Tag: Living Kidney Donor Program

Scattershooting on a Sunday night while wondering whether King James has been vaccinated . . .

Scattershooting2

Larry Brooks, in the New York Post: “You do understand that the mayhem the NHL authorizes on the ice every night of the playoffs, in which players are permitted to hack, rough, interfere and throw punches without consequence, would be tantamount to Major League Baseball allowing — nay, encouraging — pitchers to throw a stream of 100 mph pitches at batters’ heads during its playoffs because of, well, ‘intensity,’ don’t you?” . . . The complete column is right here.

A Sunday morning tweet . . .

Jack Finarelli, aka The Sports Curmudgeon, had a friend direct him to a website that “tracks NBA players who were on the injured list, players who have been designated as ‘rest,’ meaning they got ‘approved leave’ from the team and players who missed games for ‘personal’ reasons.” . . . That website also tracks money earned by those same players. In the 2020-21 regular season, such players missed 6,319 games and earned, while not playing, US$906,171,634. . . . That website, should you be interested, is right here.

BigBird

If you happened to be watching the last couple of innings of the Detroit Tigers’ 5-0 victory over the host Seattle Mariners on Tuesday night, Dave Sims, the play-by-play guy, provided some funny moments. You will be aware that a lot of broadcasters, those of the homer variety, at least, are reluctant to mention a no-hitter when one is in progress for fear of jinxing the pitcher. In this case, with the Mariners the team without a hit, Sims was quite liberal with mentions of a no-hitter over the last couple of innings. . . . However, it didn’t work as the Mariners were no-hit for the second time in 14 days — this time by right-hander Spencer Turnbull, who led MLB in losses (17) in 2019. . . . When the no-hitter was over, the Mariners’ team batting average had slid all the way to .199. Yes, as a team they were below the Mendoza Line. Might there be more no-hitters in their immediate future? . . . (After the weekend, the Mariners are hitting .198 as a team.) . . . BTW, if you are a baseball fan and weren’t watching, you may be surprised to learn that Angel Hernandez was behind the plate for Turnbull’s no-no. Yes, it’s the first time Hernandez has been the pitch-caller for a no-hitter.

——

The morning after Turnbull’s no-no, The Sports Curmudgeon presented his readers with some numbers:

The Yankees had 5 players hitting below .200 Tuesday.

The Mariners had 4 players hitting below .200 Tuesday.

The Cubs, Pirates, Rangers, Twins and White Sox had 3 players hitting below .200 Tuesday.

The Cardinals, Giants, Mets, Marlins, Orioles, Royals and Tigers had 2 players hitting below .200 Tuesday.

The total for Tuesday was 40 players batting below .200. No wonder we have had so many no-hitters in 2021.

——

And that was before Wednesday night . . .

That’s when RHP Corey Kluber of the New York Yankees tossed a no-hitter against the host Texas Rangers, winning 2-0 in the process. That was the sixth no-hitter of this weak-hitting season. The MLB record for no-hitters in a season belongs to 1884, with eight. The modern-era record (since 1900) is seven (1990, 1991, 2012, 2015). . . . This also is the first time in MLB history that three teams have been no-hit twice in one season. So far, the Mariners, Rangers and Cleveland Indians are on the list.

Here’s John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle on Saturday:

“While strikeouts are at an all-time high (9.01 per game), hits are at the lowest rate (7.87) since 1908 during the Dead Ball Era (7.75), even lower than 1968, the so-called Year of the Pitcher (7.91) that led to the lowering of the mound by five inches. No wonder the league-wide batting average dropped from .262 in 2009 to .245 last year to .237 this year.”

When the OHL announced dates for its 2021-22 season the other day, it also revealed that the 2022 Memorial Cup tournament will open on Jun 2. As OHL Arena Guide (@ohlarenaguide) pointed out on Twitter: “It will have been seven years and five days (2,562 days) since the WHL champion last won a game at the Memorial Cup as of June 2, 2022.”

An interesting note from variety.com: “In a scary-good box office milestone, the stomach-churning ‘Saw’ franchise has surpassed $1 billion in worldwide ticket sales. ‘Spiral,’ the latest entry in the horror series, earned another $4.5 million in North America and $2.67 million overseas this weekend. That haul pushed the property to $1,000,799,533 globally across nine films.”

Why am I pointing this out? Because Oren Koules is one of the producers of all nine ‘Saw’ movies. Koules, now 60, played three seasons (1979-82) in the WHL, splitting time with the Portland Winter Hawks, Great Falls Americans, Medicine Hat Tigers, Spokane Flyers, Calgary Wranglers and Brandon Wheat Kings. . . . His son, Miles, spent three seasons (2012-15) in the WHL, playing with Medicine Hat and Portland.

Horsebarn

Dorothy will be taking part in her eighth Kamloops Kidney Walk, albeit virtually, on June 6. If you would like to be part of her team, you are able to make a donation right here. . . . Thanks in advance for your generosity.

——

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.

Sasquatch

A story about kidney disease and long weekends and joy and disappointment . . .

Vaccine

Hey, how’s the first long weekend of your summer treating you? Fine, I hope.

While some folks are complaining of being locked down — even though they are enjoying their favourite Kool-Aid on a patio and later will eat takeout from their favourite restaurant on their deck — I only hope that you are vaccinated once and waiting for No. 2.

In the meantime, allow me to provide you with some insight into kidney disease and a long weekend.

Just imagine, if you can, that you have been on dialysis for three or four years while waiting and hoping for a transplant. If you’re doing hemodialysis, you are visiting a clinic three times a week for about four hours at a time. If you’re doing peritoneal dialysis at home, you are hooking up to a machine — it’s called a cycler — every night when you go to bed. Yes, every night. Seven nights a week. In short, the cycler performs a fluid exchange while you are sleeping — toxic-filled fluid out, clean fluid in — as it does what your failed kidneys no longer are capable of doing.

