Author: greggdrinnan

Scattershooting on a Sunday night after nature’s paintbrush put some white on the hilltops . . .

Scattershooting2

You likely are aware that if a male hockey player joins a major junior team, he almost always loses his NCAA eligibility. Right?

What about a female player?

The QMJHL’s Gatineau Olympiques recalled Ève Gascon on Saturday and she qmjhlnewwas the backup goaltender for a pair of weekend games against the visiting Val-d’Or Foreurs. The Olympiques brought Gascon, 18, in from the Saint-Laurent Patriotes of the Quebec Collegiate Hockey League.

Gascon attended the Olympiques’ training camp prior to the start of this season and got into two games, going 2-0-0, 1.78, .934.

OK, now comes the NCAA part of the story . . .

Gascon has verbally committed to attend the U of Minnesota-Duluth and play for the Bulldogs in 2023-24. And it turns out that NCAA rules are different for women than for men, and women don’t lose their eligibility for playing major junior hockey.

Here’s Matt Wellens of the Duluth News Tribune from a story he wrote in August:

“The NCAA has separate rules for men’s and women’s hockey as it pertains to trying out and playing for professional teams — the NCAA classifies major junior leagues in Canada as professional.

“While men’s hockey players have strict rules pertaining to tryouts and playing with professionals . . . women’s hockey recruits may try out and play for a professional team prior to full-time enrolment, granted they do not receive ‘more than actual and necessary expenses,’ according to the NCAA Division 1 manual (Page 69, 12.2.2.2.1 and 12.2.3.2.1).”

——

BTW, the only females to have played in the QMJHL are Manon Rhéaume and Charline Labonté. Rhéaume played in one game for the Trois-Rivieres Draveurs in 1991-92. Labonté played in 26 games for the Acadie-Bathurst Titan in 1999-2000 and two more in 2000-01.

Old friend Bob Duff of detroithockeynow.com reported Sunday that Rhéaume will be part of the TV team that will be doing Detroit Red Wings games on Bally Sports Detroit.

According to Duff, who once covered the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades for the StarPhoenix, she “is living in the Detroit area. RhĂ©aume is working as the Girls Program Coordinator for the Little Caesars AAA Hockey Club. As well, she is serving as the head coach of the 12U girls team in Detroit.”

She will make her Detroit TV debut on Wednesday when the Tampa Bay Lightning visit the Red Wings.

Crew

Headline at TheOnion.com: Urban Meyer still adjusting to speed of NFL cover-ups.

It’s safe to say that MLB hitters as a group had an abysmal 2021 regular season. . . . The Associated Press reported: “The major league batting average dropped to .244 this season, its lowest since the year of the pitcher in 1968, though offense picked up markedly following baseball’s midseason crackdown on grip-enhancing substances for pitchers.” . . . The complete statistical story is right here.

If you happen to have an autographed picture of Shoeless Joe Jackson in your collection, you should know that one sold recently for US$1.47 million at Christie’s and Hunt Auctions in New York. That one, from 1911, is believed to be the only one around.

Nobody

There were 11 WHL games over the past two days — three on Sunday and eight WHLon Saturday — but there aren’t any scheduled today (Monday), which is Thanksgiving Day here in Canada. . . . Here’s a look at Sunday’s games . . .

In Calgary, F Riley Fiddler-Schultz had three assists to lead the Hitmen to a 4-1 victory over the Swift Current Broncos. . . . Calgary (1-2-0) scored the game’s first three goals and later added an empty-netter. . . . The Broncos (2-3-0) got 37 stops from G Reid Dyck, a 17-year-old from Winkler, Man., as they lost their third straight game. . . .

In Regina, the Brandon Wheat Kings beat the Pats, 4-2, in a game in which the last three goals were scored in the final 1:36 with two of them into an empty net. . . . D Logen Hammett gave Brandon a 2-1 lead on a PP at 7:56 of the third period. . . . Brandon scored two empty-netters before the Pats got their second goal at 19:50. . . . D Chad Nychuk had two goals and an assist. . . . The Wheat Kings (2-3-0) got 39 stops from G Carson Bjarnason, a 16-year-old freshman from Carberry, Man., who earned his first WHL victory in his first start and fourth appearance. . . . According to the WHL’s online scoresheet, the Wheat Kings didn’t dress a backup goaltender. Ethan Kruger left a Saturday game with an apparent leg injury. . . . The Pats (2-3-0) have lost three in a row. . . .

In Portland, G Dante Giannuzzi stopped 29 shots to lead the Winterhawks (2-2-1) to a 3-0 victory over the Spokane Chiefs (1-3-1). . . . It was Giannuzzi’s first shutout of this season and the second of his career. He was making his 37th appearance, all with Portland. . . . Portland scored three first-period goals, the first from F Jack O’Brien at 2:40. . . . Rich Franklin, who had been with the Winterhawks for 10 years, worked his last game before heading to Palm Springs, Calif., where he will work with the Seattle Kraken’s NHL affiliate.

Some highlights from Saturday’s WHL games . . .

G Lochlan Gordon earned his first WHL victory in his first appearance to lead the Portland Winterhawks to a 4-2 victory over the Seattle Thunderbirds (2-1-0) in Kent, Wash. . . . Gordon, 18, was a third-round pick in the WHL’s 2018 draft. He stopped 28 shots as the Winterhawks won their first game this season. . . . Portland scored the game’s last three goals. . . .

F Bear Hughes scored twice and added an assist as the Spokane Chiefs dumped the Tri-City Americans, 5-1, in Kennewick, Wash. . . . Spokane was 3-for-6 on the PP. . . . The Americans are 2-1-0. . . .

F Tristen Robins drew three assists — one shorthanded, two on the PP — as his Saskatoon Blades skated to a 6-2 victory over the Wheat Kings in Brandon. . . . Saskatoon (2-1-0) was 3-for-4 on the PP. . . . F Kyle Crnkovic had two goals and an assist, with D Rhett Rhinehart adding a goal and two helpers. . . . Blades F Jayden Wiens was hit with a major penalty and a game misconduct after running into Brandon G Ethan Kruger at 8:33 of the second period. Kruger left the game favouring his left leg. . . .

