March 31 – End of another month and for anyone who cares Q1 of 2011 is in the books. Tomorrow as April 1 is April Fools Day so watch you backs (and fronts) and don’t believe anything that anyone tells you. I seem to recall that we used to have a lot more fun pulling pranks on people for April 1, including elaborate group efforts but that seems to have gone the way of the DoDo and no one really seems to get into it any more. There is no more sending the rookies off to look for the “verbal agreement endorsement form” a favourite insurance gag along with looking for the “left-handed policy stretcher”.

The Dream – if today was April 1 I would have thought the Star article on the Leafs was a joke. It only shows how desperate the Leaf Nation is to believe in miracles. They have dragged Johnny Bower and a bunch of other oldtimers (including Dick Duff – Jane’s fav.) into the wishin’ and hopin’ camp citing the miracle finish in 1959 when the Leafs finished hot and the Rangers not and the Leafs snuck in by a point.

Wishful thinking, but that is all that it is.

As a subtle note with what is currently happening in Japan - look at what the lead article was about!

Crosby – a lot of backpedalling going on here as the “cleared to practice” is now apparently defined to mean that he can join the team for their game day skate and not really practice and clearly no BC. The expressed expectation is that his reappearance as a line-up candidate will not happen until next season. Good!

Midget AAAs – the outlook is pretty grim for the local guys. The played the Host London team last night and came out on the wrong end of a 4 – 2 final.

With the current standings and the schedule winding down the Rangers are finding themselves in a bit of a “Leafs” scenario. Sitting in a two way tie, (could be 3 way depending on tonight’s game between the Wolves and Senators)  and with only one game to go – against the Nichel City Sons, leaves no room for error if the want to be in the play-offs.

They can do it so wish them luck.

Snake alert over – Someone will likely lose their job for this but a poisonous Egyptian Cobra (of Cleopatra fame) went missing from its cage at the Bronz Zoo reptile house about a week ago. The Zookeepers were forced to close the reptile house while they went looking for it as having a patron chomped on by a cobra would have likely been a poor PR opportunity (although I could suggest some candidates).

Some “wit” jumped on the event and started a twitter feed posing as the AWOL cobra and chronicled its travels around New York City. Actually, I think it was kind of a neat use of social media. Anyway, the snake has been recaptured safe and sound in the reptile house and everyone can now go back to their business of fleecing tourists. All that is, except for the lucky guy they likely hang this on. I mean, they have to have a scapesnake scapegoat don’t they?

MLB – The real season is underway as the boys of summer are back at it for real. Unfortunately the season opened with those “Damn Yankees” beating my Tigers but there are about another 163?, 161? games to go. Ball has started – that must really mean the winter is over – Right! Then how come I went to the office in sort of snow stuff this morning. Enough already.

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March 30 – Last night was a Sport Oakville meeting so I was straight there and by the time I got home had no energy left to be creative. Besides, I had to check out my “Viewing Room” as I finally convinced myself (and Jane) that I neede to replace my old receiver with one that actually handled HDMI. It arrived yesterday and Andrew was busy reconfiguring Space Command for my by hooking up the receiver and switching the projector to a ceiling mount (much nicer). Only problem was I had to go shopping today for a long HDMI cable to reach from the projector all the way down and around to the receiver. Now I have a bunch of new toys / controls to figure out. Hopefully I won’t launch anything ballistic or SCRAM the reactor by mistake. Isn’t technology wonderful!

Leafs – did show some life last night against the Sabres, but it really does not matter. They kept the dream alive, but that is all it is – a dream. They will not make the play-offs but it is interesting watching and listening to the die-hards explain how it can / will happen. On this point I agree with Burke. Better to not make the playoffs at all then to squeak in and get “smoked”. Pick a date. Start the pool. When are they “mathematically” eliminated.

Crosby – has been cleared to practice with the Pens. On one hand this is great news. It suggests progress and hopefully he is truly recovering. The game needs him and he needs the game as a young man doing so well and with such potential. On the other hand, how much is smoke and mirrors? Being cleared to practice is nowhere near the same as cleared to play and can mean a lot from skate by yourself to “red shirting” to full on practice. It would be terrible to see Sid the Kid come back too soon and end up taking another shot that literally puts him out of the game. I would think the smarter path for all might simply be to say “see you next season”. He does not have to prove anything to anyone and if extra time means more future resistance to reoccurrence then it should be a no-brainer (pun intended).

GO Train – As I nearly trample a number of morons this evening, I would once again remind people that they cannot poke away on their crackberries and pretend to walk sensibly at the same time. People (like me) who get off the train at night would like to walk quickly and unimpeded to the cars without having to make allowances for, avoid or put up with yahoos shambling along pecking away at their insidious little screens. Get a life! – Preferably somewhere else.

Midgets – After a good win to start the AAAs have dropped two one goal games and dug themselves into a bit of a hole. If they have lost two games like this, it must be one heck of a tourney as they are a very good team. If I was not off to Montreal next week, I might try to rationalize some South Western Ontario site visits and sneak into London to catch a game or two. Come on guys – put these two behind you and take care of business.

PETA Pictures - I am sure all you media mavens out there had to see either the stills or video of the three young ladies who decided to stand out in the cold for over an hour with nothing on but a smile (sometimes) and their underpants. I won't post any of it here as I would then likely have someone brand me as a pornographer along with all my other faults. These young ladies (sic) were protesting cruelty to animals by standing out in the cold for the gawkers including at least one guy with a monster camera creeping up close to get a good shot of their . . . . . sign! Get a life. This protest is not just fur now, it is any use of animal skin, hides or exotic animals. Oh! Oh! No more chopping up Betsy for shoes, ball gloves, belts (Oops) whips & harnesses (Darn) . Plastic is so much better right! Well I hope they got their media attention claim to fame and did not freeze any essential body parts in another wonderful waste of time.

