Author: greggdrinnan

Milestone victory for Hamilton . . . Habscheid helps out WHL’s Christmas fund . . . Celebration of Swaby’s life on Friday

THE COACHING GAME:

Steve Hamilton, the head coach of the WHL’s Calgary Hitmen, joined the 200 WHLClub on Sunday when his side dumped the visiting Regina Pats, 10-3. He put up 108 coaching victories in four seasons as head coach of the Edmonton Oil Kings; Sunday’s victory was No. 92 with the Hitmen. . . .

Meanwhile, Marc Habscheid of the Prince Albert Raiders won his 561st regular-season game as a head coach when his guys beat the host Winnipeg Ice, 4-3 in OT, on Sunday. Habscheid is the winningest active head coach in the WHL today. He is sixth on the all-time list and could move up a notch before season’s end; Mike Williamson is next on the list at 572. . . . The Raiders enjoyed quite a trek into Manitoba, as they beat the Wheat Kings, 2-1, on Friday night. . . . Prince Albert is 8-12-1; Winnipeg is 21-1-1, with Brandon at 9-11-0. . . .

Attention WHL coaches . . . you have been forewarned. The head office has opened its Christmas party fund. Habscheid was the first to contribute after being fined $750 on Monday. That’s the price he pays after being ejected from a Nov. 24 game against the visiting Moose Jaw Warriors. He got the ol’ heave-ho from referees Adam Bloski and Troy Murray prior to the start of the third period of a game the Raiders would lose, 4-1. . . . Habscheid later told Jeff D’Andrea of paNOW that “. . . I just wished them a Merry Christmas, and that was that.” . . . It could be then that Habscheid was tossed for not waiting until December to start spreading Christmas joy. . . .

In the QMJHL, the Acadie-Bathurst Titan signed Jason Clarke as its new head coach, replacing Mario Durocher, who was fired last week. Clarke was working as an assistant coach with the QMJHL’s Shawinigan Cataractes. He is a former owner, general manager and head coach of the junior A Carleton Place Canadiens of the Central Canada Hockey League.

Pancakes

The Saskatoon Blades and Regina Pats weren’t done any favours by the schedulemaker last weekend and they came out of it, perhaps predictably, with one victory to show for five games . . .

The Blades won once during their three-game trek into Alberta. They went into the weekend with five healthy defencemen, then lost one of those guys on Sunday. Still, you have to think they were quite pleased with their trip. . . . They opened in Red Deer by beating the Rebels, 3-1, on Friday night. The Blades played again Saturday, this time at 1:30 p.m., and got dumped, 7-0, by the Hitmen, who hadn’t played on Friday. On Sunday, Saskatoon ventured into Edmonton for a 4 p.m. start, scored the game’s first two goals, then gave up five in a row and dropped a 5-2 decision to the Oil Kings, who had been off on Saturday. . . .

Meanwhile, the Pats were in Alberta for two games. They played Saturday night in Red Deer, losing 4-2, and then had to be back on the ice Sunday in Calgary for an 11 a.m. — yes, a.m. — start. They were drubbed, 10-3, by the Hitmen, who got four goals and two assists from F Riley Fiddler-Schultz.

Yes, there oughta be a rule about morning or afternoon starts after a team has played the previous night. And it should never, ever happen when the home team was off the previous night.

A celebration of Matt Swaby’s life is scheduled for Friday, 1 p.m., at the Prince Albert Exhibition Centre. Swaby, who played in the WHL for four seasons, was killed in a farm accident near Prince Albert on Friday. He was 34 and is survived by his wife, Carla, and three sons — Thomas, 6; Blake, 4; and Kody, 2. . . . The celebration of life is to be videotaped and live-streamed at grays.ca/memorial-videos/ . . . A GoFundMe page to benefit the family had raised $178,106 as of Monday evening. That page is right here.

The Dallas Cowboys will be without head coach Mike McCarthy on Thursday when they meet the host New Orleans Saints. He has tested positive, and there are reports that the Cowboys have as many as eight positives in their organization. That includes WR Amari Cooper, who is unvaccinated and has missed two games after a positive test. . . .

NFL teams placed at least seven players on the COVID-19 list on Monday — S Kevin Byard of the Tennessee Titans, OT Kyle Murphy of the New York Giants, CB Patrick Peterson of the Minnesota Vikings, DB Kevin Seymour of the Baltimore Ravens, long-snapper Trent Sieg of the Las Vegas Raiders, RB J.J. Taylor of the New England Patriots and LB T.J. Watt of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Off the Mark
Off the Mark

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE BENJAMINS . . .

The CBA that governs Major League Baseball expires on Wednesday night at 11:59 ET. At that time, it is expected that MLB will lock out the players; it also is anticipated that this lockout could last and last and last and . . .

And won’t it be fun if any of the owners plead poverty.

After all, the New York Mets have signed RHP Max Scherzer, 37, to a three-year deal worth $130 million. As Darren Rovell, a sports business reporter, pointed out, Scherzer will make $3.95 million more this year than the Mets paid Dwight Gooden for his entire time in New York, factoring for inflation.” Scherzer has averaged 28 starts and 182 innings pitched in his career. Based on that, he will be paid $1.5 million per start, or $238,000 per inning. . . . Remember when people got excited when the New York Yankees signed RHP Gerritt Cole to a deal that pays him $36 million per season? That was in 2019. Scherzer will make $43.3 million a season.

The Mets aren’t the only team throwing money around.

LHP Robbie Ray won the American League’s Cy Young Award in his only season with the Toronto Blue Jays and now is headed to the Seattle Mariners for $115 million over five years.

The Blue Jays turned around and signed RHP Kevin Gausman for $110 million over five years.

Toronto also lost 2B Marcus Semien, who hit 45 home runs in 2021. He is joining the Texas Rangers for $175 million over seven years. The Rangers also have signed SS Corey Seager for $325 million over 10 years. He had been with the Los Angeles Dodgers with whom he was the 2020 World Series MVP.

Meanwhile, in the world of U.S. college football, Lincoln Riley, 38, is leaving Oklahoma after five seasons to become the head coach of the USC Trojans. Why is he moving? Well, his new contract apparently is worth $110 million. As well, USC will purchase the two homes he owns in Norman, Okla., for $500,000 over the asking price; USC is to buy him a $6 million home in Los Angeles; and he will have unlimited use of a private jet for his family. . . .

At the same time, head coach Brian Kelly, 60, is leaving the Notre Dame Fighting Irish for LSU, and it’s expected that he’ll be paid $15 million per season. . . . Kelly’s Notre Dame players found out via social media; he then sent a text to them, telling them that he will inform them officially when they meet at, uhh, 7 a,m.

What do you think? Is it time to pay the players?

YogiBear

The Winter Universiade, featuring university athletes from more than 50 countries, was to have opened in Lucerne, Switzerland, on Dec. 11, with 102 Canadian student athletes in attendance. However, the games were cancelled on Monday as part of the world’s reaction to Omicron, the latest COVID-19 variant. Including coaches and support staff, Canada would have had 144 people in Lucerne. . . . The next Winter Universiade is scheduled for Lake Placid, N.Y., in January 2023.

If you are interested in being a living kidney donor, more information is available here:

Living Kidney Donor Program

St. Paul’s Hospital

6A Providence Building

1081 Burrard Street

Vancouver, BC V6Z 1Y6

Tel: 604-806-9027

Toll free: 1-877-922-9822

Fax: 604-806-9873

Email: donornurse@providencehealth.bc.ca

——

Vancouver General Hospital Living Donor Program – Kidney 

Gordon and Leslie Diamond Health Care Centre

Level 5, 2775 Laurel Street

Vancouver, BC V5Z 1M9

604-875-5182 or 1-855-875-5182

kidneydonornurse@vch.ca

——

Or, for more information, visit right here.

Raise

Mondays with Murray: Would an Olympic Boycott Really Free Shcharansky?

The 2022 Beijing Olympics are scheduled to begin on Feb. 4 and run through Feb. 20. The Games will coincide with the host country’s most important holiday, the Chinese New Year, which begins on Feb. 1. Along with dozens of rights groups who are advocating a full boycott over China’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang and other regions, governments are weighing whether to boycott the games.

In today’s “Mondays with Murray,” Jim Murray addresses the issue of boycotting the 1980 Olympics.

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FRIDAY, JULY 21, 1978, SPORTS

Copyright 1978/THE TIMES MIRROR COMPANY

JIM MURRAY

Would an Olympic Boycott Really Free Shcharansky?

“The Olympics movement tends to bring together in a radiant union all the qualities which guide mankind to perfection.”

— Baron Pierre De Couberttin, Paris, 1900

  Poor old Baron de Coubertin. Born in Paris on New Year’s Day in 1862, trying for a military career at St. Cyr despite being passionately devoted to peace all his mondaysmurray2life, he conceived the quaint notion that the best way to ensure international tranquility was through the games people play. So he revived the ancient Olympic Games in 1896 to “promote global amity.” If countries persisted in misunderstanding each other’s politics, perhaps they could get on common ground through athletics.

  The ancient Games had foundered in a miasma of quarrels, jealousies and commercialization, but the baron reasoned we were a more adult world now and above such pettiness.

  Unfortunately, the ancient Games were run by gods. The modern Games were run by men. Rich men.

  They tried to keep the baron’s ideals inviolate, they tried to keep the Games apolitical, a foreign elite of sportsmen, far above the madding crowd.

  It worked fine until the IOC’s governing body of dukes, earls, marquises, counts and barons could not resist the trappings of Nazi Germany, whose citizens looked to them like their kind of people. There were abortive attempts to boycott the Games in 1936 by the U.S. There were already dark rumors about Nazi treatment of Jews, but it had not yet approached the sharp frenzy it was to become. The “final solution” was still some years off and, although synagogs were being stoned, and Himmler was beginning to pick sites for his death camps, Hitler cunningly removed the “Jews Not Welcome” signs from Berlin, Leni Reifenstahl took movies and, all in all, it looked like just a nice track meet.

