Pro Hockey

[smitty]

When I stopped playing hockey with our school team to another school of the city.

I was told to get on the ice & take this one good player out for a few days to a week. That as to much for me so I slid down, off my skates to in with my felt boots with gum boots on the outside & borrowed my Mother's speed skate & a bit longer has to do the same with my father;s skates both saying so much was in the stroke.

Yet now I talk to so many hockey fans & find that most of them have never played hockey in their life to some not with the experience of skating either. So it is their sport & not mine to also knowing my taxes go to hockey rinks of some form.

I was part of three that kept the hockey or skating rind in shape to clean along with all being Zombie drivers. I noted kids from school, well below the age that I stopped playing hockey, with up to date skates helmets to all the pads to you name it. All I had were the same clothing I had with me to the school, no body protection, just my normal mitts (better in colder weather then gloves), same pants, parka to toque. TIMES HAVE CHANGED.

[CielOnTap]

For three years or so, a vehicle manufacturer has offered a free hockey helmet for children under a certain age to ensure s/he has the right headgear for playing hockey. The program seems to start this time of year and many people seem keen to obtain them.

Minor hockey is not a cheap sport. And with that last season of pro hockey mentioning the impacts and lasting effects of concussions, protecting one's head is critical.

[smitty]

CielOnTap, I thank you for the information about a firm providing school kids with proper head gear. For when you go down the ice is as hard as a rock, so the head takes a shocking blow.

I talked a chap that worked at the Hudson Bay to come out to us with fire department as we brough up water so we could practice in racing.

Gilbert as a bible school chap from Jamaica, but pleasant person to be around. Someone at the speed skating rink, handed him a pair of hockey skates. So it was up to him tio learn. His one fear was he might get a black eye when falling on the ice, but we told him it did not hapen to any of us.

So, Gilbert, also being one to earn his right to be on this large oval, was out pushing a board around to remove the snow, only one skate & an ice crack in the ice SO poor Gilbert ACTUALLY DID HAVE A BLACK EYE. Yes we had a shack out by the river, to warm up in or to sharpen our speed skates and to keep the blades upright while we worked with stones to sharpen the skates. Yes Gilbert spent a number of hours in that warmer place.

Often wonder when back to Jamica & possible with some church group if he ever told them about how he got a black eye when trying to do his bit of work for us speedskaters. Something probably most knew nothing about what us crazy Winnipeg people did for exercise, to strength to also compete aginst other speedskaters.

When the manager of selling shirts to ties ran out of some help, in the Hudson Bay in Winnipeg Manitoba, I offered him Gilbert who was moving boxes around in the back.

Fact is Gilbert was close to my age & with me being 81+ years of age AND that some of my friends have died, at the same ago or a bit earlier.

[smitty]

I honestly wish I could remember the metal like support things so many of these young kids need to keep them upright & sometimes even a hockey stick with them. True some of those kids are still trying to learn a bit about hockey & often fell out of the support, BUT it was some help. I guess the parents bought all their hockey gear to put it on the kids & later removed it---that is not only costly but time consumming.

Had a mother of a Jr. Hockey team with her son playing goal so a lot more gear. She came up with the name of Febreze she applied to his gear needed for hockey & that she would have his goal keeping gear on the front of their car to sort of remove the smell, but when at home it was in the basement along with more Frebreze on it till the next time he was about to play hockey.

To think in my early years no hockey equipment & so often some of us would meet at the ex-garden in the back yard a father might have made into a sort of hockey or skating rink for us young ones. That was fun for all. Also in going tio school with skates over shoulders & a sort of beat up Jr. hockey stick we would shorten, we never had to worry about loosing the puck on the roads we walked for the milk to some other truck teaks sort of dropped a few for us. So it was tun to schol & also close to it on a small back yard rink.

Now to skate with adults, the hockey sticks were put away & it was skating with the adults. My Mother, of back in those days, was a good skater with a set of speed skates & went by the music to where sometimes she would have me join her with an arm to skate in similiar strokes to the music.

Funny thing is when I was still a baby, she would carry me around in a box on a slay, then start to skate. Being a good looking woman if seems she USED ME for an excuse to have to attend to her papy in that box & slay also on the ice. Also I never knew how I learned to skate. My father tried a waxed froor, with felt on the bottom of my shoes.

I remember During WWII we had so many chaps from Australia to New Zealand taking flying lessons close to our towns or cities. They would be struggeling along on the ice when holding onto the boards, while us young kids went whistling by them, though sometimes tried to tell them what was wrong, but really at such a young age we were usless in doing any teaching on the skating rinks. The above chas simple did not realize within a few years we started to learn in the back yards or on the few small ponds.

I always felt the Maple Leafs were my team to cheer on about, but when it came to a jersy my father asked someone in HQ to pick up one so unfortunately HQ was Montreal so wore a Montreal hockey sort of jersy.

Someone made sure that we had some JR Hockey team skates that were usless to them, but IDEAL to us young kids.

[smitty]

True hockey of any form was almost born in us.

Still in 1942 the Principal of this Elementary school took four of us to this Granet Curling club, with natural ice, to teach us a bit about curling.