Every four weeks a delivery truck pulls up at your home and the driver carries in 20 or 30 boxes of fluid and supplies. You have had to create a storage place for all of this, but, hey, you have come to understand that this is all part of living your life.

If you are lucky, you have gone through all the tests and been deemed a transplant candidate. You may have tried to find a living donor, but you haven’t had success. By now, then, you are on the deceased donor list. Yes, you know that it can be a long wait.

By now, you also have a medical team working with you. The team includes a case worker.

With a long weekend approaching, the case worker might call you with a message: (a) you’re finally near the top of the list; and (b) it’s a long weekend and that means, you know, traffic accidents and maybe . . .

One of the hard truths about being on the deceased donor list and getting a phone call is that your joy is on one side of the coin while a family’s nightmare is on the other side.

And then, just as the long weekend starts, your phone rings. There’s a kidney for you. So you and your wife pack in a hurry — you know that you could be in the big city for up to three months after surgery — and away you go.

The adrenaline carries you all the way to the hospital. You can hardly believe that the wait will soon be over. A kidney. No more dialysis. You are well aware that stuff might still happen — the best laid plans and all that — but you don’t want to think about that. You just know that your time has come.

You can’t restrain yourself from sharing the news. You pick up your phone and make a call, letting friends know that, yes, it’s almost time.

You are trying to contain your excitement, but there also is apprehension because you know that a kidney transplant is major surgery. But, really, what choice do you have? And, hey, no more dialysis. Hey, cycler, it’s been nice knowing you.

So, you’re thinking, let’s go . . . let’s get this over with.

You don’t know anything about the kidney that is heading your way — there are serious privacy concerns in these situations — but you are guessing that someone is on life support and that a decision has been made to donate organs and that you will be one of the beneficiaries. You are well aware that another family is going through a tough time.

Your thoughts are racing . . . you are incapable at the moment of compartmentalizing . . . let’s go.

And then the unthinkable happens and it all comes crashing down. You are informed that the medical team performed one last test on the donor and that test came back positive. Yes, for COVID-19.

Just like that the air is out of your balloon. You and your wife can hardly believe it. From the highest of highs to the lowest of lows. All in a matter of seconds. Bewildered and disappointed doesn’t begin to describe how you feel.

But, at the same time, you know there isn’t anything you can do about it. So you try to gather your thoughts, get yourself out of the hospital and back into your car, and you begin the four-hour drive back to the comfort of your own home.

After all, the cycler is calling . . . you have to do dialysis when you get there.

Such is life with kidney disease.

If you think that what you have just read is a work of fiction, allow me to assure you that it isn’t. This exact scenario played out over the past few days.

And now he’s back playing the waiting game, wondering if/when the phone will be ring because, you know, the long weekend isn’t over.

The question of age has long been a topic of conversation when it comes to organ donation, as in: How old is too old to register as an organ donor? . . . Perhaps there is no age limit. A medical team recovered a liver from the oldest recorded organ donor in U.S. history — Cecil Lockhart, 95, of Welch, W. Va.

This is a wonderful story about a man, Dick Henry of Wyomissing, Penn., who has twice been a transplant recipient — kidney and liver at separate times — both from the same living donor. . . . Henry, 72, got a kidney from family friend Jason Hornberger on Feb. 21. That was almost five years after Henry received part of Hornberger’s liver. . . . “My story is a positive one, I had a positive outcome,” Hornberger said. “The surgery went extremely well. Maybe there’s more people who will feel more comfortable about becoming a donor moving forward.” . . . The story from WPVI-TV in Philadelphia 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.

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

COVID-19 playing havoc with Mariners . . . Cheeseman will be leaving Oil Kings . . . Former Royals coach on move

Science

It seems that COVID-19 has made its way into the clubhouse of the Seattle Mariners. They revealed a positive test on Friday, then placed four relievers on CovidMLB’s COVID-19 protocol list. . . . The Mariners didn’t ID the positive tester, but placed right-handers Robert Dugger, Drew Steckenrider and Will Vest, along with southpaw Anthony Misiewicz, on the IL. . . . The Mariners, who are in San Diego for the weekend, have had a number of players choose not to get vaccinated. . . . Jeff Passan of ESPN.com reported that “there is concern within the organization that the relatively low level of vaccination within the clubhouse could be problematic.” He also reported that the Mariners “are among the least-vaccinated teams in” the American League. . . . The Associated Press reported that manager Scott Servais said: “The No. 1 priority obviously is the health and safety of our players and everybody understanding the importance of getting vaccinated. But it is an individual choice and unfortunately not all of our guys are vaccinated, so it’s something we have to deal with like other teams have had to deal with throughout Major League Baseball. It’s real, it’s out there, it is affecting our roster and we’ll try to deal with it as best we can.” . . . Servais also said that he doesn’t know if this will prompt more players to get vaccinated: “I don’t know. I know a few of our players have just bought themselves a ticket to spend the next 10 days at the Omni Hotel in San Diego, as they’ll be quarantined here. They will not travel with us going forward until that 7-to-10 day period expires and they can rejoin the team or try to get back in shape again after being out for 7-to-10 days. I would hope that a few more might jump on board and get the vaccine but you can only hope. I can’t force anybody to do it.” . . . All of the Mariners were retested on Friday, with the results expected Saturday. . . . Meanwhile, the Padres whipped the Mariners, 16-1, last night.

Welcome

Brian Cheeseman, the Edmonton Oil Kings’ head athletic therapist for the past Edmonton11 seasons, is leaving the WHL team. He is set to join the CFL’s Edmonton Football Team (nickname to come at some point down the road) as its director of sports medicine and rehabilitation. . . . Cheeseman, 40, started with the Oil Kings during the 2010-11 season. A native of Mount Pearl, Newfound and Labrador, he helped the Oil Kings to WHL titles in 2012 and 2014, and to the Memorial Cup championship in 2014. He also had been a regular with Hockey Canada assignments. . . . The Oil Kings’ news release is right here.

