Canada's team, Canada's sport, Canada's national migrane

It was 35 degrees here the other day. A hot, sticky, humid trainwreck of a day. Summer has arrived and it's too late in the year for hockey, but here it comes, stealing headlines and keeping itself at the forefront of the Canadian sports media scene. The sport has led MacLean's for the previous two weeks, leads TSN's SportsCentre pretty much every day and has provided story after story after story. It hasn't, isn't and will not let up - not yet, not with the Finals just starting.

But the biggest story is Winnipeg's coup of the Atlanta Thrashers. True North Sports and Entertainment's purchase and subsequent move of the team to Manitoba's capital - and the amazingly rapid sellout of season tickets - has moved the media like a, er, Jet. MacLean's cover featured their old logo; the Toronto Sun ran picture of a pin-up girl in hockey paraphernalia above the fold. Each of the op-eds and columns reads like a gushing tribute to a national pastime, but nobody really wants to spoil the party by noting all the problems with the relocation.

The easy one is how tiny Winnipeg is: with a local population just under 700 thousand, it's the smallest market in the NHL, behind even Edmonton. Another is how it's not known as any kind of corporate showcase. If wikipedia can be believed, it's home to companies like Boeing Canada, Old Dutch foods and The Great-West Life Assurance Company; one hopes there's enough of a corporate presence to keep luxury boxes and expensive, lower-bowl seats full.

Let's not forget about the logistics which need to be ironed out. How will their schedule look? Will teams from the Southeast have to fly in for every game? And who's going to broadcast their games? It's easy to assume the CBC will pick up a few weekend games (and probably the home opener) and TSN will pick up a few during the week, but what of all the rest? Rogers Sportsnet looks like a likely source, but their West channel is already home to the Oilers and Flames; is there enough room for a third team?

While we're not forgetting, let's remember a column written by the Globe and Mail's Stephen Brunt, who tipped the nation off to the move with a column on May 19th. Wrote Brunt:

"Sources confirmed Thursday night that preparations are being made for an announcement Tuesday, confirming the sale and transfer of the Thrashers to True North Sports and Entertainment.

... some months back, the NHL board of governors quietly approved the sale and transfer of the team, pending the negotiation of a purchase agreement between Atlanta Spirit LLC, the Thrashers’ owners, and True North."

Brunt's column was correct in the most broad sense; the Thrashers are likely to move to Winnipeg. And the announcement was even on a Tuesday! Just, as it happened, on a different Tuesday.

There's a difference between being right and being almost right. As I learned back in my J-School days, the only thing you have in this business is your credibility and you get that by being right, if not by being first. Herein lies the problem with Brunt's column: he was wrong. There was no announcement that Tuesday, May 24. The Jets press conference was a week later. And every report, from the AP to the Toronto Sun is saying the board still hasn't approved the sale.

It's cool he was able to jump the gun on the announcement (one wonders if he burnt some source in running the story so early) and it's nice to see the team actually come, but it shouldn't rectify his column which was, essentially, wrong. He suggested that the move was finished, had been "quietly approved", would be annouced on a set day. It isn't, hasn't been and wasn't. He deserves to be held to that.

The Jets moving has also inspired talk from some rather odd angles. The other night, Toronto radio host Jeff Sammut had an hour of open lines asking if Toronto should get a second team, which is an issue nobody in their right mind talks about. Callers spouted nonsense like how Toronto can support up to five different teams, but they never will thanks to Big America. One I especially liked was the suggestion Toronto doesn't win because of American business interests.

Canada likes to think of itself as an independent nation. It is, but it so often seems to be defined in the oddest way possible, which is that we play up how different we are than the US. It's an oddly insecure kind of way to defend yourself: we're better because we're not. It lies through so much of our collective conscience (at least here). From the Avro Arrow, a jet scrapped for a missile defence system (but really because of UA big business) to the NHL (who are willing to throw the game to the wolves to sell it in the US), so much of our collective conscience seems to be about trying to play up how we're not them.

It goes to the Stanley Cup finals this year. For instance, TSN is billing it not as the 2011 Finals, but as Vancouver's quest to bring the Cup to Canada. Never mind that only 16 of their players are Canadian or that Boston has more Canadians on it's roster, this is somehow Canada's team. Never mind that in the past six Finals - from 2004 to 2010, minus the lockout year - there was three Canadian teams. This isn't a case of Canada making a stand against

It's silly. It doesn't feel like rooting for anything so much as it does feel like rooting against something. It's quickly become another political battle: us versus the US. It comes off from benign things like Boston Pizza crossing the Boston out it's name to nonsensical things like the above call-in talk shows. And TSN sure isn't helping when they bill the Finals in such a one-sided way.

