Sept 30, 2010
This blogging thing is an odd business (and it pays very poorly).
I’ve probably never been less relevant in terms of participating in minor hockey in Oakville (I help co-coach one tyke team, and kinda-sorta help with another bantam HL team) and so far this month has been one of the busiest in terms of readership in the five years I’ve been at it.
Maybe the less I talk, the better I do?
Hmmm.
Wait. What . . .
- - -
If my dad is wondering why I didn’t call last night it is because we did, in fact, go out to dinner and when we got home we were both in sort of a stuffed, catatonic state. I was at least.
We got home in time to see Nazem Kadri perform CPR on his chances of cracking the Leafs’ lineup and then I sort of crashed.
No question – I’m full value for a night on the town.
- - -
There’s so much attention on Nazem Kadri in Toronto right now you’d think he was the next big thing – the torch being handed from Gretzky to Lemieux to Crosby, with a couple of names along the way who bobbled it.
He’s not. He’s not even close.
He’s only 19. He’s not very big. He’s struggling to make a bad hockey team in a city that cares more about millionaire hockey players than the homeless or its schools or its mayors’ race.
And the management of the Leafs and the media are acting like he’s trying to carve his name in the Stanley Cup.
In junior hockey in London (and Kitchener before that) Kadri drew mixed reactions from fans, many of whom (according to the OHL fan forums and discussion boards) regarded him as a player not terribly focussed on where he was, but distracted by the lights of the CN Tower 90 minutes east.
This thread here gives some flavour as to how the hard-core Knights fan feel about Kadri – they hope they never see him again. While I learned long ago not to believe everything you read – especially on the Internet, the preponderance of unbalanced commentary and so few defenders of Kadri does make you wonder about the guy.
Anyway, last night he played a pretty good game. It’s probably doubtful that he played himself on to the Leaf roster.
The fans in London need not worry about him going back there – the Marlies seem like a good fit for now.
It will be interesting to see how he reacts to the glamour of the Ricoh Centre and AHL bus rides.
I actually hope the guy does well and joins the Leafs soon. First, the Leafs need all the help they can get, and the kid can play when he wants to. Second, I wouldn’t want my career potential to be determined by how I acted when I was 18 or 19. He’s a kid.
Give him some room to grow up.
- - -
Tyke hockey is the coolest.
Except for maybe Timbits, Novice, Atom and Peewee.
Or Bantam. Or Midget. Or even junior.
OK.
I guess they all have their strong points.
But right now, Tyke is cool for me.
The first time Dave and I coached together back in 2001-02, it was in Timbits. I had already done Timbits with the Big Guy in Ottawa in 1997 and kept coaching him until Chris started in Timbits, and that’s when Dave and I formed the Unholy Hockey Alliance.
Our team had blue jerseys and regulars here know that squad became legendary across Canada (well, to us anyway) as the Big Blue Machine.
A return to Timbits last year saw us again land the blue jerseys and the Machine lived again. Version 2.0.
This year in tyke . . . no blue jersey.
Huh?
As the guy on South Park would yell, WTF? W. T. F.???
Because no one knows how to work the system (being alert and fast really helps) better than a couple of guys with more than a quarter century of bench duty between them, we quickly nabbed the black sweaters, which we knew would become a very hot commodity, and they did.
Sorry dudes. Taken.
Job One last weekend with the kids (after reviewing the Three Rules of Minor Hockey: Have Fun, Have Fun, Have Fun) was to name the team.
Now, in previous years naming the team has, on occasion, bin akin to picking a Republican presidential nominee in a year where Ross Perot was spending money. (Sorry for the somewhat obscure US political reference, but it’s a test to see who’s paying attention.)
Kids will throw out names that might reflect the jersey colours – Oilers!!! – or might not – the Oakville Killers!!!.
Depending on the age of the kids, the method to zero in on a nickname everyone will love can vary.
For example, in minor bantam, a coach from Winnipeg might ask for suggestions from well-loved and good intentioned players and parents and then carefully count all the ballots and declare: “We’re the Jets!”
Minor hockey is not a democracy, in case you’re wondering.
In Timbits and Tyke, coaches might ask the kids to draw a team logo supporting their name and then the coaches will judge the best entries to make a short list for a team vote. Sort of a primary run-off system. Or, they might pretend to do all that and then act arbitrarily.
See: “We’re the Jets!”, above.
In our case last Saturday we witnessed the first, and probably last, instance of team-naming unanimity to ever occur in a MOHA dressing room.
When called upon for ideas for a team nickname, our seven-year-old guys spoke with one voice (after some kid with the loudest voice spoke first.)
BLACKHAWKS!
The crowd, as Danny Gallivan would have breathlessly described, went wild. Cheers. High fives. Smiles.
What better handle could there be for our guys? Defending Cup champions. Original Six franchise. The home of Kane, Toews, Hull, Mikita, Hall, Pilote and others.
A brilliant pick. And all the more so because it was done in mere seconds.
We are the Blackhawks. We play Saturday morning.
Call Ticketmaster. Good seats still available.
Sept 29, 2010
As previously mentioned I was up at the new 16 Mile Sports Complex on Friday night to not cheer for the home team. Not that it did any good, as the home team rolled to a win anyway. (The good guys bounced back the next night with a solid victory over Buffalo, so you take what you get at this level.)
Anyway, the first star of the night was the new arena. Everyone was gushing about the facility and with good reason. It’s a beautiful complex and it’s only about a decade overdue for the town. Nonetheless, it’s a good example of what can be done with $38 million, so check your sock drawer for spare change.
Among my complaints? Well, the complex is big, there’s no denying that. But it’s not even close to 16 Miles long, so what’s up with that name?
Also – a bunch of friends and former coaches showed up to watch the Oakville guy playing for the other side, and everyone was a bit put off by the ticket prices.
The feeling was unanimous that $12 for adult admission to a tier-2 junior A game is a sure-fire way to encourage people to stay home. The discount rates of $8 for students/senior were only slightly better than what some other OJHL teams charge for regular entry. And the fact that the minimum charge for kids is $5 seems tailor made for guys like me to arrange to take my tyke team to watch a junior A game in Port Credit.
I understand that hockey at this level costs money and it has to come from somewhere. Bus travel, equipment, ice costs (typically more than three hours for a game including the warm up and inevitable brawl) but smart folks can go to the Hershey Centre and see future NHLers on and against the St Mike’s Majors for $13.
I’m just sayin’.
On the other hand, everything about the game experience – the program, the tickets, the sound system, the music between periods -- was first class, and Oakville has a very good team. The Blades do a very good job.
