Even though it's mild outside for the end of February, it's still been a long winter. With the Canadiens tanking for a second consecutive season, I am more than elated that the Major League Baseball season is around the corner.
Spring training action got under way today and I for one can't wait until the Pirates and Blue Jays are in Montreal at the end of March (well, mainly because I am in the TSN 690 booth for the pre and post game shows).
But the excitement of a new baseball season and the warm weather that it brings has me writing more baseball stuff for Dead Hit Sports.
How will Boston's new Big 3 in the rotation do? Can the Cubs be just as dominant? What about the Angels; will Mike Scoscia last the year as manager? And can the Dodgers finally get over the hump and reach the World Series?
With the preseason already in full swing it's only a matter of time before the preceding questions play out. Buckle up, baseball fans, here we go!
Monday, 27 February 2017
Sunday, 26 February 2017
Robyn Flynn: 3rd Straight Clarkson Cup Final for Les Canadiennes
Robyn Flynn joins the show to discuss the Montreal Canadiennes' big victory over Brampton and gives her take on what the best fit is for the Canadiennes in the Clarkson Cup Final.
http://www.tsn.ca/radio/montreal-690/flynn-3rd-straight-clarkson-cup-final-for-les-canadiennes-1.681489
http://www.tsn.ca/radio/montreal-690/flynn-3rd-straight-clarkson-cup-final-for-les-canadiennes-1.681489
Sean Gordon: Price-Julien history significant
Sean Gordon joins Matthew Ross and Amanda Stein to discuss the Habs' big win over the Leafs last night in Toronto, Charles Hudon's two-goal performance in the AHL & more.
http://www.tsn.ca/radio/montreal-690/gordon-price-julien-history-significant-1.681486
http://www.tsn.ca/radio/montreal-690/gordon-price-julien-history-significant-1.681486
Moe Khan: McGill Redmen advance to East Divisonal Final
TSN 690's own Moe Khan joins the show to discuss the McGill Redmen's big hockey victory over UQTR.
http://www.tsn.ca/radio/montreal-690/moe-khan-mcgill-redmen-advance-to-east-divisonal-final-1.681478
http://www.tsn.ca/radio/montreal-690/moe-khan-mcgill-redmen-advance-to-east-divisonal-final-1.681478
Matthew Ross: Where is Charles Hudon?
Matthew Ross and Dave Trentadue debate whether or not calling up Charles Hudon can realistically help the Habs.
Matt Cauz: Jim Popp and Marc Trestman would bring legitimacy to Toronto
TSN 1050's Matt Cauz joins Matthew Ross to talk Leafs-Habs, the Raptors' big win over the Celtics, the Argos' potential new hires and excitement over Blue Jays Spring Training.
Tony Marinaro: Habs should explore all options
TSN 690's own Tony Marinaro joins Matthew Ross, Jay Farrar and Dave Trentadue for Habs Breakfast, where he suggests the Habs should examine their entire organization, including player development. He also touches on Charles Hudon, potential deals & more.
Mark Lidbetter's Amateur Sports Report: Syrians introduced to PeeWee Hockey
Mark Lidbetter joins Matthew Ross and Dave Trentadue for his weekly Amateur Sports Report, where he discusses a PeeWee A team from Lasalle introducing young Syrians to hockey & more.
http://www.tsn.ca/radio/montreal-690/mark-lidbetter-s-amateur-sports-report-syrians-introduced-to-peewee-hockey-1.681036
http://www.tsn.ca/radio/montreal-690/mark-lidbetter-s-amateur-sports-report-syrians-introduced-to-peewee-hockey-1.681036
Fred Daigle: Future uncertain for Lucian Bute
La Presse Canadienne's Fred Daigle joins Matthew Ross and Dave Trentadue to discuss Eleider Alvarez's knockout victory over Lucian Bute last night in Quebec City.
http://www.tsn.ca/radio/montreal-690/daigle-future-uncertain-for-lucian-bute-1.681032
http://www.tsn.ca/radio/montreal-690/daigle-future-uncertain-for-lucian-bute-1.681032
Tuesday, 21 February 2017
Fourth Line minutes: Galchenyuk Trade Rumours Are Crazy
Fourth Line minutes: Galchenyuk Trade Rumours Are Crazy
Written by Dave Trentadue
Rumours are just rumours until they are truths.
That’s a simple fact in the sports world, and the rumour we
have been hearing about with increasingly more frequency lately is that the
Montreal Canadiens are shopping Alex Galchenyuk. Rumours often begin as
speculation, fun-filled conversations between fans to keep themselves
entertained. Would you trade Alex Galchenyuk for Matt Duchene? For Gabriel
Landeskog?
