Looking For A Repeat

It's probably not a secret that Team Canada will be a medal favorite in women's hockey when the 2025 FISU World University Games open in Torino, Italy on January 13. The reigning gold medalists from Lake Placid will be looking to defend their title, and it seems that Canada is sending another highly-skilled U SPORTS team to mount that title defence. If U SPORTS could hold an all-star game, the FISU team members named this year would likely all be invited to the event as the talent assembled for the trip to Italy is rather impressive. With all four conferences represented on the roster, let's take a look at the players who will take ten days off in pursuit of a FISU World University Games gold medal!

Before we jump into the players, though, let me say that being chosen to represent Canada at the FISU University Games means a lot to every player. It's recognition for the hard work they've put into becoming one of this country's best players, it's validation for the dedication they've had to both their education and their sport, and it's an honour to be chosen to wear the maple leaf on their chests. Make no mistake that these players have every right to be proud not only of being selected, but in being chosen to stand tall on the international stage for their country and peers.

In saying that, here is Team Canada's FISU women's hockey team!

Goaltenders

Kaitlyn Ross - Mount Royal Cougars (CW)
Grace Beer - Dalhousie Tigers (AUS)
Jordyn Verbeek - Concordia Stingers (RSEQ)

There's no doubt that Canada's goaltending will be strong, but these three netminders are three of the best statistically that U SPORTS boasts this season. For readers of The Rundown, we're aware of Kaitlyn Ross's skill as the Mount Royal goalie as she's 8-1-2 this season with a 1.33 GAA and a .945 save percentage, but it's her career of stopping pucks that can't be overlooked. In her career, Ross has shown a knack for winning big games as she's 51-17-5 with a 1.47 GAA and a .932 save percentage, she was the fastest goalie in Canada West history to hit the 50-win mark, and she has a National Championship to her name.

I mentioned Dalhousie's Grace Beer on The Rundown this past weekend as she holds a 9-4-0 record, a 1.68 GAA, and a .956 save percentage as her stats have gotten better with each year through her first three years in the AUS. Concordia's Jordyn Verbeek is 18-1-0 in her U SPORTS career with a 1.33 GAA and a .919 save percentage, but she is a National Championship winner. If we're only looking at numbers, this may be one of Canada's best goalie trios to ever play at FISU, but these three netminders thrive on making every save. Canada won't have to worry about goaltending.

Defenders

Sophia Gaskell - UBC Thunderbirds (CW)
Alex Spence - Mount Royal Cougars (CW)
Alexandra-Anne Boyer - Concordia Stingers (RSEQ)
Mackenzie Keenan - UNB Reds (AUS)
Abigail MacKenzie - Saint Mary's Huskies (AUS)
Emma Potter - Toronto Varisty Blues (OUA)

This defence unit should scare other countries as they can skate, they can shoot, they have a little grittiness, and they'll shut down offensive chances by the handful. Readers of The Rundown know that Sophia Gaskell can score as her two goals and four assists are a solid total this season, but she had seven goals in each of the previous two seasons and totals of 22 and 18 points, respectively, in the last two seasons while only accumulating 12 PIMs in four seasons. Sophia's one of the offensive dynamos on a high-scoring UBC team, and Canada will need that from her in Italy.

The other defender that readers of The Rundown will know is Mount Royal's Alex Spence. Spence has shown some offensive flair with her five assists this season, but it's her defensive game that caught the eye of Team Canada's brass. Spence is very good at keeping forwards from scoring as she often has a stick in a lane, a body in front of a shot, or a player pinned along the wall. If Canada needs a shutdown pairing, expect Spence to be on it because she's one of the reasons that Mount Royal has only surrendered 1.5 goals-per-game.

Alexandra-Anne Boyer is one of the top-scoring defenders in the RSEQ with two goals and ten points, and she has National Championship experience. Mackenzie Keenan is the top-scoring defender in the AUS with three goals and 12 points while Abigail MacKenzie plays the game like Spence - four assists, lots of defence, and good offensive instincts. Emma Potter might the spark plug needed as the fiesty Toronto defender isn't afraid to go into corners, skate the puck out, and set up goals. I like the six players chosen to patrol Canada's blue line as they bring skill, speed, tenacity, and awareness.

