Robby Blogs

Hockey: It is finally back.

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 14:01:40 -0500

(This is my article that will be showing up in the latest issue of the Richmond Hill High School newspaper, The Spyglass)

Hockey. It is the sport our country is known for. After months of negotiations, it has finally returned.

The National Hockey League’s distribution of money is focused and based on something called a Collective Bargaining Agreement. What this document provides for the league is an agreement between the NHL Owners and the NHL Players Association to help decide where money goes to. The purpose of negotiating is to satisfy the owners and players salary wise and to make sure the money is distributed fairly. However, a major problem with this is the collective bargaining itself as the process is quite rigorous to say the least. It is the direct reason why three lockouts have happened in the last nine years. That means approximately 2250 games have been lost in that time period, which is a huge detriment to the NHL and the game as a whole.

One of the worst lockouts that the NHL has experienced might have been the most recent one. The 2012-13 CBA meetings help bring out the worst in fans and even players. The major difference from this lockout and the ones prior would be the use of social media as the NHL Players and fans were very open with their thoughts about what was happening during the negotiations at the time. Players like RJ Umberger, Logan Couture and even Richmond Hill native Mike Cammalleri were tweeting their distasteful feelings towards the NHL Owners and specifically the commissioner of the NHL, Gary Bettman.

If there was ever a face that would represent the overall fans hate in a nutshell, it would definitely be Gary Bettman’s. He has been the NHL Commissioner since February 1st, 1993. Lockouts were unheard of until 1994 came around and the first one occurred under his position. In NBA, MLB, NFL, CFL or any league out there, there has been no one who has come close to losing as many games (due to lockouts) as Gary Bettman has for the NHL.

Gary shouldn’t take all the blame though. He only represents one side to the issue. There was also Don Fehr, who helped represent the National Hockey League Players Association. He doesn’t have a great record either as he is the reason for one of the worst work stoppages in the history of sports as in 1994/1995, he was responsible for the cancelling of the MLB season of that year. It left fans of baseball outraged just as the fans felt during this recent lockout. In 2010, Fehr joined the NHLPA and became the Executive Director which is the role has today.

The NHL’s CBA document, which lasted from 2005 to 2012, expired on September 15th, 2012. This was the official start of the lockout and when negotiations for the new CBA started to ramp up. The months that followed were completely tedious and treacherous for fans to follow as it had constant up and downs. It had moments where fans and analysts fully expected a deal would be completed within 24-48 hours, to which not long after, talks completely fell apart and fans were left back thinking if they were going to see hockey in 2012/13. These peaks and valleys were what fueled the anger that every fan of Hockey had inside of them. It was building to the point where long time watchers of the sport started to contemplate even caring about it. NHL and NHLPA began to feel they needed to make a deal and so, on January 6th, after 16 hours of vigorous and, what felt, never-ending talks, they finally came to a decision on a new CBA. This season started on January 19th and will be 48 games long, which is short compared to the usual 82 but obviously, much better than nothing.

Once the talks were done, people were left wondering if the lockout was going to have a direct effect on the sport. Will fans of the sport just stop watching? Will they lose ticket sales? Will this upcoming season be a complete failure? All these questions were erased when January 19th came around as the ratings showed that not only did fans come back to watch the sport, but it seems like people who have never watched Hockey also have started to get into it as NBC saw the highest NHL ratings in 11 years. Not only is the NHL back, but it has returned in spectacular fashion.

With no NHL, you lose kids from getting inspired to go out and play the sport. You lose kids in Richmond Hill High School from joining the Raiders Hockey team. You lose the possibility of seeing another Gretzky or Lemieux from revolutionizing the sport. With NHL returning, you avoid all those possibilities and instead, do the opposite. Game on.

Article by Robert Myers. Follow me on Twitter.

NHL Lockout: Time is ticking away...

