Dec 31, 2009
Final blather of this year and this decade.
It hardly seems like an entire year has gone by, let alone the decade. Ten years ago I was stockpiling water, canned goods and ammo for the end of the world.
The good news is that the failure of Y2K to amount to anything means we were able to water the lawn for free, the kids ate spam for the first five years of the decade, and I successfully rid the neighbourhood of rabbits and bears. Well, bears at least. There hasn't been a bear seen on this street in years.
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Alexander Ovechkin has started the latest fashion trend among young hockey players, perhaps the biggest such trend since Gretzky tucked one side of the back of his jersey into his pants, a look mimicked by tens of thousands of kids, one of mine included (and he still does it.)
Ovechkin's thing is the long, long lace that hangs from the front of his pants. It would seem to be purely decorative, as the functional need for two feet of skate lace hanging from one's hockey pants is mostly lost on me.
But I see it all over in the rinks now as kids mimic the world's most dynamic hockey player.
Um, one problem.
Kids have not yet mastered the art of leaping the boards without the lace catching on something, which has in some circumstances resulted in kids being left hanging like the catch of the day while the bench staff scramble to free them.
So, a couple of things have happened. Some trainers have banned the Ovechkin lace altogether to avoid the attendant risk.
Others have modified it, adding a series of thick knots to the lace, thereby making it harder for the lace to catch on something.
And trainers and coaches all over are now regularly packing Swiss Army knives on the bench, so they can cut down the swinging youngsters caught on the boards.
Brings all new meaning to the hockey term "dangle" !
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Something silly:
A couple of weeks ago Jim Belushi -- a Chicago native and major Blackhawks fan -- dropped the puck for the ceremonial faceoff for a game against Tampa Bay at the United Centre.
Belushi is a great entertainer and he completely stole the show -- not with the somersault he did on the red carpet -- but during the faceoff itself when he attempted to waive the team captains out of the faceoff circle. You don't see that every day.
Very funny and you can click below and watch.
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Canada named it's Olympic hockey roster yesterday. I have no quibbles (I wonder about whether the team will regret not having Dion Phaneuf on the blueline, but there seems to be more to that story than meets the eye.)
Canada will be the prohibitive favourites in the world's most important hockey tournament. And make no mistake -- and no disrespect intended for all the other sports and athletes -- hockey is the one gold medal Canadians want.
We'll see.
Read more here.
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The Richard Bell Tournament is in the books. I didn't get out to see any action, but it wasn't because I was avoiding rinks, I assure you.
I'm told by my scouts that the minor bantam A Rangers won their division in fine style, edging Welland 2-1 in the final.
The minor bantam AE squad had a great run before losing in the final to Orangeville.
The folks who billeted kids from Denmark were apparently easy to spot in their gift hats, and the minor midget AA Danes skated away with the gold. Must have been all that good Canadian home cooking!
The point of these tournaments isn't winning or losing, but -- if you're lucky -- having the chance to make new friendships, renew some old ones and see some great hockey.
If there was a link to all the final results that was easily deciphered, I'd post it.
In the meantime, you can go to the tournament page, navigate to the results and poke around. Click here.
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I expect this corner of the Internet will be quiet for a day or two. I'm told there will be a gaggle of youths in my house tonight, the Canada-US game from the World Juniors on TV, and some slopping and cooking in the kitchen, all of which sounds good to me.
I hope 2010 brings you and the people you care about health and prosperity. Happy New Year to all.
If you're out tonight, be careful and stay safe.
As always, hug the kids.
See ya' next year.
Dec 30, 2009
I have to say that not writing the blog is considerably easier than actually writing it.
But, I'm back. Briefly.
We spend Christmas Eve and Day enjoying our own company -- no hockey, no out of town relatives, just the four of us. We cooked and ate and raised our glasses, retiring relatively early to allow Santa plenty of time to arrive.
We also left strict instructions with Chris to not even think about stirring before 8a. Our younger son is 13 now, so there's no need to race to the living room at 6a.
At precisely 8a, Chris was standing at the foot of our bed and the day was off and running.
Everyone seemed happy with their gifts and the transition of my brood from boys to men continued as their were no 800-piece Lego sets to assemble or other such gifts requiring dad's touch.
Oh well.
Then we cooked and ate and raised our glasses one more time, falling asleep in front of the TV later, happy, safe and warm.
- - -
Dec 26 was hockey, hockey, hockey. Both boys started in tournaments -- one at the Scarborough Ice Sports (a lamentable venue if ever there was one), the other at St. Mike's College School Arena, one of the great hockey venues in all of Canada, I dare say.
The midget AAA tournament yielded no medals but Pad had fun, played well, and came away relatively unscathed.
Chris and his house league teammates were in tough in a Select-level tournament, but did themselves and their league proud, losing in the quarter finals and playing some terrific hockey along the way.
And since many words have been expended here over the years recalling the exploits of Pad and his various rep teams, I'm going to take a few more words to talk about Chris's experience with the Oakville EpiPen Jets minor bantam red team.
Chris and a couple of others on this team played white-level last year, so the step up to red is both exciting and a challenge. The game is faster, it includes hitting that is banned in white, the kids shoot harder, that sort of thing.
Unfortunately, one of those boys -- our goalie -- came down with the flu and missed the tournament. For the most part the replacement was a young 'keeper named Chantal -- and she played wonderfully for the Jets, recording a pair of shutouts in three starts.
The second guy from white is also the smallest guy on the team, but not if you measured his heart. Jordan played like he had a missile strapped to his back in every game, finishing every hit, leading the forecheck, inspiring his teammates with his tenacity, a threat every time he had the puck.
The third guy from white is Chris.
His play has improved steadily all season. On Monday night at old St Mike's, he was terrific all night. With 88 seconds left, the score 2-0 for Oakville and the Agincourt goalie on the bench, Chris won the draw. Agincourt managed to get the puck back to the point, Chris blocked the shot. He followed the puck into the neutral zone, picked it up, beat one man, pulled the other wide, waited until he crossed centre and then shot at the empty net, burying the insurance goal in a 3-0 win to move to the quarterfinals.
The coaches on the opposing teams pick the other team's player of the game. And in the three round-robin games, they picked the Chantal the replacement goalie, then the two guys from white -- Jordan, then Chris.
The best part to me as a dad, aside from obviously watching my kid play well after so many years of working at it, was the way the kids reacted to the success of their teammates.
The kids on the Jets are a great group. That they all understood what those moments meant to Chantal and Jordan and Chris? As the ad says, priceless.
The box scores will tell you the Jets came home without a trophy.
I'm here to tell you box scores rarely tell you the whole story, and this week under the watchful gaze of the ghosts in old St Mike's, the Jets did themselves, their coaches, their parents and their association proud in a bunch of ways that can't be measured in stats.
I can't tell you how much fun I had watching.
- - -
Pad is back on the ice tonight. Schedules permitting I hope to get out to the Richard Bell Tournament to see some games, and so should you if you haven't.
Dec 24, 2009
I can't imagine many of you are at your computers today, so just a brief post to say Merry Christmas to all.
Pad's coaches tried to order pizza last night for delivery after practice to the Hershey Centre, but thankfully it didn't work out. Since the kids were on the ice till just after 11p, all the parents wanted to do was go home.
From 8p till the end I hung out with the dads and everyone told stories about what they were going to eat tonight and tomorrow, and it was clear that even us old guys are looking forward to Christmas.
For whatever reason, the conversation turned to grandmothers and cooking and Christmas and all the dads had great stories to tell about being over-fed by their grandmothers, and how their own mothers embraced the tradition and overfeed their kids.
I've been without a grandmother for almost 30 years. Of one, I remember her cakes and cookies and the way she could cook fresh vegetables. Of the other -- who has been gone much longer -- I don't remember much about food (although I do remember making home-made toffee with her) but I remember her almost constant laughter and smiling.
Laura's grandmothers were both wonderful women with enormous hearts and welcoming personalities. And the most enduring tradition in our house at this time of year is one Laura inherited from a grandmother -- the ritual production of the vintage Cape Breton pork pie, which is neither a pie nor made of pork, but that's Cape Breton for you.
They are a hand-made pastry filled with dates and topped with frosting and I'm told they go best with a cup of tea and newspaper in the morning. Laura's friends begin stalking her in November hoping to be blessed with a package of pork pies.
Christmas is a time for family and traditions and, oh yeah, marking the birth of Christ.
I hope your celebrations are fun and safe and your travels are uneventful.
