Herausforderungen » of rights associated with home ice advantage;

Its been so far, so good in this playoff season for me as I have gone perfect with my picks through the semis and the finals. Yet now its time for the most important pick of them all; the Grey Cup. The thought of going 5-0 with the correct choice is quite intoxicating, I dont think I have ever gone perfect in my CFL futuristic playoff speculations and would take great pride in guessing - I mean analyzing - correctly. I noticed early in the week that logic rules this matchup. Calgary is the better team with a more explosive offence and running game. On defence, coordinator Rich Stubler has 27 years of CFL experience, so going with the logic he will have a great feel for what Hamilton does on offence and game plan accordingly. On special teams, Sederrick Cunningham is good but cant compare to Brandon Banks after Bankss two touchdown performance in the Eastern Final against Montreal. Hamilton lacks the deep ball ability and the game-changing players that Calgary has, therefore they will need to be more methodical in their approach to this game. A key statistic of success will for the Tiger-Cats will be first downs accumulated. If Hamilton wins that stat, it should result in a time of possession advantage and maybe even one or two less possessions for Bo Levi Mitchell and the Calgary offence. I remember so clearly last years Grey Cup, when Saskatchewan had home field advantage over Hamilton and Kory Sheets had a huge day running the ball. Calgary doesnt have Kory Sheets, but they do have John Cornish, who is possibly a better running back than Sheets. In order to win, Hamilton will have to have a great day tackling Cornish in congested areas and knocking him back from the line of scrimmage. Most importantly, they will have tackle Cornish once he gets in to open space. Tiger-Cats linebackers Taylor Reed, Simoni Lawrence and Erik Harris will be looked upon to limit the damage from Cornish. However, the Stampeders arent the only team that can the run ball. Expect Nic Grigsby and Mosis Madu to do some damage for the Tiger-Cats and challenge Stampeders linebackers Deron Mayo, Juwan Simpson and Keon Raymond. The late season signing of Grigsby turned out to be a brilliant move for Hamilton. I dont know if he was a malcontent in Winnipeg, but I do know that in every game with Hamilton he has assimilated to the play book better and found more on field effectiveness as a result. Seven other teams could have signed Grigsby, but hes in Hamilton now and is making a difference while also bringing stability to their backfield. Both teams were competitive in the two games this year, with Calgary winning by three at home and by a lot more than that at McMaster. But both games could have gone either way. What happened months ago has little meaning come Sunday, but it does show that Hamilton is more equal than inferior to a Stampeder team that won 15 regular season games. A lot was made this year of Montreal (1-7) and Hamilton (1-6) having slow starts this season before reaching the playoffs in the East. But to respond and work through that adversity says a lot about a team. I am sure Winnipeg, BC, Saskatchewan and Ottawa all look on with envy. Hamilton started to win the close games down the stretch and that, in association with the return game, is a Ticat strength. Stampeders kicker Rene Paredes has not had a good year, unlike the Tiger-Cats Justin Medlock. Yet, in the climate controlled, smooth surface of BC place, both kickers should excel. Decision time. Everything says to pick the Stampeders. They are an eight-point favourite and have been the best team in the CFL all year, week after week and game after game. If Mitchell had not been injured, he probably would have been the Wests MOP instead of Cornish. Hamilton has a legitimate shot at being a Grey Cup champion and if I could be influenced by underdog emotion over logic I would take them. But I am not, and I cant. Calgary wins the 102nd Grey Cup. Discount Jerseys Online . Watch the action live on TSN and listen on TSN 1050 Radio beginning at 7pm et/4pm pt. The Raptors maintained their spot atop the Atlantic Friday after defeating the Wizards, 96-88, for their second win in a row. Discount Jerseys USA . Boston is making its first appearance in the ALCS since 2008. For Detroit, its a third straight trip to the ALCS and its fourth in eight years. https://www.discountjerseysonline.com/. Marian Gaborik had two goals and an assist and Martin Jones made just 17 saves to record his fourth shutout of the season as the Kings snapped a three-game losing skid with a 3-0 victory over the lowly Oilers on Thursday. Discount Jerseys For Sale . Stiverne stopped Chris Arreola in the sixth round Saturday night, claiming the WBC heavyweight title belt vacated by Vitali Klitschko. Discount Jerseys League .J. -- After getting permission from his 7-year-old daughter, New York Giants offensive lineman David Diehl has retired after an 11-year career that included two Super Bowl championships.Got a question on rule clarification, comments on rule enforcements or some memorable NHL stories? Kerry wants to answer your emails at cmonref@tsn.ca. Hey Kerry, Thanks for taking time to read my question. So here goes... I understand that throughout the playoffs, the relative rankings in the regular season determines which team gets home ice advantage as they move through each round. I completely understand the logic regarding this rule and it makes total sense...more points earned = home ice advantage. And with this advantage, the home team benefits by having the