  The Germans were thus the first to seize the Olympic platform to make political capital — the first, but not the last.

  In Mexico, in 1968, student unrest on the Avenida of the Insurgentes rose to fever pitch on the eve of the Games, and the IOC president, Avery Brundage, gravely troubled, met in some urgency with the Mexican president and wondered aloud if he shouldn’t move the Games to a more secure location. He was assured by the police the Games would go on without trouble. And, about two weeks before the opening ceremonies, student demonstration permitted in the Plaza of the Three Cultures was wantonly fired on, and, when the dead were cleared away, the Games had its peaceful venue.

  Or, almost. In America, Black athletes that year had weighed boycott, too, not of Mexico but of America. They ultimately elected to compete, but chose the victory stand, where the cameras of 100 countries around the world were on them, to show black-gloved defiance at the raising of the American flag and the opening notes of the national anthem.

  Mild as it was, the lesson was not lost on the terrorists, revolutionaries and people with causes throughout the world. At Munich, the guerrillas didn’t raise black gloves, they raised Kalashnikov machine rifles. First a black glove in the air, then a pulled grenade in a helicopter. The Olympic flag had a new ring, a death head.

  The 1980 Olympics are being scheduled to a counterpoint of dissidence in the host nation, where men are being sent to Siberia for devotion to free speech and the right to criticize its absence. Anatoly Shcharansky goes to the Gulag Archipelago for no visible crime, and the U.S. is all but up in arms. The Soviets make the classic rejoinder, the hell with you Yanks, what about the lynchings in America? They have a point, even though most of the lynchings in America these days are in Central Park, but Americans not only want to deprive Russia of American farm machinery but American athletes as well.

  But, on the eve of the Melbourne Olympics in 1956, Soviet armor crushed hundreds or thousands of Hungarian Freedom Fighters, and we marched, not to war, but to the start line with them. On the eve of the Mexico Olympics, Soviet tanks appeared on the streets of Czechoslovakia and again hundreds upon hundreds of Shcharanskys were not only thrown in jail but killed in the streets.

  The organizers know that, once dead, the Olympic Games stay dead for 1,500 years. If boycotting the Games, or even canceling them, would free Shcharansky, or any of the thousands of poor wretches in the salt mines, it would be a small price. And if the Soviets pull a last-minute power play to bar Israel from the Games, the way the Chinese did Taiwan at Montreal, the U.S. should promptly pull out.

  A U.S. pullout would almost certainly torch the Olympic movement once and for all. And there is very little doubt the Soviets would boycott the Games if they were scheduled, say, in Chile.

  But would a final irrevocable boycott help — or hurt — Shcharansky? Would the Russian man in the street or woman in the street really understand why we turned down their party? Wouldn’t a boycott threat serve as well as a boycott? Anyway, do the Games have to become a political football? If they do, let’s just cancel them forthwith. I think, by now, even Baron de Coubertin would agree.

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Reprinted with the permission of the Los Angeles Times

Jim Murray Memorial Foundation P.O. Box 661532, Arcadia, CA 91066

——

The Jim Murray Memorial Foundation’s mission is to establish a permanent legacy to Jim Murray. The JMMF has joined forces with the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. The National Baseball Hall of Fame and MLB share significant and timeless overlapping history with Jim Murray. Jim Murray wrote more columns on baseball than he wrote on any other sport, bringing baseball’s history and legends to life through sports journalism.

The JMMF will continue its “Mondays with Murray” posts indefinitely with a link to the Cooperstown Baseball Hall of Fame website supporting its new Jim Murray initiative. The JMMF will dissolve its 501(c)(3) status and distribute its remaining financial assets to the Hall of Fame.

Baseball Hall of Fame non-profit 501(c)(3) #15-0572877

Preserving History. Honoring Excellence. Connecting Generations.

info@jimmurrayfoundation.org|

www.jimmurrayfoundation.org

Scattershooting on a Saturday night while the hockey world mourns . . .

Scattershooting2

Matt Swaby, who spent four seasons playing in the WHL, was killed in what family members say was a farming accident on Friday. . . . Swaby, 34, was a native of Prince Albert. . . . A defenceman, he spent three seasons (2004-07) with the Tri-City Americans and one (2007-08) with the Edmonton Oil Kings. . . . The Oil Kings were an expansion team that season and management chose to acquire Swaby to serve as their captain in what was his 20-year-old season. . . . AJ Jakubec, who was the Oil Kings’ play-by-play voice back then, tweeted: “Heartbreaking. The perfect captain for an expansion team. Humble, hard-working guy with a great sense of humour. Loved this guy.” . . . Swaby went on to play three seasons with the U of Saskatchewan Huskies. . . . He is survived by his wife Carla and their three boys — Thomas, 6; Blake, 4 and Kody, 2.

THE COACHING GAME:

Shaun Clouston moved into the Top 10 on Saturday night. Clouston, the general manager and head coach of the Kamloops Blazers, posted his 467th regular-Kamloopsseason coaching victory and that moved him into 10th place on the WHL’s all-time list. He did in style, too, as the Blazers (17-2-0) won, 3-2, in Everett, handing the Silvertips (16-1-2) their first regulation-time loss of the season. Kamloops G Dylan Garand (14-2-2, 1.76, .935) came up with 41 stops. . . . Everett actually has lost two in a row now, having dropped a 4-3 OT decision to the host Victoria Royals on Friday. . . . Clouston’s 467th victory moved him past Peter Anholt and Jack Shupe and into sole possession of 10th spot on the all-time list that is led by Don Day (750). . . . Clouston has 76 victories with the Blazers after putting up 375 with the Medicine Hat Tigers and 16 with the Tri-City Americans. He won’t be moving up the ladder again anytime soon because the next man on the list, Pat Ginnell, is at 518. . . . BTW, the Blazers went 4-0-0 on a swing into the U.S. Division, winning twice in Kent, Wash., and beating the Winterhawks, 4-3, in Portland on Friday night. . . .

Marc Habscheid, the winningest active head coach in the WHL these days, put up No. 561 on Saturday night, his Prince Albert Raiders beating the Wheat RaidersKings, 2-1, in Brandon. It would seem that he didn’t get fined — at least, there isn’t anything noted on the WHL’s discipline page — after getting tossed for whispering Christmas greetings to the on-ice officials prior to the start of the third period of a 4-1 loss to the visiting Moose Jaw Warriors on Wednesday. . . . BTW, after D Kaiden Guhle scored twice in the Raiders’ 2-1 victory over the host Brandon Wheat Kings on Saturday night, Habscheid told Jason Kerr of the Prince Albert Daily Herald that Guhle “might be, for his age, the best player in the world. He’s just a special player.” Guhle, 19, was selected by the Montreal Canadiens with the 16th pick of the NHL’s 2020 draft. He has signed his first NHL contract.

Tacos

Scott Ostler, in the San Francisco Chronicle: “A pro golfer can still make a decent buck, if he’s willing to travel. While Phil Mickelson pocketed $2.16 million for winning the PGA Championship and Jon Rahm $2.25 mil for winning the U.S. Open, Collin Morikawa just cashed a check for $2.97 million for winning some tourney in Dubai. Now you know why gas prices are so high.”

Headline at The Onion (@TheOnion): World Chess Championship Forced To Use Salt Shaker After Losing Bishop

Ken Campbell, at Hockey Unfiltered (and he is correct): “Love the New Jersey Devils third sweater. Love it. And even though it has ‘Jersey’ emblazoned across the front, it’s a sweater, not a jersey. Always has been, always will be.”

With eight players on the COVID-19 protocol list, the NHL finally stepped in and nhl2halted the New York Islanders’ season, at least for now. The Isles were to have played the New York Rangers today and then visited the Flyers in Philadelphia on Tuesday. Those games have been postponed. The Islanders next are scheduled to play on Thursday against the visiting San Jose Sharks. . . . The final straw for the NHL came Saturday when F Casey Cizikas went on the list. He became player No. 8, joining F Josh Bailey, F Kieffer Bellows, D Zdeno Chara, D Andy Greene, F Ross Johnston, F Anders Lee and D Adam Pelech. . . . Earlier, the Ottawa Senators had three games postponed as they went through a stretch in which 10 players and a coach were impacted. The Sharks and Pittsburgh Penguins also have been down this road, but their schedules were left intact.

JUST NOTES: If you’ve been watching NHL games of late, I think you will agree that the crackdown on cross-checking has come to an end. . . . We shouldn’t expect anything different from a league in which one player (F Artemi Panarin of the New York Rangers) gets fined $5,000 for throwing a glove at another player (super-pest Brad Marchand of the Boston Bruins). As Larry Brooks of the New York Post points out that’s the same amount that “Tom Wilson was (fined) for punching Pavel Buchnevich in the head while he was laying face down on the ice.” . . .

The Thursday afternoon NFL game between the Las Vegas Raiders and the host Dallas Cowboys drew 38.531 million viewers to CBS (TV and streaming), the highest total for a regular-season game since 1990. Just in case you were wondering why neither the NBA nor the NHL played any games on what was American Thanksgiving. . . .

You may have heard that the City of St. Louis will get US$790 million from the NFL and Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke to settle a lawsuit stemming from the team’s departure  in 2016. If you were wondering about how much the lawyers get, well, according to the aforementioned Scott Ostler, it seems the firm that represented St. Louis gets a cool 35 per cent, or $276 million.

