hockey blog may08

Three in a row -- the midget 2 Hawks beat Huntsville 5-2 today. Pad was on the receiving end of the hardest hit of the tournament this far -- clean hit, he bounced right back up. (I know most of you don't care, but his grandfathers reading back in NS care.)

The midget 2 Oakville Hawks beat St. Catharines 5-3 last night in the opener of the Six Nations Lacrosse Tournament, notching their second straight win.

I think things will very very challenging today, with games against Huntsville and Fergus.

And number of strong performances from players last night, but I'll only single out Brennan Donville, who kept St. Kitts from getting back in the game late in the third.

Meanwhile at the Laker Classic in Peterborough, the midget 1 Hawks also opened with a win, beating Orillia 7-3. No word on the bantams yet.

Interesting email making the rounds to the effect that the MOHA executive, without consulting the board, has extended the Mitron contract. Without going into chapter and verse, the Mitron contract is -- by a wide, wide margin - the single most controversial topic people contacted me about during the recent elections.

Given the multiple board sources I have for this information, I'm assuming it is accurate.

That any decision should be taken on Mitron -- good, bad, or indifferent -- without first and foremost giving the incoming directors the benefit of a full and detailed operational and financial accounting of the program was simply, um, poor judgment.

Further, since the position of VP of rep was being contested in this election, and the Mitron program is an integral part of town rep hockey, it beggars my simple mind that such a decision wasn't deferred so the new executive and VP rep could review it and make a recommendation and presentation, including a full and detailed operational and financial accounting, to the full board.

It's not about Mitron. It might be the greatest hockey program invented since the history of time. That's not the point. The point is the board makes the call. The new VP deserves to be consulted before committing the association to a new contract. It's pretty basic corporate governance.

However, the executive does not have the final word. The board does. So, it should be an interesting meeting Tuesday night.

Not a lot to put in front of you today as we head into the last weekend of May. My weekend will largely spent driving back and forth to Caledonia for the Six Nations Lacrosse Tournament where the midget 2 Hawks will put their one-game winning streak on the line. Brilliantly, our schedule includes a noon and 9p game on Saturday, as well as a game tonight and another on Sunday morning.

The first meeting of the new Minor Oaks Hockey Association board is Tuesday night. Participants are required to wear helmets.

I got to thinking about how good the Wings are, and how bad the Leafs are, and how good the Pens are, and how bad the Leafs are . . . there's a pattern. Got it?

Anyway. Detroit was famously bad when I was a kid. So bad they make the current Leafs look great. So bad that it is beyond me why anyone of my vintage would be a Red Wings fan. The Wings lost to Montreal in the 1966 Cup final and then went on a run of despair that has few equals in the history of the NHL.

Over the next two decades they missed the playoffs 15 times and in addition to trying some of their old stars as head coach, they also had such legendary coaches as Doug Barkley, Johnny Wilson, Ted Garvin, Bobby Kromm (who actually won coach of the year honors for turning the team around for a season), Wayne Maxner (from Halifax), Billy Dea and Nick Polano.

Then, in 1983-84 Steve Yzerman joined the team and the road out of the wilderness was clear: everyone get on Steve's back and let him carry us. Stevie Y finished his rookie year with 87 points (lost the Calder Trophy to Tom Barraso). Yzerman would only miss the playoffs twice as a player, and he lifted three Stanley Cups as captain.

The Penguins missed the playoffs for four straight years and then won the Sidney Crosby Sweepstakes and made some other pretty good picks too. And now they're on their way.

Now to the Leafs, who if you didn't notice, are out of the playoff for a third straight year.

I think the smart play is to make it four -- unload and/or don't re-sign anyone older than 25. Resign ourselves to finishing last.

And get a super-star calibre draft choice and keep him. Climb on his back. Get carried from the wilderness.

Pad refereed at Glen Abbey last night on the green rink, which is the new one. I think we are all appreciative of having an additional spiffy ice surface. But now that it's been open for more than two seasons, I think it's safe to say the new rink blows in comparison to what might have been.

-- the gas heaters above the viewing area obstruct the view of the playing surface.

-- and there is a perpetual drip above the north end of the floor, which seems to come from the heating/ventilation system and creates a hazard to play, especially during lacrosse season. Why can't it be fixed?

This thought occurs to me every time I watch a lacrosse game there, like last night, when my kid was the ref with the towel mopping up the water. Or toxic waste. Or whatever it is.

Last night the Abbey Lane Elementary School held its annual fun fair, which as I've said before is so named because it's fun for the kids, and not fair that a small number of parents do all the work.

Chris came home with a new Star Wars trash can filled with bags of chips, which he won in a silent auction. I won't list what it cost "him" but it was an eye-popping figure. My eyes popped a few times yesterday actually. That's another story.

As I was busy celebrating those who protect democracy (ahem) I missed the game, but my usually reliable scouts tell me the Hawks got their butts chewed on for some sloppy play, selfish moments and failure to execute set plays against an admittedly weaker opponent.

So much for Rule 33. The Pens edged Detroit last night to climb back within reach in the Stanley Cup finals. I missed the entire thing but I gather it was much more entertaining game.

Jamieson Kuhlmann, the Beaches midget lacrosse player who died last week as the result of injuries incurred in a game, was remembered at a service Tuesday. It is a profoundly sad story that will resonate around the fields and rinks of this area for a long, long time. You know what to do -- hug your kids.

Pad gets to ref his first rep lacrosse game of the season tonight -- hockey and lacrosse schedules have been such that he hasn't been able to fit it in. But he enjoys officiating, he enjoys the kids (he usually calls novice or peewee games), and he enjoys the way leather-lunged dolts with huge beer bellies who wouldn't know loose-ball interference from homicide scream from the rafters. He has an amazing temperament for that stuff.

Plus, he has me in the stands ready to tell these people to either take the courses and buy and whistle, or shut up.

It's really fun to look at the look on the faces of people when you point out that they're yelling at a 14 year old. They shut up really fast, and everyone around them looks at them the way you look at green slimy stuff on the sidewalk.

Perennial rugby powerhouse Oakville-Trafalgar High School won the boys senior and midget Halton championships yesterday. The midget boys edged Stoney Creek's Saltfleet Secondary School 17-14 after trailing 14-12 at the half. Must have been a barn burner. Congrats to Mike, Will and all the others on that team. Good luck at OFSSA.

If you open your Google browser today and see the nifty logo, it is commemorating that on this date 55 years ago, Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary became the first people known to have reach the summit of Mount Everest, the highest point on Earth.

Since then nearly 2,800 others have followed and the mountain itself, particularly the base camp, has turned into a sort of ecological mountaineering waste dump for those with large wallets, large egos, and inconsequential regard for the wonders of the planet. There are some -- many, in fact -- alpine climbers who clean up after themselves. But the legacy of what Norgay and Hillary unleashed on Everest is mostly a self-indulgent adventure tourism industry catering to people and interests with big money.

More than 200 people have died trying to get to the top, which -- if you're any good at math -- will tell you that the odds of dying on Everest, if you can afford to get there at all, are very, very, high. So, good luck with that.

If you like real-life adventure stories (and I do), I recommend to you Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt Everest Disaster, by Jon Krakauer. It is a detailed, riveting, first-person account of a disastrous expedition up the mountain in May 1996. All told, 12 climbers died that season and Krakauer -- a veteran alpinist and journalist -- pulled no punches in detailing what went wrong. He was there.

And if you do read it, also read The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest, by climber Anatoli Boukreev, a veteran climber who led one of the expeditions on the mountain that spring and who shouldered much of the blame for some actions that could have resulted in a less grim result. Boukreev died a little more than a year later climbing Annapurna, the 10th highest summit in the world. The Climb is Boukreev's version of events. He was there too.

If you have kids who love to read, these books are suitable for teens and -- especially Krakauer's -- are simply great, ripping yarns best read by wide-eyed 14 year olds by the light of a flashlight on a humid, thundering summer night.

For those who continue to ask, Wayne has posted on his blog the resignation email mentioned yesterday. I think it speaks for itself and by clicking here you can be magically transported to that memo, as well as some interesting introductory remarks from Wayne.

I was told last night that my sense that this was not over was indeed accurate. So, we'll watch from the hills and ride in after the battle to shoot the survivors.

After back-to-back 10p midget lacrosse practices we're all moving a bit slowly today. 10p practice for him usually means 10p practice for me, too.

And by the time Pad gets home, showers, grabs something to eat and gets to bed, it's past midnight. And the house doesn't really settle down till all that's out of the way. So, if I'm bumping into things today, that's why.

Some 66 years ago, the Toronto Maple Leafs rallied from a 3-0 deficit in the Stanley Cup finals to beat Detroit and win the Stanley Cup -- the first team to rise from such a grave.

Then, 33 years later, the New York Islanders turned the same trick (not in the finals) to win a playoff series over the Penguins, in 1975.

Now, 33 years after that, the Pittsburgh Penguins trail Detroit 2-0 in the final -- they have not so much as scored a goal.

Careful thought and analysis, which makes my head hurt, suggests that the Penguins game plan is to lose tonight and then storm back to take the next four, thus keeping the magic of Rule 33 intact.

It would also ensure that the Pens win in seven as I predicted (which resulted in several emails which said, in essence --"You think Pittsburgh can beat Detroit, at the Joe, in Game Seven? Are you on crack?")

If I lived in Pittsburgh and was dedicated to the cause, I'd be touting Rule 33. Big time.

This item was in yesterday's Toronto Star and one hopes it would serve as a cautionary note to all the weekend warriors and beer league hockey players who fancy themselves once or future heavyweights. Recreational hockey is for -- drum roll -- recreation. Get in a fight hurt someone? Expect to pay through the other guy's broken nose. In this case, an original verdict cost the attacker just over $20,000 and he appealed.

The judge agreed the amount was wrong -- unfortunately for the defendant, he added almost $8,000 to the bill ordering him to pay just north of $28k. I hope it was worth it. Read the story here.

Teamoakville-readers-abroad update: the guy in Mongolia is also the guy in South Korea. A clever blogger might have figured that out. But I never said I was smart.

