Connect with us

Bruce Dowbiggin

NHL Video Review: You Can’t Handle The Truth

Published

8 minute read

At a time when the Florida Panthers needed a break in Game Six of the Stanley Cup Final Series, they got something more like the Zapruder film. Blurry, inconclusive, dramatic and very, very upsetting. Trailing Edmonton 2-0 before a braying Oilers fanbase, struggling Florida thought theyā€™d scored in the second period to make it 2-1.

Hope of a comeback sprung eternal on the Panthersā€™ bench. At the Oilersā€™ bench, however, rookie coach Kris Knoblauch was peering down at something on his digital tablet. Could it be the bang-bang play at the Edmonton blue line was offside? Knoblauch decided to risk it all on a challenge. If he won, Floridaā€™s momentum would be stopped. If he lost, it would be a one-goal Oilersā€™ lead with Florida going on the power playā€”the penalty for a wrong challenge.

For the next minutes the NHL video review officials in Toronto pondered the play from multiple angles. In the booth the announcers called it too close to call. Several angles seemed to show the play was indeed offside. On the TV broadcast viewers could see the arbiters of angles cogitating about the call in their studio. Others were not so definitive. Time passed like days, not minutes.

After an excruciating wait, the goal was disallowed, the crowd went wild, and the Oilers rolled to an easy 5-1 victory, tying the Final series and forcing Game 7 in Florida. In your grandfatherā€™s NHL, the losing coach would here have exploded in rage against technology, homer refs and the summer solstice. At first Maurice gave an Oscar-winning performance as the aggrieved coach behind the bench.

Afterward, however, a more-composed Maurice was more sanguine on whether the video system had worked properly. “I have no idea. It may well have been offside,ā€ he told the postgame presser. “The linesperson informed me that it was the last clip that they got where they made the decision that it shows it’s offside. I don’t have those (clips). So I was upset after the call, based on what I see at my feet and what my video person looks at.ā€

He then explained that he was most concerned by the possibility of a penalty for a failed challenge. “There was no way I would have challenged that if (the situation) were reversed,” Maurice told the media postgame. “There was no way I thought you could conclusively say that was offside. I don’t know what (angles) the Oilers get. I don’t know what the league gets. I just know that (if) I had to challenge that based on what I saw, I would not have challenged.ā€

Maurice, whoā€™s noted for his wit, then added, “I’m not saying it’s not offside. We’ll get still frames, we’ll bring in the CIA, we’ll figure it out. But in the 30 seconds that I would’ve made that call, I would not have challenged.ā€
So how to make replay better? Those watching the ongoing EuroCup24 soccer tournament can see that soccer, the most hidebound sports for decades, is using technology to get their byzantine offside rule called properly. In one game, Belgiumā€™s star Lukaku had, not one, but two goals nixed by the technology.

There have been ponderous delays for review, yes, but there is no question that the calls when finally decided are correct. Much like the Hawkeye technology for calling lines in tennis, soccerā€™s tech is impartial and unequivocal. And it largely removes the tinfoil-hat contingent from spreading conspiracy theories.

Nothing illustrates the schism between the modern hockey fan and the Original Six more than video replay (they dropped ā€œinstantā€ replay for obvious reasons). People born to the digital age see no problem with getting it right, however long it takes. The only thing wrong is that they canā€™t (yet) control it with a joystick.

Old-timers like the ā€œhuman elementā€ romanticism of allowing blown calls, like the phantom tag at second base or the football barely crossing the goal line in a pile of bodies. They want the free flow of the game not to be interrupted (unless by a fight). They insist that lengthy delays, like betting commercials, ruin the sportā€™s purity.

In this theyā€™re like the MLB folks who are still resistant to having their ABS system call balls and strikes. While old catchers and retired umpires wax lovingly about the art of ā€œframing pitchesā€ (translation: tricking umps into wrong calls) the home viewer can regularly see umpires missing 8-10 percent of the calls in a game. Yet commissioner Rob Manfred still drags his feet on the imposition of a system that is already working in the minors.

The reality is that, in this time of betting and network domination, there is no excuse for getting it wrong. As we have mentioned on numerous occasions, there is no allowing for doubt when youā€™re taking hundreds of millions from the betting industry.

