#although if a canadian team had to win a cup ottawa would definitely be the funniest choice

[msmargaretmurry]

my dirty little secret* as a noted rat boy girlie is that when matthew and brady play each other i'm usually rooting for brady. like i dont REALLY expect the sens to win because they are a notably worse team than the panthers and i'm not mad if the panthers win but as a middle child i just have too much sympathy for the plight of the middle child to not root for brady lmao

[mikemortgage]

Why Canada — the rightful home of hockey — may never be home to another NHL franchise

John Graham is a race car driver, hockey promoter and believer in improbable dreams, an optimism he applied to his role as the point man for a group of prominent though unnamed Saskatoon businessmen who approached the NHL in 2012 with a pitch to buy the money-bleeding, league-owned Phoenix Coyotes and move them to the Prairies.

Saskatchewan at the time was booming, its economy growing by 2.9% a year, good enough to be second only to Alberta nationally. Saskatoon had grown into a city of 230,000 from less than 200,000 at the turn of the millennium, and was adding more bodies and jobs year over year, a prosperous run propelled by a robust oil sector, strength in potash and uranium mining, and the traditional farming and manufacturing sectors. Unemployment was low and the city’s NHL aspirations high, especially given that Saskatoon had already hosted several successful NHL exhibition games, and also had a 15,200-seat arena, government support and proof of concept in the nearby Winnipeg Jets — formerly the Atlanta Thrashers — that relocating to a small Canadian market could actually be a win for everybody.

Naturally, Don Cherry waded in, devoting a Coach’s Corner segment one Saturday to trumpeting Saskatoon’s NHL worthiness, and assuring Canadians of something they all surely knew: “They are hockey people,” he said. “They will sell out in 15 minutes.”

NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly even met with Graham and the Saskatoon group, meetings that produced more meetings, talks that, while cordial, weren’t enough to dislodge the Coyotes from Phoenix, where the franchise remains — a money loser still, albeit under new ownership and with a new name, the Arizona Coyotes.

Chasing cold cash: How icebergs became the field of dreams for believers and schemers

The island Canada forgot: On Campobello, citizens are left exiles in their own land

The small towns that refuse to die: Schemes to woo new blood about more than just staying alive

“Business and life goes in cycles,” Graham says, looking back on those heady Saskatoon days. “For sure, when we thought there was an opportunity to go after Phoenix, Saskatchewan was on an economic high, potash was hot, oil exports were strong. It was the right window for us. Had the team gone in there, I think it would have mirrored Winnipeg’s success. We had everything lined up, but …”

It didn’t happen, not for Saskatoon, and not, more recently, for Quebec City, a locale twice spurned by the NHL in a three-year span in favour of expanding to Las Vegas and now Seattle. The NHL’s repeated snubbing of Canadian markets doesn’t seem just, morally, and it doesn’t seem to jibe with free market economic theory.

Canadians are NHL hungry. There is consumer demand for the product and corporate support, with a demonstrated belief among the business community that being associated with the league isn’t merely a branding exercise, but vital to a brand’s identity. Tim Hortons, Canadian Tire, Ford of Canada, Rogers, Bell, Bank of Nova Scotia, Kraft — and more — have a piece of the NHL action. BCE Inc. and Rogers Communications Inc. together own the majority of the Toronto Maple Leafs, in addition to Rogers controlling most of the league’s Canadian broadcasting rights. But in a proven though underserved national market, the NHL appears to be doing everything it possibly can to avoid putting in an eighth franchise.

It can be easy, even comforting, to conclude that the problem must be them: them being the league, its American-sunbelt-loving-New-York-City-headquartered commissioner, Gary Bettman, and the majority of American owners behind him, hell bent on propping up marginal franchises in Florida, Arizona and the Carolinas, while forgoing slam dunk propositions such as the Nordiques 2.0.

Much less appetizing to consider is the alternative, which is that the problem is us: our population, 75-cent dollar, relative lack of billionaire would-be hockey team owners, corporate parochialism and collective inability to grasp, or rather fully admit, that Canada, although the rightful home of hockey, may never be home to another NHL franchise.

Richard Peddie, former president and chief executive officer of Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment Ltd., says the financial prospects of an eighth Canadian NHL franchise aren’t great.

