Court news (maybe) . . . Maple Leafs sign Ice d-man

D Dylan Yeo (Prince George, Calgary, 2003-07) signed a one-year contract with the Straubing Tigers (Germany, DEL). Last season, with the Toronto Marlies (AHL), he had a goal and two assists in 14 games. In four games with the with Orlando Solar Bears (ECHL), Yeo had one assist. . . .
The KHL’s 2014-15 schedule was released on Tuesday. Spartak Moscow is not on the schedule. The team is out for this season due to financial reasons. . . . The schedule includes three new teams: Jokerit Helsinki, Lada Togliatti and Sochi. Three other teams are on "administrative” leave: Donbass Donetsk, Lev Prague and Spartak Moscow.
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1. The Grapevine, Part 1: I have been told that the WHL’s board of governors, at its annual meeting last month, decided to make an adjustment to one of the rules involving its education packages. Apparently, a player now is allowed to sign an AHL contract and play one season in that league without losing his education credits.

2. The Grapevine, Part II: It’s my understanding that two lawsuits involving WHL teams have been settled. Perhaps the teams involved will be issuing news releases in the near future. Or perhaps not.

3. Brian Sandy, a former chief marketing officer and senior vice-president with the Tri-City Americans, is the new president of the Portland Thunder, an Arena Football League franchise. Sandy resigned Thursday as president of the ECHL’s Stockton Thunder. Sandy spent one season with Stockton. According to the Stockton Record, Sandy cited a “desire to move closer to his family in Oregon” when he resigned. He has three children in the Portland area. Sandy also spent 13 seasons in the front office of the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers. He also has worked with soccer’s Portland Timbers and baseball’s Portland Beavers.

4. The Toronto Maple Leafs have signed D Rinat Valiev of the Kootenay Ice to a three-year entry-level contract. Valiev, a 19-year-old Russian, was the 68th overall selection in the NHL’s 2014 draft. He had 28 points, including five goals, in 55 games with the Ice last season, his first in the WHL. He played with the USHL’s Indiana Ice in 2012-13, putting up 13 points, six of them goals, in 36 games.

5. The AHL has decided to use a seven-minute overtime period in an attempt to decide games that are tied after three periods. For 2014-15, the AHL will start with four minutes of 4-on-4 play. If the teams are still tied at that point, they will play three minutes of 3-on-3. . . . If a game remains tied after seven minutes of OT, a shootout will be held with each team opening with three shooters. . . . The AHL also has decided to give a game misconduct to any player who gets two fighting majors “or three major penalties for any infraction in the same game.” . . . Unfortunately, for people like Dan Russell and me, the AHL hasn’t decided to give three-points for a regulation-time victory.

6. If you have a few minutes, dig into this piece right here from a writer who spent a weekend in Barcelona watching the LeBron James/Nike publicity machine in action. For some reason, Nike killed this story that was to have been published in a startup magazine.

7. Dylan Armstrong of Kamloops, who is Canada’s No. 1 shot putter, finished fourth at the 2010 World Indoor championship. But he was moved up to third when Belarusian Andrei Mikhnevich tested positive. Armstrong finally was presented with his bronze medal at the Harry Jerome International Track Classic in Burnaby on Thursday night. . . . Now Armstrong is waiting to see if he will end up with a bronze medal from the 2008 Olympic Summer Games in Beijing. Armstrong finished fourth there, with the afore-mentioned Mikhnevich third there, too. . . . In the meantime, Armstrong is dealing with an elbow problem that has short-circuited this season. . . . There’s more right here.
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My daughter's off to her 1st Stampede. Alert to all cowboys: hands off or it's shirts off in the parking lot. #JustGottaGetThatFirstOneIn
— Dave Lumley (@lummer20) July 10, 2014

So tired of that fathead LeBrown James and his decision dramas. Wish he'd go play in Turkey & spare us all the B.S.
— Jack Todd (@jacktodd46) July 10, 2014

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Getting ready to take on the world

DYLAN ARMSTRONG
(Photo by Keith Anderson/Kamloops Daily News)