Sat, 27 Oct 2012 20:52:39 -0400

Being a NHL Hockey fan in the last 8 years has been great. The game has constantly been growing with each year gaining more revenue (record $3.3 billion last year), new rule changes and the overall skill getting higher. The league’s teams have been fairly balanced with 29 out of 30 teams making the playoffs (sorry Leafs fans). The only problem we had to deal with during those years would have to be the 2004 lockout. I remember it quite vividly.

I was at the Air Canada Centre when Jeremy Roenick went top corner past Ed Belfour to end the last playoff series the Toronto Maple Leafs competed in the past 8 years. This elimination felt different however. The crowd’s reaction was something I will remember for the rest of my life. The second the puck hit the back of the net, everyone went dead silent. You could hear the humming of the air conditioning. The silence just perfectly represented the pure shock and awe reactions that rippled through the crowd. To say that I was sad is a complete understatement. I was devastated but the only thing that kept me up was to look forward to the next season. Sadly, there was none. Being young, I remember being just totally confused by the whole situation and asking the simple question, the league is doing great, what is all this arguing about? 8 years later, I am asking myself the same question.

Here we are again, another NHL Lockout. The third lockout in 17 years and the third lockout Gary Bettman has been the NHL Commissioner for. It is the same situation with players complaining about a pay cut and owners wanting a larger piece of that cash pie. It is easy to see the two arguments. Owners want more of the players’ money as the NHLPA (National Hockey League Players Association) were receiving 57% of the Hockey Related Revenue in the previous expiring CBA. The argument present from the players is that they already took a 24% pay cut in 2004-05 and they definitely don’t want to go through that again this time around.

The recent months of negotiations have been interesting to say the least. It started with NHL putting down the first proposal which was basically a slap to the face of the NHLPA asking them to take their current hold of 57% of HRR to 47% which is a payroll reduction of $460 million or in other words, another 24% pay cut. The players and Don Fehr had absolutely none of that and counter offered with a deal that would see the players starting out in the first year with 50.1% of HRR and back to 57% of the HRR in the fourth year. The NHL was not fond of that proposal which at this point, made talks fall apart. Now in the recent weeks, NHL surprised everyone with the first new proposal (that actually looked quite fair on paper) in months which stated a 50/50 split of the HRR with a full 82-game season starting on November 2^nd. With this offer present, fans were looking up and actually optimistic about seeing a full season but the NHLPA brought everyone’s hopes to a crashing fall when they denied the offer. They made 3 new counter proposals but the NHL turned down all 3 within 10 minutes of each. This is where we are now. The dream of a full 82 game season seems to be all but dead. Fans are just hoping for some type of season to start and not a repeat of a full lockout like what occurred in 2004-05.

Now my thoughts on this might be a little morbid but it represents this whole situation well. This whole conflict and issue is just utterly depressing. It is sad to see rich millionaires that are tweeting about their loud, fast Ferraris (like Derek Roy) complain about taking a 12% pay cut (as represented in the latest NHL 50/50 offer) and it is sad to see owners refusing counter-proposals within 10 minutes. When the negotiations started, I was quite optimistic. I was under belief of “No way, they would scrap another season right?” Sadly, it looks this might be the case. This would usually affect me heavily. The thought of no hockey for me is terrible but for some reason, I have come to reason with it. Whenever I see people on my Twitter/Facebook feed being hopeful for a season, I just feel terribly bad for them because I know in the long run, they will be disappointed. Every meeting that occurs between the NHL and NHLPA always has the same outcome. It starts out with general optimism, fans hoping for some type of development but it constantly ends up with Fehr and Bettman making shots about how each other’s proposal are terrible and way off base of their demands. It is just a constant, depressing outcome that is inevitable after every negotiation which is why my overall impression about this whole issue is I have completely given up. Until there is a signed deal on the table, until I see my social media feeds explode with confirmed deals that lead to a NHL 2012-13 season, I will always be under the impression that there won’t be any NHL hockey this year. This is all to help me from going completely insane.