F Connor McClennon scored three times — he’s got five — to lead the Ice to an 8-0 victory over the Prince Albert Raiders in Winnipeg. . . . The Ice (4-0-0) got two goals from F Jakin Smallwood and three assists from F Matthew Savoie. . . . Winnipeg was 4-for-7 on the PP. . . . The Raiders are 0-4-0. . . .

D Alex Cotton scored twice, the second in OT, to give the host Lethbridge Hurricanes a 2-1 victory over the Red Deer Rebels. . . . Cotton tied the game at 13:49 of the second period and won it at 2:28 of OT. . . . The Hurricanes improved to 3-1-0; the Rebels are 2-2-1. . . .

F Lukas Svejkovsky scored the only goal of a shootout to give the Medicine Hat Tigers a 3-2 victory over the visiting Edmonton Oil Kings. . . . The Tigers (2-2-0) got 35 saves through OT from G Garin Bjorklund. . . . Svejkovsky, who scored his sixth goal of the season in the first period, was the first shooter in the second round. . . . The Oil Kings are 3-1-1. . . .

F Logan Stankoven had two goals and two assists as the Kamloops Blazers dumped the visiting Prince George Cougars, 8-3. . . . F Fraser Minten added two Kamloops goals and F Dylan Sydor had three assists. He has five assists in two games after recording five in 15 games in the 2021 development season. . . . Yes, he’s Darryl’s son. . . . F Riley Heidt drew three assists for the Cougars. . . . The Blazers are 2-0-0; the Cougars slipped to 0-3-0. . . .

The Kelowna Rockets (1-1-0) broke a 3-3 tie with two quick goals in the middle of the second period and went on to beat the Royals, 6-4, in Victoria. . . . F Jake Poole broke the tie at 9:31 and D Caden Price made it 5-3 at 12:44. . . . The Royals (1-2-0) got two goals from F Brayden Schuurman — he’s got five — and a goal and two assists from D Gannon Laroque.

Parents

Dwight Perry, in the Seattle Times: “New York has gone a full decade without any championships from its NBA, NFL, MLB and NHL teams. ‘Looking for something?’ asked a fan from Boston, which has six.”

——

Perry, again: “Mick Jagger, in Charlotte, N.C., for a Rolling Stones concert, dropped into a small bar for a drink the night before and nobody recognized who he was. ‘Why couldn’t that have been me?’ asked Jags coach Urban Meyer.”

Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle hits the nail squarely on the head: “The pro-DH crowd won’t ever acknowledge this, but the game is so much more interesting when the pinch-hit-or-leave-him-in dilemma comes into play. In authentic baseball, there’s a lot more to removing a pitcher than just pointing to the bullpen. Now that it seems likely there will be a universal DH next year, I’d love to see this year’s World Series decided by a pitcher’s two-run triple.”

Toys

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.

JUST NOTES: Hello, Adele, it’s me. Welcome back. Yes, you’ve been gone too long. . . . If you are an unemployed placekicker, you may get a call today. Going into Sunday night’s NFL game, kickers had missed 12 field goals and 12 extra points on the day. In a game between the Green Bay Packers and Cincinnati Bengals, the two kickers combined to miss five field goals in the last 2:12 of the fourth quarter and in OT. . . . If you are a fan of the Detroit Lions, you may be aware that they are the first team in NFL history to lose twice in the same season on field goals of at least 50 yards and no time left on the clock. Yes, it happened to them again on Sunday, this time to the Minnesota Vikings.

Canadians

Ex-WHLer retires, turns to social media . . . Svejkovsky, Schuurman fill their hats . . . Holt blanks Winterhawks

F Nikita Popugaev — sometimes it is spelled Popugayev — says he has retired. Popugaev, who is to turn 23 on Nov. 20, is from Moscow. He played two-plus seasons in the WHL, starting with 110 games with the Moose Jaw Warriors (2015-17) and finishing with 44 with the Prince George Cougars (2016-18). . . . He put up 123 points, including 47 goals, in 154 regular-season WHL games. . . . The New Jersey Devils selected him in the fourth round of the NHL’s 2017 draft.

While Popugaev was burning his gear, there were eight WHL games played on Friday night . . .

F Ridly Greig, newly named captain of the Brandon Wheat Kings, scored twice in a 5-2 victory over visiting Prince Albert Raiders (0-3-0). . . . F Ben Thornton also scored twice for Brandon. . . .

D Matthew Gallant’s first WHL goal stood up as the winner as the host Moose Jaw Warriors edged the Regina Pats, 3-2. . . . Gallant, the eldest son of former Pats’ radio voice Kevin Gallant, broke a 2-2 tie at 17:52 of the second period. . . . F Cade Hayes had Moose Jaw’s other two goals. . . .


F Lukas Svejkovsky scored three times to lead the visiting Medicine Hat Tigers to a 4-2 victory over the Red Deer Rebels. . . . It was Svejkovsky’s first career WHL hat trick. He has five goals in two games. . . . Svejkovsky also had an assist, giving him his first career four-point game. It came in his 141st regular-season game. . . .

D Simon Kubicek broke a 1-1 tie with a PPG at 2:36 of the third period as the Edmonton Oil Kings got past the host Swift Current Broncos, 2-1. . . . Edmonton’s Sebastian Cossa, with 23 saves, won the goaltending duel with Isaac Poulter, who stopped 35 shots. . . .

G Braden Holt blocked 23 shots as the Everett Silvertips beat the visiting Portland Winterhawks, 4-0. . . . F Jackson Berezowski scored twice. . . . Holt, an 18-year-old from Bozeman, Montana, has two career shutouts. On March 6, 2020, he stopped 16 shots in a 6-0 victory over the visiting Tri-City Americans. . . . Mike Benton worked his final Silvertips’ game as the play-by-play voice. He left the Silvertips for six seasons, and now is with Seattle radio station KJR where he is the host for Kraken pre-game, intermission and post-game shows. He handled the Silvertips’ first two regular-season games while they get a new radio voice in place. There should be an announcement coming shortly. . . .

The Victoria Royals scored four times on five second-period shots and went on to beat the visiting Kelowna Rockets, 6-3. . . . F Brayden Schuurman, 17, scored three times and added an assist for the Royals. Yes, it was his first hat trick. Yes, it was his first four-point game. . . .

The Seattle Thunderbirds broke a 3-3 tie with two late third-period goals to beat the Chiefs, 5-3, in Spokane. . . . D Tyrel Bauer scored the eventual winner at 13:06, with F Conner Roulette wrapping it up at 17:26. . . . The Chiefs got a goal and two assists from F Bear Hughes. . . .

