hockey blog feb09

February 26, 2010

OK, first the good news.

Canadian women won hockey gold again last night with an entertaining 2-0 win over their arch and only rivals, the Americans.

And now the bad news.

As if he were a loyal blog read, IOC czar Jacques Rogge then told the world that unless the women’s hockey programs in other countries become more competitive, there will be no place for the sport in the Olympics.

That would be a shame, but it doesn’t need to be inevitable.

The easy answer is to say that perhaps private industry in places like Sweden, Finland and Russia, as well as the IOC with the buckets of cash it has, can fund some coaching development programs that would see Canadian and American coaches do some missionary work for women’s hockey.

But a solution like that would take eight to 10 years to produce results and whether anyone wants to sit through another women’s Olympic tournament as farcical as this one, I don’t know.

There could be other challenges facing the game for women, too.

I have no clue, but it could be that in non-North American countries girls are not encouraged to play minor hockey, or, no minor hockey option exists like Oakville’s excellent Hornets program.

And without that foundation, there’s nothing for a national program to stand upon.

It could be that girls in Russia or Finland are told, “girls don‘t play hockey.”

And then what do you do?

Anyway, Canada won gold last night and there’s no taking away from how hard these young women worked and dedicated themselves to the goal.

Good for them.

Read more here.

- - -

Literally within minutes of the Canadian win last night, Hockey Canada sent an email encouraging people on their distribution list to buy Canadian jerseys, hats and scarfs.

Sheesh.

- - -

Only days after her mother died, Joannie Rochette skated her way to a bronze medal in women’s figure skating last night, a triumph of the heart as much as one of the body.

It was truly a remarkable showing.

Read more here.

- - -

The main event tonight is men’s hockey – semi-final, Team Canada vs Slovakia.

Slovakia beat Russia in this tournament, so there are lots of reasons why you should be scared witless about the result of this game.

On the other hand, if Mike Babcock can get the Canadians to replicate the attack of the gorillas that was inflicted upon the Russians two nights ago, it will be over early.

Game time is late – 9:30p start, which is good news for those of us who will be at a rink watching a practice until 9:05p!

Read more here.

- - -

Canada’s eight gold medals is a new best for us at a winter games, and there could be more.

Canada is assured of silver or gold in both men’s and women’s curling. A hockey win tonight would assure gold or silver there.

Forget Own the Podium. It’s still pretty decent.

- - -

Here’s a nice story I heard about New Orleans QB Drew Brees. The Super Bowl star was being interviewed by Bill Cowher on the radio. Cowher asked him how much notice the coaching staff gave him of the plan for the on-side kick to start the 2^nd half. Mumbling and shuffling of paper is heard.

Brees apologized and said he had to go. The president was on the other line waiting to talk to him.

Cowher laughed and moved on to another topic.

Ten minutes later, a shocked Cowher told his audience that Brees had actually called back to finish the conversation when he got off the phone with Obama.

How many stars would do that? Amazing.

Afterwards, Cowher told his audience that everything we’ve heard is true: Brees really is that much of a nice guy.

- - -

March, it seems, is poised to come in like a lion. After the pussycat winter we’ve had, no complaints. Less than a month until spring? Are you kidding me? Bring it on.

In the meantime, there’s still a lot of hockey to play and watch.

Drive carefully this weekend. The roads are a soupy, slushy mess.

Have a great weekend. Hug the kids.

February 25, 2010

Well, that was as an emphatic a hockey victory as I have ever seen Canada take, albeit in a game with no medal or championship on the line.

Just the same, it was absolutely a must-win game and they won.

Canadian men are now assured of playing in a medal game, but they still have to win one more to get a shot at the gold, which for this team is all that matters.

Since virtually all of you saw the game I won’t go on and on, and you can read some interesting perspective on it all here.

- - -

And apropos of nothing other than the moment, a completely arbitrary list of the three most important Team Canada wins that I actually saw (on TV, that is.)

September 1972. Canada 6 Soviet Union 5. Canada wins the Summit Series.
February 2002. Canada 5 USA 2. Canada wins Olympic gold.
September 1987. Canada 6 Soviet Union 5. Canada wins Canada Cup

The current Olympic team has a lot of work to do to get on that list. The work continues Friday night with a 9:30p start in the semis vs Slovakia, who did Canada the favour of upsetting Sweden 4-3 in their quarter final. Finland and the USA play in the other semi final.

- - -

Even if the hockey team had lost, it was still the greatest day of these games for Canada, picking up four medals including one gold medal.

All came courtesy of women athletes, who have been responsible for 11.5 of Canada’s 15 medals to date (the sexes split a gold in ice dance).

I remarked to a friend last night that watching the hockey team man-handle the Russians and then seeing the women’s bobsleigh teams go one and two to the podium, I started feeling something akin to pride.

Yes, I am an avowed Olympic cynic.

But you can’t help but feel happy for these kids who are not just competing with the best in the world. Quite often, they’re beating them.

More here on our big Wednesday.

- - -

I really have had quite enough of the Chevrolet ads with the talking cars, which may well go down as the stupidest advertising campaign in Olympic history. It just doesn’t work, it’s too cute by half, it makes me cringe not chuckle.

Score this one DNQ.

Read here for another columnist’s view on what the final days of the Olympics should look like on TV.

- - -

The Canadian women’s hockey team plays for gold tonight against the Americans in the least anticipated, most expected matchup of the games.

I have respect for the players on both these teams, but there’s a big problem in women’s international hockey. You cannot have an Olympic tournament with two teams.

Yes, other teams competed in women’s hockey.

But to highlight the best of the worst, Canada won its semi final 5-0 over Finland and the USA won its 9-1 over Sweden.

Those aren’t semi finals. Those aren’t even full-contact practices.

This has been the state of play in women’s hockey for a very long time and frankly it needs to be addressed, and soon.

The gap between the top two teams – Canada and the USA – and everyone else is getting larger, not smaller. For me, it draws into question whether there really any point in the sport being on the Olympic program.

To cite one example, women’s ski jumping is not among the sports being contested at the Vancouver Olympics. Why? Because the IOC – which decides these things – says it is not developed enough to meet criteria for inclusion in the game.

Um so does that mean women’s hockey is? So, define that for me, would ya?

As a hockey fan and Canadian, I was embarrassed that Canada ran up an 18-0 score on the women’s team from Slovakia. There wasn’t much to feel good about in any of the other games.

Canada 10 Switzerland 1

Canada 13 Sweden 1

USA 12 China 1

USA 13 Russia 0

You get the idea.

Now, tonight’s game may be a crackerjack tilt. I hope so.

But after the game, Canada and the USA might want to put their heads together and figure out how to help the rest of their world develop their programs, or some day soon they might find the rest of the world gets weary of being their whipping posts and pack it in. Or, the IOC decides to bring in something more competitive like women’s ski jumping, or bowling.

This story is 10 days old, but touches all the issues. The questions are valid.

