Regular Life
This past Thursday I was brought down to Earth yet again. For the second time in my life, I have found out the hard way that playing sports with a competitive edge never ends well for me. I was playing basketball with some other teachers in the gym to end the work week. Personally speaking, basketball has too much contact: rebounding, driving, post-ups, loose balls and just hustling down the floor all create situations for contact. Here in this setting, you don't really expect to get pushed around but there are definitely instances where "Oh, it's just a game," is thrown out the window. Steam gets blown off.With the intensity competition brings out in people, things do get heated even among colleagues. I'd say that it's healthy and safe if it's controlled and the people know what they're doing.
Here's how it happened: The other team went on what felt like a 12-0 run (I don't keep score) and I said to myself, "Let's get a fast break point here." I didn't know what I was doing and was not used to weaving through people at a high speed on a gym floor. Rightly so, I ran into an opponent because I couldn't juke to the side running at the speed I was going. My jaw made contact with her head. I'd say I got the worst of it. She had to ice the left side of her face while I have 4 stitches in my mouth. I'm happy nothing serious happened after upping the ante. Lesson learned.
The World Juniors
Even living abroad, I still get my hockey on thanks to NHL Gamecentre. I try my best to get up early for Leaf games and cheer them on, but it's around this time that I really wish there was a World Juniors package because I love that tournament. Even now, with Canada not having gold on lock the tournament is still fun to watch.Not to mention, it gives you a good idea about which rookies can come out of the woodwork for fantasy purposes.Frankly, this Canadian team wasn't one I had a tonne of confidence in. I was thinking we'd get Bronze. Dylan Strome didn't deserve to be the captain because he's just an over-hyped power forward. The guy drafted after him, Mitch Marner, is in the NHL as are Ivan Provorov, Pavel Zacha, Zach Werenski, Travis Konecny, Noah Hanifin, Mikko Rantanen, Timo Meier, and Lawson Crouse (all of whom were drafted after Strome in the 2015 draft). To salt the wound some more, Arizona doesn't have a tough roster to crack either, their 29th in the standings.
Canada's U-20 team had a lot of awesome players: Thomas Chabot, Matt Barzal, Anthony Cirelli, and Mitchell Stephens top my list. The latter two could have easily earned a letter through the tournament. The coach didn't offer much confidence either. It could be because English isn't his first language and that made him sound like more of a dope than he actually is. The goalie situation wasn't very good either, but Ducharme managed to figure that out to get into overtime in the gold medal game.
There were a couple players on that team that are eligible to play next year and I think Raddysh will captain them in a better manner than Strome. Fingers crossed that playing with Strome all year in the O doesn't soften him up.
The Leafs!*
I haven't really had the opportunity to publicly praise this team. Babs has got his system in place. The team is meshing, I can definitely see the rookies developing and everybody has a role now. The other thing is, it seems like everyone except for Connor Carrick is trusted to play at the end of the game with a lead. Unfortunately, we still can't protect one to the level a playoff team needs to.
Saturday morning I watched them play the Devils and like the bench, I was pretty content with a 4-0 lead. That's what 15 years of cheering on a team in the basement does. You settle. I'm sure in the years of Mats Sundin I would have been egging them on to get ten goals.
15 years is a long time and I was pretty happy after game one when Auston "The Prodigal Son" Matthews potted four goals in a losing effort. He is the American Toews and isn't it obvious who you could compare Mitch Marner to? I don't think we have the same setup as the Blackhawks did when they made their run but Toews and Kane didn't win in their first year either. All in good time. If anything crazy would happen (not likely though) look for Nylander to get traded for a veteran scorer in the next year. As for right now, let the boys play.
Then there are those blue collar kids making their way onto the roster now. Zach "Pink" Hyman, Connor Brown, Soshnikov, and the Goat finally made it up the NHL! I think this is the best part about our team is that we have hardworking guys that know how to play and came up through our system. Hopefully, Shanahan's brain trust has more to come. Not to mention Kadri and Uncle Leo are a great duo that can defend and with Willie Nylander on the other side they can score too. Also, Lou Lamoriello has an eye for goalies. Shooting 3 for 3 right now: drafting Brodeur, trading for Schnieder, and this summer swapping for Freddie Anderson. Anderson is a BIG reason the Leafs are where they are in the standings.
There is still a long way to go before we're THE team in the Atlantic, but our time will come soon. Apart from Florida and a healthy Montreal, every team is arguably on par with the Leafs or underachieving this season (Tampa). So playoffs are definitely in the cards, not a guarantee, especially with the Metro division looking like they'll take both wildcard spots, but anything can happen... except Colorado making a run from the looks of it.
I could talk about other things too, like the Cinderella story in Ohio spurred by the return of Tortorella, Connor McDavid and the Oilers, Jagr eclipsing Messier, Sidney Crosby leading the league in goals, as well as Laine's accomplishments and that brutal own goal, but perhaps another post.
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*This might be a weekly section until they stop playing.
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