All-Purpose Hockey Thread III

Mr Gomer,

I woke up in time to catch the end.

YHS, etc

 

I thought the story was well done. But, coming from a small, insular city myself, I can certainly understand the anger they're feeling in Swift Current. Naturally, you're going to have the team acolytes that will not hear anything negative about their "boys." The rest of the anger comes from others in town who feel that, while they might be embarrassed by the team, it's their embarrassment and not the business of outsiders - especially outsiders from that most outside of Canadian locales, Toronto. Please note, I'm not justifying these feelings, just explaining them.

I have to say, though, that you cannot possibly write about the Broncos bus crash without referencing Graham James and Sheldon Kennedy. James was the coach of the team and Kennedy was a player when the crash happened, and they were still there when the team won the Memorial Cup two seasons later. They were front and centre during the franchise's ultimate low and high points. He cannot be ignored, despite the bleating of all of Gare's critics who think otherwise.

 

Mr J,

"Bleatings" is such a great, under-used word.

YHS, etc

 

I've always thought that was cool of Cherry. He did that for a cop a few months ago that was killed in a drug bust in Montreal. Classy stuff.

 

Warren Strelow passed away this week. First full-time goalie coach in the NHL, according to some of the articles I've read. He was the goalie coach for the 1980 US Olympic team. He was currently employed by the San Jose Sharks organization. He worked with many NHL goalies throughout his career.

He suffered a stroke while on the ice in his wheelchair working with a goalie. Lost the ability to speak, but continued to direct drills using his hands. He refused to leave the ice, until the coach finally had to have the goalie go off the ice before Strelow would let them attend to him. The Worchester Telegram has that part of story, but for some reason I can't get it to link. RIP Mr. Strelow.

 

Thought this was worth a post or two:
The Stanley Cup playoffs are not the only major hockey championships going on, tomorrow the Allan Cup kicks off in Stony Plain, AB.
http://www.allancup.ca/
and
http://www.stonyplainallancup.com/

Although there is no Theo Fleury this year, the Bentley Generals probably bring the most headlines with the likes of Sutter on the bench and Jared and Kevin Smyth in the lineup, as well as a few other players that I believe were fringe NHLers and brothers of NHLers.

The Lloydminster Border Kings will be tuogh. They won it all in 2001 and have retooled this year, recruiting the 2005 Allan Cup MVP from Thunder Bay Shawn McEachern to play net. The guy can flat out play, almost single handidly won the 2005 cup getting white hot after a slow openeing couple of games.

Stony Plain is always tough and they'll be ready to go considering it is in their own barn. They also have a solid group of players with the likes of former U of A GOlden Bear Blair Zahara (who if I'm not mistaken also won the Allan Cup back in 2004 as part of the Ministikwin Islanders).

I'm not too sure about the Eastern teams, but they generally prove to be tough. I think I recognize a few names from Shawinigan as playing for the Quebec team in 2005.

Should be a good tournament. If you're in the Edmonton area this coming week, definitely worth catching a game, even a roundrobin game.

 

Breaking BBJ news from the Post-Gazette:

 

A) Raycroft played junior in Kingston, so he has ties to Cherry's mecca. B) Cherry's CBC persona is incredibly pro-Leafs and it's been getting more and more that way in the past few years.

 

Agree.
At some point he feigned neutrality about the Leafs. Now it's just a blatant homer

You'd have to back a long way to find a Leafs goalie as bad as Raycroft. Certainly before the Potvin days.

 

At some point? He's always been a leafsfanboy, but it has just gotten worse as the year tick by.
You don't have to go too far back to find a goalie worse than Raycroft, employed by the Leafs.
#1 with a bullet would be Glenn Healy, saddly he's even worse as a broadcaster.

 

And a tip of the cap to you, E, for warning me ahead of time of the iceberg the good S.S. Penguin was about to run in to.

Would have been nice for my first real playoff beard ever to last longer than a week. Didn't even give it time to get really started.