Do Hitmen have their men? ... Big day for Seibel family ... Ice adds a coach

Hey folks @gdrinnan Taking Note is working just loading really slowly thanks to a new script from @blogger be patient. #SameGreatWriting

— Terry Massey (@TerryMassey) July 6, 2017

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Spent most of Saturday inside taking a break from the smoke, so here’s some scattershooting . . . 

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Mark Recchi, who is from Kamloops and stands about 5-foot-8, played 21  NHL seasons and, according to hockeyzoneplus.com, had career earnings of US$50,943,000.

Kelly Olynyk, who is from Kamloops and is a 7-footer, has played four NBA seasons with the Boston Celtics and, according to sportrac.com, has career earnings of US$9,321,294. A few days ago, he agreed to a four-year deal with the Miami Heat that could pay him $50 million.

Yes, Olynyk will make almost as much over the next four seasons as Recchi made in 21 seasons.

Over his first eight seasons, Recchi was paid $9,133,000. When Olynyk’s four-year deal with the Heat is up, he will have been paid $59,321,294 over eight seasons.

Meanwhile, James Harden, now with the Houston Rockets, has agreed to a four-year extension that, starting in 2019-20, would pay him US$37.8 million, $40.8 million, $43.8 million and $46.8 million.

If you see anything about Harden and $228 million, that total includes his salary over the next two seasons, too. No matter how you look at it, though, that’s a lot of dough. You just wonder where it all ends, though, don’t you?

Harden signs contract for $228M. Arte Moreno bought the Angels (all of them)  for $184M.

— Mark Whicker (@MWhicker03LANG) July 8, 2017

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⚠️ Report a #BCwildfire via *5555 on a cellphone, or 1 800 663-5555 toll-free.

⚠️ Current Fire Bans/Restrictions: https://t.co/mCb8a9uGdV pic.twitter.com/zbDaPjpGZv

— Drive BC (@DriveBC) July 8, 2017

Yes, we are burning up in B.C.

The photo was taken off our deck, facing east, on Saturday at 1 p.m. You can’t see it, but Mount

Martin is located through all that smoke.

Yes, this is quite similar to the late summer of 2003 although the fires aren’t (yet?) quite as close to Kamloops as they were in that hot time.

Still, you hear nightmarish stories . . . like the employee of a shop in a local mall who on Saturday, with smoke everywhere, says she noticed a woman in a van smoking while hooked up to a portable oxygen tank.

The smoker flipped the butt out the window, so the employee walked over, ground the butt into the asphalt and reprimanded the smoker. The employee also said that she was going to jot down the licence plate, and walked around to the rear of the van to do just that.

At which point, the smoker started the van and put it in reverse.

Injuries were avoided.

Welcome to the burning of B.C.

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“Cornerback Shareece Wright took a 450-mile Uber ride to Buffalo to make the Bills’ voluntary offseason workout,” reports RJ Currie of SportsDeke.com. “At the very least, he's a lock for the taxi squad.”

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Here’s a great suggestion, as passed along by Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times . . .

Author unknown, with a good argument for calling one’s toilet the Jim instead of the John: “It sounds better when I say I go to the Jim first thing every morning.”

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You make the call, suggests the afore-mentioned Perry . . .

The greatest 99 in history is:

Wayne Gretzky

J.J. Watt

George Mikan

Warren Sapp

Aaron Judge

Ricky “Wild Thing” Vaughn

Barbara Feldon

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D William Wrenn (Portland, 2010-12) has signed a one-year contract with Bolzano (Italy, Erste Bank Liga). Last season, he had three goals and six assists in 38 games with the Toronto Marlies (AHL).

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The next general manager of the Calgary Hitmen?

A well-connected source has told Taking Note that the position is to be filled by Jeff Chynoweth, the

former president, governor and general manager of the Kootenay Ice.

Chynoweth, his mother Linda and brother Dean recently sold the Ice, leaving the WHL without a Chynoweth involved for the first time since 1972.

The Hitmen have been without a general manager since May 15 when Mike Moore, who had been the vice-president of business operations and GM, was named vice-president and alternate governor.

The Hitmen also are in need of a head coach, Mark French having left after three seasons in order to coach in Switzerland.

Jeff Chynoweth also has worked with the Brandon Wheat Kings, Medicine Hat Tigers, Red Deer Rebels and Spokane Chiefs. He was Kootenay’s general manager for 16 seasons (2001-17). The Ice won WHL titles in 2000, 2002 and 2011, also winning the Memorial Cup in 2002.