Christmas is also all about the kids. I'm lucky to have hockey players in my life from Timbits to junior and they all get goofy at Christmas.
Enjoy their company and get excited with them. Here's hoping Santa is good to you all.
Merry Christmas. Hug the kids.
Dec 23, 2009
As much fun as this is, I’m hoping today will be my last work day --correct that, last day in the office – of 2009.
The GO train is but a GHOst train now and the trek through the PATH system to King Street has thinned out considerably.
A couple of big pieces of business to finish off today and then home for the holidays.
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I owe Chris some serious movie-watching time when, eventually, I do get home and there is no arena beckoning.
Christmas Vacation, A Christmas Story, and Elf are top three on the family-room sofa to-do list, as well as the 2009 animated hit Up!, which I haven’t seen yet but everyone in my house is telling me is must-see TV.
Alas, there is one more rink the immediate future as Pad has a 9p midget practice tonight.
He’s foregoing the 90-minute junior session that usually precedes it, as the coaches aren’t coming and the ice time is being turned over to the team for optional shinny.
Pad finds the haul from hitting the ice with the juniors at 5:15p, then breaking for a bite, then dryland with the midgets at 8p followed by two more hours of ice time, a long one.
I can’t for the world of it imagine why.
He’s looking to put some “break” into the Christmas break, I think.
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Before his midget game last night, he officiated an exhibition atom rep game at River Oaks. Upon returning home he promptly declared to his mother that kids at that age should not be playing rep.
I found that a curious assessment from a guy who long aspired to play rep, finally managing the feat as a major peewee as an entry-level Ranger at AE.
His rationale was that to him, it all just felt like it was too much, and there was not going to be a lot for the kids to aspire to later years, they would burn out, etc etc.
It was an interesting, unprovoked observation.
He said the parents and coaches were all well behaved and the kids were fine.
It just all felt like it was too much, too early. As a guy who started in peewee AE, then minor bantam A, then bantam and minor midget AA, and now midget AAA, his voice might actually carry more informed opinion than a lot of adults.
But, older and allegedly wiser folks have had this debate for years. I mean, cripes, there’s a select team for Timbits (and yes, I have trouble typing that).
The debate won’t go away any time soon.
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Pad’s game last night turned into one of the uglier encounters of a generally manageable midget AAA season.
If you think midget AAA hockey is a torrent of testosterone and constant fights, you’d be wrong, at least in our experience. For sure, the hockey is hard-edged and tough. But for 98 per cent of it, it is also clean and fairly fought. The thing about AAA is that there are enough kids out there competing for positions that the coaches don’t have to put up with habitual trouble makers. They cut them and find guys who want to play.
But, dumb things happen.
Last night the ref let this one get way, way out of hand and it was a long third period. The trouble took root early in the third when an opposing player slew-footed the captain of Pad’s team as he skated directly towards the boards. Fortunately, he wasn’t hurt. Unfortunately, there was no call.
I found it interesting that one of the linesmen pulled the ref aside after the incident and spoke to him for a good 45 seconds. One got the clear impression that he was told he missed something serious.
Having witnesses this perceived miscarriage of justice, the Sens invoked jungle law, as is the wont of 16 and 17 year old boys, and as they say in the vernacular of the playground “it was on.”
There were several fights and near fights and scrums and by the end of the game there were – literally -- more players in the penalty boxes than were on the benches. I generally take that as a sign that the ref has lost control of the game.
We had friends come out to see the game with us and it was a bit uncomfortable, to be honest.
Oddly, even my kid was in the box, but I’m certain that it was a clerical error of some kind. How he ended up skating off the ice with his helmet off remains a mystery, though.
Yeah, right.
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I’m going to sign off for now after this lighter and most-useless than normal bit of blather.
I expect to be back here tomorrow briefly for those interested in such folly.
For the wiser ones leaving their computers off, have a great Christmas.
Dec 22, 2009
I’m in the midst of a run of eight straight days/nights in rinks, which generally doesn’t much bother me. But for whatever reason when Pad and I got home last night just after 10p, I just felt like I’d hit a wall, or more accurately, the wall had hit me.
I suppose a point could be made here that since I’m not actually doing any of the work on the ice, I’m getting off easy. And to that I say, it’s my blog and I’ll complain about being bone weary when I want to.
My condition last night may have exacerbated by the fact that I got two flu shots yesterday – one for the seasonal flu, the other for H1N1 and I may have been experiencing some side effects from that. About half of people getting the swine flu shot experience fatigue and joint pain. And that’s what I had.
I’m feeling more chipper as I ride a lonely, under populated train into Toronto today.
And tonight I’ll be back in a rink, where Pad plays his final game before the Christmas break.
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One of the things I haven’t been doing while standing around in rinks is shopping and wrapping.
The shopping I pretty much managed to get done somehow. The wrapping?
Here’s the thing.
No one – and I mean, no one – wants a present wrapped by me. I know what I’m good at, and I know what I’m bad at. And if I was being honest, gift wrapping presents would be high on the list of things I am very bad at.
How bad?
I know the fundamentals of wrapping paper/tape/scissors/tags/bows.
But I never seem to get it right and a present that is gift-wrapped by me tends to look as if I attached large gobs of scotch tape to it and rolled it in the newspaper recycling bin before giving it a pass through a woodchipper.
Yes, as you can imagine the expressions of joy and wonder on Christmas morning are often like you’d see on Jack Nicholson’s family in The Shining.
Having said that, on Christmas Eve I will find a quiet corner of the house (like that’s even possible) and wrap presents.
And I just want to say that the decorative gift bag ranks just behind the discovery of penicillin, the harnessing of electricity and the elimination of the two-line offside pass as the great innovations of our time.
Pass the tissue paper and bows.
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You may not remember the story from last year, when the folks at the Royal Canadian Mint fessed up that they seemed to have lost some gold.
About 17,500 troy ounces of gold disappeared (did they check the sock drawer??) and it caused a big fuss.
Well, mystery solved.
The good news: the gold was never missing in the first place. It was always there.
The bad news? The folks at the mint can’t count.
Management bonuses have been cancelled.
Read more here.
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Ryan Miller, the Buffalo goalie who treats the Leafs as his own personal chew toy, stole another game for the Sabres last night as the guys at the other end of the QEW beat the Leafs 3-2 in OT.
I didn’t see 30 seconds of this one, but you can read about it here.
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One of the most remarkable and once unassailable records in hockey fell last night, as Martin Brodeur recorded his 104th career shutout, passing Terry Sawchuk on the all-time list.
That is an astounding number of shutouts and I’m guessing that record will not be broken in my lifetime.
Read more here.
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If you work in a cubicle then you might find this funny. I don’t, but I found it funny anyway.
Hey look! A silly list!
Today: 25 Awesome Cubicle Pranks.
Click here to see them.
Dec 21, 2009
Blog entries for the rest of the week will become sporadic and shorter. I think it is a safe assumption that we all are being run off our feet in these last few days before Christmas, and time for creating or reading blogs is dwindling like the balance in the checking account at this time of year.
Turn off the computer and go talk to your family.
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I did notice in the local paper that the folks behind the Richard Bell Memorial International Hockey Tournament are still looking for help billeting the out-of-country visitors who will be coming to Oakville to take part.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. It’s a great experience, so get off your butt and help out.
Our own boys are in tournaments at the same time this year, so we can’t commit to billeting and making sure the visitors get to their own games. Our experience last year, however, with the three boys from Finland was exceptional.
There are lots of people out there who have the time, have the room at home and have the requisite love of hockey.
If even one kid ends up having tot stay in a hotel while the rest of his team is experiencing Canadian family life over the holidays, that’s a real shame for them and frankly, a shame on our association.
Step up.
Read more here.
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Both my boys’ teams had games and Christmas parties on the weekend. The younger son’s team had a house party and pot luck, which included a night-time outing of Manhunt for the boys in the ravines of Glen Abbey, armed with flashlights and . . . little else.
I only got to attend part of that one as we were double booked, but it was fun and the kids sure enjoyed it.
The older son’s team – having vetoed Hooters – met for a team dinner at Kelseys and it seemed to go exceedingly well. Everyone had food in front of them in less than an hour.
If you are familiar with showing up at a restaurant with a group of 45 people, then you know you usually have a better chance of seeing a comprehensive agreement on global warming before you see a meal. But such was not the case last night.
Much of the team then retired to one of the homes for hanging out time, which given the wide geographic area the team is culled from almost never happens.