Only in Toronto you say! PETA!

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March 28 – Back to work on Monday and I had to wait until Monday for scores to get posted from even Friday the 25^th. I guess some of the updaters don’t work weekends. I thought that was part of the job?

Minor Bantam AE – Congrats to the OMHA Champion Minor Bantam AE squad for pulling off a big road win against Richmond Hill in game 6 of the best of 5 series! The Rangers chalked up a decisive 6 – 2 win in the series to cap off the championship 3 – 2 – 1. In addition to their gold medals they also get to baby sit the Dave Saunders Trophy. They won their last two games under pressure to first “stay alive” and then win the title. Well done.

 Minor Peewee AE – On an even stronger note, the Minor Peewee AE team came back after being down two games to none to push another best of five series to six games and skate off with a convincing 5 – 3 win in the deciding game Saturday at Oakville Arena. The box score will be the same as the MB MB AE above 3 – 2 – 1 as there are no other ways to win a five game series in six games. As OMHA champs, their hardware is the Max Jackson Memorial Trophy – Quite a mouthful but congrats guys.

These were the last two of the Tri-County through to OMHA championship Playdown series.

Breakdown:

AA – A – AE - Tri County

25 = Number of teams answering the bell at the start of the hunt.

19 = Number of teams that survived the initial Tri-County qualifier to get to the Playdowns

11 = Number of Quarter Final survivors who made it to the semis

11 = Number of teams that advanced from the Semis to the Finals
         – NO ONE LOST A SEMI!

8  = Number of Gold Medal OMHA Champions from AA – AE (3 Silver Medal finalists)

AAA Tourneys – The AAA squads go the SCTA Tourney weekend route and then a second event for the OMHA Championships. This weekend’s Novice AAA event was the final event on the OMHA calendar. Fittingly, our Novice AAAs had qualified to participate as the event was in Oakville and the local guys did good, defeating Clarington Toros 2 – 0 in the Gold Medal game. In picking up the last OMHA title for the year, the Novices also get to take temporary passion of the Kevin Almond Trophy (OMHA Past President).

Tally of the tourneys

9 = Number of teams entering the SCTA Silly Series

5 = Number of teams that survived the SCTA and went to the OMHA

4 = Number of teams that won AAA OMHA Championships

Net – 12 OMHA Champions out of 34 contenders! Congratulations to all of the Players and Coaches / Bench Staff on a great season.

OHF and Beyond

Midget AAA – Good start for the local lads as they opened the Central Region Midget AAA Championship with a 7 – 0 win over the Ottawa Senators. Their next game is tomorrow morning at 8:30 AM against the Waterloo Wolves. Hope Tom and Mario have the boys tucked in early tonight and ready to go at the crack of dawn.

Bye Bye Birdie Buds! – It took my Wings to finish off the Leaf’s attempt at a Cinderella story. How fitting and it was not even that good a game for my guys. Plus Toronto got one of their two goals on a play that should have been a goalie interference call with no goal and a penalty. Howard actually got hurt on the play. Top tier or not, you don’t want to see your #1 goalie go down in the last few games of the regular season. Not a good omen for the play-offs, especially for a team that has been battered by the injury bug all year.

The ever “up” Buds however still talk like they have a chance to make the play-offs! Let’s see, seven points back of Buffalo with six games left (a max of 12 points) with Carolina to leap over and both buffalo and Carolina with a game in hand on them. This gives the positioning of “not mathematically eliminated” a whole new meaning.

Curling – What an awful display for the women’s world championship game Sunday AM. Maybe if I had gone to church it might have helped but the Canucks were terrible. Sweden did everything they could to try to let Canada win but we just were not buying. The same bug a boo bit again as even with their poor play, the ladies had the hammer in the 10^th with a tie game and an open draw to win but could not get the job done. Too much ice – flirt with a guard (your own poor shot) and then after waiting for the curl to get past that guard you come up short – Good bye Gold! This is now three years and the Olympics that Canada has been shut out on the ladies side in a game we “used” to dominate. Sweden is a pretty solid contender so maybe there is some give there, but China last year? The men’s are next week so hopefully we can salvage one of the two.

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March 25 - not my week so I will just drop it. Went to update last night with the little I had and found out I had an upload issue so I just said S--- It. Sent the ticket to tech support and called it a day.

Looks like we are fixed but it is Friday of a miserable week so as they say - forgeddaboudit!

But before that it would be inappropriate for me to not congratulate the latest OMHA Championship winners. Congrats to:

Novice AA - Champions in a tough series against Barrie and now the proud bearers of the Phil Hendry Trophy for a year.

Bantam AE - For a solid win over Stoney Creek and guard duty over the Ron Smith Trophy

And Remember - the Novice AAA are in the OMHA's in Oakville this weekend and are 1 - 0 - 1 after two games in second place behind Clarington Toros at 2 - 0 - 0. Good luck guys.

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March 24 - Got smoked at Games Night (again). Had to get up this AM at 4:00 to oversee an event and got home in time tonight for grocery shopping so interest level is sub zero. BUT, I will post the late Tuesday, comment on Wednesday and if nothing else update any playoff news.

March 23 - Realized I forgot to update for the 22nd and since tonight is Game Night at Chez Moorehead - not happening.

March 22 – Checking the grid a couple of points.

First, I have no concept of time as I kept wondering why no Midget AAA scores were posted yet – Doh – It is NEXT Monday the 28^th that THEY DROP THE PUCK. Somehow, I had elected to turf a week. Must have been the head cold I had causing a brain fart.