Forwards

Aliya Jomha - Mount Royal Cougars (CW)
Sydney Mercier - Calgary Dinos (CW)
Madison Desmarais - Nipissing Lakers (OUA)
Malory Dominico - Nipissing Lakers (OUA)
Leah Herrfort - Waterloo Warriors (OUA)
Scout Watkins Southward - Toronto V. Blues (OUA)
Jaime Magoffin - Guelph Gryphons (OUA)
Emilie Lavoie - Concordia Stingers (RSEQ)
Emilie Lussier - Concordia Stingers (RSEQ)
Gabrielle Santerre - Bishop's Gaiters (RSEQ)
Ekaterina Pelowich - St. Thomas Tommies (AUS)
Erica Plourde - Moncton Blue Eagles (AUS)

There are likely 6-8 other women who could have been named to this team, and there wouldn't be any less skill or talent than there is above. For as deep as U SPORTS is, though, there are some exceptional scorers and leaders going to Italy in this forward group listed above. Readers of The Rundown know that I like Aliya Jomha's hustle, and that's reflected in her seven goals and 15 points this season while leading Canada West in game-winning goals. Jomha has shown she can put the puck in the net, but she doesn't cheat in the defensive zone. She's among this country's best 200-foot players.

Some may wonder about Calgary's Sydney Mercier being named to the team, but she plays a solid 200-foot game as well. She'll give you the hustle up and down the ice, she can score as she had 22 points in each of the last two seasons, and she's shown solid growth as a leader in each of her three seasons. Yes, her scoring may be down this season, but Mercier hasn't lost the hands or hustle that made her successful in years past.

The OUA is well-represented in the forward group. Nipissing's Malory Dominico is tied for fourth in OUA scoring with nine goals and 16 points while Leah Herrfort is tied for fifth in scoring with four goals and 15 points as two of the top-scorers, but Jaime Magoffin leads Guelph with two goals and nine points for some additional scoring. Madison Desmarais has two goals and nine points, but she plays a solid 200-foot game and wins face-offs. Scout Watkins Southward is a responsible defensive forward that has some offensive punch, and her motor never stops running.

The RSEQ trio are legitimately 1-2-3 in scoring as Emilie Lussier has 12 goals and 17 points, Gabrielle Santerre has four goals and 15 points, and Emilie Lavoie has eight goals and 14 points. If these three play on a line for Canada, they could be nearly unstoppable. Moncton's Erica Plourde is tied for top-spot in AUS scoring with nine goals and 17 points while St. Thomas's Ekaterina Pelowich is tied for second in scoring qith seven goals and 12 points. In short, Quebec and the Maritimes are bringing a ton of offence to Team Canada.

Coaches

Head Coach Kelly Paton of Wilfrid Laurier has assembled a solid roster that mixes offence with defence, and has a number of award-winners to boast. Santerre is the 2024 U SPORTS Rookie of the Year and U SPORTS Player of the Year, Sydney Mercier is the 2023 U SPORTS Rookie of the Year, and Leah Herrfort was named as the 2023 OUA Player of the Year. There are seven National Champions, and two returning players who won a 2023 gol medal in Herrfort and Scout Watkins Southward. Needless to say, this is a decorated bunch of players who want to add more hardware to their résumés!

Kelly Paton is no stranger to coaching at the FISU Games as she has a gold medal from Canada's triumph in Lake Placid in 2023 and a silver medal from 2017 in Almaty, Kazakhstan where Canada fell to a semi-pro Russian team. She earned a BFL Women in Coaching Award last season with Wilfrid Laurier, and she was invited to participate as a guest coach at the Detroit Red Wings' rookie development camp. Needless to say, Paton's experiences will be called upon in Italy when it comes to Canada's success.

Paton will be joined behind the bench by Carleton University's Stacey Colarossi and Mount Allison University's Addie Miles-Abbott. Colarossi may be best known for being the Associate Head Coach for the Chinese Olympic Team at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, but she was previously the head coach for the Laurentian Voyageurs for nine seasons and has a silver medal from the 2019 FISU Games where she coached Canada to a second-place finish. Addie Miles-Abbott was still a Manitoba Bisons forward when she won a gold medal for Canada at the 2011 FISU Games in Erzurum, Turkey, and she's the current head coach of the Team New Brunswick U18 program. Much like the players, Canada's coaching staff is also well-decorated.

Schedule

For those wondering, the tournament will be played in the Palaghiaccio Tazzoli or "PalaTazzoli". It opened in 1970, seats 3000 people, and has a 60-foot by 30-foot ice surface. The eight countries featured in the tournament include Canada, the Czech Republic, Great Britain, Japan, Kazakhstan, Slovakia, Chinese Taipei and the United States. Canada will play in Pool A along with Slovakia, Great Britain, and Chinese Taipei. For those looking to watch games, FISU.tv will have the games live on its streams.