- - -

Ugly weather apparently en route.

I’m already staking out a place to sleep on the floor of Union Station.

February 24, 2010

To no one’s surprise, Canada beat Germany last night.

The bad news is that sets up tonight’s quarter final with Russia. And then they have to win again just to get to the final.

And then they have to win again to win the gold.

Am I the only one thinking this looks like a big mountain to climb? Actually, it looks like a big mountain to climb to win the privilege to climb another, bigger mountain.

Read more here.

- - -

Remember that blogger I told you about yesterday who is doing a running forecast/calculation on how many medals each country may win in Vancouver?

He’s now forecasting a neck-and-neck battle to the wire between the USA and Germany, each on track to win 32 or 33 medals. The forecast for Canada is third, with about 26.

But . . . here’s a wrinkle.

The IOC says that the country that wins the most gold medals actually wins the games.

And on that count, Canada has six – compared to seven each for the USA and Germany, both of whom are running out of gold medal chances.

So while Canada may not have a chance to Own the Podium, it could still take the most gold, and own the shiniest part of the podium.

Hey. We have to find something to get excited about.

See the latest projections here.

- - -

Speaking of Own the Podium – Ottawa is saying that it will not fund an $11-million gap in funding for elite athletes after the games are over and is calling on the private sector and individual donations to step up.

I’m pretty sure the US Olympic program is almost entirely funded from the private sector, but someone will correct me on that if I’m wrong.

In the meantime, read more here.

- - -

If, like me, you’re spending your evenings walking through the house in a skin-tight Lycra ski racing suit, insisting that your loved ones ring a cow bell every time you enter a room, then you’re really enjoying the Olympics, too.

(And for the record, not everyone looks good in skin-tight Lycra.)

Anyway.

Last night I was standing on the kitchen counter with my goggles on, demonstrating proper ski-jump technique to the Swiss Chalet delivery man, when he commented on the pressure on Canadian athletes.

Pressure, I said? (. . . as I completed a near perfect telemark landing on the cushion floor and ripped an ACL in my left knee.)

Pressure is relative, I said.

And Canadians aren’t the only people getting their skin-tight suits in a knot over Olympic results.

Norway is apoplectic about the perceived under performance of its cross-country skiers. (Cross country is to Norway what hockey is to Canada.) Things have improved after a very slow start. The Dutch are ready to boil a team speedskating coach in oil after a critical miscue resulted in the country’s greatest skater blowing what was a sure gold and world record. Imagine Sidney Crosby skating on a breakaway, in overtime, on his own net and scoring. This is the Dutch equivalent. Read here.

And Russia? The Russians have not had a great games, despite showing signs of life in the last three or four days. Their mantra? Win gold in men’s hockey, and all is forgiven.

Sound familiar?

Don’t think the Russian players aren’t feeling some pressure too.

Read more here.

- - -

Tony Kornheiser, co-host of the popular sports talk show Pardon the Interruption, has been suspended for two weeks by ESPN for sexist comments he made to colleague Hannah Storm. Among other things, he said her tight sweater fit like “she has sausage casing around her upper body.”

Opps.

Read more here.

- - -

Given that I don’t actually have to spend the entire night in a rink I’m going to start polishing my cow bell now and get ready for the Canada-Russia game.

Ove vs Sid.

Should be a good one.

And BTW, yes it’s true Canada has but one men’s hockey gold in the last 60 years.

It’s also true that we have one more hockey gold than Russia has in the same time.

As a stand-alone country, Russia has never won Olympic gold in men’s hockey.

All those Central Red Army golds from the 60s and 70s and 80s were won by the Soviet Union and the so-called Unified Team won in 1992.

So, context, as usual, matters.

Enjoy the game.

Remember. It’s just a game.

February 23, 2010

Were you wide awake last night at midnight, punching the air and chanting Can-a-da after we won gold in ice dancing?

Me either.

I was asleep.

Full credit to the ice dancers and God bless them. They worked hard and they won gold.

But I’ve long since tuned out on figure skating.

In fact, curmudgeon that I’ve become, I would be happier if any sport that has to be judged were simply removed from Olympic competition.

If the result can’t be quantified in absolute terms – highest, fastest, most, furthest, longest, etc. etc. – then, get rid of it.

I am not suggesting that figure skaters and rhythmic gymnasts and synchronized swimmers and aerial skiers are not terrific athletes. No question about it – at the elite levels they are extraordinary athletes.

But for me, the sport loses its lustre when some surly looking woman from an Eastern Bloc country gets to decide who wins and who loses – and in figure skating particularly, the track record on judging is – what’s the word I’m looking for?

Awful.

But, congratulations to our ice dancers and their gold medal.

Go Canada.

- - -

OK, having said all that, I do have an open mind and I think the IOC folks in Lausanne or Bern or wherever it is that they hide between Olympiads need to continue to explore ways to make the games more inclusive and showcase the world’s greatest athletes.

Like, um, pole dancers.

I kid you not.

Pole dancing is apparently a growing competitive “sport” and there’s a move afoot to push for its inclusion in the games.

Teamoakville does not endorse this effort but, if forced to choose between ballroom dancing and brass poles, then gentlemen, we’ll put our hands together for Cactus Flower.

Read more here.

- - -

Own the Podium is dead, at least for these games.

Much mirth and hand wringing have been made and committed over Canada’s ambitious and often boastful plan to win more medals than any other country at the Vancouver games.

And, we apparently have no chance of achieving that goal.

But, um, who cares?

Would we, as a nation, have been happier if the goal was to strive to be OK? To work hard for “pretty good?”

Or is it better to spend nearly $70 million in taxpayers’ money and about another $100 million from other sponsors to fund our athletes and try to be great?

I’d rather try to be great and fail than never have tried at all.

These kids work incredibly hard and the pressure on them to win at the games as host nation was enormous. And some of them outperformed expectations, while others wilted under the laser gaze of their country.

Well, guess what? No hard feelings.

To me, the only group of athletes that will have anything to answer for if they don’t get to the gold medal game is the men’s hockey team. These guys are professionals, most of them used to the pressure of Stanley Cup playoffs and high expectations and the high salaries that come with it. That’s not true of most of the rest of the Canadian Olympians.

Own the Podium? We didn’t get there this time. As a country, we will have to decide if funding our athletes and competing and winning at the highest levels is a national priority, not just for the winter games, but for the summer sports too.

I think in a country as prosperous as Canada it should be important. Athletics inspire our youth and bring pride to our citizens. We can afford it.

There should be no turning back.

Read more here.

- - -

Still with Own the Podium for a second.

A political blogger in the US has been producing near-daily updated projections on how each country can expect to do. And while he has also abandoned any notion that Canada will “win” these games, he still seems to think Canada can win more gold medals than any other country.

Like you, there’s nothing I enjoy more than a cold beer and a spirited argument over complex medal-projection algorithms.

So like me, you can click here, print out his charts and opinions and then head off to the pub to scream in the face of some dispirited Austrian cross-country fan.