Meanwhile, it has been suggested to Taking Note that the leading candidate to replace French as Calgary’s head coach is Dallas Ferguson, who has been at the U of Alaska-Fairbanks since 2004. Ferguson, a 44-year-old from Wainwright, Alta., was an assistant coach with the Nanooks for four seasons and has been the head coach since 2008-09.

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If you are wanting to attend the seventh annual TeamSnap Hockey Coaches Conference in Vancouver but haven’t yet registered, well, we have a deal for you.

The conference runs Friday and Saturday and here’s how you can get 20 per cent off your ticket: Simply click right here to register and enter the coupon code TakingNote to receive the discount.

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There was exciting news in the Seibel household on Saturday when the Vancouver Whitecaps FC announced that Sophia, daughter of Teresa and Steve, has been selected on a full-time basis to the Girls Elite REX (Regional Excel Centre) Program that operates out of Burnaby, B.C. Entrance to this program is by invitation only, so this is a great accomplishment.

From the news release:

“Sophia joined TOFC (Thompson-Okanagan FC) as an intake U12 player in 2014. She is a technically and tactically strong player who has become a perennial BC Soccer High Performance Program selection. She has been part of the Whitecaps FC Prospects Academy in Kamloops for the past three years. Her highly competitive character will serve her well as she moves on to the next level of high performance soccer.”

Sophia’s brother, Sol, was selected by the Swift Current Broncos in the seventh round of the WHL’s 2014 bantam draft. A defenceman, he played last season as a 17-year-old with the BCHL’s Vernon Vipers, putting up eight assists in 49 games.

Teresa is a triathlon competitor and coach, who, among other things, also is a swim coach.

Steve, a lawyer in Kamloops, is a basketball referee who has worked in three Olympic Summer Games, including last summer in Rio de Janeiro, and countless other international games.

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The Kootenay Ice has named Doug Swanson as its mental skills coach. . . . From a news release: “Swanson has more than 20 years of experience as a mental skills coach, working with numerous athletes in diversified sports disciplines including hockey, basketball, figure skating, golf, volleyball, ringette, baseball, swimming, synchronized swimming and gymnastics. (He) has worked with numerous high-performance hockey programs in the WHL, Hockey Alberta and currently supports the U18 and development female high performance program.” . . . Swanson, from Sorrento, B.C., has a masters in educational psychology, along with a bachelor of education in special education, and a mental deficiency nursing diploma. He is a retired teacher, having taught for 32 years.

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BTW, if you want to contact me with some information or just feel like commenting on something, you may email me at greggdrinnan@gmail.com.

I’m also on Twitter (@gdrinnan).

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Thank you to my amazing family for supporting and encouraging me in pursuing my new career, I… https://t.co/Tsi0cU7e6a

— Mark Fistric (@Fistric45) July 8, 2017

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Hockey and a couple of halls of fame

