But coming into the 2010 OUA football season, one thing is clear — this year’s competition is truly a crapshoot. Five of the ten…. errr nine teams have a legitimate shot at advancing to the Yates Cup, which is why the myriad of preseason rankings that currently litter the internet are kind of incredibly pointless.

So in lieu of irrelevant rankings based on silly things like talent, coaching or personnel, I’ve accumulated rankings based on optimism — ordered from those with the highest aspirations going into the season to the teams wallowing in despair.

As Larry Dobrow — whose awesome weekly MLB  power rankings and MLB optimism index are the inspiration for this experiment — put it, “think of it as a power rankings for your feelings.”

So here it is — your first ever OUA optimism rankings, along with selected notes and an optimism measure which I assure you is entirely arbitrary and based on absolutely nothing.

Photo by Jeff Chan

All photos courtesy of the incomparable Jeff Chan.

Ottawa Gee Gee’s — 96.4 — Aggressively confident

• The Gee Gee’s are singlehandedly keeping Ottawa bus drivers in business with their annually atrocious travel schedule. They get a bit of a break by drawing a date in Kingston and a bit of a kick in the teeth by opening their season in Windsor. It’s only 800 km…
• Of course, maybe that’s not such a bad thing. The Gee Gee’s went 4-0 on the road in 2009 but just 2-3 at home including their 27-15 playoff loss to McMaster.
• Tough to pinpoint why, but the Gee Gee’s have under-performed the last few years. Will rookie head coach Jean-Philippe Asselin — who, at 27-years-old, could probably play on this team — help shake them out of their funk?
• QB Brad Sinopoli is suddenly the most experienced pivot in the league after the three musketeers (Faulds, Brannagan, Dunk) moved on. He had a quietly impressive season — 11 touchdowns, 2084 yards — in 2009
• The team will field a starting lineup made up almost entirely of fifth year players — I guess they just like education that much…
• I’d love to make more fun of the Gee Gee’s here, but I’m struggling — this team actually looks really good.

Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks  — 90.2 — Firmly undaunted

Dillon Heap and head coach Gary Jeffries. Photo by Jeff Chan.

• This could be trouble. Taurean Allen is off to the CFL, Chime Ihekwoaba is gone to the NFL and Courtney Stephen is lost to the NCAA. Suddenly one of the scariest defences in the league doesn’t look so frightening.
• What they do have is a nifty training camp video featuring the Remember the Titans — “Are you sure football is fun!?!?!?” —  ‘run up and down the stadium stairs workout.
• Dillon Heap returns with his Tasmanian devil routine on kick returns. He’s easily the most exciting returner in the OUA.
• Meanwhile, University of Waterloo deserter Dustin Zender crosses University Ave. to join the Golden Hawks receiving corps and take some of the weightoff the shoulders ofHeap and Shamawd Chambers .
• No wonder the quarterback position is such a big question mark for so many OUA teams this year — Laurier is hogging all of them. They have three quarterbacks (incumbent Luke Thompson, last year’s second stringer turned starter Evan Pawliuk and NCAA transfer Shane Kelly) who can easily play well in this league. Someone’s not going to be happy with their playing time in that locker room.
• Not much to see on defence but if your ridiculously loaded offence can score 50+ points a game, what does it really matter?
• Slot back Vince Luciani has easily the best twitter account in the CIS. Never underestimate the value of street cred.
• Running back Mike Montoya and his Jersey Shore arms bench pressed 225 lbs 40 times at the CFL’s evaluation camp last year. Of course those wel-sculpted guns don’t really help when it comes to holding onto the football — he had more fumbles than touchdowns last season. But when you lead the league in rushing I suppose it doesn’t really matter.

McMaster Marauders — 88.7 — Discreetly promising

• There is legitimate reason to be optimistic here. The Marauders kind of resemble the 2009 Queen’s Gaels — a solid core of cohesive veterans who have been playing together for years. Add a division weakened by losing its top three quarterbacks and it could be a perfect storm for a McMaster run in the playoffs this year. Seriously…
• Sometimes it’s easy to forget that CIS football players are also full time students enrolled in anywhere from three to five courses per semester. Apparently Marauders cornerback Cody Lynch forgot about that too — after being named the OUA rookie of the year in 2009 he promptly flunked out of school.
• Marauders kicker Andrew Waugh was 9 for 12 on field goals last year which apparently wasn’t good enough to stop McMaster from recruiting kicking wizard Tyler Crapigna who may just be the next Rob Maver. Nice knowing ya, Andrew.
• Head coach Stefan Ptaszek’s name may be hard to pronounce, but he’s one of the craftier coaches in the OUA and hasn’t had a losing record in the regular season since he took over in 2006.
• The Marauders are probably regretting whatever they have done to scorn the OUA schedule-maker — they play Queen’s, Laurier, Western and Ottawa in their first four games.

Western Mustangs — 85.3 — Cautiously optimistic

Donnie Marshall (7) chats with his father and head coach Greg Marshall, left, and his predecessor Michael Faulds, right. Photo by Jeff Chan.

• Michael Faulds, who carried the team — sometimes on just one leg — for the past five years, is gone — off to York to pursue a career in coaching.
• Who will step up to fill the void? Donnie Marshall, the coach’s son? Ben Rossong, the incoming east coast phenom?  Jack Fairs, the former Mustangs basketball, hockey and tennis athlete who also played both ways for the football team and is currently the Mustangs squash coach? Okay maybe that last one is a stretch. But nevertheless, intrigue!
• Defensive Lineman Mike Van Praet is healthy — well, as healthy as you can be at 300+ pounds — and was recently described as a “dyke” by the London Free Press. Ummm… sure! UWO will just be happy if he can fill the void left by Chris Greaves who now plies his trade for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
• Running back Nathan Riva will be busy. If he can run for 200 yards a game like he did in the playoffs last year then maybe this team has a chance! Look for timeless head coach Greg Marshall — he’s still got it! — to call his own number and take over the running back duties if Riva falters.
• And as I write that Riva tears his hamstring in training camp. Panic! Does anyone have Da’Shawn Thomas’ cell number?
• Lil’ Wayne fan and occasional Gazette model John Surla — the 2009 OUA defensive player of the year — still patrols the secondary at TD Waterhouse, which is bad for opposition running backs but good for trash talk enthusiasts.
• WR Brian Marshall — son of head coach Greg, brother of QB Donnie, nephew of 80’s era FB Blake, not related to former Golden State Warriors small forward Donyell — joins the team as the Marshall brood’s plan to turn the Mustangs into a family business continues to evolve.
• Thanks to the wisenheimers at Waterloo, the Mustangs now open the season with three games in 11 days.
• My office is on the campus of the University of Western Ontario so be my guest and question this, but I think this Mustangs team is being seriously under-rated in pre-season polling.

