Another Day Older

It's weird when one gets older. I was asked by a number of people today what I had planned, and all seemed somewhat disappointed when I told them I had no plans. While none of these people have ever lived vicariously through me as far as I know, today is like any other day outside of the fact that I need to change the number when I answer any question about my age.

I don't make it a secret that it's my birthday, but I don't advertise it either. Perhaps that's why these colleagues of mine were disappointed by my answer. I really just wanted to get home and relax after a somewhat busy day at work. I made myself a nice dinner, I relaxed with Meg the cat, and we got lost in a couple of movies. In other words, it was a Wednesday.

I do know that some other important people are celebrating birthdays today. Mario Lemieux, my favorite hockey player, shares a birthday with me. Patrick Roy and Fredrik Olausson, also of hockey fame, also share a birthday with me. Former NBA star Grant Hill enjoys cake and presents today . Hollywood stars Guy Pearce, Kate Winslet and Jesse Eisenberg share a birthday with me. AC/DC's Brian Johnson was born on this day. Renowned scientist Neil deGrasse Tyson was born today. Both the late Ray Krocc, who founded Mcdonald's and owned the San Diego Padres, and the late comedian Bernie Mac would have celebrated birthdays today as well.

There have also been some somewhat unhappy moments on this day. In 2011, Apple guru Steve Jobs passed away. In 2003, former Atlanta Thrasher Dan Snyder succumbed to his injuries from the car crash in which he was involved. While I'm not one to dwell on tragedies - and there were more on this day - those two I remember quite vividly.

Among the important events that happened today, the New Jersey Devils tied the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-3 in their first NHL game in 1982. In 1970, PBS became a US television network, eventually filling many days of Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers for kids across North America. Barry Bonds breaks the MLB mark for home runs in a season when he launched his 71st dinger in 2001 to eclipse the mark set by Mark McGwire. Author Stephanie Meyer's Twilight is first published on this day in 2005. Dr. No, starring Sean Connery and Ursula Andress, premieres in London in 1962 and is the first Bond film based on Ian Fleming's novels. On the same day in 1962, the Beatles release "Love Me Do" as their first record. 1947 saw the first presidential address made from the White House by Harry Truman.

In some rather weird news, people in North America born on October 5 have the most common birthday out of all the calendar days. More than one million people on this continent celebrate the day with birthday cake, so happy birthday to you if you're one of them!

That's all for today. No hockey. No rants. Just a night off for me!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Wild Card Action

With the Toronto Blue Jays and Baltimore Orioles playing a one-game wild card game to see who gets the right to face the Texas Rangers, there were some who suggested that the wild card game brought meaning to games that would be otherwise meaningless if there were only one wild card team. The extrapolation of that thought is that there should be a wild card team in hockey. We have excellent teams who miss the playoffs due to the division they play in, and the thought is that this team should get a shot to play for their playoff lives.

Let me make this short and very clear: NO.

The divisional playoff format in the NHL is something unique to hockey. Football doesn't have it. Baseball doesn't have it. Basketball doesn't have it. It is vital to hockey in that it builds rivalries, it cements hatreds for teams that visit all too often, and it renews passions between teams, players, and fan bases that are only seen when teams who exist a little close for comfort meet in a winner-take-all, do-or-die playoff series.

You never get a Mets-Yankees series in baseball that means something, but an Islanders-Rangers playoff series could potentially be an annual thing. The Cubs and Cardinals may have a long history, but they don't have the same vitriol between them as the Blackhawks and Blues do. There's almost zero chance that fans in Florida will see the Rays and Marlins meet for anything meaningful, but the Panthers and Lightning could meet in the playoffs with bragging rights and potentially a Stanley Cup going to the winners.

Look, this isn't an article that is meant to bring down any of the other sports and their playoff formats. Each has found something that works for them. The NHL has done the same, and I personally like the idea of a Pittsburgh-Philadelphia series or a Los Angeles-Anaheim series or a Calgary-Edmonton series to open the playoffs. The proximity of the cities breeds contempt for the opposition in hockey, and that's why the divisional format works for the NHL.

