Alex Ovechkin is a name that can be  mentioned with the likes of Mario Lemieux, Wayne Gretzky and even Bobby Orr. However, he can also be put in a category with the likes of Steve Downie, Steve Ott and Sean Avery.  As you rack your brain trying to connect the dots, think back to Wednesday night’s game against the Buffalo Sabres and recall that Ovechkin was ejected for boarding. And there you have it; the three players mentioned above are among the dirtiest in the league.  Now many of you may disagree with that statement, but before you protest, let me present the following evidence:

1. Ovechkin Ejection #1, December 2, 2006 – Ovechkin is ejected after hitting Daniel Briere from behind. Briere hits his head after being a foot or so away from the boards. Ovechkin is challenged for his reckless hit but has others stand up for him.

2. Ovechkin Knee on Knee, May 8, 2009 – Ovechkin takes Sergei Gonchar out of the game and the series with a direct knee on knee hit. He left his feet to make contact with Gonchar. Was it intentional? Only Ovie knows.

3. Ovechkin Ejection #2, November 25, 2009 - Ovechkin hits Patrick Kaleta from behind into the boards, drawing a 5-minute boarding penalty and a game misconduct.

These three incidents highlight just the type of player Ovechkin has become known as across the NHL.  The truth of it is that Ovechkin plays with a recklessness that has resulted in injury on more than one occasion. Does everyone remember this past year’s playoffs when the Pittsburgh Penguins complained about Ovechkin leaving his feet to make hits, even before he had taken out Gonchar?

Yes he can score. Yes he is exciting.  However, Ovechkin plays with both a lack of respect for his opponents and the game of hockey.  The sad truth is that he is going to seriously hurt someone if he continues playing this way, yet the league refuses to discipline him.  They wouldn’t dare suspend Ovechkin because he is too significant an attraction to the game and league officials are clearly focused primarily on attendance figures.  I caution Mr. Colin Campbell: If you don’t discipline Ovechkin soon, somebody will take the matters into their own hands, and to tell you the truth, I welcome it.

(Interesting article I came across today,regarding league wide number retirement)

LeBron’s miscalculation about numbers
Howard Bryant
ESPN.com
November 25, 2009

Fortified by the most powerful marketing machine on earth, remarkable athletic talent, youth and a dazzling celebrity so outsized that 30-foot billboards featuring his likeness are commonplace, it sometimes appears that LeBron James can make things happen simply by talking.

He spoke earlier this month about changing his number from 23 to 6 — an homage to Michael Jordan, he said — and about how even that individual gesture is not enough to canonize Jordan properly. James said the league needs to retire the No. 23 in perpetuity — the ultimate honor for Jordan — as baseball did 12 years ago with Jackie Robinson’s No. 42 and hockey did in 2000 with Wayne Gretzky’s No. 99.

Phil Jackson, Jordan’s old coach and a man who should know better, immediately followed in lockstep, telling The Associated Press that Jordan did as much for basketball as Gretzky did for hockey. Jackson added that the only potential drawback might be Magic Johnson and Larry Bird possibly having hurt feelings.

At best, James’ suggestion is a well-meaning but ill-considered — perhaps even unconsidered — and forgivable lapse from a kid born, for goodness’ sake, in the mid-1980s. For his history-challenged generation, the world began with Jordan. The world before MJ for them is nonexistent, the world after permanently altered.

At worst, however, it is a heinous example of how the king of the sunglasses-indoors, friend-of-Usher crowd has no historical perspective. LeBron’s thinking is as morally empty and narcissistic as those Nike ads that pay him so much money. James is apparently so utterly clueless about the reasoning for baseball’s mass-retiring of Robinson’s number and the history of his own league that he doesn’t seem the least bit embarrassed to imply that Jordan and Robinson exist in the same historical context.

And to this, we are all witnesses.

In 1997, on the 50th anniversary of Robinson’s integration of the major leagues, Leonard Coleman, then the president of the National League, devised the idea to retire Robinson’s number. It was a bold statement to recognize the boldest unifying step this country had taken. The United States as a nation was not integrated until Robinson integrated it. The military was not yet integrated. Segregation was legal, not just in the South but in many parts of the North and West as well. In some places in the South, even city record books documenting births, deaths and marriages of African-Americans were kept separately.

It was common practice for department stores to refuse to allow blacks to try on clothes because store owners were convinced whites would not purchase a piece of clothing that a black person had previously worn.

“What Robinson did was take black people from the background and he put them in the foreground,” the late Leonard Koppett, one of the best journalists of his era, told me years ago. “For white people, black people lived in the background, even in places like New York. You saw them. You walked past them. They were part of the wallpaper of your life. Jackie changed all that. From that day forward, when he came on the field, black people were present. Now you had to see them. You had to hear them. You had to pay attention to them. He did not integrate baseball. He integrated America.”

To understand this, you have to have a world view that begins before 1984. You have to think about the impossible, about the things in life that generations who came before never thought they would see. About a time when even the most forward-thinking people in this country could not envision a world without slavery, about a time that survived for nearly 100 years after abolition when it appeared that segregation was going to remain a maddening, intractable given.

Most people, black and white, simply could not see a future beyond the separation, past their historical and persistent grievances, past the hate. Most of the country, especially African-Americans of a certain generation, could not envision an American president who was not white and male.

