...
Dreams-come-true have no power over what is transpiring all about the dreamers: alas. It might be Heaven on Earth for you guys: and, right nextdoor to you, there's absolutely nothing rosey at all going on. And it will come to affect you, too, no matter how comfortably snuggled in you may be on that Cloud Nine there...
In short, such is the state of numbness of quite a few people (of the vast majority, quite frankly) all around, people such as KPD surely, who think nothing can affect them as they are cosy in a "safe place" - their team has won it all and they can make a mountain out of such a "snub" by Timmy, for example, because they're turning a blind eye to the real problems out there...
"Anonymous" said it best (much better than KPD anyways - that is for damn sure!)
when he commented on that story here (at exactly 10:52 AM on January 25th, 2012 -not 2011- it would appear to have been! But that is not important right now...)
"Anonymous" wrote the following: Thomas played for his country in 2010 because the USA is his country... but the US Government is "not automatically entitled to be supported" by U.S. citizens... Descent is not only allowed in a free society but it is encouraged... Thomas exercised his right to protest and did so... All educated people admire his decision to draw attention to a "government" (with both democratic and republican input) that has brought the collapse of world banking and the devaluation of all hard cash... Paper money is all that is holding the world together now and in time, another collapse will come... there is no gold behind the currencies today... it is just "paper".
"Anonymous" makes so much sense (as they seem to consistently do in these troubled days) even through all the intercuttings one senses were done by an unseen censoring hand - that one has got to wonder: who is this "anonymous" person? For, my, he or she is so... well, luminous!
;-)
But let's just move on once again, at this time...
There are all-star festivities going on at blogging time - back up north, in that other nation's capital, Ottawa, the former home of Bruins captain Zdeno Chara. There, there is no Barack Obama - there is only his cronie, Stephen Harper, and a whole lot of second bananas - but that is another story...
The all-star format has been criticized ad nauseam: for more of that stuff, just click on the logo below and indulge yourselves, if you will...
I quite simply love Ottawa: the city is a blend of old-style flavours that pleases the eye immensely and there is no denying that it is indeed Canada's equivalent of Boston (but I say that it is in terms of tradition, culture and style, be it architectural or eco-efficient. Others in the past have compared Ottawa to Boston in mere terms of size and population - ugh! How unimaginative. But how flattering for Boston: to be so equal in stature to another nation's CAPITAL...! The numb-skulls that made that comparison -hailing from one of those Original Six cities north of the border again- didn't think it through entirely or they would NOT have done it! But we're getting sidetracked now... And speaking of numb-skulls...)
That hated Habs goalie who chose to snub (here's that word again) his captain-for-a-day after being drafted onto his team was something that had to be expected - Chara being wanted by the police at one time in Montréal for his totally within the rules hit on Max Pacioretty, a player who needs a GPS in order to skate on his own home rink ice.
But that is another story.
Let us focus on the all-star game here...
Most write about how bad the current format is; how much it is not a real game of hockey...
Others, more original, will rather suggest how to get rid of it altogether and replace it with something else: a short series of games against the Russians or some other worthy international competition always come to the fore as one of the top suggestions. It will never happen.
Others still simply focus on all the negatives: such as the actual reasons why we should stop wasting our time with such an inane all-star weekend:
Here, we shall simply dream of the betterment of the tradition: because it is a tradition now, yes, even though it no longer resembles the once proud Conference versus Conference format that it used to have (the Western Conference would almost always outscore the more defence-prone Eastern Conference - but then the East would win most of the Cups in the yearly showdown at the very end, just like Boston did to Vancouver last spring!)
And so - 9 reasons to do without it? We'll have 9 WAYS FOR THE NHL TO IMPROVE IT:
9. Make it a week long thing: so that the majority of the players get an extended mid-season rest and can come back that much refreshed for the second half; the meaningful half!
8. Invite all-stars from other leagues, sure: make it a multi-league, international skills competition, sort of like a mini-olympics for hockey players! I'm sure the Bruins want to see those Tigers they defeated so handily at the very beginning of their Stanley Cup championship season...!
7. More all-stars from the past: devote much more time to them than a mere "old-timers game" that nobody watches!
6. In order to develop team spirit for these short-term teams, have them play more than a single game indeed: make it a best of five! Without real body contact or any rough stuff at all it shouldn't be too tiring for anybody involved...?
5. Since the league likes the shootout so much, have extended shootout sessions "for extra points" all throughout the skills competitions (which would be, once again, now extended through an entire week!)
4. Do not stop at the captain and coach for the teams: have a general manager too! Of course, once again, it would be the two G.M.s from the two finalists playing the parts. And they'd be allowed to trade players in-between these two teams AND send some home in favor of worthy players who stayed home to watch it on TV originally!
3. Probably an idea already realized (but I am not watching the NHL NETWORK, so) - have a reality TV show following the selected players around before the competitions and actual all-star game(s) - just to see how they really gel quick as a team...!
2. More interaction with the fans: allow them in the locker room, at luncheons with the players, dinners, the works! Been there, done that? Have it Make-A-Wish-Foundation marathon style, then! Go out of your way, above and beyond, to please the fans! Because you are nothing without the fans, NHL - remember that!
And 1. Special status of honor should be given to the main representative of the defending championship team - all the more reason to do so this year for it would be team president Cam Neely! A far better president than B.A. over there because here is one we can actually trust!