Queen’s Gaels — 83.1 — Basking in the glow

• The good news is they’re still technically the national champions until November 27. The bad news? They lost the entire core of their team. Minor detail…
• Last season the Gaels’ offensive line was a lot like the mother hen at the bar on Saturday night — nothing was getting through that. But with several new faces this season, things could get rather uncomfortable for the Gaels quarterback…
• Oh yeah, who the hell is going to play quarterback? Justin Chapdelaine would seem to have the inside track, but he’s going to have a steep learning curve. He was sacked three times in the extremely limited action he saw last season. A point of reference? Danny Brannagan — who took 98% of the snaps — was sacked just five times all season…
• Whoever gets the call behind centre will certainly have some targets to throw too. Devan Sheahan, Blaise Morrison and Chris Ioannides will spread defences like butter.
• The defence is Osie Ukwuoma’s unit now, I guess. But when your best defensive player past him is probably sophomore Frank Pankewich, we may have a problem.
• I will say this — Ben D’Andrea, Alex Daprato and Stephen Laporte picked up their games defensively in the 2009 playoffs when it counted. Especially in the Vanier Cup.
• Of course the biggest advantage for the Gaels is Richardson Stadium, the dilapidated grassy abyss… I mean… football field they play on. They haven’t lost a regular season game at home since 2007.

The Gaels offensive line was their mother hen in 2009. Photo by Jeff Chan.

Gryphons — 73.4 — Shaken resolve

• Good news for people who like bad news — the Gryphons lost easily their three best players from 2009 in QB Justin Dunk, K Rob Maver and OL Ryan Bomben.
• Standout running back Nick FitzGibbon is still around but past him things get real iffy on the offensive side of the ball which is traditionally a strength for the Gryphons.
• True story — Dunk is the sports editor for the Guelph student newspaper The Ontarion this year. Objectivity is overrated anyway…
• We are talking about optimism here and, quite frankly, second year QB Chris Rossetti doesn’t inspire confidence in anybody.
• Conventional wisdom says defence wins football games so respect to the Gryphons for thinking outside the box by not fielding one. This is easily still one of the worst defensive units outside of metropolitan Toronto. They allowed an astronomical 490 yards per game last season.
• Another true story — At last year’s homecoming game, the nor’ westerly wind caught the cloud of marijuana smoke that hung over Guelph campus and blew it down onto the sidelines of the Western Mustangs. The Gryphons were almost able to beat their suddenly timid and hungry foes, but Western held on for the 41-39 win. Good try, fellas…
• Incoming Head Coach Stu Lang — who won hearts when he said he would coach the team if they only paid him a dollar — brings two full time coordinators with him who should help over-complicate things for this young Gryphons squad.
• New coaching staff, same atrocious defence, young yet underwhelming offence — this is a team just trying to tread water

University of Toronto Varsity Blues — 60.3 — Gaining courage

• Oh, silly U of T. Investing all of your money into academics and research instead of athletics. Idiots…
• The Blues are actually fairly excited about their backfield this year. Really, no joke. Walter Cariazo — who is deceptively speedy — returns to battle for snaps with University of Toledo — like, the NCAA division one University of Toledo — transfer Chris Weiland and prized recruit Keema Nnawuchi.
• Here’s a reason for optimism: They have the Neate Sager bump. The CIS guru — and unabashed Queen’s supporter — actually picked this team to finish 3-5 and earn the sixth and final OUA playoff spot.
• Here’s a reason to forget about that optimism: the team does not have a defence. They gave up 500 yards per game last season and didn’t make a single significant addition to the unit in the off season.
• Andrew Gillis is back behind centre. Surely he’s familiar with the playbook but it doesn’t really matter when half your snaps just turn into scrambles anyway. If only he had some semblance of an offensive line we could actually see what it’s like when he passes the ball.
• The Varsity Blues are kind of like Entourage — Any given week you might get a good surprise individual performance but as a whole it’s pretty bad.

Windsor Lancers — 42.1 — Secure with own inadequacy

• Wait, these guys still have a team?
• Kinda like how standing next to the pimply kid with the lazy eye in class pictures always made you look better by comparison, not much attention has been paid to the Lancers’ futility in recent years because, well, York and Toronto are just a bit better at being terrible.
• The Lancers made absolutely zero sense in 2009, only managing to beat the putrid York Lions by three points and allowing Waterloo to shut them out 49-0, while at the same time losing to McMaster by just a point and putting up a good fight against Ottawa in the final week of the season. Why don’t things ever just happen the way they’re supposed to in this league?
• Say what you will about the Warriors, they certainly make things interesting. They managed to lose to McMaster in overtime last year when they blocked a field goal and returned it for a touchdown only to have the play negated by a blocking penalty, giving McMaster a single point and the win.
• I really, really want to mention a couple notable incoming players for this season, but it’s just a wasteland of poor recruiting and misused resources.
• Their perceived advantage in American recruitment — Like Brett Favre’s retirement and hangover-free beer — was unfortunately just too good to be true.
• There is a very real possibility that this team could drop below Toronto if they don’t get their act together. And that’s something I never thought I would write.

York Lions — 24.9 Soul-crushing despair

• Optimism? What is this optimism that you speak of?
  

  York quarterback Nickolas Coutu. Photo by Jeff Chan.