- - -
A word of advice to hockey parents using the new rink – drive all the way around to the west side parking lot – follow the signs to Athlete’s Entrance.
The dressing rooms and rink access are on the lower level. So if you enter through the main entrance you have to walk to one end or the other and then walk down the stairs, and then double back to the dressing rooms.
Save yourselves some time and park on the west end.
- - -
The new rink has a pub and during Blades’ games if your text them your food order and seat number, they’ll bring hot food to your seat. Great idea.
But sorry – no beer.
- - -
The main concession sells Starbucks coffee – which at first glance seems like a great thing. And really, it is.
But, Friday night several people commented that perhaps Tim’s would be a better fit – given that it takes a long time to prepare a mocha frappachino half-half latté with cinnamon vs. a double-double.
Not to mention Tim’s unwavering support for minor hockey.
Still, it’s a nice touch.
- - -
All that having been said, the place deserves a rating of 10 out of 10. I’ve spent a fair portion of my adult life driving to cities and towns with much nicer facilities than Oakville and lamenting, “why can’t we have a rink like that?”
No more.
This was done right and people from out of town were raving about it as well as the locals.
- - -
Early hockey practice tonight for the big guy. I think I’m on pick-up duty.
And since I’m scheduling time to be a great mood for the rest of the week, and since I’m finally not exhausted for once from running from home to work to rink to home to work, I might take my favourite blonde to dinner.
I love making her smile.
- - -
Blogging may be indifferent and sporadic for the rest of the week. So . . .
Check local listings.
Close cover before striking.
Objects in mirror are closer than they appear.
Unleaded fuel only.
Your mileage may vary.
Sept 28, 2010
I have a list of minor things to throw at blogging’s slippery wall for you and all of them are destined to droop and slide upon impact, making their way to the floor in a wordy, slimy heap. Ignored, derided, unread. I’ll save them for another time.
Instead, let’s take a look backwards.
It was 50 years ago today that Ted Williams played his final baseball game. In a moment of sporting serendipity that a playwright would never dare to author lest it be mocked as too trite, he hit a home run in his final at bat before a half-empty Fenway Park.
For baseball fans, Williams and his aura needs no explanation.
For the non fan? Well, know these things: he had a career batting average of .344 and hit 521 home runs in an astonishing career that was twice – TWICE! – interrupted by his decisions to go to war and serve his country.
They called him the Splendid Splinter and Teddy Ballgame.
He was an avid fly fisherman – perhaps a better fisher than batter, many say, and he was a hell of a batter. He frequently fished in New Brunswick’s salmon rivers where a friend of mine came upon Williams one day slapping his line in a pool.
My friend – a devoted ball fan and Red Sox loyalist in the days before Red Sox Nation – almost fainted on the spot.
“You’re Teddy Ballgame!!” he exclaimed.
Williams locked his eyes on him and replied without raising his voice: “You’re f**king right I am.”
So, why am I telling you all this when you come here to hear tales of misadventures at rinks and the journey of family and friends through the portals of minor hockey?
Because Williams’ last game spawned what many regard as one of the finest pieces of sports journalism ever committed to paper, in an era before ESPN and TSN and sideline reporters and the 24-7 news cycle of Twitter and Blackberry. All of those things are well and good, but mostly they shove flavourless pablum down our throats ago chronically the overpaid egomaniacs that too often populate our fields and rinks.
A young John Updike – who later became one of America’s most celebrated novelists -- was supposed to meet a lady friend the afternoon of Sept 28, 1960 but she stood him up and he went to the ball game instead. You might say he still got lucky that day.
About a month later, his essay – Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu – appeared in The New Yorker.
Take the time when you can to follow the link and read it.
It changed the way reporters started to write about sports. It was a generational change in the craft and its impact reverberates to this day.
I first read the Updike piece maybe 30 years ago. I laughed out loud at the title – Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu – which I knew was a poke at lazy sports editors and their trite headline habits.
Boston is known as The Hub in New England. And I knew from reading dozens of baseball books around our house growing up – I often think my dad would be way more impressed with his grandsons if they could get around on a 95 MPH fastball and launch it 485 feet than ride a speeding winger into the glass and wheel away with the puck – that the Williams-Boston relationship was tortured and priceless, as all great, enduring relationships are.
I remember one of those books said Boston newspapers had two headlines they used every August and September.
The first: Pennant Fever Grips Hub
The second: Sox Fold in Stretch.
I digress.
The days are growing short, the shadows are long in the afternoon. The evening air has a chill and the Boys of Summer – at least, the lucky ones – will soon play October baseball.
Teddy Ballgame.
If you don’t have time right now to read the entire Updike essay, then you can read another take on its impact here. It’s shorter and still worthy of your time.
Teddy Ballgame.
Effin’ right.
Sept 24, 2010
It’s over.
Summer, I mean.
Don’t be fooled by this last gasp of warm, humid air that feels like sticking your head in a dragon’s mouth (although not quite as ripe.)
You should be standing in a rink freezing your tail off, sipping a Tim’s, and complaining about some kid’s lack of work ethic.
And the fact is if you’re not doing those things, well, you soon will be.
How soon?
Very, very soon.
- - -
The final rounds of the bantam house league draft go tonight and then the boys – all of them – will get ice time with their new teams in the days ahead, including Sunday morning for some, I’m told.
Good!
We wouldn’t want anyone sleeping in too late!
It’s hockey season.
GET UP!
- - -
Little fear of that for me. The tyke squad I’m helping with is on the ice tomorrow at 9a and that will be fun. Chaotic, but fun.
Or, at least it will be fun if it goes according to plan. And the plan is to recycle all the old stories and jokes upon a new team and teach them the bird dance on ice.
Every time I dare to think my kids have progressed past needing the Kinoak Sports and Entertainment Complex and I finally don’t have to go there any more, Kinoak comes back into my like.
Like tomorrow.
Anyway, Kinoak it is.
I love that place. With the obstructed view seating. And the cold, cold dressing rooms. And the ice plant that struggles to keep up at this time of year. And the end boards that won’t move a quarter of an inch if hit at full speed. And the . . .
- - -
Oakville Blades have a home game tonight and I’m gonna be there – and I won’t be cheering for the home team, if you get my drift! The boys will be in tough against the talented Blades but they will concede nothing in effort.
Pad has another game Saturday night and then another one on Monday. It’s been a busy start to the season for his squad, to say the least.
- - -
Laura’s home. Consumption of regular food resumed last night and we watched last weekend’s episode of Mad Men.
With all the season premieres coming on line this week and next, and a heavy hockey schedule in the evenings, it may be a challenge keeping up with it all.