- - -

And about that hockey team? They play the Germans tonight and heaven help them and all of us if they don’t roll over those guys like a rolling pin across the strudel dough.

Roberto Luongo gets the start.

As one Oakville coach emailed to point out this week, Canada is having trouble with goalies whose names end in -iller.

Jonas Hiller.

Ryan Miller.

I'm thinking as long as the Germans don't go with Phyllis Diller tonight we'll be OK.

More here.

- - -

Hey. It finally snowed. Sort of.

Oakville now looks more like an Olympic venue than Vancouver has or will anytime soon.

Thankfully the relatively mild temperatures mean that it’s not as bad as it could be. It’s going to snow a little more today, and a little more Thursday and Friday.

Almost like winter.

Almost.

- - -

The St Hilda’s peewee Eagles are sponsoring a fundraiser at Boston Pizza at Dorval Plaza on Wednesday, March 3. The players will be waiting on tables and 10 per cent of the revenue from food sales will go to a fund to support the families of Fallen ad Wounded Soldiers.

There will be three sittings and reservations are recommended for 5p, 6:15p, and 7:30p.

If you need more information you can contact the Eagles team manager Polli Taylor here or by calling 905-849-8100.

- - -

A subject near and dear to our family, but also very relevant to every minor sports team these days: peanut allergies.

A team of doctors at Cambridge is preparing to launch the largest trial ever conducted to work towards a cure for the condition, which can have life-threatening consequences for some.

Sooner the better says I.

Read more here.

- - -

Want to live forever? OK. Maybe not.

But would you like to increase your chances of living longer?

The folks at the Daily Beast have researched dozens of the top theories and winnowed the list down to 10 things you could do that would probably help.

Minor hockey coaches take note: the “beer-and-chicken wings diet” is not on the list.

Click here.

February 22, 2010

I can’t say I’m surprised that Canada lost 5-3 to the US last night. Not the end of the world, but you can easily see the end of the world from where they are now.

The only real significance for the Canadians in the loss is that it means the road to the gold medal game now goes through Alexander Ovechkin (assuming Canada can beat Germany. And if they can’t beat Germany, well, they don’t deserve to play for a medal of any kind.)

The other big deal that will come out of the game Sunday is that Canada now has a full-blown goalie crisis on its hands.

While the blame for the loss cannot be laid entirely at the feet of Martin Brodeur, my view is that he’s lost the status of automatic starter for future big games (and from now on, they’re all big.)

Luongo should get the next start and if he plays well, the job is his the rest of the way.

Ready, set, argue!

Read more here.

- - -

There was a great performance yesterday from Canada’s Christine Nesbitt, who came from so far behind to win gold in speed skating that it almost defies explanation.

Nesbitt’s triumph was one that a hack like me would think has the power to inspire everyone on the Canadian team (except maybe the hockey players.)

And it was apparently a victory forged from the defeat and disappoint of the 2006 games in Turin, where she finished 14^th the 1000-metre event and found herself alone and crying afterward on a stationary bike, trying to get past the emptiness of having worked so hard for something and then having come up short.

It’s a great story of hard work and dedication and nice gals finishing first.

Good for her.

Read about it here.

- - -

The simple fact is there are way more competitors than gold medals. More losers than champions. More “what might have beens” than sunny, podium smiles.

From 1980 the most vivid recollection I have of the winter Olympics is not the Miracle on Ice, it is from the men’s downhill event. Ken Read was the best men’s downhill racer in the world and the expectations on him to win were enormous.

I watched on TV as he launched himself down the side of Whiteface, the icy mountain that was host for the ski events near Lake Placid. Within a few seconds, he caught an edge, a ski flew off, and his race was over. Years of training for a 90-second race were all for naught.

What must that feel like, I wondered?

I have never forgotten that moment and I was thinking about it again earlier this week when the women downhill racers were tackling Whistler.

Six women crashed before finishing the race. I was on a conference call at work, in my office only half watching on TV, as one young woman slid into the safety fence, bounced off and then just sat there.

I thought of Ken Read.

And again I wondered what it must feel like to be alone on a mountain, knowing that the thing you dedicated your entire life to – your entire life –was now out of reach after only a few seconds?

As the conference call went on, the answer soon arrived.

The young woman put her hands to her face and simply dissolved in hurt and tears.

It was more painful to watch than her crash. Her shoulders heaved up and down and she just sat there and wept.

It was an arresting moment for me – real drama, real life. I couldn’t take my eyes off it and by comparison, Lindsey Vonn winning the race seemed academic.

I have no doubt that skier has been socialized to deal with injury and failure, and taught to learn from setbacks and use that energy in her next race, perhaps with an outcome like Christine Nesbitt’s bounce back from Turin.

But who is to know?

So many of these athletes can seem like automatons as they go through their events that it becomes easy to lose sight of the fact that, well, that’s someone’s kid sitting on the side of that mountain, shattered and crying, knowing that the next chance for an Olympic gold medal in downhill is four years away.

And only Christine Nesbitt’s family and close friends will know the hurt she felt four years ago, the sacrifices she made over the years to train practically every day so when the greatest final 200 metres of her life waited to define how she will always be remembered, she defined herself as a champion.

And again I now wonder how must that feel? I’m sure there are no words.

- - -

I am a self-declared Olympic cynic, but there’s no denying the truly human stories the games produce.

The one thing that skier and Nesbitt share is that they both deserve a hug, and I bet they got plenty of hugs all week.

There’s a girl’s hockey tournament all over Oakville this weekend, so I am not 100 per cent certain which rinks I will be standing in and at what times. More confusion than normal, even by my standard.

But like you, I’ll be out there.

Support the kids, win or lose. Especially when they lose. Anyone can support a winner.

But helping a kid learn something from a loss is tougher.

Enjoy the weekend. Hug the kids.

February 18, 2010

Many years ago when I landed on Parliament Hill as a reporter, I wasn’t exactly wet behind the ears but I was new to Ottawa. And I remember an old salt in the bureau remarking to me and others that a critical part of good journalism is a long memory and the ability to place events in the proper context. It’s called institutional memory, and it’s a good thing in almost any business.

(I vividly learned what that meant when the now late Senator Eugene Forsey did an impersonation of Sir Robert Borden for me, perhaps the only guy on the planet at the time who could do that with authority. Now that’s institutional memory.)

Fast forward to the Olympics.

Maybe the Olympics should consider giving out medals to commentators for hyperbolic flights of rhetorical fancy.

I got an email from a friend on the weekend, the day after Alexandre Bilodeau won his gold medal in freestyle.

He said a commentator on TV had just equated the win by Bilodeau to Paul Henderson’s goal for Team Canada against the Soviets in Game 8 back in 1972.

Even allowing for the fact that the guy who made the comment probably wasn’t born in 1972, it was still a breathtaking overstatement of the significance of Bilodeau’s medal – a huge, wonderful achievement, and the first Olympic gold won by a Canadian in Canada.