The Robinson challenge, given this environment, was not simply to prove he could play baseball at the major league level, but to prove the two races could coexist. Play nine innings together, take showers together, eat dinner, play cards and laugh together — and ultimately serve side by side as Americans in the same units of the armed forces, which occurred a year after Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier. None of these simplicities — they seem like simplicities now — was a given in 1947.

The Brooklyn Dodgers were considered pioneers; but during the first years of integration, it was standard for the white players to shower first before the blacks were allowed to enter.

What Robinson did, in effect, gave the nation a new life even as it killed him. His journey broke him. His hair was snow white by the time he was in his 40s. He was a diabetic. He was legally blind before he died in 1972 at age 53.

This, and not his steals of home or winning the MVP in 1949, is why his number — and no other — is retired by Major League Baseball. And it’s why no other number should be retired by any sport. This is why James looks so uninformed today. This is what happens when you practice your crossover more than you study your American history.

Neither Jordan nor Gretzky carries the same historical significance as Robinson does, and to discuss this issue solely in terms of athletic achievement is to warp the conversation. The name of the game here is history, the impact on history. Jordan sold, and still sells, a lot of sneakers, a lot of Gatorade and lot of underwear. What Jackie Robinson did, in one sense, is more impressive even than the election of Barack Obama. American society — black, Latino, Asian, but especially white — chose Obama to be president. Robinson was forced on a society that for the most part did not want him, either as a teammate or as a symbol of coming change.

These concepts are a little more important than Jordan’s buzzer-beater over the Cavaliers.

With the increasing conformity of sports, where the spontaneity of a song in a given arena quickly becomes a canned, ubiquitous jock jam, it’s easy to cheapen and make a gimmick of an important gesture such as retiring a number. I called Coleman, whose idea it was to retire Robinson’s number in the first place, about this. Recognizing the political minefield, he declined comment, probably wisely.

When NHL commissioner Gary Bettman retired Wayne Gretzky’s No. 99, it spoke of an odd, desperate opportunism, a way for a troubled league to honor its best player. More than Jordan in basketball, Gretzky is a historic figure in hockey, for the argument can be made that his 1988 trade to Los Angeles opened an entire new chapter in the history of the NHL: It helped bring the large-scale, warm-weather demographic to the game. Now, the league is in Miami, Dallas, Phoenix and Tampa in addition to L.A. and Atlanta.

But even the retiring of Gretzky’s number indirectly undermined the Robinson tribute, for the Gretzky effect was on the economics of hockey rather than the social landscape. The NHL’s new “Hockey is for everyone” ad campaign might be directly related to Gretzky making the sport ubiquitous, but Gretzky did not change American or Canadian society. He and Jordan are similar in that regard: They are the greatest practitioners of their sports, but hardly the most revolutionary. Gretzky might have played hockey better than anyone else, but he did not change how the game is played. In terms of historic significance, Bobby Orr, a rushing, tempo-changing defenseman, far outweighs Gretzky.

James apparently doesn’t even understand his own sport’s heritage. Jordan might have been basketball’s greatest player; but, like Gretzky, he did not change the way his game is played. Wilt Chamberlain — not Michael Jordan — is the most dominant individual ever to play the game of basketball. Along with Bill Russell, Wilt revolutionized the sport. Rules were changed because of Chamberlain. Players were drafted differently because of Russell.

Perhaps we can call Jordan basketball’s greatest champion because his teams had to play additional rounds in the playoffs to get to the titles, but Russell nearly doubled Jordan’s championship total, 11 to six, and Russell’s teams won eight in a row (1959-66). Jordan didn’t even revolutionize the aerial game. Elgin Baylor and Connie Hawkins and Julius Erving were responsible for that.

James advertises his ignorance even further when he says he wants to change his number to 6 — the number worn by Russell and Erving — without acknowledging that both players altered the history of the game in a more profound way than Jordan did. Outside of winning games, Jordan is known for his cosmetic contributions — his sneakers, his long shorts, his shaved head — and for being a Nike sycophant. Unlike Robinson, he was allergic to any and all forms of political courage.

We know James is part of the “Me” generation, for whom anything that occurred before last Thursday might as well be ancient history. But if he is going to speak, let him do so armed with respect. Respect comes with education and knowledge of the history of your surroundings. Instead of changing his number, perhaps LeBron should change his reading habits.

He might just learn something.

Howard Bryant is a senior writer for ESPN.com. He is the author of “Shut Out: A Story of Race and Baseball in Boston,” “Juicing the Game: Drugs, Power and the Fight for the Soul of Major League Baseball” and “The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron,” to be published in May 2010. He can be reached at Howard.Bryant@espn3.com or followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/hbryant42.

There’s always something to do in Brantford, Ontario! From history and heritage to exquisite natural beauty, Brantford’s got it all. Hiking, biking and canoeing to catching a show or going to one of the city’s fine museums, there is something for everyone here in the birthplace of Wayne Gretzky.

The Tournament Capital of Ontario

Brantford is known as the Tournament Capital of Ontario, and with good reason. Some of the best sporting events in all of Canada are held right here. Numerous arenas, skating rinks, playing fields and more make Brantford a popular sporting destination all year round.