JANUARY 11: Canada vs. Chinese Taipei - 1pm CT
JANUARY 13: Great Britain vs. Canada - 6am CT
JANUARY 15: Canada vs. Slovakia - 1pm CT
JANUARY 18: 1st-Place Pool A vs 2nd-Place Pool B - 9am CT
JANUARY 20: gold medal game - 1pm CT

Yes, I'm being presumptuous in posting the 1-vs-2 game and the gold medal game, but I really feel that this team can bring home a second-straight gold medal from Italy. I like the make-up of this team, and I feel they have the right mix of scoring, defence, and goaltending to carry them into the gold medal game. Who they meet there is a tougher question, but Canada should be the class of Pool A if they play as well as the roster's potential shows.

We'll see if this squad can make it back-to-back gold medals at the FISU Winter Universiade when the tournament starts on January 11!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

From Hawks To Falcons

When it comes to remembering details about the first version of the Winnipeg Jets, I'll admit that some of those details have faded into darkness over time. While players and moments in the Jets' history still are talked about and remembered today, there are specific things that a number of people likely have forgotten. While virtually everyone remembers the Jets having an AHL affiliation with the Moncton Hawks, I'd be willing to bet that a vast number of people forgot that the final couple of seasons for the Jets saw them align with another AHL franchise. Let's take a look at how the Springfield Falcons played host to future Jets for a couple of seasons before the Jets relocated.

While the New York Rangers and Vancouver Canucks were battling for the Stanley Cup in the summer of 1994, the Winnipeg Jets were looking to shore up their bottom line by carrying less contracts than they had in previous seasons. In 1993, the Jets thought they had an agreement with the Dallas Stars to have both teams stock the Moncton Hawks with players, but it turned out that the two-team partnership saw the Jets stocking the roster almost exclusively rather than the two teams sharing the responsibility. With the Jets cutting the number of contracts they held, that put considerable financial stress on Moncton's owners when it came to players.

With the Jets carrying less of a burden, they too needed to find an affiliation that would allow them to share the responsibility in similar fashion to what they thought they had with Dallas. On June 10, 1994, Tim Campbell of The Winnipeg Free Press broke the news.

The Jets announced that they had signed an affiliation agreement with the Springfield Falcons, sharing that AHL franchise with the Hartford Whalers who were in the same situation of reducing the number of contracts they held. The expansion Falcons - a team that saw GM Bruce Landon lead a group into obtaining the expansion franchise after the original Springfield Indians were moved to Worcester, Massachusetts to become the IceCats - began play with a number of notable names on the roster from the Whalers and Jets.

While the Whalers had players such as Robert Petrovicky, Manny Legace, and Marek Malik with the Falcons, Winnipeg fans are more likely to remember players like Luciano Borsato, Russ Romaniuk, Nikolai Khabibulin, Stephane Beauregard, and Michal Grosek who all played with the Falcons in 1994-95 at times. Rob Murray, a player the Jets had in their lineup for just 36 games between 1991 and 1996, racked up an incredible 1310 PIMs in that time in the AHL - including 373 PIMs just in the 1994-95 season - while never posting less than 31 points! No one is saying that Murray was passed over by the Jets when it came to finding NHL-ready centermen, but I would bet a lot of Jets fans would have loved a tough-as-nails forward who could score like Murray in the lineup more often!

I'll fully admit that I had forgotten about the switching of affiliates that the Jets did before they left for sandier lands, but the Jets had been with the Moncton Hawks as affiliates since 1987. The Hawks moved into Moncton after the Calgary Flames and Boston Bruins folded the Golden Flames and saw limited success, but they did make their way to the AHL's Calder Cup Final in 1993-94 before losing to the Portland Pirates in the championship series.

Among the many players and staff that the Hawks sent to greater heights, Rick Bowness was the team's first coach from 1987-89, Dallas Eakins skated as a defender for the team from 1989-93, Brad Berry was a defenceman from 1987-90, Claude Julien played defence in 1991-92, and Dan Bylsma played 50 games in Moncton in 1993-94. That's not a bad coaching staff if I've ever seen one, so the Jets were producing some very intelligent hockey minds when it came to careers after guys finished playing.

Of course, players who did make it to the NHL from Moncton included Bob Essensa, Randy Gilhen, Pat Elynuik, Danton Cole, Bryan Marchment, Rick Tabaracci, Stu Barnes, Kris Draper, and Brent Hughes, so the Hawks were doing a fairly decent job in developing talent for the NHL. Some of those guys certainly found more success after leaving Winnipeg, but the fact remains that the Hawks were doing their part in having players ready for a call-up when needed.

When the Jets pulled their affiliation, the Hawks were forced to fold their franchise after the Jets affiliated with the Falcons, ending a run of AHL franchises in the New Brunswick city that dated back to 1978. The void would be filled by the QMJHL's Moncton Alpines in 1995 who, after one season, became the Moncton Wildcats who have found great success in the city over the last 30 years.