Often these are simply idle musings, questions thrown out
there for those by the water cooler to debate endlessly and pass the time in
the office. Sometimes, however, rumours begin to have legs. You don’t have to
look much further than at the beginning of last season, when trading superstar
defenseman PK Subban was fun to talk about, but obviously too crazy to actually
consider. Then Carey Price was lost for the season, and the Canadiens’ great
start started to mean less and less. Whispers of friction in the locker room
began to spread, two factions facing off. In one corner, the Habs’ new Captain
Max Pacioretty; in the other, the beloved fan-favourite, PK Subban. By the end
of the season, NHL insiders had all but confirmed that the Habs were taking
calls on Subban.
I was doing business on a boat on June 24th of
2016, and I was glued to the on-board radio. Marc Bergevin was late to a press
conference, and the Twitterverse was panicking! Had Subban been traded? Why was
the general manager so late? My business associate was sure PK was gone.
It wasn’t meant to be...that day. Bergevin eventually made
his way to the podium, denied all PK speculation, and that was that. 5 days
later, however, I was listening to Melnick in the Afternoon on TSN 690 when
news broke that PK Subban had been traded to the Nashville Predators for Shea
Weber. Mitch Melnick’s reaction to the news,
broken to him by Mitch Gallo live on-air, will live on forever as an
audio clip that perfectly summed up most of the city’s hockey fans’ thoughts:
“Holy Shit”.
Fast forward to less than a year later, and after another hot
start, the Habs have once again cooled off, losing 6 out of their last 7
heading into the off week (Don’t call it a Bye Week, Michael Farber will be
angry – rightfully so). This year, however, there’s no PK Subban to blame
things on. The leadership group is supposed to have been shored up, and this
group, as we have heard countless times over the season, is “as tight as ever”.
Now the rumours are focused on Galchenyuk. The whispers are
back, this time with a new target. Is Galchenyuk partying too much? Why is his
play so poor in his own end? Why is he so bad at faceoffs? Does he care about
this team? Galchenyuk is being shopped for Duchene!
I hear the rumours, but they are crazy to me. Crazy! This is a
young centerman learning to play against the very best the NHL has to offer.
It’s going to take some time before he develops into the all-star, well rounded
centerman the Canadiens hoped he’d be when they drafted him 3rd
overall back in 2012.
I understand that in this market, patience isn’t something
this fan base has in spades. But I implore the Canadiens’ brass to patient in
this case. No more lateral moves. You want Duchene this year? Offer Sergachev,
a draft pick. Galchenyuk for Duchene will not make the Canadiens better in the
long run, nor will it greatly improve this team now. It just doesn’t make
sense. Alex Galchenyuk should be a Montreal Canadien for a very long time.
32’s 32 thoughts
1. Marc Bergevin failed Michel Therrien. There, I said it.
Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with the Therrien firing and Claude
Julien being the new Head Coach of the Montreal Canadiens. I think ultimately,
change was needed and this will give a boost to the Habs, at least in the short
term. The problem lies in the lack of “won” trades by the GM in the five years
Therrien stood behind the bench. In that time, Bergevin has made 33 trades. Of
those 33 trades, I can only point to a handful that has helped the team: the
Petry acquisition, the Shaw trade, Weber for PK and the smaller Flynn and
Mitchell deals.
The 28 other deals were either lateral moves (Ryder-for-Cole,
Matteau-DSP), small moves (Weaver, Nesterov) or trades that simply didn’t work
out (Vanek, Gonchar, Parenteau, Kassian). Bergevin simply needs to do better.
2. My first thought regarding Claude Julien is that he’s not that
much different than Michel Therrien. He’s defensive-minded and doesn’t have a
stellar reputation with younger players. He is also extremely conservative.
People point to his passion behind the bench, but if you recall, Therrien was
also extremely temperamental at the beginning of his run. The Habs told him to
tone it down. Will they do the same with Julien?
3. Perhaps the biggest plus for Habs’ fans is that Claude
Julien is known to stick to his lines, which Therrien seemed to be incapable of
doing. Loved seeing the fans go crazy at Mike’s line juggles throughout the
years, though. I’ll miss that.
4. I’ll miss the Therrien-isms. He provided great soundbites
for us at TSN 690. Sigh. (That was a soundbite too!)
5. Lost the first one versus Winnipeg. How long until
#FireJulien begins trending in Montreal?
