Riding the bus, from Kelowna to Vancouver. What? Is that Reg Dunlop on the TV screen? |
D Nick Ross (Regina, Kamloops, Vancouver, 2004-09) signed a one-year contract with Red Bull Salzburg (Austria, Erste Bank Liga). He had five goals and 13 assists in 35 games with the Portland Pirates (AHL) last season.
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Jim Swanson spent a few years covering the WHL’s Prince George Cougars while sports editor of the Prince George Citizen.
He left the newspaper a short while ago and now works for TELUS where he is the manager of a construction team in the Interior north/northeast division.
A life-long baseball player and addict, Swanson, in the mid-1990s, was the general manager of the Grand Forks, N.D., Varmints, who played in the Prairie League of Professional Baseball.
In Prince George, he is one of the pushes behind their successful senior and minor baseball programs. He also is co-chair of the Canadian senior baseball championships, that are scheduled for Prince George, Aug. 23-26, and the chairman of the international World Baseball Challenge that is held every second summer in that city.
These days, Swanson is on the road with some former Blue Jays as they hold Honda Super Camps in B.C. He was in Kelowna earlier this week, along with the likes of Roberto Alomar, Sandy Alomar Sr., Homer Busch, Lloyd Moseby, Rance Mulliniks, Duane Ward and Kelowna native Paul Spoljaric.
After finishing up in Kelowna, they all hopped a bus and headed for Vancouver where a camp begins today at Nat Bailey Stadium.
So . . . what do ex-Major Leaguers do on a bus between Kelowna and Vancouver?
As the photo above shows, they watch — what else? — Slap Shot.
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Seth Zweifler of the Studen Press Law Centre takes a look right here at the lawsuit filed by the OHL’s Kitchener Rangers, against the Michigan Daily, writer Matt Slovin and John Doe. . . . Because the newspaper is in the U.S., and the suit was filed in Canada, there are some interesting angles to this.
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D Cody Castro, who played nine games with the Portland Winterhawks last season, found himself involved in a trade on Wednesday. Castro, who has four points in 77 WHL regular-season games, had his junior A rights dealt by the BCHL’s Coquitlam Express to the Yarmouth Mariners of the Maritime Hockey League. . . . Coquitlam is in British Columbia. Yarmouth is in Nova Scotia. Castro, 20, is from Pasadena, Calif. . . . According to Google, Yarmouth is 5,655.5 kilometres by car from Pasadena. . . . Yarmouth, if you take the American route, is 5,978.7 kilometres from Coquitlam. . . . Now that’s a trade!
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The Regina Pats will retire the number (7) worn by former F Jordan Eberle on Oct. 9 prior to a game against the visiting Portland Winterhawks. Eberle, a former CHL player of the year and a Regina native, now plays for the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers. . . . The Pats made the announcement Wednesday night at the Centre Ice Celebration in advance of the first Eberle and Friends Golf Classic. The golf tournament, in support of the Hospitals of Regina Foundation, begins today. . . . Eberle, who played for the Pats from 2006-10, scored 155 goals and added 155 assists in 254 regular-season games.
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F Brandon Herrod, who finished up a five-year WHL career with the Kamloops Blazers last season, has decided to attend the U of Saskatchewan and play for the Huskies. Herrod, from Meadow Lake, Sask., was acquired by the Blazers from the Prince Albert Raiders. He ended up playing 342 regular-season games, 314 of them with the Raiders. . . . Herrod had career totals of 117 goals and 158 assists. . . . With the Huskies, he will be re-united with former Prince Albert linemate Craig McCallum, who has played two seasons at the U of S.
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