The true centre of sports in Brantford, however, is the Wayne Gretzky Sports Centre. Containing 3 ice surfaces, an Olympic sized swimming pool, 2 softball fields, 3 tennis courts, 2 football fields and much more, you’ll never find yourself bored here.

The Wayne Gretzky Sports Centre is also home to the Sports Hall of Recognition, a place where Brantford recognizes some of the many sports heroes it has produced as well as other sporting greats. The Hall hosts rotating exhibits featuring 28 athletes at a time with a variety of fascinating artifacts from each one. The one permanent exhibit is that of Wayne Gretzky, showcasing a collection including his Los Angeles Kings jersey.

The Grand River

Brantford is located on the beautiful Grand River, which provides many things to do in Brantford. Water sports such as swimming, boating, canoeing, fishing: you name it! You can even have fun out of the water with hiking, biking and more.

One of the great places to visit along the Grand River is the Brant Conservation Area, located right in the bend of the Grand River. A popular camping destination, it is makes and excellent home base for plenty of fun to be had in Brantford, the Telephone City.

History

The city of Brantford is a place with a very powerful history. One of its nicknames is the Telephone City, in honor of one of its greatest residents: Alexander Graham Bell. Immigrating to Brantford with his family as a young adult, much of his work on his most famous invention was done right here in the city. The Bell Homestead is now a national historic site , where you can take a tour guided by staff in authentic 19th century dress, to get a feel for Bell’s home as it would have been when he lived in this very house.

Fun for the Whole Family in Brantford

There are plenty of great places to bring the family in Brantford, such as the Ben Mar Family Fun Centre. Miniature golf, go-karts, enclosed driving range, batting cages, arcade, a ferris wheel and much more can be found at the Ben Mar Family Fun Centre. Located in between Paris and Brantford, it is a great place to spend a day of fun and excitement.

More fun can be found at the Earl Haig Family Fun Park. An exciting go-kart track, mini-golf and batting cages are just the tip of the iceberg here. The star attraction are its amazing water attractions, including a 60′ water slide, a gigantic wet and wild leisure pool and the 600′ Lazy River Ride.

Copyright (c) 2008 Wes Fernley

It takes a second to load but this little guy’s trick shot would make Wayne Gretzky proud. While the other kids in the neighborhood were sitting in front of their TVs and computers this kid was practicing. I’m sure his parents are mighty proud–and negotating with an agent.

So last night I watched Kings Ransom on TSN.

Kings Ransom is a documentary by actor/ director Peter Berg about the trade that brought Wayne Gretzky to the LA Kings in 1988 that was made for ESPN and their 30 for 30 celebration for their 30th anniversary.

In the 21 years since this trade took place there have been a million pieces written about it, and there are even more opinions surrounding it. After watching the doc last night I got to thinking about what the trade means in the context of sports history and the NHL since that day in early August 1988. By the way, I was 6 when the trade went down and here I am today writing about it. That should tell you how big this thing was.

After the 1988 season the Edmonton Oilers had won their 4th Stanley Cup in 5 years. All of those as a result of a great team out together by owner Peter Pocklington and coach/ general manager Glen Sather. At the forefront of those teams was “The Great One”. Wayne Gretzky was their MVP, the leagues MVP and was on his way to changing the NHL history books forever.

Also after the 1988 season Peter Pocklington was feeling a financial pinch and decided that moving his biggest and bluest chip was the answer to his problems. Wayne Gretzky was sold (or traded if you want to be proper about it) to the LA Kings and their owner Bruce McNall. The price for the greatest player in NHL history? $15 million, 5 draft picks and 2 players.

Now, this isn’t exactly like the sale of Babe Ruth the Yankees by the Red Sox in 1920. It’s not like Peter Pocklington pulled a Harry Frazee and used the cash to make some bad musicals or anything. And the Oilers even won 1 more Stanley Cup after Gretzky left so there was no “Curse of The Great One” like there was the “Curse of The Bambino”. But at the end of the day both moves boiled down to being the sales of the best player in their sports.

In the documentary Peter Berg asks Wayne Gretzky about winning Stanley Cups in Edmonton and how many more he thought there could have been. Gretzky thought about it for a minute and ended up giving an answer of 4. He left Edmonton with his name on the hallowed trophy 4 times and retired 11 seasons later with the same number of engravings.

The NHL has changed since that time. There were 21 teams in the league then and there are 30 now. Since 1988 franchises have been started or moved to Anaheim, Tampa Bay, San Jose, Atlanta, Dallas, Phoenix, Nashville and Sunrise, Florida. I really don’t think that any of these teams would be where they are today if it wasn’t for the move that took Gretzky to LA. In fact, I think that had Gretzky stayed in Canada whether it was with the Maple Leafs or Canadiens or even the Winnipeg Jets we would still have teams in Quebec City and Winnipeg and there may already be a second Toronto team and maybe Hamilton and Halifax would have NHL franchises as well.

Without Wayne Gretzky there wouldn’t have been the glitz and glamour campaign to bring hockey to the southern United States. Pockets of NHL fans would have been there still, but they wouldn’t be watching teams play in front of empty arenas on TV every night.

Peter Berg did a great job in getting interviews from Wayne and Janet Gretzky as well as Peter Pocklington, Glen Sather and Bruce McNall for the doc.

Sather stuck to his guns and said that he was “more than pissed off” by the trade and even told Gretzky that he would resign as general manager if he didn’t want to go so the trade would have had to have been stopped.