Ben Cooper, a former WHL assistant coach, has joined EC Red Bull Salzburg of the Erste Bank Eishockey Liga as Salzburgan assistant coach. He’ll work there with head coach Matt McIlvane and assistant coach Daniel Petersson. . . . Cooper has extensive experience, especially as a video coach. He filled that role with Canada’s gold medal-winning team at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver. He also won gold with Canada at the 2008 World junior championship and silver medals in 2009 and 2010. He also has worked with the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks and Florida Panthers. . . . Cooper, 44, has spent the past two seasons with the Herning Blue Fox of the Danish Metal Ligaen. . . . A native of Vancouver, he spent two seasons (2011-13) as an assistant coach with the Victoria Royals.

Troy Bodie, a former WHL player, has signed on with the NHL’s expansion KrakenSeattle Kraken as their director of hockey and business operations for their AHL affiliate that is to begin play in Palm Springs, Calif., in 2022-23. . . . Bodie, 36, who is from Portage la Prairie, Man., had been with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He spent three seasons as a pro scout with Toronto, and then three seasons as their director of pro scouting. . . . Bodie played four seasons (2002-06) with the WHL’s Kelowna Rockets, helping them win the 2004 Memorial Cup title as the host team.

Dorothy will be taking part in her eighth Kamloops Kidney Walk, albeit virtually, on June 6. If you would like to be part of her team, you are able to make a donation 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.

Spider

Susan Duncan: A story about kidney donation as she walks off into retirement . . .

It’s Friday, May 21, and tomorrow will be the first day of the rest of Susan Duncan’s life.

Susan, who used to be my boss at the Kamloops Daily News, is working her final day as a communications officer with the Interior Health Authority in Kamloops.

Yes, she will be riding off into what I hope is a glorious retirement.

It was after she had changed jobs, moving from The Daily News to IHA, that she donated a kidney, something she later wrote about exclusively for this website.

Here then, in honour of her retirement, is the essay she wrote about having donated a kidney. I may be biased, but I doubt that she has ever written anything better . . .

——

I donated a kidney in July 2016. I generally avoid talking about it because people then tell me how brave I was and so on. It’s embarrassing and also a huge exaggeration of my decision.

Susan
On Sept. 22, 2017, Susan Duncan found herself on the front page of Kamloops This Week, along with Lloyd Garner.

As well, I worry about encouraging someone else to donate. I don’t want the burden of guilt I will feel if someone does decide to donate a kidney and then has an unhappy experience.

But as I read the appeals by my former colleague Gregg Drinnan on behalf of desperate people searching for live kidney donors, I feel a sense of responsibility to share what it means to be an organ donor.

I realize that the time has come for me to be brave. The chances of having a bad experience are slim and there are so many sick people who need others to step up.

So here is my story. I hope one or some of you will make it yours.

I donated my left kidney and I haven’t missed it since. There was no side effect from the surgery, my blood pressure has remained low and my kidney function is normal. One healthy kidney is all this old body ever needed and, various factors aside, it’s probably all yours needs, too.

It was a bit of a fluke that I ended up being a donor. I knew the man’s wife vaguely through work and that she and her husband had three young children. I met her one day in the elevator at work and she told me she was at the hospital because her husband was there for dialysis.

He got sick suddenly in February and a few months later he was spending four hours a day, three days a week in the renal unit at Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops. They also lived two hours out of town so you can imagine what that was doing to their family life.

She introduced me to him and I warmed immediately to his big friendly smile. We chatted briefly about his illness, then we said goodbye. As I walked away, he called out, “Hey, if you know anyone with A positive blood type . . .”

I looked back and said, “I’m A positive . . . maybe I should get tested.” That night I researched live kidney donation and discovered that a person only needs one healthy kidney to live a full life.

The paperwork began, followed by a myriad of tests, including psychological. It turns out it doesn’t take much to be a match for a kidney donation.

At age 59, tests showed that I, an atheist mother of three grown children and two stepchildren, was a match for a 50-year-old man of deep Christian faith and father of three small children.

I went into hospital on a Monday morning and was out of surgery by noon. My husband was barely on the ninth tee when he got the call that all went well.

My former kidney got a good flushing out and was put in her new home later that afternoon. I’m told — and I’m proud of this — that she started pumping out urine before the surgeons even finished sewing her in place.

I stayed two nights in a little room at St. Paul’s Hospital, just down the hall from my match. I left the hospital at noon on Wednesday, walking slowly and feeling very tired.

Spare no tears for me though. The heroes are the patients who get the kidneys — they endure far more. But in the end, they not only stay alive, they live joyously, unencumbered by dialysis machines either at home or in the hospital.

I spent two more days in Vancouver at relatives. I took a few Tramadol (pain killers). Friday morning, my husband and I drove home to Kamloops. On Saturday afternoon, we went to a beautiful outdoor wedding and reception.

I felt really poorly once about a week after my surgery. But by the next day, I felt great and never looked back. The second Monday after surgery, I returned to work. Granted, it’s a desk job, no physical labour required aside from typing into a keyboard. If I had any other kind of a job, I likely would have been off for a month.

I also was back running long distance by September with no change in my energy.

As for scars, if you look really closely, there are two tiny scars on my left side and about a three-inch line well below my navel. If I had my shape from the 1980s, I could easily wear a bikini and no one would be the wiser.

I would like to say it’s because I’m tough, but I’ve read stories by other people who have donated kidneys and my recovery does not appear unique.

So should you donate a kidney? You should at least consider it. If you are a person who spends a lot of time worrying about your health, even though you are healthy, you probably shouldn’t. You will fixate on potential problems and experience stress you don’t need.

But if you are a healthy person who has always had normal blood pressure and you want improve a fellow human being’s life — maybe even save it — the information about live donation is right at your fingertips.

When I do think about my left kidney, I get a warm feeling that I was able to help a family. It makes me smile at times when I am feeling low.

My match regularly sends me a text to thank me. He calls me his angel. His kids wrote letters of thanks. Those are lovely gestures and I am always happy to hear he is doing well.