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor

The NFL’s San Diego Chargers are well into their training camp.
But not every big guy in the area is a prospective NFL player.
Shot putter Dylan Armstrong, the pride of Kamloops, is training at the ARCO Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, which is just a few miles south of Chargers Park.
Armstrong, owner of the world’s best throw this season, is preparing for the 13th World Championships in Athletics that runs in Daegu, South Korea, from Aug. 27 through Sept. 4.
“We’re going hard,” the 6-foot-4, 310-pound Armstrong said late Monday after yet another workout. “We’ve been going hard at it. We’re right on schedule.”
According to All-Athletics.com, Armstrong, 30, will arrive in Daegu as the top-ranked shot putter in the world, but by only the narrowest of margins over American rival Christian Cantwell, 31.
American veteran Reese Hoffa, 34, is third, with Poland’s Tomasz Majewski, 30, fourth and American Ryan Whiting, the baby of the group at 25, ranked fifth.
Armstrong threw 22.21 metres in winning the Canadian championship in Calgary on June 25. No one has thrown further this season.
American Adam Nelson, who goes into the worlds ranked No. 6, threw 22.09m in Eugene, Ore., on June 26. No one else has gone over 22m.
However, the big boys have dialed it down lately — only one of the top 10 throws in the world this year came after June 30 — as they all attempt to peak in Daegu.
Right now, Armstrong said, he is “focussing on getting some big throws in training and rhythm.”
These days, two weeks before Daegu, distance isn’t the be-all and end-all.
“It’s feel right now,” he said. “We definitely have to get the rhythm going and the technique will follow.”
As he pointed out, it would be impossible for a world-class athlete to get his game to the highest possible level in the spring and stay there through autumn.
“It’s very, very difficult to always be on top week in and week out,” he stated. “There comes a point where you’re thinking that if you want to throw any further or get into a higher consistent level of bigger throws you’re going to have to get back to some really hard work and not just maintain stuff. . . . at some point in the game you have to break your body down.”
Which is what he has been doing in Chula Vista where it’s early to bed and early to rise. He gets up at 6:30 a.m., works out from 9 a.m. until noon, goes for a massage treatment, eats, rests, and is back for two more hours of working out starting at 5 p.m.
“We’ve started a new training phase going into Daegu,” Armstrong said. “I’m getting beat down hard here so it’s good . . . it’s good . . . I’m feeling good . . . tired but good.”
He is joined there by the internationally reknowned Dr. Anatoliy Bondarchuk, his coach at the National Throws Centre in Kamloops. Armstrong has complete trust in his coach and, as he said, “We kind of do it meet by meet. He just tells me. I show up and he tells me what to do.”
The key right now is that it’s just “the coach and I.”
“You have to be . . . just you and your coach,” Armstrong said. “(You have to) get away from everything and really close in on things.
“You try and just focus on the task at hand. That’s one of the reasons why I’m down here . . . to get a new, fresh approach and get that concentration in the great environment I’m in down here.”
And he feels it’s working.
“We are really starting to put things together,” he said. “We’ll go to Daegu and compete to win.”
Armstrong will head for Daegu on Aug. 27. The qualifying rounds are scheduled for Sept. 1, 10 a.m., with the final the next day at 7 p.m. (Daegu is 14 hours ahead of Kamloops, meaning qualifying will begin Aug. 31 at 8 p.m. PT, with the final Sept. 2 at 5 a.m.)
As large as this meet is, it isn’t the end of Armstrong’s season.
He will leave there on Sept. 5 and head for Zurich and a Samsung Diamond League meet on Sept. 8. Then it’s over to Berlin for the IAAF World Challenge on Sept. 11 and into Zagreb, Croatia, for another IAAF meet two days later.
His season will end Sept. 16 in Brussels, Belgium, at the Diamond League finale. Armstrong has led the Diamond League standings for most of the season, and now has 13 points, six more than Cantwell and Hoffa.
Armstrong has won three of the four meets he has entered, at US$10,000 per victory. Should he win the overall title, he will earn another $40,000, along with the Diamond Trophy.

