Here`s something you may not know about me (unless you actually know me in real life, in which case, STOP READING this and talk hockey with me in person), but one of my favorite bands is Billy Talent. I enjoy a whole lot of bands, but the guys in Billy Talent are my favorite, on a more personal level. I have had the honor of meeting them a couple times and they are perfect, amazing, sweet guys. But I digress, let`s get back to hockey. Friday night, Billy Talent was playing at the Halloween Howler in Edmonton. I was there, for obvious reasons. All four of the guys - Aaron, Ben, Ian and Jon - are HUGE hockey fans.
The band`s guys come out to set up the stage just prior to their set. I was watching the guy that was setting out the water bottles and beer bottles, and because I was on the Jon side of the stage, I saw his infamous Budweiser rocking a Toronto Maple Leafs holder-thing. String of curses came flying out of my mouth then.
Fast forward to about half way through the set, and cut me some slack here, there is no way I can direct quote this thanks to how long ago this was and the state I was in. Between songs, Ben asks the crowd "Are you all drunk enough for me to talk hockey, or should I wait?"
Then came the best part of Ben's whole hockey speech. To paraphrase what he said as accurately as I can remember... "The Toronto Maple Leafs are where they are because of Dallas Eakins. Give him time and it will work out." That was also the end of that, and back to songs they went.
That one quote was the perfect set up for what I wanted to talk about with Dallas Eakins.
So read on.
And I also just want to say, incase you don't read on, that I don't hate the Leafs by any means, or their fans. Some of my favorite people are Leafs fans, and I respect the people of Toronto and their team and their fans
Mixed reactions from the pit. Ben went right ahead. He started going on about how since they all are from Toronto and they love the Toronto Maple Leafs. Yeah, yell that out to a crowd of drunk and rowdy Edmontonians. Goes real well. Lots of boos, lots of explicit phrases, lots of thumbs down and lots of middle fingers up. I'm guilty of it too, I was right up front flipping him off. What can I say. Ben starts talking about how they have always had a soft spot for Edmonton and whatnot. That quickly turned into Ben talking about how the Leafs are 1st in the East (which at the time they were), so yeah, yeah, plan the parade, whatever.
On January 4th, it was announced that the Anaheim Ducks signed forward Andrew Cogliano to a 4 year contract extension, believed to be worth $12 million.
Matched up against each other, the size of each team’s
roster was evident but that certainly made for an interesting game. Both teams
were moving astonishingly fast in the first period, although Sweden did not
appear to be playing the same game that they played in the rest of the
tournament. Despite the final score of 2-1 in Sweden’s favor, it was clear that
Sweden did not actually deserve to win that game nearly as much as Russia did.
Russia was playing with all they could; Sweden was not. Sweden just got lucky,
when it really boils down to it. Sweden’s goalie – Dansk – absolutely saved
their asses for most of the game, but the one goal he did let in was very weak.
It was highly amusing. That’s basically the game in a nutshell, if you didn’t
see it, this isn’t what I want to talk about; there are much more interesting
things to note in this game. 
Canada came into the 2014 World Juniors carrying the big question of how it was going to go. They didn't have the greatest pre-tournament games, their roster wasn't quite as stellar as it could have been, and then there's the last three years - in 2013, Canada didn't medal even with the leading scorer of the tournament on their team, way back in 2012 they finished with Bronze, and in 2011 they finished with a silver. You can see a pattern here, right? So there were some genuine concerns for Canadians.
