The partnership will make available real-time updates on the status of the region’s 447 transit vehicles through GPS tracking tied into Google Maps.
The GPS will let riders access status updates, taking into account traffic and weather, as well as informing riders of any delays.
“We want to bring YRT/Viva a lot closer and make sure the integration is the best,” said town of Whitchurch-Stouffville Mayor Wayne Emmerson.
Emmerson, who is Chair of York Region’s Transportation Services Committee, said the partnership had been at the forefront of their plans for months.
With nearly 73,000 passengers a week, according to YRT/Viva’s website, the hope is that allowing passengers to track the status of the buses will create a more streamlined travel experience, getting riders from one place to the next with less hassle.
Simon South, a software developer and the blogger behind York Transit website RideYork.ca, said YRT/Viva has many opportunities to make the system more simple and effective.
“One simple thing that YRT hasn’t really done yet is give riders an easy way to get transit information on a mobile phone,” said South.
Because the software Google uses is “open data,” it will allow for development of applications, something South thinks would be a simple and effective improvement for the transit service.
South is developing the software himself, and has completed most of the work already.
“My hope is to have a basic version of the web application launched by the end of October,” he said.
Dillon Clarence, 20, a third-year business administration student, takes transit to and from school each day, and said that his transit experience would be improved by the integration of a similar system into the TTC.
“You could plan when to leave school, you could get extra sleep, instead of just standing here,” said Clarence, adding that he experiences transit delays all the time.
Clarence also said an app like the one South is developing for the YRT/Viva would make riding the TTC much more efficient.
There’s not a lot I can point to and say that it is what differentiates me from the vast majority of sports fans in Canada. Sure, I may want to write about sports for a living, have a fixation with the business workings of the NHL, and be one of the few curling fans remaining under the age of 40, but there always was something different. It was an allegiance to the Little Network That Could.
I never did have a connection with TSN — for anyone outside of Canada reading this, TSN is Canada’s version of ESPN, even being under the same umbrella — and I can’t really point to any real reason why. I remember Jim Van Horne. I remember the old black and yellow logo. I still tune in for one solid week at a time in February and March to watch both the Scotties and Brier. Of course, we all tune in to watch TSN’s hockey coverage. But even with that, it just wasn’t for me. It didn’t represent me as a sports fan, if that makes any sense.
I have a very vivid memory of sitting next to my grandfather on the couch inside the duplex my grandparents took residence in in Brandon, MB. My memory isn’t necessarily a moment, but rather an article of clothing. A polo shirt, embroidered with Headline Sports. For those unaware, before there was theScore, there was Headline Sports. It’s on Headline Sports I became aware of names — Canadian sports media icons to me now — like Greg Sansone, Elliotte Friedman, Tim Micallef, and Sid Seixeiro.
To be a sports fan is to enjoy the games. To be a sports fan is to realize that no matter what we have or feel, sports are entertainment and should be enjoyed as such. Headline Sports, and it’s successor theScore, always made the mundane highlight packages exponentially more entertaining. They were packed with pop culture references, flashbacks, quips, and one-liners. It was like each and every single person working had a dedication to one-upping each other in the least competitive of ways. To me, theScore is what a sports network should be.
If I’m not mistaken, theScore was the first network in Canada to place the Maple Leaf next to Canadian athletes to signify they were countrymen. They embraced not just the four major North American leagues, but the non-traditional ones in our nation like cricket, futbol, rugby, et al. They didn’t just pass off like they knew the games either. They truly did. To paraphrase how Tim Micallef might put it, sports fans enjoy sport in all shapes and sizes.
With a great deal of honesty and certainty, I can say that there are not a lot of defining moments or figures in my life. There aren’t inspirational people I look at and think, “Hey. You know, that could be me.” But theScore gave me two heroes and guided me to the path of a hopeful sports journalist. I was no older than 13 when I first stumbled across Score Tonight hosted by the aforementioned Seixeiro and Micallef.
Micallef I knew. I had seen him before. Matter of fact, I remember watching theScore with my dad during an afternoon one summer while Tim hosted an afternoon highlight show similar to what the network now calls Score Today. Before Tim said word one, my dad hipped me to the fact that this guy on TV was hilarious when he delivered the packs.
