hockey blog april09

April 30, 2009

Another rink last night, this time for lacrosse. Halton Hills beat Oakville midget 1 Hawks, it was something big to 1.

Many things to work on after that and coaches sent the team back onto the floor after the game to run the lines.

File that experience under "You Know You Had a Bad Night When . . ."

Better days ahead.

- - -

Round 2 of the NHL playoffs -- conference semi finals -- start tonight with Chicago and Vancouver playing their opening match.

My round 1 record was 6-2, respectable but those series are easier to call. So, here are my calls for the next round. As usual, this is only an exhibition so no wagering:

Vancouver vs. Chicago: My desire to see a Canadian franchise go deep in the playoffs collides with my admiration for the young Hawks and my innate predisposition to believe Vancouver will find a way to muck this up. So, Hawks in seven.

Anaheim vs. Detroit: The Wings won't roll over the Ducks the way they rolled over Columbus, and their goaltending challenges will now be more on display. Having said that, Detroit is still the sleeper in the West and what I'm going to call the depending champions. Yes, they won last year. Whether they can do it again will depend on whether they can cover for their goalie with offence. As Obama might say, yes they can. Wings in six.

Pittsburgh vs Washington: This is the NHL's marquee matchup -- Ovechkin vs Crosby. Not to mention Semin vs. Malkin. I like the Pens in this because Crosby is from Nova Scotia and he's a class guy who brings the donuts. Seriously, the Pens have been on a tear, losing only three of their last 25 games whereas the Caps record is not nearly so hot. I also like the Pens goaltending better. Pens in seven.

Carolina vs. Boston: I'd love to see the 'Canes win this one. I'd love to see Paul Maurice get an opportunity to write a letter to the brains at MSLE and tell them what life's like in the final four. I'd love all of that and more. But Boston is too big, too strong, and what they did to Montreal was no fluke. Bruins in five.

- - -

If you want to read one informed opinion on the Pens-Caps series, click here.

- - -

Mike Keenan -- who for the second spring in a row has led Calgary to a second consecutive first-round defeat -- is on the hot seat in Cow Town and people close to the game expect he's going to walk the plank.

Read more here on the probable demise of Iron Mike.

- - -

Yet more reading for you -- this on Martin Brodeur.

Those last 80 seconds in the series with Carolina put a devastating smudge on an otherwise sparkling run by the Devils' legendary 'keeper.

And according to one columnist, it has delayed for now his ability to claim the "best ever" label.

Read more here.

- - -

This morning's non-hockey drivel:

General Motors -- which has more challenges than the Red Wings' goaltending coach -- announced earlier this week it was scrapping the Pontiac brand.

Generally, no great loss for me. Recent versions of the Pontiac are part of what got GM in the pickle it is in.

But my favourite car ever was indeed a Pontiac. A REAL Pontiac.

The first car I ever owned -- and I had to get a car because I wasn't allowed to drive my dad's (and I'll save for another day the story about how I had to take down a rock wall, widen the driveway removing one wheelbarrow of dirt at a time, then rebuild the wall) -- was a well-used 1972 Datsun 510.

My friends, using the tag line from a popular children's toy at the time, used to say of it that the wheels wobbled but they don't fall off (which wasn't actually true, but again, a story for another day.)

Eventually, the Datsun died, along with the brand name (it's a now Nissan to all you kids out there.)

A friend of my dad knew a guy who knew a guy and there was a car. A bright white 1966 Pontiac Grande Parisienne two-door coupe. It was a boat, it was low mileage and it was cheap -- I think I paid $800 for it. It even fit in the driveway.

It was one of only two occasions of love at first sight in my life and that car became my calling card. It had to be, because it was hard to sneak up on people in a car that big.

It was big enough to house a family of six, or a lot of beer cases, hockey gear, school books (in pristine condition, never opened) and a lot of other stuff.

Eventually, we parted -- the price of gas and a student income forced me into a Honda Civic.

But me and that Pontiac with its small-block 283 that even I could work on was just a pure joy of my youth.

My dad still won't let me drive his car, but you can behold the wonder of the 1966 Pontiac Grande Parisiennne by clicking here. It is a classic.

They don't make 'em like that anymore. And they never will.

If you want to read about the one man's view on the demise of the Pontiac, you can find it here. I was never much of a gear head, but what he says makes some sense to many, I'm sure.

April 29, 2009

I was in a rink last night that was mercifully sprinkled with TV monitors so I happened to catch the most interesting 90 seconds of hockey in this playoff season.

Carolina stunned -- and if you saw the moment, you'd know there was really no other word for it -- the Devils with two goals in the last 80 seconds to win the game and the series 4-3.

Talk about the air rushing out of the balloon. Wow.

Read more here.

- - -

Caps' goon Donald Brashear gets six games for a premeditated elbow smash to the head of Ranger Blair Betts, which resulted in the shattering of the orbital bone in Betts' face and removes him from playoff hockey probably for the rest of 2009.

It was a cowardly hit on a guy who didn't have the puck and had no reason to think he was about to get a cheap shot like that. If the NHL had any balls, they suspend Brashear for as long as Betts is out, and add 10 games to that.

But they're don't.

You can read about the incident here.

And if you want to see how thugs play the game, click on the video below. Fast forward to the 50 second mark to see the hit.

- - -

Good news for my sloth-like kids, who are at the stage of life where they would rather stay up late and sleep in late than do pretty much anything else. A new study suggests the people sleeping in perform better than the hapless souls like me who can often be spotted on the 7:05a train.

Read more here.

- - -

If you want to read about how you don't want your kids to treat you in your golden years, you have to read this story. The Astor family has been the heart of New York high society for decades. The trial of one of the sons, accused of abusing his elderly mother and stealing $50 million from her, is peeling back the lid on the moneyed classes and is the scandal du jour down south.

Read about it here.

- - -

I think I should stop now before I go further off topic.

April 27, 2009

Field lacrosse. Spring field lacrosse. In the icy days of winter our memories are usually of warm days, sun-dappled pitches and time spent with friends.

But memory is a cruel thing, and it's easy to forget the reality.

The original forecast for Sunday was hot and sunny, revised to cold and rainy, revised again Sunday morning to 16 and clearing.

Ha! Sixteen would have felt life the Bahamas to us.

No, what we got was seven degrees under grey, dark skies with a raw biting wind that would peel the skin off your cheeks.

Welcome back to spring field lacrosse.

The boys had a fairly good start to the season, dropping a 4-2 decision to traditional powerhouse Six Nations in a very close game, and then dumping Hamilton 8-2 in the evening game at McMaster University's Ron Joyce Stadium (in front of a less-than-capacity crowd.) So, on balance a good start for the Hawks.

On the sidelines, we shivered.

I wore jeans and a t-shirt. Over the t-shirt was a fleece. Over the fleece I wore a wind-proof spring jacket. Over that, I wore a heavy wool winter coat. And I wore gloves. And a ball cap. And it was still cold.

Not so cold that my camera didn't work, and I snapped this shot that looks more like a scene from the Mount Everest base camp than moms watching field lacrosse.

Next weekend: Kitchener.

- - -

We came home in between games yesterday so we managed to see a little of the Caps beating laid upon the Rangers. That series is now headed for a Game 7 and even though I picked the Rangers (and I'll stand by that pick) I'm glad I have no money riding on the outcome.

The Rangers look like a beaten team. And what's going on -- in my uninformed view -- is that now that Lundqvist is playing average hockey, the many sins of the very average performance in front of him are being exposed. There's still much to like about the Rangers -- on paper.

But this one looks like it's not just slipping away, it looks like an avalanche falling on the Rangers.

Read a pretty good overview of Sunday's mess at the MSG here.

- - -

The Flames and the Sharks both try to avoid elimination tonight.

- - -

So off-topic Monday reading for you. Some of this is a little deeper than normal but just read slowly and plow through it. There's a good chance of a pop quiz later in the week.

Like many of you, I keep an eye on the economy, watching the bailouts, the price of oil, the creaking American financial system, the terrible state of the North American Big Three auto makers, and even things like the emerging swine flu threat.

I wish there would be some good news sometime soon. Golf courses are open. That's good. But you know what I mean.

Everything I read suggests we're nowhere close to turning a corner on the economy yet.

But I saw something interesting in the New York Times that I wanted to point out. And it's a story on how after a bad year, pay on Wall Street is bouncing back. For example, Goldman Sachs is on a pace for average per worker -- per worker!! -- compensation of about $570,000. (And yes, they took federal bailout money.) And since you can be fairly sure the admin staff aren't making $500k, you do the math.

That amount would roughly match the bank's best year -- 2007.

Anyway, you can (and should) read about that here.

Now, here's the tough part.

If you read that story, then you have to read this column by Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman, who is basically standing on the corner with his hands on his hips yelling, "WTF??"

You can find it here.

- - -

Sorry to be so weighty on a Monday morning. Regular triteness and frivolity will resume shortly.

It's supposed to be a lovely day, so get away from your desk and try to enjoy it.

April 26, 2009

A brief update today:

We didn't make it to the Buzz home opener but they beat Sarnia 11-5 and I'm told there were a lot of penalties.

Gee. Who'd a thunk?

I spent two hours or so at River Oaks watching the minor bantam AE/A tryouts and the midget "skate" all of which was a wildly entertaining way to spend a Friday night. The 1996 tryout had about 50 skaters and maybe 800 goalies.

We had the usual whirl of house league lacrosse officiating and games yesterday and right now I've got one foot out the door for Hamilton for a day of field lacrosse.

The sunny skies have been supplanted with fog and rain, but the weatherman promises it will dissipate so we'll optimistically pack the sun screen.

- - -

I only was able to see a little of the Pens-Flyers game, and the Flyers must be wondering what happened. For those keeping score at home, I'm now four for four on calling series that have competed. Pens, Bruins, Canucks and Wings are waiting for the next round.

Chicago hammered the Flames, pushing them to the brink of elimination, and San Jose stayed alive with a win over the Ducks.