But who is the reader in the Isle of Mann? My Mongolian correspondent says it's not him.

Two Oakville teams came away from the Ontario field lacrosse championships with medals -- Novice and Bantam, I believe. But trying to find the information on the web is like finding Waldo.

Two Oakville peewees and a bantam player have made Team Ontario lacrosse squads.

I was lucky enough to coach Andrew way, way (way) back in the MOHA Initiation Program and he is a terrific kid. I see him and his dad around the rinks and fields often and Andrew always makes time to say hi and tell me about what he's up to.

Foster was a late-season addition to that same IP team -- the now-legendary Big Blue Machine -- as we rostered some kids for a year-end tournament (which we won, if you're keeping score at home!) Anyway, Foster is also a great kid blessed with all kinds of talent and I'm not at all surprised to hear of him excelling at lacrosse as well as hockey.

Among the bantams, Jackson Dewar made the team as a goalie and again, no surprise. Jackson was a regular at Tuesday night Dick Decloe last winter and he told me he intended to work very, very hard to make the team this year. I never doubted him for a second.

Both squads will compete in the nationals in (where else?) Whitby in August. We'll track their progress then, but in the meantime best of luck guys.

The lesson here for me is that if you spend just enough time in rinks (and by "just enough" I mean five or six nights a week) you get to meet a lot of great kids. These guys are three prime examples.

The midget 2 Hawks host Mississauga tonight but they'll be doing it without me. I have a business dinner which was the first domino to fall in creating a lot of chaos for my spouse from about 4:30p till 10:30p.

While I'm schmoozing at the Canadian Journalism Foundation gala at the Royal York, Laura will sprint around the house to make dinner for the boys, and then deliver Pad to Kinoak to coach his Novice lacrosse team at practice from 6p to 7p.

She will retrieve him at 7p, bring him home and then leave for Glen Abbey to get Chris to his practice at 8p.

She then will return home, get the freshly fed-and-watered older son and return to Glen Abbey, again, to drop him off for the 9p game with Mississauga.

She will then sprint down the street to make an appearance at her monthly ~~wine drinking~~ book club. She will leave shortly before 9p to go to Glen Abbey to retrieve Chris/watch Pad play. She will force Chris to watch his brother's game, bribing him with popcorn and a white-chocolate Hershey bar.

After the game, she will bring Pad home and maybe return to book club. But I doubt it.

I don't want to go to this dinner at the Royal York. But it's work. So I have to. I'll probably have a bad time, feel guilty and not enjoy myself. Honest.

In business there's an expression that covers a variety of different actions. It's called the drive-by, originally derivative of the LA-ghetto drive-by shooting where the firing upon of innocents while settling scores with rivals is considered fair game.

So for example, a nasty memo telling everyone to clean up their desks, when only one or two need tending, is drive-by discipline.

A politician whining that he lost the Quebec referendum because of "money and the ethnic vote" is drive-by whining.

A drive-by is when an action creates collateral damage among some who have nothing to do with the fight.

I'm being carpet bombed with requests to publish Wayne's resignation email, which yes, to answer your many questions, I do indeed have.

Sorry. It's too bitter and casts aspersions over too many unnamed people, creating confusion over who the targets are, to pass the fairness doctrine here. Too many MOHA players -- kids -- read this space. They would assume bad things.

I attended the annual general meeting last week. I stood and asked questions. I wished all candidates I met good luck. I voted, fully prepared to live with whatever result the membership tendered whether the candidates I voted for won or lost.

En route to that result there were numerous speeches about the process being all about ensuring the kids had the best experience in hockey possible. I assumed that once the election was over, that precise sentiment would remain the top priority for all.

With great respect (and as I said as recently as last Friday I hoped he would stay on the board -- his institutional knowledge of the inner workings of the association, ice contracts, scheduling, etc etc is without peer) I don't see how a former VP of HL leaving the board is in the best interests of the kids. One of the things I like about the guy is that you could disagree with him and it wasn't taken personally. And on this, we disagree.

That said, given the sentiments in his letter, he obviously felt he couldn't work with some people so maybe it was the right move.

Ouch. Two games into the Stanley Cup finals and Pittsburgh is not only down two games, they haven't managed to score a goal. It's not looking good for them. Full credit to the Red Wings, who have been dominant.

I don't know what the routine in your house is like, but in my house when the day starts we turn on the TV in the kitchen, put on CITY news, and wonder what the weather is like on Mars.

For $420 million, NASA now has landed a space probe on the red planet, equipped with a Canadian weather station.

And apparently the UV index for the forseeable future is high. Really, really high. It is recommended you wear a really wide-brimmed hat and slap on the lead-based sun screen if you're playing golf on Mars today. Tomorrow. Anytime.

First, it was the Grey Cup breaking in two a couple of years ago when the BC Lions won it.

On Sunday, the Memorial Cup broke in pieces when the Spokeane Chiefs captured what is the award that signifies junior hockey supremacy in Canada (and selected parts of the United States, apparently.)

So today, I'm calling for a royal commission into the state of all iconic Canadian replica trophies and awards.

There may be a way to fund this through federal-provincial infrastructure programs. I can't imagine I'll need more than $10 million to $15 million.

Several people have contacted me tonight to tell me that Wayne Moorehead has resigned from the board of the Minor Oaks Hockey Association. His letter of resignation was to be posted on his web site, here.

If you have a comment send it to me here. I'm curious for MOHA member feedback -- although I will not be publishing or attributing any comments of anyone. I'd just like to hear what people think.

Wayne lost the election for house league VP on Thursday night, after several years in that job. He was elected as a director by a slim margin and he resigned from that position tonight.

To be honest, there are few people in hockey in this town I respect more than Wayne -- I've made no secret of that -- and I regret that he's taken this step. The board would be better -- a lot better -- with the benefit of his experience and counsel, and even a thick-fingered typist like me can see that.

But there's obviously a tremendous amount of . . . I'm not sure what to call it. Ill will covers it, but it goes much deeper. Read the letter.

OK, finally. The MOHA crack team of forensic election specialists spent their Sunday counting ballots for the election of new directors.

Here are the results (and please note that Nancy Brooks and Tina Field both were automatically on the board by virtue of winning the VP of rep and VP of House League positions.) Discuss amongst yourselves.

I think it seems a bit, I dunno, arbitrary that Marshall missed out on being elected by a single vote. My personal experience with the guy in his role as disciple chairman has always been straight up and fair. He never hesitates to give me his take on things, which I appreciate. And 37 years of involvement in minor hockey in Oakville is a lot. I hope he stays involved and that people find a way way to make him want to continue to be involved.

While some people counted ballots, I went to watch the Oakville Buzz game. They lost -- again -- to Mimico, 8-5 in a game that wasn't as close as the score suggests. The Mimico Mountaineers. Is there anyone out there who can explain the team's nickname? I've been to Mimico lots of times and have never seen a grassy knoll let alone a mountain. Just curious.

I'm not a film reviewer, but (STOP READING TO AVOID POTENTIAL SPOILER IF YOU CARE):

What's up with the aliens? Can't anyone make a movie without aliens anymore? I guess if you lock Spielberg and Lucas in a room and tell them they can make another gazillion dollars if they can dust off Indy for one more movie, the guys who between them created Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. and . . . you get the drift.

Sooner or later, they're gonna drag aliens into it, or maybe a big, bad-ass shark. We got aliens.

But not space aliens. Oh no. Inter-dimensional aliens. Yeah. Right. Whatevv (as the kids say.).

There were also predictable plot twists and tiresome repetition of the same old Indy stuff -- yes, we get it. He likes his hat; snakes, not so much.

I give it a five out of 10. Lazy, predictable plot with cool special effects -- especially the A-bomb test. Nazis replaced with Communists as the de rigueur bad guys.

I'm taking abuse for picking the Pens. I may deserve it, but I'm sticking with the call. Pens lose tonight, it's pretty much over, though.

OK. Today is the day the board elections for MOHA will be announced. No foolin'. For sure for sure.

Except, it is a nice day, and these folks are volunteers, and . . . actually, I have it on good authority it will be done today. We'll keep you posted.

Chris and his HL PW lacrosse Roughnecks tied their playoff opener 5-5 yesterday. Pad's novice squad lost a squeaker. Then we all came home and watched Detroit pick Pittsburgh apart. It was a fairly complete win -- we'll see if the kids can bounce back.

I was surprised that Chris Chelios -- whose name is on the Stanley Cup the year before Sidney Crosby was born -- was not in the lineup for Detroit. Given the way the game went, and that he also sat for the final game of the Western Final, don't expect to see him back on Monday either.

As an old guy myself, I'd prefer to see Chelios playing. <Insert my old geezer voice here:>

"Why when I was a boy, the Soviet Union was a country. And there was a hockey team, I'll tell ya, and everyone knew who to hate. And I'll tell you another thing. Goalies didn't dress like the Michelin Man either. The pucks were harder too and minor hockey players didn't wear face masks. Glass behind the nets? We had chicken wire, and we loved it! Why, I remember this one time my eye was hanging out and . . . <insert sound of single gun shot, and then applause.>

Another Buzz home game today, which mean's Pad is volunteering there and I'll be along to watch the game. Buzz host Mimico (the only team to beat them this year) at 2p at Glen Abbey. Chris will have a buddy over and there's talk of all of us seeing the new Indiana Jones movie later today. We're all walking around whistling the theme song and wearing big ole' floppy hats. I'm off to wash the car, and stand with my hands on my hips staring at the lawn, pretending I care.

Usually reliable people tell me the ballots will be counted ~~today~~ Sunday for the directors' positions on the MOHA board. I'll eventually get word from some friendly soul on how that turns out, and I'll post the results here.

Natually, since Pad's team failed to qualify for the provincial field lacrosse finals tournament (the first time we've sat home this weekend on the calendar!!) the sun is shining and the call is for warm weather. It figures, after having endured cold and rain all spring through field lacrosse season. Oh well. Good luck to all the Oakville Hawks teams in action this weekend.

Our day is, nonetheless, the usual blur of lacrosse -- Pad coaching and reffing two games, Chris playing his weekly game; and his second last swimming session of the spring before his big meet next weekend.