In Langley, B.C., the Vancouver Giants snapped a 3-3 tie with three straight goals as they beat the Prince George Cougars, 6-4. . . . The Giants got two goals from F Adam Hall, with F Ty Thorpe and F Justin Sourdif each adding a goal and two assists, and D Mazden Leslie drawing three helpers. . . . The Cougars had taken a 3-1 lead into the second period.

Delta

The Ontario government has listed some COVID-19-related restrictions so that OHL teams based in the province will be permitted to play before crowds of 100 per cent capacity with everyone fully vaccinated. That all is effective today (Saturday).

There were six fights in WHL games on Friday night. The time for the WHL to get rid of fighting — teens punching each other in the face — passed us by a long time ago.

Plans are in place for a documentary series on the hockey rivalry between Canada and what was the USSR. It has the working title “72” and is to focus on the 1972 Summit Series, “a pivotal set of eight games played between the two nations in 1972 in Canada and Russia where political rivalry equalled the on-field competition,” wrote Naman Ramachandran of variety.com. “The tournament was rife with allegations of dirty play and disputes over officiating. In Canada, the games were set against a backdrop of a home-grown terrorist movement that had turned violent, while KGB agents and Soviet soldiers sat in the stands for the games in Moscow.” . . . . There is more right here.

The Medicine Hat News reported Friday that the Medicine Hat Minor Hockey Association is in a state of flux. According to James Tubb of The News, a source “with close knowledge of the situation” has said that some board members “have manipulated tryout evaluations to ensure their children play at a higher level than they are rated. One recently departed board member is backing that claim, and they both say it’s coming at the cost of other children’s development.” . . . The complete story is right here.

Resume

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.

Puzzle

WHL rests before busy weekend . . . B.C. sports hall honours Ewen . . . Avalanche coach tests positive

There weren’t any WHL games on Thursday’s schedule as it prepares for a 19-game weekend, although there aren’t any games on Monday, which is the Canadian Thanksgiving. . . . However, there were two WHL games on Wednesday night . . .

In Lethbridge, F Logan Dowhaniuk scored at 17:42 of the third period to give the Edmonton Oil Kings a 2-1 victory over the Hurricanes. . . . Edmonton got its other goal from F Jalen Luypen, shorthanded, with 1.1 seconds left in the second period. . . .

In Winnipeg, F Zach Benson, the 14th pick in the WHL’s 2020 draft, scored twice to help the Ice to a 5-2 victory over the Regina Pats. . . . Ice F Mikey Milne had two assists, giving him seven points in three games.

Machete

The QMJHL has suspended Nicolas Daigle and Massimo Siciliano of the Victoriaville Tigres at least until the court has dealt with charges against them. They were charged with sexual assault on Tuesday. They also were charged with recording the incident and Daigle is facing a charge of having shared images of the alleged victim. . . . The charges arose after an incident that is alleged to have occurred in a hotel in Lac-Beauport on June 6 after the Tigres’ won the QMJHL championship in June. . . . The QMJHL’s news release is right here.

Jared Bednar, a former WHLer who is the head coach of the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche, will miss a pair of exhibition games after testing positive for COVID-19. . . . The Avalanche is to play the Stars in Dallas on Thursday, with the two teams meeting in Denver on Saturday. . . . In Bednar’s absence, assistant coaches Ray Bennett and Nolan Pratt, both of whom are former WHLers, will run the Colorado bench. . . . Bednar played in the WHL (Saskatoon Blades, Spokane Chiefs, Medicine Hat Tigers, Prince Albert Raiders, 1990-93). He is in his sixth season as Colorado’s head coach. . . . Bennett spent one season (1992-93) as the Moose Jaw Warriors’ assistant general manager. He also scouted for the Spokane Chiefs (1994-95). . . . Pratt spent three-plus seasons (1991-95) as a defenceman wit the Portland Winter Hawks.

Steve Ewen of Postmedia has been named as a recipient of an Eric Whitehead Inspired Service Award as presented by the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame. Among other things, Ewen covers junior hockey for the Vancouver Province and Vancouver Sun. “In 2010, Ewen was diagnosed with a solitary plasmacytoma, a type of blood cancer, needing two rods and 15 screws to be inserted into his back and neck,” wrote Postmedia’s J.J. Adams. “In a six-month hospital stay, he had eight back surgeries, leaving his spine fused from his neck to the middle of his back. The cancer returned in 2017, when he had a stem cell transplant.” . . . Whitehead, a former Province sports editor, was heavily involved in the founding of the Hall of Fame. . . . Adams’s story is right here.

Diaper

David Branch, the OHL commissioner, told reporters on Wednesday that all of his league’s players are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. He also said that the OHL had one player opt out of playing rather than get vaccinated. . . .

The OHL’s Sarnia Sting opened its regular season on Thursday night with a 6-3 victory over the Spitfires in Windsor. But associate coach Brad Staubitz wasn’t there. The team announced earlier in the day that Staubitz has taken a leave of absence for non-COVID-related personal reasons. He has been on the Sting’s coaching staff since 2016. . . . On Wednesday, the Sting announced that assistant coach Mark Mancari would be away “for the foreseeable future to deal with a personal health issue.” He had been with the Sting since June 2020. . . . Alan Letang, the head coach, and goaltending coach Franky Palazzese are the only other coaches listed on the Sting’s website.

The Brooklyn Nets are scheduled to play an exhibition game at home against the Milwaukee Bucks on Friday night and guard Kyrie Irving is listed on their roster as out/ineligible. . . . Irving has refused to get vaccinated and under New York City requirements only those who are fully vaccinated are allowed in city facilities.

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.

JUST NOTES: Maggie Sinclair was elected to the Moose Jaw Warriors’ board of directors at the organization’s AGM on Sept. 30. She is the first female member of the board; the Warriors have been around since 1984. From a Warriors’ news release: “Sinclair currently works as a the Chief Risk and Compliance Officer with Conexus and has decades of experience in banking.” . . . Krista Funke made her debut as an AJHL referee on Wednesday night in Lloydminster where the Bobcats beat the Sherwood Park Crusaders, 8-2. She and fellow referee Daniel Gadowski handed out 10 minor penalties, five to each team. Funke, from Regina, is quite story. She was diagnosed with clinical depression in 2012 while at the U of Toronto. Jennifer Ackerman of the Regina Leader-Post detailed Funke’s story on Jan. 31, 2019. That story is right here.

