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Saturday, November 14, 2009

Road Trip!!


The Pats and the Warriors went at it in Moose Jaw Saturday night in the back half of the home and home. The picture above shows some action in the Warriors end. Don't let the picture fool you. There was only one team on the ice interested in winning Saturday night and it was the team wearing the black jerseys.
The visiting team lets just say did not have their best outing of the year as they fell 5-0 to the Warriors making it two straight losses after winning four in a row.

Going to Moose Jaw means visiting the Civic Centre. It is the ugliest building in the WHL, but it may be the toughest one for road teams to win a game in the WHL because the rabid (and somewhat delusional in some cases) fans are right on top of you letting you hear it every chance they get.
It will be nice when the Multiplex finally gets built and the wrecking ball finally comes to the Civic Centre. It's interesting going into games there and yes, the building does have some kind of charm to it like the old Exhibition Stadium, but WHL hockey shouldn't be played in a building like that. The Warriors deserve better and so do Warrior fans. They will finally get that wish soon.

I sat in the CKRM broadcast booth with Rod Pedersen and Dan Plaster and I had to feel bad for RP at the start of the game. He could not get dialed up back to the studio because of problems with the phone line. With the game starting in mere moments, Rod and Dan along with Warriors staff were trying everything to get the broadcast unit working. Just before the start of the game, things finally worked.
It took me back to the days when I was doing play-by-play for the Rams and the adventures that we had on the road in getting the game back to Regina. I still laugh when I think of a Canada West semi-final that we did from Vancouver between the Rams and Simon Fraser. For whatever reason, there was only one phone (broadcast) line set up for the game and a Vancouver radio station was using that line. Whenever we tried to dial in, we took them off the air. We couldn't set up in the press box so we tried from one location. That didn't work so finally thanks to some creative minds at the stadium and miles of extension cords, we finally got everything working with just moments to spare. I still chuckle when I think of my colour man Sheldon Stener running to a spot in the seating area that had been closed off with this briefcase with wires coming out of everywhere. Trust me folks, its not easy sometimes getting those broadcasts on the air and when you should be concentrating on the lineups and what you are going to be saying, you can't because you are on the phone with an engineer or someone trying to figure out why you're not getting on the air.
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The UFC's biggest star is in bad shape, but no one knows exactly what is wrong. Brock Lesnar is hospitalized somewhere in North Dakota after collapsing. His return to the octagon is not known, but what is known is that not only has Lesnar's title bout that was already moved to January from last weekend has now been postponed. Its not known when Lesnar will step in the ring again. UFC Prez Dana White says he is in bad shape and won't be better for quite a while. White would say he does know Lesnar is not suffering from H1N1, AIDS or cancer. It makes one wonder if perhaps we have seen the last of Lesnar.
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It will be a day of clicking the remote tomorrow. CFL playoff games along with NFL action. It all comes to an end with New England against Indianapolis. I was asked the other day if Indy or New Orleans is the better team...I said neither as I think the best team in the NFL right now is the Patriots. They can prove that with a win in Indy.

Big contest for my Seahawks tomorrow. A win and they still have a chance at winning the division, but a loss in Arizona means they can start thinking about next year.

I'm getting tired of the "Dallas is a contender" talk. Here's hoping the Packers can silence the Cowboys on the not yet frozen tundra of Lambeau Field.

The Michigan Wolverines football program is a mess
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Speaking of NCAA football, USA Today has a list of what NCAA coaches and assistant coaches are making. If you care, former Rider coach Kent Austin is taking in 300-grand a year for being the offensive co-ordinator and quarterbacks coach at Ole Miss. Kent is not the highest paid assistant coach with Ole Miss either.
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Tough one for the U of S Huskies. It appeared as if they were ready to kick a game winning field goal to capture the Hardy Cup only to have the holder bobble the snap resulting in that field goal being no good. Thus the Hardy Cup belongs to the Calgary Dinosaurs. However the way Canada West football has gone this year, maybe it will be taken away from them for an ineligible player. Maybe the Cup will end up with the Rams. OK, I'm being a little sarcastic, but Canada West football proved itself to be a joke this year because of the violations against Manitoba and Simon Fraser.
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I caught the start of the Calgary-Toronto game on Hockey Night in Canada. I can understand the team honouring Wendel Clark, but Russ Courtnall??? Can someone explain to me what was happening there. Is Jiri Crha night coming up soon?? What about Fred Boimistruck night!
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Did I just hear Kevin Weekes say the word "bullshit" on Hockey Night in Canada. I wish I was watching the game with the PVR on so I could rewind it. It was right after Colorado's 1st goal of the game. He had to have said something else. If he did say it, "OOPS!!!"
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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I went to Moose Jaw last nite and I couldn't have been more disgusted in Regina's play. If they didn't want to go, why board the bus. They were just there to go for a skate. No urgency, no desire, no nothing. Its pretty bad when the Warrior fans just stop the trash-talk midway through the game because they realize how terrible Regina is.

TC