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We are mostly ready for Christmas now. Sort of. Kind of. Mostly.
This is a developing story.
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The Leafs managed to beat Boston on Saturday. Such excitement!
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Over the weekend a columnist in the New York Times put forward the notion that Tiger Woods is not just the athlete of the decade (as determined by the sports editors of America) but is, more grandly, the person of the decade that is closing rapidly.
The piece is very well crafted and the author’s position is that Tiger’s fall from grace is pretty much the perfect symbol for a lousy decade in which people like us were fairly consistently fed a pack of lies (remember Enron?) that we consumed hook, line and sinker.
If there is a bigger lie than the image of Tiger Woods that the advertising executives tried to spoon feed us, I’d be hard pressed to say what it might be.
Regardless of whether Tiger’s off-course (pun intended) antics are relevant in evaluating his worth, the fact is he is not the paragon of family, squeaky-clean living and high standards that we were led to believe.
Champion golfer, yes. Loser at life? It seems so, although the cocktail waitresses of America have been waiting decades for a hero and now, apparently, they have one.
You can find the Times’ piece here.
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I've moved into 8th place in my hockey pool out of 236 competitors. Yeah, I could run the Leafs.
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The cacophony of outrage rang across the land on Friday – what?? No list??
OK, maybe not.
But another pass at silliness today for you to mock.
In this instalment, a list of some of the worst plastic surgery on celebrities that you’ll ever see.
I’m particularly fond of the Kenny Rogers photo. His skin looks so tight is seems if he nicked himself shaving his face would explode like a balloon.
Nice look.
See the list here.
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One might hope to slide into Christmas with a relaxed pace at home and work. Such will not be the case for me.
I will be in the office through Wednesday, a day I was hoping to take off.
On the hockey front, Pad is practicing tonight, playing Tuesday night and practicing twice on Wednesday night. Chris has a practice tonight, and a team volunteer thing they do every week at a seniors’ complex on Tuesday.
And Laura is busy assembling all the things I asked for this Christmas.
As far as I know, there’s nothing scheduled for the 24th or 25th – yet – and then on Boxing Day both boys will be into holiday tournaments in Toronto.
Ready, set, RELAX!
Dec 18, 2009
A week from today is Christmas. Conduct yourselves accordingly.
- - -
Aside from everyone worrying about whether the Leafs will make the playoffs (they won't) there's a lot of stress in the world. It doesn't matter what you do, or who you work for -- stress is there.
Now, sometimes someone else's stress can help relieve yours.
Like in this clip from CBC Newsworld where the woman giving simultaneous translation on a scrum in the foyer of the Commons loses her grip in frustration.
I hope she's feeling better and can hear fine now.
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I hate to be a cynic, but am I the only person who doesn't really give a rat's ass about the Olympic torch relay?
I think if I had a friend or relative contending to be an Olympian, I'd be a little less cynical about the Olympics too.
But I doubt it.
Anyway, I just wanted to say that if the Olympic flames was being run through my family room my only comment would be to get out of the way of the TV.
Triva: guess which Olympic games was the first to feature a torch relay? 1936 in Berlin -- Hitler's games.
Bah humbug.
- - -
The Globe and Mail went big on concussions and hockey today, including a story on the results of testing on the brain of the late NHL tough guy Reggie Flemming.
It's good journalism, compelling science and for the smart guys governing the sport we love so much, it's important food for thought.
You can read the Globe piece here.
For my part, I have no empirical evidence to back me up, but there sure seem to be more guys being carried off the ice on stretchers these days, or skating off holding their heads and disappearing for the next two months.
I would guess that the average AAA midget player these days is bigger than the average NHL player was 25 years ago (the one I know -- the guy with his hand in my fridge all the time -- just turned 16 in September and is 6-3 and 190 pounds, and none of it is fat.)
So, there's no question the NHL players are larger, but the rinks are not.
The players are fitter.
The stakes -- million-dollar contracts for the players and millions more for financially successful teams like the Leafs, Habs, Rangers and Flyers -- are enormous.
It's simply stupid to think the rules don't have to evolve to cope with the reality that larger, fitter men with better equipment are able to inflict more damage on one another than they could even a few years ago.
My guess on the future? Hmm. Well . . .
My guess is that within a short number of years, bodychecking will disappear from minor hockey except at the highest levels -- say, AAA bantam and midget.
Also, "finishing the check" will be gone totally -- hitting someone who doesn't have control of the puck is probably the largest cause of player-on-player injuries in hockey, and should be gone from minor hockey, except, maybe, possibly, at the very top tier. It adds nothing for house leaguers and lower end rep.
Head shots? Zero tolerance across the board, and put in the same category as a hit from behind, but with stiffer penalties for both -- say, a minimum five-game suspension for a first offence. Ten for a second. Third? Bye.
Fighting? Banned. Fighting in minor hockey is stupider than ballroom dancing at the Olympics. So just ban it.
Make everyone up to professional hockey wear a full cage. Half visors are half assed. They wear cages in the NCAA, right?
And no. I don't think Don Cherry is part of the problem. Read more on this here.
I hear far more from Cherry that makes sense on the difficult issues facing hockey than I hear otherwise. But let's not forget that what makes sense for the NHL might not make sense for minor hockey.
- - -
This weekend is probably the busiest of a busy season for many of you. I hope you drive safely and let someone else drive when it's appropriate.
A blur of hockey, a blur of parties, a blur of fun where we all rush around to cram in all the joy and love we didn't fit into our datebooks all year.
Bah humbug to all that, says I.
I'll be out too, but I'd rather be at home with the boys and Laura, welcoming a few visitors, swearing at the Leafs on TV, enjoying some peace on Earth.
For those of you travelling, take care. Take your time.
For those of you with twisted senses of humour, click below to see Jack Bauer -- the star tormentor of the series 24 -- torturing Santa. How festive is that?
Enjoy the weekend. Hug the kids.
Violate our airspace? Get him, Jack!!
Dec 17, 2009
With barely a week left until Christmas, I have to confess I haven’t had much time to get into the spirit of the season. I suspect that will be upon me in short order, but there’s simply too much going on, on too many fronts, to pause and breathe.
I am going to try and change that in the coming days – in between hockey practices and games, of course.
Last night me and my two sons went out to dinner (as did their mom, but she went in a different direction with her book club). Wednesday nights are turning into a bit of a hockey marathon for my elder kid, with two sessions on the ice totalling more than three and half hours. He does have a couple of hours in between, and like last week, I met him at the rink (this time with younger brother in tow) and we grabbed a bite and watched the front end of the Leaf game.
Afterwards, we dropped Pad back at the Hershey Centre and I took Chris home and headed off to return beer bottles, replace them with full beer bottles, and then buy some groceries to make a Caesar salad dressing for Laura to take to her staff Christmas lunch today.
For the record, I make my dressing from scratch and it may be the best such dressing you might ever eat. I am not a kitchen wizard, but I do a small number of things well enough. Caesar salad dressing would be one. Barbequing in a force-four gale with accompanying rain/sleet/snow storm would be another. I cake bake chicken, make a decent bachelor’s goulash (available meat product plus mushrooms, onion, garlic and beer).
And there was a time I would even make hand-made cannelloni, but that seems like a lot of work now.
Anyway. Last night it was Caesar salad dressing.
After that, I returned to the Hershey Centre to watch the final hour and a half of practice, which is how I spend a rollicking Wednesday night.
The team was supposed to be off the ice at 10:50p. The Zamboni driver appeared and – because no one was on the ice at 11p – the boys pleaded for a few more minutes, and won. The practice continued until about 11:05p, and the coaches and about half the players left the ice. The Zamboni driver was nowhere in sight, and the boys – including mine -- played with the pucks.
By 11:15p, there were just four skaters left on the ice (yes, still mine), plus one goalie. All we could do is watch and as tired as we were, you had to smile.
An open sheet of ice, a bucket of pucks and an apparently disinterested Zamboni operator. I (barely) remember what it felt like to be 16. My sons take far more liberties pushing my good humour than I ever would have dared with my dad, but for the record, my dad (and mom) spent hundreds of hours in some very grim rinks watching me play with the pucks, and they never once complained about it.
Shortly after 11:15p, I put myself in a position to catch Patrick’s eye and held up my hands in the international symbol for “WTF??” He nodded, let loose one more shot, gathered some pucks in the bucket and skated off.
Because I’m a dad I gave him the gears for being one of the last off the ice when I’ve had six hours of sleep in the last two days, but honestly my heart wasn’t in it.