Oddly, we had no early events today so the house is very quiet as a sit here. Laura is sleeping, Pad is sleeping, Chris is down in the basement with a headset on and a game controller in his hand destroying aliens or something.

I'm mopping up some email from work and doing this from my usual perch in the family room, sitting in the big chair looking out over the garden and marveling at how a community with as many people as this one can still be so quiet on a sun-dappled morning.

Pad worked at the Buzz game last night (a win for the home game over Halton Hills) and I went and sat in my usual spot with the usual suspects. When I got home, I found the kitchen had been turned into a wine-sampling station by my wife and her friend from down the street, who had lost her husband to the golf channel and headed to our clubhouse with a bottle of good red and her usual wide smile.

Pad was weary from his long day -- the Abbey Park High School rugby team he plays on lost in the Halton semi-finals in the afternoon. I'm thinking that for now, his rugby career is over. The grind of practices for both rugby and lacrosse and overlapping games etc. really taxed his time this spring. He loved the games but something will have to give.

Of course, the rugby coach is also the football coach and guess where that conversation leads . . .

We're thinking he'll stick with volleyball as his school fall sport. But I'm not sure what he's thinking.

Say hi to the team. Events of the last week have only underlined how special all these guys are, and all the rest just like them. Mine is the tallest tree in the back row.

And since it's my blog, and his grandparents and aunts and uncles back in the Maritimes read this, here's a picture of him in the game:

My Mongolian audience checked in over night. You will be surprised to learn he has an amazing grasp of English. Of course, since he's an Oakville hockey dad and engineer who travels a lot, that explains why he's fluent in English and most things related to Oakville, too. It was a nice note, longer than most I get because I think being in Mongolia seriously restricts your leisure opportunities. Thanks for writing, and have a safe trip!

Now that the Mongolian Mystery has been solved, who's reading in South Korea? Send me a note!

As previously billed, we attended the MOHA AGM last night, which in our marriage is what constitutes a big night out without the kids. Really, we should get some help.

I gave you the headline of the night last night, when Wayne Moorehead lost his bid for another term as vice president of house league to Tina Field. The vote wasn't close.

I had actually started working on my summary of the meeting before I attended, and this morning I had to re-write the part where I had Wayne winning again. I knew there was a movement for change; I underestimated its vigour.

The counting of ballots for directors is more complex and takes time. I expect we'll hear something later today.

The meeting moved along briskly and there was no rancour, no fireworks. The only questions from the floor came from me and one other person.

Generally, that's how democracy expresses itself. Quietly, but with the force of a hammer.

I've been involved in coverage of more federal elections than I care to remember, and elections in nine provinces and two territories, as well as one national referendum and one referendum in Quebec. Not much surprises me anymore.

The referees in the association clearly voted pretty much as a block and while that alone did not carry the day, it was a big factor. The refs could not have stood out more if they had all showed up wearing striped shirts and blowing whistles. As I wrote here some months ago, MOHA went to war with the refs and . . . the refs have long memories.

No one has ever won an argument with a referee on the ice, and apparently they win a few off the ice, too.

Tina clearly had an awesome organization working for her and they got people to vote. Her message was less a call to arms for radical change, but it was clearly a call to enable renewal and change, which is a part of the life cycle of any organization.

And my intuition is that people were not so much voting against Wayne personally as they were simply expressing their desire to change the overall leadership, and last night was just the second phase of that.

The first phase was the acclamation of Nancy Brooks as VP of rep last weekend when the incumbent dropped out of the race. Tina is part of that equation now too.

I could write a thousand words about all Wayne Moorehead has done for kids in Oakville. As a coach and convener for almost a decade in the association, I have personal knowledge of the good he did every day. One snippet:

In April 2006 I coached a minor atom house league team that went to the championship game. Tied 2-2, we went to overtime and the rule then was that if the score remained tied, a shootout would settle things after the first OT.

The first overtime was terrific, back and forth, lots of action and the place was packed as families arrived in to watch the games that were to follow ours. It was the greatest day in the lives of those kids, no doubt about it.

When the buzzer sounded to end the overtime with the score still tied, I shrugged and turned to my assistant coach and basically said, I guess whatever happens, if it came to that I could live with spending my summer saying we lost in an overtime shootout.

Wayne passed me en route to the timekeeper at that moment and said "not on my watch" and jumped into the penalty box. He called both coaches together and said the game was too good and as long as one of us promised to score a goal, we could play one more overtime before resorting to a shootout.

The point is that all the kids on both teams got to take part in deciding it, not just five snipers on each side.

I hope he stays on the board -- that much institutional knowledge will be vital in the months ahead as things transition at MOHA.

And everyone remember what you all said last night -- it's about the kids. Work together.

It's been a bit of a tough week -- the lacrosse tragedy still casting a long shadow. Thank you to all of you who commented on yesterday's blog and said you hugged your kids. For best results, apply daily.

The Stanley Cup finals start tomorrow night, finally. It feels like the conference finals ended a month ago.

Much has been made of comparisons between the 2008 Pens and the Oilers of the early 1980s. And how that Oiler team lost in its first trip the finals in straight games to a battle-hardened Islanders team.

And that in 2008 the Pens are the Oilers and the Wings are the Islanders and the kids have to experience a loss to learn how to win. Accck!

Second, the Oilers would intimidate and beat teams by saying, "We're going to score seven goals. To beat us, you'd better be able to score eight." Not many could.

The Pens don't play that way, and in fact are incredibly disciplined on defence from Crosby and Malkin and Staal all the way down to Fleury. Their ability to add this dimension is something the Oilers never really perfected and it makes Pittsburgh more than the sum of its impressive parts.

The Wings are very, very, very good. But I think they are exactly the sum of their parts. I used to marvel at how the Wings had another gear that other teams didn't have. I don't see that anymore.

But I'm betting that MOHA isn't the only place where there will be a changing of the guard.

I may not be the most popular hockey-and-Oakville-drivel scribbler in Oakville, but I'm apparently a bit of a hit in Mongolia.

The land that gave the world Ghengis Khan and . . . . um, well, anyway I have a regular reader checking in on the blog from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, which -- since you asked -- is the coldest national capital in the world, ahead of even Ottawa.

I'm not sure what the attraction is, but hey. Teamoakville is a big-tent type of place.

That's Mongolian for welcome. I think -- my high school level Mongolian has slipped a bit.

First we have to allow the Swiss special entry into this category. Admittedly when thinking of wheelless cars on blocks in front yards, the Swiss don't come to mind.

But this story of a guy doing himself in off a hotel balcony while taking part in a spitting contest makes us lift the vinyl curtain and usher them in.

If you've ever been on a boys' weekend away -- and for the record, I haven't been for a long time -- then you know the ritual of calling SHOTGUN. The guy who calls shotgun gets to sit in the front passenger seat, which is a big deal because you have access to the radio controls and everyone is at your mercy.

If I did do a boys' weekend now, I think the considerations for shotgun would be more practical -- where the canes and walkers would fit, whose arthritic knees can fold up to sit in the back, whose aching lumbar needs the heated passenger seat.

But did you know there are rules -- lots and lots of rules -- surrounding the proper application of shotgun?

If you played house league hockey you are likely to remember the coach for the many kindnesses he extended, his sense of fair play, stuff like that.

If you played rep or higher, you are likely to remember the coach who was generally a fairly complete prick, but who pushed you to get to another level, taught you to compete, made you a man, blah blah. You guys know who you are. Raise your hands.

It's sort of like the old Monty Python Dinsdale Piranha thing -- he nailed my head to a table but he said I deserved it, and that was good enough for me. He was cruel, but fair.

Anyway, Chris Chelios -- veteran Red Wing defender who is is almost as old as me (and here's hoping he never retires) -- is busy preparing for the Stanley Cup finals. He was recently asked who his most memorable coach was. And no, it's not Scotty Bowman and his nine Cup rings.

Warning: there's some language in this, but the bad stuff is bleeped out. This is absolutely brilliant. If you've played rep, or have a kid who played rep, you know Jules. Thanks to KW for the outpoint.

Tina Field is the new vice president of house league for the Minor Oaks Hockey Association. She defeated incumbent Wayne Moorehead in the election tonight at the annual general meeting. The vote was (approximately) 201 to 98. I say approximately because I was too shocked to write down the numbers.

As previously announced, Nancy Brooks was acclaimed as VP for rep when incumbent Keith Murray withdrew from the race.

Right now, I want to simply say a very profound thank you to Wayne for all he has done for so many kids in Oakville for so many years. I'll do a better job on that tomorrow too. He worked tirelessly.

Keith led Oakville to the most successful year in Rangers' history, and likewise, deserves our thanks.

Toronto Beaches midget lacrosse player Jamieson Kuhlmann, 15, died Wednesday from a game injury sustained on Monday afternoon at provincial field lacrosse qualifying in Newmarket.

You'll know now that this is what I was referring to yesterday. Click here and here to read more about the horrific and tragic accident. (The photo accompanying these stories is beautiful. A strong, handsome kid, the very picture of health and strength. Last weekend I bet I saw 300 just like him in Brampton. It breaks your heart.)

I know almost everyone who reads this space is a parent. That it was a lacrosse game is tangential to the tragedy. A boy lost his life playing a sport he loved.

Just two weeks ago I was picking up my midget lacrosse player from from a field practice. Me and another dad watched them peel off the layers of padding on a grassy sideline as they chattered and laughed, wrestling and rolling in the grass, the smiles washed in late-day sunshine.

There was no denying that fact. My only comment at the time was that they don't get it, but these are some of the greatest days of their lives -- free, fit, surrounded by friends and doing something they all love and the future lying in front of them with nothing but opportunity.

On Sunday, while our boys and many others played in western provincial qualifiers in a cold field in Brampton, the eastern teams, including Toronto Beaches, did the same thing in Newmarket.

We all froze, laughed, took our kids to lunch, cheered them on in their games. No one ever, ever takes their kid to a sporting event imagining the last words you'll get to say to him or her are some version of what I say to my kids every time before turning them over to the coaches.