Seixeiro, on the other hand, I had never seen before. But I quickly got acquainted. What was me stumbling across a sports program one evening quickly morphed into appointment viewing. The PO-Dubs with Cabbie, both pre- and post-Sportsnet for Mr. Richards. The Wayne’s World-esque flashbacks (“Doodoodoo-doodoodoo-doodoodoo…”). The line I recite on occasion to this day, “99 problems but a pitch ain’t one.” The list goes on. I was hooked. It wasn’t just some middling sports network to me. I kind of felt like a piece of it when very few else were.
Eventually, Score Tonight would go off the air. What I can only assume had to do with ratings, schedule conflicts (often times near the end of the shows tenure, I would tune in to only Tim or only Sid behind the desk), or just a management decision to pull the plug on the show, Tim and Sid were gone from the airwaves. They didn’t disappear by any stretch of the imagination, but their hour time slot in my daily viewing was gone.
It would only be a few short months later when I would stumble across Tim and Sid: Uncut. It was eight episodes in, but it was Tim and Sid back together again talking about anything and everything. Sports, pop culture, ketchup chips and Moosehead, and Helen Mirren. It was Score Tonight with something extra. When I listened to it, it felt like a conversation I would be a part of with friends of mine. Free-roaming sports talk with absurd innuendo and smatterings of pop culture in everything.
The podcast also did me great favours. In an interview with CBC talk show host George Strombolopolous, Sid brought up that he, too, was a Humber Hawk. This was the first time I had ever heard of Humber College. This was the first time I knew Sid was a graduate of their, or that Strombo, one of Canada’s most noteworthy celebrities, had been a Hawk too. That afternoon, after the show ended, I looked into Humber College. That evening, I brought it to the attention of my mom. The following September, I was living in room S127 at the North Campus of Humber College, enrolled in the journalism program with hopes of following in the footsteps of two men I look up to in the sports journalism industry.
I remember when the podcast went from once a week to daily. I remember listening to the 100th episode, live, as a caller shouted out, “Tim and Sid are straight fosses!” on a crowded Toronto streetcar. And I remember the day they went off the air again.
Full disclosure, I cried that day. I can’t explain it and there’s no way to say it with any semblance of bravado, but I don’t feel the need to save face. I cried quite a bit. Listening to Tim talk about how thankful he was for the opportunity, Sid thank those who had helped him along the way, and realizing that this would likely signal the end of theScore as I knew it, I was faced with the odd reality that a network I, for some reason, held near and dear to my heart was probably headed into its last days.
It wasn’t just about Tim and Sid. It was about Relentless, the show which still has roughly 30 episodes on my iTunes. It was about Puck Daddy Radio. It was about theScore being the network that didn’t have the financial resources, but still found ways to give the best coverage possible.
The sale of theScore to Rogers Media Inc. won’t necessarily signal the end of the network entirely. I am sure in some capacity they will remain. But what theScore stood for might disappear, and that’s what deeply saddens me. If any network was going to help make the sports media landscape better, it was theScore.
One last anecdote: There was an online chat put on by the journalism program at Humber the month before I was to leave to attend. In the discussion, the question of internships — an integral part of the third year of the program — was raised. I asked if it was possible to intern at theScore. The response was something to the tune of, “We have students who get internships throughout the networks.” When I left for Toronto, my dream was to go there. On my first trip downtown, I stopped outside the studio and stared up at the building. It sounds exactly as cheesy as it probably looked, but there was something so surreal about standing outside the building. It felt like my, “One day, I’m going to play for them, dad!” moment.
I likely won’t ever get that moment now.
So, to Tim and Sid, to Cabbie, to DJ, Rob, Curt, Dart, Noon, Bronnsteter, Sansone, Pizzo. To Mavado’s “So Special,” Jay-Z lyrics-made-to-homerun-calls, to Tribal Jail, The Answer, and jokes about Rick Marjerus. To sentences that inexplicably ended with the word, “fuck.” To that time Friedman’s final words got cut off and the CBL had a homerun derby without a single jack. To every single stupid moment that made a 14-year-old me, a 15-year-old me, and so on and so forth laugh.