• True optimists will tell you that, like Shania Twain in a basement elevator, the Lions can only go up from here. Unless they somehow get worse this year — which is actually a possibility…
• Last season the Lions defensive strategy basically consisted of trying to hold the opposing team to under 50 points — a feat they only accomplished in half their games…
• The last time York won a game? September 29, 2007 when they beat the University of Toronto 21-20 in a barn burner that saw both teams punt for more yards than they collected offensively. We’d all like to pretend that debacle never happened, but until York wins again — don’t hold your breath — it’s a part of history…
• The season should get off on the right foot — the Lions chose to play their only preseason game against perennial Vanier Cup favourites Laval for reasons that can only be explained as masochistic.
• Unless they can figure out how to multiply his DNA and begin farming an army of football players in his mold, it’s doubtful that former Mustangs QB and CIS all-time leading passer Michael Faulds can save this offence as its new coordinator.
• But look on the bright side, not many teams boast offensive coordinators who are better athletes than the majority of the team. So they’ve got that.

Waterloo Warriors — 2.9 — Awkwardly lingering

• Waterloo looks to challenge this year with a good core of returning players plus a talented class of incoming recruits. They’ll have strong contributions from…
• What’s that? They arrested who? And the school did what? For the entire season? Oh… This is awkward….

Ever taken the five-hour Via Rail trip from Toronto to Montreal? It’s not exactly an invigorating experience.

Some pass the time testing the arm rest’s structural integrity. Some plot revenge on

the seat-reclining oaf ahead of them. Some just sleep.

Toronto Argonauts offensive lineman Rob Murphy gets all xenophobic on the internet.

The story goes like this. On the Argonaut’s train ride to Montreal last week for the team’s inevitable drubbing — it was only 41-10 this time — at the hands of the league-best Alouettes, Murphy chose to bide his time on twitter, freely sharing his opinions of our country’s storied francophone heritage. He’s since deleted the tweets, but once upon a time they read like this:

“At train station… Pumped to be smelling foreigners this early in the A.M. They smell less offensive this way… little known fact.”

Followed shortly thereafter by…

“Ok… the novelty of riding on a train thru Ontario and “Frenchland” has worn out… get me off this damn thing!!!!”

After the ensuing backlash, Murphy — who has since made his twitter account private, meaning only those who he approves can follow him — defended himself on the social network, saying he was just trying to be funny.

“Obviously my recent tweets have gotten blown out of proportion. […] I’m sorry if I offended anyone by my recent comments. I was JOKING around.”

Both the Argos and the CFL don’t seem to share Murphy’s, um, unique sense of humour. They both fined the 33-year-old under the league’s social media policy, making Murphy the first player to be punished under the act.

Were Murphy’s comments, say, offensive? Sure. Misguided? Of course. But they weren’t unlike anything else that’s freely available on Twitter and, in a larger sense, the internet. The web is ungoverned and — in most areas of the world — uncensored which means it has the dubious ability to turn into a global dumping ground for all the world’s sexism, racism, homophobia and good ol’ general hate. It’s not a particularly good thing, but it is what it is. The positives of the internet far outweigh the negatives.

The problem with Murphy’s case is that he’s a professional athlete. He’s not just representing himself — which would make it okay for him to be as offensive and disparaging as he pleases. He’s representing the Toronto Argonauts, the Canadian Football League and Canadian football itself. You just can’t say whatever you want.

That’s why the league instituted its social media policy last season as more and more of its athletes began experimenting with twitter. Any comments players make on twitter are considered public and subject to discipline. The league also took the step of banning players’ twitter usage from 20 minutes before a game until 20 minutes after the game.

What the CFL would like to protect here is the romantic idea that the locker room at half time looks like Any Given Sunday.

It’s a nice image. Players huddle around each other, nervously clenching water bottles with nary a smile in the room — focusing purely on the game and what to do in the second half.

The CFL certainly doesn’t want fans to think that when players enter the locker room the first thing they pick up is their Blackberry — not their playbook.

But it’s clear that minds may be wandering in game. Saskatchewan’s Tad Kornegay tweeted during halftime of the 2009 Grey Cup and several athletes from other sports (Charlie Villanueva and Shaquille O’Neal to name a couple) have taken to their smart phones during down time to keep themselves — and, of course, all of us — entertained.

And what we have right there is the fine line that professional leagues like the CFL must tread. The positives that come from having their athletes participate in the world of social media are too large to ignore. Allowing players to interact with fans and show their personalities outside of post-game clichés is an exceptionally good thing — especially now that everyone and their arrogant cat have Twitter.

But it’s increasingly hard for leagues to control their athletes’ public image when they are free to roam within social media. And any league executive will tell you that in professional sports, public perception is absolutely paramount.

Figuring out how to walk that line makes the art of what and when to tweet still a bit tricky for the CFL and its athletes. The good news is that several current stars (Avon Cobourne, Arland Bruce, Byron Parker) and even a couple former ones (Damon Allen, Wally Buono) have figured it out.

As we carry on in the social media era there will surely be more public missteps — rule number one of professional sports is that athletes will do silly things. But the CFL knows twitter is a good thing for their league and don’t be surprised if they start encouraging more of their athletes to open accounts.

Let’s just say that players shouldn’t skip the ‘right and wrong times to express xenophobia’ session during media training.

E-mail Arden at arden@westerngazette.ca . You can also follow him on Twitter at @ArdenAtGazette

A couple notes today — one from the pros and two from close to home.

Jose Bautista

Well this has worked out well, now hasn’t it.

Acquired by former Blue Jays general manager JP Ricciardi in 2008 for a player to be named later — the player turned out to be switch-hitting catcher Robinson Diaz, who is now a minor leaguer treading water in the Detroit Tigers organization — Jose Bautista can’t be labeled as anything less than a smashing success.

Currently leading the league in home runs on Wednesday morning  with 30 — he’s probably smacking a couple more right now as I write this — Bautista has the most dingers of any professional baseball player since last September. More than Ryan Howard. More  than Mark Teixeira. More than Alex Rodriguez. You get the point.