Hold a thought and a prayer for Jamieson and his family, his friends and his teammates.

Field lacrosse is a rough game, but frankly not nearly so rough as box (indoor) lacrosse. In field lacrosse, there's no cross-checking (a staple of defence in box lacrosse.) Rather, players body check, like in hockey. There's a lot more room and no boards to fall into head first. And it's just as difficult to deliver a hard hit in lacrosse as it is in hockey. But everyone who plays or sends their kids to play understands there are risks -- just as there are in hockey or baseball or rugby or soccer or crossing the street. Kids running on fields with sticks brings risk.

Minor lacrosse officials -- obsessed with safety, and rightly so -- say they are looking into this tragedy and as a parent, I look forward to hearing what comes of that. I was with the Oakville Hawks 2 midget team in Caledon last night and parents on both sides were talking about this tragedy and looking for answers. Shocked and concerned doesn't come close to covering how people feel.

Is there an equipment problem parents need to be alerted to? Is there something to be learned from this tragedy to ensure it doesn't happen again? Was the game being properly officiated? Is a rule change needed, or an existing rule that needs to be emphasized to officials? What of the boy who collided with Jamieson? Is he ok -- physically and otherwise? Have insurance providers been consulted about the upcoming provincial championships this weekend in Kitchener and do they have questions? Will the tournament go ahead as scheduled?

It may be that this was just a tragic, horrible accident and that every reasonable precaution had been exercised prior to and during the game. In my experience, the people in minor lacrosse put safety above all other considerations.

But a full discussion of what might be learned from this can only help make it safer.

The Minor Oaks Hockey Association will hold its annual general meeting this evening, 7:30p at Holy Trinity High School. Laura and I will make a rare joint public appearance (because usually we're at separate sport venues on opposite ends of town) and I encourage all association members to get out and participate. Good luck to all the candidates for VP House and for board seats.

People I've never met on a team we didn't play had a much unhappier conclusion to their cold weekend of field lacrosse than any of us did. I'm not trying to be cryptic, but out of respect, I'm not going to say much more about it until more facts are clear.

A lot of other things have seemed fairly petty and trivial by comparison in the last day or so. And I hope everything I've heard isn't true and there's better news to come.

I am pleased to report that I did exactly as I promised yesterday. Lit a fire. Watched a movie. Fell asleep. Eventually thawed out. I'm told it actually snowed north of the city on Monday, which makes the misery we endured in Brampton a little more palatable, I guess. Because it could have been worse.

This may turn out to be not only the first time we went through May without having to use the central air conditioning -- I don't even have the cover off of the air conditioner yet. I suspect it's covered in ice, anyway.

I did see some of the Wings-Stars game which was pretty much over by the end of the first period, setting up a pretty compelling final -- the young Pens vs. the veteran Wings. It should be a good one. If I had more elbow room on the train, I'd offer an opinion. But since that would mean elbowing the woman next to me out into the aisle, my opinion will have to wait.

Pad has a 10p lacrosse practice tonight. The good news is that it's indoors. But the bad news is, it means he's not home till well after 11p. Aside from the fun of driving from our corner of Oakville to Maplegrove for pickup at 11p, it's an hour that's tough on the kids. Lots of homework this time of year, exams coming, etc etc.

Many of us can easily remember when our kids were very young and games and practices generally happened early on weekend mornings and early on weekday evenings. If your kid progresses to higher competitive levels, the practices and games become more frequent and start pushing later and later into the evenings. Until it's not evening anymore, it's night.

If they stick with it -- and at his age (14) many don't -- then they eventually hit the parental tipping point where they can drive themselves to and from practices. But we have a ways to go to hit that point in our house and even when he is 16, I'm not sure he'll ever be able to save the money to buy a car and insure it because when I was a boy, that's what I had to do and it didn't hurt me one little bit and I used to drive it through the snow, uphill both ways, to school and . . . .

Yeah, I'll probably let him drive my car. Sometimes. To go get beer. (For me.) And get himself to and from practices that end at 11p. When I'll be pretending I'm asleep, but actually lying awake waiting for him and my car to get home safely. That's how it works, right?

But I will still always go to as many games as I can and given that tomorrow night's game doesn't start until 9p (in beautiful Caledon, no less) even GO transit should be able to get me home in time.

The flip side is that I will miss Chris's practice, where I help out. Laura doesn't do weeknight road games except in hockey season. I don't blame her.

A dad suggested to me Friday night that the blog needs a recurring feature that should be called, Only In Oakville. Sounds like an opportunity for Teamoakville Nation to contribute. What is an Only In Oakville moment? Hmmm. You'll know it when you see it. It may be easier to spot it if like me, you're not actually from Oakville originally. It may or may not have something to do with conspicuous consumption. So, who's in? Send your nominations to the usual place!

It's a holiday, one I spent most of standing in a cold, Brampton field watching field lacrosse and freezing my . . . well, let's just say freezing.

It was a lovely four degrees and blowing about 30 clicks at 8:30a this morning and there's no doubt the wind chill was below zero. The boys were cold. The parents were cold. The dogs were cold. Near the end of game one I swear there was three minutes of freezing rain.

Anyway, having spent the day freezing with my kid, I have nothing interesting to say.

My fingers still tingle and typing is difficult, even though I dressed for the day as if I were preparing to tackle the north face of Everest.

There's a fire on in my family room and I intend to sit in front of it and watch a movie with Pad.

This picture sums up the parental commitment to the boys, and the futile pursuit of the illusion of warmth. (That's a tarp wrapped over a sleeping bag over weather-proof pants, topped by a ski jacket over a hoodie.)

Our field lacrosse season is over. Soaring temperatures and box lacrosse begin Wednesday!

Friday night Pad -- a regular volunteer at Buzz home games -- was conscripted into working the shot clock at the Buzz game, an 8-6 win for the home team over Mississauga. He's an accredited OLA official and, as he said, getting paid to watch the Buzz is better than volunteering!

The highlight of the night for me -- aside from sitting between two guys with way more knowledge of the game than me -- was when a lady apparently confused me for someone else and tapped me on the shoulder and told me that "all of my stuff was in the room downstairs."

I was wearing shorts, white shirt, ball cap and glasses -- the same outfit as the coach of a Hawks rep team that was at the game selling popcorn to raise money for a team trip later this summer. It was his "stuff" she referred to.

Perhaps the other similarities -- tall, fair, great legs, great wives, sharp wit, tireless work ethic -- added to the confusion.

As soon as my seat mate, JM, discovered whose "stuff" I might be able to lay claim to, he suggested we go check it out, because who knows? Maybe it was high-end lacrosse equipment! Maybe it was big screen TVs!! Maybe! Just, maybe!!

But we're gentlemen. We corrected her error and pointed her in the right direction.

Saturday was the usual lost day in and around Glen Abbey Rec Centre. I would like a recliner -- heated, for the winter months -- that I can use there. From 7p Friday to 5p Saturday, I was at GA for eight hours. The town may ask for rent.

The novice team Pad helps coach lost a one-goal game on the blue rink while Chris and the peewee Roughnecks were losing a one-goal game on the green rink.

And then Pad officiated a pair of house league games, one of which contained some of the scariest hits from behind you're likely to see in a house league game. Five penalties for hitting from behind in one game, four of them to one team. One kid tossed (it's not the same rule as minor hockey, but I'm thinking the game misconduct for the checking from behind may need to become automatic in house league lax too.)

Today Pad and I headed off for Brampton and game one of the 2008 provincial field lacrosse qualifiers. Our midget 2 Hawks will be hard pressed to advance, but Brampton is a team they could beat.

Of course it was pouring rain. And a balmy 7 degrees. And so windy that the trees seemed to be hanging on to the Earth for dear life.

So, that environmental combination really made the experience a fun one for players and parents alike.

Spotting Brampton a 4-0 lead after the first quarter seemed to me to be an excessively generous gesture by the Hawks, who went on to lose 9-5. After that ugly first quarter it felt like a game they should have had. But they didn't.

Hawks rookie Austin James, however, need not jog home in the rain behind his dad's car. Austin held a hot stick and fired a hat trick which could have been more with a little luck. Well done.

Two more field games tomorrow. We're hoping for 25 degrees and sunny. We'll settle for 15 and no rain. Or snow.

I got home in time to watch most of the third period of the Canada-Russia IIHF championship game, as well as the OT, which didn't last long because . . . Russia just scored. Argh.

A final word on the MOHA VP rep contest, which is now a moot issue since Nancy Brooks was acclaimed on Saturday.

As I said earlier, I did send Keith a couple of emails asking about Mitron -- while he was still a candidate. On both occasions he thanked me for the opportunity to clarify the matter. There was no rancor or ill will on either end. Funny what happens when you just ask a straight question. I truly appreciated his forthright and prompt replies.

Specifically, I asked if MOHA owns the Mitron franchise, and if not, who owns it. He said the franchise is, in fact, owned by the MOHA. He said the MOHA first entered into an agreement with Mitron Sports Enterprises in 1997 and the agreement has been renewed several times.

I asked if any money flows to him from MOHA for Mitron. He said he is paid a fee to manage Mitron for the association. (I do not know the size of that fee.)

I asked if there is a regular -- annual, biennial, whatever -- tender or RFP issued for a high-performance hockey program for the MOHA. The answer was, "no. There are no comparable programs for evaluation purposes."

In a followup email, I specifically asked Keith if he had any direct or indiect ownership position in Mitron.

"No, I do not have a direct or indirect ownership position in Mitron," he said. "Never have."
I know a bunch of people would prefer if Keith's name was still on the ballot. I head from some of them yesterday and today.

I also heard from people in favour of change. To those who signed your emails, thanks.

Pens are leading the Flyers 5-0 still in the second. I'm going to nap now. Enjoy the holiday Monday if you are lucky enough to have the day off. Drive safe. Watch out for the kids.

In a stunning series of Oakville hockey developments, Keith Murray and Marshall Snowball have withdrawn their candidacies for the position of vice president town rep, leaving Nancy Brooks acclaimed Saturday as the new VP.