From the outside looking in, the deal that sent former Columbus Blue Jacket Rick Nash to the New York Rangers make Scott Howson look as if he’s been defeated.
While the return that Howson got for Nash — Brandon Dubinsky, Artem Anisimov, Tim Erixon, and a first round draft pick — will net Howson’s Jackets some depth, it will do very little in the way of netting goals. Losing a gifted scorer like Nash is no easy thing for the Blue Jackets to deal with, but what else could Howson have done?
In today’s age, where contract details are everything but secret and what goes on in a locker room doesn’t stay there, Howson was put in the precarious position of trying to maximize his return for a star that had publicly begged out. His hand was forced, GMs around the league knew it, and they could rake Howson over the coals.
Think of it this way: If Howson holds on to Nash, enters the season with the disgruntled forward, and attempts to play through it, the cloud hanging over his team will only aid in crippling an already struggling franchise.
Howson had to make a move. He had to make the move that made most sense for his team and its success.
For that reason, I believe Howson nixed the deal with Detroit.
The reported package from Detroit, from multiple outlets including MLive.com and Macomb Daily, would have seen the Jackets acquire a top-six talent like Johan Franzen or Valterri Filpulla and, in addition, a depth forward with good potential. Both Darren Helm and Gustav Nyquist were mentioned by Chuck Pleiness of Macomb Daily.
But if you’re Howson, in a division that is already arguably the most difficult in the NHL, do you want to send your superstar to a division rival only to see him six times a season?
While six games may not seem all that significant, the Red Wings already boast a 49-13-1-6 record over the Jackets since their inception in 2000-01. Adding a superstar to that equation — and maybe seeing that player paired with the likes of Pavel Datsyuk or Henrik Zetterberg — is enough to scare any GM off. With the Wings taking almost 70 per cent of the points when the two teams meet, adding Nash could have bumped that up to as high as 85 or 90. That’s 10 points a season, lost.
So when the news broke yesterday that Nash had been sent to the Rangers for a package that seemed second rate, it was hard for me to find Howson at fault.
Greg Wyshynski put it perfectly over at Yahoo!’s Puck Daddy:
Nash reportedly limited his list of trade destinations to the New York Rangers, Boston Bruins, San Jose Sharks, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings. Howson wasn’t trading him within the division, so goodbye Detroit. The Flyers just signed Shea Weber to a massive contract; as of Monday, they weren’t a viable destination (and one assumes they’d rather allocate their funds to defense anyway). The Bruins didn’t want to part with the types of assets the Rangers ended up parting with; ditto the San Jose Sharks. And who knows if the Penguins wanted to add $7.8 million to their salary structure. So, in the end … yeah, the Rangers.
The deal had to be made with the Rangers. And for all the guff Glen Sather gets, you had to expect he knew that, though he was the one pursuing the prized possession, he was the one operating from the better position.
That Sather was able to make this deal without surrendering NCAA standout and playoff revelation Chris Kreider, Carl Hagelin, Ryan McDonagh, or any of the other young assets the Rangers host is a sure sign that Howson felt backed into a corner.
What Howson got back is what he could have. What he did was what needed to be done.
Howson’s head may be on the chopping block, but Rick Nash is the one who put him there.
It’s inevitable; every year the new Hockey Hall of Fame class is announced, there is uproar.
The class of 2012 is no different. There were no questions about Joe Sakic. Pavel Bure was just a matter of time. Adam Oates had long been awaiting his call.
But Mats Sundin lead to some head scratching. Sundin, a first ballot Hall of Fame inductee? It just didn’t seem possible.
Don’t get me wrong, Sundin has the statistics to make a case for the Hall, but to actually be an inductee? I wonder if there is a time when we could pinpoint the Hall of Fame turning from the greatest of greats to those who had good careers.
Sundin — outside of his loyal following in Toronto — was not a superstar. He was a star, sure, but not an upper echelon talent akin to a worthy first ballot inductee like Joe Sakic.
Sakic won the Stanley Cup twice as a member of the Avalanche (and a Conn Smythe to go along with the one in 2001). He put up 1,641 points in 1,378 games. He won the Hart, Lester B. Pearson (before it became the Ted Lindsay), and the Lady Byng. Sakic was undeniably one of the best players of his generation.
