Hitmen update

Oh look, a notepad. This has been one seriously long week. A bunch of us from work spent two days this week at a course that focused on coaching and how to best deliver feedback and ideas to the people we support. It was a really informative course, and having so little training/experience with formal coaching, it was really beneficial to me. It just meant earlier mornings than I normally like, and a whole lot of thinking. Otherwise, there was a Hitmen game, in which they finally played without their heads in their asses (second half only) and won a see-saw 7-5 battle with Lethbridge. Tonight they take on the Moose Jaw Warriors in what should be an epic clash. There was dodgeball, and there was a very brief trip to Boken City on Wednesday night. We'll stay with the Hitmen though. It's no secret I don't have a lot of confidence in the new coach, Mike WIlliamson. It's also no secret, at least the people sitting near me, that I don't appreciate the "efforts" of Giffen Nyren. As noted last time, by playing Jaynen Rissling and Peter (Chuck) Kosterman regularly, the team will see long-term benefit from the short-term mistakes they make. The team will also see long-term benefit from the confidence they gain by making positive contributions to the team in the short term. They were both in the lineup Tuesday night and we got a taste of what we can expect from these two youngsters. Rissling has some rover in him, we saw him below the offensive hashmarks a few times. Kosterman showed a mean streak we haven't really seen, and got his first WHL point, too. These are two seriously high-end young defensemen. Anyway, the point here is this: coach doesn't seem to be a strong leader himself, and he doesn't seem to know how to get the most out of his natural leaders. Ian Schultz and Tyler Fiddler have been pretty consistent all season, but Mike Stone, Kris Foucault and Joel Broda, the other leaders, by way of tenure, have all been inconsistent or seemingly unmotivated. Stone played as though the first half of the season was his own personal try-out for the Canadian junior team. Foucault is starting to score but isn't playing anywhere near full speed, or anywhere near the level we saw when the Hitmen acquired him last season. Broda just doesn't seem to bring it every night. I don't remember him actually hitting the net with a shot all season, and I get the feeling he's more focused on where he'll be plaing next season (Hershey, AHL) than where he's playing now. And then there's Brandon Kozun and Martin Jones. For their efforts with Team Canada, they were given a free pass for the last couple of weeks. Kozun seems to be finding the next level. He absolutely dominated the game against Lethbridge, seemingly willing the Hitmen to victory. He started taking the leap Brett Sonne took after last year's WJC, and the Hitmen need Kozun to get to that level if they're going to make a deep playoff run. Jones, on the other hand, seems as though he's still battling the demons of the overtime goal in the WJC final. It was a tough goal to give up, but he doesn't seem to have battled back from that just yet. And while there's a period of "let him play through it" you have to afford your veterans, there's also a time that period needs to come to an end. Jones looked really shaky on Tuesday night, coughing up some of the most awful rebounds I've ever seen. At one point, he gave up a rebound on a shot that was fanned on and rolled to him. He kicked it into the blue ice to his right where the Hurricanes quickly buried it in the net. It started off as three goals on nine shots. Here's hoping Jonesy gets a rest either tonight or Sunday. Hats off to Ben Wilson and Cody Sylvester for playing outstanding hockey Tuesday night. Wilson has a lot of rover in him, and he takes himself out of position too often for anybody's liking, but he usually finds a way to turn his mis-plays into positives. Notes on the new guys next week.

Kootenay doesn't suck

Another weekend in the books. Hardly seems fair the time should pass so quickly. Let's go for a quick run-down. I'll skip the FNM portion and go straight to karaoke at Bootleggers on Friday night. Good place, good vibe. It kinda reminded me of a much (MUCH) darker version of the ol' Boston Pizza on Upper James days. Of course, fewer schooners were consumed, but all in all it was a really good time. Saturday was the triumphant return of doing SFA. I barely made it out of my sweats, and it was pretty glorious, although the original Tubby Dog plan fell through. That was less awesome. Our newest floor hockey season started Sunday, and we lost. I think losing may be a recurring theme with this season's version of the team. But we have a pretty even number of guys and girls, meaning I can play defense more often this season. That was nice. I blocked a few shots and broke up some passes and even had an assist in the 4-1 loss. I followed that up by taking in the Hitmen game. It was the second game in the last 10 days against Kootenay, and while we all chanted "KOOTENAY SUCKS" at the right times, and often, for the second time in 10 days, the Ice proved they in fact, do no suck. One Kootenay defenseman really caught my eye in each game, Joey Leach. He played really smart hockey. He's not on Central Scouting's mid-term rankings, but he could turn into a late-round steal. One guy that won't turn into a steal of any sort if Giffen Nyren. The Hitmen traded for this overager earlier in the year to try to get a little more offense from the blue line. He's led to more offense alright. Just not for the Hitmen. At one point in the third period, he had a WIDE OPEN Rigby Burgart in position for a one-timer and elected to drill the puck into a defender's shin pads instead of passing. The whole arena could see the passing lane. Nyren was benched for a large portion of the period after that. While we're quite disappointed with this young man's play, BK had the best, and most level-headed idea: put Nyren on the bench and play both Jaynen Rissling and Peter Kosterman. It's the only way those two guys will learn how to play at this level, and while there may be some growing pains, at least they'll have a positive impact on the future. BK is reserving judgment of coach Mike Williamson, but I'm firmly entrenched in "I don't like the new coach" land.