I’m betting that before the words even cleared the TV guy’s lips, some producer somewhere was physically cringing at the analogy. Or punching a TV monitor.

Maybe if you weren’t around in 1972 you can be forgiven for not understanding how 101 per cent possessed the country was by the Canada-Soviet hockey series. Nothing since has come close to it, and it’s hard to imagine with all the distractions these days anything ever will.

But seriously. The lesson is, think before talking, especially when you’re paid to talk.

As a Jimmy Buffett song famously advises, don’t try to describe the ocean or a KISS concert if you’ve never seen either, because you just might end up being wrong.

- - -

American faux talking head Stephen Colbert arrived in Vancouver this week and promptly retracted every nasty thing he ever said about Canada, even if he was only kidding when he called us “iceholes” for refusing to share training time at the speed skating oval with the US team he helps sponsor.

Colbert brought some good humour to the games and good for him for doing so. The dourness and hand-wringing about weather, broken ice cleaners and other non-sporting events is getting to be a bit much.

Read more here.

- - -

Speaking Colbert and star power, the Vancouver games may have come of age yesterday with true athlete superstars grapping the event by the lapels and taking over.

That those stars were American is really only incidental to those of us who love athletic excellence and achievement, regardless of the colour of your flag.

Lindsey Vonn is the brightest light in a universe where every star is trying to go supernova at the same time. In the downhill alpine event, the premiere individual women's event of the games, she did what she was supposed to do and won gold. In her world, any other result would have been failure. Thing about that for a minute.

Shaun White, the flying tomato (so named for his massive red mane) is basically the rock star of these games and he hit all the right notes in winning gold in the half pipe. My kids think he is a god.

And suddenly, no one was talking about what a bunch of spoiled, whining British journalists thought about the weather or the temperature of the marmalade on their toast.

Good thing too.

Read about Vonn’s big day here, and the rock star here.

February 17, 2010

How about that Canadian men’s hockey team, huh?

Beating Norway.

Norway!

Are we good or what?

OK.

So, not much of a test and the squad took a long time to get going. Kudos to Norway holding the millionaires to a scoreless first period.

Read more here.

- - -

The Vancouver Olympics are taking a bit of a beating by some international media.

Even setting aside the weather, which they can’t control, there’s an increasingly bright light being shone on some of the games’ shortcomings.

A Globe columnist says that it’s not all entirely unjustified, and maybe the organizers would be smart to face up to the problems instead of trying to smile them all away, like Atlanta did in 1996 without much success.

Read more here.

- - -

Below are my friends on the peewee AAA Rangers posing at the train station getting ready for their trip to Quebec City. Their next game is tomorrow.

More news as it becomes available.

Good luck guys.

- - -

Congratulations to the minor bantam A Rangers, who disposed of Brampton in three straight games in their OMHA quarter final last night JC.

They await word of who their semi-final opponent will be.

- - -

If you like people pointing at you and laughing (trust me, it really is an acquired taste) then you’ll want to read ESPN star columnist Rick Reilly’s column on Canada, where he trots out every imaginable stereotype about Canada and Canadians to generate much mirth.

It actually is funny and it’s quite tongue in cheek. So, read it and have a good laugh at ourselves. You can find it here.

On the other hand, some folks have their knickers in quite a knot about Reilly’s mirth making. But I’m not going to offer a link because some of the backlash gets a bit raw.

Sticks and stones, folks.

- - -

If you’re like me – and be glad you’re not – then no doubt while the rest of the country was watching the hockey team debut last night, you were watching the Westminster Kennel Club dog show at Madison Square Garden.

This is the Super Bowl of dog shows, and well, you just can’t beat the excitement of someone with way too much money trotting their dog around.

Can you?

I didn’t think so.

Maybe I’m barking up the wrong tree, but you can read more here if you want.

- - -

Wednesday. Late, late night at the rink.

Ugh.

February 16, 2010

A loyal correspondent reports on the Oakville Rangers peewee AAA squad at the Quebec International Peewee Hockey Tournament:

The Oakville Rangers Peewee AAA team, sponsored by Lexus of Oakville and Sotheby's International Realty, needed an overtime goal from Sean Kohler to edge the Zurich (Switzerland) Lions 4-3 in their opening game at the 51st Quebec International Peewee Hockey Tournament on Monday. The Rangers got goals from Oliver Chau, Sam Vasilaros-Wilson and Jesse Barwell before Kohler netted the winner 34 seconds into the extra frame. The Rangers face the winner between the Philadelphia Jr. Flyers and the Semiahoo (B.C.) Peewee team in their next game on Thursday.

Go Rangers!

- - -

I’d like to tell you I’ve been relaxing at home or at some other exotic locale doing nothing (including this, obviously) for the last four days.

But, alas, not so.

I worked from home Friday and it turned out to be a busier time than I expected so I figured I’d do my usual Friday post late in the day.

Then Pad got called up to play a junior A game that evening – in Collingwood. Um, yay!

So that meant getting him out of school early and delivering him to the team bus on time. And then, naturally, it meant driving north into the darkness by myself in time for the game and hopefully to a bite to eat beforehand. So, no blogging.

It was a long evening, but it’s an interesting thing when you get away from the Toronto area and see how small local communities embrace these tier-2 junior teams.

There was a Timbit scrimmage between periods, and a fund-raising puck toss, and lots of draws and door prizes and a general buzz around the building.

Being that it was Collingwood and it is February, it was cold and a light snow was falling outside and it just felt like community hockey is supposed to feel. The home team won 4-3 in overtime in a terrific game, which excited the Timbits to no end.

After the game, Pad opted to ride back toward the orange glow on the horizon with me (but not before relieving the team bus of some of the post-game pizza.)

We stopped at the Tim Horton’s in beautiful downtown Stayner (clearly the most happening downtown night spot in Stayner, BTW) for some caffeine and then rolled off toward home, getting back too late for any of the Olympic opening ceremonies, which Laura recorded for us in spite of her not having the expressed written permission of the Olympic media broadcast consortium. She likes to live on the edge, I guess.

Honestly, she need not have bothered because the odds that I was going to watch anything other than the moment when the flame was (eventually) lit were pretty small.

But, it’s all off and running out there so good luck to everyone. Have fun.

Still nursing a bad ankle injury from last weekend, Pad was granted a night off from the juniors on Saturday and the midgets didn’t play, so there was nothing preventing me from being at Timbits in the morning and Chris’s late afternoon game at Glen Abbey.

On Sunday there was more Timbits action and Pad played his usual midget game that night.

Last night, he got the call again from the juniors and we were off to Buffalo for a game with the junior Sabres.

Junior hockey isn’t all glamour (he said, tongue in cheek).

In fact, most days I think you’ve be hard pressed to find any glamour at all. But last night there was a decent crowd at the West Seneca Rec Centre, including again a lot of young minor hockey players who had their noses pressed against the glass and clearly got more fun from the experience than most of us older guys.

