World Pond Hockey Championship

Today, the World Pond Hockey Championships begin in Plaster Rock, New Brunswick. I have a source on the the championships there.

The World Pond Hockey Championships started in 2002 on a 20 rink pond in Plaster Rock, New Brunswick. In the first year of the competition, only 40 teams competed. There are now 120 teams competing this year with teams from all the Canadian provinces, 2 territories, 26 U.S stares and 11 countries in total! In the past 3 years there has been 1 team that has totally dominated. The team consists of former NHLer Mark Cornforth and NCAA players Mark Goble, Cooper Naylor, and Rob Atkinson.

The games are played with 15 minute halves, 4 on 4 playing and no goalies. The nets are low bars just higher than the puck. There are no big wristshots or slapshots for the sake of safety. To show what a puck can do, 1 person received a serious head injury from a high shot.

The reason they call it pond hockey is not just because the games are played outdoors, but because the games are played on really frozen ice! The temperatures in Plaster Rock are cold enough that each year the ice is in good enough condition to skate on.

Other than the actual tournament, there are going to be some interesting guests at the Championships. Prime Minister Stephen Harper will attend the tournament. The Conservative Party leader and Prime Minister Stephen Harper will attend the competition and will bring extra excitement. There will be other guests such as many NHLers either playing, watching, or just there to hang out. This will bring extra attention and excitement to this already amazing tournament.

The tournament schedule go's like this. On the first day, there will be one game in the evening under the lights. The second day will have 2 games for each teams and the same thing for the third day. If the team advances then they will play a series of single game elimination series. If you make it to the final your team may play 5 extra games! If you win all your games you win the Championship!



So if you want some excitement, fun and a great experience, than enter the World Pond Hockey Championship next year.

Iron Man Record

On Tuesday night, the Colorado Avalanche faced the Florida Panthers. But it was more than a just a regular game for Colorado defenseman Karlis Skrastins. He was playing his 486th straight game, tying legend Tim Horton for the the longest consecutive games played record by a defenseman .

He began this run all the way back in 2000 when he was playing as a rookie for the Nashville Predators. Since that season he has never been injured or scratched for a game! The amazing thing about this accomplishment is that he is a good defenseman. He blocks shots, does the dirty work in the corners and always contributes. To not get injured is either a complete stroke of luck throughout 486 straight games, or his body is just amazingly fit.

Skrastins was drafted 230th in 1998 by the Predators. He played 5 seasons for the Predators. During the 2003 offseason he was traded to the Colorado Avalanche He hasn't missed a game with the Avalanche franchise to date. He has 81 career points. In international play, Skrastins has played in 7 World Championships and has played in 2 Winter Olympics. The only game he has ever missed was against St.Louis on February, 18th, 2000.

On Thursday, Skrastins will be able to take the record from Horton, but if he wants to break the all time record, than he just might have to take it easy on the ice. Doug Jarvis holds the all time record of consecutive games with an amazing 964 straight games. That's 478 games ahead of Skrastins! That doesn't matter how far away he is from Jarvis, who knows, maybe he'll catch Jarvis. But let's just let him enjoy it for now. So no matter what his secret is, he will go down as one the NHL's great iron men.

Hockey News

Usually, I don't talk about a sport before a game has taken place, but this is an exception.

Sergei Samsonov was put on waivers today. The Habs could put Samsonov in the minors, but they don't want to pay half his salary. They also don't want to get him claimed by re-entry waivers by another team if he's playing well enough to play in the NHL. They'd rather just let him run out his 2 years or trade him so they can have extra cap room. Samsonov has also asked for a trade. After being asked about the trade rumors Samsonov said, "Being scratched two games in a row, you're getting a clear answer that you're a problem, so maybe it's the best solution for both parties". Samsonov is pretty well saying he has no intention of staying in Montreal. Samsonov says he is ready to move on. Samsonov has been a real under achiever this year. He is getting payed $3.525 million dollars a year and only has 7 goals this year! On top of that he only has 15 assists to give him 22 points! One trade rumor has Samsonov and Craig Rivet going to the Blackhawks for Adrian Aucoin and Bryon Smolinski. I would personally make that trade. Aucoin and Smolinski are much better than Samsonov and Rivet. It looks like Samsonov's days in Montreal are over!

Tonight, the Calgary Flames will retire #30 in honour of goalie Mike Vernon. As many remember, Vernon led the Calgary Flames to a 54 win, 117 point season in the 1988/1989 season, both franchise records. The Flames also defeated fellow Canadian team Montreal in 6 games to get the franchise's first Stanley Cup. He also played with the Detroit, San Jose and Florida winning a cup with the Red Wings. The 5 foot 9 goalie played a huge part in Detroit's first cup in a while. Tonight, Vernon's number will get put beside Lanny McDonalds and be remembered as the best goalie in Flames history!