We learned with NATURAL ice you did not want to be with a team on one of the sides of the rink for so often the rocks would tend to go to the side, unless you were given command for a knock-out.

Yes this was back in the days that you tended to lift the rock before you slid out to send it towards the skip as so asked.

Also found out if after lunch time & no more home-work then I would hike it to the rink I curled on. My name was up on the chalk board & so the skip short of one curling would ask me to come on as lead curler. YES that tought me a lost. This was also in the days of a normal broom & I tended to cut the handle down a bit along with tape in the area I would need for YES I would sheep in a mad attempt of doing the best.

At high school a few of us formed up a team, with me as Third to compete against schools from other cities to basically provinces. The Principal just had to see what this drive was in what we called curling. Noted my hands were bleeding due to the blisters in both hands. It was the enthusiam of the sport. True we were fairly good, but we ran up against some darn good teams from other places & lost our of curling at the semi-final to a group from Quebec THAT WERE DARN GOOD.

Right now in the Penticton goes the championship of the Continent of skiers. I wold like to have been there, but probably so much to park (a problem if one was at the hospital for some work by a doctor or to visit a friend needed while in there & suffering). So just pick up what I can on the TV set. Just that I am like a third or a skip in trying to think what they had best do with the NEXT rock. It may not seem like an exciting, but it is a friendly sport & all are shaking hands after who ever won.

Note they do NOT need any special gear like in hockey. The teams will choose what slacks to wha jersy on it to wear at the game. So really not that costly. My late Father in his late 70s til he passed away in '38 was curling with some of the older curlers.

True they have women curling, but also in some cases it is mixed teams of curlers & yes a lot of fun.

At the start of hockey for some months in advance I will note a lot of curling teams were into action before hockey of any form gets started other then waming up & thankfully they actally have some Old Timers teams in competition.

[trailblaze]

In fact, the NHL has successfully learned to monetize anything and everything tangentially related to its product. Given the latter, it's surprising that only in recent months are we learning the NHL plans on pasting players' jerseys with advertisements.

NHL chief operating officer John Collins said in an interview posted Thursday by Sports Business Daily that jersey sponsorship is "coming and happening."
The European professional hockey leagues have been using player jerseys to promote sponsors for years. When it comes to the IIHF (International Ice Hockey Federation), ŠKODA has been the main sponsor of the World Championships since 1992, making this the longest main sponsorship in the history of sports world championships.

http://www.cbc.ca/newsblogs/yourcommuni ... essed.html


This is so wrong in so many ways. They need to draw fans to the arenas, yet the tickets are expensive and rising yearly, so they resort to this. Another money grab for the owners and out of this world player salaries. An idea would be to stop paying these through the roof salaries for 6-7 months work. It's all about winning a trophy, with no end in sight to the amount they pay out for the players and the fans pay the price at the ticket office. I stopped going because of the cost of good seats, even those in the Nose Bleed section are going way up. If fans as a whole hate this idea, then just stop going, watch the game from home because empty seats go a lot further in getting out the message and we all know the prices will keep on going up and up and up, with no end in sight.

The new theme song for the very greedy NHL owners - borrowed from Cabaret.

Money makes the world go around
The world go around
The world go around
Money makes the world go around
It makes the world go 'round.

A mark, a yen, a buck, or a pound
A buck or a pound
A buck or a pound
Is all that makes the world go around,
That clinking clanking sound
Can make the world go 'round.

Money money money money money money
Money money money money money money
Money money money money money money
Money money

[yukon]

Technical glitches happen at the worst times it seems. On Tuesday night it hit during the singing of the American National Anthem in Toronto. The Leaf fans didn't remain silent, they stepped in and finished the anthem for the poor singer trying to be heard. The Maple Leaf fans take a lot of ribbing because of the teams not so great record on ice, but this night they stood proud and loud to help the poor girl out. It was the only thing worth cheering for by the end of the game and a shameful 9-2 loss at home.

Click the link for the video.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/t ... -1.2844378


On Tuesday, before the Leafs were manhandled in an embarrassing 9-2 loss to the visiting Nashville Predators, the home fans stepped in and sang when a technical glitch caused the audio to cut out during the singing of The Star-Spangled Banner.

One of them captured the touching moment for YouTube when Leafs fans jumped in to sing the song's final verses. The video had more than 888,000 views as of Friday morning.

[deja vu]

The Montreal Canadians have always been a class act and tonight they showed it again. It's the first home game since the loss of long time Canadian Jean Beliveau, and a chance for the team and fans to pay a final tribute to the great man. There wasn't a dry eye in the arena and his wife, daughter and 2 grown Granddaughters were in attendance and the crowd showed them how much they appreciated the man and the hockey player.

http://montrealgazette.com/sports/hocke ... abs-legend

The Bell Centre crowd stood and cheered for several minutes Tuesday night after a moving tribute to legendary captain Jean Béliveau ahead of the Montreal Canadiens game against the Vancouver Canucks.

A 15-minute pre-game ceremony in honour of Béliveau, one of the team’s iconic players and personalities who died last week at 83, caused his widow Élise Couture Béliveau to alternately weep, pray and thrust out her arms in thanks to the crowd.