- - -

Me and Pad went in search of a new box lacrosse cage for his hockey helmet yesterday. While driving down Dorval we passed a group of folks on motorcycles -- large Harleys, actually.

The riders were of a certain age -- mature and responsible, you could tell. And over their leathers, they were wearing florescent orange vests with big yellow Xs on them.

This seems entirely sensible -- bikers often complain about we dolts on four wheels not seeing them.

But.

As Pad observed, it may make sense from a safety point of view, but it's hard to look badass in a florescent orange vest with big yellow X.

Perhaps. But I don't think this group was aiming for "badass" and we saw them, right?

- - -

With regard to the Susan Boyle makeover, this just in from The New York Times.

Looks matter.

This is devastating news to rumbled minor hockey coaches everywhere.

Read more here.

I'm off to Hamilton. Bring on the sunshine!

April 24, 2009

Detroit eliminated Columbus last night, but my analogy about their goaltending and milk crates stands. Ugly. Read more here.

The Sharks are now inexplicably at death's door after losing again last night to the Ducks, and face elimination in the next game.

Philly stayed alive, and Brodeur got his revenge.

Read all about it all.

- - -

In Montreal, the finger pointing has started and Bob Gainey is blaming . . . Tampa Bay?

Huh?

Bob says that when Tampa leaked the names of the Habs who were in play to be part of a blockbuster deal to bring Vincent Lecavalier to Montreal, the wheels came off the bus and nothing was the same afterwards.

My theory: injuries, inconsistent goaltending and a couple too many prima donnas in the room didn't help.

Read more here.

- - -

MOHA news:

There will be voting at the organization's AGM next month, but not for any of the executive positions.

Mark Bentley was acclaimed to a two-year term as president and Rich Garrie was acclaimed as treasurer.

So, like, meet the new boss, same as your old boss.

But the number of applicants/nominees for the board is slightly over subscribed -- 14 folks vying for a dozen positions -- so there will be a ballot.

Bring a pencil to the AGM, May 21 at town hall.

- - -

You'll often see me in the stands at hockey and lacrosse games leafing through the pages of the stacks of academic research journals I subscribe to, naturally looking for the latest diet fad so I can lose that final two pounds and be in peak physical condition for my ice dancing training regime.

At last, pay dirt.

Academia is abuzz with talk of the latest diet craze that you won't see the Hollywood stars using, but apparently it's all the rage among tweedy Ivy League types.

And you can read about it here.

- - -

Back to hockey:

A Bruins fan passes along the following video on dating rules for Bruins fans. It's good advice really. I just feel bad about the spilled beer.

Hal, roll the tape.

- - -

The Oakville Buzz play their 2009 home opener tonight at Glen Abbey against Sarnia. Game time is 8p.

Now, Pad has a Ranger skate tonight (not a tryout mind you, but a skate. A skate is where you pay $10 and no one tells you where you stand, as opposed to a tryout where cuts are made and kids are signed to cards. I understand midget rosters can't be completely filled until after junior teams start making their cuts in August and September. That makes sense. But four spring midget "skates" at $10 a pop starts to feel like a cash grab for an organization that already has $1 million in the bank. Charge $4 a head and break even. It doesn't need to be a fundraiser when the organization has lots of my money already. Sorry. I'm feeling dizzy now. I'll sit down. I'll ask about it at the AGM.)

Anyway . . . the Buzz. Home opener. Tonight. A midget skate at the same time.

I've already received a threat to my well being if I miss the Buzz game. And the horse's head in the driveway this morning with Dan Dawson's picture stapled to it was a little unsettling, to say nothing of messy.

So negotiations are underway to try and achieve a good result in the interests of midget hockey, junior B lacrosse and equestrians everywhere.

Quite seriously, the Buzz games are great entertainment value. You can see highly tuned athletes performing with great skill, and often meet some of them outside between periods as they enjoy a smoke and a chew.

Oakville minor lacrosse players get in free. Old guys like me pay.

Catch the fever!

- - -

Frumpy Be Gone! (Sorry, I'm working on a new career as a headline writer for a tabloid.)

Susan Boyle -- the YouTube sensation and Scottish woman who floored folks at the reality show Britain Has Talent -- has had the inevitable makeover, transforming her look from what it was, how to put it? -- a cross between Colin Montgomery and Mrs. Doubtfire -- to, um, well . . . Mrs. Doubtfire's better looking sister.

Or something.

Anyway, read the story, see the picture, live the dream here.

Also, earlier this week I pointed out Globe TV writer John Doyle's column that followed closely some of the thinking I also had on the Susan Boyle thing. Well, he got letters. Basically, a lot of readers called him a kill joy. I love it.

Read his follow up here.

- - -

Tomorrow house league lacrosse returns to its rightful home at Glen Abbey where the truly twisted can watch two games at once ~~and piss away most of an entire Saturday eating those really good homemade chocolate chip cookies they sell at the canteen~~.

By some act of divine intervention from the Gods of Minor Sport Officiating and Scheduling, my kids are game officials simultaneously for two hours on opposite floors -- Pad refereeing on one floor, Chris timekeeping on the other.

Naturally this happens when the game is five minutes from our house. Last weekend there was no such luck, hence the FOUR trips to Maplegrove and the addition of several hundred tons to my already impressive carbon footprint.

Chris then plays a house league game late in the day, and Pad will retire to a large dent in the sofa in front of the hockey game and eat red meat.

Sunday brings spectacular weather -- last I heard, sunny skies and a humidex of 30 were forecast -- for the first weekend of midget field lacrosse. Sunday's games are in scenic Hamilton, where the fields will be lined with sarcastic but supportive parents in folding lawn chairs enjoying the great outdoors and young men pounding one another mercilessly with metal sticks.

I'll be there and I'll put on sun screen and I'll still get burned. But I love field lacrosse season.

- - -

Wherever you go this weekend, drive carefully. If you beat on someone with a metal stick, do it with a smile.

And hug your kids.

April 23, 2009

Two days ago, Canada's constitutional head of state celebrated her 83rd birthday. Surrounded as she is by an array of insane relatives, The Queen has endured remarkably well. So, happy birthday to her majesty and all that rot. You can read more here on her, her life and all the interesting things that can happen to someone with the good sense to fall out of the right womb.

Meanwhile this week, I know two other monarchs in my own family celebrating birthdays today. One is 39, the other is 29 and for the record, I'm 19.

Happy birthday to them too.

- - -

I'm told that the NHL playoffs are continuing apace without me. My life has fallen into a cycle of trains, offices and rinks in recent days but the routine will be different tonight with a field lacrosse practice larded into the mix for variety.

Oddly, my predictions are standing up quite well -- only San Jose is trailing, with a couple of other series tied.

The series gathering the most ink -- and there will be gallons of it spilled in the coming weeks -- is Boston's sweep of Montreal.

I feel bad for my otherwise smart nephew, who predicted rather illogically that Montreal would beat Boston.

Kids. . . .

Anyway, the smoldering heap that is les Canadiens is now a fully engaged inferno. So much more was expected of this team.

Toronto and Ottawa played 82 games. Montreal got to play 86. Not much to celebrate in the centennial season of one of sport's great franchises.

Read more here.

- - -

Apparently the NHL brass met this week with an investor group interested in bringing a second NHL franchise to Toronto. No word on the principle players, but the broad sketches apparently involve building a rink north of the city near Vaughan.

We'll see. I think it's a great idea and Toronto and southern Ontario could probably support three teams, but the complex tangle of NHL territorial rights make such things tough for newbies to crack the market.

Read more here.

- - -

It's an amazing thing when you see how many good hockey players there are in this town, this region, this province, this country.

This is the time of year when kids from novice to junior hump their weary butts to rinks all over the countryside and start the process of chasing a spot on a team for next year. Some want to move from house league to rep. The rep kids want to move up a level. At the older ages, the players want to pursue a junior career or a path to a scholarship. Others simply pack it in with minor hockey and turn to high school hockey.

Thousands and thousands of kids chase a spot, chase their version of a dream and no two are the same.

My older son is a 1993 (which is the way rep parents talk about their kids. "I have a '93 and a '96" as if we're talking about used trucks.) The 1993 kids are eligible for the OHL draft in June -- when major junior teams scoop up the rights to the top players in this age group and try to recruit them to play for them -- if they can make the teams.

The OHL drafted is basically the exclusive domain of AAA level players (mine is AA, so we won't have to worry about nervously sitting by a phone on that sunny afternoon.) But we know several kids who are legitimate prospects for the draft, and one or two who are virtual slam dunks to be taken. Kids who, in the parlance of parents in rinks, "have a shot."

"Having a shot" generally means different things at different ages.

At 13, it might mean a shot to play AAA. Or, even rep at all.

At 16, it might mean a shot to get drafted in the OHL priority draft.

At 17, it might mean a shot to land an NCAA scholarship.

At 18, it might mean a shot at getting drafted by an NHL team.

It got me to wondering how good an indicator the OHL priority selection draft is of future hockey success. Or, how hard is the road once you've been drafted, if you get picked by an OHL team at all?

Back in 2005, Oakville's John Tavares was the top pick in the OHL draft, taken by Oshawa. The rest is history.

There were 19 other kids drafted that day in the first round, 20 more in the second round and 20 more in each of the next 13 rounds that followed. And virtually all of them were eligible for the NHL draft a year ago -- because Tavares is younger, he had to wait until this year.

But what happened to those kids selected after Tavares? Did anyone make the Big Time as Tavares most certainly will?

Of the 19 other OHL first rounders that day in 2005, 12 have been drafted by NHL teams. Of that elite dozen, eight went in the first three rounds of the NHL draft, which is pretty good, I'd say.

Of those eight, two now have jobs in the NHL -- Drew Doughty (selected 5th in the OHL draft) played 81 games last year for Los Angeles. Joshua Bailey (drafted 19th in the first round of the OHL selection) played 68 games with the Islanders. Most of the rest are still in junior or college and will take their serious runs at pro careers this fall.