However, If I had never heard from him again, if he never once said thank you, if he ended up being a person who abused his body because of the disease of addiction, it would not have made me regret my decision.

I gave him a kidney and that’s that. The kidney was his. The decision to donate was mine and I had no expectation or desire for gratitude.

Some people are not able to say thank you for reasons of their own. They don’t make contact and that leaves some donors angry or hurt and second-guessing their decision.

Don’t donate if you expect thanks. Do it because it’s the right thing to do. You have a vital organ that you don’t need and someone else does.

It’s common sense.

Silvertips say restructuring cost Davidson his job . . . Is this tip of WHL iceberg? . . . Foreurs into QMJHL final

Garry Davidson is out after nine years as the general manager of the WHL’s Everett Silvertips. The team made the announcement early on Thursday evening.

Davidson
GARRY DAVIDSON

“Davidson is departing the organization, effective immediately,” read the news release.

The announcement makes it sound as though the Silvertips are restructuring in an attempt to cut costs.

“The past two seasons have necessitated the restructuring of Silvertips hockey operations, and this process is ongoing,” it read. “The Silvertips remain focused on the long-term on-ice and business success for our players, fans, partners, sponsors and our ownership. Further information on this process will be provided in the coming weeks.”

Davidson, who turned 70 on May 15, took over as GM in February 2012, after four seasons as the Portland Winterhawks’ director of player personnel.

In the past seven regular seasons, Everett has finished atop the U.S. Division on five occasions and has been second twice. The Silvertips lost out in the WHL’s championship final in 2018.

In 2019-20, Everett was second in the U.S. Division, one point behind the Winterhawks, when the season was halted after 63 games.

This season, in which teams played entirely within their division, the Silvertips ran away with the U.S. Division, going 19-4-0 and finished nine points ahead of Portland.

In Davidson’s first full season with Everett, the Silvertips were 25-40-7. From that point, they won 39, 43, 38, 44, 47, 47, 46 and 19 (of 23) games.

The Silvertips are owned by CSH International, Inc., which is controlled by Bill Yuill, the chairman and CEO, who is from Medicine Hat. In 1989, the company purchased the Seattle Thunderbirds before selling and buying the expansion Silvertips in 2002.

If you’re wondering, Dennis Williams, the Silvertips’ head coach, is signed through the 2022-23 season. The team signed him to a two-year extension on Feb. 12, 2020. Williams has been the head coach since May 15, 2017.

If Davidson’s departure is a sign of how tough things have been financially since the pandemic brought a premature end to the 2019-20 season, it might be that this is only the tip of the iceberg. The WHL now has gone through two springs without any revenue-producing playoff games, and it’s not a secret just how much those games mean to junior hockey teams and their bank accounts.

On top of that, someone is going to have to pay for all that went into the developmental season that the WHL’s 22 teams recently completed. Could it be that a paring of payrolls will be undertaken in an attempt to bring down expenses?

It would seem that there is a huge change coming to the Brandon Wheat Kings organization. . . . At the moment, Rick Dillabough is the Wheat Kings’ director of sponsorship and business development. Over his 30-plus years with the Wheat Kings, Dillabough has worn a lot of hats. He also put together the definitive book on the organization — Brandon Wheat Kings: The First 40 Years in the WHL.

The Val-d’Or Foreurs advanced to the QMJHL’s championship series on qmjhlnewThursday night, sweeping the Chicoutimi Sagueneens from the best-of-five semifinal series with a 6-3 road victory. . . . Earlier, the Foreurs had won 5-2 and 4-2 at home. . . . The other semifinal features the Victoriaville Tigres and the Charlottetown Islanders. That series is tied, 1-1, after the Islanders won, 5-4 in OT, at home on Tuesday and then dropped a 9-2 — yes, 9-2 — decision on Wednesday, also at home. They’ll play again tonight and Sunday afternoon in Victoriaville, with a fifth game, if needed, in Charlottetown on Tuesday.

Dorothy will be taking part in her eighth Kamloops Kidney Walk, albeit virtually, on June 6. If you would like to be part of her team, you are able to make a donation right here. . . . Thanks in advance for your generosity.

——

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.

Vaccines

Hey, Kelowna, have you heard? Blazers want 2023 Memorial Cup . . . Thunderbirds’ home getting new scoreboard . . . QMJHL to retire Lafleur’s number

You will recall that the Kelowna Rockets were to have played host to the 2020 Memorial Cup. However, the virus had other ideas and the four-team tournament was cancelled. Later, the 2021 event, which was to have been played in an OHL centre, also was cancelled. The 2022 tournament belongs to the QMJHL with a host city yet to be declared.

That brings us to the 2023 Memorial Cup, with the rights belonging to the WHL. KamloopsOne would think that it might be a fait accompli to return hosting rights to Kelowna. In fact, Bruce Hamilton, the Rockets’ owner and general manager, has agreed to another two-year stint as the chairman of the WHL’s board of governors. So you might think things are in place for the Rockets to get another chance to be the host team.

Not so fast, my friends.

Tom Gaglardi, the majority owner of the Kamloops Blazers, has let it be known that his franchise is interested . . . very interested.

“If that’s the right thing to do, then that could be the right thing to do,” Gaglardi, who also owns the NHL’s Dallas Stars, told Marty Hastings of Kamloops This Week. “I haven’t been involved in any formal conversation around that, but if that happens, we’ll deal with it as it comes. Just because you have the market size and ability financially to host a Memorial Cup, I don’t think is enough, so if Kelowna is going to want the Cup again in 2023, they’re going to need to have a competitive team, and so we’ll see if they do.”

Don’t forget that Gaglardi wasn’t happy with the decision to award the 2020 Memorial Cup to Kelowna. No, not at all!

Here’s what he told Hastings in February 2020: “Yeah, it was our turn. It should have been ours. It was the wrong thing. The league did the wrong thing. It’s the 25th anniversary (of the Blazers’ 1995 Memorial Cup victory, right in Kamloops), we were judged to have probably the best team of the host bids and it was our turn. We put together a heck of an offer and we didn’t win. Yeah, I’m sour, for sure. I’m disappointed.”