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
     
gdrinnan.blogspot.com
     
Taking Note on Twitter

Jenny's back on the block

How bad are the mosquitoes in Edmonton these days? “You have to be careful when coaching third base at our ball park that you don’t put on the hit and run at the wrong time because you were slapping a mosquito on the indicator sign,” Edmonton Capitals manager Orv Franchuk told Terry Jones of the Edmonton Sun. . . . “I’ve never seen anything like it,” Eskimos GM Eric Tillman told Jones. “The next thing that’s going to pop up on our injury report is malaria. It’s like we’re practising in a jungle!” . . . The skeeters were so bad on Thursday that the Eskimos moved their practice inside. . . . Those mosquitoes likely have more bite than the 0-2 B.C. Lions, who are in Edmonton tonight. . . .
Here’s one from blogger R.J. Currie: “The Daily Mail reports the Seattle Mariners are one of the teams planning to have nut-free games this year. I thought they did that when they released Milton Bradley.” . . . With the Dodgers having filed for bankruptcy protection, ABC-TV’s Jimmy Kimmel offered: “I don’t know how an organization that sells a beer for $12 runs out of money, but they did.” . . . Comedy writer Jim Barach noted: “Who knew that the old Dodgers mantra of ‘Wait ’til next year!’ would have to do with trying to meet payroll?” . . . Iowa Speedway, the site of a recent IndyCar race, is known for its really bumpy corners. When the Des Moines Register asked driver Danica Patrick about her propensity for taking those corners at full throttle, she replied: “That took some ovaries to do.” . . .
A Tuesday tweet from the PGA of B.C., during a tournament in Pemberton: “Bear on the 4th hole just ripped apart a players bag at Big Sky in Assistants Championship.” . . . Which goes to prove the golf adage that some days you eat the bear and other days the bear eats your bag. . . . Having baseball’s all-star game decide home-field advantage in the World Series, notes Len Berman of thatssports.com, “makes as much sense as moving the Super Bowl to the home city of one of the teams based on the Pro Bowl! They’ve gotta change this.” . . . The man has a point. . . .
It’s almost as if the rats are deserting a sinking ship. First, it was Jeff Marek leaving Hockey Night in Canada for Sportsnet and now Pierre LeBrun has bailed for TSN. Marek used to be on HNIC’s iDesk, while LeBrun, who will continue to work for ESPN.com, was part of the After 40 Minutes gang. . . . And, if you missed it, Rogers Sportsnet cut ties with hockey play-caller Peter Loubardias on Wednesday. No explanation given. . . . Loubardias was the TV voice of the Calgary Flames and also handled the Memorial Cup for Sportsnet. . . . Say it ain’t so, J-Lo! Say it ain’t so! . . . It’s a wonder that the Internet didn’t implode from all the bad jokes after J-Lo and her third husband, ol’ what’s his name, announced they had visited Splitsville. . . .
Ty Davidson and the Golden Rockets are hoping the DeFrias brothers from Kamloops will burn up the KIJHL in the fall. Brett, a defenceman, had 32 points in 43 games with the Rockets last season. The other day, Davidson acquired Colten, a forward, from the Kelowna Chiefs. He had 36 points, including 22 goals, in 34 games last season. . . . In Saskatchewan, where it’s all Roughriders all the time, they have unveiled Darian’s Darios, a cereal named after QB Darian Durant. . . . “To boost first-week sales for the cereal,” writes Dave Deibert of the Saskatoon StarPhoenix, “grocery stores around the province were offering a Roughriders special: 13 boxes for the price of 12.” . . .
Our man Dylan Armstrong got some publicity in Toronto on Tuesday, before winning the National Track League shot putting title there the next evening. “Press has been crazy,” he said via text on Tuesday evening. “Did Canada AM on CTV at studio. Was really good.” . . . Armstrong was in Victoria on July 2 to honour old friend Gary Reed, Canada’s best-ever 800-metre man and an Olympian. A lot of Reed’s friends gathered for a retirement dinner; they also named the Victoria Track Classic’s main event The Gary Reed 800m. . . . Mike Bianchi, in the Orlando Sentinel: “Did you see where Greg Anderson, Barry Bonds’ personal trainer, has been barred from coaching a youth league baseball team in the San Francisco area? Too bad because he would have given a whole new meaning to the term ‘juice boxes.’ ” . . .
Catharine Pendrel, the reigning World Cup champion who trains in Kamloops, is in Canmore today for the Canadian cross-country mountain bike championships. She will be working to keep rival Marie-Hélène Prémont from her seventh Canadian elite title, which would tie Alison Sydor’s record. . . . Ron Judd, in the Seattle Times: “Weather records indicate Seattle has been getting wetter and warmer, which at least ought to provide some new material for people who gripe that it’s only been getting richer and ruder.” . . . Jeff Speedy, a former interim athletic director and women’s basketball coach at TRU, will be back on campus later this year. He is bringing his U of New Brunswick Varsity Reds to the annual BDO Canada preseason tournament. . . .
In case you missed it, the legendary Joey Chestnut won the Nathan’s hot dog-eating contest on July 4. The inaugural women’s title went to Sonya (The Black Widow) Thomas. He downed 62 hot dogs in 10 minutes; she handled 40. . . . The Left Coast Sports Babe would like to see a division for super models. “The winner would be the first to finish a cocktail weiner,” she scribbled. . . . Pat Hickey, in the Montreal Gazette: “It’s comical to see Matthew Hulsizer pop up as the possible owner of the St. Louis Blues. Here’s a guy who was only willing to put up $70 million of his own money to buy the Phoenix Coyotes and now he’s going to pony up $165 million for the Blues?” . . .
You may not be interested in hearing this but quarterback Brett Favre is said to be thinking about playing some more football. Here’s Greg Couch of FanHouse.com: “Brett Favre is like a piece of gum you’ve chewed too long and can’t find a place to spit out. Once you finally do — thank God! — you accidentally step in it and can’t get it off your shoe.” . . . During the second round of last week’s John Deere Classic, John Daly came up with a 13 on the par-3 fourth hole. “Two-putted,” he explained. “(I missed a) 20-footer for 12.” . . . Hey, golfers, have you heard about the Rupert Murdoch Invitational? Comedy writer Alan Ray explains it: “Not a lot of good golfers involved. Mostly a bunch of hackers.”

