Sports in Canadian culture

[blueandgoldguy]

16 of 23 teams made the playoffs in the NBA in the 80s - a higher percentage than the CFL.

[Berklon]

Originally Posted by blueandgoldguy

16 of 23 teams made the playoffs in the NBA in the 80s - a higher percentage than the CFL.

Yep, the 80's. But we're talking about today.

NHL - 53%
NBA - 53%
MLB - 33%
NFL - 38%
CFL - 67%

[Mister F]

What's the difference? If that format was good enough for people then why is it on the wrong side of the credibility line now?

Originally Posted by Berklon

I remember many Canadians in the 80's thinking 16 out of 21 teams making the playoffs was a joke. I even thought it was ridiculous then - and I was a Leaf fan who benefited seeing my team sneak into the playoffs a few times with absolutely horrible teams.

The point is that Canadians didn't dismiss the NHL itself as a joke, despite the playoffs being easier to get into than in the CFL today. It was still the most popular league in the country. Yet for some reason people use the same justification to dismiss the CFL while giving other (American) leagues a pass.

[Oilkountry]

Hey I have a quick question for you guys. Im looking to ditch cable at the end of the NHL season. Frankly I pay $130 a month to watch hockey,CFL and a few shows i can download quite easily. Centre Ice will be replaced with NHL game center on my Roku. Do you know if anything similar exists for the CFL or TSN in general? I would love the convenience of turning my roku on and directly streaming a Bombers game in HD on my TV, instead of screwing around with some crappy website and tethering my laptop to my TV. Is their any known way of achieving this?

[Dr Awesomesauce]

Originally Posted by Mister F

When I was a kid the NHL had 21 teams, with 16 of them making the playoffs. That's a higher percentage than the CFL's 6/9. But I don't remember people calling the NHL a joke in the 80s.

The 80s seem like a million years ago but I do recall there being some discussion on the matter. However, the Leafs were always on that bubble so...

In 1987-88, the Leafs made the playoffs with a record of 21-49-10. Shocking and that wasn't the only occasion when a terrible team made the post-season. Makes the regular season seem pretty much pointless.

As for the CFL, not sure what the answer is. Those home playoff dates are potentially very important from a financial standpoint.

[rousseau]

Originally Posted by Dr Awesomesauce

In 1987-88, the Leafs made the playoffs with a record of 21-49-10. Shocking and that wasn't the only occasion when a terrible team made the post-season. Makes the regular season seem pretty much pointless.

Yep. Same with the NBA. The regular season is a long grind that doesn't really mean all that much, save for getting into the post-season. You can miss any given game during that 82-game stretch, and you haven't really missed anything that matters in the end. There are just too many games.

By contrast, European football is dramatic from start to finish because every match counts, save maybe for a couple clubs stuck in the middle with no fear of relegation. Still, you can't miss a single game for the club you support, especially considering that there are just 38 matches.

I believe we had a contentious discussion in this thread about this a few years ago.

[VANRIDERFAN]

I agree that you could cut MLB, NBA and NHL games by a third and the season would be much more meaningful.

They won't though, its all about the money.

[Berklon]

Originally Posted by Mister F

The point is that Canadians didn't dismiss the NHL itself as a joke, despite the playoffs being easier to get into than in the CFL today. It was still the most popular league in the country. Yet for some reason people use the same justification to dismiss the CFL while giving other (American) leagues a pass.

They didn't dismiss the NHL because that one reason alone wasn't enough. I'm sure most people who dismiss the CFL aren't doing it for that reason alone - it's just one reason among the many others.

[elly63]

Originally Posted by Oilkountry

Hey I have a quick question for you guys. Im looking to ditch cable at the end of the NHL season. Frankly I pay $130 a month to watch hockey,CFL and a few shows i can download quite easily. Centre Ice will be replaced with NHL game center on my Roku. Do you know if anything similar exists for the CFL or TSN in general? I would love the convenience of turning my roku on and directly streaming a Bombers game in HD on my TV, instead of screwing around with some crappy website and tethering my laptop to my TV. Is their any known way of achieving this?

A topic near and dear to my heart, cord cutting. I know this isn't what you're looking for but I'll post it for others. Have your laptop connected to the TV and get TSN without having cable by having a friend or family member give you their user name and password where they pay their cable utility bill. With that most people in Canada are able to log into TSN and live stream all five of their channels plus view recorded content (Games on Demand) CBC has a tremendous site for this, partially one of the reasons new CFL Commish Orridge was appointed (CBC Olympic app).

An aside to this is the imminent release of the Intel Compute Stick. It's a little bigger than a USB memory stick and you plug it into an HDMI port on your TV. Have a wireless keyboard with built in mouse and you're ready to go. Much better solution than a Google Chromecast, in my opinion, and you have a fully working computer.