Penguin

Warriors absorb loss; president optimistic but admits ‘if we don’t have those fans back we’ll take staggering losses’ . . . Stevenson sparks Rebels . . . Ex-WHL goalie heads to OHL

With little fanfare, the Moose Jaw Warriors held their annual general meeting on Thursday.

The Warriors are one of four community-owned teams in the WHL — along MooseJawwith the Lethbridge Hurricanes, Prince Albert Raiders and Swift Current Broncos — and, as such, must hold AGMs for their shareholders.

The Warriors didn’t post a news release on their website. But the team did put up a brief video interview with Chad Taylor, the organization’s president.

Taylor said the Warriors showed a loss and warned that, at the moment, things aren’t looking good for the 2021-22 season.

“If it wasn’t for the provincial government our balance sheet . . . would look a lot different than it is today,” Taylor said, referring to the fact that the Saskatchewan government gave each of that province’s five WHL franchises $600,000. “We are still showing a loss. You can’t just recover . . . With no revenues it’s impossible to try and pull a profit out of an organization like this.

“I have to give tremendous credit to the staff. Unfortunately, there were numerous layoffs, pay cuts . . . some people did lose their jobs. It’s heart-wrenching to go through something like this. I think at the end of the day, we did what we could do to play another day . . .”

The Warriors lost $391,299 for 2019-20, after losses of $165,145 for 2018-19 and $463,566 for 2016-17. In 2017-18, the Warriors declared a profit of $704,182.

These days, the Warriors are looking to the future.

“There’s tons of challenges,” Taylor said. “I think it’s important to let Warriors fans know that we need your support, we need you back in the rink. I understand the challenges with some of that with certain people. But if we don’t have those fans back we’ll take staggering losses this (season). It’s trending to look like that today, but I’m optimistic that will work its way out.

“Our corporate sponsorships have been fantastic, given what we’ve been through. I think everybody in their business are re-evaluating certain things and we understand that. It’s going to take us a while to get our revenues back to (pre-pandemic) times and we understand that. We’re trying to make sure that we can manage our expenses properly. We need the revenues to support this club.”

The complete interview is right here.

The Warriors, like the other six Manitoba and Saskatchewan teams, played 24 games in a hub situation in Regina as part of the WHL’s 2021 development season.

The Broncos were part of that hub and told shareholders at their AGM that they had lost $129,968. It stands to reason, then, that the Warriors’ losses may have been in that same neighbourhood.

The Hurricanes, who played games without fans against the other four Alberta teams at home and away, told their shareholders that they had made $72,250.

There was only one game in the WHL on Tuesday night . . .

In Red Deer, the Rebels opened up a 5-0 lead and cruised to a 5-1 victory over the Swift Current Broncos. . . . The Rebels had a 41-19 edge in shots, including 20-5 in the second period. . . . F Blake Stevenson had a goal and two assists.

——

Nicolas Daigle and Massimo Siciliano, both 19, of the QMJHL’s Victoriaville qmjhlnewTigres appeared in a Quebec City courtroom on Tuesday, charged with sexual assault. . . . They also have been charged with recording the incident; Daigle also has been charged with sharing images of the alleged victim. . . . The charges arose after an incident that is alleged to have occurred in a hotel in Lac-Beauport after the Tigres’ won the QMJHL championship in June. . . . Both players remain with the Tigres, although the QMJHL has said it will “analyze the content of the charges and the file presented to the court. A decision will then be communicated within the next 48 hours regarding the status of the players in the QMJHL.” . . . There is more on this story right here.

Shortstop

This week’s best news? That’s easy. . . . MLB’s regular season is over. So is the experiment with the runner on second base in extra innings. Thankfully. . . . No, it won’t be used in the playoffs. No, it won’t be back next season.

Jack Finarelli, aka The Sports Curmudgeon, kept an eye on MLB’s injured list during the season. Here’s what he posted on Monday:

I went to check the “almost final” numbers for the number of MLB players who spent time on the Injured List this year and how much money they earned while in that status.  As of October 1st, here are the data:

In total, 823 players spent time on the IL;

Of those players, 481 were pitchers (58.4% of the total);

The number of man-days missed by players on the IL was 46,910; Those players earned a total of $817,313,884 — that’s a lot of cheese;

Justin Verlander missed the entire season and earned the most money of any player on the IL — $32M and change; and

Ten players — including Verlander — collected $10M or more while on the IL.

Some tweets that followed on the thread . . .

“ ‘I am going to potentially ‘sneak’ infect you.’ What a mind-boggling action.”

“Same thing happened at the grand opening of the new Poco Rec Centre. More than one unvaxxed person went around and snuck in through the parkade. Then had the gall to boast about it.”

“We’ve got a big tourney at our rink this weekend. A security company has been hired to guard doors and scan passports and passes. (Same as two weeks ago).  Everything ran so smooth.”

“Our association says anyone unvaxxed, causing a scene, unwilling to present proof of vax or sneaking in will have their child suspended and/or kicked off the team.”

“Hockey parents acting up, hard to believe!”

Story

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.

JUST NOTES: G Roman Basran, 20, has joined the OHL’s Mississauga Steelheads after clearing WHL waivers. A native of Delta, B.C., he played in 119 regular-season games with the Kelowna Rockets — 52-40-11, 2.89, .905 — before being waived in July. He later joined the Everett Silvertips, but things didn’t work out there, so now he’s in the OHL.

Socrates

Transplant recipient and unvaccinated? Please get it done for donor and donor’s family

As I scroll through social media and read some of what is in various news outlets I often stop and ponder things, but there isn’t much that sticks to me enough to cause pain.

On Sunday night, however, a tweet that had been posted on Saturday afternoon caught up to me. And it has stuck to me like Gorilla Glue.

Someone with the Twitter handle PrimulaBlue tweeted about having experienced “my first COVID death.” It turns out it was someone who was married and had been the recipient of a kidney transplant. For whatever reason(s), this transplant recipient hadn’t gotten vaccinated. Not only that, but he had taken part in at least one anti-vaccination protest outside a Kelowna hospital. And now he is dead. Gone.

