The view from the Woods

The View from the Woods is moving to http://viewwoods.blogspot.com/!

With exams over, I took the opportunity to head to Toronto on Saturday to take in a Major League Soccer match between Toronto FC and Real Salt Lake (whose team name still makes me laugh) at BMO Field. It was the home opener for TFC and the weather was picture-perfect for an afternoon game. Andrew, who I traveled to the game with, has a detailed recap of the 1-0 Toronto win at Sporting Madness in his typical Clint Eastwoodian-fashion. As a neophyte of North American soccer I won’t attempt to duplicate it, but rather discuss my impressions of the experience as a whole.
Prior to Saturday, my experience of live professional soccer consisted of one game in Nottingham, where I saw a championship-level match between Nottingham Forest and Ipswich. Even though it wasn’t quite the Premier League, the level of buzz and amount of camaraderie among the fans was astonishing.
I wasn’t sure what to expect from Major League Soccer in comparison. Toronto FC tickets are in extremely high demand and can be tough to get. The team is only in its second year, but BMO Field has already developed a reputation throughout the league of being a really tough place to play. As the game got underway I could see why. A rabid fan base, nearly all of whom own team jerseys and scarves—was not once quiet throughout the match, singing accolades for their beloved players and hurling abuse at the opposition. The dedication of the fan base became apparent when the starting lineups were announced, with the P.A. man announcing only the players’ first names, leaving the crowd to gleefully fill in the blanks. Imagine trying that at a Leafs game! Some of the corporate stiffs in the crowd would have trouble filling in the blanks:
“AND NOW, PLEASE WELCOME, NUMBER 16, DARCY…”
“Um, Sundin, right guys?”
One of the most hilarious parts of the match occurred whenever an opposing player had a corner kick. The fans closest to him would pelt him with streamers (which were constantly flying through the stands all afternoon), forcing him to untangle himself and kick through a web of red and white paper. Although this clearly agitated the opposition, it certainly added to the entertainment value of the game.
I’m used to watching hockey live, so seeing a soccer game in the flesh brings to light some interesting contrast. Hockey is a game with great flow but nonetheless features a lot of stoppages. Soccer, however, is played non-stop for 45 minutes a half, leaving fans to initiate their own cheers and chants instead of the P.A. announcer. As Andrew pointed out, that’s why soccer’s great to watch on TV as well—45 minutes without commercials.
The one fear I normally have with a soccer match—this is the hockey fan in me—is that it’ll be a hard-fought battle that ends up in a 0-0 tie. However, Toronto’s goal off a beautiful free-kick in the 32nd-minute solved that problem quickly.
Of course, no professional sporting experience can be perfect. This one was no exception. The vendors clearly hadn’t received adequate training to serve the masses in a short period of time (15 minutes at the half) and their inability to perform routine tasks such as take orders, swipe credit cards and give correct change resulted in many fans (myself included) missing much of the first part of the second half.
But as Andrew pointed out, Toronto FC matches represent the way professional sports should be viewed. No corporate stiffs in suits and ties with their minds more on networking than the game itself, but simply 20,000 screaming, red-clad fans who want nothing more than to see their team emerge victorious (and will do everything they can to make that so). It was a great experience, and I recommend it for avid soccer fans, casual soccer fans or anyone who’s looking for a good time and enjoys singing along to tunes they don’t know the words to but will belt it out anyway.

I should have posted these before today, but take-home exam deadlines being what they are…
These predictions were made before yesterday’s games. For any doubters, I have the facebook documentation to prove it. Last year I went 7-for-8 in the first round and got only three series wrong the whole playoffs, so I’m looking to improve on that. With the parity in the league these days, playoff picks are really just a crapshoot anyway, as Bob McKenzie wrote the other day on TSN.ca.
“The whole concept of predictions is actually laughable. Like they mean anything. Seriously, who pays attention to this %#@*.” he wrote.
Nonetheless, here mine are.