That’s why the Blue Jays have to get rid of him. Soon.

If Jose Bautista is still on the Blue Jays roster after the July 31st non-waiver trade deadline, the Jays will have made a huge mistake.

Look, by all accounts Bautista is a really good guy and a fantastic comeback story, but everyone and their escaped boa constrictor knows that the guy is hitting way over his head. Eventually, his production will slow down and return to his career norms. Remember, he’s never hit more than 24 home runs — he did it in 2oo5 in double-A — in any season at any level in his career. The time to cash in on Bautista’s inflated value is now when his stock is through the roof — before it comes crashing back down to earth.

Bautista turns 30 this year, which is typically the age where power number decline. The exceptions to that rule come, of course,  during the steroids era when, well, you know how that story goes.

No matter what any of the mouth-breathers who phone radio call-in shows say, the Blue Jays are not going to contend this year or next. If Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos is savvy, he’ll trade Bautista now for quality young ball players who can help the team down the road when it’s ready to challenge for a playoff spot.

Noteworthy Mustangs

Aa always, your Western Mustangs are hard at work over the summer, training for their upcoming seasons and participating in events around the continent.

Unfortunately we only had one summer issue this year — sorry, I couldn’t stop the frisbee thing — so we weren’t able to shine as much light on their goings-on as we have in the past, but here’s a couple stories you should check out.

Jacqueline Rennebohm, a visually-impaired Mustangs track and field athlete, set a Canadian record in the 200m at a track meet in Windsor earlier this month with a time of 28.6 seconds, besting the previous record by more than two milliseconds.

The second-year social sciences major — whose eyes can only detect colour and motion from objects five feet away — works with a running guide and competed at the 2008 Beijing Olympics as a paralympic swimmer.

Taylor Stewart, a London native, won a bronze medal at the 2010 IAAF Track and Field World Junior Championships last week.

The 19-year-old, entering his first year at Western, lept 7.63 metres to secure the medal.

I’ve been hearing about Stewart around London for some time now and everyone who sees him compete thinks he’s going to be a star. He’s one to watch this year.

E-mail Arden at arden@westerngazette.ca . You can also follow him on twitter at @ArdenAtGazette

Sometimes in life — and I know this can be hard to believe — there are things that are bigger than baseball. Believe it or not, a meeting of the leaders of the 20 most economically powerful nations in the world trumps a mid-season baseball series. Whether Roy Halladay is pitching or not.

That’s why on Tuesday the Toronto Blue Jays and Major League Baseball were forced to move the Jays three game series against the Philadelphia Phillies on June 25-27 from Toronto to Philadelphia because it conflicted with the G20 conference, which is scheduled to occur right across the street from the Roger’s Centre that same weekend.

The fact that this series was to be former Blue Jays ace Roy Halladay’s homecoming is simply an unfortunate coincidence.

The reaction from Blue Jays fans has been far from positive, which is to be expected. It’s irrational and unreasonable — but expected. This is Toronto, after all.

The G20 summit has never taken place in Canada which might explain why Toronto baseball fans seem to not understand the unbelievable chaos it can create on city streets.

At the last summit in Pittsburgh in September 2009, 4,500 people participated in demonstrations, causing $50,000 worth of damage and leading to 190 arrests. At the London summit in March 2009 an estimated 35,000 people took part in protests.

A crowd of 20,000 baseball fans streaming out of the Rogers Centre into the demonstrations would be absurd. There’s no need to add to what will already surely be a difficult situation for Toronto law enforcement.

I know it’s in a Toronto sports fans’ nature to assume every unpopular decision is some extravagant conspiracy against them, but this was really the only solution to a less than desirable situation. As reported by Jeff Blair of the Globe and Mail, the city of Toronto requested to have the G20 moved elsewhere — or back to Huntsville where other portions of the conference will take place — in February. The federal government was also asked to change the location to Exhibition place to avoid the inevitable congestion in Toronto’s downtown core. Neither situation came to fruition, thus the baseball series was transplanted to Philadelphia. It was the only solution to a difficult problem.

The fact of the matter is if this were any of the 29 other MLB teams, no one would give two scoops. In fact, if this had happened in 2009 before the Halladay trade, no one would care either. A great majority of fans are only upset because they won’t get the chance to see Halladay pitch in red, white and blue.

Fans could have seen Roy Halladay pitch at the Rogers’ Centre every five days for the past 11 years yet they never showed up. Unless it was opening day, attendance at the Rogers Centre (49,539 capacity) has always hovered around 25,000 for Halladay’s starts in a Blue Jays uniform.

The average attendance for Halladay’s 18 home starts in 2009 was 26,140. Take away opening day (48,027) which is always the Jays best attended game of the year and May 12 (43,737 paid customers) when disgraced former Blue Jays pitcher AJ Burnett returned with the New York Yankees, and you have an average attendance of 23,672 for Halladay’s starts in Toronto. That doesn’t even fill half the stadium.

What’s more, just 20,668 showed up to see Halladay’s final home game as a Blue Jay on September 25, 2009 — a complete game shutout against the Seattle Mariners that saw Halladay allow just seven hits while striking out 9. Where were all these supposedly diehard fans for that classic Halladay performance?

Halladay will be back next year. After a formal request to MLB from the Blue Jays, the Phillies are expected to make an interleague stop in Toronto in 2011 so the team and its fans can properly honour Halladay. And that’s the way it should be.

But Jays fans don’t deserve to cry foul over losing this year’s Philadelphia series. They took Halladay for granted in the decade plus that he pitched in Toronto and now that he’s gone they feel they have some sort of cardinal right to see their former hero pitch for another team. That’s simply not the case — especially when the 20 world leaders representing 80% of world trade are bunking next door.