The bidding for the 2020 tournament also included the community-owned Lethbridge Hurricanes.

Hastings’ latest story on Gaglardi and the Memorial Cup is right here.

Toeprints

The accesso ShoWare Center, the Kent, Wash., home of the WHL’s Seattle SeattleThunderbirds, lost US$1.14 million in 2020, a year in which it was only open for the first two months. . . . Steve Hunter of the Kent Reporter writes that “the 6,200-seat arena had expenses of $2.45 million and revenue of $1.3 million, according to the ShoWare Center income statement released last week by SMG, which operates the $84.5 million facility.” . . . All told, the facility had 58 events cancelled. It also has lost $162,635 in the first quarter of 2021. . . . Still, Hunter reports, the arena will have a new $500,000 scoreboard in place when the Thunderbirds open the 2021-22 season in October. . . . Hunter’s story is right here.

The UBC Thunderbirds revealed the names of four members of their newest recruiting class on Tuesday, and each of them is a former WHL player. . . . F Scott Atkinson played the past four seasons with the Edmonton Oil Kings and is coming off two seasons as the team’s captain. . . . F Liam Kindree split four-plus WHL seasons between the Kelowna Rockets and Lethbridge Hurricanes. . . . F Chris Douglas spent his entire WHL career, all four-plus seasons of it, with the Red Deer Rebels. . . . G Ethan Anders played the past four seasons with the Rebels. . . . The Thunderbirds’ head coach is Sven Butenschon, a former WHLer (Brandon Wheat Kings, 1993-96). He has been UBC’s head coach since 2016-17. . . . UBC’s news release is right here.

Hockey Canada has announced the sites for three 2022 championship Canadatournaments, each of which was cancelled for 2020 and 2021. . . . The Esso Cup, the women’s U18 club championship, is scheduled for the Art Hauser Centre in Prince Albert, April 17-23. . . . The Telus Cup, the U18 men’s club championship, is to be played in Cape Breton, N.S., at Sydney’s Membertou Sport and Wellness Centre, April 18-24. . . . The Centennial Cup, the national junior A men’s championship, is scheduled for Estevan’s Affinity Place, May 20-29. . . . Previously announced sites and dates for 2021 championships: National women’s U18, Dawson Creek, B.C., Oct. 31 through Nov. 6; Para Hockey Cup, Bridgewater, N.S., Dec. 5-11; and World Junior A Challenge, Cornwall, Ont., Dec. 12-18.

It wasn’t a good day for the lacrosse world as the Major Series Lacrosse (MSL) in Ontario and B.C.’s Western Lacrosse Association (WLA) cancelled their 2021 seasons, including the Mann Cup senior men’s box lacrosse championship. . . . Both organizations had been forced by the pandemic to cancel their 2020 regular seasons and the national championship, too. The Peterborough Lakers are the last team to win the Mann Cup, in 2019. . . . A news release is right here.

OT

Dorothy will be taking part in her eighth Kamloops Kidney Walk, albeit virtually, on June 6. If you would like to be part of her team, you are able to make a donation right here. . . . Thanks in advance for your generosity.

——

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.

Lafleur

JUST NOTES: The QMJHL announced Tuesday that it is taking No. 4 out of use across the league in honour of Guy Lafleur. He played two seasons (1969-71) with the Quebec Remparts, putting up 233 goals and 146 assists in 118 regular-season games. He helped the Remparts to the 1971 Memorial Cup championship, the first won by a QMJHL team. This will be the second number to have been taken out of circulation by the QMJHL, which retired Sidney Crosby’s No. 87 in September 2019. . . . Tim Green is the new head coach of the Augustana Vikings men’s hockey team that plays in the Alberta Colleges Athletics Conference. Green, the 14th-overall selection in the WHL’s 1996 bantam draft by Tri-City, split four seasons (1998-2002) between the Americans and Lethbridge Hurricanes. He also spent two seasons as a player with the Vikings. He grew up in Camrose, which is home to Augustana, and played minor hockey there. He also played with the AJHL’s Camrose Kodiaks. He has coached minor hockey in Camrose and with Hockey Alberta. Green takes over from Blaine Gusdal, the Vikings’ head coach for the previous 13 seasons.

Stupid

Wickenheiser, Goyette teammates again . . . Another Hextall headed to The Show . . . Rebels’ Sutter wheeling, dealing

Hopefully the day is right around the corner when the promoting and hiring of women in hockey’s workplace won’t be headline news. But we’re not there yet, although Monday’s happenings certainly have us going in the right direction. . . .

ICYMI, the Toronto Maple Leafs promoted Dr. Hayley Wickenheiser to senior director of player development, and also hired Danielle Goyette as director of player development, a position that also will cover the AHL’s Toronto Marlies. . . . Goyette and Wickenheiser, both Hockey Hall of Famers, were long-time teammates on Canada’s national women’s team; they won two Olympic golds and six world championships together. . . . Goyette has been the head coach of the U of Calgary Dinos women’s team for 14 years, or since she retired from the national team in 2007. . . . Dr. Wickenheiser got her MD’s licence last week and is starting a residency at a hospital in Toronto. . . .

Meanwhile, ESPN, which is putting together broadcast crews after signing a deal with the NHL that starts next season, has hired Leah Hextall. As Andrew Marchand of the New York Post reported: “While the exact number of games she will broadcast is not yet know, she will be the first woman play-by-player to be a regular part of a national NHL TV package.” . . . She did one NHL game this season on Sportsnet, but gained more fame for calling an NCAA playoff game between Minnesota-Duluth and North Dakota that went into a fifth OT period. . . . If you were to let Google be your friend, you would learn that Hextall has more than paid her dues for a lot of years, so she has earned this opportunity. . . . She is a cousin to former WHL/NHL G Ron Hextall, who now is the Pittsburgh Penguins’ general manager. Two uncles, Bryan Jr. and Dennis, are former NHLers. Her grandfather, the late Bryan Sr., is in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Bryan Sr. led the NHL in goals in 1939-40 with the New York Rangers and scored the Stanley Cup-winning goal in OT of Game 6 to beat the Toronto Maple Leafs. . . . Leah’s father, Randy, was in the Brandon Wheat Kings’ training camp in the late 1960s — and I may have spent a shift or two on a line with him — and later played for the MJHL’s Portage Terriers, a team that once was coached by Bryan Sr. Randy, who won a Canadian junior A title (Centennial Cup) with the 1972-73 Terriers, passed away on July 12, 2019.

