This is the last print version of Keeping Score to appear in the Kamloops Daily News . . . The final edition of the newspapers carried a lot of memories from staff, former staff members and lots of readers. . . . This is my contribution. . . .

Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle, via Twitter as the 49ers and host Green Bay Packers kicked off on Sunday: “Man (and woman) up, 49ers fans. I dialed my thermostat down to 70. Can see my breath, which is a bad sign.” . . . One more from Ostler: “Why did they name the grass at Lambeau after a Toyota pickup?” . . .
I remember . . . Jan. 31, 2012. The Kamloops Blazers brought Gordie Howe, accompanied by his son, Marty, to town and there was a session with the media. Marty did a lot of the talking and I remember thinking that my boyhood idol is human after all. . . .
“You have to constantly remind people who say Johnny Manziel is too small for the NFL that the kid is bigger than Russell Wilson,” notes Mike Lupica in the New York Daily News. . . .
I remember . . . It was April 27, 2008 when I wrote in this space: “Surely it is only a coincidence that Canucks owner Francesco Aquilini and Kamloops Blazers majority owner Tom Gaglardi, two Lower Mainland monied men who used to be friends, both ended up signing general managers with no experience to five-year contracts.” . . . A couple of days later I was called into the principal’s office and told to “quit poking Gaglardi with a sharp stick.” . . .
Here’s the headline from the Kansas City Star after the Chiefs lost to the Indianapolis Colts after leading 38-10: “Horse(bleep).” . . .
I remember . . . the look on Mike Moore’s face one September evening in 2003. It was after an exhibition game and I had just asked the Blazers’ general manager if it was true that Maxine Patrick, the team’s long-time office manager, had left the organization. The look on Moore’s face told me it was true, but all he said was: “You’ll have to talk to our lawyer.” That was the beginning of The Daily News’ coverage of one of the biggest scandals to hit this city. . . .
It didn’t get a lot of media attention, but the UBC Thunderbirds hockey team scored a couple of impressive victories last weekend, beating NCAA Division 1 teams from North Dakota (3-2 in OT) and Princeton 1-0 at the Great Northwest Showcase in Burnaby. Former Blazers defencemen Linden Saip and Brandon Underwood play for UBC. . . .
I remember . . . a day late in May of 2009 when I chatted with Matt Walker of the TRU WolfPack baseball team. All he had done a few days earlier was fulfill a dream by hitting a solo home run with two out in the bottom of the ninth inning to break a 1-1 tie and give his guys the Canadian College Baseball Conference championship. Now that’s a memory! . . .
The time has come for WHL insiders and fans to include Calgary Hitmen head coach Mike Williamson in the conversations about the best coaches this league has seen. . . . He got his 400th regular-season coaching victory earlier this season, the 13th man in WHL history to get there. . . .
I remember . . . April 16, 2012. Defenceman Bronson Maschmeyer’s goal at 19:39 of the third period gave the Blazers a 7-6 victory over the visiting Portland Winterhawks in Game 6 of a playoff series. The Blazers had trailed 5-2 in the third period before staging a miraculous comeback. When the game ended, the fans stood and cheered until the players came out of the dressing room and took a curtain call. . . . Yes, there were chills. . . .
If you’re a hockey fan, here’s hoping you got to watch at least the third period of the world junior championship game between Russia and Sweden a week ago. It was physical with plenty of scoring chances and lots of emotion, everything that world-class hockey should be. . . . “Ten members of the NHL’s St. Louis Blues will represent five countries in Sochi, Russia,” scribbles Ian Hamilton of the Regina Leader-Post. “In this country, meanwhile, those who thought a certain 38-year-old Tampa Bay Lightning star should play for Canada were left singing the St. Louis blues.” . . .
I remember . . . attending a few final nights at the provincial AA high school basketball championships. Young people playing games for all the right reasons . . . now those games were fun to cover . . .
Isn’t it about time that the Blazers’ owners offered contract extensions to head coach Dave Hunchak and associate coach Mark Ferner, just, you know, as a gesture of good faith after going all-in last season and then saddling them with the poorest team in franchise history in their first season together? . . .
I remember . . . Dec. 22, 2010. When I arrived at my desk, an envelope with a Blazers logo on it was laying there. I thought it might be a donation to the Christmas Cheer Fund. Silly me. It turned out to be a letter informing me that management had barred all members of the organization from speaking to me. . . . It was shortly after that when I made my one and only appearance on CBC Radio’s As It Happens. . . .
After the Detroit Lions dumped head coach Jim Schwartz, Steve Schrader of the Detroit Free Press pointed out: “The Lions don’t rebuild, they unload.” . . .
I remember . . . walking Rivershore Golf Estates in June of 2011 and watching Roger Sloan of Merritt get his first Canada Tour victory at the Western Championship. Unfortunately, the tour wasn’t able to find sponsorship and that was the first and last Western Championship. . . .
When Austria named its roster for its hockey team at the Sochi Olympics, it included forward Brian Lebler of EHC Linz. Lebler, who is from Penticton, was a seventh-round selection by the Blazers in the WHL’s 2003 bantam draft. However, he never did play for the Blazers, choosing instead to attend the U of Michigan. . . . Phil Mushnick, in the New York Post: “Love that car ad during the BCS final, the one showing a flying Nissan landing on a train. The small-print underline warns, ‘Fantasy, do not attempt. Cars can’t jump on trains.’ ” . . .
I remember . . . March 8, 2012. The morning after the WHL honoured Spike Wallace with its Distinguished Served Award, the Blazers issued a news release headlined: Spike ready for next chapter in life. . . . According to the news release, the team and Wallace had decided by “mutual agreement” that it  was time for him to move on. . . . As I understand it, that next chapter includes a cash register. . . .
“There’s one celebrity couple that seems to last,” claims Brad Dickson of the Omaha World-Herald. “Unfortunately, it’s Dennis Rodman and Kim Jong Un.” . . . “According to a new study,” writes R.J. Currie of sportsdeke.com, “fits of laughter can lead to fatal asthma attacks, heart ruptures and seizures. More bad news for Maple Leafs fans.” . . .
I remember . . . covering more than one Canada Cup of Curling with better fields than the Brier and the Scotties and wondering why the event never did take off here. . . .
The Port of Galveston has started charging passengers duty on cigarettes and alcohol purchased during cruises. To which Janice Hough, aka The Left Coast Sports Babe, writes: “It being Texas, no doubt guns can be imported for free.” . . .
Most of all, I remember a conversation with then-publisher Dale Brin during the summer of 2002. That was the beginning of your Christmas Cheer Fund and what a success story that turned out to be. In 12 years, you handed me and the elves $667,714.68, every penny of which went to local charitable organizations. That was so far beyond even our wildest dreams that it’s ridiculous. It also says everything you need to know about the people who call this area home.
We have had some fun over the last 14 years, haven’t we? I’ll miss you all.
Thanks for being here.