Pocklington says that it was a business decision and he would have kept Gretzky if a contract extension could have been reached, but he would have been underpaid.

McNall calls it the biggest thing that ever happened in his life.

There are a lot of people in Edmonton who felt the same way. Their favourite adopted son was taken from them. The City of Champions was rocked by the news, the hockey world was rocked by the news and the landscape of the NHL was changed forever.

Maybe not all for the bad, I mean there is probably no way that Alyssa Milano would have turned into such a big hockey fan if Gretzky hadn’t come to LA while she was making Who’s the Boss?.

In the end even Gretzky says that if he could change everything he’s not sure he would. There are a lot of things that could be very different if Peter Pocklington hadn’t called Bruce McNall. But you know what they say, ‘if ifs and buts were candies and nuts we’d all have a merry Christmas.” The only thing we do know is that Wayne Gretzky is the greatest player and icon in the history of hockey. And 21 years later Wayne Gretzky being traded is still one of the biggest things that has ever happened in professional sports.

The New York Times has a short piece up in their Arts section on a show featuring a collection of Polaroid portraits of star athletes by Andy Warhol.  Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (whom our thoughts are with) is there, as is a slightly-crazed looking Muhammed Ali and a Samson-haired Wayne Gretzky.  Oh, and O.J.  Remember when he was just another famous athlete?  It seems insane now to mention him in the same context as Kareem and Gretzky, but that’s how big he was at the time.  Wish I could go see this in person.

Two months of no blogging. Lots of ideas, but no blogging. I’ve written many of what I call ’stubs’, ideas in loose sentence fragments hoping to be fleshed out into complete thoughts at a later date, but I haven’t the had time or motivation to complete any of these stubs.

Typically an idea will occur to me, either as a result of something I’ve read or a conversation I’ve had, and I’ll think, ‘hmmm…that could be interesting’ and I jot it down for when I’ll have the requisite time for research, writing and editing. In a lot of cases I’ll do some light research during my regular daily web surfing, but it mostly serves to stoke a creative fire.

So now, with the day off, I have some time to complete some of these stubs and maybe offer an original thought to the world. Instead, I’d rather take the easy way out and share some of these stubs. Research involves reading and filtering information. Writing involves taking a position on a subject and sticking your neck out. I feel like doing neither of these things today. I’m not sure whether this should be classified as ‘creatively lazy’ or ‘lazily creative’, but here’s a few of my more interesting stubs from the past two months:

Athletes who could’ve played other sports professionally. Bo Jackson and Michael Jordan did it. Hell, even Jose Canseco took a chance on MMA. They say Gretzky could’ve been a pro pitcher and Bure an Olympic diver.

Commonalities in Canadian and American consumer products and the subtle differences between them. Forget political and sociological differences, I’m a product of products and therefore I’m interested in products. An observation of the subtle differences in packaging, branding and marketing in common products between the two countries.

John Fahey being used to sell Vaseline. There’s a new Vaseline commercial that features ‘In Christ There is No East or West’ by fingerpicking wizard John Fahey, how in the Hell did this happen?

The Toronto hardcore scene is effin’ burgeoning. Bands like Fucked Up, Career Suicide and Terminal State are taking hardcore back from the the melodramatic metal heads that turned it into emo-mosh music and taking it back to its angry, sweaty punk rock roots. Awesome.

So there you have it, the choice nuggets from a man unwilling to stick his neck out any further. There are four or five other stubs that I could share, but honestly they’ll likely never  become fully realized, so they’re destined for a stub life sentence.

August 9, 1988 is a day that will live in infamy for Canadians. It marks the day that Peter Pocklington sold Canada’s favourite son, Wayne Gretzky. It was a trade that literally shook the nation to its core. If hockey is a religion in Canada then Wayne is Jesus. To get a sense of the fanaticism surrounding hockey you have to realize that the government contemplated stepping in and blocking the trade. People sent death threats to Pocklington and he still hasn’t been forgiven 20 years later. Poor Edmonton, the city Wayne practically founded, has spiralled into a meth and hooker binge that it has yet to recover from (or so To Serve and Protect would have me believe).

Kings Ransom is a documentary by Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights) investigating the development and culmination of the biggest trade in sports history. It’s part of the ESPN series 30 for 30, which is a set of documentaries celebrating ESPN’s 30^th year. These aren’t necessarily the 30 biggest sports stories of the past 30 years, rather, they are 30 stories that 30 prominent directors were compelled to make. This gives an interesting view on diverse and often obscure subjects such as the USFL and the advent of Rotisserie baseball (excessively excited for that one…seriously).

Berg shows an incredibly balanced and insightful look into the mechanics of the Gretzky deal. There are interviews from all major players in the trade, including Gretzky, Pocklington, Bruce McNall, Glen Sather, Janet Gretzky, and Walter Gretzky. I wouldn’t suggest that Pocklington is redeemed with this documentary because it’s clear that this was a trade that needed to be consummated for all parties, but his reasoning is certainly understandable.

Seeing the intricate details of the deal was interesting since the modern sports world is business driven and almost all trades have a financial component. This trade just happened to have a very, very large financial component ($15 million dollars exactly).

