Jan 31 - Just a quick post to keep my posting streak alive. No new question - it is weekend.

Star Summit - I did go - proof picture below. somewhat disappointing - as expected, but what can you expect from this type of open session. Here is a post game shot of your two favourite characters,

does someone look ready for a fight or what, whereas number 2 is talk, talk, talk.

Top level impressions.

Brian Burke - Kudos to Mr. Burke for taking the time on what was clearly a very busy day to do this. He was also very no-nonsense and pragmatic in all of his comments and despite myself I found myself agreeing with him "Hockey is a contact sport - there will be injuries - if you don't want contact play something else like swimming" - I may have misquoted but the gist is correct. Another thought - "Coaches are volunteers - why do we expect them to be perfect. We don't expect it of other folks so why volunteer coaches".He also talked about his kids playing hockey and what he expected and did not expect as well as relating experiences good or bad as necessary life lessons. I guess he reminded me of me but he has a lot more clout.

John Gardner went to great lengths to explain that the timing of the GTHL article was just a co-incidence. They have been working diligently on this topic for a year and it just happened to come out when it did. Yeah and I have some swampland in Florida for sale. Other than that he was not much of a value add.

Phil McKee (from my perspective) was there as a target. He got pushed on the what are you going to do front as in are you going to increase your minimum suspensions and if not why not. He stickhandled out of that pretty well.

Dr. Tator - had probably six hours worth of detailed slides if they had let him go to it - fortuneately they did not.

Brian Webster had some interesting stuff on the Mississauga Hockey League's experience (+ and -) on increased focus and escalation on penalty suspensions. Some folks here should buy him lunch / dinner and pick his brain on some ideas.

The rest of the panel was mostly canon fodder and the moderator had to make a point of getting each one to have at least one comment on something.

Audience Questions - very bad. This became a "solve my problem" or "join my league" waste of time. It was also not handled well as a few GTHL "my kid" stories were allowed to drag on interminably, while a couple of folks trying to bring forward an issue for response were basically cut off with limited response (e.g., Brian Boden from the OMHA - trying to get into enhanced couch education). Burke either misunderstood or blew that one off.

I did not get a chance to bring forward my question or POV that all stakeholders need to be part of the problem solution - not just some - AKA there was no mention of any perception that on-ice official performance needs to be a key part of the mix , especially if you are going to lengthen suspensions. But then, no one wants to take this on.

Anyway the afternoon was not a waste. I got to see some old OMHA friends, I got a free "youth" Leafs cap and a Star Hockey puck. Plus I picked up Cin - a - buns on the way home.

Leafs Trades - big news - have to sit back and ponder this one!

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Jan 30 – A morning unofficial post as the skeptical cynic in me is just so disgusted with what I perceive as the latest GTHL posturing and damage control!

As Sergeant Schultz would say on Hogan’s Heroes – “Velllly Eeeenteresting”.The day before the big summit on how to improve minor hockey and following hot on the heels of the so-called Star expose, I wake to my clock radio blaring away about how John Gardner and the GTHL have announced the introduction of their master plan to curb violence and racial slurs in minor hockey through (among other things) stiffer sentences and escalating penalties – for next year – no specific details announced.

Give me a break! How transparent can you be or more importantly how gullible do they think most people are? Am I the only one who sees things this way or is this just a fortuitous “coincidence”?

The case examples cited by the Star, carefully glossed over from the repeat offender angle made the GTHL disciplinary practices look ridiculous. (link to series) Part of the reason I planned to go to tomorrow’s “summit” was to challenge on that very issue – I guess they figured it out too and decided they had to do something. An interesting note is that Paul Dennis, another member of tomorrow’s panel, has been added to the GTHL’s consortium as Special Advisor to the GTHL Board of Directors with responsibility for developing and implementing a Team Official Educational Program. Link to GTHL site – pdf copy here to download.

Of course, this “milestone” announcement got the press play expected from The Star as is evident in the article from the two locals Written by Robert Cribb and Lois Kalchman - Link to The Star article

My suspicion is that tomorrow’s event has now been turned into a gratuitous two hour self appreciation and acknowledgement event to honour the progressive forward thinkers from the “G” instead of anything useful. I have already been cautioned about going down there and saying that!

By the way – Kudos to the Don Mills Flyers coach who was on air with 680 AM this morning raising concerns about how these new policies would deal with the accidental, non threatening infractions that can occur in a game and that by the book – have to be called. He will probably get suspended.

The language thing I love. Now it is not up to the refs to see things they have to hear it as well. Are we going to put directional mikes with a sound booth in every rink. What can one player now say to an opponent – “Please good Sir, would you be kind enough to let me have the puck so I can score – So Sorry”! - Here’s the GTHL wording so far – you figure it out: AND what does indefinite mean - until they get around to a hearing - a game - a week - a month . . . Another case of guilty until proven innocent and you can't turn back the clock. Just for the record - I don't support the language plan. If a slur is used, toss the kid from the game, but, he or she plays until reviewed at which point assess whatever - not the other way around.

 “an automatic indefinite suspension for any participant who is penalized for engaging in verbal taunts, insults or intimidation based on discriminatory grounds (race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, language)”

Lest you forget – I am absolutely in favour of the proper measures to curb inappropriate behaviours in the game. BUT, do it right and not as a deflection to mitigate potential criticism. Looks like the panel has pretty well circled their wagons. I have not even commented on the "power" vested in on-ice officials here with no comment of "improving" their capabilities but that is clearly a taboo topic.

Back to my coffee to cool off.

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Jan 29 - At least today has been running more smoothly so far compared to yesterday. Besides that, it is Friday which cures a number of ills. Not to mention I got 1.5 of my 2.0 point loss back from yesterday in the FHP even though I am still well back in second place.

Midget AAA – It was enjoyable hockey to watch the Midget AAA the other night at Joshua’s Creek Arenas. It was quite a contrast as we watched some of the Midget White on the red rink the same night. While clearly a different calibre of game, the Midget Whites, with their very tightly bunched division were also very enthused and into their games.

The AA’s beat Guelph 6 – 2 that night and even though we left part way through the third (past my bedtime), I was impressed with a couple of things I observed first, puck pursuit, tenacity and control. recognizing that Guelph is down in the standings, Oakville was aggressively on the puck all the time, winning the battles by getting there first, providing support and keeping possession. With the player size and speed of the Midget AAA game that is not easy to do. Second – THEY WENT TO THE NET. This is to me one of the most important elements of offensive hockey and yet I very seldom see a team do it well. You can play from the periphery all day but you score from the “red” zone. Get a guy (or two) in there, create havoc and a distraction, put the puck on net screened and either it will go in or you are positioned for a rebound.

I thought Oakville did both of these well (and hit about a dozen posts) so kudos to Tom, his staff and the players. There are reasons why they are battling for first in a though division. See below.

 

Summit – Sunday is the Toronto Star Summit on minor hockey. I am still good to go so it will be interesting to see what is “said: if I do make it. My concern is that it will be Pontificating 101 or two hours of motherhood and apple pie but maybe I will be pleasantly surprised.

24 – turns out that Cogeco has the first several episodes (that I was saving to watch together before Jane trashed them) on one of their Cogeco on Demand channels. Definitely a lucky break for someone!! Sounds like a weekend mission is to definitely watch these before Cogeco decides to yank them as well.

Vehicle Safety – A while ago I mentioned family cars we had had including a 1959 Chevy Impala  (big fins) and we now have a Chevy Malibu. I just ran across an amazing video put out by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety where they crash tested – guess what!! - a 1959 Chevy (Bel Air – cheaper sister to the Impala) and a 2009 Chevy Malibu. Same “Manufacturer” – model years 50 years apart. This is an amazing coincidence for me and most will go – who cares. Watch the video anyway. The difference in occupant protection based on the car design features is amazing. You have to watch this. Controlled crumple versus “collapse”. Basically the suggestion and I suspect the truth is – one you live – one you die. Watch it here.

Now - off to 24!

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Jan 28 - Not an official post - just a bad day.

• Office challenges

• Office notebook access issues

• FHP - took a 2 point hit bad second place

• Wings - at risk for playoffs?!

• GO Train screw-up / delays

• Blackberry craps out on said GO Train - can't call home with info!

• Jane's "junk" on PVR has wiped out unwatched "24"!

• Weather sucks!

• "Symbols" don't work in blog!

Time to just call it a day and hope tomorrow is a step up.

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Jan 27 – Forums, summits whatever are now becoming de rigueur (is that correct) in minor hockey. Not to be outdone by the Toronto Stars quick and dirty forum this weekend, Hockey Canada has announced plans for a summit on “player safety”. Does a summit trump a forum? An interesting quote from bob Nicholson – what does it mean?

