Dave Struch, who spent the past eight seasons on the coaching staff of the Saskatoon Blades, may be in line for a change of direction in his career. Daniel Nugent-Bowman of the Saskatoon StarPhoenix has that story right here.
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As you will be aware, 10 of the WHL’s 22 teams have changed head coaches since the end of the 2013-14 season. Larry Fisher, who writes for the Kelowna Daily Courier and thehockeywriters.com, takes a look at all of the changes right here.
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The Saskatoon Blades have signed F Lukus MacKenzie, who was a third-round selection in the WHL’s 2014 bantam draft. From Calgary, MacKenzie played last season at the Edge School. He had 66 points, including 21 goals, in 59 games with the bantam AAA team. . . . The Blades open training camp on Aug. 21 at the Legends Centre in Warman, Sask.
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The Medicine Hat connection with the Vancouver Canucks grew by one more on Monday when the NHL team added Perry Pearn to its coaching staff. Pearn was the head coach of the Medicine Hat Tigers in 1994-95. . . . Former Tigers captain Trevor Linden is the Canucks’ president, while Willie Desjardins, a former Tigers GM and coach, is Vancouver’s new head coach. Doug Lidster, who also worked with the Tigers, is on the Canucks’ coach staff, too. . . . Pearn, 63, has worked as an assistant coach in the NHL with the Montreal Canadiens, New York Rangers, Ottawa Senators and Winnipeg Jets. He was with the Jets for the past two seasons. He is a native of Stettler, Alta.
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The legs feed the wolf.
Herb Brooks, who loved nothing more than to sit in the stands of the Crushed Can in Moose Jaw and talk hockey, died in a car accident 11 years ago yesterday. USA Hockey remembers right here.
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| I look at this picture and I can't stop laughing. Last night, History in Pictures (@HistoryInPics) tweeted this 1980 photo of Robin Williams in action with the Denver Broncos cheerleaders. |
Yes, we knew there were drugs and alcohol, but who saw this coming? If ever there was proof that you can’t tell a book by its cover when it comes to mental illness, Robin Williams may be it.
Perhaps the death of Williams, as bright a star as there has been in years, will spur change in the way that a lot of society continues to look at and deal with mental illness. We can hope.
The New York Times’ obituary is right here.
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There’s a piece right here on Robin Williams that first appeared in Rolling Stone on Feb. 21, 1991. There were shadows in his life even then.
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“You are the kindest country in the world,” Robin Williams once said of Canada. “You are like a really nice apartment over a meth lab.”
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Here, from jokes4us.com, is a taste of the Robin Williams we loved so much:
“God gave men both a penis and a brain, but unfortunately not enough blood supply to run both at the same time.”
“Never pick a fight with an ugly person, they’ve got nothing to lose.”
“Politics: Poli, a Latin word meaning many; and tics meaning, bloodsucking creatures.”
“In England, if you commit a crime, the police don’t have a gun and you don’t have a gun. If you commit a crime, the police will say Stop, or I’ll say stop again.”
“Cocaine is God’s way of saying you’re making too much money.”
“Do you think God gets stoned? I think so… look at the platypus.”
“If it’s the Psychic Network why do they need a phone number?”
“My God. We’ve had cloning in the South for years. It’s called cousins.”
“You’ll notice that Bush never speaks when Cheney is drinking water.”
“You could talk about same-sex marriage, but people who have been married (say) ‘It’s the same sex all the time.’ ”
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KIDNEY WALK:
The 2014 Kidney Walk and Kidney Run is scheduled for Kamloops’ Riverside Park on Sunday, Aug. 24.My wife, Dorothy, who underwent a kidney transplant on Sept. 23, will walk 2.5 kilometres in support of the Kidney Foundation. That, in itself, is a miracle. A year ago, she couldn’t have walked 100 metres without stopping to rest.
I will join her, as will our son, Todd, and his girlfriend, Joanna, who live in Burnaby, B.C.
If you would like to be part of Dorothy’s Team, feel free to donate by clicking right here and then going to ’Sponsor a Participant’.
The response on Monday was terrific. I just wish you all could have been here to listen to Dorothy as folks like you made donations.
“I am so lucky to have such support,” she said on more than one occasion. The other favourite is: “I am so blessed.”
Yes, we are.
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Is the @NHL taking notice of how many folks have traveled down from Canada to Seattle tonight for Mariners-Blue Jays game?
— Thom Beuning (@ThomBeuning) August 12, 2014
There has never been a subscription fee for this blog, but if you enjoy stopping by here, why not consider donating to the cause? Just click HERE. . . and thank you very much.
F Ned Lukacevic (Spokane, Swift Current, 2001-06) has signed a one-year extension with the Fife Flyers (Scotland, UK Elite). Lukacevic started this season with Tohoku Free Blades Hachinohe (Japan, Asia HL), putting up seven points, two of them goals, in 10 games. . . . He signed with the Bakersfield Condors (ECHL) on Oct. 22 and was pointless in one game. He was claimed on waivers on Oct. 28 by the Reading Royals (ECHL) and scored twice in nine games. He signed with Fife on Dec. 14 and had 44 points, 15 of them goals in 34 games. . . . The Fife head coach is Todd Dutiaume (Brandon, 1991-94), who has been at Fife as a player, player-coach, or coach since 1998-99.
Suddenly, there are more names mentioned for the Vancouver Giants’ head-coaching vacancy than minority owner Michael Buble has songs in his repertoire. . . . News 1130 Sports tweeted early Thursday that Perry Pearn is “very high” on the list. “Coaching search not done,” the tweet read, “but Pearn emerging as leader.” . . . Earlier, News 1130 Sports had tweeted that Pearn, Marc Habscheid and Tim Hunter are “just some of the names who have applied” for the job. . . . Steve Ewen of the Vancouver Province reports that the Giants “apparently” talked with former Portland Winterhawks head coach Travis Green, who is the head coach of the Utica Comets, the Vancouver Canucks’ AHL affiliate. According to Ewen, Green “told them that he wants to stay in the pro ranks.” . . . Ewen also reports that former Saskatoon Blades F Jason Christie, now the head coach with the ECHL’s Ontario Reign, “is said to be on the Giants’ radar,” as is Edmonton Oil Kings’ assistant coach Steve Hamilton. . . . I was told Thursday that the Saskatoon Blades, who are in need of a general manager and head coach, also are wanting to chat with Hamilton, who is kind of busy at the Memorial Cup these days. Hamilton is wrapping up his fourth season as an assistant with the Oil Kings. Of course, should Edmonton head coach Derek Laxdal move on after what has been another successful season, perhaps Hamilton would be in line for a promotion. When former GM Bob Green moved to the parent Edmonton Oilers, it was his assistant, Randy Hansch, who moved up, so there is at least some history in the organization of promoting from within.
Jay Wells has joined the OHL’s Saginaw Spirit as an assistant coach. Wells, a veteran of 18 seasons as an NHL defenceman, spent the last three seasons as an assistant coach with the OHL’s Barrie Colts. . . . Wells and Spirit head coach Greg Gilbert played together on the 1993-94 New York Rangers, who won the Stanley Cup. . . . The Spirit, which earlier added former NHLer Phil Myre as its goaltending coach, also announced that associate coach John Kisil is returning.
Head coach Brad Ralph and the ECHL’s Idaho Steelheads have reached agreement on a two-year contract extension that will take him through 2016-17. The 33-year-old Ralph, who also is director of hockey operations, has been with Idaho for two seasons, reaching the playoffs in both. The Steelheads got into the second round this season, after losing out in the Western Conference final a year ago.
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