Isolation: An Olympic Fad

After the Finland-Canada game was delayed on Thursday due to the outbreak of norovirus among the Finnish players, it seemed like the virus could become the story of the women's hockey event at the Milano-Cortina Olympics. Jason and I went over the medical side of the virus yesterday on The Hockey Show, but the one thing we made clear is that norovirus is highly-contagious and easily-communicable among people. As we know in hockey, one never wants to give an opponent momentum, but it seems that the norovirus is going to be a story at these Olympics as we move forward after it was announced that Switerland's women's hockey team was in isolation after one of their players was diagnosed as having the virus.

No one wants to see any games disrupted, delayed, or cancelled for obvious reasons, and Switzerland made the right call in telling its players to stay back at the Olympic village and isolate from others rather than going to and partcipating in the Olympic opening ceremonies. Switzerland defeated Czechia 4-3 in a shootout earlier today, and the Swiss player was diagnosed as having norovirus after the game so we may not be done seeing the norovirus strike again at this event based on what we know medically about the virus.

If there is a silver lining, Switzerland hasn't even considered asking the IIHF and the IOC to reschedule games at this point. If it is just one player, the goal is to prevent anyone else from being infected with the virus so that Switzerland and Canada can meet on Saturday. Finland, whose team was decimated by the virus on Thursday, indicated that they are getting healthier after 13 players were sidelined yesterday. According to reports, "[e]leven skaters and all three goaltenders took part in practice Friday", up from ten skaters.

What should worry organizers is that there may be a chance that Switzerland's participation in the game against Czechia today could have helped the transmission of the virus once again. Normally, the time when a person is most contagious is the few days after feeling better, but hockey is a contact sport where players do come into close quarters with one another. With Czechia having Saturday off after starting the tournament 0-1-1, they should be exercising overcaution in watching for symptoms among their players.

We've seen some great things in the first couple of days of the Olympic women's hockey tournament so far as Italy recorded their first win in Olympic history and France's women's hockey team skated in the Olympics for the first time. All the games have been fairly competitive as the parity on the world stage is starting to show, and we may finally get to see every team play their first 2026 Olympic hockey game tomorrow when Canada meets Switzerland and Finland takes the ice against Team USA. My fingers are crossed for that.

What shouldn't be forgotten, though, is how easily a major event like the Olympics could be derailed due to a microscopic being that wreaks havoc on the human body for a few days. We know from the COVID-19 pandemic how the Olympics caused headaches for athletes and organizers when it came to keeping players healthy for competition, and it might be wise to use those same lessons learned to keep athletes healthy in Milano-Cortina for the next two weeks.

For the Swiss team, it sucks to miss the opening ceremonies. I know how much athletes and coaches look forward to that experience, but I'm pretty sure that every one of those players, coaches, and team staff members would skip the ceremony if going to it cost them a shot at an Olympic medal. After Switzerland opened with a win over Czechia, they're one step closer to possibly bringing home hardware.

We'll see if all Swiss players are available for their game against Canada tomorrow, and we'll keep an eye on how many players are able to dress for Finalnd against the US. My hope is that no one else contracts the virus and is forced to miss games, and that both Switzerland and Finland can rally from this medical setback in their quests for medals. No one expected this kind of adversity!

It sucks to skip out on the fun stuff while being an Olympic athlete, but no one will complain if isolation results in winning a medal.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

The Hockey Show - Episode 698

The Hockey Show, Canada's only campus-produced radio show that strictly talks hockey, has the Olympic banner up as we are three games into the 2026 Milano-Cortina Olympic Games already! Our hosts are back in the UMFM studios tonight where they'll be talking about the big tournament over in Italy among the discussion tonight as the latest version of the games becomes the first Winter Olympiad to be co-hosted by two cities! The women's hockey event is under, there were some U SPORTS people who made an impact, and more hockey chatter tonight on The Hockey Show at 5:30pm CT!