To understand why not, it helps to do the math, and who better to run the numbers than Richard Peddie, the former CEO and president of Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment Ltd., and an executive often accused of monetizing every nook of Toronto’s Air Canada Centre (now Scotiabank Arena) during his 13 years at the top. “Looking at it, the financials aren’t great,” he says of the prospects for an eighth Canadian NHL franchise. “It is a thin investment, there is not a lot of earnings in it, and you need a rich person.”

Imagine, as per Seattle, that an expansion team costs around US$650 million. If you are not Quebec City, a new arena would need to be built, costing another $200 million, give or take, assuming the new owner convinces taxpayers to pick up a chunk of the tab. Now, almost a billion dollars later — huzzah — you have yourself an NHL franchise earning, in a good year, about US$25 million before taxes, interest, depreciation and amortization or, in other words, close to a zero-per-cent annual return on a huge investment.

Hence the need for a rich person, a billionaire at minimum, which in Canada limits the pool to about 100 potential buyers, seven of which — the Molsons, David Thomson, Larry Tanenbaum, the Rogers, Daryl Katz, Francesco Aquilini, Murray Edwards and Eugene Melnyk — already own, directly or indirectly through companies, at least a part of the seven existing Canadian franchises.

Winnipeg Jets co-owner David Thomson watches his team take on the Anaheim Ducks in the second period of NHL playoff action at MTS Centre in Winnipeg, Man., in 2015.

Thomson, the richest Canadian around, and Mark Chipman in 2011 paid US$170 million for the Thrashers and the right to move the team to Winnipeg. At the time, it was a boondoggle of a price for a terrible franchise with no discernible fan base in a non-traditional hockey market, and an ownership group that was slinging lawsuits at one another after losing millions for years. But Thomson was the right billionaire at the right time in the right place, willing to pay whatever the asking price was for what today amounts to a civic good-works project, with more or less break-even financials, though the Jets are now valued at US$415 million, according to Forbes.

The MTS Centre during the Winnipeg Jets and Montreal Canadiens NHL game on October 9, 2011 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The game is Winnipeg’s first NHL regular season game in 15 years.

Peddie concludes his lesson by adding that, with nominal annual returns, a hypothetical owner entering the NHL game is presumably doing so with two aims in mind: winning a Stanley Cup while betting the asset appreciates in value so that it pays off if he or she decides to sell. Of course, the buy-and-hold-and-eventually-sell sports ownership model starts to look pretty dicey when the price tag up front is a billion dollars and when a hypothetical team is located in a secondary Canadian market, such as Saskatoon or Quebec City.

Yet no matter how bad the math looks, or how far the loonie dips, this is still Canada and fans will pay to watch a team (think, Edmonton) loaded with talent repeatedly fall short of expectations and fail to make the playoffs. It is the kind of loyalty (lunacy?) that doesn’t exist in, say, Arizona, Florida or Carolina — or Ottawa, for that matter — suggesting that Quebec City should hold some allure as a potential destination for an NHL franchise. Right?

A Winnipeg Jets fan looks for tickets for the Jets inaugural game against the Montreal Canadiens at the MTS Centre in Winnipeg, Oct. 9, 2011.

We put the question to Bill Daly, Bettman’s second-in-command. “I’m not prepared to say that Quebec is not a viable market for a future NHL franchise,” he says via email. “And I’m not prepared to say that future opportunities will not present themselves. Every situation is fact- and circumstance-specific, and I would certainly not rule out the possibility of facts and circumstances aligning in the future so as to create a new opportunity.”

In other words: Quebec City is neither on nor definitively off the table, and remains a Plan B (or C or D) with a fully paid-for, publicly-funded arena, a rivalry with Montreal waiting to be resumed and an eager fan base itching to buy tickets, sweaters and overpriced pints at concession stands.

Daly goes on to say that “further expansion” was not a priority at the moment, though he allowed that as long as there is a demand and “assuming that further expansion is ultimately perceived to benefit the league as a whole, it will be duly considered and may well happen.”