BTW that keyboard retails for about $50 but you can often get it on sale for $25-$30 and the compute stick is said to retail for $150. It has the specs of a netbook but my old netbook doesn't have specs as good as the compute stick and I can do most anything I want as long as people don't get ridiculous and think it can be used for high end gaming and video editing.

[elly63]

Originally Posted by Berklon

They didn't dismiss the NHL because that one reason alone wasn't enough. I'm sure most people who dismiss the CFL aren't doing it for that reason alone - it's just one reason among the many others.

Seriously, why do you still live in Canada when you love America so. Why don't you just move there, stop trolling things Canadian and save the rest of us the grief of responding to your pro Americanism. Just wondering seeing as it's your only "contribution" and you only appear when someone else trolls something pro Canada.

[elly63]

Intel Compute Stick Turns Any TV Into A Windows PC For Just $149
Mihir Patkar 11th January, 2015

Intel wants to help you turn any TV into a Windows PC, for the low cost of $149. All it takes is a little stick, much like the much-loved Google Chromecast. Meet the all-new Intel Compute Stick.

The Compute Stick is essentially a complete PC, but in the compact form factor of a slightly large pen drive. It connects to a TV via HDMI, but also has to be powered with a microUSB cord. Here’s a quick look at the important specs:

1.33GHz quad-core Intel Atom Z3735F processor
2GB DDR3 RAM
32GB internal storage
MicroSD slot (up to 128GB)
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth 4.0
Full-size USB port
HDMI 1.4
Windows 8.1 Bing

It will also be available with Linux, but that version will come with 8GB of storage and 1GB RAM. That model will retail for $89, Intel said. Check out the full specs.

The Z3735F processor does not support 4K hardware decoding. Windows 8.1 Bing looks and behaves just like Windows 8.1 it’s a low-resource version preset to have Bing in all the search engines, but you can manually change that.

Why The Intel Compute Stick Matters

Intel-Compute-Stick-Windows-8-on-a-stick-low-cost-full-PC

While smart TVs are on the rise, you probably won’t use all of their features. That’s because it’s not a full-fledged desktop operating system running there. You can’t run Microsoft Office on your smart TV, after all.

Google’s Chromecast streams content from other connected devices. You can’t use the Chromecast without a second phone, tablet or computer. But the Compute Stick will just need a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse or some fantastic wireless all-in-one keyboards to be up and running.

The current lot of Android Stick PCs are good for gaming and multimedia, but Android itself can’t compare to Windows when it comes to getting work done in a desktop environment. Similarly, the Roku Streaming Stick (read our review) is great for watching movies and TV shows, but little else.

Plus, at $149, it’s still far cheaper than our recommended DIY HTPC build. And yes, you can turn it into a Roku-like streaming device for free.

More Than Just A Media Player

The Intel Compute Stick is for more than just multimedia though. Essentially, this is a complete PC you can carry around with you anywhere you go. In fact, it’s your PC on a stick—connectable to any device with an HDMI port.

CNET got some hands-on time with the Compute Stick and describes how it would be useful:

As someone who likes to travel but loathes toting a laptop around, keeping something like this with a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse in my luggage would be a compact way to get a more robust computing experience than my iPad is going to offer, without tipping the scales or putting much of a dent in my wallet. I don’t expect to be able to edit photos or play World of Warcraft while I’m on the road, but this could prove to be a great tool for toting vital files and Windows apps around, and getting the full-PC experience wherever I can find a spare HDMI port.

Tom’s Guide echoes this opinion, stressing it will be fine for the usual multimedia requirements, but it can also do a bit more:

Atom Baytrail processors are not great for gaming or crunching video, but they can handle light productivity work, Web surfing, email and social networking very smoothly.

You Can Buy One Right Now! (But It’s Not Officially From Intel)

Intel has said it will be selling the Compute Stick directly, and that it will launch later this year. If you’re in the market for an HTPC, you might want to wait it out if you can.

However, if you aren’t too worried about the Intel branding, you can grab one of these right now. As Liliputing points out, Chinese company MeegoPad is already selling the exact same model.

The MeegoPad T01/TB05 has the same hardware as the Compute Stick, complete with an Intel logo to prove its legitimacy. You can buy it for $115 on Amazon.

GizChina got its hands on the MeegoPad T01 and says it runs Windows 8.1 out of the box, and it looks like a pretty neat device, as you can see in the unboxing video. However, on Amazon, we weren’t able to ascertain if these devices shipped with Windows 8.1 preloaded on them or not—they all strategically say it “supports Windows and Android”, so we’d exercise caution.

If you’re willing to risk the $140, the MeegoPad T01 seems like a good way to get your hands on the Intel Compute Stick early, but be warned that you might have to load Windows yourself. Here’s how to install Windows 8 from a USB stick.