I (barely) remember being 16. You only get one crack at it.
- - -
Pad’s team is having a Christmas dinner on the weekend at a restaurant.
On this team, we are just parents. We don’t coach, manage, provide a web site, organize or do anything else. We make sure our kid gets to games and practices on time, we cheer on the team, but otherwise, we’re way out of the “inside loop.” (It’s actually quite a liberating experience, being responsible only for yourself. But that’s a sermon for another day.)
Anyway, the original choice of venue for the boys was Hooters, which I know only by reputation for so-so food but featuring a lot of wait staff that perhaps Tiger Woods might enjoy meeting. The idea, I think, was to go for something fun and silly that the players would enjoy. Not one parent that I know of objected.
On their own, the boys sent back word through the captain that they were not comfortable with that selection, and respectfully asked for a new venue, which was duly arranged.
Lest anyone feel the need to scramble around for Nobel Prize applications for the team, the boys have no discomfort with Hooters. What they have is discomfort with going to Hooters with their parents, especially their moms.
What was the consensus analysis from the assembled dads last night? A smart, respectful move by the team, and honestly, one we would never have seen coming.
- - -
I didn’t see much of the Leafs game. I did hear more than I saw, tuned into AM640 for Joe Bowen calling the action. They were apparently not impressive in losing 6-3 to Phoenix. Game story here.
- - -
Hockey Canada announced the roster for the squad that will represent Canada at the World Junior Hockey Championships in Saskatchewan. The final cuts came Wednesday.
You can read here about he agony and the ecstasy of those moments.
And you can see the roster here.
For the first time in a couple of years, there are no Oakville names on the roster.
- - -
Every family has its own seasonal video favourites. Christmas Vacation, Elf and A Christmas Story will all get a workout in our house over the next week (in between hockey games and practices.)
In the animated short category (aside from The Simpson’s holiday episodes) it all begins and ends with How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Theodore Seuss Geisel’s true classic parable against the perils of commercialism.
Which brings me to today’s year end list – oddly, no one thanked me for the Wilfred Brimley thing – 10 Stories Behind Dr. Seuss Stories.
It’s light, fun and I hope informative.
But most of all, it’s another list, and since I promised one, I delivered.
You can find it here.
Dec 16, 2009
Having successfully managed to do New Brunswick as a day trip, I was back in a familiar spot on a GO train this morning, which I gather was a more fun place than the GO trains on Lakeshore West last night, where the only thing moving was blood pressure.
Late trains are an occupational hazard (literally) for working-stiff commuters. Whether you’re a parent racing to get to a daycare by 6p for pickup, or a hockey parent racing to get to a practice or game, a train delay can create a ripple effect of havoc.
We literally gamble our plans on GO’s ability to get where we need to be. And for me, tonight is a case in point, with a couple important pickups and drop-offs scheduled, Laura running in a different direction and timelines very tight.
And there’s not a thing we can do about it if it goes sideways.
- - -
The only noteworthy item from my trip was me trying to clear security at Pearson. For me, it was not an issue. I was able to travel light on this one. No laptop. One small brief case with two files and a notebook. Ipod. Blackberry. Wallet.
But the woman in front of me in the security check-in had more bling on than P-Diddy at 50 Cent's birthday party, and it took forever for her to get declared safe for interprovincial travel.
Just FYI, yelling doesn't help.
- - -
On Monday night the minor bantam house league Jets – Chris’s team – had the back end of a home and home with a Brampton select team. In the opener a couple weeks ago, Brampton won handily, although the score was not reflective of the game.
Monday night was a different story. A close game from the get-go, the match featured some decent, clean physical play, good goaltending at both ends, and some nifty puck movement.
The Jets prevailed 2-1 in this one and from the two periods I saw, they were full value for the win.
If they keep playing like that, a lot of good things are going to happen for the boys.
- - -
I had to bail out after the second period to run from Chris’s game to his older brother’s practice. And it’s a rare night indeed when I get to visit not one, but two GTA rinks that I’ve never been in before.
Chris played at Greenbriar Arena in Brampton, and Pad was practicing at Malton Arena. The good news is that the two places are only about 15 minutes apart. The engine didn’t have enough time to get cold as I ran in and out of the rinks and back and forth and I got to see enough of both of their evenings to keep my Dad Credentials valid for the time being.
- - -
The Leafs continue their gravity-defying levitation from the depths of the Eastern Conference, now just two points out of a playoff spot with a game in hand.
Yes, it was nice to see Ottawa lose to the Leafs on Monday night (well, I didn’t actually see it, but you get the idea) but there’s still a large margin for error in the months ahead.
Phoenix is in town tonight and the Leafs will try to make it five straight wins at home.
Read more on the Leafs jumping back onto the trees here.
- - -
I've now moved into 12th spot (out of 236 participants) in that hockey pool I am in. Since the first week of the season, I've now moved up 200 places. All of this is weird, since I have no idea what I'm doing.
- - -
The Google Street view thing I showed the other day was a big hit, apparently. Glad you liked it. I have more silly lists for the silly season, but I’ll save the better stuff for later.
Since so few of you sent me emails to ask how the weather was in Saint John, I’m going to punish you with five cats who look like Wilfred Brimley.
It has nothing to do with hockey or Christmas. But it is silly.
Click here.
- - -
Dec 14, 2009
Happy birthday to . . . this.
It was four years ago today that I started this blog and here we are now, 48 months, thousands of postings and many words later.
What has it achieved?
I’m not sure. There were never any lofty goals but it has had one decent purpose, and that is a fairly accurate record of our family’s life over that time.
Given the ages of the boys, a lot has happened in that period in sports, school, vacations, and other things. And if nothing else, this space is a record of all that. And many of those things are well worth remembering.
Many aren’t, too, but no need to dwell on that.
Anyway, the readership has grown from a couple of dozen that month to a couple thousand fairly loyal followers. You are generally polite enough to laugh at what I think is funny, and honest enough to tell me when I’m wrong. Thanks for taking the time to visit.
There are many days when I feel the blog is losing steam and that maybe it’s time to think about winding things down.
And then something will happen that I want to share, and we’re off and running again.
- - -
Things like, buying a Christmas tree.
I came home Friday after to find a large, lovely, large tree awaiting me in the garage.
Did I mention it was large?
Do you know that scene in Christmas Vacation when Chevy Chase cuts the binding twine off the Griswold family tree and the branches spring out, smashing windows and sweeping ornaments off tables?
Anyway.
So, we left the large tree in the garage Friday night because Chris had a practice and then a game and there was no way we would get the thing up that night.
But Saturday, after Chris played, and after the Timbits played and then had their Christmas party, and after Pad played, me and the elder son went into the garage to make sense of the tree.
We cut off the binding net and stood it upright, and the top was slightly higher than the garage rafters more than nine feet above us. This would create a problem in the living room with its eight-foot ceiling.
I told Pad that clearly this tree was meant for the house we’d buy after we win the lottery (which, BTW, is still on the 2009 to-do list.)
We trimmed some boughs off the bottom and cut the trunk and took a little off the top and gradually got the beast to a size that would have a chance of fitting in the living room.
And mostly, it did. What it didn’t want to do was stand up. However, an advantage to having a 16-year-old son was that we made him lie on his back on the floor repeatedly adjusting the settings on the tree stand.
Eventually, it was stable and now it is fully decorated and looks spectacular, thanks being entirely to Laura and Chris, but mostly the former. Nothing would get done in our house this time of year if not for her work.
Ten days until Christmas Eve. Soon, time to start my shopping!
- - -
Who are these handsome guys? Read on!
The '94 Thunderbirds, a MOHA minor midget red house league team, competed in the Jayden Elmore House League tournament in London two weekends ago and came away finalists in the combined minor midget/midget division. The team completed the round-robin portion of the tourney at 2-1, beating the Whitby Wildcats 2-1 and Lorne Park 5-0 before losing to eventual tourney winner SSE London (Midget) 3-1. The squad then faced Erindale (Midget) in the semi-final and won 1-0 to advance to the tourney final. Although the guys gave it a valiant effort they came up short, losing in the final to SSE London. Members of the team are: Andrew Barrons, Cameron Bertrand, Jack Blackwell, Luke Buchan, Aaron DeBelle, Scott Enman, Curtis Fleischmann, Kevin Greer, Nick Mann, Luke McCulloch, Luke McIvor, Jordan Peterson, Nick Russo, Mariano Stasiak, Greg Thomson and Ryan Weech. Geoff Blackwell is the coach with Steve McCulloch and Todd Nagata the assistants. Rick Buchan is team trainer.