Expansion, of course, is one way to get a team. The other is a relocation scenario, where a U.S.-based dumpster-fire of a hockey situation reaches Atlanta Thrashers-sized proportions, and the team/league cries uncle and heads north. Cast against this scenario is Bettman, a man who hates to admit failure, and rightly so, because failing is bad for business. If teams are seen as portable and relocation is always viewed as an option, there is little incentive for fans, so the argument goes, to invest — practically, financially and emotionally — in a franchise that might be gone tomorrow. At the same time, if the NHL hopes to grow its overall fan base and tap into previously untapped corporate dollars, it needs to expand into markets where new hockey converts might be, not where the fans already are (Quebec, Saskatoon, Anytown Canada).

The NHL’s existing strategy might even be paying off, depending on one’s perspective. Auston Matthews, Maple Leafs star and a former No. 1 overall NHL pick, grew up in the Phoenix suburbs as a Coyotes fan; the Arizona State University men’s hockey team in nearby Tempe has emerged as a U.S. college hockey power; and youth hockey enrolment in the state has quadrupled since the Coyotes arrived in 1996. Hockey has a toehold in Arizona, like it or not. Equally evident is that the Coyotes continue to lose gobs of money, reportedly close to US$20 million a year.

The red ink didn’t bother Daryl Jones. As a kid in Alberta, Jones grew up worshipping Oilers great Paul Coffey, and eventually left home to play hockey at Yale University, before graduating into the world of high finance. In 2013, he and a bunch of other rich Albertans bought the sad-sack Coyotes from the NHL for US$170 million. “We thought, No. 1, that NHL franchise values would go up, and that has largely proven to be true,” Jones says from Connecticut, where he now lives. “It would also enable us to make money when we sold out — the rising tide of franchise values.”

Jones and his partners learned some valuable lessons about hockey in the desert during nearly four years as NHL owners, chiefly: the Coyotes have a loyal fan base; the team’s arena couldn’t be located in a worse spot in terms of fans accessing it for weeknight games; financial losses are hard to stem; and Bettman is sticking by Arizona — at least for now. Their bet on increasing franchise values, meanwhile, paid off. They essentially doubled an initial US$45-million equity investment, selling to U.S. hedge fund manager, and now lone Coyotes owner, Andrew Barroway in 2017. (Barroway is shopping for new partners, and has valued the Coyotes at US$500 million).

Jones now owns a piece of a junior team in Dubuque, Iowa. He believes that Quebec City could work as an NHL market, but that the determining factor for the league forever hinges upon one crucial element. “They look at it as, What is the best business proposition for us?” he says. “I don’t think it has anything to do with whether it is a Canadian or an American team.” In other words, it’s all about the money.

Canadian franchises generate revenues in Canadian dollars, while paying players in U.S. funds. Add in U.S. travel expenses, and the cost of operating minor league franchises, typically based in the U.S., and the pressure exerted on a Canadian franchise’s financial well-being by a weakened dollar is significant. Canadian teams can hedge, buying up greenbacks when the loonie is strong and spending them in times when it’s not. But hedging also costs money, and it involves risk. The NHL salary cap has taken some of the bite out of currency fluctuations, as has league-wide revenue sharing, but there is no absolute cure for it, nor will there ever be.

Take, as an example, Dustin Byfuglien, a linchpin of the Winnipeg defence, a fan favourite with a US$8-million-per-season contract whose true cost to the Jets when counted in Canadian currency is $10.5 million. Winnipeg’s total salary expenditure for 2018-19, before player bonuses, is US$71.8 million, or about $94 million Canadian — and that’s operating with a dollar worth about 76 cents U.S. The lower the dollar dips, the worse the math looks. Remember: it was a 65-cent dollar and ballooning player salaries in the mid-’90s that chased the Quebec City Nordiques to Denver — to be recast as the Colorado Avalanche — and the Jets (version 1.0) to Phoenix.

Patrick Roy holds the Stanley Cup aloft after the Canadiens won the Stanley Cup in 1993.

More disheartening than the dollar is the competition Quebec City has faced in recent expansion wars. Las Vegas is an entertainment mecca and sports gambling hub, while metropolitan Seattle is home to 3.8 million souls and several Fortune 500 company headquarters, including Microsoft Corp., Starbucks Corp., Costco Wholesale Corp., Nordstrom Inc. and a little company called Amazon.com Inc. Quebec City is chiefly home to a provincial government and a pension fund investor.

