Operation Duck

[js °]

Toronto Maple Leafs- Maple Leaf is symbol of Canada

Montreal Canadiens- Canadien is French for Canada-ish

Vancouver Canucks- A Canuck is a person from Canada

Quebec Nordiques- "Northerners", meaning from Canada

I know alot of Canadiens may disagree with me on this .. but watching CBC and CTV you get a sense of how the Boys north of the Border see themselves. If I was to paint the States with a broad brush, I would say we are a cocky lot, and are constantly reassuring ourselves that we are the best of the best and aint nobody better. On the flipside .. if i was to paint Canada with the same sweeping generalization ... I would say they see themselves as the underdog, constantly not getting due credit or deserved attention from the rest of the globe.

The national pride up north is very similar to the pride you see in someone who comes from a small town ... whereas the pride in the States is much more like big city pride. Its an inferiority complex vs. a superiority complex.

And that ladies and gentlemen .. is how you take a very complex, grey subject and make it black and white. For my next trick ... I'll disassemble American foreign policy in 6 words or less.

[paynomind]

Oh, Lord... he we go....

1. You folks didn't know the Thrashers were named after the state bird? Wow, that may explain why you don't like the name. We weren't named after "those who move themselves wildly and abruptly about" - type of Thrasher, but the Georgia Brown Thrasher, or Thrush. Also, that keeps with the bird theme Atlanta has going; Falcons, Hawks, Thrashers. Ted even wanted to change the name of the Braves to the Eagles, until Warren Spahn threatened to boycott every event following the name change, for the rest of his life. But I digress

2. The Thrasher would lose a fight to a worm? Study up, my friend, for the Thrashers is one of the most violent birds around.

:--"Though good-humored towards the person who feeds them, they are always savage towards all other kinds of birds, as well as their prey. I placed three sparrows in the cage of a Thrush one evening, and found them killed, as well as nearly stripped of their feathers, the next morning."

3. Your excuses for the Maple Leafs having the worst abomination of pluralization are each and every one abysmal and embarrassing.

lets just say when con smyth bought the team he wanted a patriotic name. whats a better patriotic name for a canadian team?

A partiotic name? Yes, a Maple Leaf stands for Canada, but why Leafs? That is incorrect, and makes all those who wear it look like they stopped after their 2nd grade education.

And as for the spelling of the Maple Leafs...

It just works.

Great arguement! I works! It WORKS! Awesome. Now I understand the stupidity. No, wait... now I’m only cognizant of YOUR stupidity.

Conn Smythe was a great GM, but obviously not one for grammatical accuracy.

I guess if the GM is a moron, you don't point it out to him.

Look, the least you could have done is make up a decent cover story, like... say... the name was supposed to mean that the Maple Leaf, which represents Canada, owned the team, so really, it isn't spelled wrong, they just forgot the apostrophe. It should be the Maple Leaf's. Like, this is the Maple Leaf's hockey team. That would have at least made some sense. But it would have used creativity and thought. Obviously absent here.

[See Red]

I always kind of wondered why they don't just go with the singular "Toronto Maple Leaf" like the Stanford Cardinal do.

[webdav]

The Preds owners wanted to call them the Sabretooths or something to that effect - but Buffalo would have had a problem with that!

So they went with Predators.

I find it funny when you hear a non-hockey fan say "Toronto Maple Leaves" - it just doesn't sound right - even though it is technically correct.

So since the Leafs were named to be patriotic because the Habs were - does that mean the Canucks were trying to do the same? Is there some sort of tradition in Canada to wear sweaters with a huge V shape from the shoulders down that I don't know of?

Of course, I can't say too much about pluralization of words - being that I'm an Avs fan. Yes - Avs - as in Avalanche. Non-plural. Not Avalanches.

[IceCap]

I love to hate the Leafs ... living in Buffalo, thats the way of life. Leafs fans and Sabres fans are like warriors from a similar land .. destined to eternal battle by way of loyalty.

Regardless ... I gotta agree with Icecap. The Leafs identity is easily one of the most iconic in sports. I'll give the Yankees their due credit as most recognizable brand in sports .. but the Leafs have defined their brand really well .. the only brand that can come close is the Nazi's. Those dirty bastards knew how to create a brand.

(and yes I did intentionally draw parallels from the Leafs to the Nazis ... I hate you both ... in very different ways ... but the hate remains)

i dont now if i should thank u or not

i dont know anout other leafs fans, but i think the same way about the sabers for one soul reason: '99 eastern finals, game 5, leafs need a win to saty alive- toronto is down one, but sundin scores! wait. its dis-allowed. why? sundin's foot was in the crease. however look back at the tape and u will se that peca hocked sundin's leg, keeping him from leaving the crease. momentum went to buffalo who won the game and the series.

[Suigi]

Oh, Lord... he we go....