As I write this, it's 2-2 in the seventh inning between the Blue Jays and Orioles. Let baseball have the wild card games. It makes baseball fun and gets more fans involved late into the season. Hockey doesn't need a wild card with sixteen of thirty - soon to be thirty-one teams - already qualifying for the playoffs.

I'm off to watch the rest of this game. Let's go Blue Jays!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Lots Of Oops In One Game

Yes, you're seeing correctly. That's the Florida Panthers, in white, playing the Dallas Stars, in white. If you're colour-blind, red and green look fairly similar, so you'd be hard-pressed to think this image was nothing more than a picture of a scrimmage. However, fans in London, Ontario got this white-on-white game on Sunday night because it's still the NHL preseason where mistakes happen on occasion.

According to George Richards of the Miami Herald, the above face-off was seen all night due to a bit of a misunderstanding. Richards writes,

Apparently the Panthers thought Dallas was bringing its home sweaters since the two teams meet again Tuesday in Texas.

It only made sense for Florida to bring one set of jerseys on this road trip.

Dallas, however, was originally listed as the road team for Sunday's game and brought its road jerseys.

With Dallas being on the road since September 28 and playing both Colorado and St. Louis in their respective buildings prior to being the road team in London, Ontario against Florida, I'm not sure how it made sense for Florida to only bring their road whites. It becomes increasingly curious when Florida played Tampa Bay in Tampa Bay on Thursday, September 29 in their only game prior to Sunday's game in London. Methinks the error lies on Florida's side of the equation.

Regardless of who is to blame, the NHL gave fans in London a rare treat of a white-on-white game. It didn't seem to squash the excitement of the fans as they were treated to Jonathan Huberdeau goal with 6.2 seconds to play in the first period off a pass from Jaromir Jagr. The crowd, it seems, enjoyed the living legend's presence in the lineup despite the lack of energy on the ice between the two teams.

Dallas scored the equalizer in the second period when Antoine Roussel dented the twine. It took another full period plus some extra time for Nick Ebert to score the game-winner in overtime as the Dallas Stars downed the Panthers 2-1. The strange part of this game, though? There were no radio crews, no camera crews, and zero coverage of the game anywhere on traditional electronic media. Even the NHL.com site featured no coverage of the game on the Panthers-Stars game page! How does this happen in today's day and age of mass information and social media?

That's why it's the preseason, folks. The NHL, it seems, is just as human as you and I.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

TBC: Hockey Karma

It's a back-to-back weekend for Teebz's Book Club as I was lucky enough to receive an advance copy of another hockey story that I've had the pleasure of reading. I often find myself leaning towards books from authors whose previous works I've enjoyed, and today's entry certainly follows that path. It's rare to find a graphic novel that covers hockey, but one author is doing his best to make this a reality! Teebz's Book Club is proud to review Hockey Karma, written by Howard Shapiro, illustrated by Andres Mossa, and published by Animal Media Group. Hockey Karma follows up on the friendship between protagonists Tom Leonard and Jeremiah Jacobson, and this time they are trying to make big changes in their community!

From Mr. Shapiro's website, "Since I decided to start writing children’s stories my goal has been to create characters that adults and kids would care about and be interested in following their journey. And also to create stories that SAY SOMETHING. There are thousands of kids books out there and in my little corner of the book store, I want and wanted to do something that can stand the test of time, be relevant and vital. Plus, make it entertaining and enjoyable to read each and every time. I hope I am succeeding in that goal." Mr. Shapiro is an accomplished author with a number of titles for younger readers to his name!

Andres Mossa is a colorist and artist that has worked for a number of major outlets including Marvel Comics where he's done work for the Wolverine, Iron Man, Inhumans, and Spider-Man series. He was trained as a painter in Bari, Italy before getting into illustrating comic books and graphic novels.

