The Hockey Show - Episode 689

The Hockey Show, Canada's only campus-produced radio show that strictly talks hockey, is back in the studio where we can avoid Alberta clippers and other weather systems that may be raging outside as the Great White North gets a little whiter. It's the perfect season for hockey around these parts, and we're going to talk to a guest tonight whose experiences have taken her from player to coach to advocate, and we'll hear about some of the challenges she faces in building provincial and national team programs. Did we mention she's a fantastically awesome person too? We'll chat about all of that stuff and much more with one of this country's best coaches when it comes to parahockey tonight on The Hockey Show at 5:30pm CT!

Tonight, Teebz and Jason are proud, honoured, privileged, humbled, and pleased to welcome Team Manitoba Parahockey head coach and Team Canada National Women's Parahockey assistant coach McKenna Wild to the show! McKenna spends her workdays as a Recreational Facilitator for Manitoba Possible, but her nights and weekends see her on the ice as the head coach, director, and everything in between for the Manitoba provincial sledge hockey team. We'll chat about her time playing hockey, some of the challenges that the provincial team faces, some of the achievements they've made, growing the game both provincially and nationally, some upcoming events, and more! It should be a fantastic show as we learn about the provincial and national sledge hockey programs from McKenna Wild, head coach of Team Manitoba, tonight on The Hockey Show at 5:30pm CT on one of 101.5 FM, Channel 718 on MTS TV, or via UMFM.com!

If you live outside Winnipeg and want to listen, we have options! The UMFM website's streaming player works well if you want to listen online. We also recommend Radio Garden if you need an easy-to-use online stream. If you're more of an app person, we recommend you use the TuneIn app found on the App Store or Google Play Store.

If you have questions, you can email all show queries and comments to hockeyshow@umfm.com! Tweet me anytime with questions you may have by hitting me up at @TeebzHBIC on Twitter! I'm here to listen to you, so make your voice heard! And because both Teebz and Jason are on the butterfly app where things are less noisy, you can find Teebz here and Jason here on Bluesky!

Tonight, Teebz and Jason sit down with McKenna Wild to discuss her hockey career, switching over to sledge hockey, coaching, building teams, accessibility and advocacy, and much more exclusively on 101.5 UMFM and on the UMFM.com web stream!

PODCAST: December 6, 2025: Episode 689

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

We're Not Influencers, But...

If there's one thing that I can honestly say about having a radio show is that we, at no point in time, have ever claimed to have any influence on anyone when it comes to the game of hockey. We don't have the same reach or market share as a TSN radio nor a CJOB locally, so seeing local news stories covering something we were talking about on The Hockey Show just a couple of weeks ago seems pretty cool. Of course, coverage matters and a few of these outlets did what seems like the bare minimum, but that's why we devote our show and I devote space on this blog to stories like these that need a bigger audience.

Two weeks ago, we were honoured to welcome Sledge Hockey Manitoba Vice-President and Manitoba Junior Express coach Shay Hawthorn, Sledge Hockey Manitoba Intermediate Representative and Manitoba Intermediate Express coach Les McRae, and Manitoba Intermediate Express player Austin McRae to the UMFM studios where we spoke about the sport of sledge hockey, also called parahockey, in detail as they looked to grow the game in Manitoba. It was an incredible chat, and it's something that we've pledged to continue doing so they can get the same coverage as stand-up hockey.

One of the topics we spoke about that night was getting more kids involved in the game and the prohibitive costs of doing so. Sleds are, by far, the most expensive piece of equipment that players own, and a growing child means that sleds may not even last an entire winter! There were some solutions put forth by Shay, Les, and Austin, but they all agreed that more help was needed if the sport was to grow as freely as it potentially could with those barriers removed.

Shay had suggested that the "First Shift Program" would be a good way for kids to try the sport, and she was hopeful we'd see Hockey Canada or the Winnipeg Jets help both Sledge Hockey Manitoba and Manitoba Possible do more. After all, it takes equipment, ice time, and opportunity to get kids on the ice for any flavour of hockey.

Consider me pleasantly surprised when I was listening to CBC's Information Radio on Monday morning when news host Josh Crabb read a news story about the First Shift Program that took place on the weekend at the Hockey For All Centre in west Winnipeg where Canadian Blind Hockey, the Hockey For All Centre, and Manitoba Possible came together to get Manitoba kids with visual impairments and/or mobility issues on the ice! How cool is that?