Hockey Canada's Mr. Nicholson said if minor hockey doesn't seem to be responding to the head-shot issue, “then hopefully we can put other measures in to get control of the situation - because we have to get it removed from the game in some manner.”

I guess we will have to wait for the summit to find out about any miracle cures. Cynic that I am, it does not work that was.  The Globe and Mail also has an interesting article on some of the events, charges and disposition that goes back over 100 years. My first recollection is the 1969 stick duel between Wayne Maki and Ted Green that I saw on TV and could not believe the viciousness of it. I think in a way it is still the “benchmark” against which other “attacks” are compared. It is also hard to believe that it is 10 years since Marty McSorley ended his career with the stick whack to Donald Brashear’s melon. There was quite a hubbub at that time about head shots and how things had to be changed from the NHL right down through minor hockey. Somehow, I have unfortunately not seen a lot of change. Other than tagging an M71 misconduct to a new “check to the head” minor, not a lot is different. For those of you Marketing 101 aficionados from many years ago, maybe we need to apply the A.I.D.A. model

Awareness- promote a broader understanding and “awareness” of the consequences of unnecessary violence and head shots. How many injuries are there? What are the life consequences? How did they happen?

Interest – Create an active “interest” on the part of players. Parents, coaches and associations in dealing with the area.

Desire – There needs to be a real willingness “desire” to make changes. If everyone just bemoans the current “terrible” situation, shakes their head about it, talks about how it should be fixed and DOES NOTHING, there won’t be any change.

Action – Make it happen – Training for all (including officials on making the calls). Agree on the appropriate “penalty” – are the current rules tough enough if enforced properly? Are coaches getting and preaching the message (do they sit or turf a head-hunter)? Where are the associations – do they have an escalation policy that is clear and objectively and consistently enforced?

As I have said before and will again, kids play this “game” for the games. The only effective deterrent is the promise/threat/action of taking that ice time and, or the opportunity to play at all away for inappropriate or dangerous behaviour – whether penalized on the ice or not. Case in point. At the rink the other night (no disclosure on name / rank or serial number) there was a solid hit that in my opinion was “clearly” a check from behind (CFB) the victim went down, stayed down for a few seconds but managed to struggle back to his feet and make it off the ice. The call – 2 minutes for boarding. Did the ref see it differently, or was he reluctant to call the CFB and cost the kid the rest of that game and at minimum the next? Don’t know. My understanding is that the direction to officials is (or should be) towards making the CFB call. This is not a “tie goes to the runner” or on a pun basis maybe it is. In any event in that situation, should the coach have sat (or be expected to sit) the kid for at least the balance of that game to send a message that CFB called or not, that type of hit is NOT acceptable? If we really want to see change, the answer has to be yes but it will not happen unless it is actively promoted and supported. The problem still is and will be pressure from parents who give lip service to the idea but “not for my kid” and blow a gasket if they think their precious meal ticket’s chances at the NHL are being hindered by the officials/coaches/association.

Cormier – appealing – Why? Cynical view says team does not want to lose star player / ticket sales / playoff opportunity / money for the year – see above. I hope the sentence sticks – start sending the message!

FHP – has turned into quite the battle. I had sunk to four points back of Andrew but pulled a classic last night. I “forgot to adjust my roster and therefore had three guys sitting out. Guess what – I picked up 2 points and am now only two back of the lead. I am telling everyone that I intentionally benched the guys to send a message – not that I screwed up. However, looking at their stats from last night it was actually a brilliant move as they had a number of “-“s in the +/- column which may have hurt my score.

Tonight’s foray – is to check out the Midget AAA and Midget White at Joshua’s Creek Arenas. The Midget AAA is part of the ongoing plan to take a look at a number of rep teams (which drives people crazy) as well as to see a bit of play in the EXTREMELY closely bunched Midget White loop as the regular season winds down (four teams tied in first out of six). With the rink trip, I have no plans to update the Playdowns page today and I don’t think there are that many new results from yesterday anyway.

Note to self – Don’t jaywalk.  The Toronto boys in blue are out issuing $50 tickets to remind folks that this is a no-no. The escalation here is getting whacked by a vehicle which has much more than a $50 implication. The 14 pedestrian killed so far is an awful number regardless of the circumstances. Jaywalking / jaywalker is one of those terms that you wonder where it came from so of course I checked my definitive source (Wikipedia) to continue my education process and came up with:

“In towns in the American Midwest in the early 20th century, "jay" was a synonym for "rube", a pejorative term for a rural resident, assumed by many urbanites to be stupid, slightly unintelligent, or perhaps simply naïve. Such a person did not know to keep out of the way of other pedestrians and speeding automobiles”.

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Jan 26 – Not a lot of changes - just a couple later games from Sunday, but I updated the grid anyway as some round robins will be getting to the nitty gritty.

Elections - It is only January, the municipal elections are not until November but today the Star ran a speculative piece on a potential “Burton versus Mulvale” rematch.

Essentially, “The Tie-breaker”!

Two clichés from me on this one – “Once bitten – twice shy” and “Fool me once, shame on you – fool me twice, shame on me”. I will have to consult my libel lawyer before I make any additional comments here.

Hockey Canada gift – apparently Hockey Canada is sending a “gift” to all under 10 year olds registered with them (215,000+?). article Now while it may be nice for a number of youngeters already in the game to get some pretty stickers and a comic book (does anyone do stickers anymore) I have to question whether this is the best use of funds by HC to promote the game, especially with all the negative “violence” stuff capturing attention. At a rough guess of $5 a “gift” delivered, this is over a million bucks! What other types of education or program support focused on the current issues in the game could this level of funding have produced – how about some updated videos or program content on risk management that captures the consequences of inappropriate and irresponsible ice behaviour as a tool for associations and volunteers. – NAH – I would rather have pictures of Teams Canada and stickers!

You can go to the Hockey Canada site and check out the story for yourself if you want. The other thing is that if you are a 10 year old at heart and want one of these things I think you can con them into sending you one. Hopefully it would come in a plain brown package so no one would ever know.

Bonanza – A low profile notice indicates that Pernell Roberts has passed away at the age of 81. For the uninitiated, Roberts, better known as Adam Cartwright (the oldest son – in black) was one of the original cast members of the long running and very popular western – Bonanza that first hit the airwaves in 1959. With limited channels and starring Canada’s Lorne Greene as the venerable family patriarch “Ben Cartwright”, it was a staple in most household TV viewing for years. The story line of a dictatorial widowed father micro managing the lives of his three grown sons (no women – except an occasional episode episode), all living at home would have essentially zero chance of getting through a pilot season let alone any longevity today. Don’t forget Hop Sing the excitable Chinese cook. It was this plot line (or lack of it) that lead Roberts to leave the series when his initial six year contract was up. Everyone thought he was committing career and financial suicide but he came back years later as Trapper John M.D.

He was the last to go Pa Ben – Greene 1987, Hoss- Blocker 1972 and Little Joe – Landon 1991. – da da da da da da da da da dah Bonanza!

As some wag commented – How come a rich family like the Cartwright only had one set of clothes?

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Jan 25 – Between running in and out to a hockey game (way to go MB AA now 3-0 in Playdown qualifiers), I got to watch the first half of the Indianapolis invasion and the last half of the Minnesota Meltdown.

The Jets were not supposed to win so I guess their first half lead despite the late Indy TD was a bit of a wake-up call for the Colts. It sounds like they owned the second half.

Minnesota on the other hand – what can you say. While I would say play for play both the Purple People eater offense and defence outplayed the Saints, they forgot one of the key rules to win in the NFL – DO NOT TURN THE BALL OVER! They had five, count ’em, five turnovers and were lucky to recover another three of their own fumbles. Then there was #4. What was he thinking at the end of regulation? First, they can’t count either as the 12 men in the huddle was brutal as it pushed them out of field goal range (shades of the Grey Cup - but now who is laughing - Canada). Then on what will likely (we hope) be his last play in the NFL, buddy throws a bad pass against the flow back across his body and the centre of the field where he was blind to offensive coverage and gives up the pick to force OT with Minnesota never seeing the ball again. The talking heads really hammered him as they made the definite point that he had open field to run “easily” into field goal range with a time out but instead pulled a play that a rookie should not. I think he was probably so beat up by then he just did not want to take another hit. They also enjoyed playing the Green Bay vs New York Giants where effectively he ended the game the same way!

New Orleans ought to change their name from the Saints to the Strippers as it looks like that is their game. Even so, Manning and the Colts should be able to handle them easily in the big one.

Regardless, from what I did get to see on the weekend they were both competitive and entertaining games.