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Merry Christmas!

The 2013 edition of The Daily News Christmas Cheer Fund is off and running.
Yes, it’s the earliest start in the fund’s 12-year history, and what a start it is!
As you likely are aware, the local Walmart held its Grand Opening on Friday as it officially became a Supercentre, featuring 142,000 square feet of shopping goodness.
During the opening ceremonies, Walmart manager Tim Labermeyer presented your Christmas Cheer Fund with a cheque for $10,000. Accepting on behalf of the fund were Jenn Rensch, one of the smiling elves around here when ’tis the season, and Rick Major, The Daily News’ director of reader sales and services.
The local Walmart store under Labermeyer’s management is a longtime supporter of the Christmas Cheer Fund. In fact, over the past six years, Walmart, its associates and its customers have donated more than $35,500 to the fund.
The party continues at Walmart today, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., with face-painting, live music, refreshments and samples.
Meanwhile, don’t forget that the fund accepts applications from Thursday through Sept. 30. If you are involved with a registered charity in the area that would like to share in the fund, just visit The Daily News’ website (www.kamloopsnews.ca), click on the Christmas Cheer Fund logo and follow the instructions.

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Really, it's only common sense

The game of hockey that you - that we - have loved for so long is gone.
The days of trains colliding at a blue-line during a junior or professional game are over. No more will one player be permitted to prey on a defenceless and vulnerable opponent. No, it doesn't matter if the victim has his head down as he searches for a puck in his feet.
Those days are done. Kaput!
In the NHL, they don't want defenceman Eric Gryba of the Ottawa Senators drilling Montreal Canadiens forward Lars Eller as he looks back for a pass. Yes, it was a major-league collision. Yes, it was like a car wreck and we just couldn't look away. But the NHL has lost too many good players to career-ending brain injuries and it wants badly to slow down that train.
Meanwhile, the days of bodychecking for hockey players below bantam are soon to end, too.
The people who run hockey, the ones who make the rules, have come to the realization that things have to change. Declining registration numbers and an increasing number of injuries, mostly brain injuries, have dictated that the status quo no longer is an option.
This is all about player safety, and nothing else.
There simply are too many players suffering brain injuries and the more we learn about brain injuries, the more we come to the realization that they aren't like knee injuries. A surgeon and his scalpel can repair a knee injury; brain injuries are forever.
Hockey Alberta announced Wednesday that it is removing all bodychecking from peewee hockey effective with the 2013-14 season. Hockey Nova Scotia followed suit over the weekend. In fact, Hockey Nova Scotia went even further as it banned bodychecking at the bantam B and C and midget B and C levels.
The Greater Toronto Hockey League, with 30,000 players the largest hockey league in the world, is likely to implement a ban in peewee. Hockey BC may well reach the same conclusion during its annual meeting in Sun Peaks next month.
It likely won't be long before Hockey Canada implements a country-wide prohibition on bodychecking in all peewee levels and below.
Really, when you take emotion out of the equation, this is the only decision that can be made.
For too long, minor hockey has been coached and played as though its sole purpose is to develop professional players. In truth, the percentage of minor hockey players who go on to play professionally is minute and the percentage who reach the NHL is miniscule.
Minor hockey, then, should be for everyone.
But some children, it turns out, are fearful of being injured, and for good reason. Various studies carried out by people in and around the medical community have revealed that children under the age of 15 who play where bodychecking is allowed are three times more susceptible to brain injuries than those who don't.
It is numbers like these that are causing young players to leave the game. Yes, there always will be brain injuries in sports, no matter whether it's soccer, hockey, basketball, football, whatever. But steps must be taken in hockey to reduce their frequency.
It also is hoped that the move to prohibit bodychecking will keep at least some of those young people in the game, thus allowing the registration numbers to stabilize or maybe even increase.
As well, this move should mean coaches will spend more time teaching the basics of the game - skating, passing, shooting, puckhandling. You need only watch a few minutes of a junior hockey practice, especially early in a season, to realize that the Canadian game could use some help in that department.