Bears

The Red Deer Rebels don’t have a head coach at the moment, but that didn’t RedDeerstop the previous one from making a couple of trades on Monday. Of course, Brent Sutter, that former coach, also is the franchise’s owner and general manager so if he’s going to make a trade, well, he can do just that. . . . On Monday, he started by doing a deal with the Brandon Wheat Kings that involved a pair of 19-year-olds. . . . The Rebels get G Connor Ungar in exchange for D Mason Ward. . . . Ward, 6-foot-5 and 215 pounds, has 19 points in 83 games with the Rebels over the past two seasons. He is the son of former Rebels BrandonD Lance Ward. Obviously, the Wheat Kings are looking for someone to bring some size and a physical game to their back end. . . . Ungar was 5-2-1, 2.87, .904 for the Wheat Kings in the Regina hub this season. In 15 career regular-season appearances, he is 6-4-1, 2.92, .905. . . . The Wheat Kings are left with Ethan Kruger, 20, and Nick Jones, 16, as the goaltenders on their roster now. Jones, from Calgary, was a fifth-round pick in the 2019 bantam draft and has signed a WHL contract. . . . At this moment, the Rebels will be looking at keeping two of Ungar, Byron Fancy, 20, and Chase Coward, 18, on their roster. . . . “We just felt we had lots of depth, that we were working from (a position of) strength,” Sutter told Troy Gillard of rdnewsNOW. “They wanted Mason and we wanted the goaltender, so it made sense to do a one-for-one deal.” . . . (Gillard’s story is right here.) . . . Later in the day, Sutter Edmontondealt F Jaxsen Wiebe, 19, to the Edmonton Oil Kings for F Liam Keeler, 20. Keeler, who is from Edmonton, was the 22nd overall pick in the WHL’s 2016 bantam draft. In 214 regular-season games with the Oil Kings, he had 26 goals and 48 assists. Wiebe, a seventh-round selection in 2017, had nine goals and 11 assists in 73 games with Red Deer. . . . As of now, the Rebels have four 20-year-olds to choose from — Fancy, Keeler, F Arshdeep Bains and F Zak Smith. . . . The Oil Kings have three 20-year-olds on their roster — D Matthew Robertson, F Carter Souch and F Josh Williams. That number would grow to four should D Simon Kubicek report to training camp. Kubicek was acquired from the Seattle Thunderbirds on Jan. 25. After playing two seasons (2018-20) with Seattle, he spent 2020-21 in Czech Republic where he played 21 games with Motor Deske Budejovice in the Czech ELH. He also got into games with HC Stadion Litomerice in Czech2 and his country’s U20 side. Of course, should he earn a spot with the Oil Kings out of camp, he would be a two-spotter — a 20-year-old and an import.

Dorothy will be taking part in her eighth Kamloops Kidney Walk, albeit virtually, on June 6. If you would like to be part of her team, you are able to make a donation right here. . . . Thanks in advance for your generosity.

——

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.

Longhairs

Scattershooting on a Sunday night after not watching Canucks and Flames . . .

Scattershooting2

If you think MLB has a problem with pace of play, how about a high school girls softball game in Montgomery, Alta., in which Park Crossing defeated Sidney Lanier, 46-45?  The winners struck for 11 runs in the first inning but had to come from behind in the final inning for the victory. . . . The teams combined for 20 hits and 14 errors. But there were 65 walks — that’s right! 65!!! Oh, there also were 29 HBPs. One player got to plate eight times and was 0-for-0 with seven runs. She had five BBs and three HBPs. . . . It took almost five hours to play the game.

Stud

Dwight Perry, in the Seattle Times: “Park Crossing High School’s 46-45 win over Lanier in the Alabama Class 6A girls softball regionals featured 29 batters hit by pitches and 65 walks. Somewhere, Bob ‘Just A Bit Outside’ Uecker was smiling.”

——

Perry, again: “Albert Pujols, just released by the Angels and signed by the Dodgers, has grounded into an MLB-record 403 double plays in his career. Instead of having a street renamed in his honor, maybe he should be awarded his own 643 area code.”

You easily can make the argument that no one athlete in Saskatchewan’s history has had a larger impact on the province than George Reed, one of the two biggest names to have worn the green and white of the Saskatchewan Roughriders — the other being Ron Lancaster, of course. . . . There isn’t anything shocking about that statement. . . . What might be a surprise to you is what Reed faced in Regina, especially in his early days with the Roughriders. . . . Jason Warick of cbc.ca has that story right here and it’s a great read.

Did Joey Meyer of the Denver Zephyrs, a Triple-A baseball team, really hit a 582-foot home run at Mile High Stadium on June 2, 1987? . . . Benjamin Hochman tried to find out and ended up with a great story that is right here.

Bob Molinaro of the Hampton Roads Virginian-Pilot has a question and the answer: “Is anyone’s enjoyment of a baseball game enhanced after being told the exit velocity of a batted ball? Of course not.”

I would suggest that we may never find out exactly how many NHL players were hit by COVID-19 this season. Consider this from Paul Friesen of the Winnipeg Sun, following a post-game Zoom session after the Jets beat the visiting Vancouver Canucks, 5-0, on Tuesday night:

“Jets forward Dominic Toninato, an unheralded free-agent signing in October who has languished on the taxi squad most of the season, revealed he’d come down with COVID in November and had some concerning complications from it, delaying his return.”