Congratulations to the team on a great tournament.
- - -
Yes, we were all shocked, confused and a little frightened by what the Leafs did on Saturday night. But we still find it hard to get too excited, even if they are more fun to watch than they were a month ago. Read more here on the work ahead for the Leafs.
- - -
Tiger Woods’ extraordinary fall from glory continues with the pace of a rock falling from a cliff wall. His sponsorships are starting to evaporate, just as his reputation as a clean-living family-guy champion also evaporates.
Read more here.
It’s an amazing way to end the first decade of the new century for a guy who may well be the greatest athlete of that decade.
- - -
At this time of the year I know you’re not looking for me to be deep or thoughtful. You’re looking for silly diversions, or pictures of Megan Fox. Or maybe Jennifer Aniston.
Maybe later in the week I’ll provide that kind of silly.
For now though, something that is just plain old silly.
The end of the decade is upon us and people are assembling lists of this and that – best of the decade, worst of the decade, etc.
I’m going for something different. Unmitigated silly is what I’m looking for – and to start us off today, silly and disturbing.
You may be aware that the overlords at Google have started their Street View project in which they send specially-equipped vehicles around the streets of major metro areas (like Toronto) and capture 360-degree panorama images of every street. (If you live in Oakville, your house is probably on the Internet.)
That’s a lot of photos and, a lot of driving.
Needless to say, the streets are not always abandoned when this work is done – people live their lives, things happen.
Which brings us to the first silly list of the season:
Top 10 things captured on camera by Google Street View. I have to confess my fav is that Google truck hitting a deer and capturing it on camera (not because I hate Bambi, but because I hate the mindless use of technology to do things without actually taking care to make that just because you can do something, you should do something.
Having said that, the burning house and the girls flashing the camera were also funny too.
Click here to view the list.
- - -
Chris and the Jets have an exhibition game in Brampton tonight and Pad has a practice, at the same time, so there will be no rest on the home front.
I’m travelling tomorrow, so I may not be here. If I’m not, talk amongst yourselves or send me witty emails and ask me what the weather is like in Saint John, NB.
Dec 11, 2009
For those of you keeping score at home, it's officially cold even if it's not officially winter.
- - -
OK, OK. Easy now. One at a time. No pushing.
The best way to climb off the Leaf bandwagon is one at a time, in an orderly fashion.
Toronto's 5-2 loss in Boston last night was actually uglier than the scoreboard would suggest. Other than maybe the first seven or eight minutes of the third period, the Leafs were never in it.
Musing about playoff spots in some quarters is premature, to say the least, and unrealistic if you agree with me.
"But cherished blogger," you think. "As bad as it is, the Leafs are only five points out of a playoff spot and there are 51 games left. They can do it!"
Grasshopper, hand me the pebble you snatched from my hand so I can smack you with it.
To understand the challenge, do not look up towards eighth place, look down. Look to see how many teams are behind the Leafs.
I'll make it easy for you and print the entire list:
1. Carolina.
OK, that's it.
My point? My point is that there are nine teams ahead of, and not counting, the Leafs trying to get one of five playoff spots up for grabs. I am conceding playoff spots to Washington, Pittsburgh and New Jersey.
While the Leafs were on a 7-2-1 tear before last night, every one of those other nine teams in front of them -- except Boston -- had either a losing record or a barely .500 record over the same stretch. Which is to say, they were not playing to their abilities, in many cases.
And that reversal of fortune, friends, is a statistical anomaly not likely to continue playing out over the next 51 games.
There's no more chance that the Leafs will only lose 10 games in the next 51, than there is that eight of those nine teams (like the Flyers -- mired in a horrendous slump) will lose 40 of their next 50.
In short, I stand by my analysis that the Leafs season and playoff hopes were done after the first eight winless games of the season.
They need to count on too many good teams to continue to play poorly for a long, long time. And, they have to play at an unreasonably high level for the same period.
Too much to hope for, so forget it.
Read about last night here.
Merry Christmas.
- - -
No hockey last night in our house, which allowed for a little R&R before kicking off another frantic weekend tonight.
House league minor bantam action at Ice Sports tonight (go Jets!) preceded by a 6p practice. The joy of makeup games!
Whatever criticisms one might have of Ice Sports, this much is true: they have a bar.
Tomorrow, the soon-to-be-legendary Blue Thunder Timbits team has practice to be followed by a holiday party and mini-sticks swinging festival of fun. Since all these guys are still on their baby teeth and have a full set of mulligans to grow in, we're relatively confident that nothing can go wrong.
Pad plays in the afternoon, as do the Jets again, and then -- late afternoon phone calls notwithstanding -- we have a Saturday night where we don't have to sit in a rink. It's been a while since we had a Saturday at home. If anyone calls, we're busy.
Timbits again on Sunday morning, Pad plays in the afternoon, and that's it. An entirely manageable schedule I think.
Last night's hockey-free agenda allowed Pad to attend his school's seasonal semi-formal bash at the conference centre on Bronte Road.
I drove him and a buddy over to the gig and dropped them off, which wasn't entirely without entertainment in its own right.
In chatting with Pad's friend, it was discovered that while he wasn't a hockey player, he is an accomplished juggler, which led to the obvious question -- did you go to Pinegrove?
Virtually all Oakville parents of a certain vintage know that kids who attend Pinegrove Elementary go away with two skills -- they can run, and they can juggle. How this skill set holds up in life beyond obvious opportunities with the Cirque de Soleil, I'm not sure. But trust me, it's true.
Anyway, this guy didn't actually attend Pinegrove, but we all laughed because they both immediately got the joke.
The second interesting thing was that the words "semi formal" mean different things to the females than the males, judging by what I saw at drop off.
It appears that when females hear the words "semi formal" what that actually process in their brain is "prepare to meet the Jonas Brothers." I mean, the young ladies were dressed to kill. Snazzy sparkly skirts and funky hair and new shoes.
The guys? Well, it was kind of all over the map. Pad dressed in standard game-day hockey attire -- dress pants, dress shirt and tie. Others -- many others -- had no tie, untucked shirt, that sort of thing.
In short, the girls put the formal in "semi -formal" and the guys . . . well, they take "semi" as literally as they can.
- - -
It was the first time I'd been back to the conference centre in almost exactly a year. Last Boxing Day we went there to meet and pick up the three Finnish hockey players who billeted with us during the Richard Bell Memorial International Hockey Tournament. Tournament web page is here.
Regular readers will recall what a great experience that was -- for our family, for the Finns, for our team. The kids on our team at the time -- the Ranger minor midget AA squad -- immediately hit it off with the Finns. Our guys went to all their games to cheer them on, and vice versa. The Rangers got permission to wear the Finnish jerseys in a league game in January. It was great for the boys.
Almost the entire Finnish team came down with a terrible stomach bug during the visit so they never got healthy enough to play their best hockey, but the hockey was entirely secondary to the adventure of meeting them.
I could go on and on. I still get emails from parents in Finland who continue to follow the blog and they send along news of their boys and lives.
My point is this: if you have never considered billeting kids who come to Oakville for this tournament, you really should.
Language was no barrier. One of our three billets spoke English well enough to get by. They liked all the same things my boys like -- steak, pizza, girls, video games and yes, of course hockey. They were polite and quiet to the point of invisibility. They were great guests.
Go to the MOHA web page and email the information address and ask if they need families to billet.
We have two tournaments this Christmas with our own boys so we can't commit to it this year, but it is no exaggeration to say it was one of the best experiences we ever had with minor hockey. And you can't imagine how appreciative the boys and their families are to feel welcome and wanted.
Give it a shot. You will not regret it.
- - -
And with all of that, over and out for another week.
The weekend ahead will hopefully include finding some glory on the ice and maybe a Christmas tree somewhere else.
The turn in the weather means there's lot of black ice on the roads, so leave for the rink early and drive slower.
It's party season. Don't drink and drive. Be the designated driver, or find someone who will.
Watch out for the kids because at this time of year they sure aren't watching for you! One week of school left.
Hug the kids.
Dec 10, 2009
Stunningly, Christmas Eve is two weeks from today.
That means, for those of us with school-age kids, there is but one week of school left, not nearly enough shopping days, and never enough money in the account.