Meanwhile, the elephant in the room is litigation.
As Stephen Hume of the Vancouver Sun noted earlier this month:
"A nightmare awaits Canadian minor hockey if officials, volunteers and organizations don't deal effectively with bodychecking and head injuries.
"In the United States there's a growing propensity among sports head-injury victims to launch and win huge liability cases that compensate them for brain trauma suffered while playing."
Let's not forget, too, that more than 4,000 former players are suing the NFL, claiming negligence in regards to concussions.
As that situation proceeds, you can bet that organizers and managers in all areas of the North American sporting world will be paying close attention.
All of this also is going to lead to the end of fighting in hockey.
Sooner or later, the people who run major junior and professional hockey are going to come to the realization that you can't move to stop open-ice, predatorial hits and take headshots out of the game, while you are condoning fighting.
Ridding the game of fighting, like removing bodychecking from some divisions of minor hockey, isn't a matter of doing what's right or what's wrong.
Rather, it's a matter of common sense.

(Gregg Drinnan is sports editor of The Daily News. He is at gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca, gdrinnan.blogspot.ca and twitter.com/gdrinnan.)

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The Last Run

Some of the last men to operate the Kamloops Daily News
presses — from left, Todd Drinnan, Dave Burkatsky, Leland Harmon,
Keith Gordey, Ken Hartley, Joe Myttenar and Clayton Hallwas.

The Kamloops Daily News has closed its pressroom, which means things really aren't the same around here. . . . It is spooky to sit here and never hear the press start up and slowly get up speed until it hits (almost) high gear.Anyway . . . . here's what it was like downstairs here on Friday night as the press made its last run.
The Last Run (Longer Version) | Video | Kamloops Daily News

I have tried to stay out of the debate that has taken place in some corners since the Kamloops Blazers chose to cut off my access to the organization. Anyone who wants to try and find the “negative reporting” the Blazers allege is free to look at this blog. It’s all there and I will let that speak for itself.
But there have been some untruths put out there -- I do not criticize individual players, nor do I speculate on trades by tossing around players’ names -- and I am going to address one of them right now.
Ben Kuzma of the Vancouver Province wrote a piece that appeared in his newspaper on Monday. In that story, Kuzma quoted Mark Recchi, one of the Blazers’ co-owners, as saying:
"We took him to the (WHL bantam) draft and explained to him that we're on a five-year plan right now.”
Recchi seems to be implying that the Blazers paid my expenses when I covered the WHL’s 2010 bantam draft in Edmonton.
If that is what Recchi, who wasn't at the draft, is saying he is incorrect.
Here’s the real story . . .
My wife has a sister who lives in Sherwood Park. That sister lost her husband to cancer in February. After attending the funeral, my wife and I made plans to visit her sister again in a couple of months. As things developed, we ended up planning to be in Sherwood Park late in April, so I chose to schedule that trip around the bantam draft.
We drove in our own car to Sherwood Park and we stayed in my sister-in-law’s home. I drove across the city to the bantam draft on the morning of April 29, covered the event, then drove back to Sherwood Park, where I wrote and from where I filed copy to The Daily News. Anyone who is a regular here will remember that I spent a good part of the day updating this blog with selections and happenings from the draft.
When all was said and done, I didn’t file for any expenses with the newspaper. This was something that I undertook completely on my own.
While the trip was being planned, the Blazers had approached me and offered to get me to the draft and back, looking after travel and accommodation. I respectfully declined, but did accept an invitation to dinner. That dinner, which included Blazers management and its scouting staff, took place April 28 in an Edmonton restaurant that is owned by Northland Properties, the company of which Blazers majority owner Tom Gaglardi is president. After the dinner, I returned to Sherwood Park and filed a story to The Daily News.
There was one other member of the Kamloops media -- sportscaster Rick Wile of radio station CHNL -- in Edmonton covering the draft. I can’t speak for him, so you would have to ask him who paid his travel and accommodation expenses. I just know that the Blazers didn't pay mine.