energizing and supportive participation of their home crowd, whereas the visiting team is disadvantaged by having 19,000 fans who desperately want them to lose. But what I dont understand is why a visiting team must automatically submit their lineups first? Obviously this knowledge provides another strategic advantage to the coaching staff of the home team. Specifically, what has the home team done to EARN receiving this information/advantage first, other than simply being the home team? My question also applies to the stick-to-the-ice requirement on faceoffs by the visiting team first. Why is this so? Wouldnt it be more fair for the teams to call head or tails on the flip of a coin for these two issues, like they do in football for the kickoff? Couldnt they flip a coin five hours before game time - one coin flip for the lineup submission, and a second flip for the faceoff stick placement? It seems that these two additional unearned benefits bestowed to the home team in the playoffs need re-examination, unless Im missing something here. Thank you very much,BillLaval, Quebec Hi Bill: The founders initiated a policy that since one team had to submit their starting lineup and playing roster first. Given that the season schedule was balanced the visiting team coach was ultimately designated in the rules as the one required to blink first! Recognizing that over the course of the regular season a team plays an equal number of games at home and on the road Rule 33.3 outlines the process as follows: It is the policy of the National Hockey League that the coach of the visiting club provide to the Official Scorer, a list of eligible players, his starting line-up and designated Captain and Alternates, within five (5) minutes of completion of the warm-up twenty (20) minutes prior to faceoff. These twenty (20) minutes gives the Official Scorer time to obtain the completed home team line-up, return it to the visiting Coach and provide a copy of both line-ups to the Referees. The Official Scorer must file a report to the Commissioner or his designate if either Coach fails to cooperate within these recommended guidelines. (Report to be forwarded to NHL Toronto office). The starting lineup is simply a one-time event during the course of a game. Matching lines against key players can become an issue throughout the entire game for the visiting team Coach since the home team has the benefit of last change. Changes on the fly can become an integral part of the strategy employed by both teams and when not executed cleannly can result in scoring opportunities.dddddddddddd We have seen situations where the line matching process can even take place immediately following the opening puck drop whereby the visiting team might dump the puck deep and then head to the bench for a designated line change. In a playoff series that goes the full seven games, the team that won the right to host the deciding game (and it was won over the long haul and not arbitrarily bestowed) also receives the full bundle of rights associated with home ice advantage; recording starting line-up last, centre stick down last in faceoffs and most importantly, the last line change. Over the course of my career I encountered more than a few glitches with team starting lineups and rosters that were submitted prior to the game. I assessed a bench minor for the incorrect starting line-up on more than two occasions when an appeal was made prior to the next face-off by the non-offending team. I also removed players from the game once I was informed by the official scorer that those players were not listed on the roster that had been submitted by the Coach. The most bizarre situation occurred when I had to enforce rule 5.2 to take away a goal that had just been scored by a team with an ineligible player on the ice. It didnt matter that the ineligible player was not involved in the scoring but simply that he had been on the ice at the time the goal had been scored and it was brought to my attention at that stoppage of play. When I showed the Coach the copy of the roster in my back pocket he admitted that he had entrusted the team trainer with filling in the roster sheet prior to the game! Near the end of my career I had a game in Madison Square Garden and Ken Hitchcock was coaching the visiting Philadelphia Flyers. Once we added a second referee to the crew I always entrusted the starting line-up sheets to my junior partner. In other words I never put them in my pocket because every other referee was junior to me. This night I was working with Bill McCreary so he held the roster sheets. Following the national anthem, Coach Hitchcock called McCreary to the Flyer bench. I saw him take the roster sheets out of his pocket, examine them briefly and then wave me over and to the bench. Upon my arrival, McCreary attempted to hand me the sheets and said Hitch wanted to make sure he had the correct players circled for the starting lineup. I refused to take the roster sheets and told McCreary to check them himself. The more McCreary persisted in trying to hand the sheets to me the more I resisted taking them. Finally as this Keystone Cops routine went back and forth the Flyers Coach intervened and asked what the F we were doing? We admitted that neither one of us carried our reading glasses onto the ice nor could we see the fine print or the players that were circled! McCreary handed the sheets to Hitch and said who are you starting? Coach Hitchcock rolled his eyes and said, "Man, we are in trouble tonight with you two out here. Youre both F-n blind!" (My contact lenses worked great on the long shots, however) ' ' '