Since the trade it’s become clear that this was the best thing for all parties involved. It was especially beneficial to the game, which Wayne acknowledges played a role in his decision. After Wayne’s move South the game has exploded from 21 teams to 30, many of which reside in the Southern U.S. Well, that hasn’t necessarily been as successful as initially hoped, but they’re trying. Actually, they’re failing terribly, but let’s save that topic. Pocklington escaped financial trouble and the Oilers even won a Stanley Cup without Gretzky in 1990. Although, I’m sure this only momentarily subsided the bitterness and hatred surrounding the deal.

One of the most interesting aspects of the documentary is when Berg asks Gretzky about his regrets about leaving Edmonton, probing him about additional Cups he may have won with the Oilers. It seems as if Gretzky never really wanted to leave Edmonton, but he knew that he didn’t have a real choice in the matter, he needed to do what was best for the game.

TSN is broadcasting the 30 for 30 documentaries, although it seems they are having trouble finding time slots to play them all. So, I don’t necessarily know when each air and whether they will receive repeat showings. These are truly interesting films made by people very passionate about the subjects. This is abundantly clear in Berg’s filmmaking. Recounting the trade made me feel sad and betrayed. Maybe it didn’t do much for Peter Pocklington because I still hate him.

I hope not.

This week, King James announced he wants to stop wearing the infamous #23 and change to #6 next season to honor Michael Jordan. Please.

I think personally, that LeBron’s courteous manner is great. But since he said, so many  folks are saying that #23 needs to be retired permanently. That’s right. The famous number in basketball, copied all the way down to AAU ballers in 3rd grade, could be hung up for good. Pat Riley might have triggered this when he retired #23 for the Miami Heat several years back. Umm, Pat, I like you, but Jordan never played for the Heat.

“In honor of your greatness and for all you’ve done for the game of basketball — and not just the NBA, but for all the fans around the world — we want to honor you tonight and hang your jersey, No. 23, from the rafters,” Riley said at midcourt during the presentation of the jersey in 2003, which is part red and blue, honoring the Bulls and the Wizards. Wow.

Now, Jordan was one of the best if not to ever play the game of basketball. His greatest plays still echo through the rafters of so many arenas. Yes, he was great.

But what about Larry Bird? Or Magic Johnson? Or Kareem Abdul-Jabber? Or any of the other greats. They may not have been as “good” as Jordan, but these players are just a few that had to be at least equally great. They carried their respective franchises, won scoring titles, tons of championships and evoked the kind of passion for the game that keeps it going, just the way Jordan did. Retiring MJ’s number is a slap in the face for them, though. One of my favorite basketball cards of Jordan is of him wearing that dreaded #45 from the mid-90s. He wasn’t even always 23. Not a major argument, but just another reason.

Looking to hockey and baseball are the answers. The NHL retired Wayne Gretzky’s #99. Thumbs up, because what player has had such an impact on sport the way he did? There is only one other in my book, Jackie Robinson, whose #42 was retired from the MLB. A civil rights hero that spanned race in a turbulent time in our nation and hockey’s most amazing player ever are at the level to retire numbers from the very sports they played. Jordan doesn’t stand alone the way these two sports greats did.

Dr. J? Jerry West? Bill Russell? Way back to George Mikan? I mean, West is the actual symbol for the NBA. The NBA logo is in the form of him bringing the ball up the court. Russell’s name is attached to the MVP award for the NBA. If anything, shouldn’t #6 be retired by the NBA, the very number LeBron wants to take? The most valuable player award, handed out to the likes of today’s Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and other super stars is named after Russell, who NBA Commissioner David Stern calls “the ultimate champion.”

I hope everyone doesn’t go for this. I know LeBron carries his weight now and what he does is respected, but if #23 is retired, it will be a sad day for the NBA. No offense MJ.

You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take.
—Wayne Gretzky

Cheers to chaos, confusion and mayhem. Here’s to all the people that bring it to our doorstep. They are among the best at what they do and make it look effortless. Their moments of brilliance don’t always last very long, yet they can claim to have brought millions to their feet.  Below they stand, frozen, with everyone watching, in anticipation for a moment that is worth nothing less than the storm that follows.

Tiger Woods

Cristiano Ronaldo

Michael Jordan's 1998 Championship Winning Shot

Kimi Räikkönen - Belgian Grand Prix

Annika Sorenstam

Alexander Ovechkin

Roger Federer

New England Patriots

Lance Armstrong

Serena Williams

Santonio Holmes - Game Winner

Georges St-Pierre

Federica Pellegrini

Wayne Gretzky

Usain Bolt

Lebron James

David Ortiz

Danica Patrick

Alex Rodrigues

Even if I’m from Sweden, I have always loved Canada.

And we have had some great moments, Canada and me. I loved Monty Python’s “The Lumberjack Song”, I was glued to the television watching Wayne Gretzky play hockey and I was happy getting Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill when I signed up for a gym membership back in 1995, even if I’d never heard of her or knew that she originated from Canada.

You really have produced some great people Canada. So when I discovered that it was a Canadian that had produced our first video response ever on YouTube, I wasn’t surprised. Because you are there for me Canada. You are always there.

In case you haven’t seen it, here’s a link to The Elk Day. The video response is located right under it. Go Canada!