“If you compare, for example, the opportunity in Seattle versus Quebec City, it is a no-brainer,” says Peddie, the former MLSE boss. “When you start comparing Seattle to other Canadian markets, like a Saskatoon, it doesn’t even warrant a conversation. Out of all the NHL owners, maybe a couple have been to Quebec City, because it is such a charming, European kind of place, but for sure none of them have ever been to Saskatoon, or a lot of other Canadian markets.”

Peddie was approached, post-MLSE career, by a private group looking to examine the possibility of Toronto being home to another NHL team, a big what-if requiring an ownership group with a monopoly agreeing to waive its monopoly. The working assumption was that the alliance between Bell and Rogers would eventually fracture, forcing one of them out of the Leafs’ ownership group. Peddie, in crunching numbers, had the Leafs and the expansion team both playing out of Scotiabank Arena, a model that could work financially, he says, but, in talking to his connections, it fell apart, because both Bell and Rogers were only interested in owning the Leafs.

But as bleak as the odds might appear for Canada landing another team, appearances aren’t always everything. Mark Chipman, the Jets chief executive who hooked Thomson on the idea of the NHL returning to Winnipeg, first approached Bettman about it in 1999. Chipman did everything right thereafter, keeping mostly out of the media spotlight almost until the day the NHL officially announced the league was coming to Winnipeg, by way of Atlanta. Something that looked like it would never happen suddenly did. The lesson? Be patient, very patient, and keep things quiet, since the NHL won’t allow itself to get pushed in directions it doesn’t want to go. (Remember: Jim Balsillie and the Hamilton Blackberries).

Perhaps that’s why a curious silence has descended over the Nordiques 2.0 camp ever since Seattle was awarded its franchise in December. Billionaire Pierre Karl Peladeau and his media company, Quebecor Inc., are the money behind Quebec City’s expansion bid. Peladeau did not respond to multiple interview requests for this story. Mayor Regis Labeaume, a champion of the city’s NHL ambitions, who pushed for the publicly-funded arena to get built and initially wooed Peladeau to the cause, also declined. Their silence could indicate surrender, or it could signal they’re taking a page from Chipman’s playbook.

  A young hockey fan cheers on the Calgary Flames before they take on the Edmonton Oilers in NHL hockey at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary April 6.

Which brings us back to the beginning, and the one thing Canada will always have going for it, the thing that makes this market critical to the NHL’s overall welfare, and the notion of landing an eighth franchise before Wayne Gretzky turns 100 plausible: Canadians love hockey, and care about their home teams, even when they are lousy, and even when doing so runs contrary to common sense.

Fans like Dan Mason, a sports professor at the University of Alberta and in some ways your typical Edmonton Oilers follower, though more casual than crazy. He still watches the team on TV — despite all the reasons not to — and catches a game or two a year at Rogers Place. Mason says that in the days of yore, NHL expansion teams set the baseline minimum value for all the teams, a model that worked when applied, for example, to the US$45-million fee San Jose’s ownership group paid for the Sharks in 1991.

Lately, however, expansion fees — US$500 million in Vegas, US$650 million in Seattle — reflect the value of a team in a given market. That’s not just the professor’s opinion it is the NHL’s official position. The Leafs aren’t worth US$1.45 billion if they are in Winnipeg, and a money pit of an NHL franchise — Forbes values the Coyotes at US$290 million — might not cost Quebec City more than it can afford.

Meantime, while it varies from team to team, ticket sales, game-day concessions, foam fingers, hats, sweaters and ice cream bars — all the money people who actually attend the games shell out — still represent about 50% of a given franchise’s revenue intake. Canadians still go to games. Canadian fans still drive revenues.

Loving hockey almost too much has not landed the country an eighth NHL franchise, or, for that matter, a Stanley Cup champion since 1993, but it is one reason not to completely abandon hope. “We are probably not likely to see a Canadian market get an NHL expansion franchise. It will be a Houston, or another market like that,” Mason says. “But if you see a franchise that continues to be in trouble, you can’t tell me that Quebec City is a worse market than Florida — even with a 60-cent dollar.”