Obviously, the opening cermonies still have to come but, tonight on the program, Teebz and Jason will talk about the 2026 Winter Olympics and the results from the games today along with all the U SPORTS people involved in the women's hockey event. Beyond that, they also discuss Gavin McKenna's legal troubles from one dumb move, the reason for delaying the Canada-Finland game today and how that's affecting the men's team, a forgotten name signing a contract in the ECHL, the dissolution of the Washington Post's sports department, and the two stoat mascots above in Tina and Milo! There's lots to go over tonight as the biggest tournaments in men's and women's hockey get underway in Italy so be ready to roll tonight for 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 chat big games, first wins, costly punches, food poisoning, alternate lodging, past goalies, voices lost, mascots found, and much more exclusively on 101.5 UMFM and on the UMFM.com web stream!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

He's An Official BUG Now

If you're wondering, I didn't win an eBay auction or anything. The Garret Sparks bobblehead is real, though, as the Toronto Marlies honoured the former netminder with his own bobblehead back in 2018, and there could be another version made this season after it was announced that Garret Sparks signed with the ECHL's Bloomington Bison today as the ECHL team looks to improve their playoff position as the season heads into its stretch run. Sparks had been working with the Bison this season as an EBUG in late November, so he's somewhat familiar with the team and its systems already. Having him sign a contract to back up starting netminder Dryden McKay and possibly push him higher gives Bloomington one of the best tandems in the entire ECHL.

No one is expecting Sparks to come in and turn Bloomington's goaltending on its side. As we know, he's got NHL and AHL experience, but he hasn't played meaningful hockey at any level since 2023-24 and he hasn't won a professional hockey game since 2022-23. Sparks will have some work to do if he hopes to regain the same level of puck-stopping that saw him win 31 AHL games with the Toronto Marlies in 2017-18. Yes, that happened just short of a decade ago.

Bloomington is getting good goaltending right now from Dryden McKay, so having Sparks as a second option makes sense as the Bison find themselves in third-place with a 21-16-4 record and 46 points. The catch is that the Indy Fuel also have 46 points and sit in fourth-place with a game in-hand, and both teams are six points back of the second-place Fort Wayne Komets. Of the teams currently holding a playoff spot in the Central Division, the Bison have surrendered the most goals at 119 so it seems like a potential upgrade was needed.

I'm not sure Sparks is a better option than McKay and current goaltending partner Hugo Ollas. McKay is sporting a 2.18 GAA and a .929 save percentage, but he only has a 13-10-1 record on the season. Ollas seems like he's pulling his weight, but his numbers have to be better than the current 3.18 GAA, .895 save percentage, and 4-4-1 record that he sports. Even getting his GAA down below 3.00 would make a huge difference, but McKay's numbers show that the Bison need to find more scoring as well. If Sparks can outplay Ollas over the rest of the season, though, it will help the Bison's chances.

Bloomington goes on the road this weekend with a pair of games against the fifth-place Kalamazoo Wings on Saturday and Sunday before meeting up with the Fort Wayne Komets on Monday. Winning all three games would help the Bison immensely, but I doubt we'll see Sparks dressed for those games. They play the Utah Grizzlies in Salt Lake City the following weekend, so Sparks has lots of time to get himself into game shape. Assuming things go well, he could dress for the February 20 series against the Maine Mariners at home, so we'll see if #40 is ready to stampede with the Bison by that weekend.

The 32 year-old goaltender wasn't signed today to save a season or push the Bloomington Bison over some imagined hump they face. The Bison have never qualified for the playoffs in their short one-completed-season of history, so reaching the playoffs for the first time will be a big moment in their franchise's history. Where the story goes from there will be on the players and coaches, but Sparks, like the team, needs to take this one day and game at a time.