Second – Congrats to the Minor Midget AAs on defeating Ajax to win the OMHA Championship. Other than the Midget AAAs, it has seemed difficult for the “older” squads to pick up OMHA crowns. They took the best of five series in four games. All of them one goal games, all low scoring and one overtime win “on the road”. Sounds like it was a great series and I am sorry I did not see any of it. Oh yes, in addition to their ersatz Gold Medals, they are now the proud owners (for a year) of the Glen Irwin Memorial Trophy.

Eighty – Can’t be! A Canadian icon – at least to some turns 80 today. The Star of one of my early sci-fi TB series favourites – Billy Shatner – AKA Captain James (T. For Tiberius) Kirk, of the Starship Enterprise,

T.J. Hooker of the short lived series of the same name

 and the “beloved”, “bemused” Deny Crane of another of my favourites Boston Legal turns 80. A Canuck who has done well in Tinsel Town Shatner has proved very versatile in his roles and is currently in a TV Sit Com based on a Twitter feed known as %&*%##%&* My Dad Says or something like that. This show was given a snowball’s chance in perdition of getting past a couple episodes but I don’t think it is cancelled yet.

As a surprise reminder to me he was also in the movie Judgement at Nuremberg

 – a great film. He also acted at the Stratford Shakespearean festival in my old home town (or at least one of them).

Quite the irreverent guy who has had some interesting life experiences - take heed of his original series buddy’s mantra and “Live Long and Prosper”!

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March  21 – Spring has arrived – clear signs are it is raining and I had to stand on the GO Train this morning. Whoppee! If April showers bring May flowers than what do March showers bring – more snow?

The weekend was a busy one for hockey. I already noted the tourney results (with some brutal typos - but it was late and I was tired) as they seem to eventually get those up on at least the same day, but some of the “old” playdown dates are finally getting filled in. Not always with good news.

Bantam A - lost their game to Richmond Hill and bow out of that series with Silver (3 – 1 – 0) However, besides the Silver Medal, as finalists they get the Jack Oakes Trophy. I never did understand “finalist” trophies – go big or stay home as you know you did not win.

Peewee AE2 - found they could not handle the Barrie Boys and got swept in that series (3 – 0 – 0). Again as finalists, they pick up Silver Medals and annual rights to the William A. Taylor Trophy.

Atom AA - had the same freight train experience in their tilt with New Tecumseth as the went down 3 straight. Their Silver Medals will be accompanied by the William Garner Memorial Trophy.

Atom AE – On a positive “turnabout is fair play note” the om AEs polished off Flamborough in three straight to win OMHA Gold medals and the much more prestigious Champions trophy, the Ray Neely Memorial Trophy. Congratulations guys.

Bonus – given that the TNT Tornados are hosting the OHF’s and gain admission as the host team, Oakvilles Atom AA team get an invite to the dance as the OMHA representative team based on their silver medal finish. Congrats to TNT who won their way in as Champs and did not have to slide in through the back door. Tough challenge for our local boys!

By my count (based on posted results) that leaves five teams active in the playdown series hunt, separate from the AAA teams in their tourney events.

It won’t be long now until the OHF championships are done and that wonderful season called “try outs” is upon us.

Over / Under - 10 seemed like a good number - a la Jeopardy - What is 10? It is the over / under base on the number of games that the league will give Matt Cooke for his most recent elbow escapade. Coming off of a 4 gamer, and as a repeat offender, you know it will be a bunch.  Seemed like a good thought at the time - But:

This speculation is however outdated, as the league has already ruled and Judge Dread has already ruled on the old BOS + FR (Balance of Season + First Round of the playoffs). Based on how broken the Pens are, that could easily be the rest of the year. So, he got the "10 games" plus possibly as many as 7 more and according to someone who supposedly knows that also represents a forfeit of $219,512.20 in salary - not chicken feed. While it may seem harsh I don't think it is based on his repeat behaviour and apparent total disregard for the safety of and respect to other players. I not Mario is not honking off on this one. With Cooke's record, I hope the message was also that this is the "last chance" - if we see you again - you're gone period!

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March 20 - Congrats to the Minor Atom AAA on their OMHA Championship It took overtime in the Gold Medal game to defeat Halton 3 - 2 for the prize.

It was a less exciting week-end for the MB AAA as they ended up on the short end against Kingston in the Bronze Medal game to finish fourth.

Congrats to the Novice AAA in surviving the last SCTA Qualifying tournament with a win over Brampton. With a final score of 9 - 7 it sounds like it was a classic "he who shoots last - wins. Regardless they punch their ticket to the OMHA Championship round with a long drive to - - Oakville for next weekend.

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March 19 - Great weather - back from "Stick & Puck" and come out of the rink to a warm car! Pulled a quick update on the tourneys:

OMHA MB AAA - in trouble - sitting in 4th with two losses in three games. Not likely to make the gold medal game.

OMHA MA AAA - In good shape for a run at the gold medal game as they have gone 2 - 0 - 1 in their first three.

SCTA N AAA - Will play in the Sunday qualifier as they are 2 - 0 - 1 in their first three games - Tie was another Hamilton match-up. May be good that they are in the same division as they won't play each other in the qualifier games. Hopefully hold that fo the OMHAs.

Back to a lazy Saturday and the dreaded Grocery Shopping!

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March 18 – TGIF – I have it on good authority that the GTA Hospital Emerg. Rooms did a booming business in attending to sprained ankles from Leaf fans jet propelled off the bandwagon after last night’s sorry spectacle against Florida. 4 – 0 against the Panthers pretty well sums it up. Maybe King Clancy was resurrected and took the boys bar hopping for green beer before the game.

Playdowns – Another busy weekend with play-offs progressing on a number of fronts and levels. The Midget AAA’s are off starting Monday to sort of an expanded OHF format as it is known as the Central Region Midget AAA Championship – next step National “Telus” cup so root them on. OMHA Championship tourneys are on starting today for the Minor Bantam and Minor Atom AAAs and the last of the SCTA qualifier tourneys has the Novice’s in action. Pair those up with the regular Playdown series and there is a lot going on. Subject to how well they are posted and my own schedule I will try for a couple of updates over the weekend. If nothing else, the links are on my 2011 Playdown page to make it easier for you to look them up yourself.