Pavel Bure, the Russian Rocket, won the Rocket Richard in consecutive years as a member of the Florida Panthers. He was the most feared goal scorer of his time. When pundits throw around the term “game breaker” now, it doesn’t carry the weight it did when you watched a player like Bure. He could turn a short outlet pass into a breakaway and a red light with what seemed like relative ease. He was the best at what he did, bar none.
While some may argue what credentials Adam Oates has to be included in the Hall, remember that if not for some guy named Gretzky, we would be remembering Oates as the greatest playmaker of his era. No one distributed better. Oates ability to read, react, and make plays is the stuff of legends.
Sundin had a tremendous skill set while also being blessed with a massive frame. He was a good power forward. He was not the best of his time — or frankly, even near it. He was a gifted leader and captained the Swedes to a gold medal in the 1998 Olympics in Nagano.
The Hall of Fame committee needs to take a serious look at its induction process and start limiting the class.
Though many say the current bottle neck of greats the Hall is running into will just do to slow down the process for those who are deserved inductees, wouldn’t we prefer that a first ballot Hall of Fame induction is something almost rare?
Walking through the Hall of Fame, I want to see the greats, not the very good.
December 17, 2010 was Chris Chelios Heritage Night at the United Center in Chicago. As the Blackhawks honoured one of their all-time greats, those in attendance showered him with boos.
Chelios, then 48, pleaded with the sold-out crowd, asking them to, “let bygones be bygones,” and telling the fans that he was one of them. The Blackhawks faithful relented slightly, but seemingly few remember just what Chelios meant to the organization.
The words to describe Chelios as a player are plentiful: warrior, determined, leader, teacher, champion — the list goes on all the way to the one word that encapsulates it all. Legend.
Legend isn’t a word I throw around lightly when it comes to the greats of our beloved game, but Chelios deserves it. A three-time Stanley Cup Champion, three-time Norris Trophy winner, multiple First Team All-Star votes, and an NHL career that spanned over 25 years. He’s the modern icon of career longevity (Gordie Howe being the historical figure that best embodied that attribute).
When he left Chicago, very few fans chose to remember that it wasn’t necessarily on his own accord.
Sure, Chelios had lofty contract demands and he was 36 years old, but the onus — at least in my mind — falls on William W. Wirtz. Wirtz was unwilling to pay his veteran leader the money that he rightfully deserved, thus leading to him being jettisoned to the much maligned division rival Detroit Red Wings. You can’t fault Chelios for this either. Plain and simple, the Wings were the highest bidders.
Days after the trade had taken place, Chelios told reporters he regretted not being able to finish his career as a Blackhawk.
This is a Chicago native, a man who took the Blackhawks to the Stanley Cup Final in 1992, the defenseman who represented the ‘Hawks in several All-Star Games and won two Norris Trophies as a member of the team. He is the third highest scoring defenseman in team history — with the second highest P/PG — and was the captain for five seasons. He was a leader on and off the ice.
With the Hall of Fame inductees for 2012 being announced today, it is without a doubt that come Chelios’s time he’ll be a first ballot inductee.
You can trust this is one the induction committee will get right, that’s not my concern. What is more concerning, and far more interesting, is whether or not the Blackhawks do the right thing: retiring Chelios’s number 7.
Chelios’s credentials are there and his numbers are comparable to all those Blackhawks whose numbers hang from the rafters in the United Center. What he meant to the franchise cannot be quantified. He lead the team to greatness and his exit coincides with one of the greatest tailspins in franchise history.
When Chelios gets the greatest honour in hockey, an induction to the Hall of Fame, it is only right if the Blackhawks do the same and retire his number.
All due respect to Brent Seabrook, but there is only one 7.
“Last year we went up to Quebec City to do a piece for the Heritage Classic, and we interviewed (Patrick) Roy. And I asked him off-camera about going to the NHL, and he told just a hilarious story . . . he said, ‘Last summer, I was out golfing in July and I said to myself, ‘Is the owner happy with me here?’ and I said, ‘Yes, because I am the owner.’ And he says, ‘Is the GM happy with me here?’ and I thought, ‘Yes, because I am the GM.’ Is the coach happy with me here? Well, yes, because I am the coach. I won’t get that in the NHL.” – Elliotte Friedman on the March 23, 2012 episode of Prime Time Sports (FAN590) recalling an anecdote about Quebec Remparts owner, general manager and head coach Patrick Roy.