So, that's the half-full part of the glass.

But the flip side is that almost half of the kids taken as 2005 OHL first-round picks -- eight of them -- have not been drafted at all, and, I'd argue, the odds of them being drafted now are gone.

Just for fun, I checked the 2nd round, too. As you might expect, it gets tougher in a hurry.

Of the 20 kids drafted in the 2nd round, only four were drafted by an NHL team (all 20 were eligible.) Of those four, one went in the third round, one went in the 4th, and two were in the 5th.

Third round? Twenty more kids. Three drafted by NHL teams.

OK, so what's my point?

I guess that rather illogically, I thought if a kid was picked in the second round of the OHL draft, he was on his way. If it was my kid, I wouldn't be able to wait to tell the world. But the reality actually is that a second-round OHL pick, if he works hard and stays healthy, has a one in 10 chance of being a 4th or 5th round NHL draft pick. And few of those guys, in percentage terms, are going to play many NHL games, if any.

I see every day how hard these kids work -- and not just the AAA kids. They hit the gym. They spend hours on conditioning, nutrition, skill training. Most work hard in school. They relentlessly chase Their Shot.

But careers in pro hockey are really hard to come by. It looks easy watching them on TV, but the work and sacrifice -- not to mention talent -- to get to that stage is simply staggering.

I hope in the excitement that will inevitably come -- and the excitement is part of the fuel for the dream and needs to be there, make no mistake about that -- there's also management of expectations.

Over the next few weeks we're going to hear a lot about some local kids that get picked up in the OHL draft, or at least have a chance. Some of them I used to coach in house league. They talk to me in the rink lobby and they are such great kids it makes you proud just to know them. As friends and fans, we should support them whether they go the OHL route, or maybe pursue NCAA or other opportunities.

Good luck to each and every one of them. Regardless of what the hockey gods have in store, I hope they all make it big in life, wherever it takes them.

April 21, 2009

Well then.

Washington fought back.

Calgary fought back.

Montreal . . . started great and then got out the shovels and continued digging the hole even deeper. Montreal is finished. Read more here.

- - -

You've all heard about Susan Boyle -- the Scottish woman who all the world loves now after here appearance on Britain's Got Talent last week.

As I declared at the time, I am naturally inclined to be cynical.

Now I have company.

The Globe and Mail's very talented TV writer is also apparently starting to sense his Spidey-sense tingling on this one.

Read more here.

- - -

Baseball update: Maybe the Yankees should call this kid.

A high school pitcher in Florida threw his fourth straight no hitter yesterday. And I've got to tell you, that's a lot harder to do than it sounds, and it sounds really, really hard.

You can read more on the lanky lefty here.

April 20, 2009

What's that old song about rainy days and Mondays? What happens when it's a rainy day AND a Monday?

- - -

Shortly after we moved to Oakville, and the boys were much younger -- two and five -- than they are now, I built a sandbox in the backyard. As you can imagine, it hasn't seen a lot of action lately and there have been a lot of ruminations about removing it. Usually made with a beer in hand. Usually on a snowy evening when promises made about yard work are sure to be either forgotten or months away from actually meaning anything.

Sunday morning/afternoon presented a rare window in the calendar so I wandered out into the back to survey exactly what it might take to remove the sandbox.

It was of simple, but sturdy construction. A rectangle, constructed of wolmanized four by four timbers, two timbers to a side held together with spikes that would have inspired Pierre Burton to write a book.

The corners were secured with angle irons. (Angle iron -- it even sounds sturdy to say it!)

The box had hinged plywood for a cover.

I removed the cover and it was the first, last and only easy part of the project. The rest, as the truck commercial says, was built to last. And then some.

The rust-proof three-inch wood screws (editors note: why I thought a sandbox needed three inch wood screws on the corners (four to a corner), I'll never know. Perhaps I was worried the boys would pick the structure up and thrown it) holding the angle irons were in good shape, but a decade of weather meant their grip in the deep recesses of the wood was virtually permanent. An attempt to use a drill-mounted extraction succeeded in only stripping the head, which I can assure you is not has much fun as it sounds.

After about 20 minutes, with the skeletal remains of the sandbox now nicely moved to the patio and the former resting place alive with snails and bugs and the remnants of their ancestors, I made a series of fruitless trips to my workbench looking for a Magic SandBox Deconstruction Tool.

I was sure I had gotten one for Father's Day in 2002, but I couldn't find it.

So I did what any self respecting hockey dad would do -- I stood in the yard with my hands on my hips.

Now, two things occurred to me at this point.

First, I could just walk away.

Second, walking away would subject myself to endless ridicule from my smarter, more talented spouse, who was showing the very good judgment to stay well away right now.

Also, if I didn't get this thing apart now, then the mess would stay here until Canada Day, the next scheduled vacancy on my calendar of weekends.

Chris emerged from the house at one point to ask me to pump up his bike tires -- a welcome distraction that was filled with questions about whether the sandbox removal unleashed a lot of bugs. Not too many I said. I think we're a week away from heavy bug-release territory, all the more reason why time was of the essence.

Eventually, Chris pedaled away and I returned to the sandbox.

And basically, I wrestled with it. That much wolmanized lumber is heavy, but so am I. One of us was going to leave the yard in pieces. I hoped it wasn't going to be me.

I stood the box on its side and pushed it until the corners groaned and creaked and collapsed. It didn't come apart -- no, nothing that easy. But the strain of the force pulled out some of the screws a little. And I was able to get my vice grips on them and slowly turn them out by hand.

This little ritual -- me tormenting the now lamentable sandbox into various contortions until the head of a screw appeared -- was played over and over while the neighbour's dog yapped and small children ran to the far side of their yards, perhaps mystified by the unique dialect they were hearing. Sixteen screws. Sixteen attacks on the sandbox.

After about an hour, what was once a sandbox was now an orderly pile of lumber, stripped of screws and angle irons, although the spikes are still intact lest the ghost of Burton is bored, wandering and in search of a topic to wax about.

Sweaty, dirty and aching of back, I hit the shower (after clearing up the sand and prepping for the next adventure -- renewing the lawn!)

Two hours in a cold rink seemed to chase off the aches, and a cold beer before dinner didn't hurt either.

My mother asked on the phone last night if maybe it was a little bit sad that I no longer have use for a sandbox at my house.

I scoffed at that notion.

While I've thoroughly enjoyed every step of my kids' journey so far, I have no burning desire to get up at 5:15a on weekends and watch Spongebob Squarepants. I'm rather enjoying the slothful teen and pre-teen years. When the time comes, I'm looking forward to being a doddering old guy who will build another sandbox for the next generation. (Or paying someone else to do it.)

But unless there's more going on at those dances at Glen Abbey than I think, I'm hoping that stage is a few clicks down the highway.

And in the meantime, some fairly usable four by four pieces of thoroughly enjoyed wolmanized lumber -- happily haunted by laughter and the memories of big yellow trucks and small plastic dinosaurs -- sit to the side of my house, being washed clean by a cold April rain, the inevitable precursor to May flowers and another summer of promise, discovery and adventure for all us kids, young and old.

Rainy days and Mondays don't always get me down.

- - -

NHL playoffs resume tonight. The Habs need to step up big time. Should be a good one.

April 19, 2009

A quieter day today, which is welcome. Pad has a Ranger skate this afternoon, but that's it for formally scheduled events. Well, except for the field lacrosse practice he has to miss because of the Ranger thing.

There are some large homework clouds gathering on the horizon, so I expect we'll be dealing with that.

If anyone has a copy of the movie, The Guns of Navarone, please email me at the usual spot.

- - -

So. Saturday.

I went to Maplegrove four different times, which I think is a new personal best. Went somewhere else in between in support of some good friends who were having a tough day.

Chris did timekeeping with a scoreboard that would not display the digit "3" and only one functioning shot clock.

Pad reffed three games and coaches and parents all behaved.

Chris played his first house league lacrosse game of the season -- the other guys scored buckets and buckets of goals. Us? Not so much.

Chris grabbed a shower and went to the NightLife dance at Glen Abbey. We had barely settled in for a glass of red wine and the phone rang with Call Display showing it was a Bell payphone. Chris asking for a drive home. The dance was boring and he and his buddies were pulling the rip cord.

Mom heads back to Glen Abbey and ferries the crew home.

We ate late, and fell asleep in front on the TV watching W.

I'm told it was a nice day outside.

- - -

Clearly there's something amiss in the NHL playoffs because so far, the teams I forecasted to do well are . . . doing well for the most part.

Very mysterious.

Boston laid a merciless beating on Montreal last night and one can't help but think this one is over.

Ditto Detroit over Columbus. I commented earlier about the Wings having a "5th gear" for the playoffs. Well, they used it yesterday. Very impressive from the bits I saw.

The Flames are in a deep hole to the impressive young Blackhawks.

The Rangers beat the Caps again.

You can find a recap of the action here.

- - -

There's a big music festival in southern California known as Coachella. It's one of the largest, hippest and edgiest gatherings of bands in the world and those who like it, like it a lot.

When organizers of the event announced that Paul McCartney was going to be a Friday night headliner this year, many of the tattooed and nose-jewel crowd got their black t-shirts in a knot. This event is supposed to be HIP! it's for Gen X and Gen Y, not for the geriatric Boomers. The very idea of putting a guy pushing 70 on the main stage . . . well!

Funny thing is, a funny thing happened.

Not only did the crowds virtually abandon the other acts in favour of an aging Beatle, old Sir Paul blew off their nose rings with an energetic, inspired performance on the 11th anniversary of the death of his first wife, Linda, which he allowed was a bit emotional.

And I say, good for him.

Read more here.

- - -

We consume a fair amount of Diet Pepsi around here and it has become a symbol of creeping grocery prices. DP used to routinely go on sale for 99 cents. Now it never goes on sale and generally costs up to 50 per cent more, on good days.