Eastern Conference

1) Montreal Canadiens vs. 8) Boston Bruins

With a grand total of 0 games of playoff experience between starting goalies Carey Price and Tim Thomas, neither team really has an edge there. This series comes down to whether Boston can frustrate and slow down Montreal’s quick forwards enough to throw them off their game. Montreal won all eight games against the Bruins this season, so they’re coming in with a ton of confidence. The Bruins, who most experts had as low as last in the Eastern Conference in their pre-season picks, got to the playoffs through hard-nosed, trap-style defensive play, and they have to force Montreal to play that game if they are to have any hope. They’ll also have to stay out of the box. Montreal’s power play carried them through much of the season. The playoffs typically have fewer penalties, that makes each one of them all the more significant. Ultimately, Boston will give Montreal a run for their money, but Carey Price will continue to be unflappable in goal and Montreal’s balanced offence will win out in the end.

Prediction: Montreal in 6 games

2) Pittsburgh Penguins vs. 7) Ottawa Senators

What a difference a year makes. Last year the Pens were an inexperienced, frightened-looking bunch and the Sens were primed for a long playoff run. Now the Senators have experienced a regular-season fall from grace after starting with a 15-2 record, and the Pens rose nearly to the top with a group of forwards that James Duthie aptly called “the Superfriends.” With the Sens sans Alfredsson, Fisher and Kelly and the Penguins completely healthy, all signs seem to point to a Penguins romp. This has placed all the pressure on the Pens, who everyone is expecting to have a long playoff run, while Ottawa, a bunch of wounded animals, happily play the role of the underdog. Although my bias is creeping in a bit here, I think the Sens still have the offensive ability to be an explosive team, and if Martin Gerber plays anything like he did at the beginning of the year he could have Malkin, Crosby and co. questioning themselves. The Sens still have quite a deep team, and Pittsburgh’s bottom-three defence of Scuderi, Gill and Letang is bound to give some of their fans nightmares. If the Sens can take one of two in Pittsburgh and win both their home games, the Pens are in trouble. It’s also worth noting the Pens are the dreaded number 2 seed, which historically has been upset almost 40% of the time.

Prediction: Ottawa in 6 games

3) Washington Capitals vs. 6) Philadelphia Flyers

The Capitals exposed the most brutal flaw in any professional sports league’s standings rules by going from out of the playoffs to third place in the span of one game. Nonetheless, they’re an incredibly exciting team to watch, and after collecting 22 of a possible 24 points down the stretch they’re the league’s hottest team too. The key to beating Washington is no secret: shut down likely Hart Trophy winner Alexander Ovechkin. The problem for the Flyers is that Ovechkin is not a typical scoring forward that can be shut down by shoving him around a little bit and physically intimidating him. Not only did Ovechkin lead the league in goals and points this season, he was ninth in hits. He has no problem going around or through opposing players as long as it gets him a goal. His teammates have rallied around this mentality and with playoff-tested Cristobal Huet in goal, veteran Sergei Fedorov leading the way and Matt Cooke grinding it out with the best of them, the Caps should take this one. The Flyers have Martin Biron in net who has had problems with Ovechkin this season (which NHL goalie hasn’t), and their forwards have shown streaky sides this season.

Prediction: Washington in 7 games

4) New Jersey Devils vs. 5) New York Rangers

In a battle of arguably the two best goalies in the league in Martin Brodeur and Henrik Lundqvist, the Rangers have all the ingredients to overcome the defensive-minded Devils fairly easily (and go even further in the playoffs - more on that later). The Rangers have been pulling it together over the past couple of months, and Lundqvist’s stellar play has helped them elevate to the level of the NHL’s elite. They dominated the Devils during the season series, going 7-0-1. Even though Jaromir Jagr hasn’t scored as much as he used to, others like Shanahan, Straka, Drury and Gomez have picked up the slack (Gomez, especially, had a great year after a slow start). The Devils won’t be able to stop the Rangers’ balanced attack, and don’t have enough firepower of their own beyond Zach Parise, Brian Gionta and Patrik Elias to respond. Ranger super-pest Sean Avery, as much as I hate to admit it, is a valuable asset in the playoffs, and has a history of getting on Brodeur’s nerves (and everyone else’s).