Keith, MOHA's incumbent vice president of rep hockey, withdrew from the election Friday. Early Saturday morning, I received a forwarded email from some MOHA directors. The gist of the message was that Marshall had also withdrawn, and Nancy has been acclaimed. There will be no election for VP rep on Thursday night.

I exchanged some emails with Keith earlier this week on the topic of Mitron, and Oakville teams competing in the OMHA vs. the MHL or GTHL (travel issues, etc., stuff like that.) Keith was professional and forthcoming. I'll write more about that later.

Given that I've never met him, I won't speculate on why he withdrew beyond guessing that in part, he no doubt got tired of the crap being sent around anonymously and the related chatter of the excitable masses. I would have gotten tired of it too.

I have no idea about why Marshall stood down. MOHA's long-time house league discipline boss, Marshall has also served on the board for a while.

Keith previously stood for election as VP of rep at a time when no one else wanted the job, so he deserves thanks for that.

And MOHA's rep teams are coming off their most successful season in association history. So, while there are problems (every organization has challenges) obviously some things were being done well, too.

As head of MOHA's Mitron program (which, incidentally, he told me does not own and never has), he will still have a lot of influence in the organization.

These really are thankless jobs -- VP of rep and VP of house league. People taking them on have their own motivations and they alone must define the personal rewards they take away from the experience.

Regardless of personalities, it's regrettable anyone would drop out of an election, but it is what it is.

And here's a summary of what I've said earlier -- play hard, play fair, ask lots of questions -- it's your association and the board members are just the custodians of your interests. But please, grow a spine and sign your emails. Vile, uninformed allegations sent by anonymous cowards say more about their authors than anyone they try to smear.

The people contesting these positions deserve that much respect, at the very least.

I hope people will come together to support the new VP. I hope she as a CSA-approved helmet to wear!

OK, let's kick off the day with a bunch of things that have nothing to do with minor hockey, pro hockey, hockey politics or kids and sports.

First, I'm thinking of starting a new recurring feature on the blog -- World 'o Rednecks.

Let's start with the heart-warming story of a Texas man who was drinking beer and playing poker at 3 a.m.

Only in America, and maybe Halton Hills, can you find tales of this kind of really home-spun, wholesome Americana.

Poker. Drinking. Scratching yourself with a loaded gun. Where I grew up, we called it natural selection.

Start counting backwards from 100 and see how long it takes for this one to become a reality TV show.

If you're having trouble counting backwards from 100, cash in your chips, put down the beer and leave your gun on the table.

Can Aussies be rednecks? The long weekend is coming and the staff at Teamoakville say, "Why NOT!!?"

Aussies love their beer more than . . . well, more than their children, apparently.

Read all about the Australian man who strapped his recently purchased beer in with a seat belt -- and made his five-year-old son sit on the floor of the car. The story is here.

Musical interlude: By the time you read this, I will already have bought the new Death Cab For Cutie CD, Narrow Stairs, and made Laura listen to it. I make Laura listen to all the music I drag home (I'm the only one who can work the stereo without making the garage doors open) and in retribution she occasionally makes me listen to CHUM FM.

Really, really regular readers will know that I am a big fan of DCFC, so I'm looking forward to this release, the followup to their 2005 best seller, Plans.

There will be dancin' in the kitchen! Well. Not really. you don't really dance to Death Cab. Rather, you get morose.

If you're a minor hockey nut looking for more stuff on the size of the MOHA accumulated reserve, or info on executive honouraria, or more election stuff, you can read a Wikipedia entry on Neil Diamond here. Or, Barry Manilow here.

You're welcome. (Remember, this is all free, suitable for all-ages entertainment.)

You think YOUR kid is a prospect? Ha. (I laugh. At you. Yes, you. With the lacrosse stick in your hand and the hockey stick in your teeth.)

Meet Buster Posey. Now, aside from having a name that sounds like it might somewhere, sometime have a 3 a.m. poker game, a case of Miller and a loaded gun in its future, Buster is actually a pretty talented guy.

Buster plays baseball for Florida State and on Monday night he did something very cool. In a 10-0 win over Savannagh State, ol' Buster played every defensive position in the field for his team. (For those who don't follow baseball, that means he played all nine positions in the field during the game.)

And he struck out the only two batters he pitched to. (Someone needs to dial 1-800-John-Gibbons.)

You can read about his most excellent night here. And BTW, it was no fluke. Buster is the consensus number-one pick for the Major League draft.

As a parent of a house league player and as a parent of a town rep player, I intend to vote at the AGM, and if given the opportunity to ask questions, I'll do that too.

Because of this small platform, I get to hear from other parents who ask me questions. So as regulars know, in advance of the election I have asked a question or three, and got an answer or two.

-- honouraria for volunteers, from the executive on down to conveners like me (I received $360 in each of the last two years as a convener.) I wrote about this at length earlier. Click here to jump down the page to that stuff. MOHA was very forthcoming with the information.

-- I wrote about the MOHA's million-dollar reserve fund. I asked for more details, and I received no reply or guidance. I asked for the specific size of the reserve (I have, accurately, referred to it as "in excess of a million dollars.") I have since been told by a number of directors that $1 million is low. I was urged to keep asking.

I asked if there were plans to amend the association bylaws to bring the size of the reserve in line with the bylaws (the reserve is now roughly more than double the mandated allowance under the bylaws.)

And I asked what was the plan for the money over the long term. There is a lot of good that can be done with that kind of money. No reply.

The other issue I hear from people a lot about is Mitron -- the hockey training program used by MOHA and (most of) its town rep teams. I have asked questions on that one, and I do have some information. I'm doing a little more research but I expect to be able to tell you more in the next few days. So, you'll have to come back if you're interested.

Fairness and context matters when considering these things. It would be easier if everything was black and white, but that's not how it works.

I am not fighting the crowds on the train or treading the sideways of downtown Toronto today. I am taking a day to clear my head and tend to the mindless household chores piling up like getting the snow tires off the cars, oil changes, etc etc. Glamourous work, but oddly fun today for some reason.

Friday will roll into evening and I'll be at the Oakville Buzz game where Pad volunteers for the home team. Tomorrow is all Glen Abbey, all the time -- Chris has a game, Pad coaches, and then he refs two more games.

Sunday and Monday the oh-fer-'08 midget 2 Oakville Hawks are in the provincial field lacrosse qualifying tournament in Brampton. This fact should ensure it will rain and I'll get wet. Oh, yes. The kids will get wet too.

If you're driving this weekend, drive safely and let the moron behind you have the 12 feet of pavement in front of you if he wants it. It's not worth it.

While you guys were sitting at home last night watching the hockey game (or standing in a wet soccer field, cold summer hockey rink, wet baseball diamond) I was at Chris's HL lacrosse practice having a blast.

We had one of the Oakville Buzz players come out and work with the kids for the hour and it was fun to see the kids react to him and fun to see him learning to download some of his considerable knowledge of the game.

It's a nice initiative by the Buzz to send their players out on missionary work to the house league practices. I understand that some of the Buzz players (like the one we had) were more useful than others at other rinks, but it's a good idea.

The Dallas Stars emerged from their slumber and played a terrific hockey game last night to beat Detroit, stay alive, etc. etc.. Can they win three more in a row? Don't count on it.

The final advance poll for the MOHA elections is tonight at River Oaks Recreation Centre, at the MOHA office near Sheet B. If you can't make the AGM next week, please get out and vote.

I, and many others, have been getting anonymous emails putting forth a string of allegations against some folks in our community that range from being co-conspirators in the Kennedy assassination to kidnapping the Lindbergh baby (Younger readers will have to trust me that these were big events) and lots of other stuff, too.

If you have a point you want to raise, a question you want to ask -- put your name on it.

In my experience, regardless of whatever position MOHA folks have had on an issue and whether I agreed or disagreed, I have found that they reply when asked.

Regardless of whether I agree with them on everything, I appreciate the time and commitment it takes to make minor hockey work. And for me, it's about providing the best organization to deliver the best experience for the kids.

Sign your email. Ask pointed questions, sure. But do it respectfully. All volunteers deserve the respect of the parents, the players, and the community.

As many of you know, John Tavares is a son of Oakville and a prodigious hockey talent. He gets his fair share of ink in the papers (and he'll get a lot more in the year ahead) but generally he seems to go about his business and stay out of the limelight as he toils for the CHL's Oshawa Generals.

Both Tavares and the Generals are in the news these days. The Toronto Star had a story last week saying the budding star had dumped his agent and is now weighing his next move in terms of representation. Read that story here.

Brad Selwood was fired as general manager of the team. But perhaps more telling, scout Gil Hughes -- who had been with the team for more than 25 years -- also walked out the door after learning his boss wouldn't have his contract renewed.

And as if that's not enough, their recently ousted team president is suing the Generals.

In advance of next week's MOHA elections, I sent the following email to friends/parents/others this morning. I have no doubt the incumbents on the board will have no trouble being re-elected. At the same time, change is a key component of organizational renewal. If I missed you and you are a MOHA member, he'd like your support too.

As many of you are no doubt aware, the annual general meeting of the Minor Oaks Hockey Association is May 22, and at that time there will be an election of new directors and two vice presidents.

I'm sending this email in support of my good friend Brian Metler, who is running for a position on the board. Brian has my 100 per cent support.

Some of the names on the list of candidates for MOHA positions will be familiar to you. Some may not. I'm sending this note to introduce you to Brian, to encourage you to vote, and urge you to give serious consideration to lending your support to his ballot.

Many of you don't know Brian, but I can tell you that in the four or five years that I have known him he has proven to be an exceptional and successful minor hockey volunteer.

He has coached house league hockey at the minor peewee, atom, minor atom, and novice level; he has assisted me on many occasions with my duties as a division convener; he regularly attends and supports MOHA games in divisions where he has no direct interest; the parents of players he has coached, and the players themselves, are without exception thrilled to be part of his teams.

A telecommunications executive, Brian brings a mix of enthusiasm for hockey and kids, business acumen and real-world experience that can only make the MOHA board stronger.

MOHA is our association. We can choose to strengthen it by participating in the election of the board and I really hope you do. Voting information is below.