I mean, is it just me, or do things seem to me going up in price more, and faster, than before? When oil was selling north of $100 a barrel, I braced for higher costs because it costs money to truck in the fresh produce from Mexico and South America, not to mention moving DP from the bottling plant to my house.

But when oil prices went down, it seems -- and I stress, seems -- like the prices for food stayed up.

So when I saw this Statistics Canada report, it was an "AH HA!" moment.

It's not just me. Groceries DO cost more. Almost 10 per cent more in the last year.

I'm annoyed. And I plan to eat less to protest. Who's with me? Patrick? Chris? Anyone?

Read more here.

- - -

When I grew up it seemed we always had a dog, and often two dogs. I'll spare you the story of Pepper, which believe me will leave you weeping as if you'd just heard a story co-produced by the makers of Ol' Yeller and Terms of Endearment.

President Obama has a new dog -- or I guess his kids do -- and it has quickly become the most famous pet in the world.

You can read about that dog -- his name is Bo -- here.

But for a cool slideshow on other famous presidential pets, you can click here.

- - -

Oh. I almost forgot to make fun of the Yankees for losing 22-4. To Cleveland. At home.

There's ugly. And there's ugly.

And this, friends, is ugly.

Read more here.

The Blue Jays, oddly, are in first place. Let's all stay very, very quiet.

April 18, 2009

A rare Saturday posting before immersing myself in rink-based activities today.

And that is to post the complete, unabridged game recaps from the 2009 MOHA Awards Week.

A promise made is a debt unpaid.

Click here to see compete summaries for each game from Awards Week.

- - -

April 17, 2009 (Updated -- Read WAY down to the bottom of today's post)

Rinks. Right now, my life is all about rinks.

Last night, the rink was in Brampton, where I and several other parents watched the midget 1 Hawks topple Brampton 5-1 in pre-season box lacrosse action.

Less than 10 hours later, I was at Ice Sports to catch a little of the final day of high school hockey for the junior classmen. Abbey Park was losing 3-0 to Loyola when I had to bail out to catch a train to work and I'm presuming it did not end well for the Eagles. They get two more games today, win or lose.

Tonight, more rinks. Well, at least conversations about rinks.

The minor midget AA Rangers hold their season-ending dinner, which I'm sure will be long on "we'll get 'em next year" as well as heavy gratitude for the coaches who worked hard with the boys at the rinks all winter.

And then comes Saturday.

Chris has a house league lacrosse game -- Maplegrove, here we come! -- but not until 6p.

What will we do to fill the day until then? Hey -- let's go to the rink!

Chris is timekeeper for two other games, and Pad is refereeing three games. All at Maplegrove! And none at the same time!

And tomorrow night, and Sunday, the midget rep Ranger candidates start skating for positions on the 2009-10 rosters.

It will be a long, long process. The AA and AAA rosters won't be filled until August so . . . see you at the rink.

- - -

I missed a lot of the NHL playoff action last night owing to my presence in Brampton, but again I managed to call three of four games right (based on my precision dart-board series' predictions.) The Montreal-Boston series is generating the most interest in my extended family, and it's stunning how poorly informed on the basics of hockey talent evaluation some of my nephews are.

One of my sisters -- invited by a nephew to predict the outcomes of eight first round series -- made the tactical error of comparing the exercise to quantum physics. At that point her own very witty kid -- chronologically an adult but happily still possessed of a much younger, sharper wit -- pointed out that the major difference between hockey and quantum physics was that quantum physics rarely ends with a shootout -- "except for Schroedinger vs. Heisenberg back in '44."

Ah, such wit!

Life in this family is a laugh riot of book clubs and high-end science.

- - -

I know it's early, but let's give Mike Cammalleri the dumb play of the week award. The talented Flames winger deliberately and cowardly sucker punched Hawks sniper Martin Havlat in the head off a face off last night, earning a penalty, but more importantly apparently waking up Havlat who scored the game tying goal with about six minutes left and then won the game 12 seconds into OT.

For his trouble, Cammalleri may get a suspension and that's something the Flames really can't afford.

The sucker punch may have made Mike feel good. But probably not as good as the Hawks feel right now. And therein lies the lesson that is never learned.

Nice play, Shakespeare.

And a Friday video bonus -- view big Mike's punch!

- - -

For those who missed it, the Oakville Blades lost in Kingston earlier this week in game six of their OJHA final with Kingston, so stick a fork in 'em, they're done.

Read more here.

- - -

UPDATED:

My bad -- the link I posted to the alleged "second installment" of awards week recaps is from LAST year. D'oh.

Hey -- at least I'm trying. Not very well, in all instances, but I'm walking up to the plate and swinging. Lest anyone out there thinks I'm throwing in the towel in making sure EVERY awards week game recap is posted somewhere, well, as Bugs Bunny once famously said about such a person: "He don't know me very well."

I shall return. In the meanwhile, feel free to revisit the results I already pointed you to, or to visit Jennifer.

Earlier this week I posted a link to the MOHA Awards Week game summaries and I encouraged you to visit that link and read about the kids.

And a funny thing happened. You did. In a big, big way.

Dozens and dozens and dozens of you quickly turned that link into the most popular on this site this month. Practically overnight. More clicks even than Jennifer Aniston wearing nothing but a necktie. And trust me, you guys are real suckers to jump through that particular hoop.

The problem is, the hockey link was only a partial listing of those game summaries. Thanks to the good folks at Oakville Today and Adele and her band of angels, another installment in the Awards Week review is now available. And just like before, I really hope you stampede in great numbers to read about the house league hockey heroics of a couple weeks ago.

You can read one installment of results ~~here~~. NEVER MIND!

You can read the other one here.

And yes -- and don't pretend you didn't know this was coming -- you can see Jennifer Aniston wearing nothing by a necktie here.

- - -

John Madden, the larger-than-life NFL game analyst, is retiring, handing off his telestrater to someone who, no matter what they do, won't ever be as fun and entertaining and excited to be there as Madden.

Read more here.

And Danny Ainge, who was good enough to start for the Toronto Blue Jays and then walked away from Major League ball to start for the Boston Celtics of the NBA, had a heart attack yesterday. Sheesh. Read more here.

- - -

I've got to chart out my positioning for various rinks all weekend and start putting a shine on my lawn chair for next weekend's field lacrosse, so that's it for now. Enjoy the sun while it lasts. Buy your kid an ice cream. Then give 'em a hug!

April 16, 2009

Well, one game does not a series make but I managed to call three of the four winners last night in NHL playoff action.

You can read a roundup of the game here.

- - -

I didn't get to see much hockey last night as I was at Maplegrove (again) for Chris's first house league lacrosse practice of the season. The kids all moved better on the floor than I did (which wouldn't take much, really, but they were a lot better than me) and I think we'll have a fun couple of months.

- - -

Lest anyone at town hall is considering charging me rent for appearing to live at Maplegrove this week, let me advise you I won't be there tonight. So there!

I'll be in Brampton, watching the midget 1 Hawks do battle with Brampton in a pre-season exhibition game. Start time: 9p. Don't wait up.

- - -

According to the sports pages, or some of them at least, there would appear to be interest growing in a rep-level non-contact hockey league in the Toronto area.

Many Ontario minor hockey associations, including MOHA, offer house league non-contact options. But this is a brave new world for rep players. The plan, as I understand it, is for a peewee division next fall with as many as 90 kids -- about five teams -- and then see how it goes from there.

There will be a whole bunch of regulatory hoops for these folks to skate around and through (pun intended) and the appeal of rep-level non-contact hockey would, at face value at least, seem limited.

But who am I to say there are not a bunch of talented kids who just want to play competitive higher-end hockey without fear of the other side of the game that we're all familiar with -- concussion, broken bones, sprains, etc.-- especially in the older age groups?

Minor hockey -- rep or house league -- should be about having fun. And if these folks can find enough like-minded people to cobble together a loop, more power to them, I say.

One downside is the absence of tournament opportunities for the teams, as rep tournaments are all full-contact. Not getting that part of the experience may not matter I guess, but for me the tournaments are generally part of the defining experience of the winter -- for me and for the kids.

You just haven't lived until you've seen what a bunch of 12 year olds at Boston Pizza can do with a jug of Pepsi, six straws and choir of clear sinuses.

I'll let you imagination run wild on that one.

In the meantime, you can read more about the fledgling new league here.

- - -

Are you a big fan of those reality talent shows like American Idol, and Canadian Idol, and Ukrainian Idol? No? Me either. I can honestly say I've never actually watched a show with the word Idol in the title. (OK -- maybe there was a 1968 Hockey Night in Canada second-period intermission feature called Why Dave Keon Should be Your Idol. But other than that, my record is clean.)

I'd rather have my eyeballs popped out with a serving spoon at the front of a minor hockey AGM than watch people with little or no talent subject themselves to ridicule from smug Eurotrash faux celebrities. But that's just me.

I'd prefer to spend my free time driving to Maplegrove, or working on my ice dance routine with Hans and Dieter.

But this next item is, to use the cliché, a YouTube sensation and apparently the feel-good story of the year.

A middle aged, single, never-been-kissed Scottish woman blew the doors off the competition this week in the latest installment of Britain's Got Talent.

Susan Boyle is a the very picture of ordinary. To look at her you see nothing remarkable, although clearly she has ample wit. The video below, though, is remarkable (to me) for three things. First, the utter contempt she is treated with before she sings; second, the unbridled reaction of the judges -- utter astonishment -- when the first three notes from her selection from Les Miserables leave her mouth; and third, her voice.

Now, my default personality setting is cynic, so a large portion of me thinks the judges were in on this all along and it's all just a well scripted piece of entertainment engineered to eventually market this woman as a latter day Vera Lynn and sell tons of CDs.

If that's the case, well, they did a good job.

If it's something more genuine, well, then by golly it's the feel good story of the year. Or, at least the week.

So, you can click here to read about Susan Boyle, who I'm guessing is going to get kissed sooner rather than later.

