Pam and Jim Duquette want only for their 10-year-old daughter Lindsey “to be a normal kid.”
Hopefully, their wish will come true now that Jim, a long-time baseball executive who now is a broadcaster, has had one of his kidneys surgically transplanted into Lindsey.
The New York Daily News has a story right here.
Kevin Kaduk of Big League Stew has more right here.
———
THE MacBETH REPORT:
F Nathan Rempel (Saskatoon, 1994-98) signed a one-year contract extension with the Guildford Flames (England, Premier). He had 43 goals and 30 assists in 47 games this season with the Flames. Rempel was named to the First All-Star Team in the English Premier league and was the Flames leading scorer this season. . . .
F Mikhail Fisenko (Vancouver, Calgary, 2008-11) signed a two-year contract with Sibir Novosibirsk (Russia, KHL). He had one goal and two assists in 27 games for Metallurg Novokuznetsk (Russia, KHL), one goal and five assists in 13 games for Yermak Angarsk (Russia, Vysshaya Liga), and one goal and one assist in three games for Kuznetskie Medvedi (Russia, MHL) this season.
———
Dr. Charles Tator, the foremost concussion expert in Canada, will be honoured for his work by USA Hockey on Wednesday in Colorado Springs. Roy MacGregor of The Globe and Mail has the latest with Dr. Tator right here.
According to Dr. Tator, MacGregor writes: “There is currently zero treatment for concussions” that can be proven effective, apart from time itself. Much of the treatment there is in today’s sports medicine is, in his learned opinion, “worthless” and needs to be“discarded.”
“Research is sadly lacking,” Tator says. “It has been a neglected issue in medical research.”
———
THE COACHING GAME:
Peter Schaefer, who was honoured as the WHL’s top player in 1996-97, has joined the BCHL’s Surrey Eagles as an assistant coach and also will work in the area of player development. Schaefer, from Yellow Grass, Sask., played nine NHL seasons. In Surrey, Schaefer will work with GM/head coach Matt Erhart. . . .
The Saskatoon Blades have added Curtis Leschyshyn as a full-time assistant coach. He will work alongside GM/head coach Lorne Molleken and assistant coach David Struch. . . . Leschyshyn worked with the Blades on a part-time basis this season. . . . Leschyshyn played 127 regular-season games with the Blades (1985-88) before going on to a pro career. He was selected by the Quebec Nordiques with the third overall pick in the 1988 NHL draft. . . . The Blades are to be the host team for the 2013 Memorial Cup tournament. . . .
The QMJHL’s Cape Breton Screaming Eagles have signed Jean Francois David as a new assistant coach. He replaces Kevin Higo, whose contract wasn’t renewed. . . . David, who will work alongside head coach Ron Choules, played five seasons in the QMJHL before going on to a nine-year pro career. . . . Higo worked in the AJHL before spending two seasons as an assistant coach with the Moose Jaw Warriors. . . . Higo now is the director of hockey operations and head coach, varsity boys hockey, at Rothesay Netherwood School in Rothesay, N.B. . . .
Steve Martinson has signed on as head coach of the Central league’s Allen Americans. The signing was announced Monday night as minority owners Ed Belfour, Mike Modano and Craig Ludwig, along with assistant coach Richard Matvichuk, all took part in a press conference that was open to the American’s fans. . . . Martinson was the head coach of the ECHL’s Elmira Jackals (2007-10) and was the head coach of the ECHL’s Chicago Express this season. The Express ceased operations after the season.
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JUST NOTES:
D Max Mowat, who played one game with the Kamloops Blazers in 2009-10 but has since been dropped from their list, has been involved in a BCHL transaction. Mowat, who will turn 19 on June 23, has been dealt by the Vernon Vipers to the Trail Smoke Eaters as the future considerations in a deal that was made on Jan. 10. Mowat, who is from Coldstream, B.C., had 15 points in 46 games with the Vipers this season.
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John Branch of The New York Times has written a devastating piece about the late Derek Boogaard and the ease with which he was able to obtain prescription drugs. . . . Len Boogaard, Derek’s father and a long-time RCMP officer, did a lot of digging into his son’s death, wanting to know why it had to happen.
Branch writes: “Len Boogaard knows that his son supplemented his drug habit with purchases of pills from dealers in Minneapolis; New York; and Regina, Saskatchewan. But he has found no sign of abuse until injuries sustained in fights were followed by steady streams of pills provided by team doctors.”
At one point, Len Boogaard tells Branch: “Derek was an addict. But why was he an addict? Everyone said he had ‘off-ice’ issues. No, it was hockey.”
You won’t want to miss this. It’s right here. All of it.
Just the other day, I was listening to an interview with an NHL player who talked of not being able to unwind on game nights until after the "adrenaline and Sudafeds" have worn off.
And I can't help but wonder if there is a connection from the use of Sudafeds to the abuse of prescription drugs.