THE MacBETH REPORT:
Shayne Wiebe didn’t know he was getting married until he read it right here.
Whoops!
Wiebe (Kamloops, Brandon, 2006-11), who has signed with Olten (Switzerland, NL B), won’t be reporting until Aug. 12, which is a week after some of the other players.
In translating an Olten news release, an error was made. Rather than reporting that Wiebe would be in a wedding, it was translated and interpreted that he was to be married.
A giant OOPS!
My apologies to Shayne, his girlfriend/wife/significant other (if he has one) and family, his family, any future girlfriends/wives/significant others, et al.
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The hockey crowd will be fathering in Regina tonight as the Saskatchewan Hockey Hall of Fame inducts its class of 2013. In the spotlight will be inductees Red Berenson, Clark Gillies, Bernie Federko and Eddie Shore, along with former on-ice official Mick McGeough, builders Bill Hay and Del Wilson, and Jack Maddia in the grassroots category. Also going into the hall will be the 1914 Regina Victorias, who won the Allan Cup. . . . I have a soft spot in my heart for the Vics, because their roster included Edward Lyman (Hick) Abbott and Joe Potts. Abbott was a star player, while Potts was the team’s manager. . . . The Abbott Cup, which once was awarded annually to the best junior team in the west, was named after Hick Abbott, who was killed during the First World War. That trophy has since been retired.
For more on Potts and Abbott, right here is something that I wrote a few years ago.
While Hick Abbott is in the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame as part of the Vics, it is a travesty that he isn't in that Hall of Fame as an athlete.
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Matthew Gourlie of the Moose Jaw Times-Herald has more right here about Gillies and his induction into the Saskatchewan Hockey Hall of Fame. Ålthough the dinner is being held in Regina, the hall of fame is located at the Credit Union iPlex in Swift Current.
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Still with hockey and halls of fame, the B.C. Hockey Hall of Fame in Penticton inducted its class of 2013 on Friday night.
Two Memorial Cup-winning teams — the Kamloops Blazers from 1993-94 and 1994-95 — were inducted, as was Kamloops native Mark Recchi, who played two seasons here and now is one of the WHL franchise’s five owners.
The two Memorial Cup winners were led by general manager Bob Brown and head coach Don Hay, both of whom were in Penticton for the banquet and ceremony, along with a number of players from both teams.
Brown was the club’s general manager from 1986 through the 1994-95 season. He was inexplicably dismissed shortly after the Blazers won the 1995 Memorial Cup on home ice.
Hay began with the Blazers as an assistant coach in 1986 and was head coach from 1992-93 through 1994-95.
Recchi, who was born and raised in Kamloops, played two seasons with the Blazers (1986-88) after being acquired from the New Westminster Bruins.
Selected by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the fourth round of the 1988 NHL draft, Recchi went on to a lengthy NHL career and is a three-time Stanley Cup winner.
He played in 1,652 regular-season games, which is fourth on the NHL’s all-time list. Recchi is 19th in career goals (577), 14th in assists (956) and 12th in points (1,533). He retired after the 2010-11 season and now is an advisor to hockey operations with the NHL’s Dallas Stars, who are owned by Tom Gaglardi, the Blazers’ majority owner.
Also inducted into the Hall of Fame last night were longtime NHLer Paul Kariya, who starred with the BCHL’s Penticton Panthers (1990-92); Marc Crawford, a former head coach of the Vancouver Canucks; and builders Colin Patterson and Nancy Wilson. Patterson is a veteran coach who won a Memorial Cup as an assistant coach with the Kootenay Ice, while Wilson, a longtime player and coach who lives in Summerland, is the first female to be inducted into the hall.
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The Vancouver Giants have dealt F Riley Kieser, 20, to the Edmonton Oil Kings for a sixth-round selection in the 2014 bantam draft. . . . Kieser, who is from Sherwood Park, Alta., had 35 points, including 13 goals, in 102 regular-season games over two seasons with the Giants.
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The National Baseball Hall of Fame has its big weekend in Cooperstown, N.Y., starting today. One of the inductees will be Dr. Frank Jobe, who pioneered what is known as Tommy John surgery. Of course, Jobe will be introduced by Tommy John. . . . Dave Anderson of The New York Times makes a case right here for John to be in the Hall of Fame, as well.
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Roberto Luongo, back again as the Vancouver Canucks’ starting goaltender, switched agents earlier this week, dropping Gilles Lupien in favour of CAA Sports, meaning Pat Brisson and J.P. Barry. If you’re wondering what Lupien thinks of the move, and what he thinks of Luongo’s situation with the Canucks, well, Roy MacGregor of The Globe and Mail has that and more right here.
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“If the Russian government were passing legislation that discriminated against Jews, Canada would have announced a boycott of the 2014 Olympics already,” writes Adam Goldenberg for MacLean’s, a Canadian newsmagazine. “That we have been so placid about Canada’s looming participation in what will be a massive public relations coup for Vladimir Putin’s gay-hating regime is both shortsighted and historically myopic. Russia’s LGBT community is being openly persecuted by its own government. Those of us whose ancestors once stood in the same line of fire have a moral obligation to be anything but complacent.” . . . Goldenberg’s complete column is right here.
This just might grow into something. Jennifer Saltman of the Vancouver Province reports right here that some Vancouver bars have stopped serving Russian vodka in protest over that country’s treatment of the LGBT community.

