NHL

With the season officially saved, the NHL's next order of business is making some actual money for its players and owners. For the fans, we all sit and wait to see what we do in response to 112 days of "eff you, fans. We don't need you" from just about everybody involved. I predict they say a lot of kind words about the fans and nothing more. At Least that would be a step up from how they've been treating us for the last 3 months or so, which was when they pretended that we didn't exist. Like coworkers ignoring their boss, and their work, while arguing over how they're going to spend their salaries for the next decade.

I predict that we will see minimal reactions from fans, arena workers and media as well. People will talk about being mad, but after a few weeks we will all crawl back to the slop bucket for another taste of our addiction. We love hockey and, in the end, we don't really care too much about it loving us back.

So, like any other vice, if you want to do something about purging yourself from it, or at least minimizing your dependence on it, you must actually get up off of your couch and do something about it.

For me, I want to commit myself to not buying anything that gives money to the players and the owners. I'll be reasonable and try to keep this up for at least the entire shortened season. That means no ticket buying, no merchandise, and no special tv packages. Other than that, I can watch the games on tv and even head out to the fine establishments that show the games.

I know that this mini-protest isn't really that much of anything significant in the big scheme of things, but for me, it's a small step towards justice and what i would consider an important reminder to myself. Which would be that if these greedy people are going to stop playing hockey every 6 or 7 years to argue over billions of dollars, then at least they won't be arguing over anything I've given them.

Maybe the next time they decide to stop playing I can find something else to do and drop the whole hobby altogether and pick up something awesome, like curling.

The awesome thing, really, though it hurts to say, would be if I don't go to another NHL game for a good, long time.

3 on 3 hockey at Min Da

Part 4 in the ongoing "Hockey in China" series.

Well, this time I don't have too many photos, but i have a few funny things to mention about the 2nd time I got together with a gym class at the University to play street hockey.

First of all, 'hockey' in Chinese is 冰球 (bing qiu), which literally means 'ice ball'.  So, when I try to tell people what we are doing, I say something like 路上冰球 (lu shang bing qiu), which would mean 'ice ball on the street'.  Of course, there is no ice, but at least we have a ball and a street.  I asked the student from Inner Mongolia what he would call the sport we were playing and he said that he simply did not know.  So it is without surprise that, while a group of Chinese girls walked by, 2 of them shouted out 'zhe shi shen me?' which means 'what is this?'.  Yes, what is this, indeed?

Well, we ended up playing a 3 on 3 game with me as the goalie for both teams.  It went really well.  The coach, who has some hockey knowledge, preached passing and teamwork (always a good way to go) and things were really fun.  I loved it!  I might have been smiling too much, but it was fun.  One guy kept raising his back-hands into my chest and saying sorry for it.  I told him no problem, and in fact, great shot!

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I must pause to say that Coach Jia is the University coach that helps me.  He is Tibetan and I have known him for at least 5 years, since we play basketball a lot and he is the coach.  He is a lovely man, but also quite crazy.  There is just something goofy about him.  While we were playing he noticed that a young man, maybe 25, was trying to get his attention from the end of the parking lot.  So, we stopped and the man came forward.  The following was their conversation, translated for your convenience:

"Can I help you?" said coach Jia

"I'm looking for a sports coach from this University."  replied the man.

"Oh, what's his name?"

"Ming Ji Suo"

"What?"

"Ming Ji Suo."

"Oh, oh no, he's... he's... (raises hands together to his head like a laying it on a pillow) he's in Heaven.  He went to Heaven."

"No, that can't be."

"Yes, this is not something to joke about.  He is in Heaven.  Where have you been?!  Have you been gone for a year?"

"No."

"He's dead.  He died."

At this point you could see that the young man was stricken with confusion.  He looked around at us, we all just stared back at him.  Then he looked up down the road to where, as it turns out, his father was standing.

"What?"  Yelled the father.

The son ignored him.  "It can't be him."

"No, he's dead." The coach confirmed.

After a few moments of awkwardness of us all just standing around, the coach asked the unthinkable:

"Wait, what's his name again?"

The man answered. "Ming Ji Suo."

"Oh, oh, oh, oh.  Ming Ji Suo?  I thought you said Ming Ji Guang.  Ming Ji Suo is at the other campus, just 2 bus stops down."

Holy crap!  Half of the guys laughed.  I couldn't believe it.  The confused man asked for more specific directions and then went on his way.

The thing is that he wasn't joking.  He really didn't hear the guy right.  How you go on telling a guy that his friend is dead without being absolutely sure that you've got the right guy is beyond me.  It was insane.


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After reading my hockey blogs, my friend here in town told me that she had a hockey stick for me.  I really didn't know what to expect, but I was very excited and grateful to get any sort of hockey stick.  Well, here it is:

Kazakh stick; maybe NHLer Nik Antropov used this when he was a kid

It's from Kazakhstan.  She used to live there and it is actually from before the fall of the Soviet Union.  It's a little piece of Eastern Europe hockey history, and I can't bring myself to use it (it's also very small) so I hung it on the wall.  Pretty cool, right?

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Finally, this week I undertake making goalie pads.  I went down to a little shop that makes foam mattresses and got the lady to make these beauties:

Cushions for goal pads.