The pace of the game was amazing – very quick, lots of fast transitions, good action and little stupid stuff.

And the result was another 4-3 overtime win for the other guys (former Sabre NHLer Larry Playfair’s kid set up the OT winner with less than a minute left) but the injury-plagued Chargers did well, with a short bench and no less than five midget players in the lineup.

I car pooled down with some other dads so we left Buffalo before the team bus and were back at Port Credit waiting when the team pulled in just before 1a.

It doesn’t really feel like it was a restful long weekend, but it was fun.

- - -

On the West Coast the games continue. Biggest lesson learned thus far may be that staging a winter Olympic in a temperate rain forest comes with challenges, but the legions of workers and volunteers seem to be doing a great job keeping things going.

Men’s hockey starts tonight as Canada takes on Norway. It is the most important hockey tournament ever held and Canada will be hard pressed to get to the final.

On the women’s side, the talent gap is such that the games are, so far, not worth watching, for me anyway. The US and Canada running up double-digit margins on lesser teams doesn’t much hold my interest, I’m afraid.

- - -

Given all of the above, I have little in the way of linking for you today. I’ve been paying attention to my kids’ hockey and the Olympics (I don’t actually have a cow bell, but Chris downloaded an app for his iTouch so that when he holds it up and shakes it, it makes a cow bell sound. That’s actually pretty funny.)

I’ll try to get back to something approaching normal tomorrow.

Feb 11, 2010

Yesterday I forgot my iPod at home when I left for work, which is annoying on so many levels that I can’t begin to bore you with them all.

But one of the largest inconveniences of all is that when I run (ok, walk) to the gym at lunch time, I don’t have my tunes to listen to while I grind away.

I did have a set of headphones though, so I took them and plugged into the TV on the ~~torture machine~~ step master thing I was using. (One advance in gym technology is that every machine in the gym I use has its own small TV on it. I prefer music, but it’s cool to watch hockey highlights on The Score while working out.)

Anyway.

Forced to listen to TV, I tuned to Sportsnet and the Doug MacLean/Darren Millard Hockey Central gab fest, which is actually a radio show on The Fan 590, but Rogers points a TV camera at them while they do radio and presto, you have a TV show.

I have a point. I’m getting there. But if you want to get a coffee, I'll wait.

MacLean, a bright hockey mind in my estimation, made one of the greatest sweeping statements I’ve heard in the lead up to the Olympics that open Friday night in Vancouver.

He asserted that no team, anywhere, ever, in the history of team sports, has had more pressure win than the Canadian Olympic men’s hockey team in Vancouver. I’m paraphrasing, but that’s the gist of what he said.

It made me go “Hmmmm.”

I didn’t actually go “Hmmmm.” I was panting too hard. But, it did make me think. And if made me think, well, there’s a little bit of hyperbole to fuel a debate.

Unfortunately, it didn’t lead to a debate at all and the conversation moved on to a riveting analysis of Ryan Getzlaf’s ankle and whether he’ll be replaced in the Olympic line up and . . . then I finished my 30 minutes on the torture machine and moved on to something else, but not before unplugging my headphones so my head wouldn’t snap back.

But I respectfully would suggest that Mr. MacLean – a good Maritimer, BTW – is wrong.

Let’s start with soccer.

The England national football team faces such pressure to win the most meaningless friendly matches that we can barely comprehend it over here. And when it actually plays in the European Cup or World Cup? Good lord. People literally kill themselves if they lose.

And the same is true or worse for any number of other nation’s soccer teams. Pressure to win? Don’t get me started.

Ever read about soccer riots? There’s a reason those people riot – many of them are drunk, crazy, or both, for sure, and if you’re going to riot, those things help.

But also, for many of them, the greatest moments of their lives literally happen on a soccer pitch through the actions of their national teams. It sounds ridiculous to even type a sentence like that, but it’s also true.

Not many Canadians would rate the 2002 hockey gold medal ahead of, say, the birth of a child. A lot of Englishmen would rate the 1964 World Cup win, or Manchester United winning the Treble in 1998-99 ahead of anything that ever happened to them. Period. They talk about it like it was a family event, only bigger.

It’s hard for North Americans to relate to that level of fanaticism. Nothing here comes close.

On a global scale, cricket and rugby are not far behind. In the 1995 final of the World Cup of Rugby, do you think there was no pressure on the underdog home side South Africa to defeat powerhouse New Zealand? Man, you want to talk pressure?

Closer to home, in 1980, the US defeated the Soviets 4-3 at the Olympics, a win dubbed the Miracle on Ice. But they didn’t actually win the gold medal with that day – they had to defeat Finland in their next game to do that.

Pressure? You don’t think that team felt pressure to beat Finland, in the US, in the Olympics, to win the gold?

You bet they did. And they won, too.

And what about my atom white house league team a few years ago? I told those kids before the championship game that if they lost I’d sell the entire lot of them for medical experiments before their parents knew they were missing. Pressure? Sure they felt pressure, but they won!

There’s no question the Canadian men’s hockey team will face more pressure than any other team in this tournament. And for the record, anything short of gold is total, utter failure. The standard is gold. Nothing else matters, nor should it.

So, yeah, they should feel pressure.

But many others have been there before them. Any other candidates for most pressure on a team to win? Send them to me.

Feb 10, 2010

I got nothing for you today.

We had no hockey last night. Older son is barely mobile after blocking a slapshot with the large bone on the side of his ankle and then getting kicked in the ribs (not on the same play.) So, he’ll likely be taking a pass on both junior and midget practices tonight for the first time this season, and the folks at Boston Pizza in Mississauga will likely send out and APB wondering where we are.

Younger son is busy killing aliens or something on Xbox or PS3 or whatever.

So I get two consecutive nights at home? The neighbours will start to talk.

Mind you, I’m not complaining.

- - -

How about that snow last night? What did we get? Maybe three or four centimetres?

Oh, the humanity.

What kind of world is this when Washington, DC, gets 60 centimetres of snow in three days and I haven’t had to start my snow thrower once this winter? And what’s worse, in a month from now we’ll be looking at pictures of the president standing in the rose garden with flowers blooming all around him. It’s not fair.

I’m telling ya, I want a snow day. We need a snow day. We deserve a snow day!

- - -

Apparently, I am not the only in need of a snow day.

I wandered out of the office last night around 5:45p last night to find Victoria Street south of King blanketed in white. And that was something of a revelation, because it wasn’t snowing. That, and the NYC cabs lining the street also caught my eye.

Yeah, it was a movie shoot.

The cabs were props and the white stuff was actually soap bubbles, if you can believe it. I know it was soap because a woman in front on me tasted the white foam the crew was spraying on the street (I learned a long time a ago to never put anything in my mouth that can be picked up off a Toronto street, but that’s a story for another day.)

So, in the absence of a real snow day, this corner of Toronto gets to enjoy a Soap Day.