Quite Tourney Update:

OMHA

MB AAA – played 1 game and lost 3 – 0 to the York Simcoe Express

MA AAA – have played 1 game and won 5 – 2 over the Whitby Wilcats

SCTA

Novice AAA – Played 2 games and won both – 5 – 1 over St Catherines and 8 – 0 over Niagara Falls

Future Trends – if it is not, it should be a discussion locally – and my position may surprise some people. The topic is “body checking in house league”. Maybe it is semantics but I think the time may have come to relook the local structure. Remove body checking from what is kept as House League and build a League Select division / program in conjunction with other centres..

Setup discussions with Burlington, Halton (Milton), Brampton and even, horror of horrors, the MHL (GTHL) and form a league or leagues with divisions for all the age groups. There has been an interest in the past and I expect a keen interest for the future.

• One of the reasons this was not done before was limited ice time availability and hence the difficulty of league scheduling for home and away games with single teams instead of two and the use of league ice blocks. Guess what – there is now lots of ice in Oakville.

• Schedules could be fully or only partially interlocking for all groups to best manage their ice resources and player experience.

• It provides a closer bridge to Rep hockey than the current Red System. The triangle to the top is more defined and the players moving through Select get a better “flavour” for travel hockey – as do their parents.

• It would allow the appropriate consistent controls to be put on the Select teams and the same for House League so you reduce the “mini NHL” house League teams competing with teams that just want to play a higher calibre of local hockey without necessarily a lot of extra expense or time commitment.

• Hold try-outs and pick teams from them instead of essentially forced drafts where all players are in the pool – not just those who want the higher level of intensity / competition. Players & parents who want it try out for it with their eyes open.

• It clarifies “Oakville’s” teams positions to other centres for other games and tournaments. Maybe House League teams can get into house League tournaments and Select is clearly Select.

• Potentially simplify House League structure. The three tiers are a challenge to run and have some less than positive connotations on occasion. Strip Select out and you can likely revert to reasonable two tier levels with more “fun” for everyone.

• A select program affords even more development opportunities for Coaches, players and officials

What’s the downside?

That is what I think needs to be considered. Yes it would be more work, but isn’t that what folks are supposed to be there for?

Just a thought – What do you think?

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March 17 – And a touch of the Irish to you all most

A very low key St Paddy’s Day for yours truly. Unlike the days of my misspent youth young adulthood, adulthood up to now when an Irish bar was a must, green beer had some novelty and memories were no memories. When I was at P&G I worked with a real Irish – Irish guy and we used to hit a pub at Yonge and Bloor. Speaking of no memory, I can’t remember what it was called but I think it is long gone. St. Paddy 2011 will be a quiet one at home and maybe tip one or two “neat” to Granddad – I born and bred Irishman who left the emerald Isle, to come to Canada and marry of all people an “English” lady –from the family “Summerville”. It doesn’t get any more English than that.

Add Another – Congratulations to the Peewee AE team who last night defeated Orangeville 3 – 2 to win their series three games to none and become OMHA Gold Medal winning champions. Good thing they won as Coach Pavao had sent emails to everyone (including the Pope) inviting them out to Glen Abbey last night to cheer them on to victory. They are now the proud winners of the “Bill Leask Trophy”, emblematic of the OMHA Peewee AE championship.

That brings the local championship count up to four with a bunch more still up for grabs – good luck to all.

Leafs – are going to have to film a made for TV series or Soap about the team that takes forever to die. This ink stained wretch would have to eat a large slice of humble pie should they happen to make the play-offs – BUT THEY WON’T!

Picking up the win last night was hardly a battle of the titans and only happened because their goalie stole them one. There are only so many of those in the kit bag and there are a bunch of the other type too. Let’s see, 11 games to go, four points back to Buffalo who has a game in hand and the Leafs with a pretty tough schedule coming up. I think based on series play that for example if Buffalo wins half of their last 12 games (6), the Leafs would need to win 8 of their 11 and at least tie one more – Hmmmm!

Fore!

Japan – The whole storyline for Japan is very scary – partially due to what the newsmongers are touting as a “lack” of the typical over the top / man on the scene / real time / in depth coverage of every little detail that the jaded North American public is used to. Scenes of CNN newspeople typing themselves to poles so they can broadcast through hurricanes are not happening. Instead, there are three disasters, with comingled effects that are almost under wraps.

Looks into the carnage caused by the earthquake,

The number two punch of the follow-up tsunami and both of those almost completely overshadowed by the lack of play by play on –

The nuclear power plant potential melt down(s).

The magnitude of all the stuff going on there has to be almost beyond comprehension yet the window into it is almost as closed as Japan was during the Shogun years. The current lead articles in the Globe on-line are about some Harper / Tories flap on the hill and only one story is on the Japan situation and that is as innocuous and boring as the UN saying it is serious. Imagine if this was Southern Cal with the San Andreas kicking up instead – Live Eye – All Channels – 24/7.

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March 16 – no big deal because I did not get around to writing much on the 15^th and then did not get it posted anyway. So I will toss it up now.

Not much time to add stuff for today other than to remind folks that playoffs continue, apparently the Minor Peewee As finished off Cobourg 2 – 1 and joined the list as the third Ranger team to win the OMHAs and the first to do it via the series playdown route instead of the increasingly prevalent tourney tilt. Congrats to the team. They had a great run as including their SCTA qualifying games (8) they went an impressive 16 – 1 – 2 with their only loss in the OMHA semis against Niagara Falls. Added to the 22 – 2 – 2 season you get a very impressive 38 – 3 – 4 and that does not count tournaments.

