Jordan Eberle's # To Be Retired By Regina Pats

The Regina Pats Hockey Club has announced it will retire the jersey of former Pat and CHL Player of the Year, Jordan Eberle, October 9th when the Pats host the Portland Winterhawks at the Brandt Centre.

Ranking thirteenth on the team’s all time scoring list, Eberle played for the Pats from 2006-2010 and scored 155 goals and added 155 assists. Jordan also suited up for 19 games with Canada’s Under-18 and World Junior teams where he tallied 18 goals and 18 assists for a total of 36 points.Regina Pats President, Brent Parker, on Eberle’s time in Regina, “His on ice accomplishments are well documented with the Pats, Canada’s National programs and now in the NHL, but for me it was the class with which he conducted himself off the ice and in our community that separates him from others and truly makes him one of the best Pats of all time. Jordan epitomizes what we want our players to be and what we want our organization to be about. It was special to watch him grow up over his time with the Pats. There’s no doubt he’s very deserving of this honor.”

“It’s definitely an honour to be up there and for Jordan it’s obviously well deserved”, says Edmonton Oilers Director of Player Development Mike Sillinger. “Here’s a kid who’s getting his jersey retired and he’s only 22 years old. Any time you can have your jersey retired in junior hockey at that age; it speaks volumes of his performance.

Tillman Admits Ray Trade Was A Mistake

On Tuesday night, Eskimos general manager Eric Tillman took to 630 CHED for an interview with Dan Tencer. The most interesting piece of the 20-plus-minute interview? When Tilman said that with the power of Marty McFly’s car, he wouldn’t trade Ricky Ray (listen here).

“If you could hop in the DeLorean and go back to December, would you do the trade again?” Tencer asked.

“Honestly?” Tillman said back. “I would probably not. I would have listened to my wife, who begged me not to make the trade, because she talked about the fact that we went 11-7 and we could actually have an off-season where I might be semi-popular in Edmonton for a change and to just stay status quo.”

Tillman went on to argue the notion that the Ray trade was spurred by ego.

“Call me stupid, that’s OK. You can call me ugly, I think most people would agree with that. If this deal was made because of personal sentiment, if there was any selfish dynamic in it…you couldn’t have paid me $100 million to make the trade because it would have been so nice to have a quiet off-season.

“I truly felt that long term, not 2012…if I had a terminal illness and I knew I was only going to be there one more year, the easy thing to do was stay status quo. When you look at this franchise in 2013, 2014, and beyond I felt that at some point we had to make a transition at quarterback and this was my greatest fear.

“I was afraid that if we stayed status quo, even if we won 11 or 12 games again, that we would have Ricky who would then be a year closer to being 35, we still would have not played any of our young quarterbacks which we saw last year, that didn’t happen, they didn’t develop and we’d have a ton of free agents because we had a quarterback making north of 400 (thousand).”

(From Edmonton Journal)

Manitoba Is Still Slurpee Capital Of World

With our reputation for sucking back slushed-up sugar yet untarnished, Manitobans can now focus on nabbing free treats.

Today, 7-11 announced that Manitoba was, once again, the Slurpee Capital of the World. It’s the 13th year in a row that we have (somewhat inexplicably) won the title.

As a special "thank you for slurping" promotion – and to mark the opening of "Slurpee season" – the convenience store is giving away nearly 500,000 free slushes across the country on Wednesday, July 11 – 7/11, get it?

"The Slurpee has become a Canadian icon," a 7-11 spokeswoman said in a release. "Not only do we consume millions of the brightly-coloured refreshments each month, we also Tweet about them every two to five minutes… even Obama has said he thinks they’re delicious."

Well, the American President is likely too busy to get a free Slurpee, but if you’re free between the hours of 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. tomorrow, you can head on down to any 7/11 store to get your freebie as long as supplies of the 7.11-ounce cups last.

Not Buying Into The Hype

Corey Chamblin didn't take the bait last week and he's not taking it this week either. You may remember Eskimos coach Kavis Reed referred to Chris Getzlaf and Weston Dressler as "Batman and Robin" and when asked about it, Chamblin shot back by saying Fred Stamps and Adarius Bowman are their "Batman and Robin".

Chamblin was asked about comments by BC coach Mike Benavides today when he said in his mind, the Riders are the best team in the league as the two remaining unbeatens get set to collide Saturday at what should be a steamy Mosaic Stadium. Chamblin's response to Benavides statement was

"This game is the big ticket. If you wanna be the best, than you have to beat the best (obviously channelling his inner Ric Flair WOOOOO!!!). Those are the guys holding last year's championship and the ring so until somebody beats them, they are the best."