Now I know this has been quite the depressing article, but it isn’t the end of the world if there is no 2012-13 NHL season. Luckily, there are many other hockey leagues out there. A lot of the NHL players have moved out to Europe to play in the KHL (Kontinental Hockey League) and if you want daily highlights of that, Steve Dangle and Audrey Osadchenko provide great videos on the KHL Youtube Channel. If you want to check out some players that will most likely be in the NHL in the coming years, you can always watch the junior leagues like the OHL (Ontario Hockey League) and WHL (Western Hockey League) which you can watch stars like Connor McDavid (a 15 year old who is just tearing up the league and what scouts are saying the next Sidney Crosby) in the OHL and Morgan Rielly (the Toronto Maple Leafs 2012 5^th Overall draft pick who has 18 points in 14 games and is looking to be a key future player for the rebuilding team) in the WHL. The most popular known alternative to the NHL would have to be the American Hockey League, the primary development league for NHL teams. This league features many NHL players like Jeff Skinner and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins that were able to be sent down to the AHL, making the overall skill and competition much higher than it has in recent years. If you want to know where you can watch AHL, OHL or WHL games, keep on the lookout on Sportsnet in Canada as they have been showing many of these leagues’ matchups.

The NHL has been a complete rollercoaster of ups and downs these past 8 years. With the league growing and expanding faster than it has ever been before, we are left with a terrible situation as of right now with the lingering notion of seeing no NHL hockey at all. It all goes back to that last night of Maple Leafs playoff hockey in 2004. The dead silence and immediate shock that was all across the crowd’s faces represents the fans current lookout of this whole issue. Hopefully this all ends soon and we can be looking forward to a new NHL hockey season but unfortunately, the future outcome is not looking too positive.

Maple Leafs Off-Season 2012: Biggest one yet?

Sun, 10 Jun 2012 18:23:00 -0400

Brian Burke has been the GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs for almost 4 years now and still hasn’t made the playoffs with this team. If you have told him when he came here that he would be in a lottery pick position, he probably would’ve banned you from ever coming to any press meeting because the idea of that happening is so absurd. Well guess what? The idea came true and it has now been 8 years since the Leafs have ever been in the playoffs. With Leafs fans getting very restless, especially after this season’s demise where they were playoff locks at the beginning of February to being playoff no hopes within only a few weeks, they want Burke to do some dramatic moves during this summer but what exactly can he do?

The #1 problem that Leafs fans everywhere can see is Goaltending. Going into the season with Reimer and Gustavsson was a major risk taken by Burke. You had Reimer who had an unreal last half that almost propelled the Leafs into a playoff spot for the 2010-11 season. Next you had Gustavsson who, to be honest, never was a stellar goalie but he had massive potential. His rookie season was pretty solid but then again, you had him backing up Toskala which even an Junior A goalie could play better than him. Other than that season, he always had problems with his heart and his overall play was never that good. Obviously that risk did not work out as Reimer got concussed for half of year and it went on the severely hurt his play. Gustavsson had a horrendous season with golden moments like this:

To put it bluntly, last season was truly depressing as you can see above. Now for the solutions that Burke can bring in for goaltending, he has said on record that they still believe Reimer should be #1. I still have hope that Reimer can be a #1 goalie some day but currently, he isn’t that. He still needs to develop and work on some kinks. In that time, the best option for Burke that he currently get is Roberto Luongo.

Luongo has a rough review in Vancouver. It seems like everyone is pretty much done with him and Lu is also done with them now that he has given a list of teams he would accept a trade too to GM Mike Gillis. The interesting fact about all this is that one of the teams is the Toronto Maple Leafs. This is huge because for Luongo to come here, he would bring actual elite goaltending, something we haven’t seen since Cujo or Belfour. Also, he can bring the mentor role that Giguere and what Burke wants for Reimer. This can help Reimer grow and mature into the #1 that he can potentially become. The only noted problem with this is you have to take on Luongo’s massive contract which lasts til 2022. With a team like the Maple Leafs though, it isn’t much of an issue because they can easily buyout his contract for the last 4 years and be done with it. As well as, the cap hit is really great for the quality of goalie you are getting. For 5.3 million a year and the cap rising to 70 million this next season, that is a steal if Luongo plays like Luongo.