Prediction: NY Rangers in 6 games

Western Conference

1) Detroit Red Wings vs. 8) Nashville Predators

Nashville is the Boston of the West: a team no one picked to make the playoffs due to losing several key players. But the impressive play of Jason Arnott, the emergence of Shea Weber and Ryan Suter as top-flight NHL defencemen and solid goaltending from Chris Mason and Dan Ellis has them on the inside looking out at Vancouver, who tanked at the end of the season. For all of Nashville’s accomplishments, the President’s Trophy-winning Red Wings will be too much for them. It seems the same every year, but the Wings’ top line of Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg and Tomas Holmstrom might be the best in the league. Nicklas Lidstrom and Brian Rafalski are two of the top blueliners in the game and both of their goalies, Hasek and Osgood, had great years. Nashville’s a good team and will give the Wings a hard time physically, but Detroit is skilled enough to overcome that.

Prediction: Detroit in 5 games

2) San Jose Sharks vs. 7) Calgary Flames

This one took a lot of mulling. For one, the Sharks are among the hottest teams in the league since their acquisition of defenceman Bryan Campbell from Buffalo. On the other hand, the Flames were 3-0-1 against the Sharks this season and did a great job shutting down Joe Thornton (he had one assist in the four games). The Flames led the league in fighting majors and their mandate is clear: hard-nosed, physical hockey that will keep San Jose on their heels. The Sharks, who have had a rough playoff past and are the fashionable Cup pick for many people this year, will look to get Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau going at the same time - something that hasn’t happened in the playoffs before. Campbell’s presence changes everything. His puck-moving skills make the Sharks a much better transition team, and their power play is now much improved. For those reasons, the Sharks should be able to withstand the Flames’ onslaught to win the series. But it won’t be easy.

Prediction: San Jose in 6 games

3) Minnesota Wild vs. 6) Colorado Avalanche

In my opinion, this is the toughest series to call. These two teams are so close in almost every aspect. The Wild play their defensive system to a tee, and have some of the most underrated forwards in the game (Koivu, Bouchard, Rolston). Colorado, who have loaded up with veteran talent since last year at this time, has an inordinate number of offensive weapons even with Marek Svatos unavailable (Sakic, Hejduk, Forsberg, Smyth, Stastny, Wolski, etc.). The goalies are also incredibly even. Nicklas Backstrom has proven himself as a number-one goalie, and Jose Theodore has emerged from the depths of the backup position to be a reliable starter. This series could be decided by a goal, and picking a winner is extremely tough. But in the playoffs, it never hurts to go with experience.

Prediction: Colorado in 7 games

4) Anaheim Ducks vs. 5) Dallas Stars

This will probably be the most physical of all the first-round series. The Ducks have arguably improved since their Cup run last season, getting even bigger and more experienced than they were last year (adding Bertuzzi, Schneider and Weight). Dallas had a surprisingly good year, but marquee trade deadline acquisition Brad Richards hasn’t done much since arriving and scoring five points in his first game as a Star. This should be incredibly close, and it’s almost a shame one of these teams will have to be eliminated right off the bat. The Ducks should take it though. I’m not sure if they have an answer to Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry, while the Ducks have the best defence in the league and should be able to shut down the likes of Brenden Morrow and Richards.

Prediction: Anaheim in 7 games

And now, a Cup prediction. The closest thing I had to a preseason prediction of who would win the Cup was in a conversation on a trampoline with a good friend from back home, when we discussed the merits of the many offseason acquisitions of NHL teams. At that time, he predicted Buffalo and San Jose would be in the final (Buffalo didn’t make the playoffs this year). I went with the Rangers beating Colorado in the Final. In the interest of consistency and because it would be a mighty impressive call if I’m right, I’ll stick with that.