Finally, legend Mark Messier said today he is interested in the GM job in New York for the Rangers. This will be no problem for the former Ranger captain if present GM Glen Sather agrees to do this because, plain and simple, New York loves him. Messier knows New York and New York knows Messier. If Messier makes a mistake, than the fans will forgive him. I would love to see Mark in the press box at MSG every night. It will be the exclamation on Mark's already amazing hockey career.

Super Bowl Sunday

Of course, as everyone knows, yesterday was Super Bowl Sunday. For the first time in it's 41 year history, it was raining during the game. And it wasn't just a little sprinkle, it was pouring!

Also for the first time, on the first play of the game there was a touchdown. Bears kick returner Devin Hester returned the first kick of the game for a touchdown. It was a short lived lead as Reggie Wayne caught a long throw from Manning and brought it in. But the extra point was unsuccessful! After 2 touchdowns by each team and a field goal by Vinatieri the score was 16-14 for the colts.After the Colts scored 2 field goals and the Bears 1 the score was 22-17

Then in the clutch moments of the game Grossman threw up a duck which was intercepted for a touchdown. The worst thing was that if Grossman lead the guy even averagely, then it would of been a touchdown. On the next drive Grossman again had a man open and again under threw it for an interception. The Colts ended up winning 29-17 for their first Super Bowl in 36 years.

If Grossman had even played averagely, than the Bears would of won the game. He was horrible. He will probably never start another NFL game again. Well it didn't matter as both Tony Dungy and Peyton Manning had a blank look on their faces. It looked like they'ed just won a regular game. Look at Tom Brady, he was laughing and excited and there were even some tears when he won the Bowl. If you work all your life for the Super Bowl, than you don't have to play it cool, get excited! Manning had a bigger smile on his face after his 8th Grade tango! I really think it was one of the worst Super Bowls ever.

Next time I write football, it will be in training camp

Congratulations to the Super Bowl Champs, the Indianapolis Colts
For more info, check out these links.

Link:http://www.tsn.ca/nfl/news_story/?ID=194986&hubname=
Video Link:http://broadband.tsn.ca/?vid=3929

Saturday Night Hockey

Yesterday was Hockey Night In Canada. If you watched just even one of the Canadian teams play, then you had a good day( except Montreal fans).

The Ottawa Senators faced the Toronto Maple Leafs yesterday. It was typical Sens-Leafs game. There was some great goaltending, some beautiful goals and an exciting finish. After a scoreless 1st, the Leafs turned it on scoring 2 thanks to Mats Sundin and Jeff O'Neill. Then in the 3rd period, Ottawa turned into a game with Ottawa scoring 2 goals courtesy of Daniel Alfredsson and Mike Comrie. Before Comrie's goal, it looked like Mike Fisher tied it up just 12 second after Alfredsson's goal, but was disallowed after review. After an exciting overtime, the game went to a shootout. After a miss by Antropov the Sens took the lead on a beautiful deke from Vermette. Then Sundin came and tied it up, deking instead of his normal shot to the high glove side. After a couple of misses, John Pohl deked Emery out of his pants and put it in on the backhand. Finally, Jason Spezza came in and was denied by Raycroft to clinch the Leafs 4th straight win. After asked about the play of Andrew Raycroft, Maurice said,"He looks different. Even better than the start when he was playing well'.



The Calgary Flames faced the Vancouver Canucks at the Sattledome with 1st place on the line.Flames Byron Richie after being a healthy scratch on Friday had a great game with a great fight and a goal. After being down 2-0 after the first,the Flames came back with 4 unanswered goals. 2 in the second and 2 in the third. With the Flames win, they break their 4 game losing skid against the Canucks. They now own first place in the Northwest Division.


In one of the earlier games of the day, the Edmonton Oilers faced the the Colorado Avalanche. After being publicly criticized, Dwayne Roloson made 37 saves in a 3-2 win. After being down 2-1, the Oilers scored 30 seconds apart to win. The Oilers are playing good hockey, winning 3 out of their last 4. This was a big win for the Oilers because they were tied with the Avalanche for last place at the start of the game. They are now 9th in the conference, 6 points behind 8th seeded Minnesota.

Finally, the Montreal Canadiens faced the New York Islanders. The Canadiens continued their slump losing 4-2. Montreal's big guns like Koivu, Higgins, Kovelev and Samsonov are not producing points. The Habs have now lost 4th place in the conference to Ottawa dispite the Sens loss. Miro Satan and Yashin both contributed to the score.

Here are the rest of the scores of the day:

Washington-0, Pittsburgh-2. Chicago-2, San Jose-4. Philadelphia-5, Atlanta-2. Buffalo-2, New Jersey-3.