The next problem Burke needs to take care of is L.A.C.K., otherwise known as Lombardi, Armstrong, Connolly and Komisarek. These guys equal to about 15.75 million dollar cap hit. Now this wouldn’t be problem if they were producing and playing well, but they aren’t. Lombardi constantly looks invisible on the ice, Armstrong is injured most of the time, Komisarek tries but just can’t get it done and Connolly played great at the beginning of the season, but sadly became invisible for the rest of the year. Burke needs to start off-loading these guys as they are terrible for our bottom 6. Komisarek is looking like that he will be dealt in the Luongo deal, and if Burke pulls it off, that will look a steal of a deal. Lombardi and Armstrong should be offloaded for draft picks. Now with Connolly, it might’ve seemed like a terrible, overpaid deal but what Burke did really well was that he got him for only 2 years. This is great as the 12-13 season will be the last season Connolly is under contract with the Leafs, therefore I feel that Carlyle should put him on the first line with Kessel and Lupul. When he was on the line last season, he seemed to feel more comfortable and gel well with them two whereas when put on the 3rd line, he just looked like he was put out for nothing and he never produced. Now what do we replace them with? Well with the Marlies having an insane run in the Calder Cup playoffs, I can see Frattin, Kadri and D’Amigo getting much more time with the Leafs next season. Also, with the recent signing of Komarov, he can fill a spot on the 4th line and be that agitator that we haven’t had since the days of Tucker/Domi.

Dealing with the 2 problems of Goaltending and cap-fillers (L.A.C.K.), Burke can really pull off something special here and who knows? With the rumors flying about how he wants Yakupov AND Galchenyuk in the upcoming draft, it could be a bigger offseason then even I can come up with.

E3 2012

Fri, 08 Jun 2012 21:28:00 -0400

It is June and another E3 has past and gone so I feel like it is time to give my thoughts on it.

First, let me sum up the conferences in one word. Underwhelming. Yes I know, pretty disappointing considering they are usually the best parts of E3 but god damnit, that one word perfectly summarizes E3.

It started with Microsoft which was introduced with a Halo 4 demo which looked alright. I mean, it’s Halo. You either love it or you hate it. Me? I haven’t really been a big fan for the series so this demo wasn’t particularly interesting, it looked pretty good though. Will see if 343 Industries (the team working on this Halo) can get me into the Halo franchise but I doubt it. Next, we had the Splinter Cell: Blacklist demo which is a new game from the Ubisoft Toronto (represent!) team. The graphics look great and the gameplay looks awesome as well. It seems to be a prequel as Sam Fisher is looking younger but sadly, Michael Ironside isn’t voicing him anymore. That is really disappointing because it sounds like the new voice actor doesn’t come close to Ironside. Also, I found that the demo shows that the game is taking a more action approach and stepping away from the stealth aspect that Splinter Cell fans know and love. Overall, it was a fun looking demo and I might pick the game up when it comes out in Spring 2013. After these 2 showings, it seemed like the conference took a very boring and alienating turn. We were shown Madden/Fifa with Kinect support, Kinect having Spanish support and some new fitness game from Nike using what? Oh obviously the Kinect. Hey Microsoft, I know the Kinect is selling very well and all but jeez, does EVERYTHING need Kinect and does it truly need this much promotion for it? Also, all of this is for casuals, not hardcore gamers who are the ones that are watching this conference. To be truly honest, the only good things about this conference were the Splinter Cell and Tomb Raider demo, and the showing of the new South Park RPG with Trey Parker and Matt Stone presenting.

MICROSOFT: D-

Thankfully later that night, Sony came out and luckily had a much better conference though it wasn’t perfect. What I really liked about Sony was they showed off some great games. My 2 favourite trailer/demos had to have been Beyond: Two Souls and The Last of Us.