So letā€™s see the NHL introduce an offside technology like that in soccer. Letā€™s see the NFL install a chip in the football that sends the first-down ā€œchain gangā€ to oblivion. Letā€™s see MLB get the calls right. Even if the old-timers canā€™t stand it.

Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public BroadcasterĀ  A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, heā€™s a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. His new book Deal With It: The Trades That Stunned The NHL And Changed hockey is now available on Amazon. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his previous book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is available via brucedowbigginbooks.ca.

BRUCE DOWBIGGIN Award-winning Author and Broadcaster Bruce Dowbiggin's career is unmatched in Canada for its diversity and breadth of experience . He is currently the editor and publisher of Not The Public Broadcaster website and is also a contributor to SiriusXM Canada Talks. His new book Cap In Hand was released in the fall of 2018. Bruce's career has included successful stints in television, radio and print. A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada's top television sports broadcaster for his work with CBC-TV, Mr. Dowbiggin is also the best-selling author of "Money Players" (finalist for the 2004 National Business Book Award) and two new books-- Ice Storm: The Rise and Fall of the Greatest Vancouver Canucks Team Ever for Greystone Press and Grant Fuhr: Portrait of a Champion for Random House. His ground-breaking investigations into the life and times of Alan Eagleson led to his selection as the winner of the Gemini for Canada's top sportscaster in 1993 and again in 1996. This work earned him the reputation as one of Canada's top investigative journalists in any field. He was a featured columnist for the Calgary Herald (1998-2009) and the Globe & Mail (2009-2013) where his incisive style and wit on sports media and business won him many readers.

Follow Author

Bruce Dowbiggin

Collision Course: Boomers Love Canada. Millennials Want A Better Offer

Published on

Canada is a nation of fissures. East versus West. French versus English. White versus indigenous. For much of its 157-year history its has overridden those divides to stand as an independent nation. Its ability to do so has, however, made it a very complacent partner in security.

Donald Trump has now exposed a new fissure, and this one just might be the kill shot to Confederation. In his brazen attempts to exploit the many vulnerabilities imposed on Canada by the Justin Trudeau governmentĀ  Trump has asked a question that petrifies the Canadian establishment.

Would Canadians rather join the powerful U.S. and abandon a rickety Canadian union? Which future holds the greater attraction, being a state/ partner of America or continuing to go it alone in a world of ambitious nations like China, Russia and India? Uncle Sam or Sir John A.? (Wait, Canada has tossed aside the founder of Confederation. Who else is there? Weā€™ll have to get back to you on that.)

The polling results are bracing. Companies setting out to answer Trumpā€™s existential question have discovered that while Boomers and their sunset media still see Canada as a land of Terry Fox, Anne Murray and the 1972 Summit Series, under 50s see something different and dangerous. And they are willing to listen to offers. A stunning 43 percent from the 18-35 Millennial demographic say they are willing to join the U.S. if offered citizenship and asset conversion to USD. In the +55 bracket just 17 percent of Canadians would trade their citizenship.

In 18-35 polling, 65 percent say Trumpā€™s demand that Canada shape up to keep doing business with America has made them doubt the future of the nation. (35 percent +55) When asked if itā€™s just a matter of time till the U.S. consumes Canada 31 percent say yes (11 percent +55). And 35 percent say Quebec or Alberta will leave Confederation within the decade (22 percent +55).

These polls hew closely to current voter preferences in the (maybe) upcoming federal election. In the Super Boomer category (65+) 48 percent will vote for for the Mark Carnivores. In the 50-64 demo that number is 41 percent. But flip the age demographic and itā€™s the opposite. Conservatives lead the 18-35 bracket with 45 percent support versus 21 percent for Liberals and NDP 20 percent. Young people are pissed.

Itā€™s hard to look at these numbers and not believe that the romantic notion of Canada being proposed by PMJT is running out of runway. And, irony of ironies, the young fresh face from 2015 is a main culprit for the disillusionment now gripping younger Canadians. But ten hard years of watching Happy Ways become Hippy Ways have convinced many among Gen-X and Millenials that, barring an inheritance, there is little to attract them to staying in Canada.

While Boomers desperate to embrace Carney plaintively ask, ā€œwhat was so bad about Trudeau?ā€ the current children or grandchildren of Boomers have a long list of grievances from his chaotic time in the PMO. Inaccessible housing, escalating taxes, refusing to retire, self-absorbed culture appropriation (blackface), DEI/ ESG effect on white people, over-reliance on outdated government and hoarding healthcare facilities and doctorsā€¦ the list is long.