PS -- I apologize if some of you get this note more than once. I means your son played on more than one of my own teams, and you're on multiple distribution lists. Complaints should be sent to the NHL's vice president of discipline, Colin Campbell.

I'm told that there was a pretty decent turnout at the first advance poll for the elections last night. Another advance poll is tomorrow night at River Oaks, near sheet b. As we would say in Nova Scotia, vote early, vote often.

Not sure how many of your caught the front end of the Pens-Flyers game last night. (I'm heading down Memory Lane here in a second, so you might be we advised to head for an exit ramp now.)

WHEN I WAS A KID . . . OK, seriously. When I was a kid, I remember vividly the old Broad Street Bullies, the Flyers teams coached by Fred Shero. What caught my young imagination were two things.

First, they were the first expansion-era team to really contend with the old guard. All those trumped-up East vs.West Stanley Cup finals before that (Montreal over St Louis 4-0, Boston over St Louis 4-0) were really anti-climactic marketing schemes masquerading as championship series.

But by 1973 the Flyers changed that and someone other than Montreal or Boston (or even Toronto) was really contending for the Cup.

And readers of a certain age will know that they had a not-so-secret weapon -- Kate Smith.

When the Flyers really, really needed to win, they would bring in Kate Smith to sing, not the national anthem, but rather her signature song, God Bless America. Even to a kid watching back in Nova Scotia, it was an event to make the hair on your neck stand up as she belted out the final words and the crowd would rise as one in something approaching bedlam and . . . well, it was the coolest opening to a hockey game or any other sporting event you were likely to see this side of Roger Doucet at the Forum.

So last night before the game, the Philadelphia Police Honor Guard came on the ice in honor of a local hero, Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski, who was murdered on duty last week. That was emotional enough as the Philly crowd -- a tough lot at the best of times who have actually booed Santa -- gave a loud, long ovation that delayed the announcer from invoking the more traditional moment of silence.

After they got through all of that, the very (very) comely Lauren Hart came out to sing the national anthem -- except instead, she pulled one from Kate Smith's book at tore into Go Bless America.

And if that wasn't enough, after the first verse, she fell silent and the image of the late Kate took over on the big video screens and the place went absolutely nuts as she sang from the Great Beyond.

Smith and Hart wrapped up Irving Berlin's homage to his country in a split/screen duet and at that moment you wouldn't have bet a nickel on the Penguins winning last night. Pandamonium.

The Flyers didn't have a seventh man on the ice with their fans, it felt like a dozen.

Alas, Sid and the crew spoiled the show, leading 2-1 after one and carving out a 4-1 win in a game the Flyers desperately needed.

But the opening of this game was a nod to the old days, before the razz-ma-tazz of the NBA and those stupid fog-shrouded intros for nothing games that have infected every sporting event from the ECHL up, regardless of whether it's an exhibition game or the Super Bowl.

This one felt like it meant something and to be sure, it did. Good on the Flyers for doing it right for that fallen police officer, a big fan of the team.

Minor Oaks Hockey Association's annual meeting is May 22. In addition to the candidates for the board, there are three people on the ballot for vice president of town hockey (rep), and two on the ballot for vice president of house league hockey.

FYI, there is an advance poll tonight at the MOHA office from 6p to 9p. There will be another advance poll Thursday night, at River Oaks, at the MOHA office near Sheet B, from 6p to 9p.

The annual meeting itself is May 22 at Holy Trinity High School, next to River Oaks Recreation Centre. You can get more information here.

Yesterday, I posted a link here to the page for incumbent HL VP Wayne Moorehead.

In the interests of fairness, I will also provide links to all the Candidate Submission pages on the MOHA site.

The annual meeting will also be asked to approve some changes to the MOHA bylaws. You can review those by clicking here.

When most of us start out in coaching minor sports, it is a deed committed in some combination of a variety of motivations.

The will to help out. The need to be in control. Wanting to share the experience with your child. The opportunity to yell at other people's children.

I coached Timbit Initiation hockey a decade ago in Ottawa, and again in Oakville. Those kids -- as young as four, as old as six -- were amazing.

They would hang on your every word. They wanted to learn. They wanted to have fun. They wanted to mess around with the puck.

Last night I watched the Oakville Hawks midget 2 lacrosse team practice. With another dad, I watched the team being taught what would be a pretty effective offensive strategy, and more importantly, some very important survival techniques for playing competitive midget lacrosse, which is not for the faint of heart.

How to phrase this delicately . . . The boys were something less than a rapt audience. You might think that 14 and 15 year old players would be better listeners than five year old players.

Maybe it was the hour -- the practice was the dreaded Monday night 9p to 11p session at the palatial Kinoak Arena.

Anyway it seemed one of those nights where the coach was really earning his money. So to speak.

Another factor may have been that several of the players -- mine included -- boarded a bus for Pickering to play high school rugby all day on Monday. Abbey Park lost in the semi final, settling for 4th place in a large field of teams.

There's all sorts of hockey still being played. Stanley Cup playoffs -- lots of action, little drama as Detroit and Pittsburgh remain on track.

The World Championships, where Canada won a surprisingly easy win yesterday over Finland to clinch top spot in their pool.

And even Swamp Hockey. The weekly three-on-three-cum-pond-hockey extravaganza at River Oaks.

Back to field lacrosse practice tonight. Home at a decent hour. Dinner before 10p!

There's no truth to the rumour that MOHA fired a missile into the server hosting my site. It was IT gremlins or something. The entire teamoakville empire was brought to it's scarred, fragile, arthritic knees for several hours overnight and this morning.

The Minor Oaks Hockey Association pays honouraria to various people to modestly -- very modestly in most instances -- compensate for or offset some of the costs of doing the association's work.

The payments were instituted about seven years ago by the board after a report by a special committee struck to review the matter. Since then, it is my understanding the matter was reviewed by the board again about three years ago and things were updated slightly.

I'm told that executive members who travel on MOHA business have their expenses paid (as they should) in addition to the honouraria.

And as I have said here before, I personally received $360 last year (and the year before that) for my work as a convener for the association. The first time I got it, I didn't know about the honouraria. I didn't think much of it beyond thinking that for the six or eight hours a week I spend as a convener, I get one of my kids' registrations paid for.

But the reactions of readers here were such that I asked three neighbouring hockey associations if they pay honouraria.

The Mississauga Hockey League -- an umbrella association encompassing eight Mississauga associations (Port Credit, Clarkson, etc) and 7,100 players pays $500 annually to each of its directors. It was a payment initially brought in to help move everyone toward getting into computers and email. All 16 of their directors also convene, I was told. But these are the only honouraria paid by the MHL.

I was told some individual associations within the MHL pay an honouraria to their registrars, usually in the range of $1,000 a year. Being a registrar for minor hockey is a tough gig -- stressful, time-consuming, etc. The money offsets computer costs, phone, etc.

Which brings us to Oakville, and thank you to Wayne Moorehead for providing details.

At the outset, let's be clear that the people who work to make MOHA run -- the staff, the board, the executive, and others -- are tireless and do much good for the kids in our town. Mike, Wayne, Keith, and many others put in hours for MOHA that would often be akin to full-time jobs elsewhere. Their commitment is enormous and appreciated.

For the 2007/08 season, MOHA paid out almost $52,000 in honouraria to dozens (again, including me.)

Slightly more than $38,000 of that was a cost allocated to house league (people like me again), and the rest -- about $13,600 -- for town rep.

The largest honouraria in MOHA are paid to the people who, there is little doubt, do the most work.

The president (Mike Zardo) received a total of $10,500, broken down by $6,000 as a base, and an additional $500 for each of the nine terms he has served.

Wayne Moorehead, who provided this information, is vice president of house league and received $6,500 total -- $5,000 base, plus $500 for each of the three terms he has served in the position.

Keith Murray, vice president of rep, gets a base of $3500 annually, the treasurer a base of $2000, and from there the amounts tail off quickly.

Just FYI, both Moorehead and Murray are running for re-election to their positions.

On the latter question, yes, you should care. It's your money and the honouraria cost the association about the equivilant of $2,000 a week during hockey season, when the bulk (but by no means all) of the work is done.

A survey of a smattering of board members (and some very involved hockey parents) showed that while they were aware honouraria are paid (for example, all rep teams have a line item in their budgets for honouraria), they could not say how big the nut is, or define the specific rationale for the program.

First, there's little transparency. While the program is board-approved, it's apparently not reviewed annually. It should be.

Second, if the work of the association has become such that onerous workloads require offsetting or compensating payments, then maybe it's time to hire another full-time staffer -- or two or three part timers, whatever -- for the office to help, and reduce the honouraria to token levels, or eliminate them altogether. If the volunteers need support and the association can afford it, let's get them some support. (As you will see from the next post on reserve funds, MOHA can afford it.) While not wanting to bulk up on head count, I think it's a legitimate consideration.

Third, the notion of getting a $500 increase in honouraria, per completed term, seems out of step with a volunteer association.

I'm honestly not trying to be provocative here, but I do think talking about stuff like this is better than not talking about it.

I think this topic should be an election issue for the association and candidates should address this stuff head on.

Since there's an election on, it's also a good time to ask about MOHA's accumulated reserve, which is apparently in excess of $1 million.

The association's bylaws mandate the board to build an inflation-adjusted reserve of $150 per player (inflation adjusted off a 2003 base year.) With (according to the OMHA web site) 3,798 registered players, that would mandate a base reserve of about $570,000. The current reserve is apparently more than twice that, even factoring in the inflation adjustment which the egghead money guys can do.

No business -- volunteer, non-profits included -- can work on zero cash. Bills come due, salaries are paid, etc etc. Some of the bills are considerable -- like ice from the town. So having operating cash is critical and smarter folks than me could tell you what an appropriate operating cash reserve is for MOHA (it would be a lot less than a million bucks, though.)

But beyond that, non-profits need rainy-day funds. You wouldn't keep your chequing account balance at zero all the time.

It's not like MOHA is IBM or General Electric and can use retained earnings to weather a storm. They need a reserve.

For what? The most often cited example is, what if ice costs jumped if the town eliminated the subsidy? A reserve fund would cushion the blow for a year or two while registration costs were adjusted to meet the association's new costs.