If what you say is true, the Wu Tang and the Shaolin could be dangerous

More Magic stuff today. We had about 30 people show up at Broken City last night for everything from standard tournament play, to EDH, to casual "Magic," (a term for using cards from anywhere, regardless of format). It was a riot. Some of the players were very new (one guy I played against said he'd started playing two months ago) and some of the players had cards from the very first Magic set. It was so much fun and such a great vibe. I met at least five people last night that had never come to Broken City for Magic before, and there was another group that I didn't meet, and they were a half dozen in numbers. There was EDH talk and talk of ideal and desired generals. There was deck tech for noobs that were playing cards like... well I won't knock his cards because his cards are his cards. He stands by them, and that's really the key. There was deck tech for Jared's main standard deck, which is now minus four Lotus Cobras, bringing the value of the deck down to only $700. It was a great time, and was really what playing Magic is supposed to be about. Getting together with like-minded folks, playing a silly game, and enjoying each other's company. And the Mirror combo went off (tee hee!) Just to reduce the geek quotient just a little, Pete Carroll will fail in Seattle. He's a college coach. And while I understand the need to constantly challenge oneself, and particularly to challenge oneself to accomplish a previously-failed task, I don't see this going well for the Seahawks or for Carroll.

Day... whaters?

I noticed yesterday that we're already nearly half-way through January, time really seems to be flying here. I think that's a good thing Not much to report on from yesterday, so let's just skip ahead to the movie review. I saw Daybreakers last night, and I've now checked three times to be sure that was the correct title. Throughout the day I'd been calling it Daywalkers, Daystalkers, just about everything except for Daybreakers. Most people still knew what I meant. Let me start with the cast. I knew Ethan Hawke was in the movie, but I was very pleasantly surprised to see the names Sam Neill and Willem Dafoe show up in the opening credits. Immediately, I knew I was in for something... special. The movies takes place in 2019 according to a small child's calendar, and Hawke plays a hematologist tasked with finding a blood substitute for the world's vampires, as the human population has dwindled to less than 5 per cent (of what, isn't entirely clear). Hawke is a vampire, like everyone else. Vampires retain their human smarts and have built a whole new kind of society, living more or less just the way humans do today. Hawke's character doesn't necessarily like being a vampire, and as the movie later reveals, he is more concerned with finding a cure for vampirism than with finding a blood substitute. We learn about how quickly vampires degenerate from mostly-human to completely ravenous, disfigured horrors called Subsiders if they don't have a steady flow of blood. So yadda yadda there's a couple chase scenes and some betrayal and a couple of touching moments and a lot of blood and exploding vampires (vampires explode, Mike says they were being shot in the heart with wooden stakes, I say the director just wanted the "bad guys" to explode). The movie tries, and sort of succeeds in trying to hit the mark between campy horror and serious social commentary, though it's rarely a clean bullseye. Like so many movies with a very intriguing story, and very compelling conflict, this may have been an outstanding tv show or mini series. In movie form, it was thoroughly bad, but equally enjoyable. I'd recommend the movie, but only with the caveats that it is not a straight-up horror film, nor is it a gore-fest, nor is it particularly thought-provoking. But hey, exploding vampires. Yes please.

It's plus-six in Calgary, let's play some baseball.

Let's talk a little baseball. Lots of news there in the past few days, starting with Andre Dawson's Hall of Fame election. A healthy congrats to Dawson, and despite his claims he'd choose to wear a Cubs hat on his plaque, I hope for all Expos fans that he goes into the Hall as an Expo. And I hope Youppi! is on hand for the event. Not making the Hall, a player just about everyone in Canada believes should have been a first-ballott Hall of Famer, was Roberto Alomar. Sure it's possible that Blue Jays fans have overvalued Alomar's career, just as it's possible the Blue Jays won't miss Roy Halladay this coming season. Alomar was far and away the best second baseman of his generation, and at least in my mind belongs in a category with only Joe Morgan ahead of him on the list of all-time greats. Alomar ushered in the era of hard-hitting second baggers that put up big power numbers, and took the athleticism required to play second base to a whole new level. It's flat-out wrong that Alomar wasn't inducted. Another guy making headlines this week was Randy Johnson, who officially announced his retirement. Belonging to the age group I do, Randy Johnson was one of my favourite players growing up. As the staff ace for the Griffey-era Mariners, as the first really popular athlete outside of basketball to approach 7-feet tall, Johnson was unmistakable, as was his dominance. He'll go out with more than 300 wins under his belt, putting him in a club most feel will never accept another member. He also belongs to a club with Gaylord Perry, Nolan Ryan, and Cy Young, for pitchers that have won 125 games or more in both the American and National Leagues. A tip of the cap to Johnson, a truly class act that always played the game the right way (revisionist history allows me to forget that time in New York). Batting clean-up today, Mark McGwire. He's all over the sports pages for his announcement yesterday that he did in fact use steroids and human-growth hormone. Thanks for coming clean Mark, and while I'm not here to talk about the past, it's important for your future that you've taken steps to make this right. The cover-up is almost always worse than the crime, and that is very certainly true with McGwire. This news comes nearly 12 years too late, and while it changes his magical summer in 1998, historically, it can't change the way he made people feel that year. Though his record-breaking home run wasn't the 500-foot blast we'd come to expect that summer, I'm sure most baseball fans recall it very easily and can tell you where they were when it happened. It was an important moment, and it was an important summer, and it's not fair for fans and writers to turn their backs on McGwire now. Thanks for the memories Mark, and thanks for setting the record straight.