The fact that the recipient of a kidney, whether it came from a deceased or living donor, didn’t do everything in his power to protect that kidney just blows me away.

How do you explain that to a donor or to a donor’s family?

As we were preparing for Dorothy’s transplant more than eight years ago, there were numerous conversations with various members of her transplant team about looking after the new kidney, and about how doing that was showing respect to a donor.

There also were conversations and questions centred on keeping medial appointments, about taking medications on time and taking them right through the end of prescriptions.

Of course, we weren’t in the middle of a pandemic eight years ago, but I can’t imagine having received a kidney and not getting fully vaccinated — meaning three inoculations — in order to give that kidney all the protection that is available.

The thing that transplant recipients have to know is that mRNA vaccines — Moderna and Pfizer — don’t contain live viruses. They don’t contain computer chips, either, but the important thing is that there aren’t live viruses in there.

From the CDC website:

“The mRNA vaccines do not contain any live virus. Instead, they work by teaching our cells to make a harmless piece of a ‘spike protein,’ which is found on the surface of the virus that causes COVID-19. After making the protein piece, cells display it on their surface. Our immune system then recognizes that it does not belong there and responds to get rid of it. When an immune response begins, antibodies are produced, creating the same response that happens in a natural infection.”

If you haven’t go it done yet, please get vaccinated. For you. For your family. For those around you.

If you are a transplant recipient who hasn’t yet got it done, do it for your donor and your donor’s family. You owe it to them.

By now, you likely are aware that organ transplants in Saskatchewan have been placed on hold because of circumstances brought on by the pandemic. But what does that mean? Well, Logan Stein of Saskatoon radio station 650 CKOM spoke with Eden Janzen, 25, who has been on dialysis for four years. . . . “With COVID, it’s not just the transplant, you have to do so much testing and ultrasounds so everything has been on hold for everybody,” Janzen told Stein. “I’m just hopeful this kind of opens people’s eyes and they have a change of heart. If they didn’t get their vaccine because they’re busy, or they just simply didn’t want to, I hope that they will. It’s not just COVID now that’s affecting people. Now people with compromised immune systems and failing organs are put more at risk.” . . . The complete story is right here.

Adam Freilich and Charles Gagnon have met numerous times on a sheet of curling ice. After all, Freilich is the third on Team Comeau of New Brunswick and Gagnon plays lead for Team Lawton of Quebec. Both teams are regulars on the Canadian bonspiel circuit. . . . So when Freilich, 28, got to the stage where he needed a kidney, guess who turned out to be a match. Yes, it was the 49-year-old Gagnon. . . . The transplant took place on Sept. 21. . . . Devin Heroux of CBC Sports has the story 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.

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

Scattershooting on a Sunday night after a day of pushing the ‘previous’ button on the remote control . . .

It was just last week when the SJHL drilled Mike Rooney, the general manager Melvilleand head coach of the Melville Millionaires, and five players with a total of 35 games in suspensions for something that happened off-ice on Sept. 24. Rooney also was fined $1,500. . . . On Sunday, the SJHL announced that the Millionaires had appealed the suspensions and, as a result, Rooney’s suspension and fine were made to disappear. . . . As for the players, F Braden Larochelle’s suspension was left at five games, while the other four — G Alexis Giroux, D Aiden Robson, F Nicolas Samson and F Charles Thomas-Larochelle — had their sentences reduced to three games apiece. . . . The league didn’t offer an explanation for the changes. . . .

The Millionaires were to have played the host Weyburn Red Wings on Sept. 24, but the game was postponed due to a positive test in the Melville organization. Subsequently, the Millionaires also had two other games postponed. They finally played their first regular-season game on Sunday, dropping a 4-2 decision to the Klippers in Kindersley. That was the first of three games in as many days for the Millionaires, who have 10:30 a.m. dates today and Tuesday at the SJHL’s three-day Showcase in Warman.

If you are an MLB fan of a certain age, take a moment or two to think about this note from Elias Sports Bureau: “No pitcher in the American League will hit 200 innings this season and there are currently only 13 qualifiers for the AL ERA title. There has never been a full season in which a league did not have a 200-inning pitcher.” . . . RHP Ferguson Jenkins, a hall of famer who also is Canadian, threw more than 200 innings in 12 seasons, topping 300 in five of those. Yes, those days are long gone.

Toast

Deadspin has more than 884,000 Twitter followers. That means every single one of them will have had the above tweet on their timeline on Sunday, and if they clicked on it they will have read a piece in which writer Sam Fels referred to the “trading post of Prince Albert.” . . . Yes, there are consequences to decisions like the one that was made when the Raiders chose to unveil their alternate uniforms for this WHL season. Those uniforms, as Ron Robison, the WHL commissioner, admitted in a statement on Saturday night featured a design that “is insensitive and offensive.” . . . This really is a horrid look for the WHL, especially when you consider that the Seattle Thunderbirds dismissed two players in March because of racial taunting and bullying involving a teammate. And, although it wasn’t the WHL, let’s not forget what went on last week in the Ukrainian Hockey League. . . . It would seem that hockey still has a lot of work ahead of it when it comes to this kind of thing.

Meanwhile, there were two Sunday games in the WHL . . .

The Lethbridge Hurricanes scored the game’s last four goals, the first two by F Yegor Klavdiev, and beat the host Calgary Hitmen, 4-1. . . . G Bryan Thomson stopped 40 shots for Lethbridge. . . . The Hurricanes had beaten the Hitmen, 9-2, in Lethbridge on Friday. . . .

In Spokane, D Ronan Seeley scored at 2:17 of OT to give the Everett Silvertips a 4-3 victory over the Chiefs. . . . If you’re on Twitter and aren’t following Geoffrey Brandow, you should start because he posts after every WHL game, just like this one right here . . .

Just thinking out loud here, but whoever assigns officials for the WHL missed the boat by not having Alex Clarke, the league’s first female linesperson, working the Saturday afternoon game that had the Prince Albert Raiders playing the Pats in Regina. That game was televised nationally by CBC, so the exposure would have been wonderful, assuming that she had been available, of course.