Not to mention the NHL exhibition season, plus the MLB season winding down.
Thankfully the Cogeco isn’t offering the new Rogers sports channel where most of the remaining Blue Jays games are hidden, so we don’t have to be bothered with watching things like Jose Bautista hitting his 50th home run.
I’m here to promise that if Cogeco ever does offer that channel I’m not subscribing.
- - -
I’m told that there’s an interesting dynamic in the Oakville ice time marketplace these days. The opening of the new town-owned four-pad complex at 16 Mile Centre has put considerable downward pressure on ice supplied by the private sector.
I’ve heard first hand accounts of people using this to good advantage.
Those darn old laws of supply and demand are at it again.
By my estimate the new rink added 250 hours a week of ice time in prime hours to the Oakville sports scene. Even with MOHA and the Hornets and the skating clubs gobbling up their allocations, that still leaves a lot of ice.
- - -
It’s Friday.
I know you like silly stuff and Jennifer Aniston, especially when she dresses up in a neck tie. At least, I like that and it’s my blog. Also, many school teachers in the area like it too, and I keep them happy in exchange for academic considerations for my kids.
So go crazy.
For something silly, this new Geico Insurance ad featuring retired fireballer Randy Johnson will do the trick.
Just press play!
Wind up and let one go this weekend.
Drive carefully (and scroll back to my posting on Monday if you need a reminder why.)
Don’t cheer for the home team tonight.
And hug the kids.
Sept 23, 2010
I’ve been far to busy to be able to pretend anything interesting has actually happened to me in the last 48 hours or so. Sorry.
Laura returns today so I’ll get to stop eating the few meals that I’ve actually had over the sink.
- - -
After humiliating themselves in their exhibition opener on Tuesday night the Leafs go to Ottawa and return the favour last night.
These games count for nothing and mean nothing except to the players fighting for jobs and the mouth breathers who keep sports talk radio alive. So, I’m not going to get to excited.
Wait. It’s the Leafs.
I’m not going to get excited at all.
Read more here.
- - -
Will the Commonwealth Games go ahead next week as scheduled? I’m betting they will, with inclusion of a new event – the whine and complain marathon.
I’m not trying to be trite – I think it’s beyond appalling that something that was widely known to be a disaster in waiting two years ago is now a full-fledged disaster. Imagine training for this event for years only to – perhaps – have it pulled out from under you at the last minute? This should have been either fixed, or, moved more than two years ago.
I think the Games will go on and the athletes and events will be 2nd fiddle to the appalling state of the games’ facilities.
And that’s a real shame.
There’s a chance the entire event could be scrapped. It’s hard to imagine the consequences of that move, and that’s why I’m betting athletes will be told to suck it up and deal with it.
More to come on this, but read an overview here.
- - -
I don’t get to vote in the Toronto mayor’s race so I have no direct interest in who wins.
But.
From a point of view of which candidate hold the largest potential to create circumstances resulting in the most interesting headlines?
Go Rob Go!
I don’t want to put too much pressure on the guy, but he has the potential to make Mel Lastman look like Sir Wilfrid Laurier by comparison.
- - -
Closer to home, we did a detailed analysis of the mayor’s race.
Rob Burton said he’d build four new rinks and a bunch of sports fields.
He did the first part and the 2nd part is coming.
I think there may be other issues in the election but I can’t think of them right now.
Oh yeah -- taxes, debt, development, environment, a hospital.
I dunno. Sounds like a lot of work to read up on all that.
I’ve never met either candidate, or talked with either for that matter.
But I like new rinks.
And donuts.
Mmmmm. Donuts.
- - -
For the second time in three nights I got my dinner at 11:30p out of a frozen pizza box after racing from work to get the big guy to his game, and then watching the game, and then coming home from the game, and then eating in front of a TV watching Letterman.
If it’s true that you are what you eat, then I am a thin crust Canadian.
Real food is in the forecast tonight. I think. No hockey tonight, except another Leaf exhibition game, this one vs. Philly in London.
Sept 21, 2010
At the end of the day, I couldn’t do it.
As much as I supported the 14-year-old Oakville kid skating on the ice in front of me and hoped his team would rally for a win in their season opener, I couldn’t do it.
I couldn’t yell: “Go Brampton!”
Kind of a Pavlovian reflex, I’ll grant you.
But I’ve seen too many games over too many years with Oakville Rangers teams in pitched battle – figurative and literal – with the Battalion minor hockey program that I’m going to need some time to adjust.
I’ll get there. Maybe.
- - -
I did not intend to spend a chunk of my evening standing in the aged Memorial Arena in Brampton, but for many of us a rep hockey game is a bright light in the night and we are moths. We can’t help ourselves. And with Laura away, and me having to go out anyway . . .
Pad had a 90-minute (that turned into a 100-minute) practice last night at Cawthra Arena and I dropped him there at about 8:15p.
A convenient truth about Cawthra Road is that if you keep driving north on it, it turns into the 410 which then takes you into the deepest, darkest depths of Brampton.
The Halton Hurricanes were playing the bantam AAA Battalion in the season opener.
There was plenty of talent on both sides of the ice and both these teams will be significantly improved in short order as team systems start to trump individual efforts.
Halton won 4-2 and was never threatened significantly.
My smooth-skating pal Will the Thrill played a solid game from where I stood, but he wasn’t at all pleased with his effort (although I’ve never actually heard him tell me he played well. He’s a bit exacting in that respect.)
For sure I’ll be there when Brampton comes to Oakville to play the Rangers. So many 1996 kids! Who to cheer for? I’m thinking the dark glasses and fake moustache will be in order.
- - -
I then rushed back down the 410 and onto Cawthra to the rink and caught the tail end of Pad’s practice, where the boys were doing some conditioning skating to wrap things up.
It was after 11p when I got home and I still hadn’t had dinner yet.
Chris had just hit the rack and me and Pad feasted on a frozen pizza (we cooked it first) and then it was lights out for me after making the school lunches for the boys.
We have a free night tonight I think.
I’m looking forward to that.
- - -
Another instalment of journalism “inside baseball.”
Given what I do for a living some readers have pelted your loyal scribe with questions about how the media managed to muck up the premature, unfortunate and unfounded story on Friday of Pat Burn’s “death.”
The former Leaf coach is very ill with cancer, but he’s alive.
People ask – rightfully – whether there are systems, protocols, checks and balances to ensure this sort of thing doesn’t happen in big-league journalism.
The short answer is yes, there are plenty of safe guards in the system. And mistakes will, and do, always happen.