With the Hartford Whalers relocating to North Carolina at the end of the 1995 season, the Springfield Falcons were Winnipeg's affiliate for one season until the Jets moved to Phoenix. While the NHL team may have moved, the AHL affiliation remained as the Coyotes and Falcons worked together from 1996-97 until 2004 when the Tampa Bay Lightning affiliated with the Falcons. In that time, the Falcons were developing players like Daniel Briere, Trevor Letowski, Robert Esche, and Branko Radivojevic for NHL successes.

That came after the Jets vacated the city, though, so we'll cut this discussion off here as the Jets were aligned with the Springfield Falcons for two seasons that a lot of Jets fans may have forgotten. I know I did, but that's why dipping into the historical records like I do can prove to be informative, especially when you see Nikolai Khabibulin wearing a #35 Springfield Falcons jersey which had completely been erased from my memory.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

The Rundown - Week 10

Officially, it's the last weekend of action in Canada West women's hockey when it comes to 2024, and we had a very light schedule with four teams in action while five were already preparing for 2025. The fun part about this weekend's games is that all four teams are in playoff positions right now, and all four are looking to solidify their playoff chances with wins. We close out the first half of the schedule today with the December break looming on the horizon, so let's see who did what to improve their chances this week on The Rundown!

FRIDAY: We'll start in the head and make our way out west as the Manitoba Bisons headed in that direction to meet the Regina Cougars in the southern Saskatchewan city. Regina started the season en fuego and has slowed a little while Manitoba has been looking better every week, and just one point separated the two prairie squads. Both teams clearly want to go into the break with wins and in second-place, so there was definitely something to play for this weekend as the two teams met. Who would finish 2024 holding a home playoff spot? Zero highlights from the Cougars because they don't believe their team deserves that kind of coverage, so here's the summary.

Cougars goals: none
Cougars assists: none
Cougars netminder: Arden Kliewer (26/27)

Bisons goals: Kelsey Huibers (2), Camille Enns (1)
Bisons assists: Sophia Anderson (2), Julia Bird (3)
Bisons netminder: Emily Shippam (18/18)

Result: 2-0 victory for Manitoba over Regina.

SATURDAY: For the first time this season, the Bisons found themselves in second-place in the division while Regina found itself in third-place. It seems like the race for second-place is a real thing in Canada West's East Division as the final game of the first half of the season could put Manitoba ahead by a few points or could see Regina move back into second-place. Either way, there was something to play for on Saturday despite there being no highlights of this game. Here's the summary once more.

Cougars goals: Trinity Grove (1), Makena Kushniruk (2), Paige Hubbard (6), Kaylee Dyer (3)
Cougars assists: Pippy Pritchard (3), Jordyn Blais (2), Trinity Grove (3), Meg Farmer (2), Megan Long (3), Megan Long (4)
Cougars netminder: Natalie Williamson (30/31)

Bisons goals: Sadie Keller (3)
Bisons assists: Aimee Patrick (6), Brenna Nicol (1)
Bisons netminder: Paige Fischer (28/31)

Result: 4-1 victory for Regina over Manitoba.

FRIDAY: The first half of the season comes to an end for UBC and Trinity Western with a home-and-home series, and it's been remarkable to see what Trinity Western has done after starting the season 1-5-0-0. They've gone 7-2-1-0 in their last ten game to climb into third-place in Canada West's West Division, and they'll face their biggest test in their provincial rivals to close out the first half. UBC sits comfortably atop the West Divison, and they're looking to put some big space between themselves and everyone else. No highlights for this game because Trinity Western doesn't do highlights if they don't score, so here's the summary.

Spartans goals: none
Spartans assists: none
Spartans netminder: Mabel Maltais (30/32)

Thunderbirds goals: Jaylyn Morris (5), Kasundra Betinol (1), Grace Elliott (11)
Thunderbirds assists: Chanreet Bassi (11), Annalise Wong (7), Mackenzie Kordic (9), Makenzie McCallum (7), Mia Bierd (2), Kasundra Betinol (8)
Thunderbirds netminder: Elise Hugens (18/18)

Result: 3-0 victory for UBC over Trinity Western.

SATURDAY: Neither team had a chance to move past any other team, so this game was all about improving one's standing with a win while setting the stage for 2025 by closing out 2024 with a win. After struggling to find the net one night earlier, the Spartans needed a bigger effort on this day while UBC was looking to limit chances and damage once again. I'd like to show you highlights, but the Thunderbirds don't like showing off their players either. Let's go to the scoring summary for the final time in 2024.