I have not had time to check the rest but did note that the Peewee AEs have a chance to join the winner’s circle if they can beat Orangeville tonight at Glen Abbey. The game is at 7:50 PM so if you are looking for some entertainment tonight head over and cheer them on. There is nothing better than a big championship win in front of a large and loud home crowd. Unfortunately (and fortunately) we can’t make it as it is Game Night at chez Moorehead. So, Good Luck guys.

St Paddy’s Day – is tomorrow so someone better have some of that good stuff in the fridge or I might get into the better stuff in the cupboard. Some of that “Protestant” liquor from Mr. Bushmill. I guess that means that Jameson’s belongs to the ring kissers. It will be interesting to see how many fake Emerald Isler’s show up tomorrow wearing the green.

Finally - just because I can, I have to suggest that this is seriously sick! AND I mean that in the traditional sense, not current lingo. Vegging my way into work yesterday, I saw a picture in one of the local rags with the following headline: "Bieber’s purple sneakers enshrined at Bata Shoe Museum"

The picture that got my attention was:

Now I like to consider myself as "open-minded and tolerant" (some will challenge) but this is simply off the scale with me.

First enshrining a 16? year old kid's shoe in a museum (even if it is Bata) is ridiculous. BUT even more out there are the "kids" that are there drooling / swooning / freaking over it!! A Shoe!! Hopefully these are not any of your kids identifiable here but if they are, they need some serious therapy.  These are the next world leaders and they are going Ga Ga over a pair of sneakers!

Unbelievable. And on that not I think I will go get thumped at Catan and watch the Leafs. At least there is some reality there.

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March 15 – Already struck down by the Ides of March. First by the foul head cold, and then by some lousy proofing (or none) of yesterday’s stuff. Last I heard, 3-1 is not a shutout so I have gone back and fixed that and another boo-boo as well. For a while, I also had Scott Hamilton (the skater) instead of Scott Mackenzie (the coach but I did catch that. Surprised I did not also try Scott(y) Morrison the referee. My story is that it was the drugs talking (NyQuil) and not just carelessness on my part.

I actually enjoyed coming home in “daylight” yesterday – a sure sign of spring coming and DST is kicking in as well, as I did not leave early. The weather also showed some promise of warming up and sunshine – both good things AND the snow is just about gonzo. Things are looking up. Spring must be just about here which also means the Leafs must be just about eliminated from playoff contention. They took a big step in that direction last night by getting smoked by Tampa Bay. Twelve games left, six points back, teams to pass. Done – Again!

March break – is pretty boring if you are stuck in your usual routine. Looks like “getting away” is still popular as my office is a bit of a ghost town. For those of us still minding the store it is tough to get things done when so many people are missing, I guess the good news is that the southern flight has opened up a number of good seats on my GO Train (or seats in general).

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March 14 – First and foremost congratulations to the Midget AAAs and the Minor Peewee AAAs. Both successfully navigated their way through the SCTAs (double OT needed for the Midgets), played their way into and then won the OMHA Gold Medal game to emerge as champions. The Midgets defeated Whitby 2-1 and if the score can be believed, the Minor Peewees shut out the Barrie Colts 3-0.

A special acknowledgement to the Midgets and their staff as this marks back to back OMHA championships for this team as they won down in Quinte last year. Someone needs to go through the archives and find out when Oakville had the last back to back winners at any level but especially AAA? Does it go as far back as Scott Mackenzie’s team or did I forget someone?

SCTAs – Stepping back a notch to one of my favourite whipping boys, the SCTA had four divisions in qualifiers this past weekend to determine who goes to the OMHAs. Of the four, only the Peewees were not able to get to Sunday’s “Qualifying” Game.

Of the others, Minor Bantam, Atom and Minor Atom:

The Minor Bantam AAA defeated Grey-Bruce 7-3 and move on to their OHMA Championship Weekend.

The Atom AAA came up on the wrong end of a 3-1 score against Hamilton and will not be moving on.

The Minor Atom AAA avenged the Atoms with a 4-2 win against Hamilton and now head off to the OMHA Championship Weekend as well.

Only the Novice need to deal with the SCTAs yet and they have that pleasure this weekend.

In looking at the results this year (so far), it looks like Oakville has come up against Hamilton in a lot of big games this year. The big rivalry always seemed to be Burlington but maybe there’s “A new kid in Town”.

Playdowns – A number have hit what could be deciding games – most in Oakville’s favour. However, it looks like the New Tecumseth org is a force to be reckoned with as the Rangers are currently on the short end of the stick in both of those.

Japan – for anyone (and that has to be close to everyone) watching results unfold here, you do not know how to comment on the disaster, hardship and horrendous future that is facing a huge number of the Japanese people. That is those fortunate enough to have survived so far. While the official death count was somewhere around 2,000 last I saw that number is simply a placeholder while they add up all the missing and in all probability dead. They are quoting 10.000 to 12,000 missing in towns of 15,000 people! Apparently over 1,000 bodies have washed ashore at one spot alone. Think of the impact to lives and families if places like – Collingwood, Orangeville, Midland, Huntsville, Grimsby were just “wiped out” – That’s the equivalent! Besides the casualties the entire country’s infrastructure has taken a huge hit – e.g., the power generation capacity with the reactors essentially out of commission and at risk for a melt down. From the stories and videos, I just cannot imagine what it is going to take, time, energy, dollars to put some semblance of normalcy back into play in some of these areas.

Snuffleupagus

Is exactly the way I feel after coming down with the old stuffed head and nasal drip congestion. Hopefully this is a passing fad as a couple days of this is already a couple of das too many. I do not make a good patient.