I’m pleased to point out that where I work, we did not report that Burns was dead. Nor did we report a few months ago that Gordon Lightfoot was dead (he’s still alive too, and not even sick that I know of.)
There are things we drill into new folks around here – we drill it into the veterans too.
Yes, we want to be fast. More importantly, we want to be right. Fast and wrong is not good. It damages your credibility. And without credibility, you have nothing.
And technology today – Twitter was at the core of the firestorm for both the Burns and Lightfoot stories – allows almost anyone to be fast. And, as it turns out, wrong.
An example of how things have changed.
Back in the early 1970s, before satellite transmission of video was routine, war correspondents in Vietnam had to ship their film back to America by airplane. So a corro had to get it out of Saigon to Tokyo to Honolulu to San Francisco, and often from there to New York. It took more than a week.
And in that time, the corros had a lot of time to think about the words they put with those images. You can’t underestimate the value of having time to really think and reflect.
Fast forward to 2010. Every reporter carries a Blackberry, and most of them have Twitter accounts where they can fire out any manner of “hot tip” or scuttlebutt from the Leafs’ morning skate, or a scrum on Parliament Hill. And there’s pressure on them from their bosses to do it.
And that’s great, when you’re right.
But when you’re wrong? Well, then it becomes the old cliché about putting toothpaste back in the tube, and you can’t.
Stated more clearly: just because you have the technology to be really fast doesn’t mean it’s always a good idea. No one regrets something they didn’t say.
Two links: you and read the Globe’s sports media columnist’s effort to deconstruct the Pat Burns mess here.
And you can read the blog entry from the Toronto Star hockey writer who was at the epicentre of this story here, explaining how it went down from his point of view.
Interesting reading.
Sept 20, 2010
At the end of most weeks on here, I finish with a friendly caution to exercise care on the highway, wherever the weekend travels are taking you.
On Saturday night I had a close-up encounter with why that caution is one all of us need to keep in mind. You never know what is going to happen on the road.
- - -
I took Pad to his Saturday night game and dropped him off at about 6:20p (game time was 8p) and then participated in a couple work-related phone calls, after visiting the Macs Milk across the street from the rink to get a Diet Pepsi.
Laura joined us at 8p – no sense in both of us burning 90 minutes on a Saturday night.
The good guys won 6-2 and had half a dozen goal posts on top of that. The result was never in doubt.
So the players were all in good humour and Pad was smiling as he hopped in the car at about 10:30p. We headed for home – Laura departed with about a minute left – and as is our custom we did the post-game analysis of what went well, what could be done better, etc.
We exited the 401 and got on the west bound 403 around 10:45p. Traffic was moderate but moving well. The highway was dry and visibility was excellent. We were going about 115 kilometres an hour – the pace of the flow – and I was looking to change lanes to get to the HOV lane for the quick zip home.
The little red Mazda was about 100 feet in front of me, travelling slower. I did a quick shoulder check to prepare to move into the third lane – the one before the HOV lane.
When I looked back, the Mazda had jumped on its brakes and the distance between it and me was closing fast.
I knew the left lane was clear and I executed a lane change that might have caused an SUV to flip. There was virtually no time to do anything other than react. Change lanes, slow down.
This wasn’t even the scary part.
What happened next was simply terrifying – not for what happened, thank goodness, but for what it might have been.
No sooner had I executed the severe lane change, when I realized why the Mazda driver jumped on his brakes.
There was a man walking down the middle of the 403, with the traffic and not at all concerned about his circumstances. It was like he was strolling in a mall.
He was about two feet into the right side of the lane I just entered. And when I swung around the Mazda, he was
Right.
There.
He was in line with the passenger side front fender as I again cut hard to the left to avoid the guy. The nose of the car dove left. The pedestrian never flinched.
I figure I missed him by no more than 18 inches, travelling at about 100 km an hour. I had less than one second – not even a full steamboat – to react.
I looked in the rear view mirror but it was dark. I saw headlights behaving erratically as others obviously also moved to miss him.
I barked at Pad to grab my Blackberry and call 9-1-1 for me. Quickly – within maybe 10 seconds – I had the OPP 9-1-1 dispatcher on the line and I told her what had just happened. She said “multiple units have been dispatched” and she took my personal info. I said I hadn’t stopped – what the hell was I going to do, run out onto the 403? -- and was told that was the right decision. And then that was that.
We barely said a word to each other the rest of the way home, other than asking each other if we were okay. We said we were, but I’m here to tell you that a moment like that rattles you.
It was wildly unnerving and unleashed a rush of adrenaline sufficient to create a buzz that wasn’t going to go away without Corona intervention.
The first thing I did Sunday morning was scour the papers and listen to radio 680 for any news of a pedestrian fatality on the 403. I could find nothing, so presumably Buddy either survived on his own or was scooped up by the cops.
I shudder to think of what might have happened and the implications of such a thing – for the guy in the highway, for the kid riding with me who might well have had this guy sail through his side of the windshield, and yeah, for me.
Before I went to bed, Pad said “I always knew you were a good driver.”
Maybe. But good and lucky beats good every time.
The lesson – soon to be forgotten, I’m sure – is to expect the unexpected at all times when driving. A simple shoulder check is a critical part of a safe lane change but in that split second where your eyes divert from the road in front of you, a lot can happen.
Slow down. Leave some space between you and the guy in front of you.
Stay REALLY alert.
And hug the kids. Even the really big ones.
- - -
I was tired all day Sunday – went to bed too late, got up too early.
Chris had an evaluation skate at 9:30a for house league bantam. He’s very excited to see the start of another season, as are a lot of kids. The buzz and energy at River Oaks yesterday was tangible with minor bantams on one sheet and bantams on the other.
I had to work in the afternoon, sat with Pad and watched a little of the Pats-Jets game, went to the grocery store two (2) times, did laundry, made a great steak dinner for me and the boys, did more laundry, and went to bed at 10p and was asleep within minutes.
Did I mention I’m Mr. Mom this week?
Yeah – Laura is away for work which creates interesting challenges for the domestically challenged. Not to mention getting everyone where they need to be, when they need to be there.
We’ll manage, thanks mainly to her planning and preparation to make the days as painless as possible.
We need the help.
Sept 17, 2010
Another quick and dirty hit passing as blog fodder – not much time these days.
- - -
I fear work commitments are going to keep me out of action at the Tyke evaluation skates this weekend, which I regret. Nothing more fun than a couple hundred three-foot tall speedsters trying to show off all at once.
I’m sure they will muddle through without me.
- - -
Speaking of evaluations, Chris skates on Sunday morning at the bantam house league skate – his first spin on his new blades, which replace the still-looking-new-to-me skates he got at the start of last hockey season.