Thunderbirds goals: Makenzie McCallum (5), Kasundra Betinol (2), Grace Elliott (12)
Thunderbirds assists: Grace Elliott (15), Annalise Wong (8), Kaylee Peppler (7)
Thunderbirds netminder: Kayla MacDougall (11/12)

Spartans goals: Jordyn Matthews (5)
Spartans assists: Chloe Reid (3), Emily Karpan (2)
Spartans netminder: Kate Fawcett (33/36)

Result: 3-1 victory for UBC over Trinity Western.

No, I'm not doing the stupid East and West Divisions on the standings board. One conference, nine teams, let's see who is best.

CANADA WEST WOMEN'S HOCKEY

School	Record	Points	GF	GA	Streak	Next
UBC	13-2-2-1	31	62	26	W4	JANUARY
Mount Royal	9-2-2-3	25	41	24	L1	JANUARY
Alberta	8-3-4-1	25	37	19	W1	JANUARY
Regina	4-4-4-4	20	27	30	W1	JANUARY
Manitoba	7-6-2-1	19	35	38	L1	JANUARY
Trinity Western	8-9-1-0	18	36	33	L2	JANUARY
Calgary	5-8-1-2	14	32	40	L4	JANUARY
Saskatchewan	1-10-1-4	8	18	40	W2	JANUARY
MacEwan	0-11-2-3	7	12	50	L2	JANUARY

Honour Roll

Each week on The Rundown, I highlight the best performances from the weekend's games. It won't always be the top scorer or the best goalie, but I'll have a reason for who gets picked each week. This week's Honour Roll candidate is a player who may not always be on the scoresheet, but she seemingly drives a good portion of the offence for her team as the Manitoba Bisons leading goal scorer in Norah Collins adds her name to the Honour Roll!

In 43 Canada West game thus far, Collins has scored 12 goals with nine of them coming this season in 16 games. The key in this is that Manitoba is 6-1 when she scores a goal this season and the team is 5-0 when she records four-or-more shots in a game. While she was held off the scoresheet this weekend by Regina, the Bisons won on Friday when she recorded five shots in that game, but they fell in the Saturday game where she had just one shot. As players are told, put the puck on net and good things will happen - in Manitoba's case, they're winning when Collins does exactly that.

When your team's leading goal scorer is having herself a night at the office, your team is probably doing well. Norah Collins is certainly proving that to be true as her offensive outbursts have helped her and her teammates move within two points of their total points recorded last season. Collins is getting help as well, but her nine goals and Manitoba's record when she's been at her best is how Manitoba's Norah Collins adds her name to the list!

Shameless (Self)Promotion

We're back this week with another interview from The Hockey Show featuring a specific Canada West personality. As stated, Canada West hockey is more than just hockey; it's joining a new school, finding new friends, discovering one's passions, and playing a little puck. On The Hockey Show, we talk about all this cool stuff going on in athletes' lives, but we're going to introduce you to another great person as this woman has been there, done that, and is helping other athletes get there as well!

I was lucky enough to be in Saskatoon for the U SPORTS National Women's Hockey Championship last season where the hockey was fantastic. Concordia captured the championship, Waterloo won their first-ever game at Nationals, and I was privileged enough to sit down with Huskies assistant coach Robin Ulrich for a conversation about her humble beginnings in small-town Saskatchewan, being recruited before the days of internet and social media, some of the schools who wanted her to play for them, her days as a Huskies player, her days as a Huskies assistant coach, her extensive coaching career, Nationals in Saskatoon, and more! Robin is extremely proud of her days both as a Huskies player and coach, and she should be an inspiration not only for players who may be wondering what's next after a playing career, but for future players who have university hockey goals! Enjoy this interview from March 14, 2024!

A Maritimes Brief

While there will be some fun stuff on The Rundown over the next few weeks with no hockey being played, we can't walk away without looking across Canada and figuring out who might be the favorites to head to Kitchener-Waterloo for Nationals this season. We'll start on the east coast where as many as five, maybe even six, teams have a shot at winning the AUS.

UNB is atop the standings despite having played the most games, so their two-point lead on StFX may evaporate. Nevertheless, UNB boasts the best offence and the best defence in terms of goals, forward Katelyn Scott is tied for the scoring lead, and Cassie McCallum is has the best GAA for all goalies who have played eight-or-more games. They have the second-ranked power-play, but they're struggling while down a player as they rank sixth out of eight teams. UNB is good as long as they have five players on the ice.

StFX is on a major tear right now as they're 9-1-0 in their last ten games and have won six games in a row. As a result, they sit two points back of UNB with a game in-hand, but they won't get a chance to improve that mark until January. They have the second best goals-for record, the third-best goals-against record, and their power-play sits third-overall, but their penalty-killing has been crazy allowing only two goals on 59 shorthanded situations (96.6%). They have a balanced scoring attack as five players have nine-or-more points, and Bianca Zak has grabbed the starter's role in the crease with a 6-0-0 record, a 1.54 GAA, and a .928 save percentage. StFX looks scary.