Makes a guy wonder just how many similar cases there have been in the NHL. Also has a guy wondering if that’s an upper- or lower-body injury in the NHL?

“Standard Magazine reports heavy-metal fans are among the most anxious and depressed in the world,” notes RJ Currie of sportsdeke.com. “In fact, they rank a close second to followers of the Toronto Maple Leafs.”

Coyote

Dorothy will be taking part in her eighth Kamloops Kidney Walk, albeit virtually, on June 6. If you would like to be part of her team, you are able to make a donation right here. . . . Thanks in advance for your generosity.

——

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: The junior B Fernie Ghostriders of the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League are in the market for a new general manager/head coach with the news that Jeff Wagner has left to join the BCHL’s Coquitlam Express as associate coach and director of scouting. Wagner spent three seasons with the Ghostriders. . . . The BCHL’s Surrey Eagles and head coach Cam Keith have signed a contract extension through the 2023-24 season. He has been the Eagles’ head coach since March 2019.

Grandpa

Grand Forks doctor buys junior B team . . . Dyck, Schneider with Team Canada to Worlds . . . Whistle, Holoien get head-coaching spots

Here’s a tremendous hockey story from small-town Canada for you . . .

When Dr. Mark Szynkaruk moved to Grand Forks, B.C., in 2017, the thought of owning a hockey team had to have been the furthest thing from his mind. . . . But, hey, here he is, the new owner of the junior B Grand Forks Border Bruins of the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League. . . . Dr. Szynkaruk, a family practitioner and a married man with two young sons, purchased the franchise from the Grand Forks Border Bruins Association, the community group that owned the team. The Border Bruins have played in the KIJHL since 1969. . . .  “The first thing,” he said in explaining what owning the Border Bruins means to him, “is that the Border Bruins is a legacy team. It comes with an immense amount of pride to be involved with something that has been run successfully for that long. The team means a great deal for the community, so as somebody who’s immersed in the well-being of folks in town I think this investment to make the on-ice product the best possible in Junior B is wonderful to be part of.” . . . There is more on this terrific story right here.

Some things to think about if you are hoping for a WHL season to open in October with bums in the seats . . .

Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, said Friday that the country needs 75 per cent of all adults to have at least one shot and 20 per cent to be fully vaccinated before public health restrictions should start to be lifted. Statistics released Friday showed 50 per cent of Canadian adults with one shot.

From CBC News: “The U.S. is much further along in fully vaccinating its adult population; about 45 per cent of American adults have had two doses, compared to fewer than 4 per cent of all Canadians. Canada has delayed second doses by up to 16 weeks to give more people at least some level of antibody protection against COVID-19.”

Patty Hajdu, Canada’s health minister, said on Friday that restrictions on indoor sports can start to be lifted in the fall if 75 per cent of the country’s adults have had two shots.

She said: ”We should be able to do more activities indoors with people outside our household. More people need to be vaccinated so we can ease restrictions.”

Tam also said on Friday that Canadians should plan on social distancing and wearing masks for the foreseeable future.

Tam said: “I think masks might be the last layer of that multi-layer protection that we will advise people to remove.”

Meanwhile, the closure of the U.S.-Canada border to non-essential travel is expected to be extended on May 21 when it is next scheduled to expire. But preliminary talks aimed at re-opening it have begun but there apparently is a lot of work left to do, so that won’t be happening soon.

And, in Washington state, the goal is to reopen by June 30. Gov. Jay Inslee said that may happen earlier if 70 per cent of people over 16 have received at least one shot.

He said: ”Trends suggest it won’t be until late June when we reach our desired vaccination rate, which is why we’ve set June 30 for reopening, but I hope people will see this as an opportunity to reopen even sooner if we can stay motivated, stay informed and get more people vaccinated faster.”

According to the state’s Department of Health, 57 per cent of those 16 and over have received at least one shot, with 43.7 per cent fully vaccinated.

Washington State reported 2,375 new positives on Friday. . . . B.C. announced 494 new cases, with Alberta at 1,433, Saskatchewan 227 and Manitoba 491.

As you may be aware, eight members of the New York Yankees — one player, three coaches and four support staff — have tested positive for COVID-19. All eight had been vaccinated, each one receiving the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccination. . . . But what does this mean? How can someone who is fully vaccinated test positive? . . . The best piece I’ve read about the situation involving the Yankees is right here. It includes a lot of questions and answers, and is well worth a read.

Soccer’s Canadian Professional League said Thursday that it continues “to move forward with our plans for a full 2021 season” and that “our target date to start the season is mid-June to early July.” . . . The plan is to bring all eight teams into one city and begin the season without fans. By season’s end, it is hoped that each team will have played 28 games.

Jobs

The WNBA began its 25th season on Friday, but it did it without guard Asia Durr of the New York Liberty, who has been ill for more than a year now. . . . “I haven’t been able to (practice),” she told HBO’s Real Sports. “It’s really challenging for me. But I’ve talked to doctors and they’ve told me I’m not cleared yet. I’m not cleared to be able to do anything physically, which could cause flare-ups . . . and that’s what’s really hard for me because in life whenever something was hard I would go and play. I can’t even do that now. I can’t even shoot a free throw.” . . . Durr was the No. 2 pick in the league’s 2019 draft, but opted out of last season because of complications from COVID-19. She apparently has lost 30 pounds and remains symptomatic. . . . Asia Durr is 24 years of age.

Michael Dyck, the head coach of the WHL’s Vancouver Giants, has been added Canadato the coaching staff of the team that will represent Canada at the IIHF World Championship that opens in Riga, Latvia, on May 21. . . . Dyck will work alongside head coach Gerard Gallant and assistants Mike Kelly and Andre Tourigny. . . . Earlier this year, Dyck was an assistant coach with the Canadian team at the World Junior Championship. . . . Team Canada’s roster for Riga also includes D Braden Schneider, who played this season with the Brandon Wheat Kings.