Gregg Drinnan is sports editor of The Daily News. He is at gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca, twitter.com/gdrinnan, and gdrinnan.blogspot.com. Keeping Scoreappears sporadically over the summer months.

Armstrong slingin' in the rain

DYLAN ARMSTRONG

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor

Rain? What rain?
Dylan Armstrong, the Kamloops strongman, ignored the driving rain Sunday in Birmingham, England, as he continued his dominance of the Samsung Diamond League shot putting competition.
Armstrong, 30, threw 21.55 metres with his fourth and final attempt to win the shot put at the Aviva Grand Prix in Alexander Stadium.
He had thrown 20.70, 20.45 and 21.34, in order, with his first three attempts.
“It rained like crazy,” Armstrong said. “It wasn’t pretty. There was a lot of rain.”
He said the downpour “probably wasn’t as bad as Edmonton . . . it was just consistent rain, a real downpour.”
Armstrong was to have competed at a meet in Edmonton on June 29, but a heavy storm cancelled that meet and also shut down the airport, preventing him from getting to Lausanne, Switzerland, for a Diamond League meet there on June 30.
He competed in Vancouver on July 1 and in Victoria on July 3 before heading to Birmingham.
This was the first time the Diamond League has stopped in Birmingham and a new 5,000-seat section for fans was unveiled prior to the meet. A sold-out crowd of more than 12,700 attended Sunday’s action.
“The stands were packed. There were a lot of people there,” Armstrong said. “These meets are packed; there’s thousands of people at them.”
Tomasz Majewski of Poland was second, at 20.90, with American Christian Cantwell, the reigning world champion, third at 20.86. Cantwell set the meet record of 22.45 on June 11, 2006.
After five of seven meets, Armstrong leads the Diamond League standings with 12 points, well ahead of Majewski and Cantwell, who are tied for second, each with five.
A victory is worth US$10,000 and four points in the standings, with $6,000 and two points for second place and $4,000 and one point for third. Points will be doubled for the league’s final meet, in Brussels, Belgium, on Sept. 16.
At season’s end, the overall winner will get $40,000 and the Diamond Race Trophy.
Armstrong went into July ranked second in the world, behind Cantwell, with American Reese Hoffa in third spot. Armstrong has the longest throw in the world this year, having set a Canadian record of 22.21 as he won his sixth national title at the Canadian championships in Calgary on June. 25.
Of the eight competitors in the shot put on Sunday, only Armstrong and Majewski didn’t foul. Hoffa, who is one of Armstrong’s main rivals, finished seventh. He threw 20.09, fouled, threw 18.20, then fouled again.
“I think the weather got into a lot of guys’ heads,” Armstrong stated before laughing and adding: “I’m used to training in that.
Armstrong said he knew the weather was coming so “I was prepared for it. It rains here a lot. I just stayed focused throughout the whole competition and I was happy with it.
“In those conditions, I was extremely happy with how I threw. It was good.”
Armstrong was scheduled to catch a morning flight to Brussels and then fly to Toronto, where he will compete Wednesday in the International Games, a National Track League (NTL) meet, at the U of Toronto’s Varsity Centre.
Toronto will mark his final competitive appearance in Canada this year.
“Hopefully, I’ll put on a good performance there,” he said. “It’s the last meet of the NTL. Then I’ll gear up for Monaco and Stockholm.”
After Toronto, he plans to come home for five days to train, before leaving for Diamond League meets in Monaco (July 22) and Stockholm (July 28).
After that, he will return to Kamloops for a few more days and then he will leave for San Diego where he will train for a month in preparation for the World championships in Daegu, South Korea. The shot put competition is scheduled for Aug. 27.
“It’ll be nice to get back to basics and get in some good training,” Armstrong said.