• Email: joconnor@nationalpost.com | Twitter: oconnorwrites

from Financial Post http://bit.ly/2UxlYQh via IFTTT Blogger Mortgage Tumblr Mortgage Evernote Mortgage Wordpress Mortgage href="https://www.diigo.com/user/gelsi11">Diigo Mortgage

[mredwinsmith]

Ben Oort And The Coming International Youth Renaissance

Ben Oort is an ultimate player from the future. Not because of his game, although he is versatile, capable of thriving in any position on the field. Not because of his age, although he is the youngest player in the AUDL – eighteen-years-old, born on the 1st of January, 2000. Ben Oort is the tip of the wave of modernization soon to crash into the sport of ultimate because he will do anything to get better.

Ben was born among the first generation of Frisbee players who would play the game from birth. His father, Jeroen, discovered ultimate at the age of twenty-three and fell in love with the sport. He has represented Dutch National teams at least ten times, playing in cities from Ottawa to Prague, Minneapolis to Vancouver. During Ben’s early years, family vacations were organized around Jeroen’s tournament touring schedule.

“He taught me to throw when I was three or four years old,” remembered Ben. “The first time I threw a backhand, the disc would be so big, every time I threw it, I had to spin one circle, that was my way to do it. I would spin one circle, I threw it with all my force, and then I would fall down on the ground. I couldn’t catch at that point, so I would just throw it, and he would throw a scoober on the ground towards me again. I would pick it up and do it all over again.”

Jeroen remembers Ben learning to catch as well.

“He was five. We were on holiday,” explained Jeroen. “He couldn’t stop or move direction or [move his hands] higher or lower. He just ran and clapped his hands. If we were lucky, he would catch it. But many times, he just got hit in the head or on his fingers, and he didn’t mind. I never forced him. He wanted to do it. He would lie down and cry for two seconds, and then he would stand up and, let’s do it again. In the beginning, only one out of ten he would catch, [but] he was so happy.”

By the time Ben was nine-years-old, he was introduced to the organized sport of ultimate Frisbee. Children from all around the Netherlands came to Amsterdam to play in sorts of hat tournaments, as each city didn’t have the numbers for individual teams. Even at a young age, Ben was beginning to stand out from his peers.

Those thirty or forty players would be the origin of Grut, Ben’s beloved mixed club team. Though currently a rookie on the Toronto Rush, Ben’s one true Frisbee love is Grut. His girlfriend, Floor, also plays on Grut, and Ben and Jeroen both admit that she is a better player than he.

The seedling of Ben’s idea to move to North America to play in the AUDL grew from his trip to Chicago for CUT Camp when he was fifteen. He boarded the plane alone.

“Your fifteen-year-old, he behaves rather maturely, but still,” laughed Jeroen, remembering his reservations. “He did that [trip] all on his own. We allowed him to fly without an adult, so that’s when he started. It was around that time, at fifteen, sixteen, he had done basically everything [in ultimate] in the Netherlands, except for the adult [national] team.”

Ben and Jeroen knew that he needed to play on teams for which he wasn’t the best player. Generally the youngest player by several years on whatever team he joined, Ben’s throwing talent allowed him to thrive. He needed more challenges. He briefly joined PELT, a terrific Irish club team, for a tournament in Belgium, and loved the experience. It would foreshadow Ben’s decision to join the Toronto Rush.

Thirteen-year-old Ben Oort skys his father for the disc. Photo Courtesy: Martine Bootsma, Amsterdam

After his trip to Chicago, Ben knew that North America was the most fertile grounds for him to improve his game.

“I think [playing in North America] was always something I wanted to do because I’ve always been a big sports fan, just watching Frisbee. And so I’ve always watched world championships on live stream. Everything that was available, I watched. And I just noticed right away that in the US and Canada, that’s where the real stuff happens. I think it was always a dream.”

At the 2017 Beach World Championships in Royan, France, Jeroen found contact information for Sachin Raina, the head coach of the Toronto Rush. Sachin’s history was a sign that the Oorts had come to the right place.