The Wire – was one of those Cops and Bad Guys shows that ran (I think from 2002 – 08) focusing on the challenges of drug gangs and the police in Baltimore. I never watched it while it was “up”( that’s wire talk) but it is my current download series. The basic story line is cops using wiretaps to catch bad guys. In a case of Reality reflecting TV (as compared to TV reflecting Reality), the actress who played “Snoop”, a gangsta,, violence luvin shooter for the Stanfield drug gang, has been arrested (in Baltimore) on a variety of drug charges as the result of a big raid and “sweep”. She has a bit of a past sheet, but insists she is innocent on this go around and does not know why she was arrested!? Hmmm.

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March 13 - A Sunday AM post on a mixed bag weekend:

Leafs – should just lose already so we can get on with it. I really thought Buffalo would hammer the nail yesterday.

Grapes –“Thumbs down” -  the green hay must have addled his mind as I am disappointed that he did not support any kind of extra punishment for Chara. The give him 20 or nothing approach is just a cop out. When you listene to what he said on that segment it really was not much. Blaming “the boards” was a nice deflect – and there is some truth to it but it avoids the real issue of what level of physicality is reasonable and necessary for the game and when does it cross the line. Telling us that these examples (shown) went unpunished is not a good reason to continue the practice.

Howard – finally knocked off his nemesis (Martin) in the Brier 3 – 4 playoff in a pretty decent game to watch and then got past NL in the semi – very much because of a wide open miss on a draw for two by NL in the 6^th that would have scored a deuce and changed the whole nature of the last four ends. Tonight’s tilt with Stoughton should be a good one but I may miss it.

Head Colds / Sinus – are miserable this time of year and I have a dandy. Do I go to the do tonight? Or stay home? I have a busy “don’t care if you are sick or not” type of work week coming up so I can hardly wait.

DST – Almost forgot about the clock change last night but since it robs me (the sick one) of an hours sack time it is not something you do forget.

Globe – continues to split it’s content between the disaster in Japan with the nuclear meltdown danger and hockey head shots. If you are interested in today’s “kid” story read here.

Hockey – Meanwhile let’s look at the “Tournament” week-end events based on what is posted as of this AM – both the silly SCTA’s and the OMHA Championship events. For some reason, there is a wide disparity in the promptness of the posting. I guess due to the interest, capabilities and facility access at the “site”.

OMHA

From Oakville’s perspective, two at play.

Midget AAAs – went 4 – 0 – 0 in the round robin and are in the Gold Medal game at 1:30 PM against the Whitby Wildcats. Oakville beat Whitby 4 – 1 in their game but as they say, that means nothing now.

Minor Peewee AAAs – One of those “unposted” sites. For some reason, only the first two games are in! I give up.

SCTAs

Minor Bantam AAA, Atom AAA and Minor Atom AAA made it to todays Qualifier game.

The Peewee AAAs unfortunately did not – the ties hurt.

Series

I have tried to update these as well but the update process is even more lackadaisical here.

March Break – I guess is underway – not for me. Back to the salt mines tomorrow – regardless of the sniffles.

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March 11 – Quick hit tonight. First it is tough to come up with much with the news blanketing the catastrophe in Japan. Everything else ends up pretty insignificant. Plus, it is late and I just want to relax and watch the 1 - 2 game from the Brier. Tomorrow's 3 - 4 game will be the one to watch as Howard tries to overcome the Martin jinx.

I did update the playdown info with what is new - not much, but the highlight I spotted so far is that the Midget AAAs have won their first two games. Keep it going guys. I like this team. They are a fast skating team that on the whole maintains their discipline and can move the puck. They have showed some pretty plays in games I have seen and I really hope they continue to do well. Good job by Tom, Mario and staff.

Chara - controversy continues. The NHL in my opinion continues on its merry arrogant ways and just keeps digging themselves in deeper. The Commish's cavalier attitude to Air Canada concerns and possible sponsorship withdrawal was a classic:

“Air Canada is a great brand, as is the National Hockey League, and if they decide they need to do other things with their sponsorship dollars that’s their prerogative, just like it’s the prerogative of our clubs that fly on Air Canada to make other arrangements if they don’t think Air Canada is giving them the appropriate level of service.”

Care and feeding of sponsors is apparently not important to the NHL or perhaps this is just another "Macho Man" wannabe. If I am AC - I pull the plug. Tiny Perfect has made clear what he thinks of them.

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March 10 – Regardless of your team point of view, I am sure that most hockey fans will have a “game” point of view on Zdeno Chara’s hit on Max Pacioretty. Recognizing that the NHL has so far (unbelievably) chosen not to apply any additional punishment – fine or suspension to Chara (and has announced and backed themselves into a corner on that decision), this one is far from over.

Never short of an opinion, my view, subject to spending more time on this (and so far, I must confess I have been living in a cave and not even seen the video), is that Chara should have received additional discipline. I will find the video on YouTube (safe bet is there are several to choose from), watch it and post it, potentially as part of a more considered rumination on the subject (or not),. I would suggest that both games and a fine are not just appropriate but should have been a slam dunk to levy. The fine, because while it is probably a meaningless number to the big buck players, it will come out of his pocket and makes a point – make it a big one and give it to Max (bills / pain & suffering and loss income?) The games – because that is how you make it hurt. The Bruins are embroiled in playoff positioning and putting their Captain and a star in the stands is a good way to get the message across about this type of “hit” not being part of the game. Unless there are meaningful consequences, both personal and organizational, there is little likelihood of any meaningful change. Everyone will talk about how horrible such an “accident” was, how terrible they feel about it, that there clearly was no intent to hurt anybody and that it was an unfortunate and unavoidable part of the game. Crap!