Maybe we’ll try to get him out for a public skating session on the new boots before then.
I just don’t know when it’s going to happen.
- - -
Meanwhile, older brother’s schedule slows to a virtual crawl compared to what the last seven days threw at him – including four games in five nights.
This weekend he has but one home game, which will provide ample opportunity to get ahead on some school work while the getting’ is good.
- - -
We have visitors from Nova Scotia with us for a couple of nights. They leave tomorrow but we all went out for dinner last night and told lies about how cool we were in university.
I think we bored the boys to tears.
- - -
In the category of “How I Spent My Summer Vacation” the Globe has a nice read today on what Sidney Crosby has been up these last few months.
And the short answer is – notwithstanding a boatload of corporate commitments and obligations that come with being the face of the NHL – not very much.
Sid confesses to throwing his skates aside and not skating at all for two months. Basically he rested and recharged after three gruelling seasons that included consecutive Stanley Cup final appearances, one Cup win, and an Olympic gold medal.
In most households, that’s called a career.
Sid is only 23.
But the good news for Mario Lemieux is that he’s about to get his basement back – Crosby has built his own bachelor digs and as soon as it’s done, he’s gone like summer wages.
You can read the whole item here.
- - -
The Oakville Blades, the defending Ontario junior A hockey champs, play their home opener tomorrow night at the new 16 Mile Sports Complex.
The Blades are a very good team and will be hosting Newmarket, also a good team. So it should be a decent match.
I’ll be elsewhere cheering for another team.
- - -
Whether you’re wrapping up soccer, or launching hockey and junior football seasons, or staring at the leaves starting to appear in your backyard, have a fun weekend. The summer may not be chronologically over, but it’s done.
Pull on a sweater and enjoy the evenings.
Hug the kids.
Sept 16, 2010
Ever wonder if you're going over the top with your kids' hockey?
Ever wonder if spending $300 for a hockey stick, and $800 for skates was maybe a bit much?
Ever wonder if playing summer hockey and buying the membership at the elite training facility was a tad over invested in trying to move your kid from house league to A, or A to AA, or AA to AAA?
Ever wonder if maybe it was all just too much and your family would rather go to Florida for a week? Maybe Greece?
Sure you have.
Well, relax.
To put it all in perspective, you really need to read this story -- which, BTW, is mostly old news to the small number of a die-hard GTHL/OJHL nerds out there.
But it's still a good read.
And FWIW, the kid is a real hockey player. He's that good for sure.
Sept 15, 2010
We’re back on the ice tonight, but dinner out with the family was a nice diversion last night. We have company arriving from Nova Scotia tomorrow, and more hockey.
And then there’s hockey.
- - -
There are few things more fun than having too much to drink and then writing emails to the president of the United States.
Sure. We all do it.
OK. Maybe we don’t – and there’s a reason for that. It’s generally a really bad idea.
Because emailing and drinking is usually not a source of thigh-slapping witty prose. And a 17-year-old lout from Great Britain has found himself banned for life from America for sending such a missive off to President Obama.
Who knew they actually read that stuff? Cool!
Anyway the lad doesn’t seem to think it’s such a big deal right now, but he may later in life when any number of things may require him to go to the US.
In the meantime, the stereotype of the boorish, lager-swilling UK youth is in good hands.
Read more here.
- - -
Well if she wants to see me,
You can tell her that I’m easily found
Tell her there’s a spot out ‘neath Abram’s Bridge
And tell her there’s a darkness on the edge of town.
-- Bruce Springsteen, Darkness on the Edge of Town
Bruce Springsteen was in town yesterday for the Toronto film fest thingy. I’m not really big on stargazing and crowds, so unless The Boss was coming to our offices there’s little chance of me seeing him.
I/we am/are fans of his work however. And the reason he’s here is a new film documenting the production of his 1977 album (kids note: that’s what musical recordings were called back then) Darkness on the Edge of Town.
Springsteen will turn 61 in a couple weeks (that seems impossible), so I’m guessing for fans the film will be an interesting look at what drove the guy and his band when he was just 27 – already becoming rich off the popularity of Born to Run, which built on his loyal cult following to propel him with a hit for the mainstream pop and rock culture of the then AM-radio top 40.
Darkness produced no such hit, but it is an iconic piece of work to his fans. We know every word to every song (often sadly for our dinner party guests.)
Non-fans (both of you) probably wouldn’t recognize a single tune from the LP.
But to his fans, the album has songs that are required at every Springsteen concert, including most notably Badlands and The Promised Land.
My personal favourites are the slower, brooding numbers – like the title song, and Racing in the Street, which I’m pretty sure you have to be male and under 30 to really appreciate. It’s basically a love song to a car and a passion. Those were the days.
Read more here . . .
Tonight, tonight the highway’s bright
Out of our way mister you best keep
‘Cause summer’s here and the time is right
For goin’ racin’ in the street
Bruce Springsteen, Racin’ in the Street
- - -
Speaking of old guys who drove my parents nuts when they were young guys, Neil Young – the greatest musical artist Canada has ever produced (he said to provoke debate) – will participate in a one-show reunion of The Buffalo Springfield.
The show will be part of Young’s annual Bridge School Concerts, which raise money to support a school for kids with severe physical impairments and communication disabilities.
This band didn’t last long but virtually ever film made about the 1960s and the Vietnam era in US history includes one of their songs, titled For What It’s Worth, although you know it for its iconic and eerily foreshadowing lyric, “There’s something happening here, what it is ain’t exactly clear . . “
I have a feeling the surviving members of Buffalo Springfield – who were here and gone well before I tuned in to music – should probably have left well enough along and not reunited.
But it’s for a good cause and every VW microbus with a Grateful Dead bumper sticker will be headed to this show. As usual, bring your wallet. Tickets go on sale this weekend and Young never has trouble getting people to perform at his benefits. This year’s lineup includes Pearl Jam, Lucinda Williams, Billy Idol, Elvis Costello, Elton John, and T-Bone Burnett, among others.
Read more here.
That concludes your muscial interlude.
Sept 14, 2010
It’s only mid-September and it is a very rare hockey-free night in our household.
Pad has had three straight games. Practices or games were scheduled for five of the last six nights, including the school night trip to Buffalo. And the stretch ahead is game-practice-off-game.
So, a quiet evening is welcome.
Having said that, it’s also his birthday so don’t bother calling as we’ll either be out to dinner somewhere, or watching the boys eating a lot and ignoring the phone.
The big guy turns 17 today and I think every year I probably recount in some fashion how he came to join us on a cool, sunny September morning in Edmonton. He was long and lean then, too, and tipping the scales at just under nine pounds he wasn’t a lightweight.