Blue Jays 2009 home attendance for Roy Halladay starts

(All Numbers from www.baseball-reference.com)

Home starts: 18

Average attendance: 26,140

Average attendance (minus opening day & AJ Burnett’s return): 23,672

Game-by-game attendance

Monday, Apr. 6 vs. DET (Opening Day) – 48,027

Tuesday, Apr. 21 vs. TEX – 20,996

Friday, May 1 vs. BAL – 20,202

Tuesday, May 12 vs. NYY (AJ Burnett’s return) – 43,737

Sunday, May 17 vs. CHW – 37,147

Tuesday, June 2 vs. LAA – 26,809

Sunday, June 7 vs. KCR – 21,071

Friday, June 12 vs. FLA – 17,922

Monday, June 29 vs. TBR – 15,665

Sunday, July 19 vs. BOS – 36,534

Friday, July 24 vs. TBR – 24, 161

Tuesday, August 4 vs. NYY – 33,669

Sunday, August 9 vs. BAL – 27,464

Wednesday, August 19 vs. BOS – 25,925

Monday, August 24 vs. TBR – 17,184

Friday, September 4 vs. NYY – 22,179

Wednesday, September 9 vs. MIN – 11,159

Friday, September 25 vs. SEA – 20,668

It’s hard not to enjoy watching the Montreal Canadiens’ unlikely rise through the NHL playoffs.

Sneaking in the back door as the eighth seed, the Canadiens have already eliminated the President’s Trophy winning Washington Capitals in the first round. Now, with a 4-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins in game six of their second round series Monday night, the team is one victory away from eliminating the defending Stanley Cup champions.

Not bad for an underdog bunch who were supposed to just be happy to participate in the post season.

What makes the Canadiens’ success such a fantastic story is the cast that has contributed to it.

Hal Gill was chased out of Toronto in 2008, labeled as old, slow and timid. He joined Darcy Tucker, Bryan McCabe, Nik Antropov and a cast of other scapegoats who were unfairly blamed for the Leafs failings after the 2004 NHL lockout. He was traded to Pittsburgh where he suddenly became a top shutdown defenceman, winning a Stanley Cup in 2009. After that he joined the Canadiens where he has continued his strong play, holding Sidney Crosby — who scored five goals in six games against Ottawa in the first round — goalless through the first five games of the Canadiens series against Pittsburgh. It’s no coincidence that Crosby scored a goal and an assist in game six of the series when Gill was in the press box recovering from a lacerated calf.

Canadiens goaltender Jaroslav Halak was drafted in the ninth round of the 2003 NHL entry draft and despite never posting a goals against average above 2.89 in seven years of professional hockey, the Slovakian has never been regarded as a quality number one goaltender until now. His play in the playoffs has been nothing short of spectacular and all of a sudden his name is mentioned in the same breath as legendary Canadiens goaltenders Ken Dryden and Patrick Roy.

Brian Gionta (five-foot-seven), Scott Gomez (five-foot-eleven) and Michael Cammalleri (five-foot-nine) were considered by most teams to be too small when they hit the free agent market in the summer of 2009. The Canadiens took advantage of their perceived market value, scooping up the diminutive trio who are now three of Montreal’s top four point getters in the playoffs.

The list of role players goes on for the blue collar Habs who are easily — sorry, Vancouver — Canada’s best hope for a Stanley Cup Champion — the first since these same Canadiens won Lord Stanley’s mug in 1993.

And that drives Gary Bettman and the folks who run the NHL nuts.

The NHL playoffs is the only time other than January’s Winter Classic when hockey’s profile is raised in the United States and Bettman and the league’s 29 owners know that this is a terrific time to capitalize on the game’s market presence. But without superstars like Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby, drawing interest from passive American fans is next to impossible.

The NBA are the masters of marketing their stars. During their playoffs — which have featured far less drama and intrigue than the NHL’s post season — they run constant television ads featuring Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard and Steve Nash, NBA stars whose teams are making long runs in the playoffs. The NHL would love nothing more than to follow this model.

But with the Canadiens having already eliminated Ovechkin and his Washinton Capitals in the first round and pushing Crosby and Penguins to the brink in the second, the NHL is in danger of seeing its two biggest stars watch the rest of the playoffs from home.

The success of the Canadiens is great for the Tim Horton’s drinking hockey fans north of the border who love nothing more than to see a blue collar team go far in the post season with hard work and fundamental hockey. But without Crosby or Ovechkin taking part in the show, the NHL has no icons with which to market their game to Americans. That’s why, for Bettman and the 29 owners of NHL teams, the Canadiens can’t leave the party soon enough.

A Montreal victory Wedneseday night against Pittsburgh in game seven is the last thing the NHL wants. Unfortunately for them, there isn’t much they can do to stop it.

You know what the best thing about the NHL playoffs is? The return of good hockey. No more bumbling stalemates between the Florida Panthers and the Toronto Maple Leafs with both teams coasting at half speed, trying to preserve their 1-1 tie for overtime where they’ll both be awarded a point they truly do not deserve. Finally we can watch hockey where the best team wins — not the team who screws up the least.

The Ottawa vs. Pittsburgh series was one of the more entertaining matchups the first round had to offer. Ottawa was eventually over-matched by the high-powered Penguins and their one-man scoring machine who wears number 87, but the series provided compelling, physical, high-scoring hockey which is exactly what NHL commissioner Gary Bettman needs to sell this game to Americans. This was the brand of hockey that can raise the profile of our nation’s favourite sport south of the border.

This is also the brand of hockey that could raise the profile of an Ottawa Senators team that overcame a lot more adversity than they were ever given credit for. Despite a year that saw the cards completely stacked up against them, Ottawa finished fifth in the East and, with some tinkering over the off season, should be in position for a deep run in the Eastern conference playoffs next season.

They started the season under the black cloud of the Dany Heatley trade — a circumstance of unbelievable athlete selfishness. Heatley demanded a trade less than a year after signing a six-year, $45 million contract extension with the Senators and coming off of his worst statistical season since he was a rookie. That didn’t do wonders for Heatley’s trade value.

Then, Senators GM Bryan Murray was ready to pull the trigger on a good deal with the Edmonton Oilers, only to have Heatley veto the move at the eleventh hour, sending Murray back to the drawing board. The Oilers had offered Andrew Cogliano, Dustin Penner and Ladislav Smid in return — three players that would have nicely complimented the Senators’ current talent.