What we will never know, and Chara denies it, is if he had the overall situational awareness of what his positioning was and if he had any sort of unconscious intent to hammer Max into the boards and stanchion. Was this an action not really connected to the play and simply an example of one player impressing his physicality on another as possible a “message”? I find it hard to believe that as a pro like Chara, who knows he is a big guy and can choose to throw his weight around when he wants to, making that play along the boards having no idea of the situational aspects of the play and the potential risk – and I like Chara. Most people I talk to seem to think he knew and directed, intentionally or not Max into the divider.

Part of my easy decision for additional discipline is that this hit was judged outside the rules on the spot by the zebras - (major interference penalty) and not a “clean” play. I am also coming to believe that there needs to be more “equitable” punishment to the “doer” in a play like this. If you break the rules and someone gets hurt – you need to pay a price. Easier said than done but today there is really no deterrent. No fine / no games is meaningless as is a slap on the wrist and a few games off does not necessarily mean much. At this time of year the guys may appreciate the rest!

For an organization supposedly trying to “safety-up” the game, I find this “no additional penalty” decision amazing and as can be seen from the overall coverage and subsequent potential actions it seems like a lot of folks think the same way.

Point 1 – Air Canada noise about withdrawing sponsorship.

Point 2 – Quebec (partisan) prosecutor wanting and getting a police criminal investigation.

Point 3 – All kinds of articles.

So far I have not seen anything or anyone supporting the NHL’s position. It will be interesting Saturday night to get the Grape’s perspective from Coaches Corner. I would be surprised, and disappointed if he holds Chara blameless on this one.

Another black eye (in my opinion) for the tiny perfect Commish.

Here is the video if you have not already seen it - again and again!

Playdowns – tomorrow and the weekend promise to be another very busy hockey time. Not discounting the House League play-off battles underway, the Rep OMHA final playdown series are gearing up. There are more of the SCTA Silly Sessions underway and OMHA Tournament Championships are on the go as well, with the Oakville Midget AAAs involved – good luck guys. Hopefully I will get a chance to see something, but I am out of town for a secret special birthday party on Sunday so that may play havoc with my schedule.

Typical news day – with all the serious stuff going on in the world, it is also interesting to see some of the other “lead” stories that are featured:

Two years for hamster death? New York teen faces charges

Mom faces jail time after using 10-year-old daughter as designated driver

Employee fired for f-bomb tweet on Chrysler account

Trump ‘more serious than ever’ about a possible presidential bid

That was just a quick grab! There is so much more scintillating “must know” news out there.

Tim Hortons – Do the Math. While I am so sick of the RRRRRoll up the Rim commercials to the point that I am ready to do violence to my TV – especially while watching curling, do some quick math on the business.

The cup says there are over 47,000,000 food prizes available (+ another 31,140 in the real prizes). Given that they are touting that you have a “1 n 6” chance of winning, that suggests that they are planning to pump out over 282,000,000 cups (medium or larger) of Java during the promotion. At say $1.50 a pop cup, the promo number on coffee sales alone during this period has to be getting close to half a Billion Bucks! Factor in the gross margin on a cup of coffee and you have to go “Oh Mama”! No wonder the prize of a Timmy’s franchise is so high and no wonder people go for it.

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March 8 - Well whatever the scoring / recording / game issue was with the Atom AEs, it seems to be resolved with a reinstatement of the series win and moving on to the finals. Now my counts of yesterday count and we can move on.

Shrove Tuesday - had to cook my pancakes tonight on this multi faceted day. Let's see - Shrove Tuesday, Pancake Day and International Women's day are all the same day! At the risk of getting waxed (pun intended) one could make all kinds of jokes about that.

Regardless, too much to do tonight to spend any more time here.

Hopefully the Leafs get waxed (today's term in honour of the ladies) by JT and the miserable Islanders tonight.

Hopefully there is another big brawl in the Habs - Bruins rematch - goalies punch-up.

Hopefully G Howard and company bring their A game to knock Stoughton out of the perfect column and grab a share of first (Curling for the uninitiated). By the way, The Star ought to be pilloried for this one. It is almost impossible to even find a mention of this week's Brier in London - a national title in a sport almost synonymous with Canada (reigning men's gold medalists - women blew it) and it doesn't rate coverage but they can feature a story on Tom Brady dancing! Get real!

Hopefully K Martin snaps out of his funk after finally losing a Brier game  (he got thumped). He had won 30 in a row which was a tremendous accomplishment at this level! and

Hopefully Mike Weir figures out how to golf again and gets his tour card back - BUT I think he's done.

Plus I need to watch the last two episodes of Season 3 of the Wire.

So much to do, so little time. Need to go stock up on my sackcloth and ashes (for Lent).

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March 7 – With apologies to the Bantam AAA’a, I left an “A” out of my quick note from yesterday (fixed) – guess that was why it was a quick note. Regardless, a tough loss for them but it sounds like they gave it their best shot.

It really was a flip versus the Midget AAA game with Hamilton as the Rangers also finished 5th in their loop (like Hamilton Midgets), were playing first place Hamilton (like the Oakville Midgets) and were not "supposed" to win.

They say all good things come to he who is willing to wait. I doubt it, but, finally the last of the semi-final results are in  are almost in (see below) and the Peewee AE’s and the Minor Peewee A’s both advance to the finals. The MP A’s using the non traditional 6 points and not three wins to take the best of five inn five with two ties. Gotta hate that from the “losing” side but them’s the breaks.

Now all of the series Playdowns move on to the final series (which I prefer) while the AAAs continue with the SCTA Qualifying tournaments and at the same time age groups have round two, the OMHA Championship weekend tournaments.

Oakville has got a solid representation of teams heading into the OHMA Championship finals / Tournaments.

With a number of Qualification events to go, both the Midget AAA and Minor Peewee AAA are off to the finals.

