Fighting is part of hockey bench-clearing brawls are not
Fighting is a part of hockey. It always as been and it always will be.
It’s a celebrated feature in hockey video games and the fans in the stadiums cheer when their hometown boy knocks his opponent to the ice.
Last Friday, a line was crossed.
At the end of the Slammers home game against the Summerside Western Capitals one fight escalated into a brawl at the drop of a hat and nine suspensions were levied as a result.
This should not be a part of hockey.
Blame could be laid somewhere, but unless you’re a player involved with the fracas the exact cause is impossible to determine. What was apparent is that a player of the Capitals jabbed his stick under the ribs of a Slammers player and the benches emptied. That is exactly what happened. I am an eye witness.
The game was over. The players should have been on their way to the dressing room but instead it turned into a melee.
Someone could have been seriously hurt—and for what? How did this brawl make it a better hockey game?
It didn’t.
It was an embarrassing event for everyone involved and the suspensions are deserved.
It was the second meeting between the Slammers and the Capitals in Woodstock this season. The first game was full of trash talk from both sides and it wasn’t simply forgotten after the heat of the moment. It spilled over to last Friday night.
These teams hate each other and it should be a great rivalry. Instead it turned into a bush-league farce where no one came out smelling like roses.
Instead of pummeling opponents with fists after the final score has been tallied, move on. Prepare for the next game. Be professional.
This brawl did not solve a thing, it only escalated the animosity these teams feel for each other. The only way to really come out on top is to win the next game and keep your mouth shut.
Hockey is an emotional game, but it’s not an exception in the sports world.
Football is a violent game. There is pushing and shoving, but how often does it come to blows?
The only time a fight happens in baseball is when a pitcher hits a few batters, is accused of headhunting and the batter charges the mound.
That doesn’t happen every game or even every week.
Fighting is a staple of hockey and within the right context it can be accepted. When two players agree to the fight during the game, a fight can be understandable.
After the whistle it loses any context where a fight can be acceptable. And a brawl never belongs in hockey or any sport.
In boxing and mixed martial arts, the fights are arranged with a set of rules. It is not a free-for-all. It is one-on-one. And, oddly, the combatants are rarely mad at each other.
Hockey is a great game, and the Slammers are a solid team. The players came back the next night, held their heads high and proved that winning is the only priority. Sure the Restigouche Tigers are winless and can’t score goals, but the Slammers needed to make a statement.
The fans got into it last Friday.
Several people were yelling at the Summerside assistant coach as he left the ice. Profanity spewed from their lips, accusing his team of taking cheap shots. Someone even threw an empty French-fry box at him.
That’s wrong, too.
Yes you love your team, but draw the line between fan and fanatic. Do not get involved with the opposing side as the players and coaches leave the ice. It never looks good.
A professional code of conduct is not only necessary for coaches and players; it should apply to fans as well. You are all representatives of your community. Act with pride.
The brawl was one of those freak occurrences that will likely not happen and certainly should not happen again any time soon at the Carleton Civic Centre.
The Slammers play the Capitals in Summerside on November 2 and again in Woodstock on November 29. The aftermath should make for an interesting series of games as long as both teams focus on the game and not on the trash talk and cheap shots.
These are young men still growing up. The maturing process should not be absent from the game.
This column originally appeared in the October 3 edition of the Carleton FreePress
Fantasy sports fun for the super fans doesn’t detract from the real game
When Ronnie Brown of the Miami Dolphins scored four rushing touchdowns and threw an additional one against the New England Patriots two games ago, Dolphin fans — though very happy — were not the only excited viewers.
Ronnie Brown had made the Sunday of many non-Dolphin supporters throughout the continent. These folks are the fantasy sports junkies.
Brown’s performance is the stuff of legend. Five touchdowns from a single player will elevate an otherwise mediocre week to a successful one.
Wait, not a fantasy nut? If you have the internet and follow sports it’s just another way to become a more involved sports fan, especially if you’ve ever had the thought I bet I could run a pro franchise.
Prove it.
All the major networks like CBS and ESPN and the rest have fantasy sports sections. Yahoo is one of the most popular and it started out as a search engine Oh so many years ago back in the 1990s.
Quickly, for those of you who aren’t savvy to the game—the gist of fantasy sports is you draft a team of real players before the actual professional season starts. It can be baseball, football, hockey, basketball, whatever.
After the draft, you have your team. Depending on specific league rules, scoring will be different from league to league, but the objective is still the same. Have the team whose players perform strongest in reality and your fantasy team will be the Goliath of your circle of friends.
With baseball playoffs in full swing, the fantasy season has ended with a few holding their heads high with smug, arrogant pride while the rest of us bow our heads in the shame of finishing some 50 points behind the leader or just out of reach of the elusive bronze medal. Blame Victor Martinez for not hitting a home run until August.
Football is already giving the chance for redemption, but if you drafted Carson Palmer, Tom Brady, Stephen Jackson or Ryan Grant early, chances are your team is floundering and you cannot wait a moment longer for the NBA and NHL seasons to begin.