Cormier – done for the season – OR – at least in Junior hockey under hockey Canada jurisdiction. Balance of season and play-offs is the suspension for the former Captain of the Canadian Juniors. Already the speculation is whether other leagues will respect the suspension – especially the AHL. Given that Cormier has already been drafted to the NHL (New Jersey Devils) so this will not be a draft status issue. There is even some speculation as to whether he gets a look at the NHL as devils President Lou Lamoriello has apparently indicated that he did not think the hit warranted a suspension!!! Lou – what game were you watching?

Just to different – we went out to watch the Atom AA tonight as they took on Milton. Still batting 1,000 as the Ranger boys pulled off a 3 – 1 victory. Always one to put in my two cents worth, my advice to the coach is to “yell SHOOT”. The squad took three shots on goal in the second and scored on two! SHOOT! Oh Well, a win is a win.

Who needs a win – for $20 (and an extra large double, double) I will show up and cheer you on (most teams that is).

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Jan 24 - Quick Sunday post to remind you that I have posted a separate page to report on Ranger teams in the play-offs. It is NFL Championship Sunday so you know where to find me - Colts and Vikings to advance to the Supor Bowl - Please. So far in the Tri-County qualifiers the Rangers have done extremely well. Check the results here and I will try to stay as current and accurate as time allows. Remember, I have a real life and these numbers are a "pain" to update thanks to the process used. Here's the link or click on "2010 Playdowns in the navigation bar to the left.

Quick reminder - There seemed to be some confusion as to how many events Oakville is hosting? To my count there are two. The Midget SCTA AAA qualifier March 12 - 14 and also the OMHA Novice AAA Championship Tournament from March 26 - 28. If anyone knows different, they should let me (and the governing bodies) know.

FHP - The news was bad but could be worse. I have been taking a beating as Andrew gains points from the other participants and I get zip. I had dropped to 4 points out of first which was a horrible feeling. However, last night I picked up a point from Andrew and while I am still 3 back at least this was finally a move in the right direction. Getting back on top is still going to be tough as I basically think I am out of contention on goaltender stats so my shooters are going to have to close the gap.

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Jan 23 - Today is limited prose, mostly set-up. My pundits should approve.

First - for all you hockey "know-it-alls", a new "blog" feature - "The Question"? I won't promise every day but I will post a question and then hopefully on my next post I will provide the answer and a new question. This is known as a teaser so I can boost my ratings, hits and get more ad $$ from my advertisers. I am trying to build my GRPs with greater reach and frequency. Right!

Second - for all of you that do not like hunting and clicking yourself into a frenzy to find play down results I have provided a summary below that I will update on a regular basis so folks can follow the teams more easily through their journeys to hopefully a bunch of OMHA titles. I started this last year and thought some people might get the idea but apparently you can give some people the book of knowledge and all they do is chew the covers. After its initial appearance here, the "Pladown" page will be banished to it's own page for easier maintenance and to allow you to avoid my prejudiced views here.

If you want to play the click and hunt game on your own go to the minorhockey.net site tri-county play downs list page.

Enjoy.

Updated as of January 23 - AM (each level has a link to their current page)

OUT OF DATE - UPDATES ON 2010 Playdowns PAGE.

Age/Level	Win	Lose	Tie	Current Status	Comment
Tyke 1				TBD
Tyke 2				TBD
Tyke 3				TBD
Novice AA	1	1	0	Round robin qualifier	Pool of 5 - 2 Advance
Novice A	1	0	0	Round robin qualifier	Pool of 4 - 2 Advance
Minor Atom AA	2	0	0	Round robin qualifier	Pool of 4 -Winner Advances
Minor Atom A	1	0	0	Round robin qualifier	Pool of 4 -Winner Advances
Minor Atom AE	2	0	0	Round robin qualifier	Pool of 3 -Winner Advances
Atom AA	2	0	0	Round robin qualifier	Pool of 4 -Winner Advances
Atom A	1	1	0	Round robin qualifier	Pool of 5 -Winner Advances
Atom AE	2	0	0	Round robin qualifier	Pool of 4 -Winner Advances
M Peewee AA	2	0	0	Round robin qualifier	Pool of 4 -Winner Advances
M Peewee A	2	0	0	Round robin qualifier	Pool of 5 -Winner Advances
M Peewee AE	0	0	0	Round robin qualifier	Pool of 4 -Winner Advances
Peewee AA	2	0	0	Round robin qualifier	Pool of 3 -Winner Advances
Peewee A	1	0	0	Round robin qualifier	Pool of 5 -Winner Advances
Peewee AE	1	0	0	Round robin qualifier	Pool of 3 -Winner Advances
M Bantam AA	2	0	0	Round robin qualifier	Pool of 4 -Winner Advances
M Bantam A	1	0	0	Round robin qualifier	Pool of 4 -Winner Advances
M Bantam AE	2	0	0	Round robin qualifier	Pool of 4 -Winner Advances
Bantam AA	1	0	0	Round robin qualifier	Pool of 4 -Winner Advances
Bantam A	2	0	0	Round robin qualifier	Pool of 5 -Winner Advances
Bantam AE	0	0	0	Round robin qualifier	Pool of 3 -Winner Advances
M Midget AA	0	0	0	Round robin qualifier	Pool of 3 -Winner Advances
M Midget A	0	0	0	Round robin qualifier	Pool of 4 -Winner Advances
M Midget AE	1	0	0	Round robin qualifier	Pool of 3 - 2 Advance
Midget AA	1	0	0	Round robin qualifier	Pool of 4 - 2 Advance
Midget A	0	0	0	Round robin qualifier	Pool of 4 -Winner Advances

Third - for those of you interested in the SCTA qualifier weekends, here is a chart (again will be moved to play down page) of the dates and locations of the events along with a link to the specific OHMA's Tournament page. Note Oakville is hosting the Midgets - for obvious reasons.

Level	Start	End	Centre
Novice	3/19/2010	3/21/2010	Brampton, ON
Minor Atom	3/19/2010	3/21/2010	Niagara Falls, ON
Atom	3/12/2010	3/14/2010	Halton, ON
Minor Peewee	3/19/2010	3/21/2010	St. Catharines, ON
Peewee	3/12/2010	3/14/2010	Welland, ON
Minor Bantam	3/5/2010	3/7/2010	Grey-Bruce, ON
Bantam	3/5/2010	3/7/2010	Guelph, ON
Minor Midget	3/5/2010	3/7/2010	Hamilton, ON
Midget	3/12/2010	3/14/2010	Oakville, ON

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Jan 22 – Running a little late tonight as we stopped off to watch the Minor Bantam AA pick-up a 2 – 0 play-off win against Caledon in their Round Robin play down qualifier. Apparently we are now the good luck charms and need to attend future games. There are worse ways to spend time. If I feel generous maybe I will setup a single source status page for the OMHA play downs by team. Stay tuned.

After my rant yesterday I am not going to get into it again (I hope) but Dave Perkins piece in today’s Star (now one of my targets) annoyed me. Simplistically, it is because apparent personal differences are now getting into the way of responsible reporting or even op-ed pieces. I make no bones of the fact that I like Don Cherry. He can be over the top on a lot of issues but I think his comments about both the Cormier and Kassian incidents have made his position clear on dangerous and gratuitous violence in hockey that is outside of the rules. I therefore take exception to Perkins characterization of Coaches Corner as follows:

“…nobody wants to be a target of Don Cherry when he starts his pro-violence rant on Saturday night”

Let’s deal with the issues and not use the forum as an opportunity to inaccurately position and slam folks (WRM opinion).

Last I looked, Canada is supposed to be a free country. I am not sure where I end up on the “courts in the rinks” continuum as this is a very tough question.  Where is the balancing act between reasonable investigation of truly egregious (and “illegal”) violent behaviour and ridiculous interference that could destroy the game. I believe I am correct when I say that any individual has the right to file a complaint with the appropriate authorities (read police) any time they want about any incident they want and it is then up to the authorities to investigate and process the complaint as they deem appropriate. There are times where I agree this should be done.

However, if the sport / media / lobby groups – whoever, actively promote this course of action, where is the cut-off? Who gets investigated and potentially charged for what? If “possible” legal action becomes a common and expected result of on-ice activity, will that really change the behaviour of a highly competitive athlete caught up in the situation where a normal part of the game (body check) goes awry because of unforeseen circumstances. Or, and probably more importantly, if bench staff volunteers (coaches / trainers) now feel that their role (aka M Crawford) is likely to put them in the legal crosshairs and financial jeopardy, will they still step up? I don’t think so.

While it is easy to say and difficult to do, I think a large part of the answer lies with shared responsibility for parents, coaches and associations to instil the correct attitude for the game and respect for the safety of others from day one and every day, every year, and  every level  for all players. All need to walk the talk consistently, not just when it suits them or does not impact their personal agenda.

It is easy to be critical – it is much tougher to stand up and do something.

