The Winter Hawks are (not surprisingly) struggling through their eastern swing to Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Things got started with a 7-0 thumping in Regina, Saskatchewan, by the middle-of-pack, third-place Patriots. Sure, the Hawks were just coming off a 24 hour bus trip after a home loss to arch-rival Seattle. The Western Conference in general and the US Division in particular are weak this year (with the exceptions of Everett and Vancouver), and Portland is bottom of the pack. One Regina fan commented on the Network54 WHL forum that Portland was the worst team they’d seen through Regina in a long time. Big, dumb, slow and soft were words used to describe the Hawks. (I’ve long complained that the Hawks seem to really go for size over speed and skill, and I’m evidently not the only one to have noticed. It’s really hurting us now with the new zero-tolerance standards in the WHL.)

Next, the Hawks squeaked out a 4-3 win over East Division cellar dwellers Moose Jaw (Saskatchewan). Then came another thumpin’ (6-2) from first-place Brandon (Manitoba), and then a 3-0 shutout from a Saskatoon (Saskatchewan), a team with a similar record to Portland. The prairie has not been good to our left coast boys. (Seriously though, a lot of these guys are from the prairie, and the annual eastern swing gives their families a rare chance to see them play.)

The Hawks wrap up the trip with back-to-back games against second-place Prince Albert (Saskatchewan) and fifth-place Swift Current (Saskatchewan). Here’s hoping they pull off at least one win (Swift Current is doable) before the long bus ride back to P-town, where the boys face the the juggernaut of reigning WHL champs Vancouver this Saturday night.

Portland may be looking at the cellar of the WHL’s U.S. Division in this rebuilding year, but we’ve still made somebody’s top ten list. From Terry Frei on ESPN SportsTravel:

MAJOR JUNIOR HOCKEY WITH THE PORTLAND WINTER HAWKS
Oregon, not Maine.

First, sample one of the game’s most heated rivalries, driving on Interstate 5 to catch barn-to-barn Western Hockey League games between the Winter Hawks and the Seattle Thunderbirds.

The best set this season is February 2 in Portland at the glass palace, Memorial Coliseum, which is where Cam Neely, Glen Wesley and Marian Hossa, among others, played; and where Bill Walton played when he didn’t talk at all, much less so darned much. Stick around after the game as long-time radio voice Dean “Scooter” Vrooman hosts “Hawk Talk” and visits with a Portland player on the ice, with the sound heard both in the arena and on the radio. Then catch the rematch the next night at Seattle.

Eat at Huber’s in Portland, having the turkey and the famous Spanish coffee afterwards. Dine at Ray’s Boathouse in Seattle, but be sure you allow enough time because of the gridlock traffic and take great care not to get on the Lake Washington bridge accidentally because there’s no turning back for miles.

There also is a slight chance it could be raining, so take an umbrella. And don’t let it bother you that you’re pretty much watching a bunch of Canadian teenagers playing under the Canadian Hockey League umbrella.

If you want to extend the trip, you could follow the Hawks to Kelowna, Prince George, and Kamloops, all in British Columbia.

Ah, the long wait is over, and hockey season is upon us in all its glory! Wacky Mommy and I went to the Winter Hawks’ home opener Saturday at the old Memorial Coliseum and got our first look at this year’s young team in action against a real opponent and all the pagentry of opening night. It was resplendant with pratfalls, real live veterans (it’s Veterans’ Memorial Coliseum, doncha know), young children in their hockey gear, and the new president mumbling a few words in the dark at center ice before dropping the ceremonial puck. I’m what Scooter calls a “traditional hockey fan” who just wants to get the game going. I don’t give a rip about the smoke and stobe lights and rock music and platitudes about how the new owners are going to return the “Glass Palace” to its former glory.

But anyway, they really try to pump things up for the home opener, which means they introduce the whole team. The team mascot came out before hand and skated around the ice to pump up the crowd, while trying to avoid the rug they put out for the vets (oops, hit that and took a dive), the strobe lights they strung out on the ice in front of the tunnel (managed to miss those), and the cable for the on-ice camera (oops, hit that and nearly dragged the camera man and his gaffer to the ice). Then they introduced… wait for it… this year’s Portland! Junior Hawks mite team! Okay, the massive crowd of 5,400 (oops, forgot to run any ads for opening weekend) seemed a tad deflated as the little guys and gals stumbled out of the tunnel and formed two lines between which the big Hawks would soon come. But they were having a hard time standing on the ice in the dark, and they were tripping on the aforementioned strobe lights. For a moment, I thought the trusses with the spotlights might be dragged to the ice, but things managed to get straigtened out enough to finally(!) introduce the team. Every. Single. Player. One. By. One.