Instead, Murray would end up shipping Heatley to the San Jose Sharks for Milan Michalek, Jonathan Cheechoo and a second round pick in this June’s NHL entry draft. Cheechoo was an enormous bust, scoring just five times in 61 games with Ottawa, after which he was demoted to the minors. Meanwhile, Michalek showed promise, scoring 22 goals in 66 games before tearing a ligament in his knee, which ended his season.

Penner scored 32 goals and 63 points for the Oilers this year. Cheechoo and Michalek combined for 27 goals and 48 points. ‘Nuff said.

The Senators season didn’t get much better from there. The team made a splash in the free agent market, signing sniper Alexei Kovalev to a two year, $10 million contract. The 37-year-old Russian was counted on to provide the offensive output the team would be missing with the departure of Heatley, but he faltered, scoring just 18 goals and 49 points in 77 games. There’s no questioning Kovalev’s talent — before coming to Ottawa, he scored more than 100 goals in his four seasons with Montreal — but his play was uninspired and sluggish at best this season, and, like Michalek, he was injured for the playoffs.

Behind the bench, Cory Clouston achieved a rare milestone for the Senators — he lasted a full season as head coach. No easy feat, considering the death row of coaches that came before him: Craig Hartsburg (48 games), Bryan Murray (18 games) and John Paddock (64 games). When Clouston was brought in from the Senators farm team to replace Hartsburg midway through last season, he was seen by many as a place holder — a temporary replacement to tend the stables until the end of the season. However, he was brought back this year and has been a relative success. He took the Senators back to the playoffs after a one-year absence, lit a fire under Mike Fisher who had the best season of his ten-year career and turned the defensive pair of Anton Volchenkov and Chris Phillips into an elite NHL shutdown duo.

And, of course, it wouldn’t be a Senators season without a goaltending controversy. Pascal Leclaire was brought in late last season to assume the starting role, however his 09/10 season was derailed by injuries and inconsistent play. Cue backup Brian Elliott who stepped in and stole the number one spot, winning 29 of the 55 regular season games he started. Of course, Elliott’s wheels fell off at the worst possible time, as the young net minder allowed 14 goals in four playoff games, opening the door for Leclaire to reclaim his starting role. Leclaire was better, posting a 2.85 goals against average and .920 save percentage in three playoff games before the Senators were eliminated by the Penguins.

Considering the mountain of challenges they had to overcome in a tough 09/10 season, the Senators did pretty well for themselves with 94 points and a first round playoff series that saw them take the defending Stanley Cup champions — and favourites to repeat — to six games.

Next year is looking good too. The team has two good, young goaltenders, a physical edge (See: Neil, Chris or Sutton, Andy) and scoring in Fisher, Kovalev, Michalek, Jason Spezza and team captain Daniel Alfredsson. If the team can resign Volchenkov, the defence will be in good shape with him, Phillips, Chris Campoli and promising youngster Erik Karlsson. Not to mention Clouston who has proven he can coach at the NHL level. If Ottawa adds a piece or two via free agency in the summer, the team might not be far off from a deep playoff run — which is more than most other Canadian teams can say.

I get it, Toronto sports fans. You’re fickle. That’s why you cheer ridiculously when the Raptors score 100 points, entitling you to a voucher for a free slice of pizza that you probably won’t even redeem. That’s also why you boo Lyle Overbay pitch-by-pitch when he’s in the middle of a slump at the beginning of the season. It’s cool — you’re just not that bright.

The fact of the matter is, Lyle Overbay is not as bad as the boo birds at the Rogers Centre and the boobs on radio call in shows think he is. This is baseball — players slump. No one’s jumping all over Jays future franchise player Travis Snider, who is hitting .108 and slugging .243 this season.  If anything, Jays fans should be expecting far more power from Snider’s bat than Overbay’s. So why don’t they boo Snider at every at bat? His numbers are just as bad as Overbay’s.

A big problem with Overbay’s production comes against left-handed pitching. Overbay stopped hitting lefties two years ago — plain and simple. It doesn’t take much of a hitting coach to note Overbay hasn’t been the same against left-handers since John Danks broke his right wrist with a fastball on June 3, 2007. Clearly, the resulting spiral fracture and surgery Overbay had to correct the problem has affected his swing.

Before he was injured in 2007, Overbay hit .287 agaisnt lefties with a .472 slugging percentage. In 2008, after the surgery, Overbay hit just .215 against left-handers with a measly .255 slugging percentage. Those numbers got even worse in 2009 when he hit .190 and slugged .229.

This year? Overbay is 0 for 15 against lefties — a number that is absolutely killing his batting average (currently .080), which is the number most fans point to when criticizing Overbay’s performance this season. Take away those 15 at bats against lefties and his average goes up to .114. A point of reference? That would be the exact same batting average through Monday as New York Yankees first baseman Mark Teixiera — who makes $20 million this year, by the way.

Why Cito Gaston insists on continually marching Overbay out against left-handed pitching at this point is beyond me. As I’ve said before, he has veteran slugger Randy Ruiz — who has hit at a pace of one home run per 12 at bats with the Blue Jays — on the bench who could easily sub in at first base instead of Overbay against left handers.

Gaston likes to stick with his guys, however, and won’t be working a platoon at first anytime soon. And even though I don’t agree with the move, I admit that it’s not the worst thing that could happen. This way Overbay can hit his way out of his slump, thus raising his trade value ahead of the July non-waiver trade deadline and giving Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos another chip to play with. Ship Overbay off to another team and clear the way for heavy hitting Jays prospect Brett Wallace to come up and get some major league at bats — nothing wrong with that.

Or keep Overbay until the end of the year — he is a free agent at the end of the season, after all. Eventually his numbers will improve and he’ll likely be a type B free agent, meaning the Jays will receive a compensatory pick when he signs elsewhere. And trust me, his numbers will improve.

Remember, last year Overbay was third on the Blue Jays in doubles, second in on base percentage and fourth in slugging percentage. His 16 home runs and 64 RBIs in 2009 were on par with Vernon Wells’ numbers (15 HR, 66 RBI) and Wells had almost 200 more plate appearances than Overbay.