NOTE: Rick Wile says the Blazers covered his accommodations, while the radio station looked after the travel. He says he looked at the deal as an extension of the station’s play-by-play agreement with the Blazers.

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

Daily News, Blazers to discuss ban

Blazers, Daily News and Western Hockey League reps will meet next week to discuss a ban on access to team personnel levied against the newspaper's sports editor.
Daily News editor Mel Rothenburger said a meeting has tentatively been set for Jan. 11 and will be attended by WHL commissioner Ron Robison as well as representatives from the paper and team.
“The objective of the meeting will be to look for common ground on defining 'fair and balanced' coverage of the team,” Rothenburger said. “Right now we have different opinions on that.”
Craig Bonner, vice president and general manager of the Blazers, sent a hand-delivered letter to Daily News sports editor Gregg Drinnan dated Dec. 22 informing him he would “have no further access to our staff, coaches and players effective immediately.”
Rothenburger said the letter referred to “negative reporting” but didn't provide specifics. “We're hoping to get a better idea of what their concerns are.”
Drinnan will continue covering the Blazers for The Daily News, Rothenburger said, adding the paper has asked the league to enforce its media access policy and remove the ban.

Editor's Note

This appeared in the Kamloops Daily News of Jan. 4, 2011:

When Tom Gaglardi and his partners paid a reported $7 million for the Kamloops Blazers in 2007, they promised to turn the team into the kind of franchise people would want to watch.

In supporting the sale, The Daily News editorialized: “Clearly, the Blazers have not enjoyed the heady aroma of success for quite some time. The team itself has performed poorly, the organization has been beset by a series of internal problems, and promotion has been lacklustre. In short, despite the best efforts of the board and the community based administration, the Blazers have lost their mojo.”

Three-plus seasons later, the team languishes at or near the bottom of the standings and Gaglardi’s avowed priority — attendance — continues to suffer. In fact, rather than rebounding by the 600-700 fans Gaglardi had hoped, the numbers have continued dropping.

Everyone wants the team to succeed, but hockey is a tough game, on the ice and off. When a team loses consistently for several years, questions are asked, especially by fans and sports writers.

Daily News sports editor Gregg Drinnan has covered the Blazers for years. He is, without question, one of the most knowledgeable hockey writers covering the Western Hockey League today.

While he’s ready to give the team credit where due, he is also often critical of the Blazer organization and the performance of the team. That’s part of being a hockey writer and it’s part of a team’s growth.

Drinnan’s job is not to market the Blazers, but to report and comment on them. He doesn’t get mean about the players, but nobody can hide the fact the players aren’t winning and that the Blazers’ management must answer for that.

The Blazers’ office doesn’t see it that way. Vice president and general manager Craig Bonner, with the support of Gaglardi, has decided Drinnan will no longer be allowed to talk to team personnel unless he starts writing more favourably about the Blazers.

This is unacceptable to us as a newspaper. It’s also unacceptable to the Western Hockey League, or should be, since it clearly violates league policy.

Unfortunately, the league has so far declined to lift the ban on Drinnan, and so has the team. We’re attempting to work with the team and league to resolve what is, to our knowledge, an unprecedented infringement of transparency and free speech in the reporting and analysing of hockey not only in this league, but across the country.

We don’t believe Craig Bonner and Tom Gaglardi, nor the rest of the team’s partners and managers, are unreasonable people. However, this ban betrays a certain desperation about the fact the team’s mojo remains missing in action. It won’t get the community the kind of team it deserves.

We’re optimistic a solution can be found, but it won’t involve the Blazers deciding what Gregg Drinnan or any other member of our staff can or should write about the Kamloops Blazers. In the meantime, he will continue to cover them, albeit without comment from the team itself.

— Mel Rothenburger, Editor