Mom

The two Canadian sports networks — TSN and Rogers Sportsnet — are so large that I have 14 of their channels available in my home. On Saturday afternoon, TSN’s six channels featured Canadian Olympic curling trials (2), Spanish Primera Division soccer (2), U.S. college football (Penn State at Michigan State) and an AHL game between the Cleveland Monsters and Toronto Marlies. Meanwhile, Sportsnet was showing Bundesliga on five channels, poker on two and rasslin’ on another. . . . You know what they weren’t showing? Canadian university football. . . . Look, they can be excused for not showing the eastern semifinal because USports has a problem that it chooses not to address. The AUS entry gets an automatic semifinal berth and often gets routed, which is what happened to the St. Francis Xavier X-Men on Saturday when they went to London, Ont., and got whipped, 61-6, by the host Mustangs in the Mitchell Bowl. It was 51-3 at the half. . . . Later, in the game that should have been televised nationally, the Saskatchewan Huskies took the lead for the first time with five seconds left in the fourth quarter and beat the host Montreal Carabins, 14-10, to claim the Uteck Bowl. . . . The Huskies will face Western in the Vanier Cup in Quebec City on Dec. 4. . . . The Vanier Cup will be televised . . . by CBC.

Does Wilt Chamberlain get the credit he’s due for being a great, great NBA player? Steph Curry of the Golden State Warriors enjoyed his 220th career 30-point game on Friday night, in a 118-103 victory over the visiting Portland Trail Blazers. That is third on the Warriors’ all-time list. Next up is Rick Barry at 223. Chamberlain is No. 1, at 369. Yes, as prolific a scorer as Curry is, he still is 149 behind Chamberlain.

Hey, Luke, well done! Have to admit I had a lump in my throat and it wasn’t a sugar cube.

Fantasy

JUNIOR JOTTINGS: The AJHL’s Sherwood Park Crusaders announced Thursday that Adam Manah, their general manager and head coach, had “departed his position . . . effective immediately.” Adam Sergerie has taken over as the GM, with Jeff Woywitka now the head coach. Manah had been with the Crusaders since signing on as associate coach in 2015. He took over as head coach in 2016. The Crusaders were 9-15-1 — they had lost four in a row — at the time of the announcement, good for seventh place in the eight-team Viterra AJHL North.

Mike Lupica, in the New York Daily News: “Amari Cooper is just the latest chowderhead in sports to help cost his team a game by being unvaccinated. While being paid $21 million a year by Jerry Jones. What a guy. Cooper, that is.”

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Lupica, again: “You know who’s going to end up with settlement money from the NFL one of these days? Jon Gruden. They’re either going to have to pay him, or they’re going to have to release all of the emails relating to the Washington Football Team.”

Lumber

If you are interested in being a living kidney donor, more information is available here:

Living Kidney Donor Program

St. Paul’s Hospital

6A Providence Building

1081 Burrard Street

Vancouver, BC V6Z 1Y6

Tel: 604-806-9027

Toll free: 1-877-922-9822

Fax: 604-806-9873

Email: donornurse@providencehealth.bc.ca

——

Vancouver General Hospital Living Donor Program – Kidney 

Gordon and Leslie Diamond Health Care Centre

Level 5, 2775 Laurel Street

Vancouver, BC V5Z 1M9

604-875-5182 or 1-855-875-5182

kidneydonornurse@vch.ca

——

Or, for more information, visit right here.

Airbags

Ferris soon to turn 5 and would love a kidney for her birthday . . . She wakes up most days asking, ‘What we gonna do today, Mommy?’

Ferrisposter

Early in 2022, Ferris Backmeyer will turn five years of age.

She will have been on dialysis for almost four of those years.

Yes, she is in dire need of a kidney transplant. Ferris, who lives in Kamloops with her family, actually underwent a transplant early this year, but there were immediate difficulties and the ‘new’ kidney had to be removed.

“She’s spent the last 3.5 years living life on dialysis and the only hope we have for her to have better days is for her to have a successful kidney transplant,” her mother, Lindsey, wrote on Facebook this week. “Ferris has a lot of things stacked up against her, but we remain hopeful that there’s a kidney out there that will fit and work perfectly for her.”

Ferris
If you didn’t know her, you might think that Ferris Backmeyer is a happy, healthy youngster who loves to be outdoors. (Photo: Lindsey Backmeyer/Facebook)

It is incredibly hard to fathom a youngster soon to turn five who really has known nothing but dialysis for almost her entire life. She is hooked up to a cycler every single night, with the machine doing what healthy kidneys would do. Every single night. Think about that for a moment or two. Every single night.

“She has had a bit of a rough fall,” Lindsey wrote, “but somehow is still thriving developmentally. If you were to come and spend the afternoon playing with her or have been at the pool with us . . . you’d have no idea that she faces enormous battles every single day. That she wakes up violently ill every single morning, or that she’s already needed bloodwork drawn three times this month, is needing weekly Aranesp injections and then throw in the obligatory flu shot! She’s had a juicy cough since September and as of late has been really anemic. Not to mention what little growth we were seeing comes to a complete stop anytime she’s sick. It’s all feeling a little extra and fragile and shoe in mid-air about to drop!”

Being the parent of a child with Ferris’s health issues is like being on a roller-coaster, only you’re on the ride every single day.

“Our sweet girl . . . I look at her and it’s just impossible to find the right words to explain how things have been going,” Lindsey wrote. “Some days I feel like we are slaying it and, all in a moment it seems, completely overwhelmed.

“Our experience would sound unbelievable and incredibly dramatic. It’s unbelievable to me most of the time and I’m living it.”

What it means is that the family calendar is dominated by medical appointments of one kind or another.

“We had a stretch of weeks where we had some sort of appointment every single weekday. For weeks! The management of all things Ferris is no joke,” Lindsey added. “There’s the medical side where we’ve got this girl who is so fragile and requires intensive daily medical treatment with hopes of being transplanted and desperately trying to stay well enough to continue living our lives at home in Kamloops.”

Through it all, Lindsey and her husband, Pat, can’t lose sight of the fact that Ferris is excited about going to school next fall, just like her big sisters — Tavia and Ksenia. With Ferris, however, going to school isn’t as simple as showing up and dropping her off.

“There’s also all the therapies involved in having a kiddo like Ferris,” Lindsey explained. “She’s turning five in January which means school next September! There are a lot of people involved in helping us ensure she will be supported.

“Kidney disease has a hold on her so tight, but she also has significant visual disability as well as significant hearing loss. Both impact her life in huge ways. My hope is things stay calm enough that she gets to go to school like we are planning for. Better yet . . . a successful kidney transplant before then and her experience of school will be completely different.

“My heart is truly bursting with pride as I watch Ferris grow into the preschooler that she is! She loves to play!! She is so strongly influenced by her sisters and is sooooo sassy!! She loves going to school. She is so eager to go even with the roughest of dialysis hangovers.”

Oh my, this girl is one tough cookie. She really is.

“She teaches me big lessons about life, humanity, suffering,” Lindsey wrote. “She is a bright, shiny light of resilience and oblivion. She wouldn’t say she has a hard life at all. There’s so many things that she loves, and she wakes up most days asking, ‘What we gonna do today, Mommy?’ ”

In an earlier Facebook post, Lindsey summed up life with Ferris on one paragraph:

“She’s sick. You wouldn’t know it because she is amazingly resilient, but she deserves better than this. Gagging, wretching and vomiting every morning is normal once again for her. Her growth is incredibly poor. Her bone health is suffering. She doesn’t have the stamina to walk more than a block and relies on her stroller or being carried a lot of the time. She’s such a happy kid, though, and once she gets to know you or if she likes you, she’s hilarious . . . and smart and has a tonne of personality! She plays hard once she finds her feet each day. She wouldn’t say she has a bad life at all. I could very selfishly keep her like this forever if that were an option. If I knew she could live a long life like this . . . I’d very selfishly not list her and not do scary things. We love her so much and she deserves to experience life after a successful kidney transplant.”

Ferris now is on the deceased donor list and the national sensitivity donor list. Lindsey is hopeful that even more prospective donors will see her post on Facebook and that they will “flood the inbox of St. Paul’s living donor program. We are so grateful for every single person who has tried to help change her life. She deserves so much better than this and she doesn’t even know it.”

——

If you are interested in being a living kidney donor, more information is available here:

Living Kidney Donor Program

St. Paul’s Hospital

6A Providence Building

1081 Burrard Street

Vancouver, BC V6Z 1Y6

Tel: 604-806-9027

Toll free: 1-877-922-9822

Fax: 604-806-9873

Email: donornurse@providencehealth.bc.ca

——

Vancouver General Hospital Living Donor Program – Kidney 

Gordon and Leslie Diamond Health Care Centre

Level 5, 2775 Laurel Street

Vancouver, BC V5Z 1M9

604-875-5182 or 1-855-875-5182

kidneydonornurse@vch.ca

——

Or, for more information, visit right here.

www.transplant.bc.ca/health-info/organ-donation/living-donation

——

The amazingly horrendous weather that parts of B.C. have experienced — and will see again this weekend — have led to all kinds of difficulties involving travel. For example, highways that had been reopened earlier this week will shut down on the weekend in anticipation of more wet weather that is expected.

This is especially hard on people with medical needs that have to be dealt with in Vancouver.

The Backmeyers are included in that group.

They were to have been at B.C. Children’s Hospital this week but the weather got in the way. They now are scheduled to be there early next month, but getting there might be a bit difficult unless they can fly.

The same holds true for John Casey of Kamloops, who had a kidney transplant at Vancouver General Hospital on May 31. He has an appointment there early in December and, with the highways closed, has gone ahead and made airline reservations.

John and his wife, Marlene, were regulars with the Kamloops Kidney Support Group before the pandemic brought things to a screeching halt. So was Vic Morin, who can be seen driving around Kamloops with a sign in the back window of his car pointing out that he needs a kidney.

Vic1
Vic Morin has been driving around Kamloops in the hopes of finding a kidney donor.
Zach2
Zach Tremblay of Robson, B.C., is 17 now, but one thing hasn’t changed — he still needs a kidney. Can you help?