The night before he was born his mother wouldn’t actually acknowledge she was in labour and his father didn’t want to miss Conan O’Brien’s first show as David Letterman’s replacement on NBC’s Late Night. So we watched late-night TV.
Immediately after the show, we left for the University of Alberta Hospital, although we could have waited another 10 or 11 hours because Pad wasn’t in a hurry to go anywhere, and frankly I needed the sleep after staying up late to watch Conan.
I’ll spare you the adventurous details of his arrival, but it wasn’t routine.
Now six feet four inches and 201 pounds, a lot of things have happened in the intervening 17 years, but he’s turned out OK.
He’s blessed with his mom’s looks, smarts and work ethic, and his dad’s wit and erstwhile charm. He’s prudent, quiet and self-effacing like his grandfathers and generous of spirit and surprisingly talented in the kitchen, qualities which come from his grandmothers.
Entirely and utterly goal driven, he stood once in Glen Abbey Rec Centre, barely able to see over the boards, and watched a bunch of lacrosse players practice. He told his mother, “I want to do that.”
Another time as a Tyke hockey player he saw a rep Oakville Ranger team taking the ice. He wanted to know what he had to do to get a jersey like that. After the long explanation he simply said “OK.”
He is loyal to and protective of his younger brother, who was the first in the family to wish him happy birthday today – via Facebook posting, naturally. The first question Pad will ask upon entering the house if it is too quiet is: “Where’s Chris?”
He is not perfect (Clean. Up. Your. Room.) but his flaws are a family secret, especially on his birthday.
We have come to appreciate that his circle of friends are terrific young men and women who look out for each other in good times and bad.
Born on the Prairies, he learned to toddle in the shadow of the Peace Tower, was raised in the engine of southern Ontario but is 100 per cent a product of Nova Scotia.
He will be irritated that I’m speaking of him.
Happy birthday.
Sept 13, 2010
Another Monday . The sound of rain greeted me when I woke after something less than five hours of sleep following a hectic Sunday jaunt to Buffalo and back. Most GTA folk who ran to Buffalo this weekend did so to watch the Bills lose to Miami.
I went to watch a junior hockey game. The time I spent driving to Buffalo and back represented my weekend down time.
It wasn’t an entirely fun evening, and not just because the good guys lost.
The selection of music during stoppages of play was appalling for hockey game – or any public gathering for that matter.
I mean, they played WHAM! and Neil Diamond between stoppages. I surmise that this is why Americans are encouraged to carry guns.
- - -
Hockey season is in full bloom across Oakville now, and house league drafts started on the weekend. Evaluation skates will follow next weekend and then the next week everyone will be on the ice.
As inevitable as maple leaves turning red with fall, otherwise normal people don the mantle of “hockey coach” and set about with the stated intentions of doing good for the kids. I hope they do. All of them.
Because for a small number of people, draft day sometimes brings an interesting interpretation of doing good for the kids.
Thank God for strong conveners.
- - -
I was on the ice this weekend too.
I got to take a spin around one of the new rinks at the 16 Mile Sports Complex and it’s really quite nice, and not quite finished.
How nice is it?
Well, it’s nice enough that if you were standing in Georgetown or Brampton in the same place you’d probably mutter, “How come we never get to have a rink like this in Oakville?”
Well, now we do.
And I took a camera and snapped some photos and . . . they’re still on my camera.
Sorry.
The main rink (there are four sheets of ice in total) is quite beautiful and good luck to the Oakville Blades trying to fill those seats. I hope they sell out every game, but competition for the entertainment dollar being what it is, I expect they won’t.
But it is a marvellous looking rink.
What does the main rink look like?
Well, if you play minor hockey in Oakville, then either you’ve played in London in a tournament, or you’re about to very soon. London seems to host more hockey tournaments per capita than just about any place on the planet.
And if you’ve played there, then chances are you’ve played at the Western Fair facility.
And if you’ve played there, then chances are you’ve seen the main bowl with the blue seats.
And that’s what the main bowl at the new 16 Mile facility looks like, except nicer.
- - -
I had fun skating with the Tykes on Saturday and I was actually faster than a couple of them. A couple of the Tyke goons kept threatening to rough me up and that was a bit unnerving but luckily I knew some of the moms and they looked out for me.
I’ve been involved in house league evaluations pretty much annually since 1997 both here and in Ottawa and I can safely say this:
No house league cohort is going to be put through a more exacting array of drills to generate statistical analysis than this group of Tykes. An impressive set of spreadsheets will be generated and maybe sent to Statistics Canada, where sad-faced statisticians, left under-employed by the demise of the long-form census, will find new work breaking down the data from Tyke evaluation.
I’d call it a work of art, but it’s more like a work of math.
- - -
My alternative suggestion for evaluating the Tyke kids fell on deaf ears:
Ö Have the players line up on the goal line at one end.
Ö Tell them to skate as fast as they can to the other end.
Ö End of evaluation.
Data Interpretation and Analysis:
Ö The first kids to get to the other end are “Red” level. The last ones to get there are “Blue.” Everyone else is “White”
Ö Go home
Sept 9, 2010
I didn’t get to the MOHA meeting last night – I had to pickup Pad at practice (I got the date right this time) and by the time we got home it would have been too late to see/hear much of the show.
Plus, there was a cold can of Keith’s Amber Ale in the fridge.
Game, set, match. Beer wins.
- - -
People are asking me if it’s true that MOHA has lost it’s VP of house league, Tina Field.
I’m told Tina resigned a couple of weeks ago as she prepares to take on a new job.
I have no idea what plans, if any, MOHA has to replace the position or if there’s any provision in the constitution for a byelection or board/presidential appointment to the post. Tina was just re-elected last spring to a second term in the job.
I suppose I could look up what might happen, but the issue doesn’t exactly consume me. There’s a long list of things I don’t know. I’ve added this to it.
A random survey of senior conveners and division conveners reports that everyone has basically be asked to pull a little harder on the rope in the early stages of the season to get things going smoothly and that’s what folks have been doing.
I haven’t heard any complaints.
- - -
One of the papers had a story this week on NHL 11, the new version of the video game. The overall premise of the story – aside from the fact that people can muck with the lineups to let the Leafs win the Stanley Cup – is that young men like to play video games.
Upon learning of this I had to sit down and compose myself.
(That was sarcasm.)
If you have males in your house between the ages of, oh, 18 months and 100, then you probably have some kind of video game system. I think we have every gaming system known to man since the Super Nintendo (which Laura gave me for my birthday in 1990, I think.)