Lids

The BCHL made a few schedule-related announcements on Sunday as they bchlwork to get teams into Washington to play the Wenatchee Wild. Because of the pandemic, the Wild didn’t play against BCHL teams last season. But the plan is for it to play a complete schedule this season. . . . From the league’s news release: “With the land border closed for Canadians traveling south to the U.S., the league has introduced a plan that will see visiting teams fly into Washington State and return back across the land border. Players and staff traveling across the border will follow all COVID-19 guidelines, including providing a negative test before crossing into the U.S. and before returning to Canada.” . . . The complete news release 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.

JUST NOTES: Steve Kerr, the head coach of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors, told reporters on Sunday that Canadian forward Andrew Wiggins now has been vaccinated so will be able to play in all games this season. As recently as Monday, Wiggins wasn’t vaccinated and saying that he “would stick to my beliefs.” . . . F Jake Guentzel of the Pittsburgh Penguins has tested positive and now is following the NHL’s COVID-19 protocols. . . . The Edmonton Oilers revealed on Sunday that F Josh Archibald, who has chosen not to be vaccinated, actually had COVID-19 at some point during the summer and now is out indefinitely with myocarditis, a heart condition that that sometimes accompanies the virus. G Alex Stalock of the Oilers is expected to miss the entire season because of myocarditis that showed up in tests at the end of the 2020-21 season.

Irony

No Ridley, no victories for Tigers . . . Benton back with ‘Tips for two . . . WHL, Raiders backtrack on alternate sweaters

The Medicine Hat Tigers and Swift Current Broncos completed a season-Tigersopening home-and-home series on Saturday night. The Broncos won the opener, 2-0, at home on Friday, then completed the sweep with a 3-2 victory in Medicine Hat on Saturday. . . . However, you can bet that the participants recognized that something was missing. Bob Ridley, the radio voice of the Tigers, wasn’t there; he’s in Lethbridge undergoing radiation treatments. . . . Darren Steinke, who keeps track of such things, notes that Ridley has done the play-by-play on 4,021 of the 4,022 games the Tigers have played since entering the WHL for the 1970-71 season. That includes regular-season games, one tiebreaker, playoff games and Memorial Cup games. . . . And let’s not forget that Ridley drove the Tigers’ bus for a lot of those seasons. You don’t even want to think about how much coffee he drank back in those days. . . . In Ridley’s absence, Scott Roblin of CHAT in Medicine Hat is calling the games.

The Everett Silvertips will play their season-opener tonight (Sunday) when Everettthey face the Chiefs in Spokane. The Silvertips won’t play again until Friday when they hold their home-opener, this time against the Portland Winterhawks. . . . With Mike Benton, the Silvertips’ radio voice for the previous six seasons, having left to join Seattle radio station KJR, you are wondering who will be doing the play-by-play for Everett now, aren’t you? . . . Well, a little birdie has told me that Benton will handle the first two games as the Silvertips work to get a new voice into place. . . . With KJR, Benton is handling the pre-game, intermission and post-game shows for Seattle Kraken games.

The WHL issued a statement late Saturday after the Prince Albert Raiders had unveiled a third sweater that included a controversial logo from their past. Yes, this qualifies as one of those ‘Yikes, what were they thinking?’ moments. . . . Jeff D’Andrea of paNOW.com has more right here.

Meanwhile, on the ice in the WHL on Saturday . . .

If you’re on Twitter, there are some interesting noise-related comments on the thread here . . .

In Regina, the Pats scored the game’s last three goals to beat the Prince Albert Raiders, 5-2. F Sloan Stanick scored twice and added an assist for the Pats in a game that was televised nationally by CBC with Victor Findlay calling the play and Sam Cosentino providing the analysis. . . . If you’re on the Connor Bedard watch, he was interviewed during CBC’s pre-game show and again in the second intermission. Oh, he also scored the game’s last goal, his third in two games. . . . Regina had won, 3-1, in Prince Albert on Friday night. While the Pats rode the iron lung home after the game, the Raiders got some shut-eye in their own beds before heading south Saturday at 6:15 a.m. . . . Rob Vanstone has more on Saturday’s game right here. . . .

The Winnipeg Ice completed a home-and-home sweep of the Brandon Wheat Kings, winning 7-1 in the Manitoba capital. F Connor McClennon had two goals for the Ice, with D Carson Lambos adding a goal and two assists. . . . The Ice had won, 10-2, in Brandon on Friday. . . .

The visiting Swift Current Broncos opened up a 3-0 first-period lead en route to a 3-2 victory over the Medicine Hat Tigers. . . . G Isaac Poulter stopped 29 shots for his second victory in two nights. . . . The Broncos had beaten the Tigers, 2-0, in Swift Current on Friday. . . .

F Tristen Robins scored the game-winner and added an assist on the insurance goal as the host Saskatoon Blades beat the Moose Jaw Warriors, 4-2. . . . The Warriors had dumped the Blades, 7-1, in Moose Jaw on Friday. . . .

The host Red Deer Rebels skated to a 4-1 victory over the Edmonton Oil Kings, scoring the game’s last three goals, the final two into an empty net. . . . The Rebels earned a split in their season-opening home-and-home series, having lost 4-1 in Edmonton on Friday. . . . Byron Hackett of the Red Deer Advocate noted that Saturday’s victory was “just the second time the Rebels have beat Edmonton since December 2018, a span of 20 games.” . . .

The Seattle Thunderbirds scored the game’s last three goals, the first two early in the second period and both from F Matthew Rempe, as they beat the Winterhawks, 3-1, in Portland. . . .

F Connor Levis broke a 4-4 tie with a PP goal at 15:09 of the third period as the Kamloops Blazers beat the Cougars, 5-4, in Prince George. The Cougars had come back from 3-0 and 4-3 deficits but weren’t ever able to grab a lead. . . . D Hudson Thornton had a goal and two assists for Prince George. . . .

G Jesper Vikman, a 19-year-old from Stockholm, Sweden, stopped 16 shots in his WHL debut as the Vancouver Giants defeated the host Victoria Royals, 5-0. . . . The game wasn’t as kind to Victoria G Sebastian Wraneschitz, who is from Vienna, Austria. He gave up three goals on six shots and left 7:24 into the game. . . . Vancouver F Connor Horning scored once and added an assist in his 200th regular-season WHL game. . . . The Giants were without head coach Michael Dyck, as he served a one-game suspension after his team was involved in a “multiple-fight situation” against Prince George on Sept. 24. Associate coach Keith McCambridge took over in Dyck’s absence. . . .