Dalhousie sits six points back as they've had an up-and-down season, beating StFX twice and UNB once, but falling to lowly Mount Allison 1-0 in overtime on November 8. Leah MacSween and Abby Larkin lead the way offensively, but Grace Beer might be the unsung hero with a 9-4-0 record, a 1.68 GAA, and a .956 save percentage. Dalhousie's power-play is in the middle of the pack, but they have second-ranked penalty-killing efficiency, so the Tigers definitely have a shot.

Moncton is the fourth team with more than 20 points in the AUS, and they too have been up-and-down. They've beaten UNB and StFX once this season, but they've lost to Dalhousie twice already. They're one of three teams tied at 38 goals-for - third-best in the AUS - so they can score. Erica Plourde is proof of this as she's tied for the lead in conference scoring while Shani Rossignol and Valerie Hache have supported her. Annick Boudreau is 8-5-0 on the season, but her record doesn't show her 1.76 GAA or .933 save percentage. If Moncton can improve their seventh-ranked power-play and penalty-killing efficiences, they too could have a shot.

Both St. Thomas and Saint Mary's are less than ten points back of UNB, but they've been inconsistent through the first-half of the season. Katie Sweeney has ten starts for St. Thomas, but is 4-6-0 in those games while Ridleigh Hansen has 12 starts for Saint Mary's, but is 2-9-0 in those games. Both teams need better goaltending for their starters if things are to change. St. Thomas has the AUS's best power-play efficiency and third-best penalty-killing efficiency so they do well on special teams, but they have to be better at five-on-five. Saint Mary's is the opposite - they're sixth-best on the power-play and fifth-best on the penalty-kill, so they need to play in more five-on-five situations. SMU will need to buckle down in the second half.

We'll look at Quebec and Ontario next week as those schedules are still ongoing through this weekend, but there's a quick look at the AUS where it seems that it's still anyone's conference to win!

What's Up For December?

Well, we're already a week into the month, but the next few weeks is where I start looking at other stats, have a little fun with rosters, update everyone on the players who went off to play professionally, and more. In other words, I'm going to do a pile of work so that you have all the info you need on all the players you may know once they're done in Canada West and U SPORTS!

As an example, I watched HC Davos visiting ZSC Lions today from the SWHL, and I was treated to seeing former Dinos forward Elizabeth Lang sporting the "Top Scorer" jersey they give to the top scorer in the SWHL as she has 19 goals and 18 assists in 18 games after she had an assist in today's 3-2 win. That assist came on former Thunderbirds forward Joelle Fiala's goal just 31 seconds into the game, and it was followed by former Mount Royal Cougars and Dinos forward Courtney Kollman scoring at 2:02 to put Davos up 2-0.

For those wondering, Fiala is tied for second in SWHL scoring with 12 goals and 19 assists while Kollman is tied for third in scoring with 8 goals and 22 assists. With their win over Zurich today, Davos is now tied for first-place in the SWHL! Congratulations, ladies!

The Last Word

Deep breath. Exhale. Repeat.

Everyone made it to the December break after an entertaining first half of hockey, and there have been some solid performances once more. In the "Not Surprised" section of the schedule, UBC, Alberta, and Mount Royal are the top-three teams in Canada West once again, and it seems there's a pretty good chance that two of those three will be heading to Kitchener-Waterloo for Nationals this season.

Of course, all of Regina, Manitoba, and Trinity Western will give these three a run for their money as those three teams hold the remaining three playoff spots, and Calgary could make things very interesting with a solid second half of the season. Unless something dramatic happens, one of Trinity Western or Calgary will likely end up travelling to Regina or Winnipeg for the opening round of the playoffs, so we'll keep an eye on those two races down the stretch in January and February.

While it's been a rougher time in Saskatoon and Edmonton, respectively, for the Huskies and Griffins, it should be noted that these two teams can do all sorts of damage to the other seven teams' playoffs hopes and dreams in the second half. Saskatchewan sees Manitoba twice and Regina once while MacEwan has dates with Manitoba, Calgary, and Regina. Good teams always remind themselves that they have beat the teams below them, but this could be a boost for the Huskies and Griffins if they can derail a team's playoff plans.

However, before anyone can worry about that, every single player in Canada West needs to buckle down, cram as much knowledge into their heads as they can, and write their exams so they remain academically eligible to play in the second half. For as hard as everyone worked on the ice, the work in the classroom has to equal that or be better because education will carry one farther than hockey will in every situation regardless of talent on the ice.