Will you wait for Intel’s Compute Stick, buy the MeegoPad T01, or are you happy with something like the Roku Streaming stick?

[isaidso]

Originally Posted by JHikka

Disappointing attendance for the University Cup in Halifax this weekend IMO. Last few years the U-Cup in Saskatchewan garnered 5-7K attendances through the weekend. The final in Halifax only garnered 4,400 with only three of the eight games achieving an attendance higher than 4,000.

College basketball has historically been a far greater draw in Nova Scotia than college hockey. 4,400 is more than I would have expected in Halifax. I doubt if hockey will ever outdraw basketball in that market.

[elly63]

Originally Posted by Mister F

By the way, the word is lose. Loose is the opposite of tight.

What's up with that? Why can't 99% of people on the Internet get that right? When I was a kid, it wasn't a problem, it was their, there, and they're that people had problems with, not loose/lose.

[Dr Awesomesauce]

^Memory is a funny thing...

[osmo]

The NBA season needs to be cut. It does not get national exposure until Christmas and the fist 2 months are dog days which lead to dog days during this time before the final few weeks of the season get going. A 60 game sced. from Chrtistmas day would just be a lot better on the players and the product.

The NBA could also benefit from experimenting as they have a issues with a historically crappy East Conference (hockey has somewhat of the same issue also). The NBA is mulling doing a best record gets in model to mitigate junky teams from getting in. It simply just looks bad on the product when — gets in.

Originally Posted by esquire

^ That type of format would mean that a few the teams would be pretty much out of the playoff race by Labour Daye every season... not ideal from a marketing standpoint.

The proportion of CFL teams that make the playoffs is only marginally greater than what you see in other leagues... roughly 2/3 as opposed to the roughly 1/2 you see in the NHL or NBA, for example. I don't see why it's such a big deal. If the CFL added one more team that would drop it down to 6/10 teams in the playoffs which would then bring the CFL roughly in line with most other leagues. But then people would find some other reason to complain about the CFL playoff format.

Well then teams need to play better then. I don't care if a crappy team is out of it by week 3, they would of been crappy regardless, the whole idea of false hope underestimates the intelligence of fans into thinking their team isn't in the pits.

Plus with the averages and means of the season only one or two teams max will be in the pits that early. That still leaves 80% of the league in competitive balance for the 3 spots, and still leaves the bottom ringers will opportunities for upsets. Its a perfect balance for small or very large leagues.

This is true. In College you can be bounced out by the 3rd week if you loose to lesser opponents. But that is the teams fault, but it leaves the bottom teams up to play spoiler. If first place means a bye week and a automatic bid into the Grey Cup there will be more incentive for the top teams to try and get that spot. If you had a situation where 1vs2 were only separated with one game difference then any team from 4th place down could play spoiler and mess it all up. Maybe they won't see the playoffs but in Canada with deep rooted regionalism anyways local fans won't mind for instance if Winnipeg clunks out Toronto into 2nd or even 3rd spot.

The spots from 2-4 will always be tight from year to year, in many cases only a game would be separating the majority of the league for the majority of the season. Playoff implications would start to matter earlier and would continue on all year long.


For example if you look at the 2010 Season.

Here are the Regular Season Standings:


X – clinched playoff berth
Y – clinched first place


WEST (W/L):

Y-Calgary - 13-5
X-Sask - 10-8
X-BC 8-10
Edmonton 7-11

EAST (W/L):

Y-Montreal - 12-6
X-Hamilton - 9-9
X-Toronto 9-9
Winnipeg 4-14


You see one team with a loosing record in, and two teams just at .500 in the playoffs.

With my idea what would change is that Calgary would be rewarded a slot in the Grey Cup, and then Sask vs Montreal would play for the last slot. But even with the new system you would still have both Hamilton and Toronto still realistically in the hunt being only at most 2 games back from the third spot, even Edmonton would not be mathematically out at 3 games back until the last 2 weeks of the season. Winnipeg.. tough luck, try again next year, but they can still play spoiler for many teams.

In the final week of that 2010 season Winnipeg nearly beat top ranked Calgary. Also, Hamilton beat BC which in the new system would of demoted BC out of the playoffs (they would of needed help) and propelled Hamilton in (with a Sask loss in that final week), versus both of them making it in the defacto model. This was all at Ivor Wynn which you can't tell me would not turn into a playoff atmosphere off that result.

You can address standing conflicts by awarding the slot to strength of results, aka, who had a better winning percentage against better competition.

[samne]

I agree the NBA and NHL seasons have too many games.

The 2011 lockout season for the NBA was the perfect length with 66 games.

I think even 72 would be alright. The top teams shouldn't be resting starters the last 2 weeks of the season.

Im ok with the MLB cause I like the way it starts early spring and finishes at the end of summer and theres a result to follow everyday.