The stretch run into Christmas is going to fly by for us, and I have a feeling that with two hockey tournaments in the post-Xmas period, the holiday is going to seem quick, too.
I’m guessing you already knew it was Dec 10. But it may not have occurred to you that it will be time to set out the cookies and milk in two weeks.
- - -
Older son had 90 minutes of ice, then a break, then two more hours of ice last night. That meant two things – he slept well, and I missed the Leaf game.
Laura dropped him at the first session and I went and met him there directly after work, watching the end of his first workout.
We went out for a bite to eat before his 2nd session and in spite of the blustery, bitter weather outside it was a nice hour, leaving me (if not him) wishing that there wasn’t another three hours of rink time (an hour in advance, plus two more on the ice) ahead. We actually got to see the first period of the Leaf game, chatted about school, shared a meal and hockey talk and mutually relaxed.
It was one of those December nights where the wind whipped the dusting of falling snow across the great asphalt plains of suburbia in frigid swirls. I dropped him at the Hershey Centre, where he slung his hulking hockey bag over his back, turned a shoulder into the wind and then disappeared in the bowels of the Hershey Centre. Me, I went home to change out my suit.
Laura and Chris had just got home from his Christmas concert, which I obviously missed, and I felt (and still do) terrible about that. But a guy can’t be in two places at once, and Chris is nothing if not understanding about the pulls upon our time.
The house was warm and it would have been a nice night to settle in, listen to the raw wind outside, relax after an already-long day and . . . well, that wasn’t in the cards.
I dressed warm, got back in the car, and went to the rink and hung out for two hours watching 16 year old kids having fun disguised as a practice.
We got home around 11:40p.
- - -
The Christmas concert was great, I am told. Chris plays sax in the school band (he also plays guitar, PS3, Xbox, left wing and centre) and they put on quite a show.
Like I said before, I’m sorry I missed it. I think it’s the first one of those I’ve ever missed.
Of course, in high school they don’t have the middle-school style concert evening. There was a school theatrical production a couple of weeks ago (I didn’t go, but Pad went to support his friends in it and said it was really good.)
- - -
Back to the Leafs – I saw the first two goals on an overhead TV while we ate. Later I heard Joe Bowen on the radio just about pop an artery over John Tavares scoring twice to tie the game.
And I was standing in a contemplative pose in a corner of the Hershey Centre, unplugged, uninformed, and unaware, when Jason Blake scored the winner for the Leafs.
Toskala played well, from all accounts.
The population of Leaf Nation are (foolishly) whispering about playoffs again.
You can read more here.
- - -
If you’re like us, then every month you open you cable bill and grimace. Cable and internet have become a significant line item in the family budget (editor’s note: that presumes that such a budget exists) and it is a bill I hate paying.
Anyway.
Chris got a small TV for his room a couple of months ago and it was amazing how many channels he can pull in over the air, including HD channels.
The downside is that TSN and Sportsnet are not broadcast over the air, so you’re out of luck there. But for the US networks, CBC and CTV and CITY and Global? It’s all out there, free for the taking.
Apparently, I’m not the only one who hates his cable bill.
And the New York Times carried an interesting piece yesterday on a family that dove into the deep end of the techno pool to do away with cable.
The bad news is that to attempt to do what these folks have done, you really need to bone up on your technology and how to make it work. Secondly, you will still be sending someone – often a cable company – money for the Internet connection to make it all work.
But still, the $1,600 in savings annually is not without some appeal.
Read more here.
- - -
Tiger Woods. What can I say? The man is such a wordsmith he should have his own blog and put the rest of us in our places.
Newspapers have published the text of his text-messages to one of his special friends. Most of which would not seem all that salacious, except that the special friend is not his wife and the mother of his children and, well, that gets complicated.
What the heck. Read more here.
- - -
Great story in the Star this week, which I missed but got pointed to by the diligent minorhockeyfan. Rick Vaive snubs a 14-year-old Brendan Shanahan, who was looking for an autograph.
Shanahan never forgets, and as a rookie pro goes medieval on Vaive the first chance he gets.
Cracks me up.
Read more here.
Dec 9, 2009
As a friend asked me this morning via email, why is it news when it snows a little bit in Canada in December.
Good question.
I got up earlier than normal today to shovel, but there was no need. Whatever snow there was on the ground was already turning to slush. I have no doubt the major highways were gridlock – even light rain in July makes that happen in Toronto, so actual snow makes the morning commute something akin to the Donner Expedition. (Pass the salt.)
Never one to act until I really need to, I got the snow tires put on my car yesterday. At 4:30p. Several full hours before the storm. I mean, why rush?
Actually, it was my lovely bride who looked after this chore for me (I have snow tires on their own rims on my car, so the change over is fairly easy).
Except that the good folks at the mechanic’s shop called to say my snows needed to be replaced (I just bought during the first Bush administration for Pete’s sake!)
So, I now have new snow tires, but I can report that they worked very spiffy in the morning snow and slush.
I told Laura that these will represent her Xmas present to me. And my birthday. And Father’s Day. And . . .
- - -
The Leafs host the Islanders tonight. I won’t be able to sit in front of a TV for this one, owing to hockey commitments, but after two consecutive nights at home, I can’t complain.
Well, I could. But it would be unseemly, right?
Anyway, you can read the game-day advance on this one here.
- - -
A new study out suggests that fit teenage boys will turn out better later in life that their less active, less fit pals. It suggests very active and healthy kids are smarter, do better in school and will earn more money as adults than garden variety slugs.
The item I’m going to link to on this bit of news is fairly dense academic reading, so honestly, don’t bother.
I wonder, however, if a factor in all this is that fit, active kids are too busy to get distracted by a whole bunch of things that lead to paths that make education and higher incomes less probable.
Who knows?
I just know that kids who are busy in sports are not just healthy, they’re also generally not sitting on the curb outside of Blockbuster video at 1a on a Saturday morning.
You can read some really dense prose here.
- - -
In golf news . . . NO – not Tiger. I’m not going there today.
But lost the headlines over his hobbies was the fact that the annual PGA Tour Q-school wrapped up on the weekend and Graham DeLaet of Saskatchewan won a full-time spot on the tour for 2010.
Getting one of those cards is one of the hardest things to do in sport.
Sadly, it is much easier to lose your card once you’ve got one, as former World No. 1 David Duval found out at the same tournament.
The former British Open champ who once bumped Tiger from the top of the world rankings finished 90th at Q-school and will have to rely on sponsor exemptions to play the big tour. Duval doesn’t need the money – he made gazillions when he was at the top – but money isn’t what makes a major champion return to Q school.
Two other major champs – Todd Hamilton and Shawn Micheel – also failed to retain their cards.
You can read a brief squib on the results here.
- - -
Every summer we go to Ingonish, way up in the middle of nowhere on Nova Scotia’s Cabot Trail. We stay in a cabin that is almost literally on the beach, and we get to enjoy some fairly big surf sometimes – by big, I mean waves that are 10 or 12 feet. We swim over them or dive into them, but mostly with that much water you kind of just let it do whatever it wants with you and while you manage the risk smartly, you still are taking your chances with that much water.
Here’s one sample from last August, and you can tell by the body language that Pad is on defence here, getting ready to swim with the wave, which is the easiest way to ensure you get to tell your grandchildren about your 2009 summer.
(The context is accurate, BTW. Pad is more than six feet tall, and that wave is way bigger than him.)
Yesterday’s New York Times had an item on the unusually large waves hitting Hawaii right now. If you like surf, it’s worth a look. And take the time to click on the photos in the left margin to expand them.
These waves make ours look like ripples. Given the weather here, a little escape to some sun and big surf may be just what we need. Even if it is only on your computer.
Click here to hang 10!
Dec 8, 2009
I could be lazy and save this all until Wednesday. But better late than never. My apologies for being late today.
- - -
Yeah, it was great that the Leafs won last night but my favourite part of the game was in the third period when Atlanta scored two quick goals and the camera was fixed on Ron Wilson.
I thought his head was going to explode. Too bad he didn’t have a live mic on for that little rant. As poor as my lip-reading skills are, I got the gist of it. The Leafs quickly got back on course.
You can read about the game here.
- - -
No hockey in our house last night, or tonight, although there will be a hockey-themed fundraiser thingy in my living room in support of the Jets. (Live update – it’s on right now.)
Men are not encouraged to participate and I can take a hint.
I intend to cower in the basement or something.
- - -
The Tiger Woods thing is starting to feel like watching a white Ford Bronco on an LA freeway. Bizarre, sad and self destructive.