When David Cage came on stage, I immediately got excited considering I loved Heavy Rain. He ended up announcing Beyond: Two Souls, which was sadly leaked only a few hours before the conference even started. This fortunately didn’t affect the announcement as the trailer that was shown was truly awesome. It looks to be a super-natural thriller that features the actress, Ellen Page, who you may know from Inception or Juno. It seems to be a trend that games are going to start featuring real life actors and I predicted this around the time when LA Noire came out as that game featured many real life actors from the show Mad Men, overall, I am happy with this new trend. I won’t spoil what happens in the trailer but the graphics look to be much improved over (the already great looking) Heavy Rain. Watch the trailer for yourself.

The Last Of Us is probably the 2nd best demo at the show. I mean, this demo was INSANELY good. Everything from the detailed sound to the beautiful graphics that make you question how the hell they can put these visuals on current gen systems. You can even hear how great the demo is just by the crowd’s reaction in what had to be the best crowd reaction of E3 with the roaring applause they got at the end of the demo. Check it out:

Sony had this and more but like I said, they weren’t perfect as they spent almost FORTY MINUTES on a little thing they like to call Wonderbook. Now, I am not going to waste your time talking all about this thing like Sony did but it is a book that uses the Augmented Reality abilities of the Playstation Eye to make a book “come to life”. I am just going to be straight up. This looked terribly boring and could be fun for about 3 minutes. It could be that I am a 17 year old and I am sort of out of the phase of reading picture books but yeah, this killed the crowd and no one cared. Oh yeah, JK Rowling is making a book for it? Yeah, still no one cares.

Oh and also, what happened to the Vita?

SONY: B-

Now it was time for Nintendo the next morning and coming in, I had very high expectations. I truly thought they would be the ones to take E3 this year as they had a new system to display but what happens? They completely flop.

It started out with Pikmin 3 which I liked. I liked the previous Pikmin games on the Gamecube so seeing an HD/new version is awesome. After that, they said they would show 24 games on stage. Great! Getting excited now! Oh wait…what is this? Arkham City? A game I already beat quite a while ago? Oh no…well this is going to get better right? No. New Super Mario Bros U? Um…alright? I would prefer a 3D Mario. Well 3DS lineup must be better right? Wait…they aren’t announcing ANY new games? What? Wait what is this? NINTENDOLAND?! WHY?! A MINI GAME COLLECTION?! WAIT?! IT’S OVER?! *passes out*

Yeah. This conference was the complete definition of a flop. Way to go Nintendo.

Nintendo: F

Out of the 3 main conferences, Sony won hands down. They had the best demos and it was most focused on games unlike Microsoft which was 30% games and 70% entertainment. Nintendo…I just don’t want to talk about that anymore. *sobs*

If you can only watch 1 conference, watch Ubisoft’s. It was truly the best one of E3. Just ignore Toby Turner, the guy who makes bad jokes and is super annoying throughout the event, and you will love it.

Also, games of the show for me: Watch_Dogs, The Last Of Us, Beyond: Two Souls and Star Wars 1313.

Follow me on Twitter at Twitter.com/Robby322

PS Vita hitting stores THIS OCTOBER?! That is like 2 months away!

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 18:13:00 -0400

Rumors have been running rampant about the date of when the PS Vita will hit stores. Just a few days ago, publisher 505 Games released a press release stating that Supremacy MMA will be coming “in the fall” for PS Vita. This was interesting due to the fact that SONY HASN’T ANNOUNCED A RELEASE DATE YET. So no way a game would come out BEFORE a system has launched right?

Well, Blockbuster decided to add some more fuel to the fire by releasing a flyer in the UK. Here is that flyer:

Yep, Blockbuster is now putting out that the PS Vita Wi-Fi and 3G models will be out on October 28th in the UK. So who wants to take bets that Sony will be announcing the release date soon?

My response to all this news:

So this is Tumblr...

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 16:16:02 -0400

Maybe I’ll start blogging about stuff here…? We’ll see.