New York Rangers over the Colorado Avalanche in 7 games in the Cup Final.

The staff of the Journal’s Volume 135 put our last issue to bed last night. While it’s nice to have a newfound large amount of free time, the feeling of such an abrupt ending is hard to put a finger on. It’s kind of a mix of satisfaction, nostalgia, aimlessness and excitement for next year for those of us sticking around.
But with all of these feelings plus the universal stress of exam time, there are some new ones dominating my psyche that I didn’t see coming.
Dread.
My dear Ottawa Senators, whose successes and failures I’ve identified with since before I can remember, are in the midst of what could turn out to be the largest single collapse in NHL history.
After a 15-2 start, the best the league has ever seen, the Senators need to win their last two regular-season games to ensure a playoff spot.
Standing in the way are those pesky Toronto Maple Leafs, who have been long eliminated from the playoffs but find themselves playing in a game that means the world to the opposition. When that opposition is the Senators, the Leafs never fail to find a higher gear they usually can’t seem to reach.
Suddenly all the feelings of my childhood associated with Toronto-Ottawa games are coming back. I’d managed to get rid of them since the Sens’ last playoff loss to Toronto in 2004 since the Leafs haven’t played a playoff game since then. But the anticipation of playoff losses to Toronto was at least built up so fans could prepare themselves in the event of another playoff disaster. This game, it seems, has come out of nowhere, and what both teams had circled long ago as a nothing game is suddenly so much more.
Needless to say, exam studying isn’t going very well so far. As I write from Stauffer Library the game sits 2-1 Ottawa, but the way their team defence has been lately I’m cautiously optimistic at best.

CFL analyst Duane Forde, the TSN broadcast team’s newest addition, has been providing some great insight on the upcoming draft in his first couple of weeks on the job.
His TSN.ca report from the CFL’s Evaluation Camp two weekends ago might be of particular interest to Queen’s fans:

“Running back Mike Giffin of Queen’s and Wilfrid Laurier receiver Dante Luciani aren’t physically imposing, nor will they ever be the fastest or strongest players at their respective positions However, when they lace up their cleats, you are quickly reminded that the only truly relevant question on draft day is, “Can he play?” In the case of both Giffin and Luciani, the answer is a resounding “Yes!” As well as demonstrating strong skills as both a ball carrier and receiver, Giffin’s pass blocking display represented the most dominant performance of any of the day’s one-on-one sessions.”

Giffin, of course, stormed into the record books this year as the first running back in 125 years of Queen’s football to rush for more than 1,000 yards in a season. He had only gained the starting job partway through the year before. Now it looks like he might have a shot at a CFL job - if CFL GMs share Forde’s opinion. As a Queen’s football fan, one partly hopes CFL teams will hold off one more year just so we can have a dominant backfield next year and one more kick at the playoff can with Giffin running roughshod over the opposition. On the other hand, seeing Giffin go on to a pro contract after leading the Queen’s team to a memorable regular season would be rewarding all the same.

Either way, let’s hope he’s shaken that inexplicable habit of fumbling the ball that he developed late in the season. It sounds like the CFL combine was a good start.