Whenever my wife, Dorothy, is asked about her kidney transplant, she is quick to talk about the paired donor exchange program. It turns out that she isn’t alone. . . . Paulette Talerico of Golden, B.C., donated a kidney to a nephew, Pierre Pelletier of Vancouver, in August. These days, as Claire Palmer of the Golden Star reported, Paulette is encouraging others to become live donors. . . . “Hopefully more people will now because I didn’t realize how many people are actually in need of a kidney, it’s just unbelievable,” Paulette said. “I just want people to know that it’s not hard and it’s very rewarding — you could save someone’s life.” . . . Palmer’s story is right here.

While adding Paulette Talerico to my list of heroines, I also added Kennedie Maidment, a critical care nurse at Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops. Her father, Tony, had a liver transplant a while back and Kennedie has long spoken out about her support of organ donation and transplantation. . . . Late last month, Kennedie tweeted this . . .

Want an easy win to feel great? Register to be an organ donor today. It will only #TakeTwoMinutes and you could save a life. Great deed and fuzzy feels without any hassle. #Register2Give taketwominutes.ca

Clouston headed for WHL’s Top 10 . . . Carrier lit it up, but nothing near record . . . Coaching change in Russia

MOVIN’ ON UP: Shaun Clouston, the Kamloops Blazers’ general manager and head coach, moved into a tie for 12th on the WHL’s all-time victory list as his club beat the Seattle Thunderbirds, 5-1, in Kent, Wash., on Wednesday night. . . . That was Clouston’s 465th victory — he also has been the head coach of the Tri-City Americans (16) and Medicine Hat Tigers (375). Clouston, 53, now is tied with Dean Clark and Kelly McCrimmon. . . . The Blazers are scheduled to meet the Winterhawks in Portland tonight. A Kamloops victory would lift Clouston into a tie with Jack Shupe and Peter Anholt for 10th on the list. . . . Kamloops (15-2-0) is to play the Silvertips (16-0-1) in Everett on Saturday.

SHARE AND SHARE ALIKE: It turns out that the Tri-City Americans and Kelowna Rockets are sharing not one, but two goaltending coaches. . . . The Rockets acquired G Talyn Boyko from the Americans on Nov. 7. Eight days later, the Rockets announced that Eli Wilson, the Americans’ goaltending coach, would be their goaltending coach, too. It turns out that Kelowna general manager Bruce Hamilton had asked Tri-City GM Bob Tory about sharing Wilson. Tory agreed, as long as Wilson, who lives in Kelowna, would continue to spent one week a month with the Americans. . . . What the Rockets’ news release didn’t mention is that Liam McOnie has joined them as a goaltending consultant. McOnie, who has worked with Wilson for five years, also is a goaltending consultant with the Americans. McOnie also is the general manager and head coach of the junior B North Okanagan Knights of the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League, who play out of Armstrong, B.C.

Herman

A tip of the Taking Note fedora to F Cole Carrier of the Regina Pats. . . . Carrier, 19, was pointless with the Pats leading the host Medicine Hat Tigers 3-2 and Patsfewer than five minutes remaining in the third period on Tuesday night. . . . He then scored three straight goals — at 15:05, 16:23 and 18:45 — in a span of 3:40 to finish off Regina’s 6-2 victory. . . . As quick as that was, Carrier was 3:16 shy of the WHL record that is held by F Jim Harrison. On Dec. 5, 1966, Harrison scored at 19:31, 19:44 and 19:55 of the third period to give the Estevan Bruins a 6-5 victory over the Pats. According to the Regina Leader-Post of Dec. 5, 1966, Harrison, who also had two assists, “scored the winner . . . after the Bruins had pulled goalie Gordon Kopp for an extra attacker.” The story didn’t indicate why the Bruins had pulled their goaltender in a tie game, but perhaps there was a faceoff in Regina’s zone and Estevan coach Ernie (Punch) McLean chose to play a hunch. . . . Harrison did it in the first season of what was then known as the Canadian Major Junior Hockey League. . . . At that point, Harrison had 40 points, including 18 goals, in Estevan’s first 20 games. . . . That season also was the first for McLean as the Bruins’ head coach. He and Bill Shinske had been among 35 shareholders who had purchased the team from Scotty Munro during the 1965-66 season. . . . Carrier, from Strathcona, Alta., came out of Tuesday’s game, his 19th this season with eight goals. He went into the season with four goals in 44 games.

Prince Albert head coach Marc Habscheid would have been better off to spend his money on postage stamps and send Christmas cards to referees Adam Bloski and Troy Murray, who handled the Raiders’ 5-1 loss to the visiting Moose Jaw Warriors on Wednesday night. . . . As Jeff D’Andrea noted in the above tweet, Habscheid came out of the dressing room with his team to start the third period, offered up Christmas greetings and then wasn’t around when the puck was dropped. . . . There wasn’t anything on the WHL’s website late Thursday night, but surely the league will dip into the wallet of the WHL’s winningest active coach (560 victories).

THE TWOS HAVE IT: The Portland Winterhawks were beaten, 3-2 in OT, by the Kelowna Rockets on Wednesday night. Later, Andy Kemper, the Winterhawks’ historian, informed us via Twitter that this “was the 86th time in Winterhawks history that a game ended in a 2-2 score after regulation.” Furthermore, he pointed out that in those games, Portland had 22 victories, opponents had 22, and 22 ended in ties. In games that needed a shootout, Portland has 10 victories and opponents have 10 victories.

IN THE Q: The QMJHL’s Acadie-Bathurst Titan fired head coach Mario Durocher on Thursday, with assistant coach Greg Leland moving up at least on an interim basis. The Titan are 9-9-2. . . . Leland signed with the Titan on July 3, 2020. . . . Durocher, 58, is a veteran coach who first coached in the league in 1992 when he was an assistant coach with the Sherbrooke Faucons. He had been behind the Titan’s bench since November 2018. . . . In Victoriaville, the Tigres signed general manager Kevin Cloutier to an extension that runs through the 2026-27 season.

Villain

JUST NOTES: I was doing some searching through Regina Leader-Post archives the other night and discovered that the sports section featured a regular column — Curling with Hack Waight. Yes, those were the days. . . . When the CHL’s weekly rankings showed up on Wednesday, the top four slots were occupied by WHL teams — in order, the Winnipeg Ice, Everett Silvertips, Kamloops Blazers and Edmonton Oil Kings. . . . All four teams won that night. That improved Winnipeg’s record to 20-1-0, with Everett at 16-0-1, Kamloops at 15-2-0, and Edmonton at 15-3-3. . . . There will be a party in Whistler, B.C., to celebrate the World Hockey Association’s 50th anniversary. You do remember the WHA, don’t you? The party will run from Oct. 6 through Oct. 9 of 2022. Harrison Brooks of Pique Newsmagazine has more right here.

COACHING CHANGE WITH RUSSIAN JUNIORS: Sergei Zubov, a former NHL defenceman who has two Stanley Cup rings, will be the head coach of the Russian entry at the World Junior Championship that is to open in Edmonton and Red Deer on Dec. 26. Oleg Bratash was to have been the head coach, but he now is an assistant coach, along with Alexander Titov and Vladimir Filatov. It appears that the change was made because of Zubov’s better understanding of the English language. . . . As Bratash explained to Martin Mark of iihf.com: “At the tournament we will speak a lot with the organizers, there will be a strict COVID-19 protocol, and Sergei speaks English as a result of his experience of living in North America. Furthermore, he has coached in the KHL. These aren’t major changes.” . . . Zubov won WJC gold with the Soviet Union team in 1989. He won Stanley Cups with the New York Rangers (1994) and Dallas Stars (1999). . . . The Russian junior team will open camp with medicals at Novogorsk on Dec. 1 and will wrap it up on Dec. 14. . . . You are going to want to watch Russia, assuming F Matvei Michkov makes the roster. Michkov, who turns 17 on Dec. 9, has two goals and three assists in 11 games with SKA St. Petersburg of the KHL. He also totalled 28 points, including 17 goals, in 11 games with two MJL teams.

Christmas

If you are interested in being a living kidney donor, more information is available here:

Living Kidney Donor Program

St. Paul’s Hospital

6A Providence Building

1081 Burrard Street

Vancouver, BC V6Z 1Y6

Tel: 604-806-9027

Toll free: 1-877-922-9822

Fax: 604-806-9873

Email: donornurse@providencehealth.bc.ca

——

Vancouver General Hospital Living Donor Program – Kidney 

Gordon and Leslie Diamond Health Care Centre

Level 5, 2775 Laurel Street

Vancouver, BC V5Z 1M9

604-875-5182 or 1-855-875-5182

kidneydonornurse@vch.ca

——

Or, for more information, visit right here.

Deergut

Mondays with Murray (on Thursday): You Don’t Know This Yet but . . .

NOVEMBER 26, 1995, SPORTS

Copyright 1995/THE TIMES MIRROR COMPANY 

Now I know why Jimmy Cannon invented the “Nobody asked me but . . .” column.

He needed the day off.

So do I. So, here goes. I think I’ll call mine, “You don’t want to know but . . .”

mondaysmurray2It’s easy to swallow your pride when that’s all you’ve had to eat that day.

Trash talking is something eight-year-olds in a schoolyard do. So, what’s the mental age of a millionaire who does it on the basketball court or the football field?

Australia wants to cut the women’s tennis tournament $330,000 below the men’s. Why? I’d rather watch Steffi Graf than Andre Agassi any old day.

Why is it that waiters who keep interrupting your pre-meal jokes are nowhere to be found when you want the check or some more cream for your coffee?

I throw in with the guy who says you know you’ve had it when your wife says, “We’ve got to talk.”

I’ve never known a guy who didn’t think he was five strokes better than he was on the golf course.

Baseball needs a commissioner like the Mafia needs a godfather. To cut down on the free-lance larceny. All I know is, Bud Selig ain’t it.

I wish Evander Holyfield would retire. Boxing needs another tragedy like baseball needs another strike.

Albert Belle scares me.

I wish my whole life were timed by those clocks they use to measure the final seconds of a basketball game. I’d be 11 years old now.

The way they let them travel in the NBA, they should put handles on the ball. The players look like more like bellhops than athletes.