Rangers-2, Tampa Bay Lightning-3. Los Angeles-7, Florida-0. Dallas-0, St.Louis-2. Anaheim-0, Nashville-3. Boston-4, Carolina-3. Minnesota-1, Phoenix-0

Leafs/Sens Links:http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=194842&hubname=
http://broadband.tsn.ca/?vid=3882

Flames/Canucks Links:http://broadband.tsn.ca/?vid=3888
http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=194923&hubname=

Oilers/Avalanche Links:http://broadband.tsn.ca/?vid=3875
http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=194783&hubname=

Habs/Islanders Links:http://broadband.tsn.ca/?vid=3874
http://broadband.tsn.ca/?vid=3881

Iginla and Conroy are Still Great Package

Yesterday, Jarome Iginla played his first game in 4 weeks. He was welcomed by teammate and friend Craig Conroy. As many remember, these 2 were key components in Calgary's run to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2004. These 2 were teamed up Calgary's game against Columbus. They sent a message, scoring early in the game with them both getting a point on the goal. Iginla went on to get 2 more assists to give him 3 points on the night-1 goal, 2 assists.

The tandem hasn't played together in 3 years, but looked like they've been playing together for more than 3 years. These 2 will lead the Flames far into the playoffs. Iginla said after the game,"It felt good out there. The puck felt a little square at times, but overall felt good." Conroy and Iginla have great chemistry and will rack up the points for the rest of the season and playoffs. On that note,there is no reason why this team shouldn't go deep into the playoffs. The leadership of these 2 will be great for this club. For more information, check out these links.

Link:http://www.calgaryflames.com/cgi-bin/news/comments.cgi?type=newsroom&file_num=0000001147

Video Links:http://broadband.tsn.ca/?vid=3870,

http://broadband.tsn.ca/?vid=3871

Raptors Sweep Monthly Awards

On February 1st, the NBA announced the recipients for the monthly awards. The surging Toronto Raptors sweeped those awards.Sam Mitchell won the Coach of the Month, Andrea Bargnani won the Rookie of the Month and Chris Bosh won Forward of the Month. I think this shows that the Raptors really want to get basketball going in Toronto. They are the hottest team in the Eastern Conference and can get over the 500 mark tonight against the Atlanta Hawks.

A day before the awards were announced, the Raptors faced agent zero and the Washington Wizards. The Raptors crushed the Wizards 119-105. Chris Bosh had 32 points which includes a 3-pointer from his own end. Another player who's really stepped up has been Jose Calderon. He had a career high 22 points on Wednesday and got 9 assists. Against a power house team like Washington, that's impressive. If the team keeps playing like they are now, then they will be way over the 500 mark at the end of the season. I believe they will be in the playoffs and go far. They are better than New Jersey, better than Indiana, better than Orlando, better than Cleveland( without Lebron James) and I think even a little bit better than Chicago. Watch out for these guys!

Link:http://www.tsn.ca/nba/news_story/?ID=194393&hubname=nba

Sheldon Souray-7 minute penalty

Yesterday, the Montreal Canadiens faced the Pittsburgh Penguins. It was a very spirited affair. Physical play, an exciting shootout victory by Pittsburgh,and 9 goals! There was also a very embarrassing play for the NHL. Canadiens Sheldon Souray received a 7 minute penalty! All Souray was doing was standing up for his captain, Saku Koivu who took a monstrous hit from Colby Armstrong just moments before Souray took those penalties.

You can't give 7 minutes of penalties and a game misconduct to some one who's standing up for his captain. With the lack of fights in the NHL now, standing up for your captain is how most fights happen.

This play was the key moment in Montreal's most important game of the season. Pittsburgh scored 2 goals on their 7 minute power play and Montreal scored 1. Montreal ended up tying the game before losing in a shootout. So without that power play, theoretical Montreal would of won the game. I think the NHL owes Montreal an apology( even though that won't get them 2 points). They will be playing this Saturday on national television( not a good sign). This was a great game overshadowed by referees.

Video Link:http://broadband.tsn.ca/?vid=3824

Super Bowl Preview

The logo above these words is the logo for the 2007 Super Bowl in Miami. The 2 teams that will be playing for the title of Super Bowl champs are the Indianapolis Colts and the Chicago Bears. Both teams have been to the Super Bowl, but neither have been to to the the Super Bowl in a long time. My pick for the champion team are the Chicago Bears.

I'm not just picking the Bears because I'm a huge Patriots fan, but because of the stats everyone is overlooking. This team has been the underdog all year. One point is that they're 15-3! Their only losses have been to my patriots, and 2 other games that no one remembers! The second point is that every one is questioning Rex Grossman. He played great in the clutch moments of the the game against the Saints. He is the starting QB for a Super Bowl team. You have to be good to do that. He will play fine. My final point is the Bears defence. They have been a force for many years and that hasn't changed this year. They will shut down Manning.