And now, in a completely odd but nonetheless fun and worthy departure from the usual content I shove at you from here, here is a video worth clicking on.

Hal, queue the tape. Because YouTube has disabled imbedding code for this item, you have to click here to see it. And you should.

Everyone else, enjoy your day.

April 15, 2009

Of all the fates that could await John Tavares, I have to imagine that landing with the Islanders holds as much appeal as five minutes in the polar bear exhibit at the Berlin Zoo.

The team is brutal. The ownership is . . . um . . . fascinating. Yeah. Fascinating.

Read about the NHL draft lottery here.

And read about Brian Burke's plan to storm the stage and take the first pick from Garth Snow here.

- - -

The NHL playoffs start tonight. The ACC, meanwhile, is available for corporate events, truck pulls, a meeting of the National Association of Toffee Confectioners, and pretty much any other activity you can imagine. Except hockey. Or basketball. Or lacrosse.

But in some corners of the kingdom -- thankfully not Ottawa -- pucks will be dropped in meaningful games and grown men will stop shaving, some for only four or five games, others for two months.

Here then, rather fearlessly and composed largely in the dank confines of Maplegrove Arena without the benefit of access to the interwebs for meaningful research, are some uneducated guesses on what might happen in round one.

Remember (as Letterman used to say): this is only an exhibition, it is not a competition so please, no wagering.

- - -

Boston vs Montreal: Great hilarity ensued within the family when an otherwise bright and handsome nephew predicted Montreal would prevail in this one. When Pad agreed, it became bizarre. Montreal has been the definition of inconsistent this year and my guess is that their little spurt to nail down a playoff spot was really nothing more than a death rattle. I think Boston is the real deal and (sing with me) how do you solve a problem like ~~Maria~~ Chara? Simply put, Montreal can't. Boston in five.

Pittsburgh vs Philadelphia: I like Jeff Carter and Mike Richards -- a lot. I wish they looked good in blue. But like some other teams (more later, Detroit fans), Philly has a problem in goal. And I'll take Malkin and Crosby any day, too. And Fleury played great in the final month of the season. Since changing coaches, the Pens have regained their swagger. Pens in 6.

Rangers vs. Washington: This is a tough one. The consensus MVP in Ovechkin vs a very good Ranger lineup with consistently good goaltending. I know I'm supposed to think that O-V will light up the Rangers, but my intuition -- however wrong it might be -- is that the Rangers are the dark horse in the East who could make a long playoff run. Rangers in seven.

New Jersey vs Carolina: There's a problem in the swamp. They played great for the first 10 days when Brodeur finally returned and then things went downhill in a major way. Carolina has always played NJ tough forever. New Jersey has the better goalie, but it's what's going on in front of him that gives me concern. 'Canes in seven.

San Jose vs. Anaheim: I think this will be the Battle Royale of round one, the cage match, the . . . well, you get the idea. San Jose has a lot of players with a lot to prove. The Ducks have a lot of guys trying to prove they still are dangerous. I like San Jose in seven.

Detroit vs. Columbus: Notwithstanding that you could pile three milk crates in the Detroit goal crease and it would not demonstrably move the team GAA one way or the other, the Red Wings are a formidable team. Over the last decade or so they have reinvented themselves several times, and each time the characteristic I liked most was that when April came, the Wings find a fifth gear that eludes other so-called contenders. Ken Hitchcock deserves sainthood for all he's done in Columbus. Steve Mason is my hero. Rick Nash is the bomb. But, this is the big time against guys who play for keeps. Zetterberg? Datsyuk? Lidstrom? Kronwall? Rafalski? If the Wings had a goalie I wouldn't need to pause to think. But I did. Wings in five.

Vancouver vs. St. Louis: John Davidson's Miracle on the Mississippi is over for 2009 but it will be closer than a lot of people think. Canucks in seven.

Chicago vs. Calgary: My heart says, Calgary will win. My brain says . . . listen to your brain. I like so much about the Blackhawks and I don't think their coming out party will end in this round. Hawks in six.

- - -

Don't tell anyone, but someone at Maplegrove last night left the heaters on over the stands. For those parents who stayed to watch all two hours of practice, it was a moment to bring you to tears. I will find the man's name and nominate him for the Order of Canada. I'm not kidding.

- - -

April 14, 2009

There's a time, I think, in every kid's life when Big League baseball holds a fascination that's bigger than any else. I was a better-than-casual fan through the Oakland A's teams of Dick Williams and Charlie O., and I became a Reds fan in those early years of the 1970s. I think I just liked the term "Big Red Machine."

The 1975 World Series cemented for me, the Reds-Red Sox classic, and after that for a few summers I was really a keen ball fan.

In the summer of 1976, a gangly kid named Mark Fidrych took the game by storm with the Detroit Tigers. He looked barely older than us kids who were fascinated by him and his antics -- talking to the ball, shaping the mound with his hands, high-fiving teammates on the diamond BEFORE the high five even had a name. He brought an infectious joy to the game that we all loved, regardless of what we thought of the Tigers (which generally wasn't much).

He was American League rookie of the year in 1976 and like a meteor across the night sky he was gone almost as fast, as injuries chased him from the game.

Last night Laura and I were watching TV news from the US when the announcer read a brief script item noting that Fidrych had died in a freak accident at home. He was 54.

The news stunned me. In 1976, every friend I had wanted to be Mark Fidrych.

A lot of kids reading this may never have heard of The Bird, as he was known. That's a shame. He deserves to be remembered.

Read more here.

- - -

Alberta's Kevin Martin and his Canadian team were beaten by Scotland last night in the world curling championship final. And given that Scotland beat them three straight times in three days, you'd have to concede that maybe Scotland was actually better.

You can read more here.

- - -

So, help me here. Somali pirates illegally capture a ship. The US Navy sends snipers to kill the pirates (a mission that was quite successful.)

And now the pirates clan is vowing revenge. Huh?

Fighting back is not fair, apparently, in the Somali pirating handbook.

I dunno. Seems stupid to me.

When it comes to pirates I think I'm old school. I like my pirates with one leg, an eye patch and with the full-on shoulder-mounted parrot.

Jack Sparrow didn't use AK-47s, right?

Anyway, you can read more here and learn why you should not mess with Navy Seals.

- - -

FYI, spring is coming. Wednesday's high is projected to be 14. Then 16 on Thursday. 18 on Friday. 16 on Saturday.

And sunny each day.

Amen.

April 12, 2009

Just a short update this sunny Easter Sunday.

I spent a healthy portion on my Saturday freezing at Maplegrove, where the ice is gone but the frigid temperatures linger. Despite my own sensitivities I had a great time, seeing old friends, harassing new ones and watching the kids show up with genuine enthusiasm for lacrosse.

Chris was one of the many house league warriors out for evaluation and he enjoyed it. Chris is blessed -- or cursed -- with my sense of humour -- crackling dry and sarcastic.

On the drive home I asked him:
"Did you have fun?"

C: "Yes".

"Did any of the coaches tell you that you suck?"

C: "No."

"Did any of the coaches say that you should be in the lacrosse hall of fame?"

C: "No, but I could tell they were all thinking it."

Perfect.

- - -

After my duties were done I returned home and took up a strategic position in front of the TV and watched the Masters and waited for the big dogs to make something happen. It was not a remarkable day and the frontrunners generally continued to run blissfully at the front.

Afterwards we barbequed steaks, ate Caesar salad, marked a nephew's birthday in the usual silly way, and did our part to push up the Mexican GDP by consuming perhaps their most famous brewed export.

After the golf we tuned in for the final Leaf game -- in fact, the final NHL game involving teams from Ontario -- for this year and the Leafs gleefully beat Ottawa one more time, an early Easter gift for me. I may not have mentioned over the course of the season, but I don't care for the Sens.

Sunday morning started slow but is now in full swing, the Easter Bunny having managed to arrive and leave without getting himself taken down as an intruder in the night.

As I tap away the boys -- including the Ph.D candidate from UWO -- are huddled around the traditional Easter PS3 and we're generally counting the hours until live golf resumes on the tely.

- - -

Several people remarked to me yesterday that my YouTube link to the Heineken commercial I liked so much was not working. I found another one and you can now view it here.

- - -

A local correspondent was good enough to drop me a note to report that Abbey Park's arch rivals, Loyola, rode Justin Sheremeta's shutout goaltending and a pair of goals from Drake Wilton to beat Assumption 2-0 in the final of the high school Burlington Cup tournament.

Reports that AP had a goal called back in their semi final loss to Loyola are also in question given the emergence of a new eye witness report to the general effect of "it never went in."

I've turned to the matter over to CSI: Oakville for further investigation, but given that Loyola won the tournament I think we can classify this as a cold case.

Enjoy your day. Happy Easter!

April 9, 2009

The Masters starts today. 'Nuff said.

For your required golf reading today, how about: Tiger Woods -- standard bearer for the old guard.

It's true. There's a youth movement in golf and Tiger is not of it anymore. He's the one they gun for. Read more here.

- - -

The Leafs lost last night to Buffalo in Brad May's 1,000th NHL game. The Leafs held May out of the lineup against the Devils on Tuesday night so he could mark the milestone against the Sabres, the team with which his career is most linked.

Ron Wilson let the veteran May start the game, with veteran goalie Curtis Joseph in goal.

The other four guys on the ice for the Leafs were all rookies -- John Mitchell, Christian Hanson, Luke Schenn and Jay Harrison. The combined ages of those four (89) was only 10 more than May and Cujo.

Hmm.

Anyway I'm sure it all seemed like a good idea at the time but the Leafs lost anyway.

You can read more about it here.

- - -

Dreams of an undefeated season for the Jays were swept away last night with a 5-1 loss to the Tigers.

The Jays are now 1-0 with Halladay pitching and 1-1 when he's not.

The "when he's not" part will be the defining aspect of Toronto's MLB calendar.

You can read about last night's game here.