- - -
I will try to be earlier tomorrow, unless the snow storm – if it happens – otherwise consumes my commute.
Dec 7, 2009
There was an interesting headline in the Google News tab on the weekend.
"Leafs Show Off Their Skills For Charity"
Hmm.
The reference was to the annual Leafs skills competition, held yesterday, with the funds raised from the gate going to the MSLE Team Up Foundation. OK Fair enough. You can read about that here.
But I have to confess I was confused for a moment, and thought the story was about Saturday night's game in Boston, where the Leafs' skills were more than charitable to the hometown Bruins, who thrashed the blue and white 7-2.
Kessel stunk.
Former Leaf draft pick Tuuka Rask --acquired by Boston in the deal for Andre Raycroft (who was going to be the solution to the Leaf goaltending problem about three solutions ago) -- was brilliant.
Net-net of everything, I say no big deal.
The Leafs aren't very good and recent spasms of competitiveness make them more fun to watch, but it doesn't bury the reality that they are two or three years and six or eight personnel moves away from being the type of team the fans want.
So, enjoy the games, but don't get all twisted about it.
K'?
Read about the Boston Massacre here.
- - -
Chris and the minor bantam Jets continue their roll -- taking the first place team to a 4-4 draw on Saturday in front of an enthusiastic crowd at Glen Abbey.
A really great bunch of kids on his Jets' team is making the 2009-10 season one to remember for our guy, and I hope all the others too.
I had to miss this one as older brother had a rare afternoon practice in Mississauga.
But real-time Blackberry updates had me and the other Senator dads cheering from afar. Go Jets!
- - -
I'm not the smartest hockey guy in town (hold your comments, please) but I usually participate in a pool to support a fundraiser for a local team. This year's beneficiary of my largess is the peewee AAA Oakville Rangers, who have a large pool going with some 236 participants.
Throughout the first two or three weeks my team strategically hung back in the back, bouncing around the standings between 210th place and 200.
Slowly but surely, things have improved.
I moved up to 145th before Halloween.
November was pretty good, and I got up to about 80th.
In the last three weeks, with Sid Crosby regaining form and Kessel showing up finally, things got better. Right now I'm in 21st, but late last week I was in the mid-teens.
Maybe the software that calculates the point totals is flawed?
Or maybe it's dumb luck.
Whatever.
My place in the standings doesn't matter.
More importantly, the peewee AAA Rangers are running away from the pack in the SCTA standings with 20-1-1 record.
Cool.
- - -
Great moments in minor hockey:
A Cobourg Minor Association bantam team went to a hotel in upstate New York on the weekend, and a brawl broke out.
The team's head coach, assistant coach and another parent all ended up in jail facing a variety of charges after a bar room dustup with the local police.
Lovely!
The team was in the Niagara area for a weekend tournament. Some of the team parents retired to the hotel lounge, and the next thing you know, there's a fight.
D'oh!
You can read more here.
- - -
Things in our hockey house took an interesting turn on Saturday night.
Pad and I returned from his practice just around 5p. Laura and Chris, home from the Jets' game, were pawing through Christmas decorations, assembling the little village on the landing above the stairs and getting out the seasonal ornaments that are as much of Christmas to us all as turkey and a Chevy Chase movie.
Long story short, the phone rang and Pad was presented with an opportunity to play as an affiliate player (AP) for a tier-two junior A team. Is he interested, and could we be at Port Credit Arena at 5:30p?
By this time Pad was in the shower (Meadowvale Arena's shower facilities are grim, so he waited until we got home to hit the spray). Yes, he'd want to play. No, since it was 5:19p, there was no way we could be at Port Credit in 11 minutes.
"Well, get there as soon as you can. Sign a card. Suit up."
And he did.
Just after 8p Saturday night my kid, who nine months ago was playing minor midget AA for the Rangers without ever getting a sniff of AAA hockey in MOHA, hit the ice for his first shift in junior A for the Mississauga Chargers against the Aurora Tigers. (For the benefit of readers close to home, this is the same loop the Oakville Blades play in.)
He got a regular shift for two periods, except for penalty kills and power plays. In the third, the penalties came fast on both sides, it was a one-goal game and not surprisingly, his ice time dwindled as the game was on the line.
But just like way back when he played peewee AE and would get called up to the peewee single-A Rangers to fill in, it was a great, eye-opening experience for him.
An 18-minute warm-up followed by a flood, and then three 20-minute periods. Real hockey.
The Chargers ended up on the short end of a 6-4 score but were in it all the way. My kid did his job, executing some nice passes, playing physical in the corners and in front of his net, and doing his thing. No, he didn't set the world on fire -- not by a long shot. But he learned stuff. And man, did he have fun.
He finished with a plus-one rating on the night and he was utterly exhausted when it was over, as were we (and all we did was watch.) It was only one game, but it was the experience that counted for him. (To me, what also counted was the independent recognition that he can play at that level. As we said months ago, all he wanted was a 2nd opinion . . .)
He had a two-hour practice Thursday night, a 9p midget game Friday night, an afternoon practice Saturday and then a junior game Saturday night. Tired?
We practically had to hook him to tractor to drag him out of bed at 7:30a Sunday for his 10a midget game.
We all had an early bedtime last night.
Dec 4, 2009
OK.
Everyone who hasn’t had an affair with Tiger Woods, take one step forward.
Let’s just get this over with.
- - -
I missed the Leaf game last night as Pad had a two-hour practice, but I gather the team looked pretty good in winning their 4th straight road game.
Now, if we can only keep them away from the ACC.
Columbus coach Ken Hitchcock had some very nice things to say about the team before the game, including that they looked like they were building toward being the San Jose of the North, and that they should make the playoffs.
Um, dude?
(Here comes the math lecture.)
The Leafs have 23 points and 55 games left. They need (based on previous years’ results) about 95 points to finish 8th in the eastern conference.
So, they need to get 72 points in the next 55 games. Or, they need to play 17 games OVER .500 for the rest of the season.
That pace, over an 82 game schedule, would give a team 112 points – the same as the Detroit Red Wings had last year with the third-best record in hockey.
Sorry, I just don’t see it.
Now, maybe the eastern conference will be so woefully bad the rest of the way that the Leafs won’t need 95 points to finish 8th. Maybe they’ll only need 88 or even 86 points.
But that’s counting on a lot of teams playing really poorly for the rest of the season, and frankly, I wouldn’t bank on it.
However, for those of you who like sunshine and happy thoughts, read more here.
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The Monster is having a second procedure on his heart.
As I have mentioned here before, we know a little bit about this condition in our house (I’m not a doctor, but as a certified hockey trainer I am fully qualified to perform three heart operations each calendar year; plus, I play a doctor on TV) and it’s not as routine as the Leafs make it sound.
Whatever, I guess.
I hope Gustavsson is OK soon.
More here.
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Mike Liambus, the former Erie Otter who was suspended from the OHL for a year for a vicious hit on Oakville native Ben Fanelli last month, is back in hockey.
Liambus has signed with the Bloomington Prairie Thunder of the IHL.
This development got me to wondering if my kid skated with Liambus last summer.
Pad was invited out to a three-day camp run by the Prairie Thunder coach. The camp was mostly junior A and NCAA types with a small number of midgets as well.
But there were also probably have a dozen guys auditioning for jobs in the IHL. Liambus played eight games at the end of last year for Bloomington, so it’s possible he was there, I guess.
Anyway, you can read more on his new gig here.
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This has nothing to do with hockey, but if you like photojournalism, you’d like Harry Benson.
From Robert Kennedy’s assassination to some of the most memorable images of The Beatles, the guy has captured some iconic moments in history.
He’s got a new monograph out celebrating his work, and a selection of his photos can be seen here is this online galley.
It’s worth your time.
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We have had some interesting developments on the hockey front in the last bit, but I’ll leave that for another day until things firm up.
Suffice to say that both my kids are having a ton of fun with their respective teams, making new friends, learning, improving and . . . did I mention having fun?
This weekend will be the usual race to rinks and games and practices. I will, again, miss Chris and the Jets as we’re double booked. I feel bad about that because I enjoy the atmosphere at Glen Abbey on a Saturday afternoon as much as I enjoy anything in our community.
Lots of friendly faces, lots of kids having fun. It’s just fun to be a part of it.
Last night was Meadowvale Arena. Tonight, Ice Sports and/or North York. River Oaks tomorrow morning. Then Glen Abbey and Westwood, then Port Credit tomorrow night. Then River Oaks again Sunday morning (which I may miss) then Chesswood.