And the history or MOHA is, I'm told, that years ago the association's finances were in tatters, so bad that it took some member(s) of the association pledging their homes as collateral to get ice contracts with the town.

So, once back on their feet, they wisely pledged to build up reserve funds so minor hockey in Oakville wouldn't go through that again.

The relevant question today, in my mind (which I will admit is a dark and scary place), is not whether MOHA should have a reserve, but how much.

The bylaw provision of $150 per registrant, inflation adjusted etc etc, may be appropriate. But if the reserve gets as big as it apparently is now, then what? What are the plans for funds that are in excess of the bylaw requirement? Has the board discussed the matter? Can you amend the bylaws to increase the mandate for reserve funds? Are there issues attached to the MOHA's non-profit status if the fund gets too big?

It may be a nice problem to have (imagine the debate there would be about eliminating a million-dollar deficit) but it's still an eyebrow-raising number for a small non-profit association.

Let's talk about it. Why so much? What's the plan? Is there some long-term good that can be done with that money?

Speaking of the vice president of house league, he has a new web site (and blog) where you can find information on him and his re-election bid. All-things Wayne Moorehead at www.minorhockeyfan.com .

Worked Saturday, had a great hockey party and remembered (again) how special all those kids are. There were emotional moments. It was very cool

Chris and the HL Roughnecks won their lacrosse game to even their record at 2-2. Action Jackson got his first-ever hat-trick! We celebrated Mother's Day on Saturday night. We think she liked her gifts, but the home-made cards were the best part.

We celebrated it on Saturday night because Sunday saw everyone up early and out the door to stand in a cold field in Guelph for two midget field lacrosse games, where the good guys showed real signs of improvement . . . but . . . lost two more.

I still love watching the games. For sarcasm and banter, it's hard to beat the parents freezing on a lacrosse field.

Pad is off to Pickering today for an all-day high school rugby tournament. He's getting home just in time for lacrosse team photos, and then a two-hour practice. Chris has hockey after school.

Penguins up 2-0 on Philly, even after they got robbed on that goal that was disallowed. And the Wings are making short work of Dallas.

The playoffs are stampeding along at record speed and I'm actually hoping to watch some it. Soon.

I honestly held pretensions of some kind of essay-like blog entry today on Lord knows what but some things got in the way.

Fate held, unbeknownst to me, that I wasn't going to get to hang out at lacrosse games today nearly as much as I hoped. But Chris and I did get to Burger King and now we're at swimming and shortly I'll pull him from the pool to sprint to Picture Day for his lacrosse team.

In between I'm trading emails with my boss on a work matter, or at least I was until he made the point that after what we'll been through over the last two weeks, not to mention two months, we should toss the Blackberries for an afternoon.

When board members ask questions of managers, they get answers. Usually the same day.

I work for a not-for-profit corporation. It is owned by its members -- the daily newspapers in Canada which choose to be members.

The board of directors is directly accountable to the membership, from which the board is elected.

The executive and senior management are directly accountable to the board. On everything. All decisions made by the board's executive committee are subject to review by the full board. All decisions. The full board has the final say. On everything of consequence. The board sets policy. Management and the executive committee execute the will of the board.

So, anyway, I'm working for a short time today because a board member had a question.

Hey, this is a coincidence! Just a reminder that elections for the board of directors and two key hockey executive positions -- vice president of house league, and vice president of rep hockey -- will be taking place on May 22. Advance polls are next week. If you care about the future direction of YOUR association. get out and vote. There are some terrific candidates, some of them incumbent, some of them newbies to hockey board politics. VOTE! Go to www.moha.on.ca for more details.

Back a few months ago I wrote several times about a bit of a brawl between Oakville's hockey referees and MOHA's executive. Those entries contained a few things which inadvertently raised the operational minor hockey IQ of blog readers on MOHA matters a fair amount, if the email I got (and still get) were any indication.

One, honouraria paid by MOHA to executive members, conveners, schedulers, and others. Most people were not aware of the practice. (Full disclosure: I was paid an honouraria of $360 for convening the minor peewee white house league division last year. I bought a villa in France.)

Two. MOHA's accumulated reserve. Oakville minor hockey has a nest egg which I have been told is well in excess of $1 million. When I published this figure on the blog months ago, no one who would know disputed it. Many, many hockey parents reacted with what might best be described as abject shock.

I'm going to shortly add a third item to this list for MOHA parents to ponder. But not today.

On honouraria, I will have more to say Monday. They are not unique to hockey in Oakville. Whether they are appropriate in this day and age is a question for each member to weigh. Honestly, there are arguments to be made both ways. I will present some of them on Monday, right here. Along with some numbers.

I'm not trying to be provocative. I'm trying to be informative. We'll see how people interpret it.

Information on the accumulated reserve will follow. Again, there are some very sound reasons for a non-profit to have a significant cash reserve. The question is, how much is appropriate? Thoughts welcome. Discussion to follow. Next week.

One more night of the spring media festered season of AGMs, board meetings, PowerPoint, reports, awards dinners, working the room, hand shakes, smiles, business cards, annual dinners . . . one more night. My guess is that the core group of people who are involved in much of this stuff are well and truly sick of looking at one another.

Me, I'm looking forward to spending a large chunk of my day tomorrow watching house league lacrosse, hidden away in a dark corner of Glen Abbey Rec Centre with a cold Diet Pepsi and one of those chocolate chip cookies they sell at the canteen.

By virtue of my post earlier this week about the Latvians taking Halifax by storm at the World Hockey Championships in my home town, busy Baltic blog bandits have bandied about the web (via www.google.lv ) and found this corner of Canada.

The ride is over for the Oakville Blades. The good guys lost 6-1 last night to Camrose at the RBC Cup in Cornwall, so their quest for Canada's junior A hockey championship is over. Still, a pretty good ride I'd say. Read more here.

In case you haven't noticed, Sunday is Mother's Day. Yes, I know it's a manufactured Hallmark thing aimed at capitalizing on your sentimentality and guilt.

And if the mom in your house is like the one in our house, she's say "Oh, don't get me anything. Seeing the kids enjoy their weekend is enough for me."

Also, don't get tricked by thinking that just because she's your WIFE you don't need to honour her as a MOTHER.

If you fall into this trap, expect to find poison in your coffee. Or Diet Pepsi.

What to get? That your problem. But a good rule of thumb is, bling. Something silver on a chain. It shows you tried. Ginsu knives are not a gift, unless you want them in your chest. Don't get anything that is of use in the kitchen, or expect to have it cracked over your head.

Some of you are contacting me asking about the upcoming MOHA elections and things that on on your mind. My silence isn't disinterest. I've just been busy with other stuff.

In the meantime, I have discreetly asked a question or two and have also asked for opinions of others I respect on what they see as relevant issues for MOHA -- not just in the upcoming VP elections, but beyond that.

Regardless of whether I have answers, I'm going to start posing questions. At the very least, the questions will be out there and I suspect they won't go away until they are addressed. I'll tell you what I learn, or what I'm not learning.

House league lacrosse, swimming and (finally) the team hockey party for Chris tomorrow.

Watching all of the above and seeing Chris's hockey team in one place for one last time for me and Laura.

Mother's Day features ~~a luxurious brunch served at the bistro of Laura's choice~~ a morning drive to Guelph for two field lacrosse games and then . . . I dunno. Driving home again I'd guess. Groceries. A decent meal that is NOT BANQUET GRADE CHICKEN. A cold beer or two.

If I get a decent night's sleep tonight I may get all introspective and thoughtful on the blog while watching Chris at swimming on Saturday.

Conference finals start tonight, with Dallas visiting Detroit. Dallas was supposed to lose to Anaheim and they were supposed to lose to San Jose but they have been so busy playing very good hockey they apparently didn't read the memos.

One has to think the Little Train That Could -- being pulled along by Marty Turco -- is about to be derailed by the Red Wings, who look very much on their game and as steaming toward becoming the first NHL team with a European captain to win the Stanley Cup.

Tomorrow night, the Battle of Pennsylvania begins with the Flyers in Pittsburgh.

Problem is, these games are played on ice, not paper, and the notoriously streaky Flyers are on a good streak right now.

Problem is, the notoriously consistent Penguins are too, having lost once in nine playoff games.

Wednesday afternoon: 1:30p high school rugby game (Lost 15-10 to OT, the acknowledged Halton powerhouse.)

Wednesday evening: 6p practice for the novice house league lacrosse team he helps coach.

Wednesday night: 9p Hawks rep lacrosse game in Newmarket (lost 6-2. Newmarket was mostly 15-16 year olds, Pad's team mostly 14-15 year olds. The other guys were bigger and faster and better.)

Wednesday night: 11:20p return home with dad (who hasn't has dinner yet, assuming the bag of ketchup chips in Newmarket doesn't count as dinner. Shower, grab a bite to eat, watch Letterman with dad.

Tim Horton's has a reputation for supporting minor hockey that may be without peer in Canada in terms of minor sports relationships. The Timbit isn't just a donut treat, it's a sweaty five or six year old playing (what passes for) competitive house league hockey for the first time.

So you can imagine the effect the story on the front page of today's Globe and Mail had, reporting that a 27-year-old single mother had been fired by Tim Horton's for giving a free Timbit treat to the child of a regular customer.

Tim's quickly retreated on the entire matter today and rehired the poor woman, which was the appropriate thing to do.

A better question might be what has since happened to the manager for exercising such bad judgment.

I have nothing interesting for you today, except to predict that before dinner time, Hillary Clinton will end her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. If you follow these things, you are unlikely to see a presidential nomination contested as vigourously again in our lifetimes.

Lots of people like to jump on their bikes and go -- especially with the price of gasoline being what it is. Slate magazine recently built this video around their selections for the Stupidest Bike Lane in America.

It didn't take long for readers to tell them there are a lot more stupid bike lanes out there. And they are right. This video is way better. Hal, put down the coffee and queue the tape:

Canada beat the United States yesterday at the World Hockey Championships. Do you think people in Ottawa are wondering why Dany Heatley didn't score some of these goals for the Senators when Pittsburgh was sweeping them from the playoffs? Game-over story here.