Lyle Overbay is simply not a bad hitter. Sure, he won’t hit 30 home runs or 100 RBIs but a first baseman does not have to do that. One of the biggest misconceptions among fans is that the corner infielders must hit for power, your second baseman and shortstop can hit poorly as long as they play good defence and your centre fielder must be your leadoff man who steals bases. These are baseball stereotypes. Every team needs a good balance of contact, power and speed to be successful at the plate, but why do those attributes have to come from certain positions?

Who says the first baseman has to be a power hitter? That’s a ridiculous misconception. Overbay consistently gets on base, scores runs, moves runners along and works pitchers deep into counts. What’s not to like? If Jays fans got that from John McDonald, Alex Gonzalez, Jose Bautista or John Buck, they’d be over the moon.

I know you’re fickle, Toronto. But if you think Lyle Overbay is your biggest problem with the 2010 Blue Jays, you’re in for a long haul.

It’s fitting that the last image of Chris Bosh in a Toronto Raptors uniform fans will ever see was of the 6-10 power forward writhing in pain on the floor with a fractured nose and upper jaw, blood pouring from his face. After all, Bosh and Toronto fans have been headed for an ugly breakup for a long time now and someone was bound to get hurt.

Bosh is, of course, now officially an ex-Raptor. Not that I’ve talked to him about it or anything, but I’d say the likelihood of him returning to Toronto next season can be found on the back of his jersey — about 4%. I mean, just ask yourself: If you were Chris Bosh, would you stay?

Bosh has been Roy Halladay-esque since the Raptors season ended last Wednesday with a decisive victory over the New York Knicks which gave the team the distinction of finishing one game out of the playoffs instead of two. He’s answered all the questions, said he likes the city, insisted he hasn’t made up his mind and doesn’t know what the future holds, etc.  And, like Halladay, he said he wants to win — a prospect that isn’t particularly realistic in Southern Ontario at the moment. It took Halladay 11 seasons before he figured out it wasn’t going to happen in Toronto, forcing the Blue Jays to ship him to Philadelphia where he could hardly contain his excitement to have a chance at playing in the playoffs.
But give Bosh credit, he did lay out the factors that could make him consider returning. Speaking to reporters on Thursday, the Raptors all-time leading rebounder and scorer said GM Bryan Colangelo must make changes to the current roster, convince ownership to spend in excess of the NBA’s luxury tax threshold and acquire an all-star player for him to play with. Fortunately, he stopped short of demanding the Air Canada Centre be renamed Chris Bosh Place. It’s noble of Bosh to give his boss advice on how to do his job — noble and severely misguided.

Don’t you think Colangelo would have done all of that by now if he could? Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment — who own the Raptors, the Maple Leafs, the Air Canada Centre, several condominiums and the wallets of Toronto sports fans — are certainly far from cash-strapped. If there was a premier free agent available who could elevate Toronto to a playoff team but force the Raptors to spend into the luxury-tax, surely Colangelo and MLSE would have brought him in by now. Playoff games in Toronto equal a big pay day, of course, and MLSE wouldn’t be silly enough to turn that down.

But there’s smart spending and there’s silly spending. And there have been few instances on the open market recently where it would make logical sense for the Raptors to open the vault to bring in talent. Especially in the NBA, you do not want to get weighed down by a mediocre player with a long, expensive contract.  Hedo Turkoglu immediately comes to mind.

So what else do you want, Chris? An all-star player to play with? Well, the problem is there just aren’t that many all stars in the league. At this year’s NBA all star game there were a total of 28 players — 10 starters and 18 reserves. Meanwhile, just six teams had more than one representative at the game — Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Denver, LA Lakers and Phoenix. A veritable who’s who of NBA playoff basketball year after year. There just aren’t that many teams with more than one all star and they happen to be the best of the best in the league — something the Raptors can only dream of.

Bosh is suggesting the Raptors put themselves in that group by acquiring another all-star caliber player, but he’s assuming that an all star would want to come and play in Toronto, a Canadian city with few opportunities for endorsements or American television exposure. Is it really a coincidence that Bosh — arguably the most underrated, under-appreciated and under-talked-about player in the league — just so happens to play in the oft-forgotten Northern market?

Sure, it’d be nice to bring in Lebron James or Dwyane Wade this off-season, but even the most naïve Raptor fan knows that’s wholly unrealistic. Do you really think Colangelo has been turning down opportunities to sign players of that caliber?

Bosh is as good as gone, which is fine. The Raptors will survive, rebuild around Turkoglu and Andrea Bargnani and hope to sneak into eighth place in the graveyard that is the Eastern Conference next year. But Bosh’s franchise advice is completely impractical and can also been seen as a shot at Colangelo’s team-building philosophy of recent years. Building a successful basketball team in Toronto is enough of a challenge — certainly Colangelo could do without Bosh’s advice.

10. Mustangs keep playoff hopes alive

It was a tough season for the Mustangs women’s hockey team who lost ten games by just a goal on their way to finishing one point out of the playoffs. Head coach Paul Cook stepped down at the end of the season after accumulating a 53-99-21 record over his seven years at the helm. We were criticized for our coverage of the women’s hockey team here but I stand by our reporting. We cover the Mustangs — we are not their cheerleaders. It would be detrimental to our journalistic integrity if we wrote off poor play because the team ‘tried really hard’ or blamed officiating and bad bounces for losses. Some media outlets in this city and on this campus make a habit of that kind of unprofessional boosterism. Not the Gazette. Read the article.

9. Argos could be in play for Canadian QB

I wrote this blog ahead of the CFL’s annual evaluation camp in Toronto where several Canadian Interuniversity Sport athletes auditioned for jobs in the CFL. I felt that one of the three quarterbacks from the CIS had a pretty good shot at earning a contract with the Toronto Argonauts and, as it turned out, I was right — Danny Brannagan signed with the Boatmen the following Monday. Of course, Mustangs quarterback Michael Faulds was invited to the camp but had to sit out because he’s still recovering from a torn ACL which he suffered last season and played on throughout the playoffs. Whether a healthy Faulds would have earned a CFL contract at the evaluation camp remains — much like his future as a football player — up in the air. Read the article.