From Tri-county, 11 teams are heading off to or already into their Championship Series. – MM AA, B A, B AE, MB AE, PW AE, PW AE2, MP A, MP AE, A AA, A AE and N AA. Looking at it another way, Three AA teams, two A teams and six AE teams. As usual, Oakville seems to perennially show more proportionate success with the “lower level” teams as one works down from AAA – AE. In any event, 11 out of 25 going to the finals is pretty good.

Turns out the above is a bit premature as when I went back in to check updates and links the Atom AE versus Georgina was not over and the OMHA link to the final had been removed – a Booboo. Hopefully the game from the 6^th – not posted yet – was an Oakville win or a tie which would re-energize the comments above.

History – just for the fun of it I have pulled back up my 2010 Playdown page and stuck it on the nav bar. Now you can compare how Team X did or is doing this year, as compared to last year when they were a year younger. Same or different players, same or different coaches, same or different opponents.

Leafs – had a bit of a rude awakening on the weekend against Chicago. They hit a good team that is hot and found out what happens when their own “hot” goalie cools off. Some wise sportswriter is suggesting that they need to win 11 of their last 16 games to make the play-offs! Not going to happen. Neither the 11 wins or the play-offs is in the cards. While everyone is now thrilled about Kessel’s scoring touch coming back. Check some of the +/- numbers for him and his line mates – coyote ugly!

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Quick note - Hamilton returned the Midget AAA favour and beat Oakville 2 - 1 in Double OT at the Bantam AAA SCTA and the Minor Midgets lost 2 - 1 as well. Both are eliminated.

March 6 - Just a quick update after coming back from the SCTA Midget qualifiers and a "note" that it almost happened again. It took a good goal in double overtime for Oakville to beat a desperate Hamilton team that their own parents felt were lucky to even be there and who rode some luck and a hot goalie to push "The Game" to the double OT conclusion.

Congrats to the Oakville guys who deserve the win and the trip to the OMHA Championships in Halton next weekend.

Hamilton went ahead twice - 1- 0 on a power play goal and then 2 - 1 on a fluke goal when the Oakville keeper miscued and fell. Despite clearly outplaying Hamilton, it took a late goal to tie and then the eventual winner in double OT for the local guys to advance. They were one shot away form being eliminated.

Overtime Winner (long shot - bad lighting but I got it anyway.

Season standings

Oakville 1st - 36 games - 30 - 2 - 4
Hamilton 5th - 17 - 13 - 6
And it gets set up as a one game winner take all? Do not agree!!

By the way, the Minor Peewee AAA guys won 6 - 3 in their qualifier and advance to the OMHA Championships (in Halton as well)

No report yet on the Bantams and Minor Midgets yet.

Couple of early action shots for each goalie - they both know how to knock the net off when needed!

and the other guy

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March 5 - Went to watch the Midget AAA fourth game this afternoon. They were already 3 - 0 - 0 and assured of a spot in Sunday's Qualifier games and were playing Niagara Falls who were already eliminated. In short, not the kind on game you want to be in with midgets playing against a "who cares because my year is over" team.

It was not the best game I have ever seen but Oakville won handily with a 6 - 1 score and things did not start to get silly until the third period and fortunately it did not go "way south" like it could have.

Got a shot of Oakville's second goal that turned out to be the winner.

As a "who cares", I noticed the lighting was much darker at Joshua's Creek Arenas than it was at 16 Mile. With a camera it is easy to tell as at JC I was shooting f4.5 at 1/60 versus 16 mile and f4.5 at 1/250 or better. A big difference. Definitely not TV lights.

Meanwhile back at the game, a third period shot of Tom and Mario trying to figure out how to stay out of trouble! Good luck tomorrow.

Playdowns - looks like several more local guys have made it to the OMHA finals now as my latest update (again games not posted that were played two days ago!) now shows nine Ranger teams have qualified for the Championship finals - this is at the AA, A, and AE levels.

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March 3 - Took me a few days to get in for my first March post. It also won't be a long one as it is games night at Chez Moorehead and I think Number 1 son is coming over to challenge us all in another rousing game of the Settlers of Catan that has now been included to bring in the Seafarers version and Cities and Knights to create an awe inspiring strategic challenge. Now if you screw up early - you're DONE! Given that yours truly did screw up last time (plan did not work) I am out for revenge tonight.

Quick Notes

Social Media - What does it say about our society when a Screwball like Charlie Sheen signs on to Twitter and in less than 24 hours has over 1,000,000,000 acolytes following his "tweets". Clearly waiting for the next self destructive melt-down - but a million followers just like that - unbelievable.

Leafs - still confident that they will not make the play-offs but they are going to give a lot of ankles and the bandwagon quite a workout. Not to mention the blue funk that will settle on the faithful when they are "mathematically" eliminated - probably in their last game on a bad goal.

Playdowns progress - congrats to a number of Oakville teams who have made it to the finals:

• Bantam A

• Peewee AE2

• Minor Peewee AE

• Atom AA

• Novice AA

And some more knocking on the door (or already in subject to getting the scores posted. I have updated what I can.

SCTA - Remember that the silly series brought to you by your local ice schedulers start this week-end. Let's see if the one game "jinx" bites anyone this year? The schedules are up and the links are on my playdown page.

BYU - would not be my first choice as a school and likely not even a choice! The feeling would probably be mutual based on the environment. The school has just suspended one of their top round ball stars for the balance of the season for "allegedly" having indulged in premarital sex with his girl friend. The School was theoretically an NCAA top bracket contender but apparently not any more.

As per the Star, all students must sign the school's honour pledge that requires followers to:

 “live a chaste and virtuous life,” “participate regularly in church services” and “abstain from alcoholic beverages, tobacco, tea, coffee and substance abuse,” among other things. Men are not allowed to grow beards, while women are prohibited from wearing sleeveless, revealing or form-fitting clothing. Not every student, however, must be a Mormon.

I would have no issue with the chaste and virtuous life, but the "no coffee" is a deal breaker!

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