His impact on the business was monumental. . CBA negotiations have never been the same. Player salaries have never been the same. Media covering hockey has never been the same. His predecessor Alan Eagleson was criminally convicted in the U.S. and Canada and disbarred for the self dealing revealed by Conway and CBC Toronto. That’s an impressive legacy.

For the generation that watched him develop he was likely the quintessential modern Canadian. Son of a charitable community figure in west-end Toronto. Educated in the Ivy League. Obtained his law degree. Served as a federal cabinet minister. Author of several definitive hockey books (The Game is perhaps the best sports non-fiction in the English language). Executive of the Toronto Maple Leafs. And more.

Marner left his hometown in free agency, signing longterm in tax-free Nevada. The team received nothing in return for an elite player. The locals needed a scapegoat for their repeated Cup frustration. So when Marner cited the unrelenting pressure of playing in contemporary Toronto, the dam broke among critics who called him a whiner, a no-show for his $8 million salary, a traitor to Toronto.

At the moment that Elbows Up embarrassment was too great for even Team Carney’s most fervent media pals, Trump summoned him like a call-up from the minors to be told how out was going to be. Suddenly the implacable Carney was declaring  how swell it was that Canada had the best treaty in the world. Elbows Up had suddenly become Pants Down.

When it comes to the exposure of the trailblazing male pom-poms on the sidelines it’s best to weigh the motivations on both sides. The NFL— which is buying up large chunks of its own media —will play the virtue card. The traditionalists will bite their tongue. And no one will do a media feature on the two women who were denied these high-profile jobs because of other agendas.

The biggest 2025 story for golf fans (and pro golfers it appears) was the release of Adam Sandler’s Happy Gilmore II on Netflix. A raucous, vulgar, silly, sweet, creative shambles of a film, it’s one of those rare feats in Hollywood. A sequel better than the original. Some might say that it wasn’t a high bar to get over Happy Gilmore punching it up with Bob Barker. True.

The Jays roster patch job is not only holding it’s made the team stronger. As of this writing the Jays have a 91.9 percent chance of making the postseason, five percent of winning the World Series. Which would create euphoria elsewhere. Not in Toronto.

Not in Toronto.

With a single Crown witness-- who only came forward at the urging of her mother,  a puzzling video from the incident itself and contradictory evidence from the five players and others on the team— police knew it would not stand the scrutiny of a public trail with skilled defence lawyers. And that’s how it played out.

Because he has nothing else on his plate president Donald Trump has decided to revisit the Woke name change of the Washington NFL club from Redskins to Commanders and the Cleveland MLB name from Indians to Guardians. If that wasn’t enough, Trump decided to leverage funding for a new stadium in DC on a name change.

From its earliest days the Stampede has been a model of cooperation between the organizers and the indigenous. Guy Weadick, the founder of the modern Stampede in the 1920s saw the rodeo as a competition between white and “Indian” cowboys. He used his political connections within the Indian Affairs Department to allow indigenous tribes off their reserves to participate. It was estimated 1,800 Treaty 7 individuals participated in the first Stampede. 

And so the game of climate liar’s poker has more winners. It’s like awarding the captain of the Titanic the Nobel Prize for his work on floatation. As we now know these two— and the other WHO finger puppets in Canada— made the Covid 19 episode worse, not better, with their prescription for panic, positives and punishment. But they get a prize.

While attempts to amend O Canada have had mixed outcomes it appears it’s just a matter of time till singer Jully Black’s class-conscious culling of the words is accepted. Being generous we here at IDLM thought we’d short-circuit piecemeal attempts to create a throughly Woke version of the anthem that would last till the latest fad come along.

With the Americans winning the first game 3-1, a sense of panic crept over Canada as it headed to Game 2 in Boston. Losing a political battle with Trump was bad enough, but losing hockey bragging rights heading into a federal election was catastrophic for the Family Compact.

The smart play, as Michael Corleone would say, is move fast. Trade McDavid before the start of next season for a boatload of young players to supplement Draisaitl. Take a short-term PR hit but live to compete another day. Remember the re-structured Oilers won a Cup in 1990 using Mark Messier and the players they got for Gretzky. Think about it, Edmonton.

While domestic marketers are playing the Maple Syrup March over the Stanley Cup Final they missed an even better opportunity to marry Canadian patriotism with sport. We speak, of course, of the inevitable crowning of Canadian stars like SGA as champions of the NBA. In fact the entire progress of the postseason in the sneaker league has witnessed great Canadian results. 

Biles has made a secondary career as an object of pity, but took exception when former swimmer Riley Gaines, an opponent of trans men competing against women, sent a picture of softball team that recently won a state title with a transgender pitcher.

The two Florida teams are benefitting from the new sports economics in which players making large, sometimes huge, salaries are choosing to play in one of four states which has no state income tax. The combination of much lower taxes, warm weather and the relative anonymity of being a hockey celebrity in cities that have NFL or NBA teams is proving an advantage in attracting or keeping star players.

The problem for those hating on Caitlin Clark, who’s been everything advertised, is that she has brought attention to their sport, attention they failed to generate themselves despite national TV contracts and the chequebook of the NBA. The latest TV deal increased sixfold as Americans tuned in to see Clark.

We can now safely say that the fate of the nation hockey-wise falls to Alberta. Okay, an Alberta city. Edmonton. With the annual falling of the Leafs (genus Torontonius) and the shocking second-round collapse of the NHL’s  No. 1 team during the season-- Winnipeg— it falls to the Oilers to break the 1993 Stanley Cup schneid for Canadian clubs.

Will there be convictions or will deals be done? In this time where social-media truths are fungible and Woke causes are paramount no one should hazard a guess. But one thing that will get an airing is the charge that hockey created this climate of sexual permissiveness. That will be unfair.