Oh yes, and by the way, let’s not forget that this is NOT just a minor hockey issue. It is behaviour that is rampant in a variety of sports and activities, it just seems it is fashionable to dump on hockey.

TTC – you likely all saw the picture or heard about this one. No wonder the TTC catches flack – this poor guy has now unfortunately set himself up as the TTC’s poster boy for how “we respond to customer concerns” actions.

 

In his defence, he likely was on shift overnight – challenged with sitting there with limited traffic or activity to keep him awake and nodded off. So What! Let’s deal with the real issues.

Give it a rest – thanks to the Star resuscitating the story, the T. A. Blacklock hockey situation was on the FAN last night and who knows where else.  Keep it up and they will likely turn the kids into media celebrities if they aren’t already BMOC with their peers (to my recent emailer – sorry for slipping in the acronym).

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Jan 21 –I must have been a bit punchy yesterday as on a reread today, I noticed far more than my usual quota of grammatical faux pas in my content. It is fair to say I mix in some intentional construction that is not according to Webster but yesterday was over the top. I will have to quickly fix them to enhance my image for posterity. However, there are now a bunch more pictures up on the FSMT site so take a look www.fsmt.ca .

Today’s blog touches on – “political correctness” – and how I am sick and tired of the level of it, so I will likely offend most people – what else is new? And, while I know it is a popular topic, I am also sick and tired of hockey, – especially minor hockey, being held up as disproportionately evil, violent, and a convenient public whipping post to fill column inches and, or air time.

Case in point - The cartoon in this morning free Metro paper (I am too cheap to buy one) simply presented pictures of four pieces of hockey equipment – helmet, gloves, elbow pads and a backboard. Very funny – hardy, har, har. Why not reinforce another “goon” stereotype that people who know nothing about hockey are trying to tarnish everyone with already.

Another - The Star in its ongoing apparent “expose” of minor hockey evils, chooses to run “old news” by featuring the story on T.A . Blakelock pulling the plug on their hockey squad for the balance of the season due to a racial slur. The story is actually set as a lead on the on-line “front” page. This story was old news when the Beaver published it. And, the “racial slur was the final straw, not the complete reason for the suspension of play. It now is really old news and only crops up in the Star because it appears to fit what looks like a “hobby horse” topic for an outlet that is tired of bashing the Leafs and everything else and has now identified minor hockey as a target.  The story is used as a convenient segue into more “bad behaviour” examples.  While it may be an unpopular and many would say incorrect opinion, I will try to make my point one more time in defence of the game.

Hockey, especially minor hockey is a great game with the opportunity to teach many life lessons, team values and provide all around good fun.  Let’s not even touch on skill building, character development and healthy exercise. For the fortunate few, it is also the path to fame, fortune and a lucrative career but to many it is simply a great learning experience that they can participate in and enjoy for years to come – and that is enough of a reward in and of itself to gain an appreciation for the game.

There are and will be bumps in the road that need to be addressed. Similar to any situation, activity, vocation or pastime, inappropriate behaviour must be penalized and discouraged as a deterrent to future actions. But, the punishment needs to fit the crime. In minor hockey (and I am not counting the major junior front as that may as well be considered pro) the “audience” is young people who have not yet turned into the savvy, hardened criminals that the rest of us are, so applying what we think is right based on our established values is not necessarily the correct message or appropriate punishment for your young teen. So let’s deal with this “racial slur” gorilla that is now always lurking in the background. Let’s also use the referenced Star article’s context as the jumping off point. The Star seems to take umbrage that

“In a GTHL game featuring 16-year-olds last January, a Toronto Avalanche player called the opposing goaltender a "dumb f---ing Jew," according to a league investigation report on the incident.

It was the aggressor's 14th major penalty between 2005 and 2008. He received a three-game suspension – the league's standard response to the offence.”

At the risk of enraging the morale majority, all three qualifiers could have been technically correct Now I do not condone the action, BUT, a) How much worse is this than calling someone a "dumb f---ing a__ __le," or some other body part? b) We are also taught that people should not be called “dumb” and c) that “f___ing” is a very disgusting profanity. There is no mention or qualification of concern around the elements of a, b or c, only an implied “shock and concern” that as the aggressor’s 14^th major penalty he only got three games. A couple of comments and you fill in the answers or your opinion.

1.       What the punishment would have been if these words were spoken on the street, playground or at school? Are they any less appropriate in those confines and what should those penalties be. I would suggest street/playground = “0” consequences (other that a good thumping if the other kid was bigger and then the aggressor’s parents would sue), School - probably some type of suspension that the kid sees as a reward – he gets to goof off at home. At least hockey has rules and is penalizing the right way by depriving the offender of something of value – game time.

2.       Taking away roughly 10% of a player’s total season for one comment strikes me as fairly harsh – Maybe not to you and me, but every game means a lot to most kids I know and I have seen them react to one or multiple game suspensions for GM20 or GM21 infractions.

3.       What were the other 13 offenses in 4 years, and if they were “physical fouls” i.e., CFB or fighting or boarding - whatever, why was the kid still playing? Here is me harping on escalation policy again yet it has received very little if any play in the media. If the offenses were verbal only, where is the coach / parent influence here to deal with this – it should not have to be a continuing battle for the referees. Besides that, at the end of the day the kid is only hurting himself (yeah – I know, what about the fragile ego and self esteem of the recipient? Go talk to Darwin about that.

East Coasters – At first glance it seems like our East Coast media has a more reasoned and balanced view – i.e., more positive in their assessment of the game but still accepting that there are problems and they need fixing. I am sure at least one of the local scribes will assert Eastern superiority. Here is the link to a “second” instalment in the series. I need to track down #1 and then follow the rest.

A comment in this article that I like is:

"Unfortunately rules (and penalties) are reactive, not proactive. We can only call it after the players do it and then the damage is done," said Glenn Hurley, who has been a referee for 32 years and is currently the chairman of officials for Hockey New Brunswick. "The proactive has to be in the teaching of the game and this is where the coaches and players have to buy in "¦ Suspensions are reactive too, they only happen after we make the call and it doesn't do any good for the player who got hurt."

Just for the record – this is a referee’s comment and I agree with him!

Hah! – I tracked down the first article and here is a link to it. Parental influence and pressure gets hammered pretty good. I am looking forward (hopefully) to where this will go. Clearly the genesis was the Patrice Cormier elbow, as a favourite local son, the situation has created angst in the community about the “what’s” and “why’s” and “where” it will go.

The FSMT has a great motto – “Play hard. Play fair. Have fun.” Maybe I should lobby for the inclusion of a fourth element – “Play safe.”

The End – Enough incoherent drivel for one night.Back to top

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Jan 20 – On January 31, the Toronto Star is hosting a forum to “tackle minor hockey’s issues”. In two hours, they will be “exploring ways of improving the game at its most grassroots level”. Apparently the forum members will include - Leafs GM Brian Burke, GTHL president John Gardner, OHF executive director Phil McKee, former NHL player and author Mark Moore, former (very briefly) Leaf Mike Peca, brain surgeon Dr. Charles Tator and sports psychologist Paul Dennis.

Without trying to seem overly disrespectful, I am not sure what relevant knowledge any of these guys has about minor hockey – especially at the “most grassroots level”. John and Phil in view of their roles do have a direct association. However I would suggest Mr. Gardner is primarily focused on the challenges of his club structure members (see yesterday) and Mr. McKee is the Executive director of a governing body two levels removed from actual play. The other guys you can figure out for yourself.

It seems that once again they have forgotten to invite me to the dais. Must be that letter to the editor I wrote after their series! Anyway, I have signed up to attend – fortunately it is not on Super Bowl Sunday, but we will see what comes up between now and then.

A link to sign-up to attend is posted with the article.

24- hopefully I now have 4 hours of Jack on Jane’s PVR as I have lost mine. Therefore, notice to self and others – Do not discuss the current season of 24 in my presence unless specifically asked. I know he had to survive his fatal biochemical poisoning from the last season and I know he is a Grandpa and I know he will be setting out to save the world against all odds and credibility in just one day – but it is fun to watch.

Elephants Rule – A state of shock is rolling through the US today and echoing through the White house halls and Capital hill:

• There are two moons in the sky,

• Pigs can fly,

• Hell has frozen over AND

• A Republican Senator has been elected in Massachusetts to take Ted Kennedy’s chair.

Not really because he will be the junior senator from Ma, but you get the drift), Teddy must be spinning in his grave over this one. Leading up to his death he was trying to orchestrate a smooth transition, but this is clearly not what he had in mind. The seat was a democratic “lock” having been held by Kennedy since 1962. Of course the immediate outcry is that this is public repudiation of Obama’s Health Care policy and a major hit to the BO juggernaut.