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
     
gdrinnan.blogspot.com
     
Taking Note on Twitter

Armstrong rocks Calgary

DYLAN ARMSTRONG
(Photo by Keith Anderson/Kamloops Daily News)

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
It was a day unlike any other in Canadian shot putting history.
Before Dylan Armstrong of Kamloops was done at the Canadian track and field championships at Foothills Athletic Park in Calgary on Saturday, he had (a) broken his Canadian senior record, (b) won the Canadian championship for a sixth time, and (c) uncorked four of the longest throws in the world this season. including the best one.
“It was just one of those things,” Armstrong said Sunday from Edmonton, where he is to compete in the International Classic on Wednesday. “I was just on. My muscles were a little bit sore because I changed my program a couple of days prior to, but I was like, ‘I’m just going to go for it anyway.’ ”
With his sixth and final throw, Armstrong, 30, reached 22.21 metres, a Canadian record and the longest throw in the world this year.
In fact, Armstrong, who went into the weekend ranked No. 3 in the world, also had throws of 21.89, 21.78 and 21.75, meaning he now has five of the 10 best throws of 2011.
All four of those throws were better than Armstrong’s previous Canadian record of 21.72m that was set in San Diego on April 23.
When it was pointed out that each of his four throws broke his Canadian record, Armstrong replied: “That’s right. I know . . . I know. That’s kind of cool.”
Armstrong’s Canadian record now is the 44th-longest throw in the sport’s history, with only 11 of those having occurred since the turn of the century. American Kevin Toth is No. 8 on the all-time list with a throw of 22.67m in Lawrence, Kan., on April 19, 2003, while Christian Cantwell of the U.S. threw 22.54m on June 5, 2004, in Gresham, Ore., and is 14th.
“It was good,” said Armstrong, who had “about 50 messages” on his voicemail when he activated his phone later on Saturday. “It was pretty exciting . . . pretty exciting.”
Still, he admitted, he had no idea what to expect when he began to warm up.
“I had been training pretty hard prior . . . I really hadn’t shut my body down to give it some rest before,” he explained. “It was one of those things where I warmed up, hit the first warmup throw and thought, ‘Wow, I’m feeling pretty good.’
“So I thought, ‘Well, I’ll try to crank it up each throw’ and it turned out pretty well.”
Which is like saying the movie Titanic made a bit of money at the box office.
“The crowd was awesome,” Armstrong said. “It was totally pcaked there. It was pretty nice to see. Overall, there were a lot of good results over the weekend for Canadian track and field.”
Timothy Nedow of Brockville, Ont., finished second to Armstrong, at 18.69m, with Andrew Smith of Carrot River, Sask., third (18.24m).
And what does Armstrong do the morning after the greatest day in Canadian shot putting history? He trained, of course, then he drove to Edmonton, where he has another session scheduled for today “and then a couple of more and then I’ll be hitting that meet on Wednesday . . . then i’m on the plane at 7 o’clock.”
Armstrong also is No. 1 in the Diamond League standings, with its next meet in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Thursday. He will fly into Geneva, drive to Lausanne, compete and then fly to Vancouver for the Harry Jerome meet on Friday.
“I’m just going to go with it. I’m not thinking about it,” he said of the hectic schedule. “There isn’t anything I can do about it . . . I just have to go with it and prepare as well as I can . . . and try to compete to win.”
When the Canadian championships were over, Armstrong and hammer thrower Sultana Frizell, both of whom work with Dr. Anatoliy Bondarchuk out of the National Throws Centre (NTC) in Kamloops, were among the 13 athletes who have qualified for the world championships in Daegu, South Korea, Aug. 27 to Sept. 4. Dr. B, as he is known throughout the world of athletics, was in Calgary.
Frizell, the defending champion, finished second in the women’s hammer throw, her best toss of 70.17m behind only the 70.86m of Heather Steacy of Lethbridge. Frizell is the Canadian record holder, at 72.24m.
Crystal Smith of the NTC was third in Calgary, at 66.65, with Jennifer Joyce fourth (66.34) and Meghan Rodhe fifth (65.29). Joyce trains in Kamloops, while Rodhe is with the NTC.
Also in the men’s shot put, Justin Rodhe of the NTC opened with a throw of 18.69m and then fouled five straight times.