A boring train ride to Ottawa for the Sens-Blues game last Thursday means my monthly contribution to this blog.
First off, a shout out to Andrew Bucholtz, the Journal’s assistant sports editor who will now be contributing his vast knowledge of Canadian Interuniversity Sport to the CIS blog. They are better for it, as the Journal has been all year.
Now a few brief thoughts on the NHL. It appears that Gary Bettman and co. have finally obtained the parity that they’ve been chasing after for years. There are literally at least 16 teams in the league that feel they have a shot at a long playoff run. Even early-season heavyweights Detroit and Ottawa hit dry spells that have brought them back to earth with the masses.
Predicting who will end up where in the playoff seeding picture is a total crapshoot, other than the likelihoods of Detroit winning the West and Carolina locking up the third seed in the East due to the Southleast Division’s automatic berth.
That’s one of the problems with the NHL’s newfound parity. With so many good teams but few great ones, the seeding system has really become an issue. Carolina, although they have caught fire lately, is still effectively stealing the third seed from a more deserving team such as Pittsburgh or Ottawa thanks to the NHL’s skewed every-division-winner-gets-home-ice-advantage system.
In the West, if the playoffs were to start today, Dallas and Anaheim would face off. It will be a tragedy for one of these elite teams to be eliminated in the first round, while one of the Northwest teams takes the third seed and likely faces a division rival.
Perhaps with the NHL’s revamped schedule next year, with less emphasis on divisional play, the Northwest won’t be so jam-packed and instead of stealing points from each other they’ll be able to feast on weak Central Division teams as Detroit is currently able to do 32 times a year.
On another note, I’ve heard people say that the 187-foot Rob Davison blast that Vesa Toskala allowed Tuesday night is ‘the Leafs’ season in a nutshell.’ Not quite. If Bryan McCabe had shot it, THAT would have summarized the Leafs’ season quite nicely.
McCabe must have been somewhat relieved to see that puck go in. The Leafs aren’t playing for anything anyway (except a lower draft pick), and McCabe no longer owns the title of biggest gaffe of the year (when he shot the puck into his own net in overtime earlier this season).
And with all the debate over a Hart Trophy candidate, how can it be anyone other than Alex Ovechkin? Find me another player that has led the league in scoring with NO help other than Alex Semin (until Sergei Fedorov arrived) and has his team on the cusp of a playoff spot after being down and out earlier in the season. Evgeni Malkin has played well, but Ovechkin has carried his team on his shoulders for a longer period of time and in a more improbable fashion.
And here’s my outlandish prediction for the day: the Minnesota Wild will make the Conference finals in the West.
You heard it here first.

A slow press night at the Journal means I finally get to weigh in on the trade that brought proven goal-scorer Cory Stillman and dependable defenceman Mike Commodore to Ottawa. By this season’s NHL standards, it ranks as a blockbuster.

First of all, those that are convinced this was a bad trade due to Ottawa’s 0-2 record with the two new players in the lineup should hold their horses. The true judgment time for this deal will be the playoffs, where Stillman has proven he thrives.

Let’s look at the incoming goods. Stillman has won two of the last three Stanley Cups. He’s a dependable 20-to-30 goal scorer that provides the secondary scoring the Senators desperately need. Just check the Senators’ record when any of the big three of Heatley, Spezza and Alfredsson are out - their goal scoring and win count both drop dramatically. Stillman can team up with Mike Fisher and whoever is playing better between chris Neil, Randy Robitaille or Dean McAmmond to provide some timely secondary scoring and take a tiny bit of heat off the big line.
As for Mike Commodore, I wasn’t impressed with him as a seventh defenceman in Calgary’s 2004 run to the Cup Final. But since then, he has grown as a player, developing defensive awareness and a physical presence that earned him a permanent spot in Carolina, a Cup in 2006 and a spot on Canada’s World Championship team last year. He led Carolina’s defencemen in ice time this season and will be a solid addition on the back end. He is certainly a welcome, reliable presence compared to Joe Corvo’s fire-in-the-kitchen style of play.

Now, the players going the other way. Patrick Eaves was highly touted coming into Ottawa, but has never fulfilled his potential due to untimely injuries and a deep forward corps. On a team like Carolina, once he gets healthy, he could be a force. However, he could also continue to be the disappointment he was in Ottawa. His lack of skating speed has always been a factor, and perhaps the new NHL wasn’t the best change for him. Either way, Eaves’s performance in Carolina will dictate who wins this trade - if the Senators traded away a great scoring forward for a couple of rentals the Hurricanes have it in the bag. But if Eaves tanks, it’s no big loss for Ottawa.