Commercials are going to kill network TV.

If I ever get in trouble with the law, I want Don King’s jury.

Why don’t cars making a left turn move to the middle of the road so the car behind them can make one too?

Let me get this straight. Five and a half million people vote for a thing, then 15 elitists and one judge get to throw it out and they call it democracy? Give me another look at that dictionary.

If I’ve got a horse in the Derby, Chris McCarron gets the ride. He gets more out of a horse than anyone since Shoe.

You have to figure Corey Pavin came down with the dreaded U.S. Open disease. You win the Open, then disappear. Just ask Curtis Strange, Payne Stewart, Tom Kite and Ernie Els.

I make Citation the greatest race horse I ever saw because he won on three legs when he was five years old, but Affirmed was worse than second only twice in his career.

Am I the only one in the country who thinks naming teams after Native Americans is a compliment to them, not a denigration of them? Is calling a team the Cowboys meant to insult cattle wranglers?

How could they have left Ben Hogan’s winning his first U.S. Open at Riviera in 1948 off the list of “100 Greatest Moments in L.A. Sports History?” I made it no worse than second.

The University of Cincinnati graduated only 19% of its basketball player “students.” Stanford graduated 86%. But before I throw my hat in the air I have to see the subjects in which they graduated. Also, find out whether they were good enough for the pros to abort their pursuit of knowledge.

Read me where it says we have to have, like, 10 heavyweight “champions” at a time. Till Riddick Bowe and Mike Tyson fight, we don’t have any.

I never understood why a city builds a $200-million stadium for a football team to come in and play seven or eight games there. Why not use the money to build a factory for GM or GE to come in and hire 20,000 workers? That’s a lot of money to invest for 45 non-residents and a few peanut vendors to get employment.

I don’t care if the Fiesta Bowl has the two greatest teams on the planet, it still ain’t the Rose Bowl.

What’s wrong with naming Carl Lewis the greatest athlete of the half-century? It’s either he or Jackie Robinson.

That’s a wrap.

——

Reprinted with the permission of the Los Angeles Times

Jim Murray Memorial Foundation P.O. Box 661532, Arcadia, CA 91066

——

The Jim Murray Memorial Foundation’s mission is to establish a permanent legacy to Jim Murray. The JMMF has joined forces with the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. The National Baseball Hall of Fame and MLB share significant and timeless overlapping history with Jim Murray. Jim Murray wrote more columns on baseball than he wrote on any other sport, bringing baseball’s history and legends to life through sports journalism.

The JMMF will continue its “Mondays with Murray” posts indefinitely with a link to the Cooperstown Baseball Hall of Fame website supporting its new Jim Murray initiative. The JMMF will dissolve its 501(c)(3) status and distribute its remaining financial assets to the Hall of Fame.

Baseball Hall of Fame non-profit 501(c)(3) #15-0572877

Preserving History. Honoring Excellence. Connecting Generations.

info@jimmurrayfoundation.org|

www.jimmurrayfoundation.org

Cents’ Astorino has quite a story to tell . . . Jarvis unlikely to return to Portland now . . . Blazers’ Clouston moving on up

F Blake Astorino of the BCHL’s Merritt Centennials was among the residents of that B.C. community who were forced out by horrific flooding on Nov. 15. In MerrittMerritt, Astorino, a 20-year-old from Prince George, was billeting with Jenny and Jesse Pierce, whose home is a snapshot away from the Coldwater River.

Here’s a bit of what Ted Clarke of the Prince George Citizen wrote in a story about Astorino’s experiences . . .

It was just past 5 a.m. and the flood waters hadn’t reached the end of the driveway but within 15 minutes nature’s fury was lapping at their feet and waves rippled as a torrent of rising water enveloped their yard. As a third-generation Merritt resident, Jenny knew the house her grandparents built was prone to flooding occasionally, because it was only a short walk from the river, and Jesse told Blake they would likely be back later that day when the water level dropped. But it didn’t.

“I didn’t really pack as much stuff as I probably should have, and when I looked outside the water was starting to get a little worse, but it wasn’t serious,” Astorino said. “So I went back to my room for a bit and I heard (Jenny) yelling, ‘OK, we’ve got to go, we’ve got to go,’ and it happened within five minutes. It was like nothing to water almost in the house in 20 minutes. It was coming so fast and the water was strong.”

By the time Astorino got into his car, the rushing water was already lapping at the doors and as soon as he backed out of the driveway and started down the road his car was half-submerged.

“It was pretty scary for me because my car is so low to the ground and the water was coming up to my windshield and going over the roof,” Astorino said. “If I had left any later I would have been stuck. Luckily, it didn’t stall and I got out.”

Clarke’s complete story — and it’s an excellent one — is right here.

Bronx

It now is really doubtful that the Portland Winterhawks will have F Seth Jarvis in their lineup this season. Jarvis, 19, played in his 10th regular-season game with the Carolina Hurricanes on Monday night, meaning the first-year of his three-year entry-level contract has started. . . . The Hurricanes lost, 2-1 in OT, to the host San Jose Sharks. . . . Carolina selected Jarvis with the 13th pick of the NHL’s 2020 draft. . . . He has four goals and one assist in 10 games with the Hurricanes this season. . . . Interestingly, it was an injury to F Nino Niederreiter that opened a spot in the lineup for Jarvis on Oct. 31. Niederreiter also is a product of the Winterhawks. . . . Jarvis put up 73 goals and 93 assists in 154 regular-season WHL games, all with Portland. . . . Yes, Jarvis still could be assigned to the Winterhawks, but that isn’t likely to happen because the first year of his contract would be burned in any case.

QUESTIONS: Did the late Nat King Cole release only one Christmas song, that one being The Christmas Song? You know the one: Chestnuts roasting . . . Considering the battering that TE Rob Gronkowski of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers has taken — and continues to take — how is it that he is still able to walk, never mind run? . . . Have you seen enough of that Connor McDavid commercial yet? Or do you agree that Sportsnet could/should squeeze it in a few more times each evening?

Mitch Love suffered the first regulation-time defeat of his AHL head-coaching career on Monday night when the Stockton Heat dropped a 5-3 decision to the host Ontario Reign. . . . Love, a former WHL player and coach, spent the previous three seasons as the head coach of the Saskatoon Blades. That followed seven seasons as an assistant with the Everett Silvertips. . . . In last night’s loss, the Heat goals came from F Matthew Phillips, F Glenn Gawdin and and F Luke Philp, all three former WHLers. . . . The Heat now is 10-1-2.

Humor

Jon Keen, the radio voice of the Kamloops Blazers, reminds us via Twitter (@JonKeenNLSports) that Shaun Clouston, the team’s general manager and WHLhead coach, is moving up the WHL’s all-time victories ladder. “He sits at 464,” Keen tweeted. “One more win ties him with Dean Clark and Kelly McCrimmon for 12th all-time. Peter Anholt and Jack Shupe are next at 466.” . . .

Officially, the top five on that list won’t change, with Don Hay (750) on top, followed by Ken Hodge (742), Don Nachbaur (692), Lorne Molleken (626) and Mike Williamson (572). Of course, Hay, now the associate coach with the Portland Winterhawks, could add to his total should he have an opportunity to run the bench if head coach Mike Johnston is absent. That happened earlier this season but the Winterhawks dropped a 5-2 decision to the visiting Everett Silvertips with Johnston away on a scouting trip. . . .

Marc Habscheid of the Prince Albert Raiders is the winningest active coach. He’s in sixth spot, at 560, ahead of Ernie (Punch) McLean (548), Brent Sutter (526) and Pat Ginnell (518). . . .

Shupe and Anholt are tied for 10th, at 466, with McCrimmon and Clark next, at 465. . . . Clouston, whose club next is scheduled to play Wednesday in Kent, Wash., against the Seattle Thunderbirds, is 14th and has a chance to join the 500 Club before this season ends. . . . The Blazers (14-2-0) are on pace to win 60 games, but it isn’t likely they can play to an .875 winning percentage for 68 games. Still, a 50-victory season would have Clouston at an even 500 victories, making him the 10th head coach in WHL history to reach that milestone. . . .

Also in the 400 Club: Bob Lowes (453), Mike Johnston (420), Doug Sauter (417) and Marcel Comeau (411). . . . Johnston moved past Sauter this season. . . . Next into the 400 Club will be Willie Desjardins with the Medicine Hat Tigers. He is at 392, good for 19th on the all-time list.

NOTE: The WHL hasn’t updated its Media Guide and Record Book since before the 2019-20 season, so the totals for active coaches are unofficial.

——

Shaun Clouston and his Blazers are one game into something of a bizarre road Kamloopstrip. They beat the Seattle Thunderbirds, 5-1, in Kent, Wash., on Saturday night and are scheduled to play their again on Wednesday. But rather than stay in Kent or return home, the Blazers moved into Vancouver for a couple of days. . . . “Some guys went and rode bikes on the seawall and a bunch of our players went to the Canucks game (Sunday) night,” Clouston told Radio NL. “It was a nice break.” . . . The Blazers skated with players from St. George’s School at UBC on Monday. Tom Gaglardi, the Blazers’ majority owner, has served on the board at St. George’s and has had sons play hockey there. . . . After playing in Kent, the Blazers are scheduled to meet the Winterhawks in Portland on Friday and the Silvertips (15-0-1) in Everett on Saturday.

Fryer

It doesn’t appear that the situation involving the USHL’s Omaha Lancers has reached any sort of resolution just yet. Chris Peters of faceoff.com has been following the goings-on and his latest report is right here.

A tip of the fedora to F Carter Streek of the Spokane Chiefs, who just happens to Spokanebe from Kamloops. Due to injuries and a couple of positive tests, the Chiefs were short of forwards earlier this month, which is one of the reasons they gave up a seventh-round selection in the WHL’s 2022 draft to acquire Streek, 17, from the Saskatoon Blades on Nov. 11. . . . In 21 games with the Blades, six of them this season, Streek had yet to score. So guess what happened in his first game with the Chiefs? Yes, he scored his first WHL goal — it was Spokane’s first goal, tying the score 1-1 at 3:54 of the second period, in what would be a 5-3 loss to the visiting Seattle Thunderbirds.