[TownGuy]

Originally Posted by elly63

What's up with that? Why can't 99% of people on the Internet get that right? When I was a kid, it wasn't a problem, it was their, there, and they're that people had problems with, not loose/lose.

It's as annoying as it is understandable. Choose/loose, chose/lose. Bit of a mind —.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by samne

I agree the NBA and NHL seasons have too many games.

The 2011 lockout season for the NBA was the perfect length with 66 games.

I think even 72 would be alright. The top teams shouldn't be resting starters the last 2 weeks of the season.

Im ok with the MLB cause I like the way it starts early spring and finishes at the end of summer and theres a result to follow everyday.

The overly-long NHL season is mainly why I have a hard time getting that excited about hockey... the thought of watching 3 games a week x 3 hours a game is just crazy. The games don't seem especially meaningful on their own either, except for a strech in February/March when the playoff races heat up.

Part of the attraction to football for me is the fact that it's one game a week, and every game is generally a big game. If the NHL knocked down the schedule to 50 games I'd become more interested than I am now, although we know that will never happen. ($$$)

[suburbanite]

I'd definitely be in favour of a 10-15 game reduction along with the elimination of the shootout and an additional 3-on-3 OT period.

[osmo]

The NBA season needs to be cut, I agree with all who brought that up. It does not get national exposure until Christmas and the fist 2 months are dog days which lead to dog days during this time before the final few weeks of the season get going. A 65 game schedule from Christmas day would just be a lot better on the players and the product.

The NBA could also benefit from experimenting as they have a issues with a historically crappy East Conference (hockey has somewhat of the same issue also). The NBA is mulling doing a best record gets in model to mitigate junky teams from getting in. It simply just looks bad on the product when — gets in.

Hockey should start when the snow starts falling, ideally Hockey should start November 1st where the NBA starts off now.

Originally Posted by esquire

^ That type of format would mean that a few the teams would be pretty much out of the playoff race by Labour Daye every season... not ideal from a marketing standpoint.

The proportion of CFL teams that make the playoffs is only marginally greater than what you see in other leagues... roughly 2/3 as opposed to the roughly 1/2 you see in the NHL or NBA, for example. I don't see why it's such a big deal. If the CFL added one more team that would drop it down to 6/10 teams in the playoffs which would then bring the CFL roughly in line with most other leagues. But then people would find some other reason to complain about the CFL playoff format.

Well then teams need to play better then. I don't care if a crappy team is out of it by week 3, they would of been crappy regardless, the whole idea of false hope underestimates the intelligence of fans into thinking their team isn't in the pits.

Plus with the averages and means of the season only one or two teams max will be in the pits that early. That still leaves 80% of the league in competitive balance for the 3 spots, and still leaves the bottom ringers will opportunities for upsets. Its a perfect balance for small or very large leagues.

This is true. In College you can be bounced out by the 3rd week if you loose to lesser opponents. But that is the teams fault, but it leaves the bottom teams up to play spoiler. If first place means a bye week and a automatic bid into the Grey Cup there will be more incentive for the top teams to try and get that spot. If you had a situation where 1vs2 were only separated with one game difference then any team from 4th place down could play spoiler and mess it all up. Maybe they won't see the playoffs but in Canada with deep rooted regionalism anyways local fans won't mind for instance if Winnipeg clunks out Toronto into 2nd or even 3rd spot.

The spots from 2-4 will always be tight from year to year, in many cases only a game would be separating the majority of the league for the majority of the season. Playoff implications would start to matter earlier and would continue on all year long.


For example if you look at the 2010 Season.

Here are the Regular Season Standings:


X – clinched playoff berth
Y – clinched first place


WEST (W/L):

Y-Calgary - 13-5
X-Sask - 10-8
X-BC 8-10
Edmonton 7-11

EAST (W/L):

Y-Montreal - 12-6
X-Hamilton - 9-9
X-Toronto 9-9
Winnipeg 4-14


You see one team with a loosing record in, and two teams just at .500 in the playoffs.

With my idea what would change is that Calgary would be rewarded a slot in the Grey Cup, and then Sask vs Montreal would play for the last slot. But even with the new system you would still have both Hamilton and Toronto still realistically in the hunt being only at most 2 games back from the third spot, even Edmonton would not be mathematically out at 3 games back until the last 2 weeks of the season. Winnipeg.. tough luck, try again next year, but they can still play spoiler for many teams.

In the final week of that 2010 season Winnipeg nearly beat top ranked Calgary. Also, Hamilton beat BC which in the new system would of demoted BC out of the playoffs (they would of needed help) and propelled Hamilton in (with a Sask loss in that final week), versus both of them making it in the defacto model. This was all at Ivor Wynn which you can't tell me would not turn into a playoff atmosphere off that result.

You can address standing conflicts by awarding the slot to strength of results, aka, who had a better winning percentage against better competition.