Here’s Ian Hamilton of the Regina Leader-Post: “This is a time of great irony in the NHL, as teams who sold out their fans with the lockout now are buying out players.” . . . With all these NHL players getting bought out of their contracts — owners will have spent around $150 million — and then signing new deals with other teams, you know the owners are going to want another lockout in order to figure out what went wrong this time. . . . In the meantime, some of those same owners continue to give out contracts from five to eight years in length. . . . Yes, you are free to shake your head in bewilderment. . . .
If you’re trying to keep tabs on Kelly Olynyk, one of the newest members of the NBA’s Boston Celtics, he headed for Orlando, Fla., on Wednesday. He will be one of three 7-footers on the Celtics team that will play in an NBA Summer League runs from Sunday through Friday. Fab Melo and Colton Iverson, both of whom are listed at 7-foot-0 and 255 pounds, also are on the 13-man roster. Olynyk is shown at 238 pounds. Iverson, 24, is a rookie out of Colorado State, while Melo, 22, was a 2012 first-round pick out of Brazil. He got into six games last season. . . . Defenceman Brendon Nash of Kamloops didn’t receive a qualifying offer from the NHL’s Florida Panthers by the deadline so now is an unrestricted free agent. Nash, 26, was swapped by the Montreal Canadiens to the Panthers during last season. He split the season between the AHL’s Hamilton Bulldogs and San Antonio Rampage. . .
A note from Janice Hough, aka The Left Coast Sports Babe: “Here’s the most understated opening line of the week from Wikipedia: ‘Aaron Michael Hernandez (born Nov. 6, 1989) is an American football tight end who is currently a free agent. He most recently played for the New England Patriots.’ ” . . . “In New York, Joey Chestnut once again won the Nathan’s hot dog eating contest in New York,” Hough writes. “On the Fourth of July, good to know that there remains one unquestioned bastion of American superiority.” . . .
Vancouver’s Torben Rolfsen, after Hockey Canada gave the 2015 and 2017 world junior hockey championships to Montreal and Toronto: “No word yet on whether teams will be allowed to bring their own goalies or be assigned Canadian ones for the tourney.” . . . Spain beat Italy on penalty kicks in a semifinal at the Confederations Cup in Rio. After it was over, Shane Ryan of Grantland.com noted: “Although there were no goals in regulation, the Italians kept things interesting as several players elevated the art of diving to such an advanced level that they actually faked their own deaths and turned up in Argentina.” . . .
If you were in the stands at NorBrock Stadium on Sunday evening, you saw catcher Braeden Majeski of the midget AAA Red Deer Braves get struck flush in the face by a pitch. Majeski ended up being taken to Royal Inland Hospital for X-rays. Braves manager Cam Moon reports that Majeski, who is from Camrose and attended the Badlands Baseball Academy in Oyen, suffered a cracked sinus cavity under one eye. “He’ll make a full recovery,” Moon wrote in a text. “Doc at the hospital said it could’ve been way worse.” . . .
Imagine Fred Marsh’s surprise when The McNeil and Spiegel Show, which airs on WSCR radio in Chicago, contacted him for an interview on June 27. Marsh, who lives right here in River City and is a big Blackhawks fan, is the inventor of the Marsh Pegs, those invaluable items that allow hockey’s goal nets to move, something that has prevented countless injuries. Co-host Matt Spiegel apparently lifted the Marsh Pegs that had been in the net guarded by goaltender Corey Crawford of the Chicago Blackhawks when they wrapped up the Stanley Cup on June 24 in Boston. “I got a roll of stick tape off the ’Hawks bench in Philadelphia three years ago,” Spiegel said, “and now I have the Marsh Pegs. They will sit proudly on my shelf behind the bar in the basement.” . . . A chuckling Marsh told the radio audience: “It’s very flattering to have someone steal the Marsh Pegs. I wish someone would have done that long ago and improved my sales.” . . .
Outfielder Tyson Gillies of Kamloops is one step closer to the major leagues after being moved by the Philadelphia Phillies from the Double-A Reading Fightin’ Phils to the Triple-A Lehigh Valley IronPigs earlier this week. Gillies hit .267 in 51 games with Reading. Gillies began the season with the IronPigs, but hit only .148 and found himself in Reading. . . . “China has passed a law that requires children to visit their parents regularly,” writes Richmond blogger TC Chong. “That’s not a problem in this household, as the 30-year-olds who live in the basement come upstairs at least three times a day to be fed.” . . .
“The proposed new Atlanta Falcons stadium might include vibrating seats, a 100-yard sports bar with a giant TV screen above it and a fantasy football lounge,” writes Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel. “It used to be fans watching on TV wanted the stadium experience; now fans watching at the stadium want the TV experience.” . . . Scott Hanson of the Seattle Times wants to know: “Why do golf announcers always say, ‘That was a great golf shot’ when you never hear ‘That was a great football tackle’ or ‘That was a great baseball triple’?”
(Gregg Drinnan is sports editor of The Daily News. He is at gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca, gdrinnan.blogspot.ca and twitter.com/gdrinnan. Keeping Score appears Saturdays, except when it doesn’t.)
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