Somehow, it just doesn’t feel the same.

But I did take out my handy Blackberry to snap a blurry picture of the soapy scene.

Enjoy.

- - -

You’d think that if I managed to have two consecutive nights at home I would at least get to see the Leafs play. You’d be wrong. No game last night or tonight or tomorrow for that matter.

So given that we’re mostly snowless here, just like the snow-challenged Olympic ski venues, and given that it’s almost mid-February and we’re still waiting for a snow day, and given that, it seems to me, that the time is right to celebrate something – anything – to perk everyone up, how about a woman in a bathing suit? How about a woman in half a bathing suit.

See? Now you’re paying attention.

And what better day than this one for perking up? And what better to perk you than the new cover of Sports Illustrated and it’s annual swimsuit issue, featuring some unfortunately deformed young woman, selflessly devoted to . . . well, something. I hope she finds the rest of her top her top soon, but until then, let’s pause for a moment and admire her work.

Yep. She’ll be a fine hockey mom. No doubt about that.

Now, the real reason I put that photo there is to expand your minds and bring glad tidings of economic recovery. We’re not some two-bit, small-town, gin-joint of a blog here gunning for a cheap thrill.

Well, actually we are. But let’s not go there now.

Instead, let’s reflect on how when American swimsuit models grace the cover of the SI annual babe issue, the stock market does better than when non-Americans are on the cover.

And I think that’s a great reason to promote the magazine because on Feb 10, in the depth of a soapy Canadian winter, we should all hope and work for a better economy, and we can all use something to smile about. So, smile, and read more here on the wonderful economic bounce from US swimsuit models.

And have a great day.

Feb 9, 2010

With the opening of the Olympics just three days away, expect to hear a lot about Own the Podium, Canada’s program of funding, training and support for athletes aimed at giving Canada its best Olympic performance ever.

So, how well will Canada do?

An American economist with a 94 per cent accuracy rate in forecasting these things says it is, in fact, Canada’s year. He’s expecting Canada to win 27 medals, more than any other country.

I guess we’ll have to actually compete and win the medals to be sure.

You can read the story here.

- - -

J.S. Giguere’s streak of scoreless minutes ended finally last night as the Sharks nipped the Leafs in a game where the Leafs may have deserved a better result.

Given the events of today that I’m sure the team had on its mind, I’m not surprised they lost, but nor am I surprised they were competitive.

Read more here.

- - -

One of the surprise commercials of the Super Bowl telecast the other night was one featuring David Letterman, Oprah Winfrey and Jay Leno sitting, obviously bored, on a sofa watching the game, with Dave lamenting that it was the worst Super Bowl party ever.

The spot was a promo for Letterman’s show but obviously there was something in it for Leno too, or he wouldn’t have been there.

You read the story of how the spot was put together here.

And you can click below to see it.

- - -

Lots of smart, talented kids I know are reaching the stage of life where the lucky ones attempt to leverage their athletic skills into university educations. Last week I heard of one such kid getting a commitment from a large US university for lacrosse.

There are many others weighing options, or hoping for an offer.

And then there’s the downright silly.

In this case, it means a 13-year-old quarterback from Deleware commiting to the University of Southern California, five years before he’s actually allowed to sign a letter of intent.

The story of David Sills has grabbed headlines in the US, where he’s been on morning talk shows with his family explaining their side of the story.

I dunno. If USC offered my 13 year old a commitment to a scholarship, I’m pretty sure we’d take it.

The problem here is the school and the NCAA rules that allow it to happen. The irony is that anyone who has ever done the work necessary to register a kid with the NCAA athlete clearing house knows that it’s more rigourous than a tax audit and about as much fun a sword juggling.

So why, with that level of accountability in one area, do they allow this sort of goofiness to be considered OK?

You can read more here.

Feb 8, 2010

Yeah, we watched the Super Bowl. Well, some of it.

Pad and I didn’t get home from his hockey game until late in the first half, so we made it just in time to see The Who.

As the kids say, OMG!

It was like watching Spinal Tap parody themselves.

Maybe, perhaps, it’s time for the Super Bowl committee to move past the classic rock genre (which I love, but seriously, it’s time to move on) and get something a little contemporary happening.

Because if a mid-60s British rock band 35 years past their prime is the best they can do in terms of top-flight entertainment, then we should all be wheeled off to the home and have our remote controls taken away while we eat dinner through a straw.

You can read more on their show here.

- - -

Oh.

They played a football game too and apparently the wrong team won.

I’d have picked the Colts – actually I did – but to no one’s surprise, I’m sure, I was wrong.

Greater minds than mine can pull apart the entrails and figure out what went wrong for the Colts and right for the Saint.

Or, you can read more here.

- - -

The hockey world was stunned and saddened on Friday night to learn of the death of Brendan Burke, the 21-year-old son of Leaf GM Brian Burke.

It is a sad fact that young people perish in car accidents every day. But this one resonates I think because Brian Burke is the public face of the Toronto Maple Leafs and millions of people are familiar with his passion and personality.

It is a terrible, terrible thing.

You can read more here.

- - -

Knowing that their boss and his family were in unimaginable grief, the Leafs played a game that I think will be long remembered in the history of the franchise.

They not only stopped the hottest team in the league and their Ontario arch rivals, they sent a message about the final 20 or so games of the season.

5-0.

Are you kidding me? The Leafs?

Where did that come from? Read more here.

- - -

Friday night, while the minor bantam Oakville Jets were busy beating a Guelph select team 1-0, we were MIA hockey parents, but all for a good cause.

We were at a fundraising gala for Abbey Park High School that included a live auction, silent auction, a casino and other assorted techniques to separate people from their money.

Proceeds from the evening topped five figures, so there was a fair amount of success.

We got home at 1a and I think I’m still tired.

I’m just not that young anymore!

Maybe I’ll nap now.

Feb 5, 2010

Ilya Kovalchuk is the first great rent-a-star of the 2010 Stanley Cup tournament, having turned his nose up at Atlanta. Make no mistake, it was not the $100 million over 12 years that the Thrashers’ sniper didn’t like.

I’m guessing he didn’t like playing in front of an empty building controlled by a troubled ownership group in a city that doesn’t care about hockey on a team with no hope of becoming a contender.

By landing in New Jersey, he elevates an already very good hockey team to a serious Stanley Cup threat.

How much better are the Devils now?

Well, Dion Phaneuf and the new-look Leafs get to find out tonight.

How long will he be in New Jersey? That’s hard to say. He could sign a new deal with them or he could wait out the clock until July 1 and become an unrestricted free agent, which you would have to think is the route he will take.

Read more here.

- - -

One week from today, the 2010 Winter Olympics will open in Vancouver. There are great expectations upon the Canadian team to not just do well, but to win more medals than any other country.

For the record, Canada finished 3rd in the total medal count at Turin in 2006, with 24, and 5^th in gold medals with seven.

Having been the only country to host the Olympics and not win a gold medal – twice – Canada will break that streak this time.