COVID-19 NOTES: Boston College has postponed a pair of weekend men’s hockey games “due to COVID-19 protocols and out of an abundance of caution.” The Eagles were to have met host Notre Dame on Friday and then entertained Harvard on Nov. 30. . . . D Ethan Bear of the Carolina Hurricanes didn’t play Monday night against the Sharks in San Jose after testing positive. . . . You do realize that more people died from COVID-19 in 2021 than in 2020. USA TODAY reported on Monday: “The disease was reported as the underlying cause of death or a contributing cause of death for an estimated 377,883 people in 2020, accounting for 11.3% of deaths, according to the CDC. As of Monday, more than 770,000 people have died from the coronavirus, according to Johns Hopkins University data. That means over 15,000 more people have died in 2021 than last year from COVID-19 — and there’s still more than a month left.” . . . On Monday, The New York Times reported that “as Americans travel this week to meet far-flung relatives for Thanksgiving dinner, new virus cases are rising once more, especially in the Upper Midwest and Northeast.”

Cow

A group in Quesnel, B.C., that is headed up by Cory Broadhead is preparing to kijhlmake a proposal to the junior B Kootenay International Junior Hockey League in the hopes of landing a franchise that would be known as the Thunder and begin play in 2022-23. . . . Broadhead told George Henderson of mycariboonow.com: “We’ve received letters of support from some of the businesses in the community and a letter of support from the North Cariboo Advisory Committee to rent us the ice at the West Fraser Centre. I haven’t heard anything negative in town. It’s all been really positive and it sounds like this town would really support a team and go to the games.” . . . Broadhead said a proposal would be into the league “by the end of the week.” He added that according to its bylaws the KIJHL has “about 30 days to have a meeting.” A decision apparently would be announced three or four days after that meeting. . . . Henderson’s complete story is right here.

If you are interested in being a living kidney donor, more information is available here:

Living Kidney Donor Program

St. Paul’s Hospital

6A Providence Building

1081 Burrard Street

Vancouver, BC V6Z 1Y6

Tel: 604-806-9027

Toll free: 1-877-922-9822

Fax: 604-806-9873

Email: donornurse@providencehealth.bc.ca

——

Vancouver General Hospital Living Donor Program – Kidney 

Gordon and Leslie Diamond Health Care Centre

Level 5, 2775 Laurel Street

Vancouver, BC V5Z 1M9

604-875-5182 or 1-855-875-5182

kidneydonornurse@vch.ca

——

Or, for more information, visit right here.

Taxes

Scattershooting on a Sunday night after watching Canucks ring the pipes in loss to Blackhawks . . .

Scattershooting2

You know what I wish? I wish people would quit talking about wanting things to get back to “normal.”

I mean, what is “normal?” If you are remembering how things were two years ago, forget about it. Well, maybe don’t forget about it, but file those days in your memory bank, preferably in a chamber way in the back.

You may remember the good old days when someone would dial 911 if you walked into a store wearing a mask. When you didn’t use hand sanitizer at least a dozen times a day. When you didn’t have to wear a mask to a hockey game and there weren’t capacity limits on any of the arenas. When vaccination status didn’t matter when you invited friends over for dinner. When some areas of our hospitals weren’t bursting at the seams and when our healthcare workers weren’t burning out quicker than cheap candles.

You may remember them, but those days are gone. They’re not coming back, either, no matter how much you want to see them again.

In a year or two, when enough people have been fully vaccinated, including booster shots, and COVID-19 has been beaten down, perhaps society will be able to develop a new “normal.”

But we are a long way from there these days.

For now, the only Normal in our world is a town in Illinois.

Here in B.C., we have no idea what our normal will look like. We’re almost two years into the pandemic. We’ve had wildfires and all the smoke that came with them. We’ve had the landslides and the flooding.

About all that’s left is the locusts and I hear they’re gathering over the Pacific with a spring invasion in mind.

HELPIN’ OUT THE PACK: I have a dear friend who is a huge fan of the Green Bay Packers. A news release arrived in my inbox on Friday, and I could hardly wait GreenBayto forward it to him. . . . “Green Bay Packers fans in Canada now have the opportunity to purchase shares in the iconic franchise, the organization announced today,” the release reads. “Approximately 174,000 shares remain available for purchase. The team has clarified Canadian regulatory requirements and now is able to proceed with sales in Canada. The offering will continue until Feb. 25, 2022, subject to extension, or until fully subscribed. . . . The cost of a share in Canada is US$300, with a handling fee for each transaction.” . . . You are limited to purchasing a maximum of 200 shares and remember that they don’t appreciate in value. . . . So, for a mere Cdn$379.25 — that was the exchange rate on Friday — you are able to help the Packers pay Aaron Rodgers’ salary. . . . My friend? I would expect him to give himself a Merry Christmas with a share or five.

Liquor

TWO NEW IMPORTS: A pair of WHL franchises added import players late in the week. . . . The Regina Pats claimed Slovakian F Alex Geci, 18, off waivers from the OHL’s Sarnia Sting, which had selected him in the 2020 CHL import draft. He had one goal and two assists in nine games with the Sting this season. . . . Meanwhile, Russian F Alexei Shanaurin, 17, has arrived in Swift Current and is skating with the Broncos. They selected him in the 2021 import draft. . . . Neither Geci nor Shanaurin played on Saturday night. . . . Alan Caldwell, who tracks these things, informs that 21 of the WHL’s 22 teams now have their limit of two imports. The exception? The Red Deer Rebels.

CHANGES, CHANGES: The CFL’s West Division semifinal will feature the Calgary Stampeders and the Saskatchewan Roughriders in Regina on Sunday. CFLThe West final is to be played in Winnipeg on Dec. 5. . . . Between those dates, pandemic-related rules regarding flying will change in Canada, with travellers needing to be fully vaccinated after Nov. 30; negative test results no longer will be enough. . . . Dave Dickenson, the Stampeders’ head coach, admitted on Saturday that should the Stampeders advance they will have a different look in Winnipeg than they will in Regina. In other words, there are a few unvaccinated players in the Calgary locker room. . . . Meanwhile, the Roughriders moved third-string QB Paxton Lynch to the practice squad late last week because he is unvaccinated so is unable to fly. According to Murray McCormick of the Regina Leader-Post, Saskatchewan head coach Craig Dickenson said that Lynch is the lone unvaccinated player on the team’s roster. . . . “We’ve encouraged guys to get vaccinated and given them motives and incentives, which are mainly about the ability to play and travel,” Craig Dickenson said. “If they chose not to, that is their choice. We do the best we can. If someone doesn’t want to get vaccinated, we aren’t going to force them.” . . . With Lynch out of the picture, QB Mason Fine came off the Saskatchewan practice roster and is behind starter Cody Fajardo and Isaac Harker on the depth chart.

Early

PERRY’S CORNER: “House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy spoke for 8½ hours into the early hours Friday morning in futile opposition to President Biden’s social spending bill,” writes Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times. “Veteran observers say it was like watching a Yankees-Red Sox doubleheader.”

——

More from Perry: “Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Aminata Diallo has been arrested for allegedly setting up an attack on a soccer teammate. Jacques Gillooly immediately proclaimed his innocence.”

——

Perry also had this one: “According to NFL memes, NFL teams with cat names and those with bird names are tied at 209-209-10 all time. The Jaguars and Falcons will break the tie Nov. 28 — we hope.”

STORM WARNING: The junior B Kamloops Storm of the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League were back on home ice Sunday night, beating the North Okanagan Knights, 4-1. The Storm had one game postponed — it was to have entertained the Chase Heat on Nov. 17 — because its home arena is being used as an evacuation centre for Merritt residents who have had to flee a massive flood.

BIG GAME COUNTRY: It you’re a hockey fan, you might be eagerly awaiting WHLSaturday night. That’s when the Kamloops Blazers, now 14-2-0, are scheduled to visit the Everett Silvertips (14-0-1). . . . The Blazers beat the Seattle Thunderbirds, 5-1, in Kent, Wash., on Saturday and will be back there on Wednesday. Kamloops then will meet the host Portland Winterhawks on Friday before moving on to Everett. . . . The Silvertips, who dropped the visiting Thunderbirds, 5-2, on Sunday, are at home to the Tri-City Americans on Wednesday and then will visit the Victoria Royals on Friday. . . . Kamloops holds an 11-point lead over the second-place Kelowna Rockets (8-4-1) in the B.C. Division. . . . The Silvertips are atop the U.S. Division, eight points ahead of Seattle (11-5-1). . . .

Meanwhile, the Eastern Conference-leading Winnipeg Ice (19-1-0) will play their next seven games at home, starting Wednesday against the Swift Current Broncos (6-9-3). Of note are a doubleheader with the Saskatoon Blades (11-7-1) on Dec. 3 and 4, with the Edmonton Oil Kings (14-3-3) there for two on Dec. 8 and 11. . . . When the Ice finishes the homestand it’ll be wrapping up a stretch in which it played 12 of 14 games on home ice.

Map

CHEF’S KISS: Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle, with a cooking-related anecdote: “Antonio Brown’s former live-in chef outing Brown for allegedly obtaining a fake vax card is the best sports-chef story since 2004. That’s when Gary Sheffield accused Barry Bonds of luring away his live-in chef with a car, a home and repayment of student loans. It was history’s most celebrated case of chefjacking.”