In saying that, study hard, write those exams, get great marks, and we'll reset for the second half after the calendar flips to 2025. Thank you to all the players, staff, coaches, and officials for an incredible first half-season of hockey, and I'm hopeful the second half will bring just as many memories, smiles, and wins as the first half did!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

TBC: The Country And The Game

Having spent some time on the road in hotel rooms with some rather terrible television options, I knew I was going to need some way of filling time on days where I had nothing planned in the evenings. No offence to those hotels who employ some sort of RokuTV or whatever, but "live TV" isn't really live television when I'm trying to find sports to watch. That fact aside, I was smart enough to bring along a book that I was excitied to review as it looked like a great read about a pilgrammage across Canada for hockey! Today, Teebz's Book Club is proud to review The Country and the Game: 30,000 Miles of Hockey Stories, written by Ronnie Shuker and published by Sutherland House in Toronto. For a guy on a road trip watching hockey, this book felt like the perfect companion on my trip as Shuker made the longest of road trips to tap into the local hockey scenes in a number of communities across Canada!

I'm not sure how many authors have their own website, but, from his own website's biography, "Ronnie Shuker is an author, editor, freelance writer, and an editor at large for The Hockey News. He has traveled to places like North Korea, Chernobyl, Transnistria, and the Himalayas, where he took part in the Guinness World Record for the highest altitude hockey game ever played. He lives in the Greater Toronto Area and plays pickup hockey north of the city." Some of his work for The Hockey News included pieces like The Life of Rielly, Discovering Barilko, and The Lost Summit while I note that he's a lifelong Toronto Maple Leafs fan (don't hold that against him). His book, The Country and the Game: 30,000 Miles of Hockey Stories, is the first book he's penned after finding a very rewarding career writing about hockey.

I'll admit that I had no idea what communities would see Ronnie Shuker visit when I first cracked the spine on The Country and the Game, but I have to admit that I was into the book from the opening pages of him being in the Maritimes and Newfoundland almost immediately. From the two Terry Ryans (Senior and Junior) to playing in towns and cities across Newfoundland and Labrador to stopping in the French territory of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon where Shuker wrote an incredible section about the two teams that play there, this book will drop you into locations that seem foreign despite mostly everyone living under the Maple Leaf flag.

The Country and the Game is an incredible look at the cultures across Canada in each province and the peoples who inhabit those communities, what they endure in their daily lives, and how hockey brings us all together despite people gathering and being from different walks of life. Hearing how some players in Quebec consider themselves more Quebecois than Canadian, learning that the communities surrounding James Bay may be the most passionate hockey people there are, and reading about life in Canada's north and the struggles and accomplishments they experience with life and hockey was eye-opening to me as my city-dwelling life has certainly given me am perspective on the game different than those peoples.

While Shuker likely didn't intend to write a culturally-impactful book, hockey is undeniably Canadian in its roots and within its culture. Understanding that hockey is life in towns like Flin Flon, Manitoba and how the costs of the game are a fight each and every year for players to be on the ice in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut is something we can all likely admit is true. What we forget is how important hockey arenas are to small communities as not only places to play hockey, but as meeting centers for communities to get together, share stories, and bond over the game. Reading that Masset, BC doesn't have a hockey rink despite neighbouring communities having them and Masset trying to raise funds to build one goes to show the importance that they play in communities across Canada.

In saying that, there was one passage in the book that stood out to me as I read it based on what Shuker was documenting in The Country and the Game. It reads,

"That is the main difference between hockey in big cities and the game in small towns. In urban areas, hockey is too often a schedule slapped on the refrigerator, or an NHL pipe dream that parents push upon their kids. In places like Rankin Inlet, Labrador, Eeyou Istchee, and the Cree communities around James Bay, the game is part of the cycle of life, seamless and fluid, with the entire town pulling in the same direction."

Whether were talking about Floral, Saskatchewan or Parry Sound, Ontario or Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia, Shuker has eloquently identified the difference between playing hockey and living hockey. The small-town approach that a lot of the small communities have sees everyone involved in the game at some level to not only make it better, but to make life better. That's a significant thing when one considers the importance of hockey to these communities, and The Country and the Game captures that essense so well!

As I wrote in my review of My New Hero, "[f]ar too often, there are great stories out there that take place from a fan's perspective that we never hear", and The Country and the Game does capture some of that. Where this book excels, though, is reading the experiences that Shuker captures in his writing about what hockey means to each community and the people in those communities. The organic joie de vivre when it comes to hockey isn't hard to find among the many people who spoke Shuker, and hockey in urban settings could really use a heavy dose of that persepctive.