You can make it official, though: Garret Sparks is back in the ECHL!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

TBC: Tales From The Bus Leagues

If you've ever had a chance to sit and chat with a professional hockey player in a less-formal setting, you know that all players have about a million stories from their careers they enjoy telling. Minor-league hockey players always seem to have more of the crazier stories thanks to there being less cameras and eyeballs on them, so I couldn't pass up the opportunity to add another great read to the library that is all about one man's hockey experiences. Teebz's Book Club is proud to review Tales from the Bus Leagues, written and published by Jamie McKinven. This book is one hundred stories from Jamie's life where hockey was his only concern as he played in the NCAA, the ECHL, the CHL, and in Europe over the course of his career, and the end result is a book where I couldn't turn pages fast enough when it came to reading about these stops in his career!

Jamie McKinven's biography comes from his Queen's University page where he serves as the women's hockey assistant coach! That biography reads, "Jamie is in his 9th season as an Assistant Coach with the team where he specializes in working primarily with the defense and on defensive systems and tactics on top of individual skill development & data/analytics. A Kingston, Ontario native, McKinven played NCAA Division I hockey at Clarkson University, earning the Fran Narigan Award for excellence in academics, athletics, and humanitarianism in his senior year. Following his collegiate career, he played professionally in the ECHL, Central Hockey League, and Europe. After his playing career, McKinven served as Assistant Coach and Director of Player Development for the Kingston Voyageurs Jr. A Hockey Club and as a skill development specialist with FL Sports Inc. and McKinven Hockey Development & Consulting." It should also be noted that he's written three books about hockey including Tales from the Bus Leagues!

Tales from the Bus Leagues takes you through Jamie McKinven's career, starting in junior hockey in Ottawa to his university days in Potsdam, New York to playing in hockey hotbeds such as Shreveport, Amarillo, Augusta, and more! McKinven's experiences are documented along the way as he includes lessons learned in and around the game, pranks pulled and experienced, teammates that made his career memorable, and some of the more memorable events and people that make Tales from the Bus Leagues a funny and enjoyable read!

You might be asking who McKinven played with or against that you know, and there were some notable names who skated in the leagues he did. Former NHL defender Grant Clitsome is the victim of a McKinven prank in one story, former NHL centerman Craig Conroy rewards McKinven and his teammates for their hockey skills, and former NHL forward David Desharnais was an opponent at one point. McKinven tells the story of Mike Sgroi who might be the scariest man on skates, and he talks about fighting the much larger Joel Irving, a Montreal Canadiens prospect. Through it all, McKinven ensures the humourous look at his career continues in Tales from the Bus Leagues.

What kept me hooked into Tales from the Bus Leagues early on was McKinven's experience in Serbia. During his time over there, the former Yugoslavia had broken up and there were still remnants of the war that went on all around Belgrade where he was playing. Rather than focusing on the conditions in and around Belgrade, McKinven spoke of the culture and people with very high regard. He writes,

"Considering that Serbians have been living with the constant presence of war and conflict for centuries, it makes complete sense that they would be extremely proud people. Family, religion and deep-rooted cultural values are what have guided the Serbians through their darkest days. It's the foundation of their perserverance, something we, as Canadians, were lax and somewhat absentminded about. It wasn't that we didn't appreciate the importance of these values. It was more that we never had to rely on them for survival."

That's a profound statement from a guy who was there to play hockey, but his experiences there and the teammates he befriended in Belgrade were reminders that he was stranger in a foreign land. I appreciate his cultural perspective on his time in Serbia, and I'm glad he wrote about it with such clarity, honesty, and transparency.

There are a range of hilarious and entertaining stories in Tales from the Bus Leagues that include McKinven's experiences as a hockey player at The Masters, life as a university student-athlete, bus trips on two different continents, run-ins with coaches, and a pile of other stories that came from his career in the minor leagues. Some are admittedly childish in nature, but they're all part of Jamie McKinven's experience in being a minor-league professional hockey player!