The Human Highlight Reel Alex Ovechkin does it all! Scoring unbelievable goals with over the top goal celebrations, Alex even delivers bone crushing hits on the defensive side. Love him or hate him you have to admit Olie is fun to watch. This video was done by E:60 and they hit the mark. If you want to get a little deeper and know more about Alex this is a great video clip done in two parts. From his early hockey days in Russia to making it happen in the NHL. One of his goals even put “The Great One” in awe scoring against his Coyote’s Wayne refers to the goal as “The Goal”.

Russ Ackoff has died, aged 90. The FT has a great obituary/eulogy which has some fascinating quotes and insight.

On internal change:

Do not wait for others in the business to start changing things. Go and do it yourself. But more importantly: never forget that everyone in the business is interconnected, that they are all operating as part of a system, that tinkering with one part of the company is never really enough, and may even make things worse. You need to see the business as a whole, as a complete system, if you want to make lasting improvements to it.

On strategy and direction:

All of our problems arise out of doing the wrong thing righter. The more efficient you are at doing the wrong thing, the wronger you become. It is much better to do the right thing wronger than the wrong thing righter. If you do the right thing wrong and correct it, you get better.

On being, what we at Veritas call, an “orange sheep”:

An organisation that cannot accommodate nonconformity will not be able to retain creative people.

On failure (this applies to people and organizations: see Gretzky, Wayne):

Organisations fail more often because of what they have not done than because of what they have done.

Finally, on people management:

The less managers expect of their subordinates, the less they get.

I’ve never heard of Ackoff before and I’ll certainly be checking out more of his stuff now I’ve been introduced to him.

FT.com / Columnists / Stefan Stern – Fond farewell to a brilliant thinker.

EDIT: thoughts from one of Ackoff’s last graduates on Harvard Business.

Tonight LeBron James is in New York for the only time this season. Funny how that works. It will be his last time visiting the Garden before he has to decide if he wants to make it his home.

I can’t see James switching teams this summer, there’s just something about bouncing from team to team that cheapens legacies. If Kobe Bryant had after all been moved to Chicago he’d still be revered, but not nearly as legendary. Imagine Michael Jordan signing with New York as was rumoured towards the end of his time in Chicago. We all know how we feel about Washington.

Patrick Ewing, Hakeem Olajuwon and Karl Malone all left their respective teams, but towards the very twilight of their careers and even still it leaves an uneasy taste in one’s mouth.

Remember Wayne Gretzky with the Edmonton Oilers? Remember the Kings? The Rangers? The Blues?!

If Hall of Fame athletes are constantly changing jerseys it makes their stories significantly less biblical, and LeBron James is worth his weight in scripture.

Business LeBron will always consider the financial prospects of living in New York City, but Basketball LeBron – the one with the heart – doesn’t have it in him to radically change one of modern day sports’ greatest tales, even though it might cost him millions of endorsement dollars.

“There’s an old Wayne Gretzky quote that I love. ‘I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.’ And we’ve always tried to do that at Apple. Since the very very beginning. And we always will.”
-Steve Jobs

If you need to see it to believe it, you’re probably catching up behind me.

I received a great early birthday present from my Mom and siblings this year. They all chipped in and got me a ticket to see Kevin Smith speak at the Orpheum in LA. I am a huge fan…nuff said. The show is impressive when you consider that he has no script, just that a large audience is there to hear him speak. if you want an idea of what the show is like go to your local video store and look up “An Evening with Kevin Smith” or “An Evening with Kevin Smith 2: Evening Harder“. At times it is just crass juvenile humor which I very much enjoy and at times need. Sometimes it is inspirational as well, and Saturday night did not disappoint.

Anyone who was there will probably tell you about the pot stories, his stories about George Carlin, the story about Jason Mewes’ cock, etc… Which were all great, I am really glad however that he took nearly 45 mins to segue into a story about watching a documentary about Candian Hockey and how hit turned him into a Gretzky fan. I could care less that it was about either of those two subjects, cause I barely understand hockey, and before Saturday night new little more about Wayne Gretzky than that he is the “Michael Jordan” of hockey.

Kevin explained that through watching the documentary at a very vulnerable time for himself that he learned that he needed to get back to his roots of being an innovator. Not going where the puck is, but going where the puck is going to be. 15 years ago he made “Clerks” a comedy for an audience unrepresented at that time. Now it is an audience represented well, and the concept of going where the puck is going to be spoke to him and is driving him in new and what I think will be exciting directions.

Because he saw that documentary and was inspired, he was able to turn it into inspiration for others. I went there to be entertained by “dick and fart” jokes. I came away with an inspiring lesson that hit me at just the right time. I am going to stop going where the puck is and start going where the puck is going to be!

Snoogins!

Corporate CEO’s and forward thinkers like to use the Wayne Gretzky analogy.  Gretzky scored 940 some goals in his 20 career in the NHL.  But he never skated to the puck in order to take his magic shots.  If he skated to a hockey puck angling off the boards at 100 mph, it would be gone by the time he got there.  So Gretzky was as good as any hockey player that ever played the game… at skating to where the puck was going to be.

That’s forward thinking. Broad vision.

So in light of the Wayne Gretzky analogy, this week’s lead story in TIME Magazine is reassuring.  California, it seems, is not falling off into the Pacific Ocean after all.