No matter how confident you are after a draft –actually if you look at your roster and feel good about it, it’s probably a bad sign — anything can happen.
For instance, if you have New Orleans Saints wide receiver Marques Colston and Indianapolis Colts tight end Dallas Clark on your team you may have started to panic due to their injuries.
In panic mode you dropped Clark for a mediocre receiver and then without a valid tight end, you traded Colston — who should be back in a couple weeks — for underachieving Cleveland Browns tight end Kellen Winslow.
Essentially, you just turned Clark and Colston into Kellen Winslow. Not even the ghost of Matt Millen would make a deal like that. But the panic button can make a fantasy owner do silly things.
There are magazines, podcasts, online “experts” and even television programming dedicated to the fantasy world of sports. A few years ago, Sam Walker of the Wall Street Journal wrote the book Fantasyland about his plunge into fantasy baseball.
Fantasy sports are in the mainstream and it is accessible to everyone with an internet connection. You don’t even need high speed although it helps during a live draft.
In fact fantasy sports are an amazing addition to the pantheon of sports fanaticism. It has created better- informed fans about the games they watch and the players involved.
Without fantasy sports, guys like Ian Snell and Gavin Floyd would only be recognized by a handful of people. Instead they have been discovered through the fantasy baseball waiver wire and, in the case of Floyd, have helped fantasy pitching staffs all season.
Fantasy sports are becoming more and more available to the general sports fan and even if you aren’t obsessive like some, fantasy sports is a fun way to kill a few minutes in the morning before work. Set your fantasy lineup for the day and off you go.
It doesn’t take away from the game (as has been said in the past). People aren’t abandoning their favourite teams just to benefit the fantasy team.
A Dolphins fan is a Dolphins fan until the end – and last season looked like the end — even if he or she doesn’t have Ronnie Brown on the fantasy roster.
This Column originally appeared in the October 10 edition of the Carleton FreePress
Second Woodstock ice surface would waste an opportunity
Do we really need a second ice surface in Woodstock?
Hockey is a great sport, but if the rumours are true and a second ice surface is being planned for Woodstock, we may be wasting an opportunity to generally advance athletics in Carleton County.
Hockey is already huge up and down the River Valley, so why not work on boosting proficiency elsewhere.
Soccer N.B. is already putting together a regional development program, and that’s a step in the right direction, but more could be done.
Beach volleyball was more than a cult success this summer. Weekend tournaments were a big success in Florenceville, Hartland and Woodstock.
The crowds and overall participation was huge.
It may be a bit of a niche sport, but possibly only because it’s only available at niche times and places. The town of Woodstock had to bring sand by the Eric Cummings truckload to facilitate a beach volleyball tournament in the Farmers Market parking lot.
What this means is that while hockey is still the top dog in the sports arena, there is a desire for variety.
Hockey is a very expensive sport. The equipment, ice and travel times cost many a pretty penny and those pennies add up. For those who either can’t afford it or don’t want to spend the exorbitant amount it requires, what is available as an alternative?
The answer, sadly, is not much.
If instead of a second ice surface, a new sports facility were built instead, that would be interesting.
The sports dome in Moncton, for instance, is multi-purpose and is a great draw for everyone.
They host indoor soccer on artificial turf made specifically for that purpose. But wait, there’s more. The turf is also used for paintball games. You can book it for a night or an afternoon and stage a paintball tournament. Maybe that would even supply an outlet for the paintball passion in Canterbury.
So the next question is, can Woodstock afford it or does Carleton County even need it?
The same question can be applied to the second ice surface as well. If it’s one or the other, the new sports facility should be the way to go.
It would target a larger population base and potentially get people more active. Add a training gymnasium in the mix and it would be a huge upgrade over the facilities at the Civic Centre.
The Civic Centre gym is fine for its size, but it’s just too small to accommodate more than 15 people at a given time. The equipment works—the space just isn’t up to snuff.
Give people the opportunity and space to train and play comfortably and they will do it. Give people a chance to explore new things that they would otherwise only see on television and they will jump at the chance.
It doesn’t need to be as big as the dome in Moncton, and it shouldn’t be. We don’t have the population of Moncton so it wouldn’t make sense to duplicate it. But let’s take a look at the people who don’t have a place to go and be active on a regular basis.
Sure, people can run on their own or lift weights in their home but psychologically it’s easier to procrastinate and be lazy in the home environment. At a sports facility there is no option of reclining in the la-z-boy with a cold one when you should be exercising.
With a proper facility of ample size, more people would have the opportunity to trade their six-pack for a six-pack.
Hockey is important to the community, no doubt about that. And yes, it’s always a battle for ice time between minor hockey, the high school and the Slammers not to mention other leagues and the figure skaters, etc.
But let’s embrace alternative interests, not only in athletics but life.
Hockey is not for everyone, so let’s think of the other sports and maybe the town of Woodstock will not follow through with the second ice surface.