Overall, The Country and the Game was a very enjoyable read that kept me engaged as Shuker and his passengers moved across the Canadian landscape. As written above, I enjoyed the looks at how hockey affected each of the communities in which he stopped, and the book offered some real perspective on the importance of the game not only in a sporting sense, but in a life sense as well on its 236 pages. There is no doubt that Ronnie Shuker has written a great book, making it easy to give The Country and the Game: 30,000 Miles of Hockey Stories the Teebz's Book Club Seal of Approval!

The Country and the Game: 30,000 Miles of Hockey Stories was released on October 15, 2024, and it can be found in all major bookstores. The material contained within the covers is pretty easy to read, but there are instances of foul language in the book. The chapters are laid out well with breaks within each chapter, so this book would be suitable for older teens and adults based on the instances of language and the subject matter. If you're looking for a great hockey book for your hockey fan this holiday season or beyond, I highly recommend picking up The Country and the Game: 30,000 Miles of Hockey Stories by Ronnie Shuker!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Before FoxTrax

If there's one complaint that people who are new to hockey seem to have, it's knowing where the puck is on the ice when watching the game on TV. If you were around when the Fox network acquired NHL rights in 1996, you likely remember their "innovation" to help American viewers keep an eye on the puck while it zipped around the ice. That comet-like glow as the puck was moved and shot was known as FoxTrax, and it was introduced to the world at the 1996 NHL All-Star Game. FoxTrax was revolutionary at the time, but it wasn't the first attempt to make the puck more visible on TV. That honour belongs to another puck known as the Firepuck!

The image above was taken in Minneapolis at a Minnesota North Stars practice where the Firepuck was being tested. As you can see, the puck looks like a spot of light on the video image, and that can be seen clearer here on the actual video of that North Stars practice.
Unlike the FoxTrax pucks developed by Etak that saw pucks cut in half before having infrared transmitters, a circuit board and a battery inserted in them and epoxied back together, the Firepuck had no electronic pieces inserted in the puck. Rather, it used coloured retro reflective materials of either embedded lens elements or prismatic reflectors laminated into recesses on the flat surfaces and the vertical edge of a standard hockey puck with yellow being the preferred reflected colour. A spotlight was positioned on the TV camera and focused at the centre of the viewing area which caused the puck to glow for the cameras tracking it. Pretty cool, right?

Well, I was hooked on this new glowing puck, and I found an article reprinted in The Medicine Hat News on October 13, 1994 that was originally published in the Toronto Star and written by Tim Harper!

In the article, Harper notes that the Firepuck was an idea that was formed by Don Klassen of Lake Elmo, Minnesota 19 years before it debuted in 1994 as he watched his son's mites game. Working on it for the previous 18 months, it made its Canadian TV debut on the October 12, 1994 TSN broadcast of the IHL game between the Atlanta Knights and the Minnesota Moose, but it made its TV debut back on January 26, 1994 at the IHL All-Star Game in Fort Wayne, Indiana!

In fact, the 1994 IHL All-Star Game saw the puck used for the second period of the contest, and here's some video evidence of the Firepuck being introduced to TV audiences before being used on the ice!

I chuckled every time the announcers reminded everyone that "it is an experiment" with the Firepuck's system, but it clearly didn't work as intended with where the cameras were located based on how little the "glow" was seen as the spotlight likely wouldn't pick up the reflective material well on those wide-angle shots. Nevertheless, the puck did make its worldwide debut in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and the IHL was the first league to get into this new puck-nological advance!

Harper's article above also notes that it was also used in a game at Richfield Coliseum in Cleveland, and it made its third appearance in that Knights-Moose game. It's fourth and final appearance came on January 17, 1997 when the ECHL adopted it for their All-Star Game in Charlotte, North Carolina, marking the last time that the Firepuck would appear in any professional hockey game. The reasons for leagues to stop using it included its tendency for the puck to bounce, the spotlights reflecting off the ice, and its difficulty in being picked up on wide shots as mentioned above. Despite the initial excitement over its use with the Minnesota experiment, the Firepuck was ultimately done in by what it tried to solve: tracking the puck with the spotlight!

Full marks to Don Klassen for the effort he gave in trying to solve a problem, but it seems that the technology in the mid-1990s needed to make this Firepuck idea work simply wasn't a reality. After the FoxTrax puck debuted, NHL fans were cold to the effects that Fox used to make the puck glow, and the ideas for glowing pucks to help fans track the puck on the ice pretty much died.

I'm not sure that we'll ever see a glowing puck in any form again, but hockey's history should note that the two pucks that glowed lasted only for a couple of years before being mothballed. With high-definition television, seeing the puck on the ice has been easier than ever, so glowing pucks seem destined to remain in the archives.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!