1. You folks didn't know the Thrashers were named after the state bird? Wow, that may explain why you don't like the name. We weren't named after "those who move themselves wildly and abruptly about" - type of Thrasher, but the Georgia Brown Thrasher, or Thrush. Also, that keeps with the bird theme Atlanta has going; Falcons, Hawks, Thrashers. Ted even wanted to change the name of the Braves to the Eagles, until Warren Spahn threatened to boycott every event following the name change, for the rest of his life. But I digress

2. The Thrasher would lose a fight to a worm? Study up, my friend, for the Thrashers is one of the most violent birds around.

:--"Though good-humored towards the person who feeds them, they are always savage towards all other kinds of birds, as well as their prey. I placed three sparrows in the cage of a Thrush one evening, and found them killed, as well as nearly stripped of their feathers, the next morning."

3. Your excuses for the Maple Leafs having the worst abomination of pluralization are each and every one abysmal and embarrassing.

lets just say when con smyth bought the team he wanted a patriotic name. whats a better patriotic name for a canadian team?

A partiotic name? Yes, a Maple Leaf stands for Canada, but why Leafs? That is incorrect, and makes all those who wear it look like they stopped after their 2nd grade education.

And as for the spelling of the Maple Leafs...

It just works.

Great arguement! I works! It WORKS! Awesome. Now I understand the stupidity. No, wait... now I?m only cognizant of YOUR stupidity.

Conn Smythe was a great GM, but obviously not one for grammatical accuracy.

I guess if the GM is a moron, you don't point it out to him.

Look, the least you could have done is make up a decent cover story, like... say... the name was supposed to mean that the Maple Leaf, which represents Canada, owned the team, so really, it isn't spelled wrong, they just forgot the apostrophe. It should be the Maple Leaf's. Like, this is the Maple Leaf's hockey team. That would have at least made some sense. But it would have used creativity and thought. Obviously absent here.

And now, for my rebuttal.

1. We didn't know the Thrashers were named after the state bird, because a) the logo looks NOTHING LIKE IT, b)how many Canadian hockey fans can remember all 50 state birds?!, c) who cares? All that matters is that the Thrashers are a half-decent hockey team.

2. Ah, that explains the name. But it's still a freakin' bird. A bird does not get named something as brutal as "thrasher"

3. Of course you don't tell the GM that he's a moron! How else can you explain Bill Wirtz's continued existence with the Blackhawks? Furthermore, how do you know it was an error in 1927? How do any of us know? English is one of the most confusing and fluid languages in the world (if not THE most), and it's very well possible Maple Leafs was correct in 1927.

And yes, it DOES work. Maple Leaves would sound like Maple Leafs anyway!

"GO LEAVES GO?" "MAPLE LEAVES WIN CUP?" It just feels wrong.

I guess you have to be a Torontonian to understand.

In conclusion, the Maple Leafs have shown that they can go 80+ years with 14 Stanley Cups with the grammatical goof. Which is...hmmm, let's see...carry the one...14 more cups than the Thrashers will be getting for their next 80 years.

[Suigi]

i dont now if i should thank u or not

i dont know anout other leafs fans, but i think the same way about the sabers for one soul reason: '99 eastern finals, game 5, leafs need a win to saty alive- toronto is down one, but sundin scores! wait. its dis-allowed. why? sundin's foot was in the crease. however look back at the tape and u will se that peca hocked sundin's leg, keeping him from leaving the crease. momentum went to buffalo who won the game and the series.

And then, in cruel irony, Dallas's Cup-winning goal was allowed, even though Brett Hull had HIS foot in the crease.

Goddamn hypocrisy.

If they had called both, maybe the HSBC would have a nice banner hanging from the rafters.

And isn't it funny that 1999 was the last year a Stanley Cup final didn't have a previous winner in it?

[winters in buffalo]

Shouldn't then be "Goes Leaves Goes" or "Go Leave Go"... or the past tense, "Went Went Went"?

[CDunn]

On the Thrasher issue, the city of Atlanta was at one time called Thrasherville. It originally started as Terminus because that's where 5 or so major rail lines intersected and ended. the people of Decatur, GA didn't want all the rail lines in their backyards, so they moved them about 10 or 20 miles away in a place they called Terminus. Then once a town became established at Terminus and it was no longer just a rail yard, the name changed to Maryville. Then later it became Thrasherville, then Atlanta.

So the Thrasher is the state bird, but it also has a nice tie in to the city. Suprisingly, so do Hawks and Falcons. I see those two kinds of birds on a pretty regular basis. There are two hawks or falcons that actually live on my schools campus(it's like 172 acres and it heavily wooded) in the North Metro area of town.

[Roger Clemente]

In my alternate universe, Modano wins the next faceoff and Hatcher one times it over Hasek.

--Roger "Time?" Clemente.

[artvandelay]

Back to the original topic of the Ducks. I heard on SC that they could be sold to the guys who own the Sacramento Kings and moved to Las Vegas. Anyone else hear this?