Your digestive system is your real brain

Another Monday. Tough one today, as I had a whole lot of fun over the weekend. It started Friday night at the comic shop when I had my second-consecutive successful Magic night. I went 2-2, one win short of prize, at the last draft I went to, and on Friday night, I went 3-2, again just one win shy of winning prize. In both cases I made, and overcame a lot of mistakes, and generally had answers for my opponents' plans. I think this is a good thing, I think I'm headed in the right direction. But enough geek stuff. Saturday was a day at TJ's house, where she fed us amazing Indian food. Part of it was butter chicken, part of it was a tandoori salmon appetizer (YES PLEASE!), and the rest I can't really name. But it was all sooooo tasty. Aside from the food, we had a lot of laughs (many directed at me) and all in all it was a blast. But yesterday was the real treat. I signed up with Darell to take what looked like a regular cooking class: Introduction to Raw Foods. So we drove way down south and found this tiny little health food store that starts to put some fear into us right away. The woman at the front of the room started to talk, and immediately we knew this was a bad idea. I actually felt embarassed for having suggested we try it out. Other than the really good salad she made, here are some highlights: Getting a colonic will cure a flu. People with low BMIs are more toxic than obese people. The people in restaurants hate you. Feeding children kiwi and orange peels is a good idea. 3 or 4 months is a good age to introduce kale into a kid's diet. Honey is also a good idea for kids less than 12 months old. Soy is bad for you. Most nuts are bad. Acidic fruits are bad. Use olive and coconut oils only, but never cook with them because they become toxic. Green peppers are bad - they're not ripe! People aren't allergic to nuts, they're just detoxing. And, the granddaddy of them all: a raw food diet will cure anything-- even AIDS. And especially cancer. While these aren't direct quotes, and Darell's taken a few liberties with these statements for effect, they are all claims this woman made. After the AIDS proclamaition, she even started into a story that sounded like she was about to saw a raw food diet would cure autism. There are some dangerous people in the world, and I'm not talking about terrorists or religious fanatics. I'm talking about regular people that have an audience and completely eschew science and fact, to push their own ideals and beliefs as truth. "Nobody's actually allergic to nuts, your body is just so used to toxic foods that it can't handle nuts, so it rejects them," is not a statement of fact. I can honestly say, aside from Darell's concern this would be an afternoon spent making salad, that we went into this event without any cynicism. We both like food. Liking food, and wanting to prepare food that everyone will like, means being well-versed in different styles and at bare minimum trying everything. And we did learn some tricks (she used avacado in place of any sort of oil for her main salad), but we also learned about this woman's breat reduction and the way raw food have cured the problems she had. It wasn't all a wash though. Again, avacado in place of oils/dressing in salad, hell yes. And I learned there's such a thing as pumpkin seed butter. Now please excuse me while I gorge on some chicken wings, bacon, and cupcakes.

That's hockey

Wow. That's just about all I can say about that World Junior Championship gold medal game last night. I try to think about it and my brain just folds in on itself. What an incredible game. I'm still spent from having watched it, I can't even imagine how the players feel today. I certainly hope the Canadian players don't feel as though they've let anyone down, or like the choked, or as thought they disappointed anyone. They played really well and they played the kind of gutsy hockey Canadians expect. They did everything we fans could reasonably ask for, and there's no shame at all in the way they lost, or in the way they defended their title. We've seen over the years some odd choices for top forward, defensemen and goaltender, but there's no doubt Alex Pietrangelo was the best defensemen in the tournament-- heading into the medal round he was tied for the scoring lead. And while you could probably flip a coin to choose between Jordan Eberle and Derek Stepan of the US team for top forward, Eberle was more than worthy of the award, and of the tournament MVP award. A story like that hardly makes it seem like anyone failed. So what happened? Simply put, this American team was awesome. I don't know if they're as good as Canada's 2005 team, but I think they will have the same resonance in the US that Canada's '05 team does in Canada. With the score tied after two Canadian-dominated periods, the American team found another gear in the third period, and when Canada improbably tied the game, the Americans played with the kind of resolve Canadians expect from their teams, dominating the early part of overtime, getting a big save, then quickly putting their lone scoring chance to good use. Again, "Wow," just seems to sum it up so much better than anything else here. Congrats to team Canada on their silver medal and a great performance.