"We just play football games and no mind games. They are last year's Grey Cup
champs, they own that right and until somebody knocks them off their block, they're gonna keep riding. I told the guys if we want to talk about a championship, we have to beat a championship team. They're a championship team. I don't worry about Benny blowing smoke. He's probably in there selling it to his team right now. I don't worry about that.
They are a veteran team and they play with a lot of confidence so we have to really, really dig in on a short week and find a way to win this game. "

CFL POTW--Week 2

Brandon Whitaker, Adam Bighill, Larry Taylor and Andrew Harris were named the Gibson's Finest CFL Players of the Week for Week 2, the Canadian Football League announced today.

The four players were chosen by a panel of judges including: former Canadian Football League players Matt Dunigan and Duane Forde, now of TSN, and Pierre Vercheval of RDS.

Als running back Brandon Whitaker spearheaded a high-powered Alouettes offence to a 41-30 win over the visiting Blue Bombers, en-route to being named the Offensive Player of the Week.

Whitaker garnered a staggering 235 yards in Montreal's home opener, rushing 16 times for 98 yards and a touchdown, while hauling in 11 receptions for 137 yards and a pair of scores through the air.

BC linebacker Adam Bighill played an integral role in the Lions' narrow 39-36 victory over the Tiger-Cats on Friday night, being named Defensive Player of the Week for his efforts.

The 23-year old registered a game-high nine tackles to go along with his first career sack and forced fumble.

He currently leads the Lions in tackles with 11.

It was a stellar afternoon for Stampeders kick returner Larry Taylor, who is the Week 2 Special Teams Player of the Week.

Taylor had one reception for 13 yards, eight kick returns for 222 yards, two punt returns for 70 yards and one missed field goal return for a 125-yard touchdown, totalling 441 all-purpose yards - a Stampeders franchise record.

His performance lands him at second all-time behind former Blue Bomber Albert Johnson III's 474-yard performance in 2000.

Finally, Lions tailback Andrew Harris is the Canadian Player of the Week, following his play in BC's second win of the year.

The Winnipeg native notched his first 100-yard rushing game, taking off for 147 yards - 110 of which came in the fourth quarter - and one touchdown.

He also added six yards on a pair of receptions.

Baseball At The Break

The major league all-star game goes tonight in Kansas City as the American League's best take on their counterparts from the National League. Once again, the winning league gets home-field advantage for the World Series (oooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!). This of course will mean nothing if there are two outs in the bottom of the 9th and both the pitcher and batter are on teams that aren't in a pennant race. However, that being said, the fact there is an extra playoff spot on the table means more teams are in it. Sadly, the Cubs are not one of those teams.

The Blue Jays are in the middle of a playoff race. While being 9 1/2 out in the A-L East, despite being 500, I can't see Toronto making a run at the AL East title, but they go into the break just 2 1/2 back. Teams in front of them are the Angels, Orioles, Rays, Indians, Tigers, Athletics and Red Sox. Toronto can definitely take the wild-card spot, but they need to do something about their roster. If GM Alex Anthopoulos thinks this team has what it takes to make the playoffs, he has to deal an Adam Lind, an Eric Thames, a Travis Snider or one of their many talented prospects to get pitching help. The story of Toronto's pitchers has to be one of the big stories of the first half as Kyle Drabek, Drew Hutchison and Luis Perez have all been lost for the season while Brandon Morrow has spent considerable time on the DL as has closer Sergio Santos.

The division leaders at the break are the Yankees (DUHHHH), the White Sox and Texas in the American League with Washington, Pittsburgh and the Dodgers leading the way in the National League. How tough would it be for Montreal fans to see the Nationals in the playoffs? How nice would it be to see teams that have been mainstays in the playoffs over the last few years not get in (teams like the Red Sox, the Rays, the Braves, and the Cardinals). Fresh blood is needed and it would appear as if some will get in this year which is good for the sport.

While the Yankees are the Yankees, I don't think they are the best team in baseball right now. That honor would have to go to the Texas Rangers. The Rangers certainly want to get back to the World Series after being one out away from winning it not once but twice last year. They are solid from top to bottom and they are led by the uber-talented Josh Hamilton who should be the American League MVP again.

SURPRISING TEAMS---Cleveland, Pittsburgh, the White Sox, Washington

DISAPPOINTING TEAMS--Philadelphia, Boston, Detroit, Colorado

SURPRISING PLAYER- R.A Dickey of the Mets

DISAPPOINTING PLAYER--Tim Lincecum of the Giants.

How does it all shake down in the end.

AL DIVISION WINNERS--Yankees, Detroit, Texas
WILD CARD TEAMS--Baltimore, Angels

ALCS---Angels beat Texas


NL DIVISION WINNERS--Atlanta, Cincinnati, Arizona
WILD CARD TEAMS ---Pittsburgh, Washington

NLCS --Arizona beats Atlanta

WORLD SERIES ---Angels beat Diamondbacks

If this happens, remember where you saw it first. If it doesn't (which it likely won't), don't be surprised.

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