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It’s not so much an elephant in the room as it is the Coyotes in the desert for the NHL.
Along with all the whispers and rumours about a new locale for the Desert Dogs is the presumed done-deal that is Patrick Roy taking over bench duties if the team heads from Quebec City.
The puck rattled around the boards to his corner and in one motion he batted it down the ice. A second later, a blow came to his upper chest, catching him on the chin, thrusting his head into the glass. He didn’t stagger, but he caught a number. 22.
***
A cross-ice attempt to hit him breaking down the right wing came in behind him. Ricocheting off the dasher, it flew over his head. Tracking it through the air, the puck moved to an area behind him. He turned his head. It was met with an elbow. He went down in a heap, was helped from the ice to the bench, he sat, slouched and then headed to the dressing room, not to be seen on the ice again that evening.
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These two accounts are, no doubt, how both the Chicago Blackhawks Duncan Keith and Vancouver Canucks Daniel Sedin will recount the events of Wednesday night. In a game that had all the feel of a playoff atmosphere — the two teams have met each other in the NHL’s annual chase for glory each of the last three seasons — it was bound to happen. Something. Some talking point. You could feel it from puck drop, from check to pass, as soon as both teams hit the ice, there was always going to be something to talk about.
Two days later, you never thought it would be this.
Coyotes Captain Shane Doan knocks Vancouver Canucks forward Alex Burrows to the ice. (Image Courtesy Canada.com)
Hope may be high in the desert right now as the Phoenix Coyotes head toward another playoff berth, but a desert storm may be coming in the form of a lockout.
After a work stoppage claimed the 2004-05 NHL season, the league and its fans rejoiced when talks saw the league, and its players, walk away with a brand new collective bargaining agreement in July of 2005. That agreement was set to end in the summer of 2011, with the NHLPA having the option to renew it through 2012.
The NHLPA renewed, and with CBA talks scheduled to begin again this summer, the fear is another lockout could be coming. With player salaries climbing, some owners looking for additional revenue sharing, and a salary cap floor that is keeping small market teams from making money, it looks as though it could be a long off-season for NHL fans.
For Coyotes fans especially, another work stoppage is cause for concern.
“A lockout would probably kill the team,” said Heather Frackiewicz, a Coyotes season ticket holder and high school french teacher in the Phoenix area. Continue Reading…
It was July 1, 2008 and Radim Vrbata was just coming off of a career year in Phoenix. His 56 points in 76 games played — 27 goals and 29 assists — were career bests, his role on the team was that of a top-liner, and he was in line for a healthy raise from the highest bidder. Soon, Tampa Bay would come calling, and Vrbata would be out of the desert and off to Florida.
Then Tampa Bay general manager Jay Feaster signed Vrbata for three seasons at a total value of $9 million. For a player that hadn’t had a permanent NHL home for more than two seasons, it was looking like Vrbata had a place to settle in for the foreseeable future. As the season got underway, however, it was clear that something wasn’t quite right with the Czech winger.
For those that are casual hockey fans, the name John Scott might not mean a thing.
He’s a tough-guy, an enforcer, and at 6’8″ and 270 pounds, he’s built for it. Often enforcers aren’t glory guys, but instead fan favourites. They’re the guys who go to war for you, who stand up for the meaning of your team’s name and logo, and they will bleed for you if they have to. They’re normal guys elevated to hero status.
Or they used to, because in Chicago, John Scott has taken on a brand new meaning.
Born and raised in Winnipeg, Jared Clinton is a freelance journalist with several years of editorial experience. Formerly the web editor for The Hockey News, his work has also been found in the Spectator Tribune, West Rouge Life Magazine and Pie Magazine.
The partnership will make available real-time updates on the status of the region’s 447 transit vehicles through GPS tracking tied into Google Maps.
Jared P.D. Clinton 