JUST NOTES: After a day of NFL watching, I am left to wonder if the magic has left Seattle Seahawks QB Russell Wilson. You don’t hear Seahawks fans saying the team needs to “Let Russ Cook” these days. . . . Remember when the Pittsburgh Steelers ran the ball, ran the ball and ran the ball some more? . . . Some games you just aren’t destined to win. That’s what the Vancouver Canucks will be telling themselves today after hitting five posts in a 1-0 loss to G Marc-Andre Fleury and the visiting Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday night. Of course, another loss won’t do anything to keep the vultures from circling Rogers Arena. . . . It won’t happen, but it wouldn’t hurt if MLB added player-of-the-year awards to its trophy case, because that’s what the MVP honours have become. Why not have MVP and POY awards? . . . We can only hope that Sunday’s CFL division semifinals are more entertaining than what we’ve seen down the stretch.

Mental

If you are interested in being a living kidney donor, more information is available here:

Living Kidney Donor Program

St. Paul’s Hospital

6A Providence Building

1081 Burrard Street

Vancouver, BC V6Z 1Y6

Tel: 604-806-9027

Toll free: 1-877-922-9822

Fax: 604-806-9873

Email: donornurse@providencehealth.bc.ca

——

Vancouver General Hospital Living Donor Program – Kidney 

Gordon and Leslie Diamond Health Care Centre

Level 5, 2775 Laurel Street

Vancouver, BC V5Z 1M9

604-875-5182 or 1-855-875-5182

kidneydonornurse@vch.ca

——

Or, for more information, visit right here.

Igram

Struch pays price in Regina; Paddock back behind Pats’ bench . . . Bedard due to break out? . . . USHL’s Lancers in disarray

Dave Struch became the second head-coaching casualty of this WHL season when the Regina Pats fired him on Thursday morning.

John Paddock, a veteran of the coaching game and twice the winner of the Dunc PatsMcCallum Memorial Trophy as the WHL’s coach of the year, has taken over and now is the organization’s vice-president of hockey operations, general manager and head coach. Paddock ran the Pats’ practice in Regina on Thursday.

According to Pats’ owner/governor Shaun Semple, Paddock “will assume the role of head coach for the remainder of this season and next.”

Struch, 50, was in the final year of his contract. He had been with the Pats since 2014-15. He started as an assistant coach working alongside Paddock, then took over as head coach after the Pats were the host team for the 2018 Memorial Cup.

Prior to joining the Pats, Struch spent eight seasons on the Saskatoon Blades’ coaching staff, the last one (2013-14) as head coach.

“Not much to say, as this is what I signed up for as a coach,” Struch told the Regina Leader-Post via text on Thursday afternoon. “I’m sad for my family. Disappointed that I couldn’t help the team get more wins. Expectations are high for this group of young men to be at the top of the conference and I couldn’t make that happen.”

Struch exits with the Pats at 6-10-0, their most-recent appearance a 6-1 loss to the visiting Lethbridge Hurricanes that left them with three straight losses. The Pats’ season has been streaky — two victories, seven losses, four victories, three losses.

Assistant coaches Brad Herauf, who is in his seventh season, and Ken Schneider, in his first, were retained.

“I’m positive that with John, Brad and Ken, they will get (the Pats) back to the top where they should be this season,” Struch told The Leader-Post. “I am grateful to the organization for everything they have done for my family and I over the last seven years.”

Paddock, 67, makes his first appearance back behind the bench on Saturday as the Pats begin a six-game road trip against the Moose Jaw Warriors.

He has extensive head-coaching experience that includes stints in the NHL with the Winnipeg Jets and Ottawa Senators. He was the WHL’s coach of the year following the 2014-15 and 2016-17 seasons.

Rob Vanstone of the Regina Leader-Post has his thoughts on the Pats’ situation right here.

The other coach to depart since this season got started? Dean Brockman left the Swift  Current Broncos on Oct. 14.

——

With the Regina Pats having stumbled through the first part of the WHL’s regular season, there are those who are wondering about the first 16 games of F Connor Bedard’s season.

Bedard, the first player to have been granted exceptional status allowing him to play in the WHL as a 15-year-old, put up 12 goals and 16 assists in 15 games in the developmental season that was played in the Regina hub last spring.

This season, Bedard, now 16, has eight goals and four assists in 16 games.

However, as Ken Campbell wrote Thursday at Hockey Unfiltered, better numbers are likely to be in Bedard’s immediate future.

“The temptation might be to wonder what is going on with Connor Bedard these days,” Campbell wrote. “There also might be a temptation to think that the WHL’s first exceptional player and top prospect for the 2023 NHL draft is lagging behind his competition, namely Adam Fantilli and Matvei Michkov.

“Yes, Bedard has only eight goals and 12 points in 16 games for the Regina Pats after scoring 28 points in just 15 games last season and leading Canada to a gold medal at the World Under-18 Championship. And he has yet to score a single goal on the power play. But there are a couple of mitigating circumstances at play. First, Bedard leads the Western Hockey League in shots with 85, which means he’s been the victim of some terribly bad luck. People in analytics tell us all the time that, particularly with elite players who generate a lot of chances, that luck is bound to change and his shooting percentage will get way above 9.4 percent. Last season, it was 17.4 percent.”

Campbell’s complete piece, which includes notes on a lot more than just Bedard, is right here.

If you are one of those people who puts stock in power polls or rankings or whatever they might be called, consider this from Mike McIntyre of the Winnipeg Free Press . . .

“ESPN calls itself the worldwide leader in sports, but it’s more like the worldwide leader in hot takes (and arguably clickbait) following Wednesday’s release of their weekly NHL ‘power rankings.’

“In case you missed it, the new U.S. rightsholder for league telecasts has seen fit to demote the Winnipeg Jets down to 20th, a drop of eight spots from the No. 12 position they occupied last Wednesday.

“This, despite the fact the Jets just went a perfect 3-0-0 over the past seven days, including a dominating 5-2 win over Edmonton on Tuesday night. That would be the same Oilers team ESPN has ranked No. 1. Seriously. “You couldn’t make this up.

“Winnipeg has just one regulation loss in the last dozen games (9-1-2), and if it keeps up this impressive pace I suspect the Jets are going to drop all the way to dead-last in the rankings rather quickly.”

BTW, the Jets dropped a 2-1 shootout decision to the host Oilers on Thursday night. Yes, Edmonton F Connor McDavid scored another one of “THOSE” goals.

Monopoly

The schedule has been released for the 2022 Memorial Cup and it comes with a real change. The tournament, which is to be held in Saint John, N.B., from June 4 through June 13, will begin on a Saturday night, rather than Friday, and the championship final is scheduled for Monday night, rather than Sunday. . . . All games will begin at 4 p.m. PT (7 p.m. ET) with one exception — the game on June 5 between the QMJHL and WHL champions is to start at 1 p.m. PT (4 p.m. ET). . . . There is a news release right here, and it includes ticket-buying information.

Some crazy stuff has been going down with the USHL’s Omaha Lancers. Let’s Lancersstart with some Thursday tweets from Brad Elliott Schlossman, the Grand Forks Herald’s superb hockey writer . . .

On Wednesday, he had tweeted:

“Four months after Omaha (USHL) hired Chadd Cassidy as head coach and GM, and after an 8-4-2 start to this season, the Lancers have pushed him out, per multiple sources.”

These followed on Thursday (all times Pacific):

10:53 a.m.: Situation in Omaha escalating: Lancers have been cutting budgets, everything from video software to some postgame player meals; after ousting Cassidy, Omaha asked him to coach last weekend’s games (per @THNRyanKennedy); Omaha discussed having an injured player be asst coach.”

10:57 a.m.: “Remaining Omaha Lancers staff members are currently resigning. I’m not sure if there will be anyone left when this is done. Players are threatening to boycott upcoming games.”

11:11 a.m.: “Assistant general manager Jeff Cox, acting head coach Sean Walsh, assistant coach Tate Maris and trainer Nick Hart have all resigned from the Omaha Lancers.”

11:49 a.m.: “The remaining Lancers staff was willing to stay for the sake of the players. Then, this morning, team president David DeLuca lost his temper with acting HC Sean Walsh. Assistant coach Tate Maris resigned. Players opted to walk out. Remaining staff backed players and resigned.”

12:30 p.m.: “The Lancers say Chadd Cassidy ‘stepped down as head coach to pursue other opportunities.’ . . . Yeah, and I bench pressed 500 pounds this morning.”

Schlossman later filed this story right here.

And right here is a story from Chris Peters of dailyfaceoff.com who also has been all over this story.

On the subject of crazy stuff, it’s hard to believe that it has been 27 years since one of the highlights of my time around the WHL. Yessss, those were the days! . . . Regina versus Moose Jaw was so much fun. Play-by-play guys in Donald Duck outfits. Coaches battling. . . . Kevin Shaw, the Regina Pats’ unofficial historian, reminds us of what happened 27 years ago with this tweet . . .

Bigfoot

If you are interested in being a living kidney donor, more information is available here:

Living Kidney Donor Program

St. Paul’s Hospital

6A Providence Building

1081 Burrard Street

Vancouver, BC V6Z 1Y6

Tel: 604-806-9027

Toll free: 1-877-922-9822

Fax: 604-806-9873

Email: donornurse@providencehealth.bc.ca

——

Vancouver General Hospital Living Donor Program – Kidney 

Gordon and Leslie Diamond Health Care Centre

Level 5, 2775 Laurel Street

Vancouver, BC V5Z 1M9

604-875-5182 or 1-855-875-5182

kidneydonornurse@vch.ca

——

Or, for more information, visit right here.

Toad

How a coach wound up with two WHL teams at same time . . . Friedman puts focus on Ingram . . . B.C. mess has schedule implications

Bob Tory, the general manager of the WHL’s Tri-City Americans, heard from a Americansfew potential goaltending coaches on Wednesday.

There was one problem . . . the Americans have a goaltending coach in Eli Wilson.

If you tuned in late, Wilson also is Kelowna’s goaltending coach, something that Rockets president/GM Bruce Hamilton announced on Monday.

A goaltending coach working with two teams in the same league? Only in the WHL, you say.

Well, here’s how it went down . . .