Oh sure, there are earthquakes and wildfires and crazy environmentalists chaining themselves to the railroad tracks in defense of the ecosystem.  There are gangs and home foreclosures, long unemployment lines and long lines at the frenzy-producing freeway merge.  There may be shuttered businesses and legions of workers whose origins are driving Lou Dobbs nuts.

But in general, there is enormous up-side in the Golden State and its powerhouses of innovation that are skating to where the puck is going to be.

Michael Grunwald writes:

It’s still a dream state. In fact, the pioneering megastate that gave us microchips, freeways, blue jeans, tax revolts, extreme sports, energy efficiency, health clubs, Google searches, Craigslist, iPhones and the Hollywood vision of success is still the cutting edge of the American future — economically, environmentally, demographically, culturally and maybe politically. It’s the greenest and most diverse state, the most globalized in general and most Asia-oriented in particular at a time when the world is heading in all those directions. It’s also an unparalleled engine of innovation, the mecca of high tech, biotech and now clean tech. In 2008, California’s wipeout economy attracted more venture capital than the rest of the nation combined. Somehow its supposedly hostile business climate has nurtured Google, Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Facebook, Twitter, Disney, Cisco, Intel, eBay, YouTube, MySpace, the Gap and countless other companies that drive the way we live.

Innovation implies the flourishing of  ideas that haven’t even been launched yet, defying the status quo.  It rewards early adopters and those who integrate technology in the most unlikely of ways.  Like Kogi, writes Grunwald, the Korean taco truck that announces its location via Twitter. “The beauty of California is the idea that you can reinvent yourself and do something totally creative,” says Kogi’s Roy Choi, a former chef at the Beverly Hilton. “It’s still the Wild West that way.”

But as forward leaning as the TIME Magazine piece on California is, it missed a chance to recognize that our schools have also evolved at light speed from the Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

When Grunwald celebrates the culture of innovation that produces breakthroughs in chip-industry, solar, LED lighting, green materials, the digitized grid, biotech, algae-to-fuel experiments, synthetic genomics, carbon-capturing-cement, sugar to diesel, semiconductors, and energy-efficient windows… he could have been a game changer himself… the first to recognize the relationship between innovative public schools and the fast companies they serve.  Instead, he states that California public schools “pose a real obstacle to the dream of upward mobility” and that they have been “deteriorating for years.”

Really? Deteriorating?  You are clearly thinking of Spicoli’s public schools.  Not mine!

California passed its charter law  in 1992, one of the first states in the country to do so.  There are now 750 charter schools serving 276,000 kids. 90 new charters opened in 2007 alone.  There are charters of every kind from High Tech High to El Milagro.  They flourish in a state that is unique for its size and diversity. Where 64% of its student population are children of color… third, only behind Washington DC and Hawaii.  A state where nearly half the students qualify for free or reduced lunch and where 1 out of 4 are English language learners.  A state that invests only $9,152 per student  (while New York invests  $15, 981 per student).  And where we don’t make excuses.

And while other states are relaxing their standards or lowering the cut point that determines grade level proficiency, California remains one of the most difficult states in America to test out at grade level.  The expectations here are sky high.

There are still many underperforming schools… but I don’t know where they are.  And if I did, I wouldn’t defend them.

I do know however, that schools like El Milagro continue to compete in an environment that is destined to change.  We will not be able to sustain schools as test prep academies to the exclusion of the real skills and talents that will feed into our innovative industries.  Solving energy and the riddles of biomedicine can not come from multiple choice tests.  The future demands creativity.  Critical Thinking. Resilience.

So you can be sure there are schools like mine, skating to where we envision the puck will be.  That’s California too.  Revolutionary thinking and the wild, wild west.

Anze Kopitar
Photo: Victor Decolongon/Getty Images

Although the Kings are just eleven games into the season, to say that Kopitar has shown improvement would be like saying ice is cold.

To coin a phrase, oh what a difference a year makes.

Kopitar has melted the ice to start the season, scoring eight goals while contributing eleven assists for nineteen points in the team’s first eleven games.

To say that is a far cry from how he started the 2008-09 season would be, once again, stating the obvious.

Last season, Kopitar got off to a slow start, scoring a goal and adding six assists for seven points in the Kings’ first eleven games. He did not record his nineteenth point until December 5, 2008, in a 5-4 shootout loss to the Edmonton Oilers. Six days later, he finally scored his eighth goal of the season, in a 6-2 win over the St. Louis Blues.

Not only has Kopitar totally eclipsed his start to the 2008-09 season, through games played on October 25, 2009, Kopitar leads the National Hockey League in scoring.

Yes, you read that correctly. There is no need to rub your eyes, clean your eyeglasses or get your vision checked.

Kopitar’s early scoring tear has him ranked ahead of the likes of Washington Capitals superstar Alexander Ovechkin (nine goals, eight assists for seventeen points) and San Jose Sharks center Joe Thornton (three goals, thirteen assists for sixteen points).

Kopitar is also tied for second in goal scoring and is all alone in second place in assists.

Although it is not at all likely that Kopitar will end the season as the league leader in any of those offensive categories, it gives the Kings confidence and a reason for optimism. After all, when was the last time the Kings had a player who was capable of leading the league in scoring?

One has to look back to the 1993-94 season when The Great One, Wayne Gretzky, finished the season with 38 goals and 92 assists for 130 points, leading the NHL in scoring.