It sounds busy, and I guess it is. But what else would we do?
Last weekend at a tournament in Kitchener, I ran into a dad whose son I coached way back in paperweight (now called IP.) Great family.
The older brother (a year older than Pad and a former lacrosse teammate) now plays Tier 2 junior A. The guy I coached plays midget AAA.
But I asked about the junior experience for them – the older son left home last year to play a season of junior B down the 401.
How was that?
He said the son LOVED it. Yeah, but how was it for you guys?
He paused. He smiled. He looked down.
He said: “You can have no idea how hard it was.”
He’d walk into a room where his wife was reading, and she’d be crying.
He put it this way:
Imagine all the things you do with Patrick in the run of a week. Now, imagine not having to do them. There’s suddenly a big hole.
Big hole? Cripes, the Grand Canyon would be a but a ditch in comparison.
All of which is to say, have a great weekend racing around. Celebrate not just the wins, but also the experiences.
I say it every week, and every week I am blessed that somewhere, someone reminds me of why it’s so important.
But you know what to do.
Hug the kids.
Dec 2, 2009
Good for the Leafs.
They were clearly the better team in hostile territory last night, taking down the Habs 3-0 in their own barn in a week where that storied franchise is marking its 100th anniversary.
It appears that the haemorrhaging that stained the Leafs in October and well into November is over, and that the team, while far from being a playoff contender, at least shows it can be competitive now.
The Monster left the game after the first period with an elevated heart rate and now concerns renew over what’s up there.
Read more on it all here (game-over story) and here (Gustavsson’s heart).
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You may have never heard of Cormac McCarthy, but he is a Pulitzer Prize winning writer, responsible for, among many others, No Country For Old Men, as dark and forbidding a story about the repercussions of a bad drug deal as you’ll read (and later turned into an Academy Award-winning film.)
McCarthy has written every word of more than a dozen novels plus screenplays, plays and many other things, on the same old portable Olivetti typewriter that he purchased in a pawn shop in 1963.
After nearly half a century of pounding, without once being serviced, the old Olivetti is showing its age.
McCarthy has agreed to have it auctioned off for charity.
And if you think he replaced it with an iMac or MacBook, well . . . wrong.
He found another Olivetti just like his old for sale for $11.
He wrote a letter of authenticity for the auction (on the Olivetti).
You can read the quirky story here.
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Keith Ballard of the Florida Panthers gets the Big Dummy of the Week Not Named Tiger Award for clubbing his own goalie, Tomas Vokoun , in the head like a baby seal on an ice floe.
Ballard swung his stick like Tiger Woods’ wife with a golf club after Atlanta sniper Ilya Kovalchuk scored on his team.
Next time, he might want to consider muttering under his breath.
Read more here.
See the video below. The best view is near the end of the 1:21 clip. You can scroll ahead.
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Speaking of Tiger Woods . . . Ever get the feeling that maybe we’re just seeing the front end of a long parade here?
Sheesh.
You can read the latest here.
And, you can see a rather hysterical, fictional, digital recreation of the events at Tiger’s hose below, created by some Asian news outfit.
Kind of funny how Tiger’s Cadillac Escalade turned into a minivan, but hey – no one said it was accurate.
Dec 1, 2009
Someone asked me yesterday what advice I’d give Tiger Woods.
Beyond suggesting that he not keep golf clubs in the house anymore, it’s hard to know where to start, without actually knowing the facts.
So my answer was a pithy, simple one – get the best advice you can (and with Tiger’s resources, that shouldn’t be an issue) and then listen to it.
That’s the hard part, I think.
I’m guessing Tiger is getting lots of great advice. Advice like, if the Florida State Highway Patrol want to talk to you, then you better talk to them. Because refusing to talk to police, regardless of whether you did anything wrong, instantly creates an impression that you did.
Now, if it’s me or you hiding out in the rec room while Sgt Cam Wooley rings the doorbell, that’s one thing. But Tiger has more on the line.
I don’t know about you, but I didn’t make $110 million last year sponsoring products for people wildly impressed with my squeaky clean image. (Full disclosure: I made less than half that.)
We have all seen Tiger do things with a club and ball that simply defy explanation. It was if he could do things at the precise moment it mattered most by sheer dint of will.
As a journalist, all I can say now is, welcome to the news pages.
In the comfy world of the sports section – some newsrooms derisively call the sports department the Toy Department – the reporting sometimes lacks the edge, insight and critical eye that you will find in what we call the “hard news” sections.
That is certainly not a universal truth. There are many terrific sports journalists who are full value for their journalism. But it is also true that athletes (and entertainers) – unlike politicians, business leaders, and other newsworthy types – can control the agenda much more tightly. They can limit access to those who are friendly, and shut out those who are not. And Tiger is well known for having little time for ink-stained types who know his rules and refuse to Just Do It.
And all that is fine and dandy until your life hits the news pages. Because there are too many reporters trying to make a name for themselves to be controlled. And when you add the element of celebrity (Tiger) scandal (possible marital dustup) to legitimate news (world’s most visible athlete in a car accident) then guess what? In come the paparazzi.
And like malaria, they cannot be stopped, called off or otherwise placated.
And that loss of control over the Tiger Woods brand and the narrative of this story – whatever the story is – is what is at the core of this for Mr. Woods and his handlers.
Just for comparison’s sake – and without reliving the details – compare Woods’ handling of this story to David Letterman’s handling of allegations that he cheated on his wife.
Letterman bit the bullet and outed himself. He fessed up on TV to millions. In the parlance of the news cycle, he got out in front of the story – meaning he told everyone what was going on to the best of his knowledge, and he did it in a skilled, folksy, charming way that was interpreted as forthcoming and honest.
Hence, there was little to be learned from hours of digging that could advance the core facts as he explained them. The story, as a public fascination, flamed out within a week.
But since we still don’t know what Tiger did or didn’t do, armies of journalists will doggedly chase down every innuendo, which is a sad spectacle for Woods and, frankly, all of us compelled to consume it.
I suspect that, financial considerations aside, Woods would envy the circumstances of people like me and you, who go to work, take our kids to sports, watch and cheer with other parents without TV cameras pointed at us, and go to Boston Pizza or Alice Fazoolis on a Saturday night without a second thought.
His fame, riches and celebrity are a prison.
Like I said yesterday, I have little interest in Woods private life, but now I am wondering why he just doesn’t clear the air. Because if he thinks he can control the spin on this now, the way he can control a punch-wedge from 96 yards, and make the reporters dance the way the ball dances when it lands 10 feet past the pin and spins back to the hole, well, he’s wrong.
I suspect he’s been told he’s wrong, but when you’re either Fonzie or Tiger Woods, that may be a tough message to swallow.
Anyway, that’s my read of this. You can read more here.
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Laura hit the All You Can Shop Craft Show One of Kind Craft Show
– I think that’s what it was called – last night with some friends,
leaving me and the boys to navigate the scary waters of the Leaf game
alone. After gamely battling for almost 40 minutes, the Sabres put them
and us out of our misery. Ryan Miller was sensational for the Sabres.
Read more here.
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A new poll has revealed what I have known to be true for weeks – that the radio ad campaign by the Leafs (the one in which they arrogantly brag that they are the only NHL team with six home arenas and are Canada’s most loved team and, in fact, the most loved hockey team in the world) is not even close to being accurate.
According to the poll, that honour goes to the midget AAA Mississauga Senators. OK, not really.
No, it’s the minor bantam Oakville Jets. OK, OK. Still kidding.
No, it’s actually the Montreal Canadiens.
Well, duh.
Montreal has the advantage of having played actual playoff games in the last five years and having defended a Stanley Cup championship in my kids’ lifetime.
Montreal is also one of the classiest and best run franchises in all of sport.
Some 33 per cent of respondents gave the honour of “Canada’s Team” to the Habs, vs 25 per cent who pointed to the Leafs, vs. 28 per cent who said no team should claim such an honour, which is probably the right answer.
Anyway, if it annoys the brain trust at MLSE, then I’m all for the Habs on this one.
Read more here.
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Like you didn’t already know, but it’s December now.
Get your snow tires on.
Think about Christmas shopping, if Christmas is a part of your December.
And don’t forget to buy a case of Corona or Keith's Red Amber for your favourite blogger(s) for all the hours of free and informative reading you get throughout the year. It's never too early to ask, is Gerry thirsty?