On Nov. 7, the Rockets acquired G Talyn Boyko, all 6-foot-7.5 of him, from the Americans for G Cole Tisdale, 19, and a third-round selection in the WHL’s 2024 draft.

Boyko, 19, a fourth-round pick by the New York Rangers in the NHL’s 2021 Rocketsdraft, has been a long-time student of Wilson’s, having attended his goaltending camps as well as working with him with the Americans.

After the trade, when Hamilton asked Tory if Wilson could work with Kelowna’s goaltenders, Tory said he didn’t have a problem with it, as long as it didn’t interfere with the one week a month that Wilson, who lives in Kelowna, is to spend with the Americans.

So that’s how Wilson came to be on the ice with the Rockets in Kelowna on Wednesday while the Americans were riding the bus to Kamloops where they spent the night. Tri-City is to practise in Kamloops this morning and then head to Prince George for a Friday-Saturday series with the Cougars.

With the Rockets, Wilson replaces Adam Brown, who no longer is with the organization. Brown, 30, spent four seasons (2008-12) tending goal for the Rockets and five (2016-21) on their coaching staff.

It was an exciting evening in this household on Oct. 24 when G Connor Ingram made 33 saves in his NHL debut and helped the visiting Nashville Predators to a 5-2 victory over the Minnesota Wild.

Ingram, 24, is a favourite in these parts for a couple of reasons. First, we had many conversations as he put up 81 victories during his three seasons (2014-17) with the Kamloops Blazers. Second, his folks, Joni and Brent, have long supported Dorothy in her annual Kidney Walk fund-raising efforts.

In January, Connor left the Predators and voluntarily entered the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program, going on to spend 40 days at a facility in Malibu, Calif.

Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet has lots on Ingram and the subsequent diagnosis of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder in his latest 32 Thoughts.

“This is the kind of OCD you do not hear about,” Ingram told Friedman. “You hear about repeatedly washing hands or being incredibly organized. My apartment is a disaster, I’m not one of those people.”

It’s worth reading to understand what Ingram has been through.

But it was something that Brian Poile, Nashville’s assistant GM and director of hockey operations, told Friedman that really struck me. When Ingram decided that he needed help, the Predators were in Dallas and it was Poile who stayed with him in a hotel as things were put in motion to get help.

“In professional sports,” Poile told Friedman, “we sometimes forget these are young men, some of them not fully developed physically or mentally. In many cases, they leave their homes and families in their prime development years to chase their NHL dreams. These young men devote the majority of their days and years to hockey, and in some cases at a significant compromise to the other areas of their life, to become exceptional at the game they love.”

If you are a follower of junior hockey take a few moments to think about that because Poile hit the nail squarely on the head.

Friedman’s complete 32 Thoughts is right here. Items 23 through 27 deal with Ingram.

The events of the last few days in the area to the west of my world are almost beyond comprehension. After getting through a horrendous summer that included devastating wildfires — one wiped the community of Lytton right off the map — and a heat bubble that took temperatures into the high 40s and resulted in hundreds of deaths, areas of B.C. are faced with surveying untold damage, mopping up and eventually rebuilding after a weekend of torrential rain.

Blake Shaffer, an assistant professor in the economics department of the U of Calgary, tweeted on Wednesday that this will be the “costliest natural disaster in Canadian history . . . won’t even be close.”

The resulting landslides, mudslides and flooding has left the highways into the Lower Mainland — generally recognized as the area west of Hope — all shut down. (Highway 7 opened to westbound passenger vehicles from Hope on Wednesday at 5 p.m., allowing more than 1,000 people who had been stranded there to head for home, and then was closed two hours later. . . . There are reports that Highway No. 3 could be open to some traffic at some point over the approaching weekend.)

People being people, of course, grocery stores throughout B.C. — from Prince George to Vancouver — found themselves hit by hoarders on Tuesday and many quickly ran out of a whole lot of stuff, from toilet paper to produce to milk products and meat, bringing back memories of the same thing happening in the early days of the pandemic. For people in places like Kamloops, Kelowna and Prince George, it didn’t seem to matter that highways to the east remain open to trucks bearing supplies. Hoard on, Garth!

Anyway . . . the transportation issues have resulted in a number of hockey leagues having to keep a close eye on their schedules.

For starters, the WHL has postponed a game that was to have had the Victoria Royals play the Blazers in Kamloops on Friday. It has been rescheduled for Feb. 16. The Royals, however, will travel to Langley, B.C., to play the Vancouver Giants on Saturday night. . . . The Blazers are to play the Seattle Thunderbirds in Kent, Wash., on Saturday night. Teams going south are able to bypass the Lower Mainland by travelling through Osoyoos, B.C., and entering the U.S. at the Oroville crossing. . . .

In the BCHL, a Wednesday night game between the visiting Merritt Centennials bchland the Penticton Vees was postponed with a rescheduled date yet to be announced. Merritt, with a population around 7,500, remains under an evacuation order after its wastewater treatment plant was compromised by flood water from the Coldwater River. . . . That evacuation order is expected to be in place for at least another week. . . .

The BCHL also postponed a pair of Merritt home games — Friday against the Vernon Vipers and Saturday versus the Prince George Spruce Kings.

All told, the BCHL has postponed eight weekend games and added a pair. There’s a news release detailing it all right here. . . .

Two BCHL teams were forced into extended road stays after being unable to get home after weekend games. The Victoria Grizzlies flew home from Penticton on Wednesday, one day after most of the Coquitlam Express drove from Kamloops to Kelowna and then boarded a plane for home. . . .

The junior B Kamloops Storm of the Kootenay International Junior Hockey kijhlLeague was to have entertained the Chase Heat on Wednesday night. However, the Storm’s home arena at McArthur Island is being used to house evacuees from Merritt so the game was postponed. The Storm’s next home game is scheduled for Sunday against the North Okanagan Knights. . . .

The KIJHL had postponed a Tuesday game in Princeton that was to have had the Posse meeting the Kelowna Chiefs. Princeton was hit with an evacuation order for 295 homes after the Tumaleen and Similkameen rivers overflowed. The Posse next is to play on Friday in Summerland against the Steam, before returning home to face Chase on Saturday. . . .

In the junior B Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League, a game scheduled for Friday that was to have had the host Lake Cowichan Kraken meet the Victoria Cougars has been postponed with a new date yet to be determined. . . . Also postponed is a Friday game between the visiting Kerry Park Islanders and Saanich Predators and two Sunday assignments — the Campbell River Storm at Saanich and the Islanders at the Westshore Wolves. . . .

The Pacific Junior Hockey League postponed a Wednesday night game that was to have had the Aldergrove Kodiak visit the Richmond Sockeyes. . . .

The AHL’s Abbotsford Canucks were to have played host to the Bakersfield Condors on Friday and Sunday. Those games have been moved to Jan. 5 and Jan. 10. . . . Abbotsford’s next home game is scheduled for Nov. 30 against the Ontario Reign. . . .

The message here is that if you are planning on attending a sporting event in these times, you need to check a schedule to see if the game is still on, all the while being sure to see what pandemic-related restrictions are in place.

Using a whole lot of numbers, Rhianna Schmunk of CBC News put together a comprehensive look at the situation in B.C., and it’s all right here. It’s a scary read, especially when you realize that this is happening right down the road.

The NHL’s Ottawa Senators, who have had as many as 10 players and one coach nhl2on the COVID-19 protocol list, are scheduled to play the Colorado Avalance in Denver on Monday. By that point, eight of those players could be back, depending on how the testing process goes. . . . The Senators have had three games postponed. . . . Ottawa F Michael Del Zotto explained the situation to Toronto radio station TSN 1050 on Wednesday: ““Some guys have had some loss of taste and smell, and I think that’s about as serious as it’s gotten, at least to my knowledge. Everyone is vaccinated so that certainly helps, but it’s scary how quickly it can spread and how quickly it went through the team. This is 20 months now still talking about (COVID-19) and it would be nice for us to get past this.” . . .

The NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights have put three players — F Michael Amadio, F William Carrier and F Johnathan Marchessault on the NHL’s COVID-19 list since the start of the week. The Golden Knights are to entertain the Detroit Red Wings tonight.

Meetings

The Los Angeles Chargers have some COVID-19 issues as they prepare to meet the visiting Pittsburgh Steelers in a Sunday night NFL game. Defensive linemen Joey Bosa, Christian Covington and Jerry Tillery are on the COVID-19 list, as is LB Drue Tranquill. The unvaccinated Bosa was deemed a close contact to Tillery, but has tested negative and could return to workouts on Saturday.

JUNIOR JOTTINGS: The 2022 CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game is scheduled to be played in Kingston, Ont., on Feb. 2. . . . You will recall that the Spokane Chiefs were to have spent last weekend in Victoria playing a doubleheader against the Royals. That, of course, didn’t happen after two Spokane players tested positive. Those two games now have been rescheduled for Jan. 11 and 12. . . . Steve Ewen of Postmedia reports that F Cole Shepard is back skating with the Vancouver Giants. He hasn’t played since March 2020 and has since undergone hip surgery. Shepard, 19, may be cleared to play at some point next week. . . . G Jack McNaughton, 20, who made 87 appearances over three-plus seasons (2018-22) with the WHL’s Calgary Hitmen, has signed with the AJHL’s Okotoks Oilers.

If you are interested in being a living kidney donor, more information is available here:

Living Kidney Donor Program

St. Paul’s Hospital

6A Providence Building

1081 Burrard Street

Vancouver, BC V6Z 1Y6

Tel: 604-806-9027

Toll free: 1-877-922-9822

Fax: 604-806-9873

Email: donornurse@providencehealth.bc.ca

——

Vancouver General Hospital Living Donor Program – Kidney 

Gordon and Leslie Diamond Health Care Centre

Level 5, 2775 Laurel Street

Vancouver, BC V5Z 1M9

604-875-5182 or 1-855-875-5182

kidneydonornurse@vch.ca

——

Or, for more information, visit right here.

Number