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Defenceman Brandon Underwood (left) of the Kamloops Blazers,
here battling Vancouver forward Greg Lamoureux on the night the
visiting Giants forgot their jerseys, will miss up to six weeks
with a knee injury. (Photo by Murray Mitchell/Kamloops Daily News)

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor

The Kamloops Blazers confirmed Monday that they have lost two 18-year-old defencemen to long-term injuries.
Austin Madaisky’s WHL season is over, thanks to a fracture to the seventh cervical vertebrae in his neck, while Brandon Underwood has a torn medial collateral ligament in his left knee and could be gone for up to six weeks.
Both players were injured during Friday’s 2-1 victory over the visiting Chilliwack Bruins.
Madaisky, a fifth-round selection of the Columbus Blue Jackets in the NHL’s 2010 draft, has been fitted for a cervical collar and has returned home to Surrey. He won’t play again this season, not even in the playoffs, should the Blazers qualify.
According to the Blazers, Underwood “is expected to miss the next 4-6 weeks.”
“It’s a little sore,” Underwood said Monday, adding that the knee is in a brace. “I’m resting it, not doing too much.”
For now, he said, the prescription is rest and “try to stay off it a little bit.”
Underwood was injured on his second shift of the first period when he stepped up by the Blazers bench to hit a Chilliwack player.
“Right as I went to make contact I think the outside of his knee hit the outside of mine,” Underwood recalled. “It bent inward. Right away, I felt it. I knew right away it wasn’t good.
“I couldn’t even walk on it. It hurt really bad. I knew right away something was wrong.”
This is the first knee injury of Underwood’s career  and he admitted to having thoughts of Mark Hall, a former Blazers forward who missed all of the 2008-09 season with a knee injury.
“I was pretty scared at first,” said Underwood, who has nine assists and 97 penalty minutes in 51 games. He also is zero in the plus-minus department, which is rather impressive on a team that has surrendered 50 more goals than it has scored.
“Me and Madaisky kind of became the shutdown pair over the last couple of weeks,” Underwood said. “We were playing quite a bit. We were starting to really jell and feeling pretty good playing together. We were both playing pretty well. It’s really disappointing that we both not only are out but probably for the season.”
The Blazers have 16 games remaining in the regular season, which ends March 20. It would seem that in order for Underwood, who is from Carlsbad, Calif., to have any chance of returning this season, the Blazers will have to make the playoffs.
Without Madaisky, who had 27 points and 104 penalty minutes in 55 games, and Underwood, the Blazers are down to five defencemen and, with the trade deadline long gone, there won’t be anyone riding in on a white horse to save the day.
Between the two of them, Madaisky and Underwood were playing around 40 minutes per game. Those minutes now will have to be spread among the survivors and perhaps a forward or two, like right-winger Jordan DePape, who could be rotated back there on occasion.
Two of the five remaining defenders — Corey Fienhage, 20, and Brady Gaudet, 16 — are in their first WHL seasons. Fienhage, in fact, played a total of 51 games over the previous three seasons while with the USHL’s Indiana Ice and the NCAA’s North Dakota Fighting Sioux.
This will mean an increased workload for veteran Bronson Maschmeyer, 19, and sophomore Tyler Hansen, 17, who was a healthy scratch for a game last week.
It also means that Josh Caron, who sat out 41 games with a broken collarbone, won’t be afforded the luxury of being gradually reintroduced to a heavy role.
The Blazers’ protected list included nine defencemen, as of Feb. 1. Two of those — Landon Cross of the midget AAA Brandon Wheat Kings and Max Mowat of the BCHL’s Vernon Vipers — have some experience with the Blazers.
Madaisky and Underwood both were missing Saturday, when the Blazers lost 4-3 to the Bruins in Chilliwack. The next test comes Wednesday against the visiting Seattle Thunderbirds.
The Blazers are 23-30-3 and have won two of their last four games, but have just three victories in their last 14 games. They are clinging to the Western Conference’s eighth and final playoff spot. Kamloops is one point ahead of the Bruins (22-26-4), who hold four games in hand, and two up on the Thunderbirds (19-26-9), who are 1-8-1 in their last 10 outings.
The Thunderbirds halted a nine-game losing streak with a 3-2 overtime victory over the Silvertips in Everett on Friday. Seattle welcomed back veteran defencemen Travis Bobbee and Ryan Button from shoulder injuries for that game. Those two have combined to play in 537 regular-season games.
With Bobbee out, the Thunderbirds were 1-9-1. Without Button, they were 0-6-0.
Madaisky and Underwood have played in a combined 310 regular-season games. That experience will be impossible to replace at this time of the season.
JUST NOTES: After Wednesday’s game, the Blazers next will play Saturday when they meet the Vancouver Giants in Whitehorse. . . . The Tri-City Americans make their first visit of the season to Interior Savings Centre on Feb. 15, after which the Blazers will go into the Central Division for five games. . . . The Blazers’ Dash for Cash promotion on Friday night raised $2,140 for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Kamloops.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
     
gdrinnan.blogspot.com
     
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