- - -

I'll spare you all the details, but the original plans for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics included plans for a nightly medal ceremony in iconic Whistler, the mountain village that will be the games' spiritual centre. Framed by mountains and dusted with snow, it is exactly what people think about when they think "winter games."

For some reason, like money, organizers scrapped that plan and decided it would be better to have one nightly ceremony back in Vancouver. In BC Place. A domed stadium in a city in a temperate rain forest.

Saner minds have prevailed and Whistler has its evening ceremony back.

Read more here.

- - -

Nominations close tomorrow for board vacancies and the offices of president and treasurer of MOHA.

This one kind of crept up on me because honestly, I haven't heard much on the hockey admin front. I don't know who's running, who's thinking about it, etc.

Nonetheless, it should be interesting and enquiring minds will be watching and listening.

The MOHA notice says nominations will be accepted until 4p on Friday, April 10. Two problems with that date -- first it's Good Friday, but I guess MOHA has made staffing arrangements for that. Second, that's when Masters golf coverage is on TV.

So, no one will leave their house, right?

The elections -- if needed -- and AGM is May 21 at the Atrium at town hall.

As usual, wear a helmet.

- - -

In Burlington Cup high school hockey action, Abbey Park's winning streak came to halt yesterday afternoon.

After cruising through the first three days undefeated and beating Milton 4-3 in overtime in the quarterfinals, the Eagles faced off against arch rivals Loyola Hawks, in a battle of predatory bird nicknames.

Abbey Park fell into a 2-0 first period hole and the I'm told the Loyola defence was terrific. The Eagles pulled within one in the third period, had a tying goal called back with 90 seconds left, and ultimately lost 3-1 with an empty net goal.

So, the gang will miss today's championship game and I am deprived of a perfectly good reason to leave work early on a Thursday afternoon before a long weekend.

I will still entertain viable reasons to leave early if anyone has a good idea.

- - -

If you are a fan of NCAA hockey, you know all about the Frozen Four (hockey's final four) and are familiar with names like Maine, Boston College, Vermont, Michigan, Denver, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Miami of Ohio, and many others who are regular contenders for the national title.

This year's list includes one you might not know -- Bemedji State, from a frozen corner of Minnesota.

It's a great story. And you can read it here.

Go Beavers!

- - -

Last weekend several teams of aged men played something resembling hockey to raise money for the heart and stroke foundation. Thankfully, none of them were in need of the proceeds by the end of the day.

Part of the hook for the day was that the team that raised the most money got to play a squad of former NHL and AHL players, who would in turn make them look foolish on the ice.

Congratulations to the Oakville Hacks -- not sure where the name comes from but it may simply be the sound they make on the bench-- who raised $15,000 and won the right to look really bad against the former pros.

And good time was had by all. Everyone suffered for days afterwards.

- - -

Regardless of what you are marking this weekend -- Easter, Passover, The Masters -- I hope you get to have a great time. The morning cold seems to linger a little less every day now. Spring is coming. Trust me. It is.

Saturday will find me and the boys in a rink -- this time with Pad and I volunteering with house league lacrosse evaluations and Chris taking part in them. And the boys' cousin Mac will be arriving for a couple of nights from the University of Western Ontario to eat a lot and play video games with his cousins, who will be merciless in dragging his sorry carcass from one corner of NHL '09 to the other.

There will be food and chocolate eggs and an egg hunt that will start later than ever.

I'm going to stand in the backyard with my hands on my hips, looking again as if I might actually do something, but at the last minute I'll change my mind and won't.

After all, it's Masters weekend. Golf isn't on TV 24/7, but that's why there's DVDs. We'll improvise.

Whatever your weekend holds, drive safe. Have fun. Hug the kids.

April 8, 2009

It was a cold, blustery Ottawa afternoon on a Sunday in 1996.

Laura was carrying around the growing lump that in a few months would come to be known to us as Christopher. Pad was, in those days, Paddy. Not yet three, he was all about hockey sticks, dinosaurs and wooden trains.

And on that particular day, Laura wrapped a birthday present for one of Pad's buddies a few doors down the street, bundled him up again the weather and bid me and the TV farewell for a few hours.

Greg Norman was entering the final round of the Masters that day with a six stroke lead. And after so many heartbreaks -- some by virtue of his own cement head, some seemingly acts of God -- the Shark was finally poised to win a title he coveted and so many of his fans wanted to see him take.

The rest, of course, is now part of the lore of the Masters and golf.

When Laura and Pad returned home hours later, I was in shock. A cross between a state of mourning and disbelief.

Norman collapsed. Or imploded. Or exploded. Fell apart. Use your own hackneyed description, but the world's top golfer was a bone to be chewed that day as Nick Faldo took him apart en route to the Englishman's third Master's crown.

Norman, of course, would never win a green jacket.

He made millions of dollars from golf and had everything you can imagine -- looks, health, money, power.

But no $250 green jacket.

I found that day hard to watch and it remains one of the two clearest memories of this tournament I have. (The other was watching on TV in 1986 when Nicklaus won for a sixth and final time. My phone kept ringing with friends calling to ask: "Are you watching this??")

Anyway, Norman's collapse was hard to fathom but life went on for him and the rest of us.

He played a few more Masters and eventually, he didn't qualify for the elite field anymore and our April excitement turned to Tiger and Phil and a new cast.

A funny thing happened last summer. Norman -- freshly married to retired tennis pixie Chris Everett -- played in The Open championship as a tune up to the British Senior championship. And call it luck or timing or whatever, but Norman -- a two-time Open winner (Champion Golfer of the Year they call it in a place where that title really means something) almost won the thing, despite being on the side of 50 where when you hear those ads for Grey Power insurance discounts you stop and pay attention.

He settled for third. But what the high finish in The Open really meant -- and everyone in the golf world knew it -- was that Greg Norman would get to go back to Augusta one more time.

Now, it would be absolute folly to suggest Norman can win this week. Players less than half his age have steadier hands on the greens and surer swings. And of course there's Tiger, whom Norman himself recently listed as the best ever putter when the putt really matters.

But on the other hand, what if?

Stranger things have happened on Sunday afternoons in April when the Georgia winds blow through the pines and azaleas

of Augusta National.

It's too much to hope for, really. But as a fan, part of the attraction is asking . . . what if?

You can read more about Norman's return to Augusta here.

- - -

The Montreal Canadiens really aren't making this easy for themselves. They lost for the second time in two nights last night, and their playoff fate remains uncertain.

I think they'll make it. But geez. Talk about backing in.

- - -

The Leafs and the Senators, meanwhile, long since eliminated from anything resembling a chance at the post season, both won. The Senators look like world beaters these days, playing with the liberation that comes from knowing there's no pressure. The games mean nothing; feel free to book tee times.

You can read about the Leafs beating the Devils here.

You can read about the Rangers beating the Habs here.

And you can read about the Sens beating Boston here.

And if you care about the Canadiens being for sale, pack a cheque book and read more here.

- - -

If you like baseball, read this story. It's about building computer simulators to run probabilities for major league teams on a host of things, from the intentional walk to the sacrifice bunt. Do these thing statistically pay off for a team?

The answer is, that depends.

Read it here in the New York Times.

- - -

The most popular story on Yahoo news this morning comes from The Associated Press. And it's about the gold-rush mentality driving auctions of goods abandoned at those storage unit sites you see in light industrial parks. Folks unable to afford to pay for the units are losing their stuff and the rest of us apparently can't wait to buy it. Read more here.

- - -

The most compelling and heart breaking story in our neck of the woods today is this one. It seems all of Toronto is watching those two babies, one needing a heart, the other a perfect donor. But . . . it's so complicated. What could possibly constitute a happy ending?

April 7, 2009

The Blue Jays win! You have to figure with big Roy in the rotation the Jays figure to be competitive, oh, every fourth or fifth day. This is not a good ball team. Fortunately, neither are the Tigers. Read more here.

- - -

I mused -- via email, while riding a train home -- to friends last night that what we should have done is headed from work to the Jays game where we could have drank beer, cheered for the home team and left work etc behind for a few hours. Everyone agreed it was a god idea, albeit an hour too late.

Will we go tonight?

No. And one factor in that decision would be that they won't be serving beer at the game tonight, as the Rogers Centre liquor license has been suspended for a game. I kid you not. Read more here.

- - -

If you have a nifty 3G smartphone -- a newer Blackberry, an iPhone, among others -- then in the months ahead you will discover all sorts of new ways to use that technology to fit your life. It's not just dinner reservations or pizza, but buying music, getting directions, creating maps to hockey rinks, and finding news. Click here to read about a nifty new low-cost application you can put on your smart phone to bring you the latest news from Canada and the world across news, sports, business, entertainment and other categories. It's very cool.

On the other hand, you might have all the toys, and maybe you're sick of technology. Maybe you have an iPhone and you don't want to unleash it. Maybe your prefer driving your new Porsche around town in reverse all day -- hey that's up to you. Anyway, if this sounds like you, then I've found a kindred spirit for you in the author of this New York Times piece, entitled "I Hate My iPhone."

Click here to read it.

- - -

File this one under M for Moron. A twit on a snowmobile plays on his machine under a dangerous crest of snow on a BC mountainside, eventually triggering an avalanche. He managed to survive, which is an odd blip in Darwinian law.

You can read about his most excellent day here.

But better yet, you can watch the event on video. Because when my friends decide to tempt fate and behave in a way that could kill them or others, I always bring a camera. And his friends did too.

I watching this video, one question comes to mind: "Gee. What could go wrong?"

Hal, roll the tape:

- - -

As I pointed out yesterday, this is Masters Week (and that being the case you would hope it would not be too much to expect to be able to turn the TV to the Golf channel last night at 8p and see Live from the Masters instead of Butch Harmon clinic reruns, but that's a rant for another day.)

Anyway, I need to feed you a daily Masters story, and today's comes from the Globe and Mail, which carries an item on how the world's economic troubles mean less green -- as in money -- at the Masters this year. Corporate America is staying home and there are more tickets available for ordinary people, if you are so inclined.