Penguins come up big in triple OT

It was supposed to be a celebration. The Red Wings win the Stanley Cup on their home ice. And as the seconds ticked away, the Cup loomed closer and closer.

Then Max Talbot banged in a rebound. Before either team knew it, the celebration had become a marathon.

With that goal, the Penguins tied the game at 3 apiece, sending the game to overtime.

It had been a back and forth game all night, with neither team taking a clear advantage. The Penguins got on the board first, with a Marian Hossa goal , then with another from Adam Hall. 2-0 after 20.

But the Wings rallied back, scoring three unanswered goals, one in the second and two in the third. It was their usual suspects: Datsyuk tied the game up, Brian Rafalski put them ahead. 3-2 for Detroit as the game entered it’s final minute.

Pittsburgh pulled their goalie, always a risky gamble. Two years ago, it backfired on the Edmonton Oilers in game seven – Carolina solidified their lead late and won, 3-1. This time, however, it worked: Max Talbot tied the game at 19:25.

In overtime, Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury seemed to stand on his head. At least four times, he made gigantic saves that kept the Penguins season alive.

But he had been for the whole game, when he faced 34 shots through the first 60 minutes.

Overtime was something else, though. A microcosm of the game, albeit reversed, it started with Detroit keeping the pressure on Fleury. About halfway though, they led in shots, six to one. But as the period continued, Pittsburgh moved to the offensive, but with little success.

Perhaps their age betrayed them. They couldn’t find an open look, their two-on-ones were too slow, they couldn’t get through the formidable Detroit defence. Before long, the shots had nearly been doubled, 10 to two.

As the overtime wind down, the Penguins looked out of gas. With under three minutes to play, Detroit had a great chance. Franzen and Zetterberg crashed the net, forcing Fleury to make a sprawling save, lying down on his side.

A break, however, came the Penguins way: an interference call against Zetterberg on that scramble. But even then, they couldn’t capitalize – the penalty passed harmlessly and Detroit had another great scoring chance, a rush after a Jordan Staal turnover. That was it for the first overtime, though.

The second OT began with a bang – about five minutes in, the Red Wings took another penalty. Here the Penguins went on the offsenive, and got some of their best chances of the night. But – again – they didn’t score.

Later on, both sides found themselves with more chances. Ruutu had a great chance, but Osgood shut him out.

Given enough time, any two teams in the Finals will even themselves out. As the game neared the 90 minute mark, faceoffs were about even for both. The score had remained stagnant for the longest time all game. Tempers ran short, and both sides began to tire.

Instead of a constant rush, the Wings were making more and more odd-man rushes, like the one where Kris Draper leveled a backhand at Fleury (he made the save). Or the one where Datsyk couldn’t deke his man on a one-on-one.

Increasingly, the puck began to spend more time in Detroit’s end – experience goes a long way in the playoffs, but the younger team tires more slowly, I guess. But at the same time, action had slowed down considerably too.

But after a Detroit rush – the highlight of which was a shot that bounced high and nearly into the net – Pittsburgh took a penalty with just over two minutes left, their first in sudden death. Detroit kept the pressure on and played with a renewed intensity. But again, not enough.

Third overtime, now. One game becames two. And still, Detroit pressed the Penguins, keeping them in their own end.

Their aggressiveness would be their undoing, though. Another penalty, a four-minute double minor on Juri Hudler for high-sticking, 9:21 into the third overtime.

Three times the charm, for the Penguins. Petr Sykora netted his sixth of the playoffs from the right circle, not even a minute after that penalty.

The Penguins are still alive, and will go back home to the Mellon for game six. Do they have a chance? I doubt it.

The main thing – and perhaps the only thing – that kept them alive throughout this game was the stellar play of Fleury. He made key saves throughout nearly 50 minutes of sudden death overtime, not to mention the 60 minutes of regulation.

All in all, he made 55 saves in game five. Say that again, out loud – fifty five saves. Twenty four of those were in sudden death, where a Detroit goal would end their season.

That’s nearly double was Osgood faced, who didn’t have as much pressure on him. Pressure to keep his team alive, pressure from the Red Wings, who outshot the Penguins in every period last night.

That means that Fleury was on the ice for almost 110 minutes last night. Not standing, but sprawling, scrambling to keep the puck out.

It was a singular preformnce in goaltending last night, the perfect cap to one of the best matchups the Finals have had in a long time.

To me, it was like game six of the 1980 finals, when Bob Nystrom won the first of four Islander Cups with an overtime goal.

That was the start of their dynasty. Was this the start of the Penguins?