The Hawks have gone to a 7:30 start time this year, but by now we were looking at 7:45. Then managing partner and president Jack Donovan came out with his vet friends and delivered some underwhelming paltitudes and easy cheer lines about the guys who fought for our freedom. Somwhere in there, the visiting Kelowna (B.C.) rockets came out in the dark, carefully avoided tripping over the rug, and took up their spots on the blue line. After the cermonial puck drop, we were treated to squeals of feedback obscuring the first several bars of Oh Canada, then “That Song the Girl Sings at the Hockey Game”, a.k.a. the Star Spangled Banner (so called by my 7 y.o. daughter). At our house the song ends “…and the home of the brave. Drop the puck!” The puck didn’t actually drop until 7:50.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m a big supporter of the team. And I’m patiently awaiting all the big changes promised by Donovan and company (new replay screens and Coliseum improvements chief among them). But they’ve been talking really big, and were really pumping up expectations. What we saw was a Coliseum virtually unchanged from last season (including the leftover kegs of beer by some accounts), a disappointing turn-out, and an overblown, over-long opening ceremony.

But hey, wait a minute! There was a hockey game, too! And it turns out the Winter Hawks showed some serious spunk against fellow cellar dwellars Kelowna. The final score was an impressive sounding 5-2. Veteran Hawks forward Nick Hotson came up just short of a hat trick, and not for lack of trying. Hawks also got goals from rookie Euro import Viktor Sjodin, veteran d-man Max Gordichuk, and an empty netter to cap things off by newly aquired over-ager Rob Klinkhammer. Klinkhammer, traded from Seattle for a future draft pick, aquitted himself pretty well except for giving Kelowna 3 of their 6 power plays, one of which led to one of their two goals. Gordichuk is back from wrist surgery and looking great. Sjodin looks like a keeper, and Hotson was playing the way we need all our vets to play.

Sunday night, I watched the first of the Winter Hawks TV games. They’re broadcasting 30 of their 36 home games on local cable this year, at the expense of cutting all radio. That works for me (road games are still going to have free Web-cast audio), but it’s really pissed off a lot of old timers. Anyway, we were told they were pulling out all the stops, and they were going to be “NHL quality”. Now, Himself believes one should not set expectations too high, lest one set oneself up for failure. To put it charitably, Sunday’s TV game was not NHL quality. We should probably just leave it at that. Oh, and it’s not going to be NHL-quality. Sorry Scooter and Andy. You guys do a great job, but the team isn’t spending the kind of money they’d need to spend to get NHL-quality telecasts (nor should they). The game was another win for Portland against another weak team, this time a record 12-round shoot out win against the Kamloops (B.C.) Blazers. Portland got regulation-time goals from Gordichuk and Klinkhammer, and rookie Tristan King won the shoot out. The official attendance was (ahem) 3023. Combined attendance of the two opening weekend games would be a respectable opening night turnout. But the new owners have “other priorities” besides selling tickets, so we’re all just supposed to be patient.

Speaking of color-guy Andy Kemper, he’s got his After the Whistle blog back online, only this time it’s a real blog with comments and all. Welcome back Andy! I’m going to put a link to his blog on this site one of these days.

Whew. So that’s the rundown of the local Major Junior hockey team.

The NHL season opened last night, and we were treated with a rematch between the Carolina Hurricanes and the team they eliminated before going to the Stanley Cup Final last year, the Buffalo Sabres. I only caught highlights, mostly looking for contributions from former Winter Hawk and local boy Paul Gaustad. Not such a great night for Paul, whose main contribution was a power play to Carolina on a holding call (either the replay didn’t show it, or the refs made a bad call). His second penalty, a brutal hit from behind into the boards, was negated when Carolina’s Eric Cole retaliated with his fists. Then, in the third, he took a stick to the face. Like I said, not such a good night for Paulie. I’m sure he’ll come around. And, by the way, that, my friends, was an NHL-quality broadcast.

The beer at the old Memorial Coliseum, that is, where the Portland Winter Hawks will play their home opener this Saturday. The natives are definitely restless over at the Oregon Live fan forum, with a handful so bitter about the killing of the radio deal they are convinced the new ownership group is bent on driving the franchise into the ground.

Never mind the piles of money they’re dumping into the old Coliseum and media marketing. The fact that this is a rebuilding year for the Hawks is somehow pinned on the new owners and their lack of savvy in marketing the team. At least by forum gadfly MrCS, who maintains that Donovan should have taken over on the condition that Hodge fire head coach Mike Williamson at the end of last year.