Wouldn't that be cool?

I'll be watching on TV. In a green jacket.

If you want to read about how many of the the big dogs are staying home, click here.

- - -

The Ottawa Senators beat Montreal 3-2 last night in a game Montreal really needed to win. Not only did they lose the game, they lost a pair of key defenders to injury, too. The Centennial Season has not gone according to plan.

Read more here.

- - -

There's another high school hockey tournament this week for the junior class -- Grades 9 and 10 -- and Abbey Park won twice on Day 1, with a combined two-game total of 16-1. I'm not getting to see much high school hockey and Pad's not attending as many classes as he usually does (not that he's complaining) and the boys seem to be having fun. I guess that's what counts.

- - -

Yes. Having fun counts.

Unless you're an eight-year-old girl playing soccer in a Boston suburb and you were to be playing for Michael Kinahan. Coach Kinahan said his pre-season note to parents -- imploring the girls to kick ass and take names, to play every shift as if it were the World Cup, to spill blood, to heckle the refs, and defined his credo as winning is fun and losing is for losers -- was meant as a joke. Yes, it sounds like a riot of laughs for the eight year olds.

Many parents didn't find it funny and Coach has since resigned, saying he got chewed up by political correctness.

Read the story of this guy here.

And read his original and then farewell emails here.

Remember. This is U8 girls soccer.

Go Green Death!

- - -

The work of the men and women in the Canadian Forces is generally overlooked by many of us as we go through our days. And it's difficult work, pushed as they are to help in difficult domestic emergencies or sent to distant lands to fight or patrol in unpopular conflicts.

But one thing that always makes me feel proud of Canada is the way we honour those who die in service of their country overseas. The repatriation ceremonies at Trenton for Canadians who die in Afghanistan are public and emotional, and the motorcades from Trenton to Toronto -- the Highway of Heroes -- are lined with ordinary Canadians waving flags or standing in quiet tribute to those who gave their lives. These are powerful images.

To me, it has been something that separated us from the Americans, who have since 1991 banned public coverage of these events. I always have thought that is unfair not only to the fallen, but to their families and friends too.

Yesterday that changed and President Obama lifted the ban and Americans will now see images of their war dead returning home, which in my view is as it should be. They should not be forgotten or hidden.

By all means, hate the war. But don't hate the warrior. Those men and women deserve our respect.

Read more about the American about face here.

April 6, 2009

Today is the first full day of Major League Baseball, plus the Jays who may not be up to contemporary major league standards in 2009, but I'd be happy if otherwise is true.

You can read an overview here of what we might expect.

In the meantime, the early days of the season bring two notable new stadia to the major leagues, both in MLB's biggest market: the new Yankee Stadium and Citi Field, home of the Mets.

They are both lovely looking playgrounds for the multimillionaire athlete who has everything.

If you would like to see a photo gallery of images of the new Yankee Stadium, click here.

For a look at the new home of the Mets, click here.

And since it's a new month and it's rainy and freezing ice pellets raked my face this morning as I made my way across the train platform -- yes, you guessed it -- click here for a picture of Jennifer Aniston wearing nothing but a necktie.

- - -

Sunday was a lovely day with the peewee Gators spending a final few hours together playing basketball, swimming, eating pizza and cake and celebrating the many successes of our season.

Thanks to coaches Brian, Costas and Rich for the endless support of and attentiveness to the kids. Laura and Kate were tireless in helping make sure we always turned up where we were supposed to be.

And mostly thanks to the 16 kids who made the memories the rest of us will lug around like precious stones for years to come.

From the endless shootout in London to the the night in the hotel in Welland in a blizzard, to the woulda-coulda-shoulda of the playoff run, it was a great ride.

Have a fun summer and stay safe everyone.

The minor bantam draft is only five months away.

- - -

It's Masters week. The final few NHL playoff spots notwithstanding, our focus and attention will gradually southward to Augusta. Please play the CBS Masters theme when reading the blog this week.

- - -

Lacrosse season is now upon us. Having spent goodly portions of my Saturday night and Sunday night watching young midget prospects pound on each other with little mercy for 120 minutes each night, it is as if we never left.

We'll be standing in a cold, rainy field ankle deep in icy mud before you know it.

And as Maxwell Smart used to say: "And loving it."

- - -

Canadians have made no shortage of great beer commercials in recent years. The best known are the Joe Canadian ads, but Keiths, Rickards and other brands have gone a long way to catch our eye -- and our dollars.

But this week, we pause in reverence to the Dutch. The new Heineken TV spot is absolutely nothing short of brilliant.

If women get excited about walk-in closets, what is it that inspires the hearts of men?

Enjoy your Monday!

April 5, 2009 (Updated)

The Oakville Rangers midget AAA team will play Hamilton today at 12:45p (Burlington Central Arena) for the OHF championship and a spot in the Telus Cup national midget championship later this month in Manitoba.

The Rangers clawed their way into the final four and met top seed Burlington in the semi finals on Saturday, tearing apart the home team 5-0 in a stunning win.

So today, the guys get to go for it all. An amazing ride. Good luck.

UPDATE: Oakville lost 8-6. The Rangers dug themselves an early hole, falling behind 3-0. They fought back, pulling within one twice in the second, 4-3 and 5-4, but the door to the penalty box just kept swinging open for them.

We know some of the families on this team and I know how hard these kids worked, on and off the ice, to get this far. Getting in the OHF final is something most teams can only dream about.

It's a great achievement by any measure.

We are all proud.

- - -

The peewee Sunopta Gators will put a "30" on their season (as we say in the media biz) today with the team party and general silliness. Three hours of goofing around, none of it on ice. Plus food!

- - -

Below is a photo of the St. Hilda's Eagles peewee red MOHA team. They were first-place champions in the regular season, they won the Alex Pace Community Service Award for their participation in the "Paint the Rink Pink" initiative to raise money for breast cancer research, their goalie Jon Baratta won the Ken Morgan Memorial Award and forward Sean McKellar won the FSMT sportsmanship award. So, that sounds like a pretty good season from where I'm sitting.

Well done guys. Parents and players, smiling for you below:

- - -

Another good story worth telling is the peewee red Epipen Wolfpack -- the MOHA playoff champions. It seems some of the things these guys did off the ice were just as remarkable as what they accomplished on the ice.

Ten members of the team began volunteering at The Waterford, a long-term seniors care facility in the Oakville. The boys all had to go through orientation and receive TB shots, and then once a week they started going to the facility to help get the seniors to a from a weekly bingo game and help out during the game.

The Thursday nights at the Waterford apparently became very special as the seniors adopted the team and posted pictures of "their boys" in the lobby and followed their on-ice progress closely. And boys became equally enthused with their new friends, sometimes breathlessly coming home after bingo to tell a parent "mom, you'll never guess what happened tonight. Agnus won!"

You can't always hit a home run with these things, but it would seem the Wolfpack did with this and their bottle drive to collect money to donate to Right To Play Canada, which works to bring amateur sporting opportunities to troubled countries.

Congratulations to Dian Nease and all the other Wolfpack parents who took such great imitative in getting the kids engaged in their community. Amazing.

- - -

For what it's worth I agree 110 per cent with what the other Oakville blogger has had to say about the total lack of coverage in our local paper of Awards Week. It's a terrible oversight the way Awards Week has been ignored.

- - -

Wow. The wheels are really coming off the Leafs now that they are limping through the final, hapless, meaningless games of the season. I came home from Session One of rep lacrosse tryouts last night to see the Leafs losing 4-0 to the Habs (this after watching them fall behind 6-0 to the Flyers the previous night.)

Ugly.

Anyway, I sure hope Burke knows what he's doing. Otherwise MLSE will have to raise ticket prices another three or four per cent and miss the playoffs AGAIN next year while running up a profit approaching $100 million.

There's one word for Leaf Nation: suckers.

Read more here.

- - -

Speaking of the Leafs, there's a nice feature in the Star today on Washington Caps coach Bruce Boudreau, generally considered one of the nice guys of the NHL and -- wait for it -- a guy who was screwed over by the Leafs as a young player.

You can find the feature here.

- - -

I used to pay far more attention to the NCAA basketball tournament once upon a time than I do now. It was all part of the set of the core fundamentals guys of a certain age had to be able speak -- if not at all accurately -- about in a bar with other guys of a certain age. Things like, is John Brophy the right coach for the Leafs? Baywatch -- the pinnacle of western cutlure. What's a fair price for a 16-ounce claw hammer? What's that thing on Donald Trump's head? And recite the merits of various large block GM engines. All of which should give you an idea of how far in my past any genuine passion about the Final Four is. On the off chance that you still care, you should know that Michigan State will play North Carolina tomorrow in Detroit for the championship. Guess who the crowd will be rooting for? Read more here.

April 3, 2009

Under the category of better late than never, please say hello to this handsome crew, your MOHA peewee red playoff champions, the Epipen Wolfpack. Miles and miles of smiles.

Again, congratulations!

- - -

I'd be happy to run a photo of any Awards Week finalists, just send them to the usual spot. You're all champions.

- - -

Laura was able to attend the final game of that high school tournament Pad played in earlier this week, and is often the case she took a camera, just on the off chance the right team won (which it did.) She also took about 100 other pictures during the game, which I then posted on a page on the main Teamoakville site. We do this because the kids LOVE the pictures and they put them all over their Facebook pages. It was around 2p -- while eating my lunch -- that I got those photos up. I then texted Pad to let him know they were there and to tell his teammates to help themselves.

Between 2p and midnight that page was visited about 130 times, so my guess is that Facebook is groaning under the weight of hockey photos.

- - -

There are probably few athletes with a more tarnished reputation than Roger Clemens, the most dominant pitcher of his generation. Accused of using steroids to juice his already formidable arm, Clemens has had a dramatic fall from grace after his most interesting congressional testimony and the versions of events that trickle out from others.

