Freddie P's Blog

October 3, 2007 @ 10:01

The Maple Leafs start a new season tonight and like most Leaf fans I'd love to see them do well. Not only make the playoffs but hang around for a few rounds.

Missing the playoffs the last two years has made a Leaf fan long for the good old days of making it to the conference final a few times in the past 40 years.

But from my perspective, it doesn't look good. No doubt the Leafs have improved themselves with the acquisition of Jason Blake and Mark Bell, but Blake's going to have the weight of the world and great expectations on his shoulders to score 40 goals again, and Bell won't be able to play until November and after that it will take him a while to settle in. By then the Leafs could be out of the race.

You may have noticed that I didn't mention Vesa Toskala as part of the Leafs improvement, and I do that because I can't.

From my perspective the jury's still out on this guy. Being the number one goaltender in Toronto is a long leap from being a back-up in San Jose. If Vesa Toskala think's he's been under pressure before, he ain't seen nothing yet.

I hesitate to say "the poor guy" because he's under contract to make enough money to last him the rest of his life, but having that contract in hand and having to deal with a porous defense and fans who often come across as moronic will make his life a lot more difficult than it was in Northern California.

And there's another problem staring the Leafs in the face. Their lack of skill.

Mats Sundin has it, and Tomas Kaberle has it and Jason Blake may have some goal scoring skill, but beyond that the Leafs have nothing but a bunch of grinders and players who from time to time display some skill but have no finish.

Guys like Kyle Wellwood, Alex Steen, Matt Stajan and Alex Ponikarovsky- guys who won't take the Leafs anywhere until they move to the next level.

Watching the Leafs play teams like Buffalo and Ottawa lets you appreciate the wide gap in skill level. It's almost embarrassing.

Yes, the Leafs have improved their roster this year but so have a few other teams in the Eastern Conference which means squeezing into the top eight is going to be just as difficult as it was last year.

A lot of things have to go right in order for the Leafs to make the playoffs this year, but I don't think they have the horses to make it happen.

Category: Sports

October 3, 2007 @ 10:00

I keep looking at the front page of the Toronto Star this morning, but I can't believe what the motivation would be for plastering the front page with a picture of an eight year old who was accidentally shot by a Canadian soldier in Kandahar yesterday.

It's not on the front page of thestar.com, you have to go to the Canada section to see it there, but on the hard copy edition that I received at my door this morning, it was a picture that stretched the width of the paper and filled about one quarter of the length.

Why?

There's no doubt this is a worthy news story and deserves to be conveyed to the people of Canada, but for the Star to sensationalize it with a huge tear-jerking photograph on their front page is shameful.

It's shameful because although it displays the type of thing that can go wrong during war, it serves to do nothing but undermine Canadian troops who are doing a lot more good than bad in Afghanistan.

It's no secret what the Toronto Stars position is on Canada's participation in the war in Afghanistan is, and we all know they love to make the Stephen Harper and the Conservatives to look bad, but to use this huge picture on the front page is just another slap in the face to our troops.

The Toronto Star doesn't want Canada in Afghanistan and they'll do whatever they can to tie the baggage to the Harper government, and they'll obviously stoop to any means to get their point across.

Rag.

Category: Stuff

October 2, 2007 @ 10:11

I've been invited to be on CHCH Live at 5:30 this afternoon with Mark Hebscher and Donna Skelly.

This time the subject is prostitution in Ottawa and how the police propose to handle it. If a car is spotted negotiating with a prostitute a picture will be taken and a note will be sent home to mom.

No charges, just a note sent to the owner of the license plate to embarrass the "john."

My opponent will be Susan Cole entertainment editor of Now Magazine and an ouspoken lesbian feminist.

Should be fun!

Category: Television

October 2, 2007 @ 09:52

No, you can't argue with success. James Blunt is the British singer song-writer who inflicted the song "You're Beautiful" on the world back in 2004.

I can't stand the song and every time it comes on the radio if I have control of the unit I dash for the volume knob. It's sappy, syrupy and nauseating from my perspective, but it became an anthem for millions of others.

It's about a guy who sees his ex girlfriend with a new guy. Definitely a chick song, and lucky for Blunt, one of the chicks who got moist listening to it was Oprah Winfrey.

The song was selling well at the time, but after an appearance on Oprah, in which she sat in the crowd and sang all the words, yuk, sales exploded and Blunt's debut album "Back to the Bedlam" has now sold over eleven million copies world wide.

I have to admit, I'm a little biased. Back in 2004 and most of 2005 I worked at a radio station that played "You're Beautiful" a lot. Like every other goddamn hour in the morning show.

It was good business for the station, but it gave me morning sickness and who knows, it may have led to my demise.

James Blunt is in Toronto right now. Last night he appeared at the Pheonix to support his second album and tonight he'll be a guest on MuchMoreMusic.

Category: Show Biz

October 1, 2007 @ 09:20

What a great weekend at the tin shack. I took a slow drive up on Friday and stopped off in Peterborough for lunch. A place called Girdy's on Hunter Street.

It's neat little place with good tasting food and good looking waitresses. I had their curried chicken wings and a Heineken and it was quite enjoyable, although they glaze the curry on the wings and I'd rather they be dusted.

On Friday night we had a gathering at my friend Dan Durans trailer for a nice dinner and then several different cocktails. The night ended with a couple of women drinking tequila off my breasts.

Saturday was another fine day that afforded me the opportunity to get my boat out of the water. It's always a sad time when the little skiff comes out of the water because it's another thing that marks the end of the season.

Just prior to taking my boat out of the water however, my friend Dan Bonchek got me to inspect a pile of shit that was on his dock. He wondered whether it was from the mink that had been living in my boat.

It wasn't. The pile of shit was much bigger and it looked like it had pine nuts all through it.

We determined it either had to be something bigger than a mink but we could't figure out what it might be. Dan was terrified it might be human shit and someone was leaving a message.

But another guy from up the lake put his mind at ease when he confirmed it was beaver shit. Beavers had been doing a lot of damage around the lake and one just happend to take a shit break on Danny B's dock.

Saturday night me and my buddy Darren cooked steaks over the open fire and sat by the campfire till midnight. We all took it easy and nothing transpired like the night before.

Sunday it was a mid morning nine holes at Marvel Rapids in Apsley and then I headed for home where my wife made some delectable meatball sandwiches.

mmmmm. Meatballs.

Category: The Trailer