And millions of us will care less about the scraping-to-get-by skeleton team than we do about the millionaire hockey players, who more often than not break our hearts.

I hope the Canadian athletes – especially the true amateurs – do really well.

The rest, well, I have trouble getting really excited about it. I know that being an Olympian is a great, career-defining moment for most of them. To be an Olympic champion is to attain a sort of sporting immortality.

But to me, getting excited about the Olympics feels a little like getting excited about Microsoft or Apple or Honda. It’s very big business.

It’s a large international juggernaut and it just seems to get bigger and bigger.

We’ve been to Lake Placid, NY, several times. That little town in upstate New York hosted two winter games – the last one in 1980.

I’m guessing that the games then had a much different feel than the games will have in Vancouver.

I’m just rambling.

I hope the games go really well and nothing stupid happens and the good guys win.

I’m going to try and get my quadrennial fix of biathlon and luge and skeleton and speed skating a bunch of other things I normally wouldn’t watch.

I’ll probably stop short of buying a cow bell and leaving all the doors and windows open to replicate the atmosphere on a mountain (snow covered or otherwise.) And I won't pretend I won't watch, because I will.

If you want to read an interesting Olympic perspective – written from an American point of view – on the collision of amateur ideals, professional priorities and macro economics, click here.

- - -

Into the weekend we head.

We’re expecting it to be slightly more frantic than usual because of a high school fundraising thing that my wife (“I’m not volunteering to help organize anything anymore”) volunteered to help organize.

Chris has a pair of games, as does Pad who may get another one too. We’ll see.

There’s Timbits.

My friends in minor bantam white have some very important games this weekend that will settle who wins the division and what the playoff seedings will be. I’d love to get over to see some of the action. No promises. I may be asleep, but the showdown at 8p between the Nexgen Municipal Titans and the Black (ice) Forest Bakery squad promises to be a thriller. The winner takes the division. Good seats still available, call Ticketmaster for details. Surcharges may apply.

And there’s even a football game of some note to be played on Sunday night, although the kickoff conflicts with a hockey game.

Wherever the weekend takes you, as usual take care.

Let the kids play. Cheer great plays from both teams. Say something nice to a parent from the visiting team.

Hug the kids.

Feb 4, 2010

I won’t pretend I have much exciting to say, having spent my Wednesday in either meetings or in rinks.

But three hours at the Hershey Centre did trigger a moment of some hilarity, if not outright excitement.

In the corner above Rink 3 at the Hershey Centre is a small viewing room – terribly maintained and visibly worn from years of benign neglect. The carpets are stained, the furniture battered and frayed.

But the room does afford a view of the ice in a heated space with seats, and on Wednesday nights when Pad and his teammates hit the ice for two hours of practice, it’s where the dads (and rarely, a mom) hang out and watch. And chat. And debate the great issues of our times.

All of which is to say, nothing much happens.

We tend to get very excited when the Zamboni hits the ice at 10p, because then we know there’s only an hour left.

And then later, we’ll hazard guesses on how long past 11p the rink crew will allow the team to stay on the ice before opening the gates for the Zamboni. Sometimes, it’s 11p on the dot (which, technically, is still 10 extra minutes.) It has been as late as 11:20p, which if you’re standing there thinking that you could be asleep, is a long time.

Then add to that the time it takes for 18 kids to gather the pucks, wrestle, gather their water bottles, wrestle, get off the ice, shower, and exit, and well, it makes for a late night on a school day.

Last night we were sitting there when a small mouse – actually, in the world of mice, this was sort of a John Candy-sized critter, looking particularly robust and well fed – appeared in the middle of the floor.

We paid it no attention beyond the cursory “oh look. A mouse.”

Later, though, there we more dads in the room and the mouse reappeared.

One dad immediately made it his mission to bring down this mouse. To what end, I’m not sure, but he started chasing the mouse around the small room, actually cornering it at one point.

Quick of mind but slow of Blackberry camera, I captured no useful evidence of this confrontation so you will have to take my word.

Judging by his relentless rodent mission, the dad in question is clearly someone you’d want on your Aussie-rules football team and in your hunting party for small game. But what, I asked, was the plan now that you’ve cornered the mouse?

I’m not sure there was a coherent reply before the mouse figured out which way its night was headed and made a run for it, again with the dad in hot pursuit.

Ultimately, the mouse escaped, sadly in the direction of concession area for the main bowl at the Hershey Centre. Keep that in mind next time you order a hot dog at a St Mike’s game. I am no expert on mice but in my experience, there’s never just one.

Happily, my friend never got the opportunity to tromp on the mouse, bringing with it all the clean-up and disposal challenges that accompany such events, although I have no doubt that would have entertained us well into Hour Two.

The rest of us enjoyed the mano-a-mouseo showdown and if I say you had to be there, I think you’d know what I mean. It would also help if you also enjoyed a fall and winter of Wednesday nights spending three hours in the same room with the same guys.

And such, dear reader was my evening as a rep hockey parent.

I got home at 11:50p.

And tonight, Chris is on the ice for what we call “the coveted 9p practice at Maplegrove.”

And tomorrow night, hockey. And a high school fundraiser. And on and on.

But I do get to dress up and go out with my wife, even though she will be too busy volunteering to spend much time enjoying my company.

Onward.

Feb 3, 2010

Geez, who were those guys?

Just when all hope had been abandoned – not just for this year, but for any subsequent season – the Leafs make a trade, play one (1) good game and like Frankenstein rising up of the slab, the voices of Leaf Nation rise as one and yell: “It’s alive!”

Or something like that.

Phaneuf performed as billed, Giguere showed that he was, indeed, the best backup goalie in the league and deserves a shot at first string, and New Jersey left town feeling like they had been hit by a bus.

You can read all about it here.

The Leafs play the Devils again later this week. Can they do it twice?

- - -

I have had the grave misfortune of taking a later-than-usual train into town the last two mornings.

Crowded trains, these later beasts are, filled with people wide awake and anxious to bellow into their phones.

The upside is that I actually get to see members of my family in the morning, but the downside commute is not great.

Today, I arrived on dreaded platform 28 at the same time another train emptied onto the adjoining platform 27. No word of a lie, it took me 11 minutes to get to a stairwell to exit the platform.

Try standing in crowd of shuffling people for 11 minutes. It’s less fun that it sounds.

Go ahead.

Argh.

- - -

The final early-bird registration for Oakville lacrosse is this weekend: Saturday, 1p to 5p, at the Pine Room at Oakville Arena. Then the prices go up.

- - -

I’m still having trouble coming to grips with the reality that Pad won’t be playing lacrosse this summer. There’s a very long blog entry in this, but I’ll save it for another day.

Suffice to say he’s opting to spend the summer on ice, playing hockey and focussing on that sport. Which is fine, I guess. But I always loved how at the end of hockey season, he’d throw the skates in the closet and, for the most part, ignore hockey for the summer.