The fact is, Jack Donovan took over the business side of the team and left the hockey operations to long-time GM Ken Hodge. A prudent move, since he has no hockey experience. Even if he knew hockey, it wouldn’t make sense to walk right in and micromanage the hockey side. For the record, I am not a supporter of Mike Williamson. He’s a real nice guy, but he’s had his chance to do something with the Winter Hawks. But given that this is a rebuilding year (and would be under any management), with only a handful of returning vets (none of them proven scorers), it wouldn’t make much difference if Deputy Dog were head coach. We’d still be rebuilding, and an odds-on favorite to be the one team in the US division to miss the playoffs.

My bottom-line take: Win or lose, t’s still the best game in town. Even if it’s only on the visiting team, we’re going to see some first-rate hockey played by futre NHL stars in the classic Memorial Colisuem with tasty beer poured from freshly replaced lines, and eventually watching replays on the best replay screens in town. The new kids are going to be fun to watch develop, and a couple of them might have some surprises in store for us (Frazee, Sjodin, Langweider).

(By the way, in case you aren’t paying attention, the Hawks lost their first two games on the road 6-3 to Kamloops and 9-0 to Vancouver. Ouch.)

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these here Thursday Thirteen thingies. Actually, I’ve taken a couple weeks off blogging altogether due to real-life business and lack of inspiration. Then suddenly last week, I was hit with a burst of creative energy, and I threw together some new “More Hockey Less War” merchandise to try to support this blog (baby needs a new Web server!).

Last week, in honor of the 5th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, I considered doing “Thirteen Ways George W. Bush Has Made the WorldLess Safe” (e.g. legitimized the use of terror and torture as geo-political tools, provoked the Muslim world with brutal invasions and occupations of holy lands, bumbled into Al Qaeda’s trap of a “clash of civilizations”, green-lighted Israel’s brutal rape of Gaza and Lebanon, etc.). But I never got around to it.

Oh yeah, and I was going to blog about our day last weekend at the Country Jamboree. “Last chance to cowboy up this summer!” said the promotional materials. We got free tickies courtesy of a local hockey team, so we put the kids in their cowboy boots and headed out to the ampitheater for some local band that wouldn’t stop. We were hoping to catch the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, but they weren’t scheduled to play for several hours after we showed up. And there was no monster truck, as we had been led to believe there would be. And the promised NASCAR racing turned out to be little radio controled cars. So the kids frolicked on the lawn, and the wife enjoyed the cover tunes, and we all ate a bunch of crappy concession food and went home with tummy aches well before the national acts came on.

And this has me thinking about all the Wacky (and Not-So-Wacky) Things I’ve Done in the Off-season. With summer pretty much washing down the storm drains in Portland, it seems like a good time for a summer retrospective, so here’s what I did:

1. Went to the Country Jamboree. What were we thinking?

2. Went to the stock car races.

3. Drank far too many Mojitos, which led to many unproductive afternoons, and ultimately prompted Wacky Mommy to quit drinking. I’ve basically quit, too. Turns out that dinner out is at least 10 bucks cheaper when we don’t order drinks.

4. Went to a couple few minor league baseball games.

5. Got really agitated and upset about the conflagrations in the Middle East.

6. Took a month off from playing hockey.

7. Bought Wacky Girl a new bike for her seventh birthday, and helped her figure out how to ride without training wheels. What a trip to see your first born take flight like that. She’s been looking so tall and grown-up lately, but on her bike, all padded up and with her big helmet on, she just looks tiny.

8. Grew a great garden, with tons of beans, tomatoes, cukes, spaghetti squash, potatoes, Hungarian wax peppers, and chilis. And basil. And pumpkins that took over the front yard.

9. Put in a winter garden of broccoli and kale. The new plants are really enjoying the recent turn of weather (rain) we’ve been having.

10. Went to the beach a few times. New approach this year: day trips! It’s only a couple hours to get to Canon Beach from here, and you can spend the whole day on the beach and come back and still have half your weekend to drink Mojitos in the back yard.

11. Went camping (but only once). More next year. Kids loved it.

12. Went to Winter Hawks training camp to check out some of the new kids and get an early hockey fix. They’ve got some great young talent, but a lack of returning offensive power. It’s going to be a tough year for the Hawks, but we’ll still get to see some first rate hockey in town this season (even if it’s the visiting team).

13. Got a cell phone. Me. With a cell phone. Sheesh.

Okay, summer’s over, schools back in session, and hockey season is so close I can hardly stand it. Drop the puck already!

Man, this off-season has been looooong! What with war, war, and more war and with stick time at local rink jammed with pros running drills at one end and kids clogging up the other, I am absolutely jonesin’ for hockey. Since the pros are all back with their teams and the kids are back in school, I’ve been getting back on the ice for the lunch our scrimmage sessions (and boy am I out of shape).