gdrinnan@telus.net
gdrinnan.blogspot.com
twitter.com/gdrinnan

While Dylan Armstrong spent Saturday at the Canadian track and field championships in Calgary, his American rivals were at the U.S. championships in Eugene, Ore.
Armstrong broke his Canadian record four times in winning his sixth national shot put title in Calgary. But, he said, he wasn’t trying to send a message to anyone.
“I’m focusing just on my personal results,” he said. “I wouldn’t say it’s sending a message. I’m trying to break away from everyone. That’s my goal. I’m trying to get to a real high-end level.”
Still, he knew that the likes of Reese Hoffa and Christian Cantwell were in Eugene and that the shot put title would be decided on Sunday.
“I definitely gave them some motivation going into (Sunday), for sure,” Armstrong said.
He then paused and added, with a chuckle: “I’m sure there’ll be some big throws.”
There were, but nothing that could match Armstrong’s 22.21 metres from Saturday.
Adam Nelson, who turns 36 in July, won his fifth U.S. title, and first since 2006, with a throw of 22.09m, the second-best throw in the world this season, behind Armstrong’s gold medal-winning heave of 22.21m on Saturday.
Cantwell, the defending world champion, was second in Eugene, at 21.87, with Hoffa third (21.86).
— GREGG DRINNAN

The top 10 throws by shot putters in 2011 (distances in metres):
22.21    Dylan Armstrong, Canada    Calgary    June 25
22.09    Adam Nelson, U.S.    Eugene, Ore.    June 26
21.89    Dylan Armstrong    Calgary    June 25
21.87    Christian Cantwell    Eugene, Ore.    June 26
21.87    Reese Hoffa, U.S.    Hengelo, Netherlands    May 28
21.86    Reese Hoffa    Eugene, Ore.    June 26
21.78    Dylan Armstrong    Calgary    June 25
21.77    Christian Cantwell    Eugene, Ore.    June 26
21.75    Dylan Armstrong    Calgary    June 25
21.72    Dylan Armstrong    San Diego    April 23

The top five throws in history (distances in metres):
23.12    Randy Barnes, U.S.    Los Angeles    May 20, 1990
23.10    Randy Barnes, U.S.    San Jose    May 26, 1990
23.06    Ulf Timmermann, Germany    Chania, Greece    May 22, 1988
22.91    Alessandro Andrei, Italy    Viareggio    Aug. 12. 1987
22.86    Brian Oldfield, U.S.    El Paso, Texas    May 10, 1975

Saturday . . .