As for Joe Corvo, I was hoping the Senators would trade him for a bag of pucks or something, or even pay someone to take him and his grossly inflated $2.75 million/year contract at the end of the season. The fact that Ottawa received some sort of value for him is a coup in my opinion. Corvo was a minus-9 in January on the top team in the East, and was a minus for most of last season. At one point, Corvo was a minus-7 while defence partner Tom Preissing was a plus-23…mind-blowing stuff. Corvo’s lack of defensive responsibility constantly landed the Senators in a jam, and inhibited whoever was forced to play with him, be it Wade Redden, Andrej Meszaros or Luke Richardson (the Corvo-Richardson duo, a match best made for the ECHL, still gives me nightmares…it’s nice I can finally start to move on). Corvo gives the Hurricanes what they need, a power play quarterback. Daniel Alfredsson can effectively fill that role for Ottawa, and Meszaros should get more power play time as well.

The early result of this trade is that both teams get what they need, which is what the ideal trade is supposed to accomplish. By the end of this year’s playoffs, it will be a whole lot clearer who got the better of the deal. It all hinges on how far Stillman and Commodore can help the Senators go.

Some random thoughts from the world of sports.

1. Don’t look now, but the Leafs beat three of the NHL’s top five teams this past week (Ottawa, Montreal and Detroit) and are six points out of the last playoff spot. Does this mean Uncle Cliffy will turn out to be a buyer at the trade deadline? Are the Buds destined for another ninth-place finish? At the very least, the Steven Stamkos watch may not include Toronto after all. Smart Leaf fans are cringing though…they’ve seen enough almost-playoff berths for now, and could do with a couple of solid losing years in order to build a Cup-contending team.

2. File this one under the “it’s a wonder this doesn’t happen more often” pile. As I write this, Florida Panthers forward Richard Zednik is being transported to hospital in Buffalo in stable condition after being cut in the neck when teammate Olli Jokinen accidentally hit him with his skate after being hit. A couple of times each year, an NHL player will suffer some sort of laceration from a skate blade, but with sixteen pairs of these on the ice at any given time (including officials), sometimes uncontrollably, it’s a wonder it doesn’t happen more often. This weekend, it’s happened twice in two days. Linesman Pat Dapuzzo was cut for 20 stitches and a broken nose by Steve Downie’s skate in yesterday’s Rangers-Flyers game. Downie proceeded to beat up Fedor Tyutin, a non-fighter, but that’s a story for another day. Hopefully face shields and neck guards will become more of a discussion after these incidents.

3. The Phoenix Suns showed their first sign of vulnerability…a shotgun, reactionary trade. Their acquisition of Shaquille O’Neal was met with the predictable hoopla, but is a telltale sign that the team is already a little bit nervous about that nagging playoff record of theirs. Shaq’s style doesn’t fit in with that of the Suns - at his fastest speed, he can make it to the other end of the floor by the time the Suns have already scored and are heading back on defence. He’s also injury-prone and not nearly as good of a leader as Shawn Marion, who although he wanted out of Phoenix, can do it all. The Suns remind me of the Ottawa Senators earlier this decade - great regular seasons, but zero playoff success, which used to compel them to make trades for good players, but ones that didn’t fit in with their team (Tom Barrasso, Peter Bondra, Tyler Arnason, etc.). Hopefully the Suns don’t suffer the same fate as the Sens did after those types of deals.

4. The University of Toronto Varsity Blues men’s hockey team choked worse than George W. Bush at pretzel time this past weekend, and lost out on the division to the Queen’s Golden Gaels. More on this in the Journal, but a division win is huge for Queen’s - a first-round bye and home-ice advantage (although who knows where they’ll be playing) in the next. Is this the start of something big for Ovens, Olsen and Co.? Here’s hoping so.

You probably haven’t heard, but the Maple Leafs will be looking for a new general manager this summer.

As Andrew Bucholtz would say, “everyone and their sister” seems to have an opinion on who should get the job (my recommendation: Ken Holland). The only people without opinions are those on the list of potential candidates.

But lost in the Toronto media frenzy surrounding the Leafs, as so much often is, is a story with far more wide-reaching implications for the National Hockey League.