Owe-lympics – An article tonight reports that Intrawest’s assets have been seized by the lender as Intrawest failed to make their loan payments. Big deal you say as this happens all the time, times are tough, so what. The “so what” is that those assets include the Whistler ski resort that will (is supposed to) be home to the Olympic downhill races next month. To add insult to injury, the lenders have apparently posted on the site that an auction will be held to sell the assets on February 19 (right in the middle of the Olympics. I hope that they used the correct Olympic colours on the notices and included the logo.

Way to go Vancouver – ramp up the excitement / speculation / controversy. And you guys all thought that Drapeau and the Montreal Olympics were the big Owe. I am sure the “event” will go on, but it sure does not help a “Canadian International Profile”.

Countdown – 23 days to the Opening ceremonies (actually that is hard to believe).

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Jan 19 – Apparently there is life after the FSMT. After a good night’s sleep, I am back to face the world with a vengeance – sort of. What that does is just get me energized to GO after the GO guys. Just to “make my day” as I am sitting in the office this afternoon, at 3:30 the GO guys send me a cheery email including:

 “Due to an ongoing CN signal and radio communication malfunction, GO train service on all rail corridors is temporarily suspended.”

 Just what I need to build my enthusiasm for the rest of the day and start to consider my options to get home – walking is out. Just to keep us informed, they then wait for ten minutes to tease you with a note title – Service resumes but it includes:

“Passengers on all rail corridors can expect significant delays and some cancellations”

At 4:02 the list of cancellations starts coming through – it’s like a lottery to see if you are winning or losing.

At 4:14 another train bites the dust

So after I got this one I just figured to hell with it. I will just head down and catch the first thing headed west and what to my wondering eyes should appear as I scurry into Union Station but a delayed Lakeshore West train now designated as a 4:52 Express to Clarkson – Thank You – Zoom Zoom – I get home EARLY!!

Stanley Cup – misplaced in Toronto – figures! That’s the only way it will get here. At least we can thank Air Canada for just misplacing it and not running it through their infamous “Guitar Crusher”.  How difficult can it be. It is in a big box, not a miserable little suitcase among thousands. It requires “special Handling”. It has its own personal keeper – maybe he will now start flying in cargo, or maybe they should just buy a seat for Lord Stanley. Apparently Air Canada can get the Cup to places like Moscow and Afghanistan but not Vancouver! Aren’t there some games coming up there? Hopefully AC can figure it out by then – look out travellers! Article. I think Toronto is just still bitter that they lost two Olympic bids so they are going to try to divert everyone here.

Hotheads beware – Apparently when I wasn’t looking (at the FSNT) Hockey Canada put out one of their Action bulletins as basically a three strike rule on fighting. Three fights in a season in minor or Women’s hockey means an indefinite suspension. I always love the indefinite suspension cop out because it means what.? Is it until your local association calls in, slaps your wrist and says “be good”. Is it until a member partner (e.g., OMHA, GTHL) holds a formal hearing, Is it until bob Nicholson comes to visit you personally to assess your character, or is it LIFE? While I wholeheartedly support a “clampdown” on violent infractions and “stupidness” in the game, I hope this is a well thought out policy with clear process and due diligence and not a knee-jerk response to any publicized incident. I believe that inappropriate behaviour needs to be coached out of the game from the grass roots level up with full volunteer and association support and that simply trying to legislate behaviour is not enough.

An easy “Oh-oh” to flag here is what is to stop opposing teams from “goading” behaviour to sucker punch the other guy. Let’s send one of our no-strikers against their two-striker and see if we can get rid of him. Throw up your hands all you want but IT WILL HAPPEN. Close game, big series, two striker a key player. . . . .

We will have to wait for the bulletin to filter through the channels to get more scoop but you may need a scoop for this one. TBD

Watch this one – the family of a young man seriously hurt by a check from behind is suing a number of parties including the GTHL and the “checker’s club, the Mississauga senators for $700,000 in damages as the result of a 2008 incident. (article) While this situation will likely be decided by the courts, an interesting “fact” is that in the article John Gardner is referenced as indicating that the young man’s opponent had 11 checking-from-behind penalties between 2002 and 2009. If you read my comments on the Star series on hockey, you will recall my critique of the apparent lack of an escalation policy to deal with repeat offenders as a huge issue. This situation appears to be very unfortunate supporting evidence on that point of view.

With reference to the earlier blurb on Hockey Canada’s fighting suspension Action bulletin, my point would be that looking at “fighting” in isolation is like Nero working on his fiddling skills while Rome burns. The key focus should be on all violent infractions and an escalation policy (with teeth) against repeat offenders. Is that so hard to understand? With all due respect, take a look at where most injuries come from and it is not fighting (usually those injuries are to the dummies fists from punching each other’s rock hard equipment – they deserve what they get). Am I the only one that thinks this way?

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Jan 18 – I think it was 11 overtimes. That’s what it took to break the 1 – 1 deadlock between the Peewee Eagles and Lumberjacks in the concluding championship game in the ninth annual Frank Sabatino Memorial Tournament. I say I think, because I am not sure anyone kept an absolute count as the “periods” kept piling up. After a great three periods of hockey, the teams were given a full 10 minute 5 on 5 stop time period to break the tie. Despite specific instructions to the officials to “kick one in” if they had to, the first 10 minutes did not solve anything. The format then went to 3 on 3 + goalie for two minutes – no break. Then we went to 2 on 2 + goalie until somebody scored. I think we played 9 of these, including three separate occasions where penalty calls gave teams a 3 on 2 advantage for two minutes – none of which worked. Unbelievable action both ways.

Reports are that parents and fans attending the Bantam AAA’s on the Red Rink were coming over to watch the Peewee Reds on Blue as it was definitely more exciting. It was end to end action and beyond “nail-biting” frenzy. My congratulations to every player on both teams (especially the goalies) as this was a great game and it has been a long time since I watched anything nearly as exciting! I will not tell you who managed a goal – go check it out on the FSMT site to see who ended up on top – www.fsmt.ca and while you are there take the time to check out the super performance by a number of Oakville teams in both the Peewee and Atom divisions.

A Special Thanks to the participants in Corbett’s mens’ league who were so understanding and supportive as we ran over (big time) into their ice time. A number were out watching and cheering the kids on with no concern about running late. I spoke to a number of them afterwards essentially to “apologize” and not one of them had any negative comment at all – they all thought it was great. Thanks guys – we owe you one.

Again this year I would like to thank the core FSMT committee for allowing me to participate in this special event. Debbie (and all the members of the extended Sabatino family), Shona, Reggie, Hans –great work and outstanding commitment, with thanks to Marylou a new team member as well. This event means a great deal to a lot of people and every year you guys provide immeasurable fun, excitement and a truly unforgettable experience to a lot of smiling 10 and 12 year old faces, both on and off the ice. You just have to walk the rink and listen to the chatter to know that this event is something special. The adults get the message too, as is at least partially reflected in the fund raising contributions that again this year lead to a $2,500 cheque to the OTMHF – Palliative Care services.

The planning, focus, extra touches (too many to mention) and the community support that is clearly so important to you guys as a focus for this event, positions it to me as one of, if not the best tournament around and a great reflection of the approach it’s namesake – Frank, brought to MOHA as a volunteer. I am proud to have been able to contribute and be associated with the FSMT.

Check out www.fsmt.ca on a regular basis as we (try) to add photos and updates from this year’s event and news on the 10^th anniversary tournament planned for 2011!

NFL – While basking and relaxing in the rinks this past weekend I did not get a chance to watch any of the NFL play-offs. See the sacrifices we make! However, it is probably just as well since my prognostication ability seems to have headed in the same direction as my pool position. Prior to the weekend with my beloved Steelers golfing instead of grinding, I had told folks that in their absence I would like to see San Diego go all the way but I thought Dallas was going to be a tough team to beat.  WRONG, not once, but on both fronts. Neither team showed up as I hear the Jets cleanly beat the Chargers and #4 and his Purple People Eaters made Tony and the Stars look like Silly Putty. Therefore, I will switch loyalties once again and put the Moorehead “Kiss of Death” on the Vikings (just to annoy the Cheeseheads).

Remember – “Play hard! Play fair! Have fun!”

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Jan 17 – Two posts in a row working without a safety net and not crashing the site! There was no news yesterday as I was way too busy and way too tired to even contemplate it as noted below. Tournaments are a blast – as a participant, less so as an organizer. Anyway for today. . . .

Brought to you during our last break in the action at the Frank Sabatino tournament. A lot of good hockey, good games and good fun. Being on skates for four hours for the skills session yesterday just about did me in as I have not been on skates much, if at all in the last couple of years and not for that length of time since my Timbit evaluations or season ending graduations. The Atoms were not bad – the first session, but I was definitely in conservation mode for the final Peewee event.