Hockey Karma is a far darker graphic novel than the previous entries, and a lot of the darkness swirls around the problems that Jeremiah Jacobson is having both on and off the ice. As you'll read in the graphic novel, these on-ice problems quickly spill over into Jacobson's off-ice life where his friends and family begin to notice changes in both his demeanor and behavior.

As time creeps up on Jeremiah, new players and diminishing skills are beginning to affect Jeremiah's game. Add to the fact that he's been playing through injuries and surgeries, and it's becoming apparent that Jacobson is not the player he once was. That's not to say that he can't still compete, but there is a flashy new rookie in town named Barclay Pedersen who is gaining the attention that Jacobson once held. To combat the pain of the lingering injuries, Jacobson also has started medicating. These many factors lead Jeremiah Jacobson down a dark path in his career.

Jeremiah's best friend, Tom Leonard, begins picking up on the poor demeanor that Jeremiah has been showing. He's constantly putting off a project that Tom has been spearheading, and Tom meets a former high school crush! Jeremiah, however, noticed none of this, and Tom kicks off what could be a very promising romance with Jaelithe and begins to rediscover a confidence in himself that he never had relied upon before.

While the story of Hockey Karma may be darker, there are certainly choices that were made that led both Jeremiah and Tom to moments of redemption. Some of these choices should be rather easy to make, but it's in the reflection of the choices made that both Jeremiah and Tom learn about themselves. While Jeremiah's decisions seem to lead him into the dark, Tom's decisions seem to lead him into a better place. Yet both men are tied together by friendship and a project despite them moving in what seems to be different directions. Will their decisions pull them apart or bring them back together for the sake of the project and the sake of their friendship?

Mr. Shapiro has woven another fantastic graphic novel around Jeremiah and Tom, but I have to admit that I found Hockey Karma a little confusing at first until I figured out that Hockey Karma takes place about a decade after The Hockey Saint. Once I came to this realization, the novel made more sense. At first, I couldn't comprehend how Jeremiah had aged so much and why Tom looked like he was much older, but once I put everything together through the first few chapters, it made more sense. While this is in no way a complaint towards the story or Mr. Shapiro, you'll want to remember this as you work through Hockey Karma.

With that out of the way, I have to hand it to Mr. Shapiro and Mr. Mossa in creating another excellent story with Hockey Karma. Mr. Shapiro takes a number of real world choices and drops them on his protagonists, and Mr. Mossa illustrates the decisions and the fallout of those choices very well. The ironic part is that these choices that both Jeremiah and Tom face are the same choices that people face every day in their lives. While the results of these choices in our lives may not have the same impact as Jeremiah's and Tom's choices have in the stories, the choices presented to Jeremiah and Tom are choices you, readers, may have faced or will face in life at some point. Because of this, I was deeply engrossed in Hockey Karma until the end!

There are moral lessons littered throughout Hockey Karma about courage, pride, and the meaning of friendship that become apparent with each choice that Jeremiah and Tom make. It's in these lessons that both the reader and the protagonists find themselves in a state of self-reflection regarding choices one has made, that's what makes Hockey Karma an excellent read. Maybe I read too deeply into the story or maybe I found some sort of enlightenment on the pages, but I believe that Hockey Karma deserves the Teebz's Book Club Seal of Approval because of these lessons!

Get out to your local bookstore on November 1 to find Hockey Karma, and pick up the follow-up graphic novel to The Hockey Saint!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

TBC: One Night Only

I had some time to use up while riding on airplanes this week, and I find it's always best to let the time melt away by reading on a flight. Teebz's Book Club has had a few entries made to it thanks to flights, and I'm happy to add another that is both entertaining and informative! Teebz's Book Club is proud to review One Night Only, written by Ken Reid and published by ECW Press. Ken Reid takes us down memory lane as he tracks down 40 hockey players who played a single, solitary game in the NHL in their hockey careers, and gets those players' perspectives on the big night and what they've been doing since their lone appearance in The Show. If you've ever wondered what it's like to play one lone game in the NHL, there are forty men who agreed to let Ken Reid tell their story in One Night Only!