Sachin has long been a fixture in the Canadian ultimate scene, but in 2009 and 2010, he lived in Amsterdam teaching at Vrije University. He joined a club team called the Cakes, who regularly scrimmaged against the Red Lights, a Master’s team that rostered one Jeroen Oort. The two were never close, but they shared a mutual respect on and off the field. Even almost a decade later, Jeroen knew that he could trust Sachin with his teenage son, and Sachin knew that any offspring of the athletic initiation cutter he remembered from Amsterdam would be talented enough to contribute to the Rush.

“I was like, frig, if this is Jeroen’s kid, and he’s this eager, he’s at least worth a look,” explained Sachin. “Jeroen 20 years ago would have been very much worth a look and probably would have been on the team.”

Furthermore, Sachin was excited to contribute to the development of a Dutch player, as he had played for the Amsterdam club team at World Club Championships in 2010 and the Dutch National team at World’s in 2012.

Ben arranged two tryouts in Toronto and D.C during a short, six-day trip to North America.

“If they say yes I come back [to North America], and if they don’t say yes, I had a fantastic week.”

Ben did not think he performed well in tryouts due to attendees’ desires to show off, and his versatility didn’t shine. However, he had an important qualification on which he could rely. Ben came second in the European Youth Player of the Year Award, after only making the video thinking it might appeal to AUDL teams.

Ben was eventually invited to play on both Toronto and D.C, but he chose Toronto due to its talent, internationalism, and Sachin. Mostly it’s talent. The chance to compete for an AUDL championship was unmissable.

“I love winning. I love winning. That’s something that I really enjoy,” said Ben.

And so an eighteen-year-old found himself boarding another plane back to North America, unaccompanied, in order to spend all of his savings and play professional ultimate Frisbee.

“They found it a bit suspicious at the border,” laughed Ben. “I spent some good times at Custom’s, when I got here.”

Ben spends his days when he’s not with the Rush working out and throwing discs. He knows why he’s in Toronto and stays dedicated to the task of improving. He explores Toronto, and his favourite area thus far is Kensington Market. Ben spent a month living with teammate Goeff Powell and his girlfriend Courtney. Powell described Ben as the perfect houseguest and makeshift son.

Powell introduced Ben to American sports, watching the Leafs and Raptors lose heartbreakers. They talked about cultural differences and, of course, sports. At Easter, he tried Turkey for the first time, and purportedly loved it.

When he moved out, Ben bought Stroopwafels – a Dutch dessert cookie meant to sit overtop of a steaming cup of coffee – for his Canadian parents, giving a bag to each of them, knowing that Courtney would never eat any if he only left one bag.

“It was nice to have someone else around, definitely. It was kind of sad when he left yesterday. It felt kind of empty. We’re like empty-nesters now,” mused Powell.

On the field, Ben is already contributing to the Toronto Rush’s success. With a 6-foot-7 wingspan, Ben has used his length to contribute via throwing. His speed and athleticism have allowed him to record some receiving highlights, already compiling five goals on the young AUDL season.

Two plays in particular stand out. Ben has played in two games for the Rush. In the first, against the New York Empire, the athletically gifted Jeff Babbitt was covering Ben, who made a deep cut to space and earned a flick huck from teammate Mark Lloyd. Babbitt flew inside of Ben, laying out just in front of the rookie for the remarkable block.

Ben, however, didn’t hang his head.

“I went and talked to him and said listen, don’t worry about that, that throw has got to be out to space,” said Sachin. “And Ben’s response was, naw, I should have made the play earlier. I could have had that. I should have beat him. That was his mentality. It wasn’t like, oh man, yeah, you’re right, that wasn’t a good throw, or that wasn’t my fault. Or, I’m not good enough to play against a guy like Jeff Babbitt. It was no, I can make that play.”

Ben quickly found more success against the defending champions San Francisco FlameThrowers. With his team up 6-5 in the first quarter, Ben saw a poach opportunity while on defence and chased down an opponent’s huck. Starting several strides behind a former World Champion in Byron Liu, Ben caught up to make a clean block against the much older and more accomplished player.

“I’ve watched that [play] over and over again,” marveled Jeroen. “It was a beautiful D, I mean perfect.”