Overall, Tales from the Bus Leagues is a fun read that should generate a smile during some of the stories thanks to the craziness in which McKinven and his teammates indulge. McKinven makes it clear that anyone who is a minor-league hockey player isn't playing for the money, and this is a lesson repeated in a number of the stories. What should be remembered, though, is that McKinven has had himself a lifetime of experiences doing what he loved, and it's easy to award Tales from the Bus Leagues the Teebz's Book Club Seal of Approval!

Tales from the Bus Leagues was released back in 2015, so you can likely find it on library shelves right now. I read the eBook version that is linked above, and it was easy to get into the book as it's funny, has short stories that last only a few pages at most, and is all about hockey. McKinven's stories occasionally contain some strong language, so it would recommended for older teens and adult hockey fans. However, Tales from the Bus Leagues is an excellent, fun read with great hockey stories, and it comes highly recommended!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Major Losses In Stavely

I have never been to Stavely, Alberta, but the town was shaken to its core tonight upon hearing the news that three young hockey players lost their lives today following an automobile accident. The three players from the Southern Alberta Mustangs were reportedly headed to practice when their small car collided with a truck carrying gravel at an intersection just outside of town on Highway 2. This is a heartbreaking moment for the town and the team, and I can't imagine the grief that is being suffered in the town of approximately 550 people and by the families of the three players. This is a tragedy and HBIC sends its deepest condolences to the players' families, friends, and teammates.

The three players - 18 year-old players JJ Wright and Cameron Casorso from Kamloops, BC, and 17 year-old player Caden Fine of Birmingham, Alabama - were pronounced dead on the scene following the accident. RCMP are still investigating what led to the collision, but the the driver of the truck, a 40-year-old man living in Stavely, was treated for minor injuries. I can't imagine what he's going through tonight, and my hope is he can find peace at some point.

The loss of the these three young men will undoubtedly ripple through the hockey community, and there have already been incredible gestures made as the Calgary Flames held a moment of silence in honour of these young men while Prime Minister Mark Carney issued a statement in finding out about this tragedy. We can talk about scores and stats all we want, but it's times like these where the humanity of the game comes through as the hockey community bands together to support one another in a time of need.

Mike Gilroy, a former player co-ordinator with the Mustangs, worked with the three players last summer, telling The Canadian Press, "They had the spark in their eyes and the fire in their hearts every day and enjoyed being a part of a team and took the time to put in the extra work to be successful.

"It is far too soon for young, talented people like this."

Gilroy's statement is entirely right as forward JJ Wright, goaltender Cameron Casorso, and centerman Caden Fine were just starting to find their stride in the United States Premier Hockey League with the Mustangs. The USPHL prides itself as a "top junior hockey level, with more than 1,000 alumni In college hockey every season" and these players looked like they were following that path before this tragedy. It's with a heavy heart that their stories come to an end today.

The Southern Alberta Mustangs issued the following statement today:

"It is with unimaginable heartbreak that we confirm three players from the Southern Alberta Mustangs were killed in a motor vehicle accident earlier today while travelling to team practice.

"There are no words that can adequately express the depth of our grief. These young men were more than hockey players — they were teammates, sons, brothers, friends, and deeply loved members of our Mustangs family and the communities we call home.

"Our hearts are with the families, friends, billet families, teammates, coaches, and everyone who loved them. We ask that their families be given privacy and compassion as they navigate this devastating loss.

"The Southern Alberta Mustangs organization is working closely with authorities and will continue to support our players, staff, and families in every way possible during this incredibly difficult time.

"We are a family, and today our family is hurting."

Signed by team owners, I cannot even comprehend how difficult it would have been to compose that statement. Games will undoubtedly be put on hold as the Mustangs work through the grieving process, but I don't know how any team would regroup for games following a loss like this. They seem meaningless considering what has happened.

My thoughts are with the team, coaches, and families tonight in this unimaginable tragedy. I can't imagine the pain they're feeling, and I want to pass on my deepest condolences to all whose lives had been touched by these three men because they are gone far too soon.

Until next time, remember these three young men.