A Canadian has never won an Olympic shot put medal. Dylan Armstrong of Kamloops is planning on becoming the first as he has his sights set on London and the 2012 Olympic Summer Games. This season, he already has had a six-meet victory string and he’s ranked No. 1 on the Diamond League and No. 3 in the world.
Allan Maki of The Globe and Mail has that story right here.
———
Later Saturday, Armstrong broke his own Canadian senior shot put record with a throw of 22.21 metres. That also is the best throw in the world this season. . . . Prior to Saturday, his most-recent Canadian record throw was 21.72m at a meet in San Diego on April 23. Armstrong surpassed that mark four times in Calgary on Saturday.
———
Clayton Stoner remembers looking at his cell phone and having a "bad feeling."
That’s how Michael Russo of the Minneapolis StarTribune began a story on the Minnesota Wild defenceman who played in the WHL with the Tri-City Americans.
Stoner’s brother, Luke, had been killed in a logging accident on B.C. Island.
The complete story is right here.
———
SOME NHL DRAFT NOTES: The first round took almost four hours. Rounds 2-7 were completed in less than that. . . . The Edmonton Oilers selected F Ryan Nugent-Hopkins of the Red Deer Rebels with the draft’s first pick. He is the first WHL player to be selected first overall since Prince Albert D Chris Phillips was taken by the Ottawa Senators in 1996. . . . D Keegan Lowe of the Edmonton Oil Kings had asked the Edmonton Oilers not to select him. He was taken by the Carolina Hurricanes in the third round. His father, Kevin, is the Oilers’ president, hockey operations. . . . Laurent Brossoit of the Oil Kings was the first WHL goaltender selected when he was taken by the Calgary Flames in the sixth round. Interestingly, former Oil Kings head coach Steve Pleau scouts for the Flames. Brossoit played three games for Pleau, one in 2008-09 and two in 2009-10. . . . G Nathan Lieuwen of the Kootenay Ice, who was the WHL’s playoff MVP, was taken by the Buffalo Sabres in the sixth round. . . . Brossoit was taken 164th overall; Lieuwen was No. 167. . . . The Oilers took Vancouver D David Musil with the first pick of the second round. His father, Frank, is a former NHLer who now scouts for the Oilers. . . . The Anaheim Ducks used a sixth-round pick on D Josh Manson of the BCHL’s Salmon Arm Silverbacks. He is the son of Dave Manson, a former Prince Albert defenceman and coach. . . . The Carolina Hurricanes grabbed the last WHL player selected when they took F Brody Sutter of the Lethbridge Hurricanes in the seventh round, 193rd overall. He is the son of former NHLer Duane Sutter, who now is the Calgary Flames’ director of player personnel. . . .
The St. Louis selected F Demitrij Jaskin in the second round. He is from Omsk, Russia, but has played internationally for the Czech Republic's U-18 side. He was taken by the Calgary Hitmen in the 2010 CHL import draft. Sibir Novosibirsk selected him with the first pick of the KHL's 2010 draft. If he comes over here, chances are he'll end up with the AHL's Peoria Rivermen. . . . According to the USHL, “A total of 28 players who skated in the USHL during the 2010-11 season had their names called by NHL clubs.” . . . According to Skip Berry, the director of broadcasting and media relations for the Tri-City Storm, “The impact of the USHL overall on the draft is around 41 players, drafted out of the USHL/played in the USHL, just five players behind the OHL.” . . . The WHL had 33 players selected, with 22 taken from the QMJHL. . . . A year ago, there were 43 WHL players taken in the draft. . . .
———
WHL teams and the number of 2011 draft picks:
4 — Edmonton, Portland, Saskatoon.
3 — Spokane, Swift Current.
2 — Prince Albert, Red Deer, Seattle, Vancouver.
1 — Brandon, Kelowna, Kootenay, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Moose Jaw, Tri-City.
0 — Calgary, Everett, Kamloops, Prince George, Regina, Victoria.
By division:
East — 11
U.S. — 10
Central — 9
B.C. — 3
———
Best tweet from the draft came from F Rocco Grimaldi:”I have decided to take my talents to South Beach and join the Florida Panthers. haha.”
Grimaldi, who is listed at 5-foot-6, was taken 33rd overall by Florida. He is out of the U.S. National Team Development Program; his WHL rights belong to the Portland Winterhawks.
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THE COACHING GAME: Michael Russo of the Minneapolis StarTribune reported Saturday afternoon that the Houston Aeros, the AHL affiliate of the Minnesota Wild, were down to a shortlist of four in a search for a new head coach. According to Russo, that list included Gary Agnew, Ryan McGill, Kirk Muller and Trent Yawney. . . . An hour later, Nick Kypreos of Sportsnet reported that Muller is expected to be named head coach of the AHL’s Milwaukee Admirals, who are hooked up with the Nashville Predators. . . . The Aeros are looking to replace Mike Yeo, now the head coach of the Wild. . . . The Admirals need to replace Lane Lambert, now an assistant coach with the Predators. . . . While all this was going on, both Vancouver papers are reporting that Muller is in the running — and perhaps the leading candidate — for the position of head coach of the Vancouver Canucks’ AHL affiliate, which it seems will be the Chicago Wolves. . . . The AHL’s Abbotsford Heat also is in need of a head coach, although I’m told assistant Troy Ward has the inside track there. The Heat is looking for a replacement for Jim Playfair, who now is on the Phoenix Coyotes’ staff. . . . The AHL’s Providence Bruins have signed Bruce Cassidy as their head coach. The Boston Bruins affiliate made the announcement Saturday. Cassidy, 46, is the 10th head coach in Providence history. He has been an assistant coach there through three seasons and replaces Rob Murray. . . . Kevin Dineen, the new head coach of the NHL’s Florida Panthers, has said that assistant coach Gord Murphy and goaltender coach Robb Tallas will return. Dineen told George Richards of the Miami Herald that he will hire one more assistant.
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Today’s good read comes from Jason Gay of The Wall Street Journal. It involves the Boston Bruins, a Stanley Cup celebration and a $100,000 bottle of champagne.
It’s right here.