It seems that our Oakville contingent is just too strong. Even though we had a number of close divisions, it has ended up as almost an entirely Oakville event. For Atom, the Oakville sharks knocked off Nepean Roadrunners to advance to the semi’s, and the Oakville Wranglers knocked off Erindate as the only non Oakville team to make it that far.

In Peewee, the visitors were not treated nearly as well as all four semi-finalists wore Oakville colours.

Heading into this afternoon’s finals we have an Atom match-up of the Lumberjacks versus the Wranglers at Joshua’s Creek (blue) Arenas at 3:30, followed by the Peewee final Eagles and Lumberjacks at 5:00 PM.

Fund raising has been going well but we can always use more dough so come out and join in the puck tosses at each game.

Detailed results are on the Frank Sabatino Tournament site at www.fsmt.ca .

Given the sorry state of my back and various other body parts, I am not sure when the next post may appear.

FHP – to top off just a delightful weekend, I seem to be fading fast as #1 son coughed up a full point to #2 The Leader son so that I have now dropped a full one and a half points back. Does it never end!

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Jan 15 – Brought to you live from the control room at the FSMT tournament headquarters. I am living dangerously by editing online and not uploading. Hopefully I won’t crash the site. I am hiding in the back room with my coat on trying to keep warm, fight suspected food poisoning and avoid any shots coming my way on scheduling. After taking a shot at the Richard Bell schedule, it is only fair that I stab myself in the back over a little “boo boo” at the FSMT. Somehow, despite the scheduled being published for close to a month and the number and times people have looked at it, we did not realize until this morning that we had one of the rinks wrong for Friday night (tonight) we had ourselves on River Oaks A when all along, we should have been on Glen Abbey Blue!

Not good. As the last one to check it before it was posted, I must pull a Harry S. Truman and declare that the buck stops here! So for anyone who was inconvenienced “IT WAS MY FAULT”. Fortunately, the calls were made. The changes covered and everything is rolling along with some great hockey. Our first game at JC was an Atom 2 – 2 tie between the Oakville Wolfpack and Sharks.

Game on! Drop by and see some great fun – check the hopefully correct schedule at www.fsmt.ca qnd look for score updates there as well.

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Jan 14 – Likely will be posted late (another day) as I likely will not even arrive home on the 14^th to post even if I wanted to.

Transit – No I am not complaining about GO disservice. This is the people on it. Over the last couple of days I have probably made a few “enemies among those on the train before me. My Clarkson express is a busy train. What drives me insane is the IGNORANT SOBs already on the train who WILL NOT make any effort to move to let you on. First they are standing in the doorway so that you have to push around them to even get on the train. They are protecting their “quick exit” opportunity for Union I guess but that is not acceptable. Second, they stand in the aisles blocking the stairs to the upper level and have no intention to let you pass. Now, they are actually sitting right across the steps two wide, totally blocking them and don’t even flinch let alone get up when you stand in from of them waiting. As you may guess, I have no patience for this and simply say “excuse me, there are more people trying to get on the train and I need to get through”. Then I simply push my way through (none too gently if need be) and in most cases end up as the lead blocker for a number of folks who happily trail behind using the hole I create to gain big yardage. Often when our wedge gets to the upper level there are still seats available let alone wide open standing room. To quote Finch in Network – “I am mad as hell and I am not going to take it anymore” So, stand up, stand aside or get stepped on!

TTC Trials - I had an interesting encounter this morning on the TTC. There are a number of “homeless in Toronto and panhandling is now an art form. Those of us downtown know the prime locations, are probably familiar with some of the regulars and are usually jaded in terms of even having their presence register. Now we have a new (or at least to me in recent memory) twist in that the Street People are now canvassing on the TTC, working the trains. It looked like Buddy this morning started at one end of the train and was working his way through the cars carrying his wardrobe, aura and coffee cup collection plate with him. The thing about the train is that he has a somewhat captive audience as you are not walking past him, he is walking past you. This lets him eyeball his audience and zero in on the suckers intimidated or fearful types. In my car he stopped in front of a couple of older ladies and basically encroached on their space enough so that they dug into their stash to get rid of him. He took one look at me and kept moving. Had I been a bit more alert, I maybe should have accosted him but with all of the loony tunes around, you are always a little reluctant to step in early in case the guy goes postal. E.g don’t bring a knife to a gun fight.

Burrows – speaking of fights – Burrows did bring a knife to a gunfight. Auger is exonerated at least in part because:

“We have determined that Mr. Burrows' account of referee Auger's comments to him before the game, and specifically Burrows' suggestion that these comments indicated bias against the player or the Vancouver team, cannot be substantiated," said NHL disciplinarian Colin Campbell.

Sure these things are hard to prove and you can always play the cried “wolf” card but the upshot is no one will / wants to take the word of a player / coach etc over an official.  The official is not always wrong but guess what – sometimes they are and there needs to be accountability there as well.  As hockey folks should know, the rule book even says that you can not question an official’s judgment in a protest, only challenge an error in the rules.

I particularly like Kerry Fraser’s comment: “Referees don't like to be goaded into making calls. But they'd never carry a grudge, as Burrows alleged”.  Right!

They have the God Clause! Anyway, my views are clear – move on.

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Jan 13 – Short entry today as I have homework to prep for Friday and the FSMT and I have a Marine Club evening scheduled for tomorrow night which will leave me home late and in no condition to wax poetic or release comments on an unsuspecting world.

Burrows – As predicted, Mr Burrows has been immediately hit with a $2,500 fine which while “peanuts” to the elite, is still the max under the CBA. Clearly it does not take much to determine what he did – his comments are everywhere on film, tape, cyberspace and paper. As I believe MLB phrases it, these fines are “for the good of the game” – i.e. we prefer to do our dirty laundry in private. It may come as a surprise that I have no problem with that as long as the laundry gets done. To stretch a horrible analogy, even further, the first load is done and in the dryer – now we wait to see if there is a second load (Auger – for the benefit of the analogy challenged) or whether this goes away quietly. While you are busy rolling your eyes and bemoaning my “agenda”, let me simply say that it is “fact” that everyone makes mistakes. It is how you learn from, correct them and behave in the future that is important.

Facts – speaking of facts, a point hit me today that I had not really thought about until now but I think has some merit. Here I go media bashing again. In today’s world, there is a never ending plethora of “blogs”. Some like this one are about as significant and important / influential as the proverbial fly on the elephant’s ass lower back. However, it seems to me (personal opinion expressed here) that every media wretch now has to have their own blog in which they are much more prolific, opinionated and judgemental than they are in their so call journalistic reporting – check the agate lines. Is that because we have two standards in play? One (more rigorous) for “real” reporting and one (less structured) for the crazed ramblings of demented minds? The problem as I see it is that blogs are taking over from reporting. That their opinions are being taken as fact (when they are not) and that this is leading to a lot more misinformation and misinterpretation than is good for anyone.  When a “respected” source blogs that it seems the Leafs are . . . . . or it would appear that Tiger. . . . .  Joe Public tends to grab and assimilate as fact the . . . .  and forgets that it was prefaced by qualifiers (legal defence and potentially uncorroborated opinion) But, as is now the norm – Who Cares?

Third – how old was Carl Brewer when he came back to play in the “amateur” Olympics? – how’s that for a red herring?

FHP – lost ½ point and have fallen out of first place tie. Ugh!

PVR – lost mine – seems it is more important for Andrew and his posse to be able to watch and re-watch and re-watch play after play after play than it is for me to tape those quality programs off the discovery channel to improve my alleged mind. I lose again. It has been transported from WRM’s projector room to Andrew’s cave, never to be seen again!

Homework – time to get at it – 6 MP3s to program.

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Jan 12 – The battle could be joined for the balance of the season in the Moorehead Hockey Pool of FHP as we call it. After falling out of first (again) I was a point behind Andrew last night but gained ½ while he lost ½ to pull back into a tie. With all the categories and rotisserie scoring crap setup I have no clue what is going on but I think my goalies have let me down. My +/- is untouchable but it is all day to day. Shaun and Jane have been relegated to division II and Andrew and I literally pay them no attention other than hoping we take even more points from them.

Speaking of battles – The Zebras usually win hands down against players (and Executives) so the current Burrows versus Auger scrimmage will be fun to watch as while Burrows may have grounds to beef, the establishment is terrified of the Black & Whites and will probably fine Burrows for having the cohunes to express an opinion on the alleged personal vindictiveness of an official. Why is it always the player / coach / manager or owner that takes the hit. I know that the zebras will say that they deal with it internally and incompetents are removed. CRAP! Why can’t an official be fined and suspended on review the same as a player. If Auger is “guilty as charged” both he and Burrows should take a hit – But it won’t happen – at that level or lower. Look what happened locally when people tried to clean up a mess that the responsible ones wouldn’t.