American psychologist Lawrence R. Summers has heard Millennials in his practice. ā€œBoomers hogged the economy and the worldā€™s resources for their own financial gain and/or consumptive habitsā€¦ They are often seen as greedy and wasteful, with no regard for what future generations will inherit.

ā€œTo put it another way, theyā€™re frequently viewed as dinner guests whoā€™ve eaten and drank pretty much everything set out on the table, leaving only scraps for those who came later to the party, even their own children.ā€ A cursory look at inflated real estate pricesā€” houses serving as cash boxes for Boomersā€” serves to illustrate this deep frustration.

Before you say, well, this disaffection with Boomers is the same everywhere, remember that 78-year-oldĀ  Donald Trump swung the youth vote last November, moving it 20 percentage points in his direction. Going on alternative podcasts and social media that young people identify with blunted what had always been a Democratic party asset, exposing its fossilized leadership.

Boomers are cranky about Elon Musk employing teenaged whiz kids to ferret out corrupt USAID spending. Democrat geezers driven crazy by the Musk DOGE youngsters then are reminded of the ages of some of the Founding Fathers in 1776.

James Monroe, 18

Henry Lee III, 20

Aaron Burr, 20

John Marshall, 20

Nathan Hale, 21

Banastre Tarleton, 21

Alexander Hamilton, 21

Benjamin Tallmadge, 22

Robert Townsend, 22

Gouveneur Morris, 24

Betsy Ross, 24

James Madison, 25

Henry Knox, 25

Oops. The Canadians generation gap is hopelessly self inflicted. While America still retains a core culture, Trudeau has made sure Canada is seen more as a hotel than a nation. Bragging that Canada is a postmodern entity with no core culture (outside of hockey and equalization) he has demonized Canadaā€™s founders as racist and genocidal by flying the Canadian flag at half mast for six months to assuage ā€œsettler guiltā€. He has diluted the culture, importing millions who see Canada as a way stop to America or a place to launder money/ deal drugs.

He has glorified globalism through climate and gender agendas. He has continued his fatherā€™s alienation of the West and its energy industry. He has allowed the nation to be the worldā€™s choice destination for laundering dirty money so that, now, few in the world trust the Canadian government on security and defence.

Thatā€™s seemingly okay with his aging core. Bu the question now is can 45-year-old CPC leader Pierre Poilievre ride the culture wave? Can he be bold and make its his own as Trump made 18-35 year olds his shock troops in 2024?Ā Poilievre has done a sober, predictable rollout of policy.Ā  What he needs, however, is to emulate Trump, showing the Liberals as geezers, the NDP as enablers and the decrepit media as propagandists. Itā€™ll take courage. He wonā€™t get CBC/ CTV/ G&M to help him quit so what?

Donald Trump is going to crucify the Libs/ NDP.Ā  He wants to hear from a different partner in negotiations. Poilievre has to ignore the noise and negotiate a future that young Canadians can buy into.

Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public BroadcasterĀ  A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster. His new book Deal With It: The Trades That Stunned The NHL And Changed Hockey is now available on Amazon. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his previous book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org. You can see all his books at brucedowbigginbooks.ca.

Continue Reading

Bruce Dowbiggin

All Bets Are Off: Why Prop Betting Scares Sports Leagues, Police

Published on

Sundayā€™s Super Bowl concluded another season of wagering on the sport made great by gambling. With billions wagered legallyā€” and billions wagered illegallyā€”the NFL is a Frankenstein of the betting industry. Everything is done to create parity while simultaneously promoting chaos. When other leagues talk about success they are talking about the NFLā€™s colossal gambling industry.

The penetration of betting has only increased with legalization in Canada (Ontario is the only ā€œopenā€ legal market at the moment) and the United States (38 states currently allow sports wagering). It has gotten to the point where sports bettors in Las Vegas, for decades the only legal spot for sports gambling, complain that Nevada is falling behind its neighbours. Some drive across state lines to wager on sports offerings not made in Vegas.

We could do a small book on all the new betting applications that have sprung up with sharps applying stock-market analytics and trading strategies to break down a football game. But for today weā€™ll concentrate on the device that has turbo-charged public betting in the past generation: Proposition bets. And the enormous risk they bring.

