Saturday, July 27, 2013

Hockey and a couple of halls of fame

THE MacBETH REPORT:
Shayne Wiebe didn’t know he was getting married until he read it right here.
Whoops!
Wiebe (Kamloops, Brandon, 2006-11), who has signed with Olten (Switzerland, NL B), won’t be reporting until Aug. 12, which is a week after some of the other players.
In translating an Olten news release, an error was made. Rather than reporting that Wiebe would be in a wedding, it was translated and interpreted that he was to be married.
A giant OOPS!
My apologies to Shayne, his girlfriend/wife/significant other (if he has one) and family, his family, any future girlfriends/wives/significant others, et al.
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The hockey crowd will be fathering in Regina tonight as the Saskatchewan Hockey Hall of Fame inducts its class of 2013. In the spotlight will be inductees Red Berenson, Clark Gillies, Bernie Federko and Eddie Shore, along with former on-ice official Mick McGeough, builders Bill Hay and Del Wilson, and Jack Maddia in the grassroots category. Also going into the hall will be the 1914 Regina Victorias, who won the Allan Cup. . . . I have a soft spot in my heart for the Vics, because their roster included Edward Lyman (Hick) Abbott and Joe Potts. Abbott was a star player, while Potts was the team’s manager. . . . The Abbott Cup, which once was awarded annually to the best junior team in the west, was named after Hick Abbott, who was killed during the First World War. That trophy has since been retired.
For more on Potts and Abbott, right here is something that I wrote a few years ago.
While Hick Abbott is in the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame as part of the Vics, it is a travesty that he isn't in that Hall of Fame as an athlete.
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Matthew Gourlie of the Moose Jaw Times-Herald has more right here about Gillies and his induction into the Saskatchewan Hockey Hall of Fame. Ålthough the dinner is being held in Regina, the hall of fame is located at the Credit Union iPlex in Swift Current.
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Still with hockey and halls of fame, the B.C. Hockey Hall of Fame in Penticton inducted its class of 2013 on Friday night.
Two Memorial Cup-winning teams — the Kamloops Blazers from 1993-94 and 1994-95 — were inducted, as was Kamloops native Mark Recchi, who played two seasons here and now is one of the WHL franchise’s five owners.
The two Memorial Cup winners were led by general manager Bob Brown and head coach Don Hay, both of whom were in Penticton for the banquet and ceremony, along with a number of players from both teams.
Brown was the club’s general manager from 1986 through the 1994-95 season. He was inexplicably dismissed shortly after the Blazers won the 1995 Memorial Cup on home ice.
Hay began with the Blazers as an assistant coach in 1986 and was head coach from 1992-93 through 1994-95.
Recchi, who was born and raised in Kamloops, played two seasons with the Blazers (1986-88) after being acquired from the New Westminster Bruins.
Selected by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the fourth round of the 1988 NHL draft, Recchi went on to a lengthy NHL career and is a three-time Stanley Cup winner.
He played in 1,652 regular-season games, which is fourth on the NHL’s all-time list. Recchi is 19th in career goals (577), 14th in assists (956) and 12th in points (1,533). He retired after the 2010-11 season and now is an advisor to hockey operations with the NHL’s Dallas Stars, who are owned by Tom Gaglardi, the Blazers’ majority owner.
Also inducted into the Hall of Fame last night were longtime NHLer Paul Kariya, who starred with the BCHL’s Penticton Panthers (1990-92); Marc Crawford, a former head coach of the Vancouver Canucks; and builders Colin Patterson and Nancy Wilson. Patterson is a veteran coach who won a Memorial Cup as an assistant coach with the Kootenay Ice, while Wilson, a longtime player and coach who lives in Summerland, is the first female to be inducted into the hall.
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The Vancouver Giants have dealt F Riley Kieser, 20, to the Edmonton Oil Kings for a sixth-round selection in the 2014 bantam draft. . . . Kieser, who is from Sherwood Park, Alta., had 35 points, including 13 goals, in 102 regular-season games over two seasons with the Giants.
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The National Baseball Hall of Fame has its big weekend in Cooperstown, N.Y., starting today. One of the inductees will be Dr. Frank Jobe, who pioneered what is known as Tommy John surgery. Of course, Jobe will be introduced by Tommy John. . . . Dave Anderson of The New York Times makes a case right here for John to be in the Hall of Fame, as well.
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Roberto Luongo, back again as the Vancouver Canucks’ starting goaltender, switched agents earlier this week, dropping Gilles Lupien in favour of CAA Sports, meaning Pat Brisson and J.P. Barry. If you’re wondering what Lupien thinks of the move, and what he thinks of Luongo’s situation with the Canucks, well, Roy MacGregor of The Globe and Mail has that and more right here.
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“If the Russian government were passing legislation that discriminated against Jews, Canada would have announced a boycott of the 2014 Olympics already,” writes Adam Goldenberg for MacLean’s, a Canadian newsmagazine. “That we have been so placid about Canada’s looming participation in what will be a massive public relations coup for Vladimir Putin’s gay-hating regime is both shortsighted and historically myopic. Russia’s LGBT community is being openly persecuted by its own government. Those of us whose ancestors once stood in the same line of fire have a moral obligation to be anything but complacent.” . . . Goldenberg’s complete column is right here.
This just might grow into something. Jennifer Saltman of the Vancouver Province reports right here that some Vancouver bars have stopped serving Russian vodka in protest over that country’s treatment of the LGBT community.

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