TODD: A sacred institution has become Gambling Night in Canada

The CBC broadcast of the Montreal Canadiens-Edmonton Oilers game was the first time this season that I felt like I was watching a gambling website. The wholesale takeover of sports by gambling interests has completely altered the simple experience of watching the game with your family on a Saturday night. It's corrosive for society and kids. At some point, the federal government is going to have to step in with regulations like those that apply to cigarette ads. The next step is athletes being bribed, threatened or blackmailed into throwing games.

Carey Price of the Montreal Canadiens is seen in a photograph cradling a shotgun.

Price supports the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights. He supports keeping hunting weapons. The issue is buying back assault rifles, not hunting rifles or shotguns. The government is trying to eliminate the AR-15 and other military weapons whose sole purpose is to kill humans. It's to prevent mass shootings like the massacre at the Polytechnique and the slaughter in Nova Scotia. Price is misinformed. Gun lobby propaganda has led hunters to believe that all weapons, including the one Price holds in the photograph, will be confiscated.

TODD's World Cup hero is the unknown Tunisian player who was tapped in the general vicinity of the eye by the fingers of one of his teammates during the game against France. His hero was Sean Monahan, Jake Allen, Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Arber Xhekaj, Atiba Hutchinson, Lionel Messi and Pelé.

Jordan Binnington, Qatar, Gianni Infantino, FIFA, Cristiano Ronaldo, Cabbie, Connor McDavid, Auston Matthews, UFC, Claude Brochu, David Samson and Jeffrey Loria are the zero.