But I’m not much of a gamer. Pad and Chris? Now those guys are gamers.
PS3 (we’re on our 2nd one, bought on Sunday.)
PS2 (we’re still on our first one, bought in October 2001.)
Wii.
xBox.
PSP.
Nintendo DS
Gameboy.
iTouch.
I’m sure I’ve forgotten some and I wish I was kidding but the mind boggles at the list. And I don’t know how to use any of them except the old 1990 Nintendo, which sadly isn’t hooked up.
Anyway, the story I was talking about confirms that boys will be boys and they like playing video games, whether they’re NHL vets, NHL rookies, junior players or house league bantams.
Read more here.
- - -
Hey – I get to skate Saturday at the new 16 Mile Sports Complex Or Whatever It Is They Call It.
In advance I’m guessing that the ice will be cold and hard, the boards white, and the ice surface about 200 feet long. It has a pub, and I’m guessing it won’t be open.
I’ll take a camera and post exciting action shots next week.
- - -
I think we have an off night tonight, but with my performance on scheduling this week that’s just a guess.
Chris likes high school so far and I’m hoping to have a conversation with him involving more than monosyllabic grunts to find out more on that.
Patrick’s senior year started with his chemistry teacher warning the class yesterday that other than Advanced Functions (which he also takes) her course is the toughest at the school.
Sounds like fun.
Sept 8, 2010
Toronto Star has a P1 banner today on minor hockey coaches facing a new protocol of tougher background screenings, which in some cases could delay the final-approval paperwork by months.
Hmm.
I’m all for tougher screening of coaches. Anything that adds a layer of protection for the kids is a good thing.
At the same time as a person with experience convening house league divisions, I am familiar with the headaches that come with this on a practical level.
Typically, the VP of House League barks at the senior conveners to make sure all the police checks are done for ALL bench staff by a certain date.
The senior conveners then bark at the division conveners to chase the head coaches for the paperwork.
The head coaches then bark at their assistants and trainers.
The head coaches then shrug and two weeks later say “huh? What?”
In Halton, it was not uncommon for men and women filling out the background check forms at the volunteers’ meeting in early September to not get their clearances back until November or December. In some cases – even when there was no complicating issue – it took even longer.
If the new system is going to slow things down even further, does that raise the prospect of bench staff going the entire season without having their police clearances? I wonder.
I don’t know – I’m just asking. Because if it does, then the fix or improvement for this system is possibly worse than the status quo.
You can read the Star story here.
- - -
Speaking of which, the MOHA volunteers’ meeting in tonight at 7p at the Halton Regional Centre on Bronte Road.
I will be hard pressed to make this one (I’ll be non-parent bench staff on a Tyke team this season, but I’m only doing it for the pizza parties) but given that I’ve been to something like 10 or 11 of these in a row, I’m guessing they haven’t totally reinvented the wheel and I’ll be able to catch up later.
- - -
Michael Liambas is the Toronto native responsible for the devastating check on Oakville prospect Ben Fanelli, a member of the Kitchener Rangers of the OHL, last fall. Liambas, then of the Erie Otters, was basically kicked out of junior hockey for the hit.
Fanelli hasn’t played since and is still working hard to get back into the Rangers’ lineup, from what I understand.
Liambas is back in the news.
After finishing last season with the Bloomington (IL) Prairie Thunder of the IHL, the kid has been offered a tryout for a spot with the AHL Toronto Marlies, farm team to the Leafs.
Leaf boss Brian Burke says that despite the horrible consequences of a hit that went very wrong, he thinks the OHL overreacted and that Liambas, 21, is regarded by everyone who knows him as a tremendous young man, an honours students, and a decent athlete.
Hence, a look from the Leafs.
Read more here.
- - -
How about those Blue Jays?
No. Seriously.
They lead the majors in home runs.
The have a sparkling .563 winning percentage (4th best in the AL) since the All Star break.
They have the majors’ leading home run hitter.
And if you and 25,000 of your closest friends want to walk up to the gate for tickets at the last minute, you’ll have no problem getting seats.
Last night’s 8-5 win over Texas at the Rogers Centre had an announced crowd of 10,518.
Sheesh.
If, like me, you like to try and catch a few innings on TV after running around dropping off kids etc, then . . . like me, you might have been out of luck.
Cogeco has not yet opted to carry the new Rogers sports channel (on top of the four they already have, which they sometimes use to show movies instead of sports.)
In fact, no cable company in Canada other than Rogers offers it.
Anyway.
Read more about the Jays here.
You can pick up your monitor, look at the picture and move it around to simulate the experience of watching the game on TV.
- - -
One of the great fears I always had as a house league coach was making an error in translating the MOHA version of the game and practice spreadsheets into a parent-friendly version that is easily understood.
The MOHA ones have always represented, for house league hockey, sort of what Winston Churchill said about parliamentary democracy – the worst system in the world, except for all others. There’s a reason it’s the way it is; the end result is not elegant to look at.
Suffice to say the spreadsheets are not a love-at-first-sight experience, but they do work.
But translating them to a user-friendly list is a minefield. You have to identify your team (R3? W3? B3? For red, white, and blue) and then correspond the number to your team name, and then to the rinks and times, as well as identify the team you practice with, and then translate the letters and numbers into a game schedule (ie W3 = Wranglers, W4 = Lumberjacks, and we play W3 at Kinoak at 3p on Saturday, so that means . . . )
It’s less complicated than engineering low-altitude sub-space rocket propulsion, but there’s margin for error in the translation.
Only once in all the years I coached did I find myself standing at the wrong rink at the wrong time (in that instance, I did have the day correct, but that was cold comfort at the time.)
Which brings me to last night, when I sent Laura and Pad racing to make a 5:15p junior A practice, which is actually tonight, because I misread an email.
There’s a long story in my defence (including the fact that I wasn’t the only one to read the email), but it’s easier to just say it was my fault and leave it at that.
<Clears throat.>
It was my fault.
Let’s all move on now. It’s a new day.
Sept 7, 2010
Back to the reality of the work place, which in September actually does become a place of work – as opposed to being a place for hanging around waiting for holidays to roll around.
I woke up interminably early this morning as my mind leafed through the tasks I knew were waiting at the other end of the GO train trip.
Chris starts high school today; his older brother begins Grade 12. It’s going to be an interesting year for both of them, as well as their mother who has the unenviable task of not only getting them out the door every day, but making sure all the hockey games, practices, guitar lessons, timekeeping duties, and everything else get properly shoehorned into the days ahead. Oh – and she works full-time, too.
I think it’s a good thing that this is a four-day week. We’re not quite ready for a five-day week yet.
