Not that it was ever in doubt, but Canada spanked Slovakia 5-0 at the World Cup tonight, with Iggy finally lighting it up (2-1-3) and his line combining for eight points. But the big surprise (to everyone who isn't an Oilers fan) was Ryan Smyth holding his own against Zdeno Chara, who's almost a foot taller than him. Considering he's made his living in Edmonton holding off players that are 3-4" taller than him, handling Chara wasn't too much more of a stretch. You could really tell Chara was getting pissed off, because he started doing some undisciplined things near the end of the game that, surprisingly, didn't result in any penalties. But it does go to show that "small" forwards can play in the NHL, despite the fact that the average player is probably 6'2" now.

Next stop: well, they're still going to be in Toronto, but they're playing the suddenly-hot Czech Republic on Saturday at 6:30 ET. Gonna be a good one!

I've recently discovered the great appeal of the Newfie bar. Now, in order to enjoy it you must have a Newfie with you; otherwise, you feel really out of place (Mainlanders talk funny, ya know). Once you're in, though, if you just let go, you'll have the time of your life. The Atlantic Trap & Gill here in Calgary was recommended by a coworker who moved here from the Rock this summer, and they have a guitar player there who plays mostly Celtic/Atlantic folk music. He hates the "wrist-slashers", downcast ones that aren't very danceable, but when he gets a good energetic song going (which is often), the whole place will come alive, with a small group up at one end jigging on the dance floor. After a bit of self-consciousness (I still felt out of place--could be because I hadn't been on a dance floor in four years), I finally let myself go, and was amazed at how much fun it was. I didn't want the place to close when two o'clock came around, because it was just that great.

There's not much of a point to the story; I just wanted to remind everyone that Newfies do, indeed, rock.

I love Loreena McKennitt's rendition of "Bonny Portmore" (from the Highlander: Endgame soundtrack, and her 1992 album The Visit). It's an old Celtic folk song, and it's a rather sombre one, but McKennitt (a Canadian!) makes it so beautiful. There's some history relating to the song here (third and fourth paragraphs).

Oh Bonny Portmore, you shine where you stand
And the more I think on you the more I think long
If I had you now as I had once before
All the Lords in Old England would not purchase Portmore.

Oh Bonny Portmore I am sorry to see
Such a woeful destruction of your ornament tree
For it stood on your shore for many's the long day
Till the long boats of Antrim came to float it away.

All the birds in the forest they bitterly weep
Saying, "Where will we shelter or where will we sleep?"
For the oak and the ash they are all cutten down
And the walls of Bonny Portmore are all down to the ground.

Oh Bonny Portmore, you shine where you stand
And the more I think on you the more I think long
If I had you now as I had once before
All the Lords in Old England would not purchase Portmore.

The other day, I was in Future Shop, and I found an old, original Xbox controller hooked up to one of their displays, after five minutes with it, I concluded that this was instantly better than the controller-S, and that if I ever found one, I'd snap it up in an instant. Compare the one I now have:

With the old-school one:

Now, I'll grant you that the black and white buttons are a little hard to reach, but compared to their current position it's far better. The way my hands are, B&W are, for all intents and purposes, on the grip. The Start and Back buttons are in an even worse position on the Controller-S; instead of their traditional center-stage position, they're tucked under the left thumbstick? I know the original controller wasn't perfect--if you don't have big hands like mine, you're kinda hosed--but I think you should at least be allowed the option of choosing one over the other, rather than being forced to only buy the S. The current model is on the ragged edge of tolerable (the Dual Shock line for the PlayStations is almost unusable for me), and the option of comfort in controllers should be there. You can imagine how I feel about the Xbox 2 controller in this week's Rumour Control being essentially a Dual Shock II with different button names.

Plus, if they still sold the originals, maybe they'd sell them in translucent green to match my Xbox. That'd be nice.

Another excellent way to cope with the inevitable work stoppage is classic hockey games. And by that, I mean none other than the Summit Series itself.

I was inspired by watching the Canada/Russia game tonight (3-1 Canada! w00t!), and by the digital archives on the CBC webpage. I mean, what true Canadian hockey fan doesn't feel a swell of pride watching the legendary Henderson goal, even thirty-plus years hence? That was a defining moment in Canadian hockey, when we proved to the world that We Are The Best. Period. No offence to the 2002 Olympians, but their double-medal falls second to that goal, and that series win.

Now, in the past, the NHL Network and ESPN Classics have aired classic hockey games, including the Summit Series. Since this summer's going to last a little longer than most, what better way to keep people interested in the sport than to remind them why we love the game in the first place? Plus, it is September...

Am I the only person who really doesn't care whether there's a hockey season next year? Before you call me names, realize first that I love hockey. I was heartbroken when my Oilers missed the playoffs (again!), but I was able to understand, and after a while, join in on, the celebration of the Calgary Flames that engulfed the city a few months ago. I'm thoroughly enjoying this World Cup, and I'm happy with Canada's progress so far. What I don't like is how bloody stupid player salaries have gotten. Remember when Gretzky was the highest-paid player in the NHL with $4M or $6M or some then-outrageous sum like that? Today, at least one player on every team, I think, makes more than that; hell, even the tight-walleted Flames, with their self-imposed $35-40M salary cap, are going to give Iggy at least $7M.

Who's to blame for this? Is it the players and their aggressive agents? Or is it the win-at-any-cost owners who agree to pay such stupid sums? There was a time, not too long ago, when unproven rookies did not get million-dollar contracts. (There was also a time when no one got million-dollar contracts, but granted, that was a bit before my time.) Now, the league average salary is over $1.8M. Annually. Something's gotta give, and even if the owners are responsible for this mess, they gotta have a way to extricate themselves before every team in the NHL is hemorrhaging money.

What does this all mean to Joe Hockey Fan? Well, for starters, higher salaries mean higher costs to teams, which in turn means higher ticket prices, and even more ridiculous concession prices ($8 for an A & W burger? $5 for a small bowl of ice cream? Bite me, Saddledome!), which means a night at the hockey game becomes prohibitively expensive, if it isn't already. Furthermore, greed tarnishes the image of hockey. Now, hockey needs no help having its image tarnished (see: Todd Bertuzzi); hockey players are already seen as brutes by the ignorant. Do they need to be seen as selfish brutes, too? What happened to the love of the game?

So go ahead. Strike. Lock 'em out. Whatever. This nonsense is ruining my favourite game, and I'm sick of it. Until you can stop being selfish children, I don't want to hear from you. In the meantime, I'll be getting ESPN NHL 2K5 in a couple of weeks (Thanks, Alex! Too bad I gotta wait until after my birthday...), which should tide me over just fine.

I don't know what I'm going to do with this space.

I mean, I'm going to get one thing out of the way: unless you have the gift of humour to keep things interesting, you shouldn't be blogging. Furthermore, I disagree with the concept on principle; I see no reason why people should really care about the minutiae of my life, or why I would want them to anyway. And even when I do want to blog, I have a website, complete with rant space, that will serve those needs nicely.

Any suggestions would be nice. My current thought is to use this to shill the aforementioned website, which could always use more promotion. In fact, I think I'll link it three more times, just to make my point. Neener.

Well, I found out about MP3.com and this journal thing today, so I'm going to give those a try. My collection is here; as you might expect, it's filled almost exclusively with classic rock (there will be more soon as more albums are added). I should also point out that my soft-rock content is seriously overreported--probably due to two categories with the same name.

Tomorrow I'll try to make better use of this space; tonight, it's too late and I'm getting tired.