The Canada Cup International, a women’s softball championship tournament, has been cancelled for a second straight year. It was to have run July 2-11 with most of the games at Softball City in Surrey, B.C. Greg Timm, the tournament’s chair, told Nick Greenizan of the Surrey Now-Leader: “The decision to cancel this year’s event is terribly disappointing, but there are simply too many health-related concerns and logistical issues to allow the event to take place. “The health and safety of players, their families, our volunteer base and the fans needs to come first and foremost.” . . . The NTT Indycar Series has pulled the Honda Indy Toronto out of the Ontario city because of ongoing restrictions in that province. It was to have held July 9-11.

Chicago

Dorothy will be taking part in her eighth Kamloops Kidney Walk, albeit virtually, on June 6. If you would like to be part of her team, you are able to make a donation right here. . . . Thanks in advance for your generosity.

——

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: Dave Whistle is the new general manager and head coach of the Leeds franchise in Great Britain’s NIHL. He is no stranger to hockey in that part of the world, having previously coached the Belfast Giants, Bracknell Bees, Cardiff Devils and Sheffield Steelers. Whistle, 55, has been coaching at the Okanagan Hockey Academy in Penticton, B.C. . . . Rob Holoien is the new head coach of the junior B Carrot River Outback Thunder of the Prairie Junior Hockey League. Holoien, who is from Melfort, Sask., had been an assistant coach with the team for two seasons (2016-18). Most recently, he was an assistant coach with the SJHL’s Battlefords North Stars. Holoien, 34, played four games with the WHL’s Tri-City Americans in 2004-05.

Mental

OHL sets opening date, while WHL has some legitimate questions . . . Yankees, Phillies have COVID-19 issues . . . Hulak running back to Saskatoon

Parachute

When you’re trying to figure out who are the powerbrokers in the WHL, you have to know that Ron Toigo, the majority owner of the Vancouver Giants, is among the select few.

He was been a WHL owner since 1991 when he purchased the Tri-City WHL2Americans. He sold that franchise in 2000 and has been the Giants’ majority owner since he paid $2 million for an expansion team and got it on the ice for the 2001-02 season.

The point being that if you’re a WHL fan, you should be paying attention when Toigo speaks, as he did last week in an interview with Postmedia’s Steve Ewen.

This particular Ewen story dealt primarily with Toigo’s reaction to having the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks move their AHL affiliate, the Utica Comets, into the Abbotsford Centre, which is 34 km east of the Langley Events Centre, the facility the Giants call home.

However, it sounded like Toigo had a lot more on his mind concerning the 2021-22 season than having an AHL team nearby.

“Are people going to be allowed to come to games?” Toigo said as he looked ahead a few months. “If they are, how many will you be allowed to have in the rink? And, if they are allowed to come, how many are going to want to? There are still a lot of question marks.”

If this is what’s on Toigo’s mind, you can bet that this is the kind of conversation that has been happening whenever the WHL’s board of governors — or even the executive committee that includes Toigo — have hooked up for a meeting.

In other words, WHL teams are well aware that they may not be able to open the doors and invite everyone in come October.

The best quote I have seen recently on what’s ahead for all of us came from Gerrit Cole, the New York Yankees’ ace right-hander.

“I don’t think this is going to be over for a few years,” he said one day last week. “I think we’re going to be dealing with this kind of thing for a while. Every time these things come up, we’re gonna have to adapt and learn as a species. So, well, we’re gonna take it one step at a time and do the best we can with it.”

I would suggest that is exactly what the WHL and its teams will be doing — one step at a time and doing the best they can under the circumstances.

BettyWhite

The OHL, which wasn’t able to get in any games in a 2020-21 season that it ohlultimately cancelled on April 20, announced on Thursday that its 2021-22 regular season will open on Oct. 7. . . . Training camps are to open on Sept. 4. The schedule, which hasn’t yet been revealed, will call for each team to play 68 games, with playoffs to begin on April 7 and run through May 30. . . . The OHL release has the Memorial Cup, which is to be held in a QMJHL city yet to be named, running from June 2-12.

Here’s hoping that the OHL is able to meet these dates, which would mean that the WHL would be able to start up about the same time. However, that fly on the wall in the OHL office actually was the virus in disguise. “Hmm,” it buzzed. “We’ll see . . .”

The New York Yankees have reported eight positive tests among players, coaches and support staff. That includes one player — SS Gleyber Torres, who went on the COVID-19 protocol list on Thursday. Torres, who had tested positive during the offseason, has been fully vaccinated, as have each of the other seven people who tested positive. They all were given the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine. . . . All eight of them are asymptomatic. That includes pitching coach Matt Blake, third-base coach Phil Nevin, who had symptoms early on, first-base coach Reggie Willits and four members of the travelling staff. All are quarantining  in Tampa. . . . Yankees GM Brian Cashman said: “The one thing I take from this is that the vaccines are working. . . . It will save you and protect you from a lot more than what you think.” . . .

The Philadelphia Phillies have placed C J.T. Realmuto on the COVID-19 protocol list after her reported a stomach ache and fever on Wednesday night. He was tested for COVID-19 and was found to be negative. But he didn’t travel with the team to Florida on Thursday. . . .

Meanwhile, Bill Maher, the host of Real Time With Bill Maher, has tested positive, forcing cancellation of this week’s taping. Maher, who is fully vaccinated, tested positive during weekly staff testing. He was reported Thursday to be asymptomatic.

——

Dorothy will be taking part in her eighth Kamloops Kidney Walk, albeit virtually, on June 6. If you would like to be part of her team, you are able to make a donation right here. . . . Thanks in advance for your generosity.

——

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: Derek Hulak has returned to the U of Saskatchewan, where he spent four seasons (2010-14) as a player, to work as an assistant coach with the Huskies under head coach Mike Babcock. Hulak also spent four seasons (2006-10) in the WHL, the first 19 games with the Regina Pats and the remainder with the Saskatoon Blades. Hulak, a 31-year-old native of Saskatoon, announced his retirement after playing eight games this season with HC Thurgau of the Swiss League.

Octopi