In the bad old days when gambling was underground, dominated by organized crime, football betting meant the money line (who will win), sides (by how many points) and totals (how many points would be scored in as game). The range of options within these parameters was limited. You could parlay (two bets), tease (two or more choices with alternate odds) or do future bets.

Then along came proposition bets (props). There are propositions on everything from how many yards player X will run for, how many interceptions Player Y will throw and how many touchdowns player Z will score. There are also team props. The range of props covers almost any result generated by a football gameā€” and a few generated by halftime shows and coin flips.

When props first began to catch the public interest, they were a novelty. Snobs saw them as sucker bets for squares. In Vegas, books would stage a glitzy launch ten days before the game to announce their props. No more. The first props for SB LIX were out minutes after the conference final games were decided. The brushfire is now a conflagration.

The two weeks before SB LIX were saturated with experts breaking down the teams, their predilections and their models for predicting prop winners. In a game with no appreciable favourite this meant every microchip of data being examined. (We had at least a dozen props then added a couple more during the game to hedge against any losers.)

The great fallibility of prop betting is their individual nature. With totals and sides the results are determined by efforts of the 92 NFL players allowed to suit up each week. Outside of the QBs, kickers, coaches and perhaps the referees, no single person could determine a W or L. Not so with props.

A player can drop a pass or miss a tackleā€” affecting his propā€” without anyone being the wiser. The NFL scrutinizes players for erratic patterns, but on a single basis anything is possible for a player who is being influenced by bettors. Integrity of the product is paramount for the NFL and its gambling partners. So a rogue player is like a communist in Joe McCarthyā€™s America.

There is also betting on non-football props concerning length of national anthem, colour of Gatorade used to douse the winning coach and clothing choices of the halftime performers. Here, bettors are truly on their own as the NFL has no control on Kendrick Lamarā€™s playlist. (Considering KLā€™s associates ā€œin the hoodā€ this a very Wild West way to lose money) own the colour of Gatorade used (yellow).

So far the NFL has avoided any public gambling scandal like the one that landedĀ  the personal translator for Dodgersā€™s star Hideki Ohtani in jail for tipping offĀ  gamblers. (So far MLB has managed to wall off Hideki from the crimes). But the possibilities are there in NFL and other sports where a player compromised by debts, drug issues or sexual activity can be leveraged for profit.

The league with the most visible prop problem is the NBA with its small rosters (15 players game day). For a reminder the NBA was forced to admit that there is a current police probe into player Terry Rozier, now of the Miami Heat. ā€œIn March 2023, the NBA was alerted to unusual betting activity related to Terry Rozierā€™s performance in a game between Charlotte and New Orleans,ā€ NBA spokesman said. While the NBA has cleared Rozier police area not satisfied.

In the 2023 matchup between the Hornets and the New Orleans Rozier pulled himself from the game after just nine minutes. As a result Rozier finished well below his prop bet of 32.5 combined points, assists and rebounds. Bettors howled about the suspicious nature of Rozierā€™s exit with a foot problem.

What made cops suspicious was that the network of gamblers placing money on Rozier was the same network that had allegedly manipulated former Raptor Jontay Porterā€™s prop numbers. Porter has been banned for life over charges he shaved numbers for the nefarious characters cited in the rosier story. Police are still investigating him.

The NBA is still reverberating from the 2007 scandal of referee Tim Donaghy who used his knowledge of the NBA to bet on professional basketball games and tip off crimes figures. He was banned for life and sentenced to 15 months in prison. Now released from prison Donaghy continues to warn about the vulnerability of betting NBA games.

Then there is the risk associated with U.S. college athletics now that players are paid to attend a certain college. Money and temptation flow freely in the new portal system that allows players to transfer schools midway through their eligibility.

Sundayā€™s game produced a one-sided windfall for Eaglesā€™ bettors and the usual controversial referee calls did not affect the outcome. But it should not be seen as a reason to be less vigilant, particularly with props.

Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public BroadcasterĀ  A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster. His new book Deal With It: The Trades That Stunned The NHL And Changed Hockey is now available on Amazon. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his previous book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org. You can see all his books at brucedowbigginbooks.ca.

Continue Reading

Trending

X