I’ve been ragging on NHL officiating for a while, so I’ll give a little credit here. In game 6 of the Finals last night, the refs were right on the play and were all over the 3rd Detroit goal. It could have been botched or there could have been a quick whistle, but Brad Watson was right there, let the play go, and Zetterberg ended up with a Stanley Cup winning goal. Well done.

Also, I want to give credit to a guy that has taken some criticism. That guy is Bob Cole of CBC. Some people give him a hard time, but I still believe when Bob is on his game, he’s the best in the business. He was on his game throughout the Finals, did what he does best, and that is add drama to a hockey game. His call in game 5 was outstanding, his call in game 6 was unreal, so not like it matters much, but I really give Cole 2 thumbs up.

Finally, if I have to hear anything about the Hockey Night in Canada theme again I’ll go insane. I don’t care how many stories there are about CBC not paying the rights, that theme won’t change because there will be enough morons who will be up in arms about it. So, if you are concerned…first punch yourself in the face, and second don’t worry it’s not going anywhere.

I figured it’s a good title for the entry today. Couple things I figured I’d throw out there. First of all, because The FAN 960 is coupled with 660 News, I work with a lot of news people. So my new thing is to try and sound as ignorant as possible to try and piss people off. I’m doing this at the gym when I have conversations too, and wherever else there can be people that listen. My new thing is to purposely mispronunciate Barack Obama’s name. Inevitably, each time I do, some mouth breather will jump on the chance to say “THAT’S NOT HOW YOU PRONOUNCE IT!” I encourage you to do the same thing, I think it’s freaking hilarious.

Now, someone else pissing people off is Jim Balsillie. Or Gary Bettman. Depends on how you look at it. Jim wants an NHL team, and there are teams bleeding money right now. SO, it makes sense, the billionare BlackBerry dude has all this free cash, why not sell it to him. Boom was right this afternoon, not very many American rich dudes who will buy an NHL franchise in a crap market losing money. So, it makes complete sense for him to get a team, right? Well not so much…

Gary Bettman is not really into letting new blood into the NHL ownership frat. Especially new blood who “didn’t go about it the right way,” the first time around. Now, that is ridiculous, clearly, but Bettman doesn’t want Balsillie to own a team. But he’s going to, no question about it in my mind. So it’s on Bettman to NOT look petty and instead just welcome him aboard…he’s going to look like a complete buffoon if he fights tooth and nail to keek Balsillie out and then BAM, he owns a team anyway. Bettman can go a long way in not looking moronic if he just lets the inevitable happen.

PS…the best BlackBerry service is on Rogers, Canada’s most reliable wireless network.

All right, back from Vegas, just finished watching game 5, thoughts on that in a bit. But after witnessing UFC 84 live in Las Vegas (greatest thing ever, for the record) and after watching Elite XC make MMA history on network television, I certainly have some thoughts. On the Big Show, Boomer was wondering what the future is for MMA in the mainstream, as he’s admittedly not a huge aficianado of the sport. My thoughts are pretty simple…like it or not, this sport is blowing up, and getting national television exposure only helps it.

I know there are a lot of people who don’t like it, which I don’t understand, and for the most part those people are completely uneducated about the sport. Me, being a complete enthusiast of the sport, there is nothing more I want to see than it continue to grow, and luckily, that is exactly what is going to happen. Some dolt wrote Jim Rome today and said “I can’t wait for it to drop off the map.” The guy who wrote it was from Calgary, which pissed me off even more, because even if you don’t like the sport, only a complete moron thinks it’s going to fall of the map. Flashes in the pan do not sell out every arena they go to, they do not bring in hundreds of thousands of pay per view buys every show, and they do not bring in millions of dollars every month. Sorry guys, as soon as Budweiser, Burger King and Harley Davidson are on board, it goes from being a “niche product” to being a straight up mainstream sport.

As for Elite EX itself on CBC, I thought all in all, it was a pretty good introduction for new viewers. The production was pretty good with some glitches, the commentary did a good job, as our good friend Mauro did an outstanding job of relating the MMA game to more mainstream things. For me, being a hardcore guy, it was a pretty good way to showcase the product. Add that to the fact you had some damn good fights, and you have to call it a success. Kimbo Slice still rules, I don’t care what people say…even if he’s not the best BJJ practitioner, he still sells tickets and draws interest. Plus, he can bang with anyone…it’ll be very interesting to see how much he improves from this fight to his next one. Dana White won’t bring him into the UFC until he shows that he’s not just a sideshow, so, it’s on Kimbo to keep advancing his game.

As for game 5 of the finals, ugh. I hate NHL officiating, it sours me on the game more and more every freaking day. First off, Pittsburgh pulled that game straight out of their rectum. No question about it, but full marks to Marc Andre Fleury. Detroit might want to work on hitting the net in overtime, too. But overall, Detroit totally outclassed Pittsburgh, and what cracks me up is Craig Lester from 660 News calls me immediately after the game. He’s a huge Pens fan, and he goes “what a sweet win!” Yeah, if you like gifts from the officials. I don’t give 2 (insert expletive) who wins the series, but I hate when it’s decided by completely uneven, garbage officiating. How Detroit gets 2 goalie interference penalties is beyond me, and while the high sticking penalty was legit to end the game, the Red Wings were jobbed on about 4 calls prior to that. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing…if they are going to call the high stick penalty by the books in OT, do the same with everything else.

Memo to the NHL…you’re officals suck, therefore you suck.