from Jack Todd at the Montreal Gazette,

Sometimes I wonder whether hockey is our national sport or a national malady.

Case in point: The NHL decides to hold an over-hyped pre-season exhibition under the inflated moniker “The World Cup of Hockey.” Only it’s really the Toronto Cup, six teams and a couple of choose-’em-squads to fill out the roster, the whole thing phoney as a three-dollar bill.

There’s no real reason to play the Toronto Cup of Hockey at all except that 1) the NHL wanted to throw a sop in the direction of the bone-headed Rogers bosses who shovelled a bazillion dollars their way and 2) the league is looking for some leverage in its dealings with the IOC.

There was no public clamour for this. Hockey fans love Olympic hockey, and on this side of the pond, the world championships draw more attention every year. And we have the world juniors, so there was no big demand for yet another international tournament on the calendar.

But how do Canadian sports fans respond to a couple of exhibition hockey games before the exhibition tournament?

We hang on every play, of course.

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