In Spokane, the Tri-City Americans erased a 3-2 deficit with three third-period goals as they scored a 5-3 victory over the Chiefs. . . . F Parker Bell’s goal at 15:13 of the third period broke a 3-3 tie and stood up as the winner.

It doesn’t happen often, but a veteran of the QMJHL wars has made his way to Royalsthe WHL. F Bailey Peach, 20, has been added to the Victoria Royals’ roster and was in the lineup on Saturday night. . . . From Falmouth, N.S., he cleared QMJHL waivers after being released by the Charlottetown Islanders. He played three seasons (2017-20) plus five games last season with the Sherbrooke Phoenix before moving on to the Islanders last season. In 184 regular-season QMJHL games, he put up 40 goals and 67 assists. He added one goal and five assists in 26 playoff games. . . . Peach joins F Tarun Fizer and F Graeme Bryks as the Royals’ 20-year-olds.

G Robin Lehner of the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights hit the send button on the above tweet on Saturday evening. He has more than 107,000 followers. You can bet that we are going to be hearing a lot about this over the next few days.

Helf

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.

Specials

Raiders to hit road early for TV appearance . . . Bedard opens with a pair . . . Three hat-tricks, one shutout on WHL’s opening night

The CHL is back on TV this (Saturday) afternoon as the Regina Pats play host to CHLthe Prince Albert Raiders in a game that is to be shown on CBC. . . . If you tune in, you’re going to get Victor Findlay doing the play-by-play with analysis by Sam Cosentino, who is hardly a stranger to major junior hockey. . . . Findlay has a whole lot of play-by-play experience, having called a lot of Canadian university games, as well as a couple of Champions Hockey League finals, some Ottawa Senators games and an IIHF U-18 World championship. . . . It’ll be a quick turnaround for the teams after Regina won, 3-1, in Prince Albert on Friday night. The Raiders’ bus is to hit the road at 6:15 a.m. . . . You may recall that CHL climbed into bed with Sportsnet in 1998 and then the two parties signed a 12-year “partnership extension” on Feb. 18, 2014, that was to run through the 2025-26 season. . . . Their relationship ended this summer, with Sportsnet bailing and the CHL signing on with TSN, RDS and CBC on what the hockey people called “multi-platform, multi-year broadcast partnerships.” . . . It all starts today at 1 p.m. Regina time — that’s noon PT — and you can bet the spotlight will be on Regina F Connor Bedard, who, at 16, comes with all the adjectives you might imagine. He scored the game’s first and last goals on Friday in Prince Albert and, yes, he was named first star. . . . Blogger Darren Steinke was in Prince Albert on Friday night and his report is right here.

——

Elsewhere in the WHL on Friday night . . .

G Isaac Poulter stopped 20 shots to record the first shutout of the season as the host Swift Current Broncos got past the Medicine Hat Tigers, 2-0. That was Poulter’s second career shutout. His first came on March 13, 2019, when he stopped 33 shots as the Broncos beat the host Regina Pats, 2-0. . . .

In Moose Jaw, F Brayden Yager, 16, who is from Saskatoon, struck for three goals as the Warriors beat the Blades, 7-1. Alex Clarke of Weyburn, Sask., became the first woman to work as an on-ice official in a WHL regular-season game when she partnered with Ryan Lundquist on the lines. . . .

The Edmonton Oil Kings got three goals from F Josh Williams and three assists from F Jakub Demek as they defeated the visiting Red Deer Rebels, 4-1. Byron Hackett of the Red Deer Advocate points out that the Oil Kings have won 18 of their last 19 meetings with the Rebels. Yes, that’s domination. . . .

F Noah Boyko scored three times and F Justin Hall had a goal and four assists as the host Lethbridge Hurricanes dropped the Calgary Hitmen, 9-2. . . .

In Brandon, the Winnipeg Ice thrashed the Wheat Kings, 10-2. Winnipeg got two goals from each of F Skyler Bruce and F Mikey Milne. Ice G Daniel Hauser stopped 20 shots, including a pair of penalty shots. . . .

In Kennewick, Wash., the Tri-City Americans scored twice in a five-round shootout to beat the Portland Winterhawks, 5-4. Dwayne Jean Jr., a 17-year-old freshman from Edmonton, got the shootout winner.

Hygiene

In case you missed it, this from Bruce Jenkins of the San Francisco Chronicle: “The Padres’ Fernando Tatis Jr. hit a ball completely out of Dodger Stadium on Thursday night, a shot that landed on top of the left-field pavilion and disappeared into the night. According to the Dodgers’ website, only five other players have done that since the park opened in 1962: Willie Stargell (1969 Pirates), Stargell again (1973 Pirates), Mike Piazza (1997 Dodgers), McGwire (1999 Cardinals) and Giancarlo Stanton (2015 Marlins).”

F Zac Rinaldo refuses to get vaccinated against COVID-19 so it would seem the NHL’s Columbus Blue Jackets are through with him. Earlier, the team told Rinaldo to stay away from their training camp. On Friday, Rinaldo, 31, cleared NHL waivers and the Blue Jackets told him not to bother reporting to camp with the Cleveland Monsters, their AHL affiliate, when it opens on Tuesday. . . . Rinaldo signed a one-year, two-way contract in August. He won’t be getting his NHL salary (US$750,000), but will draw his AHL salary ($300,000) while he doesn’t play. . . . The Blue Jackets have told Rinaldo that he is free to look for other opportunities.

AuntEdna

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.

Fur

Robison: WHLers completely vaccinated as its regular season begins . . . OHL hires female linesperson, too . . . SJHL lowers boom on Millionaires

The WHL opens is 2021-22 regular season tonight (Friday) with seven games — WHL2in Brandon, Lethbridge, Moose Jaw, Prince Albert, Swift Current, Edmonton and Kennewick, Wash. . . . If you are planning to attend a game, make sure you check to see what restrictions are in place in terms of requiring proof of vaccination or a negative test, etc. And please be patient when entering the arena, keeping in mind that the folks doing the checking aren’t the ones who put the restrictions in place.

——

——

——

As the WHL opens its 2021-22 regular season, Ron Robison, its commissioner, said all is well with its vaccination mandate. . . . “We received excellent co-operation on that level,” Robison said in a video posted to the WHL’s website. “Prior to mandating, we had over 95 per cent and now we have 100 per cent of the players and staff fully vaccinated.”