Obviously, we can take zero credit for this story nor any of the developments that led to the story, but this is exactly the kind of attention that the sports of blind hockey and parahockey need if they're going to gain any traction in this province. More people talking about it should get more people involved, and we heard on The Hockey Show that Sledge Hockey Manitoba wants to continue its positive growth. I'd imagine Blind Hockey Manitoba wants to see their numbers boosted as well, so let's keep talking about these sports!

Again, The Hockey Show is going to hold true to our pledge by having another guest this week on the show who is knee-deep in the sledge hockey world both at the provincial and national levels. Her interview should be a good one, and our hope is that more people will take notice of all the good things being done in Manitoba for both sledge hockey players and fans no matter what age one is.

With the 2025 Para Cup being played in Dawson Creek, BC right now, the final preparations are being made by the four teams at the tournament for the upcoming Paralympic Games. Canada has defeated both China and Czechia in jumping out to a 2-0 record, and they'll square off against the team that everyone is looking to beat in Team USA tomorrow. As we heard from Shay and Les, there's hope that there will be a Manitoba-born-and-trained national team player one day, and it could be Austin if he continues to improve his game!

Programs like the First Shift Program should help the game grow in Manitoba, and I'm excited to see more media outlets talking about the sports of sledge hockey and blind hockey. We'll continue our discussion this week on The Hockey Show as we want to see the sport take off in Manitoba, and we'll continue to cover the game as Sledge Hockey Manitoba has more events throughout the hockey season.

And if we can bring Blind Hockey Manitoba in for a little chatter in the future, we'll welcome them to the UMFM studio as well!

Hockey is for everyone on The Hockey Show, and it was awesome to see a handful of news outlets covering the First Shift Program for both sledge hockey players and for blind hockey players this week. My hope is we'll see more coverage by news outlets going forward!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Picking Up Odd Jobs

Full marks to anyone who can identify the goaltender in question to the left. He played his last professional game in the ECHL during the 2023-24 season, but it appears he's trying to gain employment in that league again. If you're wondering, he's a former NHL netminder who played for three teams, but has just 40 games to his name despite those three stops. The 32 year-old was drafted 190th-overall in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft, he won an AHL Calder Cup championship in 2017-18, and he's one of 26 goalies in NHL history to record a shutout in his NHL debut. He seemed like he could have been a good goalie, but his path led elsewhere.

If you're still wondering who the goaltender is and you haven't turned to the Google machine for answers, the man pictured above in the Bloomington Bison uniform is Garret Sparks. The reason I'm posting about Garret Sparks today is that he was released by the Bison after serving as their EBUG - emergency backup goaltender - for the last eight days! Imagine having a former NHL goalie as your EBUG!

It seems that Sparks hasn't spoken to any media about landing with the Bison as their EBUG. I went hunting for interviews and newspaper stories, and there is nothing outside of the announcement by the Bisons on their website and across their social media. You would think someone in Indiana would want to sit down and chat with Sparks about his career, but he spent November 25 until today waiting for his number to be called. It never happened as he saw no action.

Maybe that's for the best considering that Sparks struggled in his two games with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and the five games he played with the Wheeling Nailers in 2023-24. He was 0-1-0 in those two games with the Penguins, sporting a 3.70 GAA and an .862 save percentage, but four goals on 29 shots isn't good enough for an AHL roster spot. He was sent to Wheeling where he went 0-3-1 with a 4.00 GAA and an .843 save percentage, allowing 16 goals on 102 shots. Those totals weren't good enough for an ECHL roster spot either.

I have no idea where Sparks played last season as there's nothing to indicate that he even played beer league hockey, but it seems that the Bison were willing to have him sit in the stands as their EBUG this season. I'm not saying he would have seen any action even if there was a need for him to dress, but it seems the Bison were willing to roll the dice in the event there was a need for him to suit up.

The last time that Sparks played meaningful hockey for more than ten games was in the 2022-23 season when he went 7-4-3 for the Orlando Solar Bears, but he still had a 3.45 GAA and an .887 save percentage. It's not to say that he can't make stops, but he just needs to do it more frequently than what he's done in the last few stops. Honestly, Sparks as a potential EBUG would be a pretty good goaltending option had the Bison needed him in a pinch.

All of that, though, is now in the "what if" bin since Sparks was released today by the Bison. I'm not saying that Sparks needed to take someone's job, but it seems unlikely he would have unseated one of Dryden McKay or Callum Tung in the Bison crease. They're having solid seasons individually despite the lack of scoring from the Bison, so maybe Sparks just wanted to throw the gear back on, practice with an ECHL team again, and see if he still had the moves.

The good news is that Garret Sparks is a free agent again in case anyone else needs an EBUG with NHL experience on his résumé.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!