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
     
gdrinnan.blogspot.com
     
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Travel may be Armstrong's biggest challenge

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
Pretend for a moment that you’re on a business trip.
It starts in Edmonton with an afternoon meeting. The next day you’re in Lausanne — yes, that’s in Switzerland — for another meeting. And the day after that there’s another meeting, this one in Vancouver.
Too much to imagine?
Welcome to the world of Dylan Armstrong, the Kamloops shot putter who is having the best season of his career.
And, yes, that’s what his schedule will be like as June morphs into July.
Armstrong, 30, is scheduled to compete at the Canadian championships in Calgary on June 25.
And then the fun starts . . .
He’ll throw at the Edmonton International Classic on June 29, Athletissima in Lausanne on June 30 and the Harry Jerome Track Classic in Vancouver on July 1.
Three competitions . . . two continents . . . 48 hours . . . good luck!
“I tried to make it work,” he says. “I got lucky and got a night flight out of Edmonton.”
That night flight will take him to London, where he’ll catch a plane to Geneva from where he’ll drive to Lausanne.
He is No. 1 in the Diamond League shot put standings and Athletissima is the next stop on the tour, so he can’t afford to miss it.
“I’ll get there two hours before I compete,” he says with a rueful chuckle.
He doesn’t expect it to be easy but knows that’s the price he has to pay in order to do what he does.
“It’s extremely tough,” the 6-foot-4, 310-pound Armstrong says of the fast-approaching travel schedule. “Everybody always asks, ‘How do you compete and travel so much?’
“At the end of the day you have to be in really good shape to do that.”
You’re not kidding, because after throwing in Lausanne, he’ll hop on another night flight.
“The next morning I’m getting off a plane in Vancouver and throwing that afternoon,” he says.
There won’t be time to adjust to time changes or differences in climate or humidity or anything.
“No,” he says. “You’re just going.”
“It basically comes down to how fit you are,” he adds. “Just being on the road . . . it’s already hard enough . . .”
And two days after the Harry Jerome, he’ll be in Victoria for that city’s International Classic.
It is extremely important to him that he compete in Canada when given the opportunity.
“I like to promote the sport because I feel that’s important and it gets young kids involved,” he says. “I’ve got a lot of young kids who look up to me and it gives them a chance to see what it’s about.
“And it’s always nice to get an opportunity to compete in Canada and show the people what it is that you do.”
After Victoria, it’s back to Europe for the Aviva Grand Prix in Birmingham, England, on July 10. Three days after that it’s back to this side of the pond for the International Classic in Toronto. If it’s July 22 it must be Monaco and the Herculis 2011. July 29? It’s Stockholm and the DN Galan.
After that he will return to Kamloops for most of August. Not that he’ll be vacationing. Rather, he will be preparing for the big one — the World championships in Daegu, South Korea. He throws on Sept. 2.
Armstrong actually has been enjoying life in Kamloops for the last while, after being home for “about three days since Dec. 28.”
After a good winter of training in Arizona and at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, near San Diego, Armstrong was ready for the start of the season.
He rattled off six straight victories and now is leading the Diamond League standings. He also has risen to No. 3 in the world rankings.
“I’m feeling really good,” he says. “I’m settling into a new program here. I’ve definitely got to take it up another notch this next month and then come back to basics again and then take it up even higher for the World championships.”
And then you might think the pace will slow. Right?
“It gets realy crazy after Korea,” Armstrong says. “I’ve got about seven competitions after Korea.
“You just keep the pace going.”

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
Dylan Armstrong has competed on a street in Lawrence, Kan., in Stockholm’s city centre and in a train station in Zurich, Switzerland.
He has a dream of throwing the shot somewhere in downtown Kamloops.
“I have some plans . . . probably,” Armstrong says when the idea of bring world-class throwers to Kamloops is broached. “I’m going to say . . . maybe not next year but . . . I don’t know. We’ll see.”
In April, Armstrong competed in the Kansas Relays, with the shot put competition — The Street Shot — held on Eighth Street, between Massachusetts and New Hampshire streets. It was the first time in U.S. history that such a competition had been held on a city’s downtown street.
“It was right on a street with cafes and bars on each side of it,” says Armstrong, who won in Lawrence. “It was an amazing event.”
He says he has competed in The Big Shot in Stockholm, which is held right in the city centre.
And then there’s Zurich . . .
“It’s right inside a train station, if you can believe it,” Armstrong says. “It’s totally insane there are so many people watching.
“Maybe eventually I can get something like that into Kamloops.”
If it is to happen, it wouldn’t be until 2013 or, more likely, 2014, thanks to 2012 being an Olympic year.
Of course, Kamloops once played host to a throws exhibition of sorts. It was June 5, 2003, and nine of the world’s best were here for the Best Western Kamloops Hammer International.
Back then, Armstrong was an up-and-coming hammer thrower.
Now he’s the world’s third-ranked shot putter.
And you would have to think he could draw a crowd in his hometown.

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
     
gdrinnan.blogspot.com
     
Taking Note on Twitter