6. One last thing about the coaching change. There is all
kinds of talk about how the Canadiens players gave up on their Coach,
specifically Carey Price. Darren Dreger spoke of a player saying Carey Price
lacked the usual fire in his eyes. Let’s get this out of the way: If Carey
Price stopped playing for his coach, throw out all the garbage of him being the
team’s true leader. You can’t have it both ways. You just can’t. You can’t
boast about your team’s leadership, and say Carey’s a great guy, a true leader,
a pillar in the dressing room, and then turn around and say he gave up on his
Coach when the going got tough. Is that a guy you want to go to war with? A guy
who quits or gives less than 100% when things don’t go his way or he’s mad at
you? Either Price is a leader, or he’s not. Can’t have it both ways.
7. Detroit Red Wings owner Mike Illitch died recently, and
there was a ton of great stories that came out about how good a man he really
was. One that stood out to me: he paid Rosa
Parks’ rent for over ten years after she was assaulted in her home
back in 1994. He did a lot of good for Detroit during his life.
8. Antoine Vermette slashing an official was
a case of momentary stupidity. He was angry at the botched faceoff. I wonder
how this will affect future faceoffs involving the Ducks’ centerman. He’s been
suspended for 10 games, which is automatic, and if you ask me, fair.
9. Same can be said for Gustav Nyquist. He
seemed in shock after spearing
Jared Spurgeon in the face. 6 games is fair.
10. TSN 690 very best friends Mitch Gallo and Sean Campbell
have a bet over whether the Leafs will make the playoffs. Gallo says yes,
Campbell says no. Loser must wear a rooster suit to the Irish Embassy for an
episode of Habs Hot Topic (Saturdays 3PM!). If Mitch Marner is hurt, Gallo may
soon be feeling cocky, and NOT in a good way. He crashed into the boards on
Tuesday and missed practice on Friday morning. We shall see.
11. Sidney Crosby scored his 1,000 point and the Pittsburgh
Penguins PR released a list of 110 players who contributed to those points. The
familiar names are there, like Malkin, Letang, Kunitz and Dupuis, but there
were others who made me go “oh yeah!”. Guys like Zigmund Palffy, John LeClair
and Lyle Odelein.
12. In the category of “I wish I had thought of that”,
Eugenie Bouchard came through on her Super Bowl bet with John the Tiger Woods
fan. The two sat courtside at the Brooklyn Nets game and actually have a second
date in the works. Kudos to you, John. Kudos to you.
13. CFL Free Agency is in full swing and the Montreal
Alouettes picked up some interesting pieces: DB Ryan Phillips, who is the
active interception leader in the CFL and WR Ernest Jackson, who was a MOP
candidate last season and won the Grey Cup with the Ottawa RedBlacks.
14. On Wednesday, Ryan Phillips joined Sean
Campbell on the Drive Show and praised Ernest Jackson, calling him a safety
who’s playing Wide Receiver. He also said he liked Kavis Reed’s vision, which
is in line with what Darian Durant and Nik Lewis have said previously about the
Alouettes new GM. The future seems bright for Montreal CFL fans.
15. The Alouettes released Jeff Perrett and have a huge hole
on the offensive line. I wonder how Kavis Reed plans on filling it.
16. Josh Bourke is a still a free agent. Played 9 seasons in
Montreal before leaving for the Toronto Argonauts last year. He’d look good
back in an Alouettes jersey.
17. The Alouettes also signed Quarterback Jacory Harris to a
2 year deal. What does that mean for Vernon Adams Jr? My friend and host of the
Weekend Game Plan was none too pleased at this news.
18. While the Alouettes made some solid acquisitions in Free
Agency, they lost Safety Marc-Olivier Brouillette and Offensive Lineman Ryan
White to the Saskatchewan Roughriders, and linebacker Winston Venable signed
with the Argos. I still see it as a positive Free Agency for Montreal.
19. Georges St-Pierre is back!!! Exciting news for Quebec MMA
fans and UFC fans. My pal Dave Simon (Who by the way is training me in
Brazilian Ju-Jistu) expects
GSP to move up to middleweight and take on Michael Bisping for a chance to
try and become a champion in two weight classes.
20. Dave also told me to look out for Aiemann Zahabi this
weekend at UFC Fight Night in Halifax on Sunday. He’s a UFC Insider and is my
go-to source for MMA tidbits. He was right! Big win for Zahabi.
21. Kevin Owens broke up with Chris Jericho. Sucks. WWE
always pulls the trigger too early on these things. Owens/Y2J was the best
thing on WWE TV. Now Owens is set to lose his Universal title to Goldberg, and
most likely face Jericho for the US title at WrestleMania. Boooo. The List of
KO was pretty cool though. And it lead to this Bergevin/Therrien moment.