Here is a link to a Goat & Snail article on the incident – clearly reported from Mr. Burrows perspective.

The plot thickens – I don’t even get to “post time” when the headline hits the Star “NHL to review payback accusations against referee*. Can I sniff out a good story when I see one, or what! So now Colin Campbell is nosing in on Terry Gregson territory – Gregson is the NHL Senior VP and Director of Officiating. Why you might ask is the “player” side guy and not the “official” side guy looking into things – want a hint?

The NHLOA will not look kindly on this either as I believe Mr. Auger is on their board and responsible for Member Profiles. It is like the rap that parent surveys get - people suggest they are loath to say anything for fear their kid will get blackballed. Maybe more will speak up now OR Gurrows will get hammered.

Here is the YouTube video link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkG0fyvAeA0 Roberto and the coach come out for the player. Turn those verticals horizontal - it is more apt.

Subsidized day care – What else can you call full day kindergarten for 4 year olds. The announcement of 71 Toronto schools (out of 75 requesting) on the program for 2010 strikes me as nuts. I have no idea what the Oakville situation will be (I will leave that for the Beaver to report) but I can not see any rationale for pouring this type of program when the province is planning to run up a huge deficit anyway. Do all the early childhood learning gurus think kids will miss out on their lifetime learning opportunity if they don’t start school at 4? How many people, (other than parents with kids who will qualify and therefore avoid day care costs who will tell you how important this is to child development), really support this move? I suspect not many. Next step – take kids away at birth and rear them to post university age before releasing them to parents who  can then take over! I bet that pushes a few buttons. Here is one of the Star articles.

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Jan 11 – One has to feel somewhat sorry for the Cheesehead fans today. If you had suggested prior to the game that the Packers would put 46 points on the board, I defy anyone to suggest that they would even consider that the Pack would LOSE! But they did. This was a game for the ages as a play-off game with no defence – especially for Green Bay who aren’t a bad defensive team – “normally”. This game clearly fits the age old saying – he who scores last wins.

OOOPS!! - Game over - get out the golf clubs

This one has to be really hard for both a fan or the team to take to take based on both the fact of Green Bay’s second half comeback and that the winning overtime points came off of a turnover. Based on how the Game had gone, GB probably thought they were going to march to the win. Since my Steelers did not even make the dance, there is no sympathy here. Now, just for fun, I would like to see the Chargers run the table (that comment will probably be their “kiss of death” for next weekend).

FSMT – coming up this weekend. Don’t forget to check it out. www.fsmt.ca and, or volunteer.

Raptors – Went to watch the Raptors play Boston Sunday. Thanks to number 1 son and HP for the tickets. Yours truly would not shell out +$200 for a round ball ducat so you know why I seldom go to BBall games. Just not my sport. It looked like the game was over after 2 minutes as the Celtics went up 10 – 0 and then managed that differential for the rest of the game – let the Raptors close to 7 then open up. Ho Hum. Despite the free ticket, I must admit I am still a cheapskate as the ACC is an expensive venue – Parking $25, 2 roast beef sandwiches $21, 2 Medium Beer $21. Before I even sat down, my free ticket cost me $67. I guess I should have forced Shaun into a $3 street meat!

Quebec bound – as many of you are aware, our Peewee AAA team has been invited and accepted the invite to the prestigious Quebec International Peewee tournament. This is one of the world’s premier minor hockey tournaments and represents a significant time and dollar commitment to attend.

Here is a link (English) to the tournament web site and while the schedule for this year has not been posted yet, you can see the calibre and origin of teams that have participated in the past few years as well as the scope of this event.

Our AAA Peewee Rangers are running a fund raising event to help offset the cost. Details are listed below. Here is a chance to help out and maybe get a good deal on one of those “silent auction” items at the same time. Caution – Knowing this crowd - All silent auction participants should wear elbow pads as a self preservation tactic.

Oakville Rangers Peewee AAA Fund Raiser for Quebec

The 707 Galaxy Banquet Hall

475 North Service Rd East

Oakville, Ontario

Saturday January 23, 20

7:00pm-1:00am

SILENT/LIVE AUCTION, DANCING, RAFFLES, GAMES AND LOTS MORE!!

ADMISSION IS FREE AND INCLUDES A CHANCE TO WIN A 3 DAY/2 NIGHT TRIP TO LAS VEGAS (AIR AND HOTEL)!! 

COME OUT TO A GREAT NIGHT!!

HELP SUPPORT THE OAKVILLE RANGERS PEEWEE AAA s IN THEIR QUEST FOR QUEBEC!!

RSVP:
pharvey34@cogeco.ca
(905) 842-5894
Hope to see you there!!

Dana, Paul, Duncan and Reggie

Just to be clear, I have not been bribed in any way or offered any inducement to post this plug. AND,  the suggestion to do so did not come from anyone on or affiliated with the team.

Help me understand? – what is the point of the no pants subway ride. This world impacting event took place in Toronto and apparently over 40 other transit systems yesterday. Why anyone (especially in winter) would want to wander out in public in their underwear is a concept that escapes me. However, this is the third year for this “event” in Toronto and some people seem to think it is important. Speaking charitably – they are idiots.

GO Transit -- -- waited all of four working days before they screwed up my service. It seems they just do not understand the concept of customer service. Or, looking at it another way, so far 25% of my working days this year have had major transit disruptions. This evening, my 5:34 train left Toronto on time and zoomed right through Port Credit for coming to a screeching halt between there and Clarkson. They knew they were having switch problems west of Clarkson but could not think ahead, stop the train at Port Credit and give passengers the option of getting off and making other arrangements rather than sitting stopped for almost an hour before crawling into Clarkson. The trip, which should have taken roughly 20 minutes was a very annoying hour and a quarter instead. However, all is made well with the announcement that “GO apologizes for the inconvenience".

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Jan 7 -- it appears as Canada has chosen to recover from hockey defeat by burying the story. It is already gone from most of the sports pages and little remains on the talk shows. That also frees up space and air for this area’s, if not the nation's favorite pastime of Leaf bashing. Let me be clear up front that I am not a Wilson supporter as I do not think it is appropriate for any coach at any level to regularly single out for public criticism any of his players. Either Mr. Wilson feels he is untouchable he has a different perspective on "calling out" the performance of what is potentially is one legitimate star -- Kessel. The days of Punch Imlach, Jack Adams and one way bus tickets are long gone. Given that the "knock" on Mr. Kessel, if there is one is his demeanor, taking a run at him in public doesn't strike me as productive. Especially when I have so many other stalwarts on the team to turn to once I have "pissed him off". Sure he may be under producing, but that is under producing in the context of a teen that has to support him and I have not seen a lot of not support coming out of the blue-and-white. If nothing else came out of the juniors, people should have caught on once again that hockey is a team game not one controlled by individual stars. It's the old story, look up dysfunctional in the dictionary and what do you see a picture of? The Leafs, Wilson, Burke?

FHP -- so far January has not been kind. Andrew has moved up from 2nd Pl. and we are now tied for the lead at essentially the halfway mark of the season. A fatal mistake on my part was to take Tim Thomas as one of my goalies and then have him into platooning to limit both his starts and when opportunities. Kiss off the goaltending stats. Andrew has done well on the shots and goals categories whereas my power-play points and plus minus stats have kept me In the game despite a number of injuries. Jane and Shaun are significantly farther back in third and fourth and I don't think have caught on yet to the fact that a rotisserie pool the longer the season goes on the tougher it is to make up points.

FSMT -- we are now a week and a day away from the start of the Frank Sabatino tournament. I understand that the tournament committee is still looking for a number of adult and student volunteers for a variety of tasks, especially for Saturday morning, the 16th. If you are interested or know of a high school student who is looking for some volunteer hours please have him or her contact the committee at info@fsmt.ca or go to the website www.fsmt.ca and download, complete and return a volunteer form.

Potpourri: apropos of nothing some interesting stories

Photo finish -- an Australian Olympic hurdler has chosen to have her breast implants removed as she feels that this will give her a better chance to make the Olympic team. Ever one to be professional in their headlines, the Toronto Star lead in reads – “Hurdler ditches breast implants to go flat out” and continues with what they feel is humorous phraseology in the article. The bigger question, no pun intended, is whether or not these missing additives could be a factor in any photo finish. Athletics is a game of inches.