The local junior B teams, the Jaguars and the Pioneers, started their seasons this past weekend. The local Canandian major junior team, the Portland Winter Hawks, have played a handful of pre-season games, and start their regular season on the road this weekend on the road. The home opener is September 30 against the Kelowna Rockets.

There’s some good news/bad news on the Winter Hawks front, as the new owners have announced a new media deal. The good news is that they’re going to televise most (if not all) home games and at least one away game. The bad news? No radio. This has got the old farts over at the forum totally up in arms. I think it’s too bad they couldn’t keep it on the air, but it just doesn’t make economic sense. And the TV deal is sure to bring in a lot more fans. Audio of all games will be web-cast.

The other good news is that they are putting replay screens back in the the old Memorial Coliseum, and they’re doing other upgrades there, to. The Coliseum is a beautiful old barn, built in 1960 in an architectural style way ahead of its time. It’s pretty run down, but with a little TLC, it will really shine. The Winter Hawks are playing all but 6 of their home games there this year (another bone of contention with some of the old farts). Last year, they played half of their home games in the much larger, much more modern Rose Garden, home of the NBA Portland Trail Blazers. I like the Colisuem, because it was built for hockey (the old professional Western Hockey League Portland Buckaroos), and it is a much more intimate venue (something like 10,000 seats for hockey, compared with something like 20,000 in the Rose Garden). Sure, it’s a little rough around the edges, but I kind of like that.

Oh, and hey, I designed a new t-shirt:

Drop The Puck!

So the Buffalo Sabres, with local boy Paul Gaustad, have been eliminated from the quest for Lord Stanley’s cup. Quite disappointing, but they put up a heck of a fight.

Gaustad grew up in Beaverton, and played youth hockey at Valley, my regular rink. He was there quite a bit last summer working on his skills.

Now, it’s nice that the TV guys have finally realized that even though he was born in Fargo, he’s really “from” Oregon. So last night, they talked about his “amazing story” (true, it is) about how he moved here when he was six and there was only one rink in the state. Huh? There are three hockey rinks in the Portland metro area alone (OK, one’s actually in Washington state), and there was one more when Paul was playing youth. Yeah, okay, Sherwood and Mt. View are pretty new, so maybe they weren’t available to him. But there are (and have been) other rinks in the state with youth hockey, e.g. Eugene. A minor point, true, but come on.

Anyway, now it’s Stanley time. Edmonton vs. Carolina. Got to root for Edmonton, even though there’s a former Portland Winter Hawks player (Glen Wesley) on the ‘Canes. Go Oilers!

What the fuck is a meme tag? Well, I’m not that into this blog thing, at least not enough to know. My lovely wife, Wacky Mommy, got “tagged” by Amalah, which means she’s supposed to list 6 weird things about herself, which she did. Then she went and tagged me. So, herewith, my weirdness in all its glory:

Read the rest of this entry »

The Tri-City Americans of the Western Hockey League are having Breast Cancer Awareness Night tonight when they play Everett. As part of the deal, the ice will be pink, as will the players’ skate laces and stick tape. (Other teams have done this type of thing in the past, including wearing pink jerseys.)

God I love hockey.

Our Winter Hawks, who have slipped to 4th place (out of five), play last-place Spokane tonight, and will try to break a six game losing streak.

WackyMommy asks if I enjoy her blog (I do) and said she wished I had an online diary for her to read.

So here’s what’s on my mind today.

Dip-stick Geo. W. Bush. David Corn has a good dissection of the SOTU address.

Water. Water. Everywhere. In the back of the “swamp mobile” due to a leaky tailgate seal (this was our ’97 Saturn wagon we just ditched).

In the walls and across the subfloor under our shower, thanks to a faulty plumbing job by a previous owner of our home. Insurance adjuster comes out Friday to tell us whether we’re covered. Long story short: if it’s from “gradual seepage” we’re fucked. Gradual seepage is betrayed by wet rot.

Nothing like living in western Oregon during one of the wettest winters on record. Hey, wait! The sun’s shining out there. Oops, now it’s gone.

To keep my mind off of Bush and water, let’s talk hockey. The Portland Winter Hawks (our local franchise of the Tier I Major Junior Western Hockey League) lost all 6 games on their longest road trip of the year. They have slipped to third place in the U.S. division of the Western conference. Shit, that’s depressing, too.

On a bright note, we’ve got tickets for their return to home ice this Saturday.

I took a slap shot to the knee during a pick-up game today. That kind of hurts.

So there you go. My new blog theme: More Hockey – Less War. Take that ya evil capitalist pigs! La de da de da isn’t blogging lots of fun.