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Maybe things weren't so bad back in the day

Back in the day, when the local WHL franchise was owned by the shareholders of the Kamloops Blazers Sports Society, folks would gather for an annual general meeting. Reports would be given, questions might be asked, and a financial statement would be handed out.
For the year ended May 31, 2007, for example, the KBSS released an annual statement showing a profit of $261,583.
A few months later, society shareholders voted to sell the franchise to River City Hockey, a group comprising majority owner Tom Gaglardi and minority owners Shane Doan, Jarome Iginla, Mark Recchi and Darryl Sydor.
Because the Blazers now are privately owned, we aren’t privy to financial statements.
But, if we can believe what we read, it seems things aren’t going so well, at least not in the business department.
In an interview this week with Kevin Paul Dupont of the Boston Globe, Recchi touched mostly on the NHL lockout, no doubt angering most, if not all, of his former NHLPA brethren in the process. But he also made reference to the Blazers’ finances.
“My advice is that the longer it goes, the worse (the offer) is going to get (for the players),” offered Recchi, 44, who retired as an active player after the 2010-11 season. “Hey, I’m an owner, too, so I see both sides. We lose money on our team, and obviously that’s not the same, the money’s not nearly as significant as in the NHL, but the business dynamics are similar. We’ve lost money every year we’ve owned it.”
That is an interesting statement simply because in their first foray into hockey ownership, this group blew up a team that had won 40 games, finished second in the B.C. Division and was a Ray Macias broken wrist away from at least the second round of playoffs.
It was all downhill from there, at least for the next four seasons, with things bottoming out in 2010-11 when the team missed the playoffs after a winter full of embarrassing disciplinary miscues.
Under the direction of head coach Guy Charron and associate coach Dave Hunchak, the Blazers turned things around last season when they were able to put some thrills back into Interior Savings Centre, especially in a memorable second-round, seven-game loss to the Portland Winterhawks.
The success has continued this season, with the team having run off a franchise-record 14-game winning streak before being slapped in the face by some adversity that now has resulted in five losses in six games.
Interestingly, though, the fans who packed the arena a dozen or more years ago have been slow to return. When 5,508 fans showed up for an 8-1 victory over the Brandon Wheat Kings on Oct. 26 — it was Breast Cancer Awareness night — it was the first sellout under present ownership that wasn’t part of a rain-check promotion.
Winning, at least to this point, hasn’t proven much of a balm. Attendance is up about 1,000 per game over last season, but it’s been slow going. The disconnect between organization and fans, it seems, is so wide that winning alone hasn’t been able to close it, at least not yet.
When this group was working towards purchasing the club, and again after shareholders had approved a sale, Gaglardi stated that one of the group’s first moves would be to hire a team president. This would be a person who would live in Kamloops, would be familiar with the community and would oversee the entire organization.
That never did happen. Perhaps it should have.
It’s worth noting that in the process leading up to the purchase of the Blazers, the following paragraph appeared on River City Hockey’s website:
“The four NHLers and business partner are all financially secure and have many different investment opportunities. Their primary reason to invest in the franchise is not motivated by money. Instead, they are motivated by a desire to rebuild their former team, the Kamloops Blazers, so that it may provide a very successful hockey experience to young players — and be a source of pride for the community of Kamloops.”
So perhaps showing a profit isn’t the be-all and end-all for this group.
Gaglardi, of course, is a very wealthy man. Heck, he bought the NHL’s Dallas Stars a year ago for what practically amounted to chump change.
According to hockeyzoneplus.com, Recchi made US$50,943,000 during his NHL career. Sydor, now an assistant coach with the Minnesota Wild, earned $31,715,000. Iginla and Doan, both of whom are still active players, have brought in $69,025,000 and $41,294,000, respectively.
In other words, no tag days are needed, not even if, as Recchi claims, their WHL franchise continues to lose money.
Still, it’s hard to fathom how a WHL franchise that drew 150,419 fans to 36 regular-season games last season can lose money. From the outside, it appears that this ownership group hasn’t invested a lot of money in its front-office operation and we all know that labour costs in the WHL are minimal.
Of course, the attendance figure from last season is down 21,929 from 2006-07 which, it seems, is the last time this franchise showed a one-season profit.
Perhaps Murray Owen and Co. did know what they were doing back in the day.

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

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.

