Halak’s agent goes too far

Bonehead move hurts Halak, team unity

By Garth McLennan, Sports Editor

professional sports, agents and

management will often say or do
whatever they can in order to secure their
client, or team, the best deal possible.
However, there are occasions when things
can go too far, which is exactly what
happened recently with released comments
from Montreal Canadiens goaltender
Jaroslav Halak’s agent Alan Walsh.

Over the past few years, the Canadiens’
crease has been a fierce battleground for
playing time between Halak and Montreal’s
best prospect since Patrick Roy, Carey
Price, who was taken fifth overall back
in the 2005 Draft. In the minds of most,
there’s little doubt that Price is Montreal’s
long-term goalie of the future. His upside
is tremendous and while Halak has proved
himself to be a competent semi-starter,

E the often cut-throat world of

it seems fairly clear that Price is the one
who will be given the undisputed starter’s
position once his game develops a little bit.

That wasn’t the view taken by Walsh
though, and he made that painfully clear
with his recent Twitter comments.

“Interesting stat of the night, Price is
10-32 in his last 42 starts. Hmm.”

Now, setting aside the fact that this
was released on Twitter, which is pathetic in
itself, let me remind you that this is a highly
educated attorney saying this. I mean, how
stupid can you get? What exactly was he
hoping to accomplish by trashing not only
one of the most universally regarded young
players in the game, but also a teammate
of his client’s? All this does is make Halak
look like an attention starved prima-donna.

Now, to be fair, Walsh went on to make
a semi-apology a few days later, saying
that the entire incident was “not meant to
be taken seriously” and that in Montreal

“everyone loses a sense of humour.”

Wow, not only does he make both
himself and Halak seem beyond arrogant,
but he then proceeds to further that with an
equally conceited “apology.” Yes, Halak is
outplaying Price early on this season, but
that’s no reason to say what Walsh did. All
it does for the Canadiens is disturb team
unity and create a distraction for a team that
has enough on its plate as it is.

If Halak has any brains, he should
fire Walsh, who doesn’t exactly represent
the cream of the NHL’s crop, right away.
If he wants to restore his reputation as a
good teammate getting rid of an Ari Gold
clone without the talent is a big step in the
right direction. Otherwise the message is
sent to the Canadiens, and to other clubs
around the league, that Halak isn’t a team
player, which, true or not, is what this whole
situation has really made him look like.

 

Jaroslav Halak

 

 

Sports funding needs to keep going after 2010

Own The Podium program has benefits far outweighing costs

 

 

 

   
   

By Garth McLennan, Sports Editor

ne of the most inspiring parts of

the lead up to the 2010 Winter

Olympics has been the Own
the Podium program that started back in
2005. Each year since then, the federal
government has provided winter sports
athletes with greatly increased funding that
is a tremendous help in a wide variety of
areas.

The Own the Podium funding boost,
which helps relieve the various costs of
training, travel, food and medical bills for
high-performance athletes with Olympic
aspirations, is designed with the ambitious
goal of, as the name suggests, emerge as the
total medal count leader in 2010.

Own the Podium was created in
large part after several less than stellar
performances by Canadian athletes
during the 1976 Games in Montreal and
the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary,
where overburdened and under-supported
competitors were unable to produce even a
single gold medal finish across the board on
home soil.

The program calls for almost $22

 

A Ah |
million of federal money each year and
so far seems to be reaching the peak of its
success with less than 90 days until the
Games begin. For example, no one can say
that Own the Podium hasn’t taken effect
after looking at the results over the past

is the continuation of Own the Podium,
and its summer sport counterpart, Road to
Excellence, funding. As it stands, once the
Games are complete at the end of February,
funding levels are scheduled to revert back
to their pre-2005 areas. That would be a

“The benefits of having a strong Olympic program and high
medal hopes every two years goes beyond advertising dollars
and promotional monies. The effect on amateur sport is massive,
and with big-time wins at the Olympics, there’s no doubt that it
encourages kids to get out and participate, which over the long run is
a tremendous positive.”

year.
During that span, Canada has stood
alone in terms of medals won at the World
Championship levels of Olympic events
with 29 medals, which is two more than
both the United States and Germany. Of
course, the final evaluation of Own the
Podium’s legacy will be measured with the
conclusion of the 2010 Games, and how
good or bad Team Canada does.
Regardless of their eventual Olympic
finish though, what needs to happen next

catastrophic set back to Canada’s future
Olympic and World Championship hopes at
both the winter and summer Olympics.
Yes, the Games are in our own
backyard this time around and in 2014
they'll be held in Sochi, Russia, and
therefore won’t be nearly as personal,
but Canadian athletics won’t be nearly
as competitive in the future without this
money. Critics will say that Canada is still
in the midst of a recession and that the
benefits of Olympic victory won’t be nearly

as high in far off places as they are here on
home turf, and therefore we should cut back
on funding and distribute it to other areas.

The fact is though, the benefits of
having a strong Olympic program and high
medal hopes every two years goes beyond
advertising dollars and promotional monies.
The effect on amateur sport is massive, and
with big-time wins at the Olympics, there’s
no doubt that it encourages kids to get out
and participate, which over the long run is a
tremendous positive.

Just look at the famous 1980 Winter
Games, where the U.S. men’s hockey team
dethroned the Soviet Union and won the
gold medal, largely as a result of greatly
increased funding. American participation
in hockey skyrocketed after that and a large
contingent of American stars of this past
generation started playing the game as a
result of 1980.

Own the Podium CEO Dr. Roger
Jackson is doing everything he can to
ensure high performance sports’ funding
continues after 2010 at the very least similar
levels to what it is now. Anyone who cares
about sports and their benefits should be
pulling for him every step of the way.

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