22. The Raptors finally made a trade! After nearly 20 months
(!) without one, they dealt Terrence Ross and a 2017 1st Round Pick
to the Orlando Magic for Power Forward Serge Ibaka. Ibaka is a force
defensively and while he can also dunk, he has developed into a reliable 3
point shooter as well. He also becomes an insurance policy for Patrick
Patterson, and potentially provides an incentive for a frustrated Kyle Lowry to
re-sign with Toronto.
23. The Raptors now have Ibaka’s Larry Bird rights, meaning
they can exceed the salary cap when re-signing their own players. They wouldn’t
have been able to afford Ibaka had they tried for him in Free Agency.
24. Ibaka’s playoff experience also helps. He has appeared in
90 playoff games with the Oklahoma City Thunder. I’m not saying this puts them
over the edge in a series versus LeBron and Cleveland, but it certainly gives
them a fighting chance.
25. Jose Bautista reported to Toronto Blue Jays camp early, I
guess in an effort to apologize to his teammates after trying to leave but
nobody wanting to pay him actual money to do so.
26. Leaving Alex Anthopoulos go continues to be the worst
move a sports franchise has made in the past few years.
27. The Montreal Impact begin their season on Saturday, March
4th, 2017 in San Jose versus the Earthquakes. I for one am excited
to see them play in the post-Drogba era.
28. A Tom Brady movie? No thank you. Mark Wahlberg as Brady
would probably be the highlight of his career.
29. Dave Zirin, a sports editor at the Nation, joined Matthew
Ross and I on the Weekend Game Plan to discuss sports
in the Age of Trump. He called Trump’s immigration plan the “Shame of the
Nation”. Dave is a must-follow on Twitter (@edgeofsports). The
interview is really worth checking out. From Mark Cuban to the Kushners and
Jeffrey Loria, sports and politics really have intertwined in the past week.
30. I filled in as Producer on Melnick in the Afternoon this
week. Rod Francis was in New Orleans and it was an interesting week to say the
least. Between Michel Therrien being fired mid-show on Tuesday to Mitch Melnick
and Conor McKenna both being too sick to host on Thursday, to a show from
Brossard on Friday, I was definitely in for a fun ride. Scotty Bowman was on
right before the Therrien news broke and said he was fired by the Buffalo
Sabres because he refused
to coach. Funny.
31. Can Vince Young crack the Roughriders? Where will Tony
Romo and Le’Veon Bell land? I’ll discuss that next week on Fourth Line Minutes.
32. Fun Tidbit of the Week: Elon Musk was so sick of Los
Angeles traffic one day recently that as soon as he got to his SpaceX office,
he started digging a hole 50 feet wide in order to create tunnels under the
city. He even created a company for this effort, The Boring Company. (Boring,
get it?)
The Weekend
Game Plan went this weekend 7-9 AM, as usual. Guests included Dan
Robertson, Stu Cowan, Fred Daigle, Moe Khan, Brian Compton, Stephen Wade and
Mark Lidbetter.
Follow @davetrentadue
on Twitter.
Saturday, 18 February 2017
Sunday, 12 February 2017
Saturday, 11 February 2017
Tuesday, 7 February 2017
Saturday, 4 February 2017
Billy Parker: Excited for Upcoming Alouettes Season
http://www.tsn.ca/radio/montreal-690/parker-excited-for-upcoming-alouettes-season-1.664527
Habs Breakfast with Sean Farrell: Big Weekend for Habs
http://www.tsn.ca/radio/montreal-690/farrell-big-weekend-for-habs-1.664524
Mark Lidbetter: Former Lakeshore hockey player needs an assist
http://www.tsn.ca/radio/montreal-690/lidbetter-former-lakeshore-hockey-player-needs-an-assist-1.664492
New Weekend Game Plan Show Page
Hello ladies and gentlemen,
We finally have our own Show Page on www.tsn.ca. You can view all of our content there, although I will continue to post show links here as well.
http://www.tsn.ca/radio/montreal-690/weekend-game-plan-1.661044
Thank you all for making this show what it is and allowing Matthew and I to do what we love every single weekend.
Dave Trentadue
We finally have our own Show Page on www.tsn.ca. You can view all of our content there, although I will continue to post show links here as well.
http://www.tsn.ca/radio/montreal-690/weekend-game-plan-1.661044
Thank you all for making this show what it is and allowing Matthew and I to do what we love every single weekend.
Dave Trentadue
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