Only in Barrie -- Why am I not surprised! I'm not sure where they will find the offense under either the Highway traffic act or the criminal code but police in Barrie have arrested an individual for drunken snow blowing at the corner of Yonge Street and Little Avenue (this is close to one of my Gas bars so I hope there is no unfortunate association). To answer my own question, on reading the story it turns out he was only charged with public intoxication since the snowblower was a push model and not a ride on. Had it been the latter the gendarme could have him charged with drunk driving and lost his license. Doh - what was he thinking?

No thanks -- there is a video floating around (it was on Canoe this morning) where one of the workers on the Burj Khalifa shot a handheld video, not from the observation deck, but from the very top of this lunatic structure. I am not normally one to be bothered by heights having done the farm boy requirement of pulling pipes up silos and crossing roof beams but simply watching this video was almost enough to make me queasy. In my humble opinion you have to be criminally insane to be able to work in an environment like this. Watch the video .

Mariah Carey -- meltdown award speech -- can't be bothered.

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Jan 6 – The pleasure of getting up well before the crack of dawn after developing the habit of snoozing late, having retired the evening before to the pain of a Canadian defeat. Then, having to trudge off in the cold and snow to do battle with a number of surly passengers and the GO Train. All for the privilege of going back to work. Aren’t holidays wonderful.

Juniors – as somewhat predicted, albeit unpopularly, the US was full value for their win against Canada and deserved the gold. Streaks come to ends, horseshoes only last so long and there is a limited supply of miracles. Also, Eberle cannot play 60 minutes a game. While the argument will be made that “we lost in overtime”, the whole game was suspect with the US fifth goal symptomatic of the team’s play. Shades of M-A Fleury in 2004, that goal was brutal. I was not impressed at all with Mr. Allen’s goaltending and there were a lot of individual efforts instead of team play by the Canucks. The US was committed as a team to winning and played that way. I do not know what the total was on blocked shots but the US did a great job in most cases in defending the zone and keeping shots to the perimeter and off the net. Canada is taking a beating. Losses by the Juniors, the Under 17, the Women leaves us with only the Olympics to redeem ourselves and maintain at least some bragging rights. Give the US team and bench staff credit. They did a great job and deserved the win.

That’s it for tonight – “The Boys” are busy planning our Spring Training trip for 2010. A lot of logistics on the go for the Sizzling 6 Super 6 Senile 6. We plan to hit the Cactus League in Arizona this time as we have pretty well covered the Florida Grapefruit League. I have so far found a flight from Detroit for US $269 return all taxes in. Try to match that out of YYZ. It is AT LEAST double.

Any hot tips on Phoenix? We plan to go from March 24 – 30. Heavy on Baseball – there are 9 parks in Phoenix shared by 13 teams and the Coyotes are in town for the Saturday playing Colorado.

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Jan 5 – Tuesday afternoon and the last day of my holidays. Postings have been sketchy at best over the holidays and to some extent you can blame Steam – see below. I have been trying to stay reasonably current on my emails to avoid the back to work onslaught but I know there is a whack of stuff waiting for me. Regardless, tonight is hockey night in Canada as we all pull for the Juniors to go 6 in a row. This is no “gimme”. If Team Canada plays like they did against the U.S. in their round robin match-up or the Swiss in the semis and the U.S. continues their strong play like they have all tournament, the big one will be heading south.

I really like the US team. They are fast, they roll their lines and they keep coming at you. It looks like they have all bought into the “system” and by the sounds of it the stories on the coach suggest that he could give the Miracle on Ice guy lessons (and I don’t mean Karl Malden or Kurt Russell). In case you can’t remember, it was Herb Brooks.

Web problems – there is or seems to be a “bug” buried somewhere either in my site or the hosting server as it went down again yesterday (I think). The explanation I am getting is that “something has crashed your IIS application pool”. Whatever that means. If anyone does, let me know or hopefully my ISP will figure it out as I am simply using FrontPage, nothing exotic.

50/50 draws – may never be the same. If you have been paying any attention to the sidelights of the Junior Tournament you will know that the 50/50 draws have been unbelievable. It seems the explanation in part is the electronic system that they are using that instantly pulls up the “pot” after every transaction so “players” can watch the pot build, see their money go in and allows on-going posting of the running total. It seems to create a feeding frenzy in the crowd as the per person spend has been incredible. For the New Year’s Eve game against the US, the 15,000 fans at Credit Union Centre in Saskatoon spent $187,050, creating a cash prize of more than $93,000. That is well over $10 per person. Foir those of us who have flogged 50/50 tickets at places like Copp’s Coliseum, those numbers are astronomical.

The claim is that the visibility from the system (a Canadian innovation) is the driver. Read about it here.

London Bomb – Not England and the IRA but Ontario and a 17 year old. Where is this story going? I bet the couple streets of homeowners that were evacuated are really impressed. The big question is what was going on in the house – bomb squad, robots, controlled detonations. I am really curious to see what this is all about. I am not a big London fan (we Laurier guys hate Western) but my niece just bought a house there so I hope it was not close to this place. Would not help real estate values.

Steam – may result in less blogging. For the uninitiated Steam is a games purchase / download / forum / multiplayer web location that has become very popular. Rather than hijacking “illegal” copies of games on-line, you can easily download most of your favourites for “cheap” and end up with legit copies. I got lured into downloading the “Id” gamepack for $35. It includes a bunch of my okd and all time favourites in a variety of their versions. Other than Commander Keen – a classic throwaway, it includes all of the versions of Doom, Quake, Heretic, Hexen and that real classic Wolfenstein.

These are all basic shootem up games that are nowhere near politically correct or tree hugger friendly Mr. Rogers type but there is nothing more relaxing than a couple of hours of mindless violence. I have had to work at tweaking a number of options to get some of the older “DOS” based versions to run (not totally successful yet) but I have had a chance to get waxed in Doom, Quake, Heretic and Wolfenstein 3D as I got them up and running for test drives. The great fun of these games is you can “play” at an easier level to scope out the locations and then go back and crank up the monsters.

I have not decided yet if I will load a couple on the lap top and bring it and my speakers to the FSMT to while away any downtime. I may have to check that with the committee. May the Orb be with you.

Huh – Speaking of not politically correct, a guilty plea with remorse and a drug defense are enough for an absolute discharge of a sexual assault charge? I guess there are circumstances here that mitigate but. . . 

Music – I am bored with posting my Monday music and am wondering if that could be what was causing any of my ISP stress. So, I have killed that for now and will fill the space with whatever?

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Jan 1 - Another low key family get together planned in Rockwood to kick off the New Year. I did stay up playing cards to usher in the New Year but without a lot of enthusiasm. I guess I have seen enough of these that I don't necessarily look forward to more - it is a reminder of how time flies. At about 11:45 we switched from the sports channel recaps of 2009 to the Dick Clark Show - Times Square Countdown. First, you need to be nuts to head down to Times Square in lousy weather for what? Second, someone should be taken to task for putting or allowing Dick Clark on TV in his condition. It was painful and embarrassing to watch as flagrant promotion of a "legend" who literally could hardly talk.

RBMT follow-up - Apparently the Moscow North Stars were to go to Welland yesterday for a "food-raising" exhibition game after playing in the Richard Bell. Moscow cancelled out at the last minute basically saying their team was too beat up with too short a bench to risk another game. Guess what team inflicted a couple of those injuries on them? - Yup - Welland Tigers!! article .

Leaf watch - For those who are keeping track, the stats page that is posting the odds of each NHL team making the play-offs does not think much of the Leafs recent efforts to pursue respectability. They currently have their play-off chances at 2.6%. In fairness, it pains me to report that My powerful (if healthy) Red Wings are given less than a 50 - 50 chance of making the show (43.0%). The good news is that some of the injury devastated Wings are coming back (hopefully in time)

World Juniors - Does the word "lucky" come to mind. Other than the panic third period pressure, I thought the Canadian Juniors played very poorly and were extremely lucky to get the win over the U.S. If they don't figure a few things out - like their power play (two short-handed goals given up officially but essentially three) they are not likely to be as fortunate next time. Even in the shoot-out I think they were fortunate as the U.S. goalie who had played very well all game, seemed to lose his composure after the first goal and you could see it again after the second.

Looking at the competition in the pool games before the U.S. match-up suggests at least to me that this event is in trouble if they can not get a decent turn-out of competitive teams. Maybe it should simply be a reduced round robin tournament of the top four teams where relegation and promotion is used year over year to identify the "A" division participants. Playing to a 16 - 0 result helps no one and can screw up the competitive team.

This and that:

I hate basketball - now I know why. Team mates draw guns on each other!

Fenway Hockey - looks like the rain is not happening, snow is and things are going to be good to go.

Throat Guards - Way overdue for officials - it is a disaster waiting to happen and should have been required for officials, the same as players from day one. After what happened to the official in the Junior C game between Woodstock and New Hamburg it is fortunate he did not die. They are not constrictive - wear them whether you need to or not!

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