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

(This column appears in the Dec. 21 edition of the Kamloops Daily News)

The Kamloops Blazers’ season, to quote one-time linemates Simon and Garfunkel, appears as though it may be slip sliding away.
As the WHL team’s players headed home Sunday for tobogganing, Facebooking and other Christmas season fun, they had lost four straight games and tumbled into last place in the 10-team Western Conference.
This is the same conference in which things have been as tight as sardines in a tin, with nine teams separated by three points at times. Now, however, the Blazers find themselves five points out of a playoff spot which, in this world of three-point games and loser points, is a large mountain to climb.
Craig Bonner, the Blazers’ general manager, didn’t sound overly concerned Monday afternoon. He was with the team for its last three losses and felt the results didn’t mirror the effort.
But should Bonner be content with trying to get what to this point has been a less-than-mediocre team into the playoffs, even if it means being the seventh or eighth seed? That, of course, would quite likely lead to another first-round playoff exit for a franchise that hasn’t seen the second round since the spring of 1999.
Or, with the trade deadline arriving on Jan 10, should he begin selling off older assets for young prospects and draft picks in the hope of having a championship-calibre team three years down the road?
At this point, it seems likely that he will do neither.
Bonner said he isn’t prepared to be a buyer or a seller. He said he likes his roster and expects better results in the new year. In fact, he said, he expects to be “quiet” at the trade deadline.
Bonner likes the youth on his roster and is prepared to await the arrival of more young players, all of which is part of the five-year plan he drew up when he moved into the GM’s office prior to the 2008-09 season.
But when you look around the stands at Interior Savings Centre you have to wonder if it matters what he does, if anything.
The Blazers have been a big part of this community since they arrived, as the Kamloops Jr. Oilers, over the summer of 1981. But, as time goes on, they are playing a smaller and smaller role, to the point where they now are averaging 4,014 fans per game, down 262 from the same point last season and down 773 — that works out to 27,828 over the course of a season — since Vancouver-based businessman Tom Gaglardi, along with NHLers Shane Doan, Jarome Iginla, Mark Recchi and Darryl Sydor, all of them ex-Blazers, purchased the team over the summer of 2007.
Of course, it was only a year ago when it appeared that Guy Charron would be the answer to the question: Who will be the coach to lead the Blazers out of the wilderness?
He became the fourth head coach in the Gaglardi group’s history, following Dean Clark (fired), Greg Hawgood (fired) and Barry Smith (fired).
Charron, a former NHL player who is a true veteran of the coaching game, brought a cheery disposition and a softer touch into the Blazers’ dressing room. So impressed was the ownership group that, before last season ended, it rewarded Charron, 61, with a two-year contract that runs through 2011-12.
But, of late, Charron’s feather duster has been replaced by a sledge hammer as he has shown signs of frustration.
From stripping the letters off five alternate captains following a 10-1 loss to the Chiefs in Spokane on Nov. 24 to publicly criticizing goaltender Jeff Bosch and left-winger Brendan Ranford, who leads the WHL in goals and points, on Radio NL after a 3-2 loss to the Cougars in Prince George on Friday night, Charron has shown he no longer is prepared to be patient.
But if you have watched this team from the start of the season, you knew it was only a matter of time before the team found itself in this predicament.
When you combine this team’s lack of discipline (it leads the WHL in penalty minutes) with its inefficient penalty kill (it is easily the poorest in the league and has allowed by far the most power-play goals) with spotty goaltending, well, it was only a matter of time before the bottom fell out.
If improvement in those areas isn’t evident in the eight games left before the trade deadline, Bonner may be forced to alter his plan.
Consider, too, that the Blazers are 7-16-1 in games against Western Conference opponents and 8-2-1 against teams from the east. Of their 37 remaining games, 29 are against western teams.
In the meantime, Blazers fans are left to wonder just what has happened to this once-proud franchise and why it is unable to fix the things that are holding it back.
As one member of the organization was heard to say the other day: “You’d think there was a curse over us, or something.”