One such version, a book called The Rocket That Fell to Earth, was a topic of conversation with Jays manager Cito Gaston and Globe reporter.

Gaston, who professed his admiration for Clemens' pitching and competitive skills, is less enamored of Roger Clemens, human being.

In fact, Cito carpet bombed Clemens with the label A-Hole (not to be confused with A-Rod or A-Roid). Twice.

And not just an A-Hole. But a "complete A-hole" which is the pinnacle of this particular designation. My dad would enjoy seeing Cito use this particular compound adjective, and you can't help but get the sense that Cito is speaking from a fairly well informed position on the matter.

You can read the story here.

- - -

The Globe and Mail is running excerpts, starting today, of a new book called One Week In April, by Craig Dolch. It's about The Masters golf tournament and given that next week is Masters week, it's timely reading for golf fans and Masters fans, and I am both.

I can't point you to the story online as it's available only in the print edition.

But it tells the curious story of how Jack Nicklaus, who won more Masters and green jackets than anyone else -- six -- didn't actually have his own green jacket until 1998 -- 12 years after he won his last title and an amazing 35 years after he won his first.

Why didn't he have a jacket?

Well, when he first won in 1963, Jack was a little rounder than he is now and they didn't have one that would fit. They borrowed a member's jacket for the ceremony and promised the Golden Bear he'd get a jacket of his own for 1964.

They forgot. And Jack didn't want to embarrass anyone by bringing it up. So as his Masters titles piled up over the years, he borrowed one each time for the ceremony. Finally, he had his own made -- it was the wrong shade of green -- and no one noticed.

In 1998, the Masters folks learned of the oversight and Jack finally got a "real" green jacket.

But you have to actually buy the Globe to read the whole story.

- - -

This weekend there are no sporting events to make me rise early. No hockey games or practices. No timekeeping assignments for Chris. No novice hockey to watch.

The "off season" -- all eight days of it -- will end on Saturday night when midget rep lacrosse tryouts start, but the 6p start time for the first of three-straight two-hour workouts is more than manageable, almost humane by comparison to some of what we see.

We're looking forward to what passes for a quiet weekend and I really hope that's what we get.

I suspect that feeling is the same in lots of households around town as hockey season grinds to a stop, rain pours from the sky keeping us you from yard work and many of us get a chance to recalibrate our personal barometers.

It's been a busy week. The bantams own the ice tonight at awards week, and tomorrow it wraps up with tyke, minor atom and atom. Good luck to all the teams -- you never know, I might show up! Play hard, and have fun.

Drive safely wherever the roads take you this weekend.

Hug your kids.

April 2, 2009 (PICTURES BEING ADDED. WATCH FOR UPDATES!)

Yes, yes. Of course it was an April Fool's Day hoax. I'm just surprised by the number of people who thought I meant it! I may walk away sometime. But not yet.

Lacrosse tryouts are only two days away!

- - -

Last night was peewee night for Awards Week, and with all due respect to the other age groups, peewee is to Awards Week what the 100-metre sprint is to the Summer Olympics. It is the marquee event, it is the big one. This is the age group where the confluence of kid, parent and coach enthusiasm is at the house league apex.

Everything before house league peewee hockey builds towards it; everything after starts to change.

And what a shown the peewees put on. If you missed it, you missed a great night, one of the greatest evenings of Awards Week action I've ever seen.

Three championship games -- red, white and blue. One comfortable win, one overtime win, and one big upset. It was an evening that had it all.

In the Blue championship, the Wranglers started strong and never looked back, skating to a 5-1 win. I was running back and forth trying to keep an eye on this one as it ran at the same time as the White game. I saw lots of hockey the coaches and teams can be proud of for sure. I apologize for not being able to give as fulsome an account of this game as the other two, but it was hard to be in two places at once.

The white game featured the first-place overall Lumberjacks vs. the sixth place finishers, the Wranglers. The Wranglers picked up their game considerably since Christmas so their low season finish was a bit of a red herring. And this game featured so many kids I've coached that I felt like I was on the bench. Either bench!

I want to single out a couple of kids. First, the goalies, Wrangler Emerson E., and Lumberjack tender Zack R. They both played outstanding which explains why this one went to overtime at 1-1 after three periods. They both did dramatic things to keep their teams alive.

Sean Stewart was on the Wrangler blue line, playing the last game of his first minor hockey season without me as his coach. Another Wrangler, Eric the Killer B., was the first player I ever had to move off one of my team in rebalancing (many, many years ago), on a 1996 class novice team I had. Ever since he's always been a pal, going out of his way to always say hi to me wherever our paths cross. I tease him that he was my first trade.

On the Lumberjacks, there was Andrew the Tasmanian Whirling Devil (he set up the LJ goal) and Big Jordan and Fast Jack M., all veterans of mine, among many many others. They all played so well I could go on and on.

Less than three minutes into OT, the Wranglers capitalized on a stray puck and it was over, a 2-1 win for the Wranglers.

Say hi to the peewee white champs:

- - -

And here are the first-place league champs and playoff finalists, the Lumberjacks!

The Red final pitted the sixth place Vikings vs. the seventh place Wolfpack, but again those numbers don't tell the whole story.

The Vikings were the clear favourites heading into the game. The core of the team won the red 1996 age group title a year ago, they are well coached, and while they finished 6th, they were only four points out of first and seven points clear of the Wolfpack. In season play, the Viking beat the Wolfpack 4-0 and 4-1.

But this, as they say, is why they play the games. And from bloggers' corner, where all the Oakville bloggers were relegated to watch the game and suffer the taunts of fans, it was agreed anything could happen.

0-0 after one.

0-0 after two. Scoreless after two, you could sense the ice tipping in favour of the Pack.

And then in the third, the Wolfpack sent the capacity crowd into a frenzy, striking first on a clean shot from in front. A Wolfpack penalty with about five minutes left let the Vikings bring some sustained pressure, but Austin Jones stood on his head in goal. Braedon Boyd was every bit as good at the other end, coming up with several key saves.

An empty net goal with 40 seconds left sealed the deal, and the 'Pack skated off with a 2-0 championship win.

Both teams played extremely hard and well. If anything, I thought maybe the Wolfpack players were looser and played with a little more abandon, a little more "nothing to lose" in their game.

It was first-class entertaining hockey and I'm sorry someone had to lose. But wow. What a game.

I will post a picture of any of the teams from last night as soon as anyone sends them along.

It was a great night at the rink.

- - -

Earlier in the day, it was high school hockey. And while it took several months, my older kid finally got to pose with a championship team.

The Abbey Park Eagles beat a Mississauga school 5-4 in the semi finals and then rolled over Notre Dame of Burlington 8-1 in the final to capture the first tournament of the year they entered. The squad is 7-1-0 in spring play. And below, they are obviously quite pleased with themselves, as they should be. It was a solid win. Meet the champs . . .

- - -

After all of that, the Leafs seem quite anti-climactic but I have to give them and their aged goalie some credit for taking down the Flyers 3-2 last night. The game didn't mean much for the Leafs (have any of them?) but it meant something for Philly. And ruining someone else's day is the next best thing to having a good day yourself. Right?

Read more here.

- - -

One final hockey note: the IOC and Hockey Canada have settled their fight over Canada's jerseys for the 2010 Olympics. Read details here.

April 1, 2009

The peewees take centre stage at MOHA Awards week tonight at Joshua's Creek Arenas, and you're not going to want to miss it. Both sheets of ice will be in use for three championship games in blue, white and red.

Good luck to all the players and coaches. I'll be there in the Teamoakville luxury box, with the Teamoakville cheerleader and dance crew. Stop by and say hello.

The action starts at 6:30p. Don't miss it.

- - -

The Leafs were officially eliminated from the playoffs last night when Montreal beat Chicago 4-1.

Gee, who saw that coming?

But in better news, the team has signed Christian Hanson, a free agent prospect and son of one of famous Hanson Brothers from the movie Slapshot. Christian, however, is no one-trick goon. Whether he's got the jam to step right into the NHL, we'll have to wait and see.

Read more here.

In the meantime, this will be the fourth consecutive season where the Leafs missed the playoffs. Including the lockout year, it makes five years without a playoff game having been played in Toronto.

Sheesh.

- - -

Once I successfully delivered Pad to the right rink, he and his Abbey Park teammates had a pretty good day at the Wave High School Hockey tournament.

They lost a 1-0 squeaker to Holy Trinity in the first game and then reeled off 6-1 and 3-1 wins over Georgetown and St. Mary's to secure a semi-final berth later this morning.

- - -

There's an old joke in the Maritimes that the two happiest days in a boat-lover's life are the day he gets his boat and the day he sells it.

The tough economic circumstances have added another possibility: the day he abandons ship.

It seems dozens of boat owners, unable to sell their boats and uninterested in maintaining them, are simply sanding off serial numbers, names and other identification data and abandoning their boats all along the US eastern seaboard.

Some of the boats have steep loans against them, but more typically officials believe they are fully paid for, but still expensive to dock and maintain.

The excess boats are creating environmental and navigational hazards and officials are scratching their heads over what to do about the problem.

But if you want a boat to go with the nifty new summer homes I showed you yesterday, then it seems it is a buyers -- or finders -- market.

Read more here.

- - -

During my recent (and ongoing) bout with Ebola or whatever it is, I made an interesting discovery.

It's way easier -- and I'm talking way, way easier -- to NOT do this every day than it is to actually do it. Like making a perfect Caesar salad dressing, executing a Windsor knot, or qualifying for the house league peewee championship game, it's actually harder than it looks. I know you find that hard to believe from reading this, but it's true.

And I found that any guilt I felt about ignoring the blog for days at a time . . . didn't matter. I did other things. It felt good.

So, today I'm saying farewell. There are other dragons to slay, country roads to explore, high-speed express elevators to try out, lacrosse try outs to sit through, on and on.

Bye. It's been (mostly) fun.

March Archives and other older, stale-dated material here