8. Men’s hockey off to semis

My fellow sports editor Daniel Da Silva wrote this recap of the Mustangs men’s hockey team’s opening round playoff series against the unnecessarily lengthily named University of Ontario Institute of Technology Ridgebacks. UOIT was a thorn in the Mustangs side all season long. They snapped Western’s 16-game winning streak in January, forced a shootout in the second-last game of the season and beat the Mustangs 2-1 at Thompson Arena in the opening game of the 2010 playoffs. The Mustangs got by UOIT in the first round of the playoffs but would eventually fall shy of their bid to return to the National Championships. Read the article.

7. Sixteen Things

This is the second of four of my blog posts to appear on this list which certainly bodes well for the Gazette’s increased web presence in 2010. This one dealt with the NHL’s participation — or lack thereof — at the 2014 winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, the Toronto Raptors’ reliance on power forward Chris Bosh and the Toronto Blue Jays prospects for the coming season. If you ask me, it’s not my best work. Read the article.

6. Mustangs bury Guelph

This game story was written after a Mustangs women’s basketball mid-season game and for the life of me I cannot figure out why it is on the top ten list. I was lucky enough to cover the team several times this year and was always impressed with the commitment and hard work the girls showed on and off the court. Head coach Stephan Barrie is one of the most dedicated, caring coaches at this school and if you ever question the girls’ work ethic, just stroll down to their locker room post-game where you can find them running laps in the hall before they talk to the media or celebrate their victory. Read the article.

5. UFC spurs fresh interest in jiu-jitsu

One of our goals coming into the year was to cover the emergence of mixed martial arts on campus at Western, so you can imagine our excitement when Elton Hobson — a talented writer and MMA junkie — walked into our office this year looking to volunteer. Hobson wrote a three-part series on MMA in London, examining its connections to collegiate wrestling, the Western Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu club and…

4. Adrenaline powers London MMA boom

…Adrenaline MMA, one of London’s premier MMA training grounds and the home of six-time UFC pay-per-view veteran Sam Stout who has helped put London, ON on the MMA map. We sent Hobson to Adrenaline where Rowan Cunningham, who holds a 6-3 MMA record, showed our brave reporter the ropes, literally tying Hobson into knots. See the story for the photographic evidence and be sure to read the first and second installments of the series, as well. Part one. Part two. Part three.

3. Brannagan will have steep hill to climb

The Zwellin’ it like it is blog accounts for the bronze and silver positions on this list, starting with this blog that I wrote after Queen’s QB Danny Brannagan signed with the Toronto Argonauts. Brannagan’s signing was great news for the CIS and Canadian quarterbacks in general, seeing as it’s been 14 years since a Canadian started a CFL game under centre. But it will certainly be tough for Brannagan to crack the Argos roster out of training camp against Gibran Hamdan and Cleo Lemon — both former NFL QBs. Not to mention Dalton Bell who played for the Saskatchewan Roughriders last season. Read the article.

2. Fourteen Things

“I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” I reckon Mark Twain and I would have gotten along just fine. Despite coming in at a healthy 1,664 words — a word count that would be considered blasphemy to most bloggers — this was the second most read sports piece of 2010. This one came during a particularly busy period in professional sports, with NHL teams wheeling and dealing, head shots coming to a front at all levels of hockey, the Blue Jays making a free agent splash and the tragic death of Brendan Burke, son to father Bryan who is the Toronto Maple Leafs President and G.M. I also have to give a hat tip to Gazette alumnus Elliotte Friedman whose blog inspired me to break up my own with numbers to make it more palatable for those with short attention… um, what was I talking about? Read the article.

1. Mustangs have high hopes for CFL

Rounding out the top ten is my story about three Mustangs football players — Josh Buttrill, Conor Elliott and Chris Greaves — who took part in the CFL’s annual evaluation camp in Toronto ahead of the CFL draft. The popularity of this story was due in big part to Twitter where the CFL — hat tip to Jaime Stein — and its fans picked up on it. It was an exciting year for the Gazette on Twitter and this story demonstrated how we can use the tool to expose our work to a readership well beyond Western’s campus. The fantastic, honest quotes I got from the guys didn’t hurt either. Read the article.

Great for me because I called that the Argos would sign a Canadian QB here.

But somewhat more importantly, it’s great for the growth of the game in Canada and the emergence of Canadian Interuniversity Sport competition as a true proving ground for future pros. Nine of the top 15 CFL prospects as ranked by the CFL’s Amateur Scouting Bureau ply their trade in the CIS. That includes four from the OUA.

A host of other CIS players also made names for themselves at the CFL’s evaluation camp this weekend, including Bishop’s wide receivers Steven Turner and Sean Gore, Laurier running back Mike Montoya and Laurier defensive lineman Chima Ihekwoaba.

The Western Mustangs also had three players at the camp, offensive lineman Josh Buttrill, defensive lineman Chris Greaves and linebacker Conor Elliott. You can read my article with comments from the trio here.

Brannagan’s signing is by far the biggest news to come out of the evaluation camp this past weekend.

The Burlington native was very impressive, bench pressing more than some of the linemen and running a faster 40-yard dash than some of the running backs. He’s clearly stepped up his conditioning since the Vanier Cup and several onlookers thought he was throwing the hardest passes at the camp.

Add that to Brannagan’s proven ability to play well in high pressure situations — this year’s Yates Cup, Mitchell Bowl and Vanier Cup are excellent resume points — and you have a nice looking quarterback. It’s no surprise the Argos wanted to lock him up as soon as possible, not even waiting 24 hours after the evaluation camp wrapped to sign him.

Brace yourselves for a wave of human interest stories heavy on Canadian pride coming from our nation’s news outlets during training camp. Our media loves nothing more than a feel good story about a Canadian kid making it in the big leagues against all odds.