Ben doubts he’ll stay in North America for more than six months, but he doesn’t know his future. He may go to university. He’s worked as a cook in the past, which he enjoyed. No matter what path he walks, ultimate will accompany Ben, leading him like it did his father. I asked Ben what his goals were in the future, ultimate or otherwise. He answered immediately.

“I think I would like to see the Netherlands as a country and my club team Grut as one of the bigger ultimate teams in the world,” said Ben. “I would love to win a medal at a World Championship with the Dutch team, not an American or Canadian team.”

Ben is already a world-class player, and he won’t hit his prime for a decade. He has the potential to be one of the best players in the world. Like an Arnold Schwarzenegger sent back from the future, Ben is single-minded in his focus on ultimate. And yet, he isn’t focused on himself, but instead on Grut. They’ve already captured Dutch and European Championships – with Jeroen as the coach – but Ben is searching for glory in greater pastures. One of the main purposes of the trip is to return to his treasured team and use his newfound talents to help Grut win a World Championship.

 Ben knows that this trip will be about more than Frisbee. Everyone with whom I spoke described him as outstandingly mature, and he’s sure to wring every last drop of reward from this adventure, including during those moments that extend beyond the sport.

Jeroen admitted that Ben’s trip should benefit his life more than his Frisbee game.

“I hope to have some friends after this,” said Ben, when asked what his North American journey will bring him beyond Frisbee. “I’ll see them around at tournaments or world championships after this, some other time.”

It always comes back to the sport. Life and Frisbee are inseparable for Ben, like they were for Jeroen when Oort vacations revolved around Jeroen’s tournament locations. When Jeroen was in his prime, there was no professional league, and he only learned about the game in his early 20s. Ben has grown up on a Frisbee field. Perhaps the thousands of hours he’s spent throwing before his twentieth birthday have seeped through his fingers into his blood, like a welcome and wanted germ.

The AUDL is a beacon signal that draws players of Ben Oort’s ilk. It may seem strange for an unaccompanied teenager to voyage across the world to improve his ability in a sport that will likely not be his career. Neither Ben nor his family ever doubted the decision.

“Why am I spending all my money in a half year? Because it’s worth it, I think. I have a passion for Frisbee, so this will get me better. And this is an experience for my life, like whether it’s Frisbee-wise, or just life-wise, it will be something to never forget.”

The post Ben Oort And The Coming International Youth Renaissance appeared first on Skyd Magazine.

from Skyd Magazine https://ift.tt/2Gnh2Bz

[movietvtechgeeks]

Latest story from https://movietvtechgeeks.com/2017-stanley-cup-predictions-preview/