Before the season began, Kings head coach Terry Murray made it clear that the Kings needed more from its young core of skilled players. But he also made it clear that Kopitar has to step up more than the rest.

“Your top players are key guys,” said Murray. “Your key guys have to go out and perform at a high level in critical situations at critical times during the season. Kopitar in particular has got to have a really big bite of this hockey club.”

The addition of Ryan Smyth to the lineup has also had a huge impact, as his offensive skill, his constant presence in front of the net and his ability to get his nose dirty along the boards and in the corners gives Kopitar another scoring threat on his line and creates more space for him to maneuver.

“I think there’s a lot of energy and chemistry on the line and Smyth’s a huge part of that,” said Murray. “His game is that same look where he’s playing around the net, taking it to the net, making little plays in the blue paint where he forces players to come and pound away, looking for loose pucks and rebounds. He has to get some of the credit for it.”

But Murray and President/General Manager Dean Lombardi also deserve some credit, as they pushed their players to improve their strength and conditioning over the summer, which has been quite evident in Kopitar’s hot start.

Perhaps the best example of how added strength and speed has helped Kopitar came on October 22 against the Dallas Stars at Staples Center when he flew up right wing with the puck. Using his speed, he powered his way past Stars defenseman Stephane Robidas, turned and moved to the front of the net where he used his strength to fight off Robidas and his defensive partner, Trevor Daley, before he slipped the puck past Dallas goaltender Alex Auld, just inside the left goal post.

It was a spectacular, highlight-reel goal, to be sure. However, it was one that Kopitar likely would not have scored in previous years because he did not have the strength and speed to do so.

“No, he doesn’t [make that play],” said Murray. “[Instead], he ends up going around behind the net. That’s a hockey player’s play. That’s a powerful play. It takes a very courageous player to make that kind of strong move. Boy, for a young guy to start playing like that and showing that kind of performance, that’s pretty exciting stuff.”

“He has to do it, he has to make his mind up that ‘I’m going to do it, I’m going to take the puck to the net,’” added Murray. That’s one of the most courageous plays in the game and he did that twice tonight. He walked out of the corner on another goal.”

As stated earlier, Murray had a lot to do with Kopitar’s improved physical abilities.

“[I hope] this off-season does great things for the players we have in our organization, meaning that the off-season program, the commitment to doing things so that you’re going to mature physically and come into the training camp totally ready, physically strong, confident and just build from that solid foundation that you’ve put in place through hard work in the summertime,” Murray said last June.

“I’ve seen it over the years, with players coming in, when you’re physically sound and fit and really strong, you have tremendous confidence when you step onto the ice,” Murray added. “That, in itself, will accelerate and develop you into a better player and a better team. That’s what I want to have coming into the training camp this year.”

But even more responsible for Kopitar becoming stronger and faster is Lombardi, who was even more pointed this past summer, calling out Kopitar and challenging him dedicate himself to getting into the gym during the off-season.

“When I see a lot of these kids, but in particular [center Anze Kopitar’s] case, you talk about a culture, we have a lot of work to do in terms of our best players learning to prepare in the off-season, learning how to prepare as pros physically and mentally,” Lombardi stressed during an interview last June. “And you can’t be prepared mentally if you haven’t prepared physically because if you show up in training camp ready to go, it means you have taxed yourself mentally and challenged yourself to get to the next level.”

“We can talk all we want about ‘let’s go out and get this guy and that guy and this guy,’ Lombardi added. “But unless Kopitar, as one of our key players and with the commitment we made to him last summer in terms of locking him up, gets on board and learns that he has to take on [physical center Ryan] Getzlaf [of the Anaheim Ducks], and that means preparing in the summer and showing up in top shape where not only are you at the top of your game, but we also expect you to set an example for the all the other young players considering he wears an ‘A’ [as an assistant captain]. That is the most critical thing to this franchise.”

Although Lombardi has indicated that he was hoping for more from Kopitar over the summer, Kopitar is reaping the benefits of his off-season workout regimen.

“I guess I prepared for the season a little better and I’m playing the hockey that I learned awhile ago and that I’ve showed that I can play,” said Kopitar. “Now, everything’s clicking.”

“I worked out hard,” added Kopitar. “I do feel good on the ice. I feel strong and pretty fast, too. It’s working for me. Getting older, you get stronger and you get to know your body a little better, you know what to do a little more and you learn from your mistakes and weaknesses and you try to improve on that. I think I did it pretty good this summer.”

Kopitar started the 2009-10 season with four goals and six assists for ten points in the first five games and he has not slowed down, scoring four goals and adding five assists for nine points in his last five games.

He also recorded his first NHL hat trick against Dallas on October 22.

Can Kopitar keep up this torrid pace? The odds are against it. Nevertheless, the Kings will need him to improve significantly on his 2008-09 numbers (27 goals and 39 assists for 66 points) if they expect to be a playoff team this season.

“In particular for Kopitar, he’s been playing really good in all the games this year, the line has been very good and now, he caps it off tonight with a big performance,” said Murray.

“[He needs to] keep going,” added Murray. “We’re going to need that kind of effort every night.”

All stories and audio content on this site are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. You may copy, distribute and/or transmit any story or audio content published on this site under the terms of this license, but only if proper attribution is indicated. The full name of the author and a link back to the original article on this blog are required.