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

Recchi reaches milestone

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
Mark Recchi has moved into even more elite NHL company.
Recchi, one of Kamloops’ favourite native sons, scored two third-period goals Wednesday night, reaching the 1,500-point career mark as his Boston Bruins scored a 3-1 victory over the host Florida Panthers.
One of five owners of the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers, Recchi is the 13th player in NHL history to reach 1,500 points.
Paul Coffey, a Hall-of-Fame defenceman, is 12th on the all-time list, with 1,531 points.
“It was a big goal . . . it gave us a two-goal cushion,” Recchi told Nadko Funayama, NESN-TV’s rinkside reporter. “It’s nice to get it in a big win.”
It should come as no surprise that Recchi was quick to pass along some of the credit.
“My teammates are unbelievable,” said Recchi, who will turn 43 on Feb. 1. “They support me along the way. Obviously, you can’t do it without them. It’s been a long career and it’s been a lot of fun and I’ve really enjoyed it.”
Boston head coach Claude Julien told Funayama: “It’s quite a milestone.”
Julien said that in congratulating Recchi he told the NHL’s oldest active player “I’m glad all these things are happening with our team.”
Recchi, who in 2000 was named Kamloops’ male athlete of the 20th century, played his first NHL game with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1988-89. They had selected him in the fourth round of the 1988 NHL draft. He also has played for the Philadelphia Flyers, Montreal Canadiens, Carolina Hurricanes, Atlanta Thrashers and Tampa Bay Lightning. He has won Stanley Cups with the Penguins (1991) and Hurricanes (2006).
Recchi now has scored 567 goals, good for 20th on the all-time list. Mike Bossy, the former New York Islanders sniper, is next, at 573. Recchi is 15th in assists, with 933, one in arrears of former defenceman Al MacInnis. Also within reach are Jaromir Jagr (953) and Doug Gilmour (964).
Recchi has played in 1,591 regular-season NHL games, good for ninth place on the all-time list. If he stays healthy this season, he has a chance to move past Ray Bourque (1,612), Larry Murphy (1,615), Scott Stevens (1,635) and Dave Andreychuk (1,639), which would leave him fifth.
Recchi, who will turn 43 on Feb. 1, now has 15 points, including four goals, in 20 games. He has scored three times in his last five games, including two game-winners.
Last night, Recchi broke a 1-1 tie at 2:54 of the third period, taking a pass from David Krejci after some solid forechecking by Jordan Caron and beating Florida goaltender Tomas Vokoun. With the Bruins enjoying a two-man advantage, Recchi added insurance at 16:00, banging in a short rebound from just off the right post.
Recchi played 13 minutes 39 seconds over 17 shifts. He had four shots on goal and was plus-1 as the Bruins won for the eighth time in 10 road games. They were beaten 3-1 by the Lightning in Tampa Bay on Tuesday night.
The Bruins (12-6-2) are one point behind the Northeast Division-leading Montreal Canadiens.
The Bruins next play Friday afternoon when they are at home to the Carolina Hurricanes. After hitting the road to play the Atlanta Thrashers on Sunday and the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday, the Flyers will be at home to Tampa Bay on Dec. 2. Then the Bruins will travel to Toronto for a Dec. 4 clash with the Maple Leafs on Hockey Night in Canada.

 

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca

     

gdrinnan.blogspot.com

     

Taking Note on Twitter

Keeping Score

While the 2010 MasterCard Memorial Cup was being played out in Brandon, with its population of around 45,000, no one was paying closer attention than the owners of the Kamloops Blazers. That’s because the ownership group, headed up by Tom Gaglardi, hopes to be in the running as potential hosts of the 2016 event. . . . Kamloops last played host to the tournament in 1995, when the Blazers won it all for the third time in four years. . . . It was shortly after that when the organization was taken in a different direction and, well, we all know how that went, don’t we? . . . If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it’s a duck. Right? So, yes, Gaglardi, the majority owner of the Blazers, is in the hunt to buy the NHL’s Dallas Stars. . . . Headline at SportsPickle.com: “Report: Pac-10 has 11, Big Ten 12, Big 12 10” . . .

Tommy Lasorda, the former Los Angeles Dodgers manager, is a spokesman for Strike Out Prostate Cancer. When asked why his role doesn’t include rectal exams, he replied: “I’ve got too many rings.” . . . Yes, that was Jamie-Lynn Sigler on the arm of New York Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez at the Tony Awards earlier in the week. Yes, she has grown up a lot since she played Tony Soprano’s daughter. . . . How bitter is the rivalry between the Boston Celtics and L.A. Lakers? “There was a time,” former Celtics forward Cedric (Cornbread) Maxwell told the L.A. Times, “if I saw a Laker on fire and I was holding a glass of water, I’d drink the water.” . . . The just-completed NBA final was about an ugly seven-game series as you will witness. . . . Gotta wonder how fans at Kamloops Blazers games are going to react the first time someone in the crowd starts blowing on a vuvuzela. . . .

Greg Cote, in the Miami Herald: “(Florida) Panthers games are set to return to WQAM. You thought the puck was hard to see in person? Try hockey on the radio!” . . . John Suomi, a catcher who played for the University College of the Cariboo Sun Demons, is one step closer to the major leagues. Suomi, who was a 22nd-round selection by the Oakland A’s in the 2000 amateur draft, now is with the Philadelphia Phillies and, earlier this week, they moved him up from Double-A Reading to Triple-A Lehigh Valley. . . . Meanwhile, outfielder Tyson Gillies returned from the disabled list in Reading this week and hopes his hamstring problems are behind him. . . . Mike Lupica, in the New York Daily News: “It now comes out that despite all the penalties from the NCAA, USC still gets to keep its 2004 national championship, and I’m sure you’re as relieved about that as I am. Pete Carroll, who escaped from L.A. one step ahead of the law, now wants us to believe he knew none of this was going on. So sometimes he was a legendary USC coach and sometimes he was Inspector Clouseau.” . . .