The NHL’s board of governors is contemplating changing the NHL schedule so that each team plays 84 games, as opposed to the current 82.

The idea was first brought up by NHLPA director Paul Kelly. Under the new system, pre-season games would be capped at five (they’re now capped at nine over the 20-day pre-season period), so the new regular season games would be replacing exhibition ones.
After years of players and coaches complaining about the length of the NHL schedule, it comes as somewhat of a shock that the league’s even considering such a change.
The grind on NHL players today is tougher than it has ever been. Training 12 months a year (the summers off that pros used to have are history) and playing from September to potentially June, the regular season is already too long. Older elite players such as Scott Niedermayer and Teemu Selanne have taken to resting for the first part of the regular season before deciding their playing future, knowing their teams have plenty of regular season games left to make up for their absence.
As a fan, even a die-hard one, it’s hard to care about an Ottawa-Boston game in November when you’re aware they will face each other seven more times before April. Casual fans are even harder to attract with meaningless games. In the States, the NHL isn’t even televised nationally until January, when it really starts to “matter.”

And what of the records? All of the meaningful scoring records in today’s NHL were set in 82-game seasons. How are the traditionalists supposed to compare Crosby to Gretzky if Sid has two more games to work with? A minor point, but one close to my heart nonetheless.

The saddest part about all this is the owners will probably go for it. With player salaries being paid over 82 games, an extra two games of gate revenue will likely prove too good an opportunity to pack a few more bucks into their pockets, despite the negatives.

The NHL should be finding ways to shorten the regular-season schedule, not lengthen it. By the playoffs in April, teams should be raring to go, not ready to pack it in. Adding two more games to the schedule would do nothing but fatten the owners’ already bulging chequebooks.

Tired of hearing Christmas music everywhere I went, and with the Arctic Monkeys and Foo Fighters’ latest albums reaching absurdly high play counts on my iTunes, I recently went in search of some unfamiliar music to spice up my life.

It was also exam period, which is when this type of thing always seems to get done for me. Forget New Year’s resolutions, I have exam resolutions. They don’t last very long and they’re a lot easier to keep, so until I get burned I’ll keep using exam period for such fruitful activities as finding new music, watching hockey and building that large pile of laundry at the foot of my bed.

This year I resolved to find some new tunes.

I’m not pretending to be an indie music aficionado. But my recent dabbling in lesser-known bands, coupled with my Journal colleagues’ insanely intense interest in indie music (that’s my first big alliteration of 2008) has led me to peruse some lesser-known artists.

As I raided my friend Scott’s computer with my 1 gigabyte USB memory stick (apologies to those of you with morals in this area), one artist jumped out at me: Joel Plaskett, who visited Ale House in October with his band, the Emergency.

Amidst some video gaming (which has become another favourite exam pastime), Scott put on Plaskett’s latest CD, Ashtray Rock.
I almost dismissed the album after its second track, “Drunk Teenagers.” “This song would be really cool if we were about 13.” Scott hilariously observed.

But I found myself bemused by the catchy guitar riffs, intrigued at the cheesy yet somehow compelling lyrics (“The reason I like the instrumentals/Is cause they haven’t got any words,” Plaskett croons on “Penny for your Thoughts”), and impressed at Plaskett’s solid vocals that give away his Eastern-Canadian origins.

At the heart of the album, I was tapping my foot (a tough task while playing video games) and waiting to see what harmless yet appealing song would follow.

Plaskett calls Ashtray Rock a “concept album.” I would correct him and call it a “concepts album,” the three concepts being snow, instrumental music, and drunken shenanigans. At least one of these things seems to find its way into every song, with the “Instrumental Song” coming near the end of the album as a reminder.

So if you’re looking for an album that will help you find yourself or discover the meaning to your life, skip over Plaskett and his band. But if you’re looking for a foot-tapping good time, these just might be the tunes for you.

Personally, I’m sorry now that I missed his show. But my eyes have opened to the fact that I really need to attend more shows in Kingston.

That’s a New Year’s resolution I can keep.