The Jacksonville Jaguars are 0-4 after losing, 24-21, to the Bengals in Cincinnati on a last-play field goal on Thursday night.

Kirsten Welsh worked a game between the host Mississauga Steelheads and the OHLGuelph Storm on Thursday night, become the first female linesperson in OHL history. Welsh, from Blackstock, Ont., will be a part of the OHL’s officiating team for the 2021-22 season. . . . Welsh’s OHL debut came six nights after Alex Clarke, from Weyburn, Sask., became the first female linesperson in WHL history when she worked an exhibition game between the Regina Pats and host Moose Jaw Warriors. She will be working WHL games all of this season.

Gators

The SJHL’s Melville Millionaires haven’t had a good start to their season. . . . MelvilleThe league announced on Sept. 23 that the team was being shut down indefinitely due to a positive COVID-19 test within the organization. . . . Now the league has suspended general manager/head coach Mike Rooney and five players for a total of 35 games for their involvement in “an incident on Friday, Sept. 24.” . . . Rooney drew a 10-game suspension and also was fined $1,500. . . . The SJHL hit each of the five players with a five-game suspension — G Alexis Giroux, 19; F Braden Larochelle, 20; D Aiden Robson, 19; F Nicolas Samson, 19; and F Charles Thomas-Larochelle, 18. . . . Steven Wilson of discoverweyburn.com reported that the discipline was handed down “after an off-ice incident,” but added “the exact nature of the incident was not disclosed by the league.” . . . The Millionaires were to have opened the regular season on Sept. 24 against the host Weyburn Red Wings. That game was postponed as were games scheduled for Sept. 25 and 29, and Oct. 1. The next Melville game on the schedule is Sunday against the host Kindersley Klippers. . . . With Rooney ineligible, one would suppose that first-year assistant coach Daven Smith will run the bench.

Yes, Thanksgiving almost is upon us; at least, it is in Canada . . . but it’s never too early for this . . .

Vaccine

The New York Times has a daily email — The Daily — that subscribers can choose to receive. I found this interesting on Thursday morning:

“The United States owes its existence as a nation partly to an immunization mandate.

“In 1777, smallpox was a big enough problem for the bedraggled American army that George Washington thought it could jeopardize the Revolution. An outbreak had already led to one American defeat, at the Battle of Quebec. To prevent more, Washington ordered immunizations — done quietly, so the British would not hear how many Americans were sick — for all troops who had not yet had the virus.

“It worked. The number of smallpox cases plummeted, and Washington’s army survived a war of attrition against the world’s most powerful country. The immunization mandate, as Ron Chernow wrote in his 2010 Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of Washington, ‘was as important as any military measure Washington adopted during the war.’

“In the decades that followed, immunization treatments became safer (the Revolutionary War method killed 2 percent or 3 percent of recipients), and mandates became more common, in the military and beyond. They also tended to generate hostility from a small minority of Americans.”

Brain

Were you even aware that there was a Ukrainian Hockey League before one player showed his racist side and then got less than a slap on the wrist for his disgusting action? . . . And now it isn’t about to go way. Let’s be honest here; the offender should have gotten a life sentence from hockey. Period. . . . Eugene Kolychev, who had been the league’s general manager, spoke out in favour of harsher discipline and was fired the next day. . . . And we wonder why this stuff just won’t go away. . . . It seems to me that the puck now is in the IIHF’s end of the ice.

Ankle

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.

JUST NOTES: Former NHLer Andrei Nazarov (San Jose, Tampa Bay, Calgary, Anaheim, Boston, Phoenix, Minnesota, 1993-06) is back in the coaching game in the KHL. HK Sochi has fired head coach Evgeny Stavrovsky and replaced him with Nazarov, an ex-NHL enforcer who hasn’t had a coaching job since Neftekhimik fired him almost three years ago.

Cigar

Broncos lose more than 120G in pandemic season . . . Gov’t funds kept red ink from being worse

Silence

The Swift Current Broncos announced a “net loss” of $129,968 for the 2020-21 season during their annual general meeting on Tuesday night. . . . In a brief Scurrentstatement on its website, the team said: “The COVID-19 pandemic eliminated the club’s primary revenue-generating opportunities and required substantial cost control throughout the year.” . . . The WHL wasn’t able to have much of a 2020-21 season with the the Broncos joining the six East Division teams to each play 24 games without fans in Regina. . . . “The 24-game hub season in Regina was a significant expense to incur,” the Broncos’ statement continued, “however through careful management of the organization’s expenses, and thanks to strong corporate partnership commitments, the Broncos were able to substantially reduce the cost of the hub season.” . . . On Monday, the Broncos also announced that Al Stewart has stepped down from his position as governor, with Liam Choo-Foo, a long-time board member who had been the alternate governor, taking over the spot. Stewart now is the alternate governor. . . .

The Broncos are one of the WHL’s four community-owned teams; the Lethbridge Hurricanes announced a profit of $72,250 at their AGM on Monday night. The Moose Jaw Warriors and Prince Albert Raiders have yet to hold their AGMs. . . .

Interestingly, the Hurricanes received $668,000 in government funding. Their 24-game season featured 12 home and 12 away games, played without fans. The Hurricanes told shareholders it cost them $850,000 to play what was a developmental season. . . . In the end, they were able to show that $72,250 profit. . . .

The Broncos also played a 24-game schedule, but it was played in its entirety in a Regina hub with players staying in dormitories. The Broncos, according to a WHL news release of Jan. 15, will have received $600,000 in government funding, as did each of the league’s four other  Saskatchewan-based franchises. That funding will have prevented the Broncos from an even greater financial setback. . . .

And it was an improvement from the 2019-20 season, which was halted in March because of the pandemic. At the 2020 AGM on Sept. 29, the Broncos announced a loss of $791,000.

G Matthew Hutchinson, 14, was a winner in a BCHL exhibition game on Tuesday night as he and the host Cowichan Capitals beat the Nanaimo Clippers, 4-2. . . . The 6-foot-2 Hutchinson, who is from Nanaimo, will turn 15 on Oct. 7. . . . On Tuesday, he stopped 32 shots, 18 of them in the first period.

Giraffe

Admit it. You looked at both and started to think about it, didn’t you?

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.

Chemistry