You might know Ken Reid as one-half of the Sportsnet Central anchor team along with Evanka Osmak. Reid grew up in Pictou, Nova Scotia and graduated from Pictou Academy before getting a shot at a local station in Dartmouth. After establishing himself as a credible play-by-play man for the junior A team, the station hired Reid to do a weekly news program where he was editor, videographer, and anchor! Reid moved to Calgary, Ottawa, and Edmonton before landing in Toronto where he worked with CP24, TSN and the NHL Network before landing a permanent gig with Sportsnet in 2011. Ken, his wife, and two boys live in Toronto. Teebz's Book Club also has reviewed his other book, Hockey Card Stories!

One Night Only takes a walk down memory lane where Ken Reid speaks to a number of hockey players who played all of one NHL game in their hockey careers. Most of these men are relatively obscure players thanks to the fact that they only played one game, but they all have had brushes with greatness such as Jean Beliveau, Gordie Howe, Jacques Plante, and Wayne Gretzky. However, each of the players has a story that goes much further than one NHL game as some established long and prosperous careers in the minor-leagues and in Europe. Needless to say, the forty men featured in One Night Only have unique and amazing stories to tell about their moment in the spotlight, albeit a brief moment.

You might ask yourself why this would be a topic that Ken Reid wanted to examine, but the list shown on this Wikipedia page is extensive! Of the men found on that list, only four were lucky enough to record a goal in their NHL debuts/final games! There are some other trivia moments littered throughout the book as well, but Ken Reid took the time to track down the men who are part of trivia legend in Hockey Card Stories!

The one thing that impressed me as I read through Hockey Card Stories was the number of players who went back to school following their one-game appearance, most notably to CIS schools in Canada where they played hockey while getting an education! It's always nice to see the Canadian school system get a pat on the back in a big way.

One of my favorite sections of the book was entitled "All in the Family" where a number of players who have family ties to one another make an appearance. There are a couple of brothers who both played just a single game in the NHL, and there are two father-son combinations who could have made the book had the sons not played a second game. Instead, the fathers, one of whom is Darin Sceviour, made the book, and Darin tells Mr. Reid an excellent story about being a hockey parent and how his knowledge of playing the pro game really didn't benefit his son, current Florida Panthers forward Colton Sceviour, until he learned to be less involved.

Darin watched his son try to squeeze his way into the world's best hockey league. He was a hands-on hockey dad, with a very unique perspective. "At the beginning you try to give him what you think are constructive comments, but really, at the end of the day, it's not relevant to what their system is and what their teams are and it took me a couple of years to figure that out. I always thought I was one thing away from making it happen for him. But really there's a lot more going on behind the scenes and you don't realize when you're going through it how many layers and layers and layers there are. And one of the factors is luck. That's what a lot of people don't realize. There are some very, very skilled players I played with who never even got the opportunity that I did. The luck factor - I call it a lottery. You've got to be with the right team, at the right time, playing for the right coach, with a need in your position. And that's basically what goes into the lotto number combination for some people."

I'd say that Darin Sceviour's advice is something that should be painted on walls in arenas across the globe for many, many hockey parents to read. He's entirely right, and forty men in One Night Only can attest to the luck factor in their careers.

One Night Only is a very entertaining and informative book about thirty-nine men you've probably never heard of and one man who you almost certainly have. Ken Reid does an excellent job in painting the pictures of that one big night for each of these men, and his writing style flows nicely so that the book is easy to read. There are a couple of PG-rated words that the storytellers use, but none of those words are used just because they can. The book would certainly be appropriate for teenage readers and up, and I suspect that many of the stories told by these unknown men will resonate with readers long after they have finished reading the book. Because of this, One Night Only absolutely deserves the Teebz's Book Club Seal of Approval!

I was lucky enough to receive an advanced copy of One Night Only for this review, so I highly recommend ordering it through your favorite bookstore, website, or directly through the ECW Press website! The release date for One Night Only is October 2016, so look for it shortly in your local bookstore and library!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!