2017 Stanley Cup Predictions and Preview

The 2017 Stanley Cup playoffs will start on Wednesday as some of the sixteen teams that have survived the NHL's grueling regular season will begin play that night. This year's post-season in the NHL is missing some familiar faces as both the Detroit Red Wings and the Los Angeles Kings failed to make the playoffs. However, the Edmonton Oilers and the Columbus Blue Jackets are in, the Oilers for the first time since 2006 and Columbus for just the third time in franchise history. Furthermore, the NHL playoffs certainly have a new look compared to last season as no less than five Canadian teams have qualified. Fans will remember that in 2016 the Canadian-based franchises were entirely shut out. As food for thought, I'll open my preview and predictions for the 2017 NHL playoffs by taking a look at the betting odds with bet365 to win the Stanley Cup outright this season. The top team listed is the first favorite and it moves down from there. If you don't understand betting odds, basically Boston, Nashville, and Toronto are the longest longshots. Their odds suggest that if they hypothetically played out the playoffs 29 times, each team would only win once. 1. Washington Capitals 17/4 2. Chicago Blackhawks 21/4 3. Pittsburgh Penguins 13/2 4. Minnesota Wild 7/1 5. Columbus Blue Jackets 7/1 6. Montreal Canadiens 12/1 7. Edmonton Oilers 12/1 8. New York Rangers 12/1 9. Anaheim Ducks 25/2 10. San Jose Sharks 17/1 11. Ottawa Senators 20/1 12. St. Louis Blues 22/1 13. Calgary Flames 25/1 14. Boston Bruins 28/1 15. Nashville Predators 28/1 16. Toronto Maple Leafs 28/1 It's often difficult to look passed the favorites at first when trying to predict who will make the finals of a sporting event. The Caps are certainly not heavy favorites heading into the playoffs, but to me, they do feel like a different team than in previous years. Braden Holtby recently called "the NHL's most consistent goaltender," is having a career season and Nicklas Backstrom is the team's leading scorer, something that could change the team dynamics for the better (quote from Peter Hassett, April 4th/RussianMachineNeverBreaks.com). I've already stated that I think the Caps will make the Stanley Cup Finals and won't go into details again. However, when it comes to the 2nd favorites, the Chicago Blackhawks, I'm not so confident in them at this point. Corey Crawford didn't exactly have a great season for the Blackhawks. His save percentage of .918 isn't distinguished and, among goaltenders that appeared in at least 30 games, he finished 13th from that point of view. Scott Darling, Crawford's backup, is one netminder that posted a better save percentage. His .924 mark is 5th best among goalies that have played in at least 30 games this season. Crawford's goals-against average, at 2.55 on the season, was a personal worst since becoming an everyday goalie back in 2010/11. Many in the Chicago franchise might have a bit of tunnel vision when it comes to giving Crawford the playoff starts, but if there are any troubles between the pipes, don't be surprised if Darling gets the nod at some point. For a prediction, I don't think that Chicago will win their conference's title although I'm definitely putting them into the 2nd round. I'm not so sure that the Pittsburgh Penguins will make the second round. The defending Stanley Cup champions will bump into the best goaltender from a statistical point of view to open the playoffs. With so much precedent in the NHL playoffs for a hot goalie shutting the door, Columbus simply can't be ignored in the post-season. Sergei Bobrovsky of the Blue Jackets had 41 wins on the season, a goals-against average of 2.06 (best for goalies with min. 50 appearances), and the best save percentage of .931. Losing Kris Letang (neck injury) could really burn the Pens this year. He was their best points-per-game defenseman this season at 0.83 per, and he was a big part of both Cup runs in the franchise's recent history. If you are filling out brackets, then I think you put Columbus into the 2nd round and bank on Bobrovsky shutting the door over Pittsburgh. In the Atlantic-Division section of the draw, there isn't really a team that you can count out. Montreal and New York are the beasts, but they have to play one another. All I have to say is that I think the winner of the Montreal/New York series is the one that goes forward to the conference finals. In short, I have much more confidence in the teams in that series than the ones in the Ottawa/Boston series. In the Pacific Division section, it's Alberta-based teams versus California-based teams to open the playoffs. We are in an era of Canadian-based teams slumping in North American sports with trends that are actually shocking when you look at them (no championship in NHL, MLB, or NBA since the Joe Carter homerun). I think the Edmonton Oilers are the best team in that section of the draw, but there's inexperience when it comes to almost everyone. Long-time Oilers are in their first playoffs due to the franchise's inept management over the years. Meanwhile, their young Art Ross Trophy winner, Connor McDavid, is in his first playoffs due to his youth. However, I don't think the inexperience will matter for McDavid and that he will perform up to his standard in the playoffs. The Oilers also have some strong points in coaching/management. Todd McLellan, the coach of the Oilers, made a couple conference finals with the San Jose Sharks. Furthermore, Peter Chiarelli has a Stanley Cup as a GM. McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, McLellan, and Chiarelli are a good mix of talent for Edmonton. Goaltending is a question mark and certainly, the Oilers have no backup plan should Cam Talbot need to miss some time. But I do I think the Oilers get passed San Jose. With some draw luck, Edmonton could face Calgary. However, an Anaheim series could be a stop sign for the Oilers. For an eventual champion, I do think that the Capitals are the team. I see them beating Toronto in 6 or less, beating Columbus in a close series, and then beating either Montreal or the Rangers. I think making the Cup finals alone gets Alex Ovechkin and all over the hump and that they would then take it home with Nicklas Backstrom or Braden Holtby winning the Conn Smythe. Predictions Summary: Capitals win it all, Chicago beats Nashville but falls in the second round or conference finals, Columbus beats Pittsburgh, neither Boston nor Ottawa make the conference finals, and the Edmonton Oilers beat the San Jose Sharks.

Movie TV Tech Geeks News