The Oakville Blades try to get on the winning track at the Canadian Junior A Hockey finals in Cornwall. And they may change goalies? Read more here.

OK -- that's it. Everyone find good fortune today. May luck find you. Send some to me if you have a surplus. Emails welcome. Stay well.

You will have to cope with irregular blogging for the remainder of the week. Sorry.

If you are a parent with kids in the Minor Oaks Hockey Association, click here to see important information on the May 22 annual general meeting of your association. If you are not able to attend the AGM, there are advance polling opportunities, or, you can designate a proxy. I strongly encourage you to do so.

I will have more information next week on the elections at MOHA, and perhaps -- maybe -- an opinion or two.

And I will attempt to survey the VP candidates on issues you are bringing forward to me -- for those late to the party, I intend to ask the candidates views on things that are on your mind.

Of course they will be under no obligation to answer, and you will be under no obligation to do anything with the information.

The Oakville Blades are 0-2 at the RBC Cup -- the national junior A hockey championship in Cornwall. The Pictou, NS, Crushers beat the Blade in OT last night to put our boys on the ropes. More here.

We had a bit of cultural tipping point at home yesterday -- Chris had more athletic activities that his older brother. Pad had a rugby practice and lacrosse practice. Chris trumped that with relay practice for his school track team, school basketball practice and then opening night for summer three-on-three.

No NHL hockey last night. Or tonight. Or tomorrow night. But sonetime between now and Thursday, I will bravely and uselessly predict the outcome of the conference finals. I got one out of four right in the second round, pushing my record to a dismal 6-6 thus far. The only series I got right was Detroit over Colorado, which was akin to picking the sun to rise in the morning.

I was in Halifax for a quick one-day business trip Monday -- didn't get to see the folks or haul home brownies for the boys. but it was still nice to not be in Toronto for a day.

Halifax is in the grips of hosting the World Hockey Championships and more specifically, they are in the grips of Latvians. Some 1200 Latvians are in Halifax for the tournament and they have taken over a couple Argyle Street watering holes as their home base and have ensured the liquor stores are having a hard time keeping their shelves stocked.

One story I was told was that a 6a fire alarm at a downtown hotel on the weekend caused considerable consternation among the Latvians. Not because it woke them up, but rather because they were unable to get to their rooms -- they were just returning to the hotel from a night (and morning) on the town.

Halifax is a special place. The Latvians are obviously very clever and wise to have tapped into this so quickly.

Oh -- the other cool thing is that Team Canada has adopted the legendary Stan Rogers' song Barrett's Privateers as their unofficial anthem for the championship, and it's played before their games to rather enthusiastic participation by the Nova Scotians.

My boss, who was with me on the trip to Halifax, was unfamiliar with the song, but his son is considering Dalhousie University as a school for this fall.

And he won't be able to sing them without standing on a chair, or banging a beer mug on a table either. Trust me, I know all the words.

It's Sunday afternoon and I'm running on fumes. 5:15a came early after getting back from Kitchener last night around midnight following two lacrosse games and then the Ontario Newspaper Awards gala.

The Midget 2 Hawks lacrosse squad had an oh-fer weekend, losing four in a row in two days in challenging conditions. Saturday was like playing in a swimming pool -- the rains were at times torrential, the wind whipping the rain parallel across the pitch and lashing us all into whimpering, soggy submission.

The good news was that both games were played on artificial turf -- at Sir Wilfred Laurier University's Varsity Stadium and then later at Alumni Field. (Special thank-you to the folks at SWL for letting me use their spiffy athletic complex to change into my suit after the games!)

The bad news is that at Six Nations, they didn't have artificial turf and field conditions for today's two games could best be described as semi-submersible.

Below is a image that shows what field conditions were like this morning when we started at 8a. Oh, and it was 4 degrees, too. But still, it was fun.

I've never been to Six Nations before. I counted 23 cigarette outlets in a distance of about five or six kilometres. Now, if they would just sell beer, we could talk!

As previously noted, I'm off to Halifax tomorrow so I am getting some blog updating done to hold you over. As I type, Hossa scored in OT to give the Penguins a 3-2 win and the series over the Rangers. So, another blown playoff prediction from me.

But closer to home, the Request For Proposals is out for the proposed four-pad ice complex at Dundas and Neyagawa in Oakville.

Here's the view of the site, oriented oddly for the purposes of saving you from having to turn your head sideways to read the type. Locals know that Neyagawa runs north-south.

The gist of the whole thing is that proposals need to be submitted to the town by May 14, and the contract will be awarded next month for a two-year construction plan that will see the thing open two years from now, in May 2010.

The Olympic rink will seat 1,500, and three NHL-size rinks will seat 180 each. There will also be a restaurant and multi-purpose rooms. The complex is intended to be the first phase of a site development that will include eventually an aquatic centre, library and community centre.

Anyway it looks really cool and the RFP says the design is intended to create "a sense of spectacle" in the spectator arena. So, I guess it will be spectacular and the spectators can be 'spected to enjoy that.

It's very nice and my sons will be 13 and 16 when it's done, presuming it's finished on time, which is to say minor hockey years for one will be all but over and for the other the sun will be setting on his. I'm glad they're doing it. I just wish they did it years ago when they were issuing all those building permits allowing all those people to move to Oakville and create strains on the existing facilities, instead of waiting for those people to get here and become as annoyed as the rest of us.

My schedule for the next week is a doozy, so I'm warning you all now not to expect long, thoughtful blog entries (like you ever get that anyway) or likely even wit and fun from this corner. So, sorry about that.

I'm on the road to Kitchener today for a meeting with about 50 newspaper editors, then back home later tonight, where mercifully the schedule is clear. Pad can hardly believe it.

Saturday, Pad and the Oakville midget Hawks lacrosse squad have two field games -- back in Kitchener. And also tomorrow night, I have to attend the Ontario Newspaper Awards -- in Kitchener. So Pad will find a ride home with someone else and I'll change into my suit in a parking lot (please -- no pictures!) and drive home at 1a. I'll miss my weekly lunch out with Chris on Saturday, as well as his swimming and lacrosse. Sorry bud.

And then Sunday, we get up at 5:15a to drive to Six Nations for two more field lacrosse games, starting at 8a. We'll get home late afternoon and I'll fall over asleep.

But not for long -- back up on Monday at 5a to catch a 7a flight to Halifax for a business meeting and then back to Toronto that night. Sadly, it's shaping up to be a brownie-free trip to the home sod -- the schedule is so tight that I don't think I'm going to get to visit with the folks even briefly.

Back home on Monday evening and then Tuesday we go right into our version of Hell Week at work -- our corporate AGM and quarterly board meeting, plus The Canadian Press annual dinner.

It will be a blur, little of which will be reported here because of time constraints. So, you've been warned.

I've been told that the piece on family blogging I tried to point to from here at The Globe and Mail is behind a pay-per-view wall now. Sorry. I have no revenue sharing agreement with the Globe, so it was an honest mistake. Truly.

Now that the MOHA elections are happening and various candidates are running for various things, I'm going to try a little online project (after next week.) I'm going to send each of the VP candidates a series of questions -- some general, some that relate specifically to that particular candidate. If they reply, I'll post the information here, since many of you are, like me, Oakville hockey parents. If they decline to participate, I'll note that too.

Here's what I'd like you to do -- send me your suggestions for questions for house league and/or rep VP candidates. I'll winnow the list to a manageable level. Obviously, the questions should be in good taste, constructively presented, and deal with issues directly related to the administration of minor hockey in Oakville. Anything outside of those guidelines won't be entertained.

I'm not doing it to be provocative. I'm doing it because I know from the email I get from hockey parents that you guys have questions. Candidates have answers. Contrary to what Kim Campbell said in the 1993 federal election, a campaign is actually a great time to discuss issues.

The Red Wings completed a sweep of the Avs last night, finally looking like the team that they are. It may also represent the only correct prediction I'll have in the second round of playoffs.

Meanwhile, the Rangers finally won a game against Pittsburgh, but the hole they have to climb from looks too, too deep.

Back in the land of the perfect brownie where I grew up, it is still a largely rural area. Urban sprawl encroaches, but the ancestral home still backs onto significant tracts of undeveloped land, albeit a tract that shrinks every year. And with forest comes varmints, as Jethro Bodine would say.

My parents have had a condor-sized bird feeder in their yard for a long time. There was a duck in the bird feeder two weeks ago when Chris and I were there. When you have ducks in your bird feeder you have two things -- lazy, spoiled ducks and a very large bird feeder.

Anyway, in addition to feeding birds, the feeder is also the centre of a decades-old struggle between my parents (the Defenders) and the dreaded squirrels, aka The Occupying Forces.

The squirrels see the feeder as a sort of all-you-can-eat buffet and my parents call the squirrels colourful names that never occurred to Mr. Disney when he was inventing cartoon characters. For entertainment value in Windsor Junction, it's a perennial Top Five.

With that in mind, a Friday video to show just how smart and patient the evil squirrel can be. Dad, you'll want to play this one for mom. Everyone, have a great weekend.

Now it's time for Oakville minor hockey's version of Inside Baseball. The rest of you should get back to work. Nominations closed yesterday for MOHA's VP positions and board of directors. So, first, the names (and it would help if you tried to imagine me standing at a glass podium in a tux, with Keira Knightly, reading from a list:

The incumbent, Wayne Moorehead (who told everyone a few weeks ago he was not going to run again, and now is.)

The candidates for the board of directors (not clear exactly how many board positions will need to be filled, but it could be as many at 11 (to the best of my knowledge, people with an asterisk by their name are incumbent board members:

Domenic Amodeo, Kathy Argyos, Ken Birtch, Nancy Brooks*, Ray Dube*, Tina Field*, Helen Ford*, Joel Hawkins, Chuck MacGregor*, Brian Metler, Ron Millichamp*, Wayne Moorehead*, Keith Murray*, Debbie Sabatino*, Claudio Serrao, Marshall Snowball*, Zach Stewart, and Ray Veeneman.