Of course the extra ice surface is just a rumour—so far.
This column originally appeared in the October 17 edition of the Carleton FreePress
Rays in six
Note: I was way off on this prediction. In fact the only World Series prediction I’ve gotten right in the last five years was when St. Louis defeated Detroit. Of course that only happened because I’m a die-hard Cardinals fan.
From worst to first. The Tampa Bay Rays have a history of futility, failure and what seemed like zero progress.
From the club’s debut in 1998 through the 2007 season, the (Devil) Rays finished out of last place in the American League East division only once, in 2004. It was the only season the (Devil) Rays won 70 games.
Until now.
If you’ve followed baseball even passively this year, or just glanced once or twice at a sports page recently, you know all about the Rays rise from the depths of the abyss. They not only made the playoffs; did not only win the division but defeated the defending champion Boston Red Sox in seven games to advance to the World Series.
When the Colorado Rockies traipsed into the World Series last October— only to get trounced — every team in baseball had made it to the post- season.
Except the (Devil) Rays.
People laughed. Fans said it would be a long time before the (Devil) Rays stood a snowball’s chance in the Florida sun to make it into the big game under the brightest lights of all.
All it took was a young team finally realizing its potential.
With rookie star-in-the-making Evan Longoria playing like a seasoned vet, the rest of the team responded in kind. Even when stars like Rocco Baldelli and Carl Crawford went down with injuries and Carlos Pena struggled, the Rays fought and scrapped through the adversity.
Baseball people will tell you that if you can’t make it on the mound you can’t make it at all. A little pitching goes a long way.
Take a look at this rotation: Scott Kazmir, James Shields, Matt Garza, Andy Sonnanstine and Edwin Jackson. Not exactly household names before the season.
Kazmir has been a touted lefty and the subject of one of the worst trades in baseball history. The Rays acquired him from the Mets years ago for Victor Zambrano. Zambrano is out of baseball and Kazmir is in the World Series.
The Rays’ rotation was a model of consistency. None of those starters won 15 games, but they each won at least 11. When you have five pitchers posting double-digit wins in a season, your team should make the playoffs.
Throw in effective seasons from relievers Grant Balfour, Chad Bradford and J.P. Howell and you have the 2008 Tampa Bay Rays. No longer the doormat of baseball, they have become a great team.
Oh wait, there is another team.
The Philadelphia Phillies were not the big story in the National League East down the stretch. For the second year in a row, the mighty New York Mets blew a late-season division lead to miss the playoffs. For the second year in a row, the Phillies quietly sauntered into the postseason under the radar of everyone.
But unlike last year, the Phillies have kept winning.
Against Milwaukee, the talk was all about C.C. Sabathia. The Phillies trounced him.
Against Los Angeles, the talk was all about Manny Ramirez and the potential showdown against the Red Sox. The Phillies walked all over the Dodgers.
Now the talk is all about the Rays, the miraculous story of a team in a perpetual coma coming to life to take baseball by storm.
The Phillies are the underdog. But don’t write Philly off too fast. You could easily be disappointed.
Look at this lineup: Shane Victorino, Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, and Pat Burrell.
No question, these guys can hit. Rollins and Howard have won most-valuable-player awards and Utley is far and away the best second baseman in the universe.
Throw in game one starting pitcher Cole Hamels and you’ve got a stew going.
Hamels, even with this powerful lineup, suffered from lack of run support in the regular season. The fatal flaw for Philadelphia is streakiness. This team will either pound the opposition into oblivion for nine innings or it will look like a team of little leaguers seeing a curveball for the first time.
Because of the streakiness, Hamels finished with a record of 14-10 despite a superhuman earned run average of 3.09. He’s the best starting pitcher in the series but the Phillies can’t roll him out every game.
After Hamels they have Brett Myers, Jamie Moyer and Joe Blanton. Myers has moments of brilliance, but he gets rattled and loses control.
Blanton was terrible down the stretch and while Moyer had his best season in years, he’s in his mid-40s and he could be wearing down.
So the edge in pitching goes to Tampa, while the hitting edge goes slightly in the favour of Philadelphia.
If last year was any indication, momentum doesn’t guarantee a thing.
The Rockies swept into the World Series only to get wiped out in four games against the Red Sox. So the Rays can’t start celebrating yet.
The Rays are still poised to win, but the Phillies are sneaky. Matt Stairs could come in to pinch hit like he did against the Dodgers and he could single-handedly take the wind out of the Rays sails.
While television ratings are expected to be low, that should not be the case. If you call yourself a baseball fan — it doesn’t matter what team you follow (I’m a Cardinals fan) — you have to watch at least a couple games.
You don’t even have to watch the whole game. Maybe just the last few innings.
Those spoiled Red Sox and Yankees fans need to swallow their pride and love the game for what it is, not for who is in the finals. This will be a pleasure to watch, a breath of fresh air.
Rays in six. Book it. Done.
This column appeared in the October 24 edition of the Carleton FreePress