It was only an exhibition game, but the Saskatchewan Roughriders, who coughed up the 2009 Grey Cup game, had two touchdowns called back by penalties in that 19-17 loss to the B.C. Lions on Sunday in Regina. And you know what the critics were saying, don’t you? Such will be life with the green guys this season. . . . The Roughriders are going to pay tribute to their past (1912-47) by wearing red and black jerseys for a July 17 game. Can you say cash grab? . . . Yes, the jerseys — a limited number, of course — are available at $199.99 each. . . .

If you weren’t aware, you are now: Stan Bowman, the GM of the Chicago Blackhawks, was named after the Stanley Cup, which his club won last week for the first time in 49 years. While that was his first Stanley Cup victory, it was his father’s 12th. Scotty has nine titles as a head coach, one as a player personnel director (Pittsburgh Penguins), one as a special consultant (Detroit Red Wings) and this one as a senior adviser for hockey operations. . . . If you zip over to Grandstand Sports and Memorabilia Inc., at grandstandsports.com, you may purchase a Stephen Strasburg-autographed baseball for US$359. . . . At that price, you would think that the kid already is in baseball’s Hall of Fame. . . . If you haven’t been watching Treme, the latest treat from HBO, you’re cheating yourself. . . .

I don’t know how much Ray Chadwick is getting paid as the head coach of the TRU WolfPack baseball team, but John Anderson, who has coached the U of Minnesota Gophers baseball team for 29 years, just took a 1.15-percent pay cut on his US$139,000 salary. . . . Headline at SportsPickle.com: “Anderson Varejao reportedly not calling the shots in Cavaliers coaching search.” . . . You see that guy over there swatting at bugs? Actually, there aren’t any bugs. He’s been watching too much World Cup soccer. . . . Winger Mark Recchi, the pride of Kamloops, almost certainly will celebrate his 43rd birthday on Feb. 1 while playing one more NHL season. His agent, Ritch Winter, has had some talks with the Boston Bruins. . . .

Rick Reilly, at ESPN.com: “No wonder the English goalkeeper allowed that easy shot to give America a 1-1 tie in the Group C opener. You couldn’t stop a beach ball with those big goofy things. What, is Hamburger Helper a sponsor? Why must they be so huge? Doesn’t Roger Rabbit need them back? And where do the batteries go? How are goalkeepers expected to hang on to the ball with them on? And is it difficult to play goalie while also taking things out of the oven?” . . . ESPN’s Bill Simmons, live blogging during Game 7 of the NBA final: “Just talked to someone who paid 30K per ticket for courtsides. The NBA . . . it’s fantastic!”

Gregg Drinnan is sports editor of The Daily News. Email him at gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca, or visit his blog at gdrinnan.blogspot.com. Keeping Score appears Saturdays.