- - -
Usually by the time the Labour Day weekend rolls past, I’m refreshed and ready to hit the ground running. This year feels a little different. I didn’t get to sit on a beach or jump in the waves or watch the sun set over the Bras d’Dor. For the first time in memory there are no tan lines on my feet, which writer PJ O’Rourke says is a sure sign of a summer well spent.
I spent more time this summer risking frost bite than sunburn and I wouldn’t have had it any other way.
But I also had more than my share of time away from the meetings and phones. As they say a change is (almost) as good as a rest.
September will be a bit of a blur, I suspect.
Pad’s hockey season starts Saturday night and he plays four games in five nights, including a school-night road trip to Buffalo, and on the off night he celebrates his 17th birthday.
We have company coming from Nova Scotia next week, too. And then Laura has a business trip.
We will be off and running, for sure.
- - -
The debate over the federal government’s move to scrap the long-form census has been in the news a lot this summer.
Today I heard a guy on the radio this morning describe the Cape Breton version of the long-form census.
Question 1: How’s she goin’?
Question 2: What’s your father’s name?
End of census.
- - -
Unfounded reason for unbridled optimism at the start of a work week:
The last time the Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup, the Maple Leafs won the next three.
I don’t think I’ll make that bet, but . . .
- - -
My parents north of Halifax managed to get through Hurricane Earl okay. They lost power for a short time, but that was it. They were lucky, as some people went a couple of days in the dark.
My inlaws lost their power and their dock. The power came back on its own, the dock . . . not so much. It had to be searched for.
The dock is a heavy wooden deck that sits on a series of heavy metal A-frames that extend out into the bay. It’s not a year-round structure – a chilly rite of spring (that both my boys have proudly participated in) is putting the thing in the water and levelling it. And in the fall – usually around this time of year, it comes out.
Well, Hurricane Earl expedited some of that work for this season. My father in law was standing in the house overlooking the swells and waves churning on East Bay on Saturday when the dock rose, lowered, rose again and . . . just . . . floated . . . away.
As you can imagine, it wasn’t the only wharf to suffer this fate and yesterday he and my brother in law walked down the shore to find portions of the deck.
At last report they had found two of three sections, plus the steps. And they lost a pair of glasses.
I wish I could have been there to help out. But as one of the cousins remarked to Chris via Facebook, he doesn’t have to worry about being dragged back to Cape Breton to help take out the wharf “because Earl stole it.”
Sept 3, 2010
We’re back from our adventure – it went well but he won’t be changing his mailing address anytime soon.
Thanks to everyone for the well wishes. It was a neat experience and we’re both a bit fried, so TGIF and TG for the long weekend.
I could tell a million stories – well, maybe fewer than a million – but they’re his stories to tell.
Overall a great learning experience – for both of us.
- - -
Laura and Chris drove down for the final scrimmage of camp yesterday which I think we can safely file under “It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time.”
She got caught in a torrential rain on the 401 driving down, and then in another trying to escape London in 5p traffic.
But they were glad they came down for the hockey and both were impressed with the action on the ice and the size of the crowd, which only goes to show how serious they take their team.
- - -
While we were away Pad’s new iPhone4 showed up. So eventually he will wake up and we’ll go get the thing activated and retire the old phone that he affectionately calls “the brick.”
Chris – who has had an iTouch for sometime – told me last night that it’s no fun for him now that his brother has a cooler piece of technology than him.
- - -
I meant to post this last week, but a couple alumni of the Timbit Big Blue Machine of many years ago were members of the bantam Team Ontario lacrosse squad that won the national championship.
Andrew Kew was a full-time member of that Timbit team, while Foster Cuomo joined us for the season-ending Erindale Tournament in 2002.
Anyway, they were good athletes then and they’re great athletes now.
Andrew’s younger brother earned a place in our family lore when he absconded with the player of the game trophy that I had been handing out for several years to kids who played for me.
Eventually the trophy was located hidden under some stuffed toys or at the bottom of a toy box, but whenever we see the Kew boys, that story always comes to mind.
Congratulations to Andrew and Foster on a great season and for representing their town and Oakville minor lacrosse so well.
Read more here.
- - -
I hope everyone has a safe and happy long weekend. Spare a thought for those folks in the Maritimes who are coping with Hurricane Earl. Hopefully it will be nothing serious because they all know what serious feels like, and it’s not fun.
Drive safely.
Hug the kids.
Sept 1, 2010
It's very hot here -- just like it's very hot where you are. The difference is I'm spending most of my days sitting in a very cool (not cold) rink watching hockey.
It's a blast.
- - -
On Day 1, the guys were subjected to physicals and fitness evaluations which Pad's been through before. Vertical jump, maximum number of situps in 60 seconds, bench press (155 pounds as many times as you can press it until you can't anymore), among other things. And these other things were to include the two-mile run but because of the weather they canned the run.
So that was the blessing of Day 1. No run in the 34 degree heat.
The only ice time Tuesday was a 45 minute light workout with the squad you're assigned to scrimmage with for the next two days. Piece of cake.
- - -
Today was tougher.
Two scrimmages consisting of two 36-minute (mostly) straight time periods each. So, a lot of ice against and with some pretty good hockey players. There's half a dozen guys here who will be attending NHL rookie camps. And everyone here is trying to get noticed.
So for some that means nifty moves and dangling the puck; for others that means trying to separate the danglers' heads from their bodies when they dangle; and for others, it's fighting. I think there were eight fights in the two scrimmages Pad was in.
He's having a blast.
- - -
He's back on the ice tomorrow morning for at 8:30a and again at 3:15p -- then exit interviews and out. He's under no illusion of cracking the lineup here but it's a great experience and everything about it has been first class. Very cool.
There have been other entertaining moments -- I got enough ketchup on my shirt at dinner Tuesday night that I looked like I took gun fire to the chest so I bought a new shirt before we got back to the hotel, because I'm a slave to fashion.
And we tried to go to dinner Wednesday night at two different places within walking distance of the hotel but both had floors littered with peanut shells, so, that's a non-go for us because of Pad's allergy.
We ended up at Boston Pizza, which is oddly appropriate because Boston Pizza is the unofficial home of the hockey road trip. And this is an awesome hockey road trip.
We saw Corey Perry and Drew Doughty play in an alumni scrimmage between the training camps scrimmages, and that was cool.
And as hot as it's been here, I think this is the first time I've been to London for hockey when I didn't have to scrape snow off my car in the morning. Little risk of that in the days ahead.
I know my kid is working his tail off. The pace is gruelling.
But man. This is so much fun.
He agrees.