There would be the occasional weekend hockey camp, but Oakville Hawks lacrosse took centre stage.

Long road trips to weekend tournaments in exotic locales like Midland and Peterborough were summer rituals.

I’m going to miss it.

Chris will be back at house league lacrosse, so I’ll still have that fix to address the craving. And look at the money I’m saving! (Registration fees for Pad would be actually less than one of his hockey sticks cost, if you can imagine it.)

Get out and register your kid this Saturday!

- - -

One of the reasons for taking a later train this week was the need to drop off a vehicle for servicing.

The other reason was Chris’s school ski trip (which I’m not on, his mother is, but that shifted some duties to me which required me to be home a little later.)

The house was alive earlier than usual this morning (like 5:30a or something) so if you see me bumping into telephone poles later, that’s why.

Today is a long day too – Pad has a 9p to 11p practice that is always the highlight of my week.

Shhh! Hockey dad sleeping.

- - -

I’m guessing you’ve never heard of Bill Watterson. No, he’s not a Leaf prospect.

He is the genius behind the retired comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, which remains my all-time favourite.

Watterson was unconventional in that he walked away from the strip in 1995, after only 10 years, and also because he refused to commercialize the characters that he created. There’s no Hobbes the Tiger stuffed toys or Calvin t-shirts or any other officially licensed merchandise. I respected that, because obviously he made a decision to forgo tens of millions of dollars, maybe more. He was famously outspoken about the demands of newspaper publishers to shrink the space available for comic art. And he supported and encouraged new artists in the medium.

Watterson is also famously reclusive. He doesn’t want to talk about his work or anything else.

The news this week that he agreed to answer a few questions by email on the 15^th anniversary of retiring the comic provides a rare glimpse into the life of the Calvin and Hobbes creator. It is his first interview since 1989, in fact.

If you weren’t a fan, it doesn’t matter.

If you are as big a fan as I am, then you’ll want to read this brief Q-and-A. Watterson is a class act.

I also love the fact that my collection of Calvin and Hobbes anthologies have mysteriously moved into Chris’s room, and that he treats them with genuine reverence. They are so much more than newspaper comic strips.

Click here.

Feb 1, 2010

So, Chris and I headed off into the cold on what felt like a weekend for hockey. Bright sunshine, freezing cold and the promise of fun.

About halfway to Barrie I asked him if he had packed his bathing suit and to make a long story short, half an hour or so later we were standing in a Wal-Mart in Barrie on the coldest day of the year looking for a bathing suit.

We found one, too. And we got some odd looks.

The minor bantam Jets were playing in a weekend tournament at the Nottawasaga Resort, which has two lovely rinks on the property and makes a habit of filling their hotel in the winter by hosting minor hockey tournaments.

They do a terrific job at that too (a guy sweeping the floors approached me to ask if I was enjoying my time at the rink. I just about fell over. We had a great chat.)

I can’t give a review of the hotel, because we couldn’t get in and thus found ourselves in Barrie at a Holiday Inn. The tournament was about 20 minutes away, two exits south on the 400 from Barrie, west on Highway 89.

On Friday the Jets played a select team from Etobicoke who had clearly gotten more sleep and had eaten better because they beat us 4-1. The game was actually closer than the score might suggest but the better team won.

It was just before game time that Laura emailed and confirmed that yes, Patrick would indeed be playing a junior A game the same night. So after torturing myself with the logistics around racing back to the Powerade Centre in Brampton to see his game, I embraced my inner Jet and dedicated myself to being a house league dad for the weekend. I would not attempt to race back to see Pad play.

It was a good call.

After the game, six or eight of the Jets – including Chris – headed off to Snow Valley for snow tubing and it is safe to say that when memories of this weekend are relived 25 years from now, all that those guys will remember is the snow tubing.

They had such a good time under the lights on a snowy, cold, Canadian winter night. Two hours of fun for $10 was great value while the parents sat in the chalet and sipped hot chocolate and told stories of hockey tournaments lost and won a 100 years ago.

Laura carpet bombed my Blackberry with updates from the Powerade Centre – Pad’s team lost 4-3 in a shootout – and all was well. He saw a lot of ice, played well, made some hits.

I wish I could have been in both places.

Saturday morning dawned sunny and cold again – a frigid -30, in fact, with light snow.

We grabbed breakfast and headed off to face the Durham Chiefs select team, and hoped for a better result than the opener.

Our guys were much better in game two, winning 2-0 with an empty net goal. In spite of the close score the result never felt in doubt and we headed off to lunch hopeful that a second Saturday win would give us a chance to play Sunday in the final.

Lunch was the usual chaos you’d expect with a party of 40, but give full credit to the folks at Jack Astors in Barrie because they handled us like pros. We were fed and watered and sent on our way in 90 minutes, which is remarkable in my experience.

Game 3 saw us face the Brampton Sharpshooters, another select team. We had to win to have any chance at all.

The game was terrific, and goalie Zack Ristivojevic kept the Jets in it, riding a hot stick after his morning shutout.

Now, at this point I’ll say that people who have been around teams I’ve been associated will know that I occasionally drag out my camera and take photos. I’m not great, but I can be prolific and my work populates Facebook pages across the GTA.

But in the hands of a pro, a camera is an instrument of art, and one of the dad’s on Chris’s team is just such a pro and artist.

And in the second period with the score tied 0-0, my kid Chris took a pass from behind the net and buried what would later prove to be the winning goal in a 2-0 win.

And that talented dad with the camera took a photo – no, he made a photo – that captured the essence of the moment, the day, the weekend. (For me anyway.)

The win wasn’t enough to lift the Jets to the final – the tie-break formula sent us home.

But the photo?

It was worth the entire weekend to me.

You can watch your kids play 1,000 games. You can attend a 100 tournaments. I have.

And you may never see an image that so clearly catches in an instant why you do it.

Chris doesn't score tons of goals. He works hard, he gives his best. When he does score, well, it's a big deal.

The smile. The fist pump. His eyes locked in triumph on his teammate. The look -- the body language, the despair, the look -- on the face of the Brampton kid next to him. The joy of victory, the agony of defeat.

It was Hockey Day in Canada and I cannot imagine there was a more complete hockey image captured in Canada on Saturday at any level.

And to Dave Ristivojevic, who's son Zack didn't allow a goal on Saturday, I say thanks for the photo. You -- and Chris, and the Jets -- made my weekend.

Photo copyright David Ristivojevic

- - -

In one of the biggest deals in Toronto Maple Leaf history, Brian Burke acquired disgruntled star defenceman Dion Phaneuf from Calgary and JS Giguere, perhaps the best backup goalie in the NHL who will now be number one in Toronto.

Gallons of ink will be spilled analyzing this one.

A friend of mine said it best: the Leafs got the best player in the deal in Phaneuf. That would seem to be the case right now.

Ian White is going to get better. Will Phaneuf bounce back?

Regardless, I think it was a good deal to make because now it's all about next season.