Keeping Score

It must be spring break in Alberta. How else do you explain all the hockey fans in Phoenix these days? . . . Headline in the Buffalo News after a late-season game: Sabres are lemons in front of Lalime. . . . After his one-punch kayo of Pittsburgh Penguins forward Matt Cooke last week, it is doubtful that Atlanta Thrashers forward Evander Kane will ever have to pay for another meal while in the company of NHL players. . . . Defenceman Brendon Nash of Kamloops wrapped up his college hockey career with the Cornell Big Red by being named a Reebok Division I All-American. Nash, a second-teamer last season as a junior, was named to the ECAC Hockey first all-star team. Nash, who graduates next month with a degree in applied economics and management, signed with the NHL’s Montreal Canadiens when his season ended and now is with the AHL’s Hamilton Bulldogs. . . . Hamilton is taking on the Manitoba Moose in a first-round playoff series. . . .
After a TMZ report that Tiger Woods paid Rachel Uchitel (aka Mistress No. 1) a cool US$10 million to keep quiet, Ian Hamilton of the Regina Leader-Post noted: “In golf terms, Uchitel now has a lot of green to work with.” . . . After Italy’s Matteo Manassero, 16, became the youngest player in Masters history, Greg Connors of the Buffalo News wrote: “That means there are only two golfers in the field whose families check to see they’re in bed by 11: Matteo and Tiger.” . . . What’s this? Tiger was heard cursing during the Masters? And you thought Billy Payne and his good ol’ boys could change the stripes on a tiger. . . . John Garrity, at SI.com: “The Phil people are delirious. The Tiger people are devastated. The good guy, a green jacket draped comfortably over his open-collared polo, addresses an adoring crowd at sunset. The bad boy, who was last seen walking past the clubhouse in his no-longer-bulletproof red victory shirt, heads for home (wherever that is) to the yawns of a surfeited tabloid press.”
Jay Mariotti, at FanHouse: “We thank the gods for intervening and back-burnering our long National (Enquirer) nightmare, replacing it with a historic sequence of golf shots from a man who deserves your love. Enough with Tiger Woods, his potty mouth and his revealing return to earth, a third-round wobble accompanied by bursts of needless profanity that violated his proper-decorum oath and confirmed he’s still a fraud.” . . .
Greg Cote of the Miami Herald didn’t have a good weekend. “Sad news,” he reported. “Heat Dancers were eliminated by the Charlotte Lady Cats in the semifinals in their bid for a fifth NBA dance-team championship. Analysts said the Miami women excelled in gyration and augmentation but disappointed on the pelvic thrust.” . . . Janice Hough, the Left Coast Sports Babe, wonders: “Which black leader now has a bigger mess to try to clean up in Washington — Barack Obama or Donovan McNabb?” . . . When the Chicago White Sox staged their home opener last week, they had four Chicago Blackhawks skaters — American Patrick Kane and Canadians Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook and Jonathan Toews — on hand to throw out ceremonial first pitches. Later, the Chicago Sun-Times asked who fared the best, with Seabrook replying: “It’s rough throwing a ball when you have a gold medal around your neck.” . . .
One would hope that Fred Pittendreigh and the KIJHL executives feel at least some embarrassment for the manner in which they stiffed the fine folks of Chase. According to league president Bill Ohlhausen, Pittendreigh told the KIJHL sometime prior to Nov. 1 that he intended to move the Chiefs. That means the league and its governors sat on the news for months, while the Chase fans purchased tickets, billeted players and bought advertising. . . . As one KIJHL exec told me this week: “It’s an absolute travesty the way everything happened. It just stinks and reeks of under-the-carpet stuff that I have never seen before. It’s a Mickey Mouse league when things like that are allowed to happen. You’ve got the people of Chase sitting there wondering, ‘What just happened?’ It’s an absolute joke.” . . . Yes, it is. . . . After USA Today reported that the highest payrolls in Major League Baseball belong to the New York Yankees (US$206.3 million), Boston Red Sox ($162.4 million) and Chicago Cubs ($146.6 million), Reggie Hayes of the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel noted: “Spending obviously works. All three of those teams have won championships in the last 102 years.” . . .
Let’s be honest here. Loose change only serves to wear holes in your pockets or get lost in the bottom of your purse. So what a great idea to have people placed throughout our city who want only to relieve you of that loose change. They’re in parking lots, they’re standing outside of stores, they’re on various medians. Hey, is this a great city, or what? . . . Non-premium seats for Chicago Cubs’ games at Wrigley Field now carry an average price tag of US$52.56, the most expensive in Major League Baseball. . . . The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette headlined the story: Cubs win! . . . The Vancouver Sun went with: One is born each minute, and they have Cubs tickets. . . .
Mark Recchi, who owns a chunk of the Kamloops Blazers, is the Boston Bruins’ nominee for the Masterton Trophy, the NHL award that honours the player who “best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey.” Recchi, 42, is wrapping up his 21st season as an NHL player. Don’t be surprised if he hangs around for yet another season. . . . Look for former Blazers goaltender Justin Leclerc to end up going to McGill U in Montreal. Folks from McGill were in attendance at two 1-0 overtime games as Leclerc’s Saints were swept from the MJHL final by the Dauphin Kings. Leclerc is in Montreal this weekend. . . . The fine for talking on a cellphone while driving is $167. Don’t you wish the RCMP would allow you to write tickets and keep, say, 50 per cent of the proceeds?

Gregg Drinnan is sports editor of The Daily News. Email him at gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca, or visit his blog at gdrinnan.blogspot.com. Keeping Score appears Saturdays.