It cost me 60 RMB, or about 10 bucks.  When I was little I always thought that the arm cushions on our couch would make great goalie pads.  Now, the dream is coming true!  I asked for no zippers, because I don't think I'll need them, but she put them on anyways so maybe it will be a good idea to wash the covers once in a while.  I am going to go out tomorrow to look for some buckles for them and I will probably use duct take to form them into pads.  As usual, I will let you know how it goes.

Hockey Afternoons in Western China

Here I am.  I am in the middle of China.  I am surrounded by Chinese people and Chinese things.  Yesterday night I saw a man try to fill up the tire of his Volkswagen with a bike pump.  He chose a speedy method, up and down really fast, but I knew that it wouldn't work.  Strawberries can be bought on the street, a long with puffed rice and milk being scooped out of an old, dirty iced tea bottle.  Although it only takes one idiot to kill a pedestrian, I must comment on the fact that the traffic light in front of our complex is getting more attention these days; cars are actually stopping at it.

Yes, here in China you mix the good with the bad.  No matter how much a guy like me tries to blend in with things, I will always be a tall, bald, white guy from Canada.

One of the ways people have figured out how to live here is to do stuff that they are familiar with.  We now have coffee shops and pizza and Thai food.  It's the little things such as these that help Westerners like me enjoy a little break every once in awhile from my imaginary life as a Chinese person.

All that to say, ladies and gentlemen, we now have street hockey!  A few years ago I tried to get hockey going and it kind of worked for a bit, but after the sticks started breaking and the interested people started leaving town, the early morning street hockey games died out.

At the first session.  Photo by D_Hendersen

These days, I have what everyone needs... a man on the inside.  My man is the basketball coach at the University I used to go to.  He saw me carrying some of my home-made hockey sticks down the road and stopped me in my tracks.  He grabbed a stick and moved around the sidewalk, sliding this way and that, and finally taking an imaginary shot at the bus stop.  He asked if we could play sometime.  I said pretty please.  Fast forward a few months and here we are.

I am now teaching street hockey every Tuesday afternoon at the University.  Last week was the first week.  We had 6 sticks, a tennis ball and 2 pylons for a goal.  6 guys showed up, representing 5 different minority groups!  It was quite a diverse group.  Yet, I know that after a few more weeks we will all share the same language... the language of love... the language of Hockey!

After our first class I knew that I needed to build a net.  So, I scavenged the Internet and found out that people make nets out of PVC pipe all day long!  So, I got some pipe and made a net.  It's a little wobbly, but it will work.  Next week I will have some foam cut to make into goalie pads.  My father-in-law is sending out some more stick blades and street hockey balls.  Things are happening.

Of course, what I would really like is real equipment.  I plan on writing in to a few companies to see if we can get some donated.  Basically, I am in a town completely ignorant on hockey.  Supporting this cause would go a long way in supporting hockey in China.

In fact, the coach told me that they used to play ice hockey down by the river on the fishing ponds.  Seriously.  He said that they started in the 1960s, but eventually all of the equipment broke and since getting hockey equipment out here is nearly impossible (it's expensive and hard to find even on the Internet) the games they were playing eventually died out.  What an opportunity we have to bring it back!

It's all quite romantic, really.  This dusty, forgotten town out on the Tibetan Plateau, full of soccer and basketball players, introduced to the sport that their hearts have loved all along without them knowing it.  The sport of dreamers.  The sport of hockey.

As of now, China's hockey team is ranked #39 in the world, just behind New Zealand.  Ladies and Gentlemen, together with me, you are about to take the first step on the way up to at least #36.  Can we make that our goal?  Together?  Dreaming?  Me and you?

During our first class the coach pointed out that hockey is great for your heart.  All that running around, with the sun shining down, is very good for you.  I agreed, being out here away from my culture, hockey is very, very good for my heart.

So, this week, with the NHL season winding down, I will be posting about the new Spring hockey class starting up here in Xining.  I'll take you through the steps that it takes to make hockey happen here in China, from collecting the supplies, to whittling away at wood to make the sticks, to walking out onto the basketball courts and asking people to play.

Stay tuned.

The Final Verdict.- The Hockey Song(s)

After a lot of confusion, indecision, and maybe even fear mongering, Canadian fans can finally sit back and watch hockey. And I'm not talking about the actual game, I'm talking about the intro songs for both the CBC and TSN.

The facts are a little hazy, but from my understanding it went something like this:

Lady writes song, "leases" to the CBC.

"Lease" runs out.

Lady wants more money/ CBC wants more of the song on the cheap. Who Knows?

Lady says no and walks away to TSN/ CBC says no and gives it back to the lady.

CBC has a contest for a new song.

Alberta Teacher wins.

In the end, TSN remade the song and launched it this past week on its "NHL on TSN" broadcast. CBC went along with the teacher's winning song for it's "Hockey Night in Canada" coverage.

Now, the main thing I was looking forward to was the final product, on both sides. Earlier this week I had a chance to go to Youtube and watch the new Hockey Introductions for both the CBC and TSN. I really wanted to see how it all turned out. I was pretty confident that TSN's theme would steal my heart because of the history and awesomeness of the original song. Yet I was also curious to see what the CBC would end up doing. Judge for yourselves:

New CBC "Hockey Night in Canada" intro

New TSN "NHL on TSN" intro



Wow, could that TSN theme video be any worse! I can't believe how boring it was to watch. Were those players even real players or were they computer generated? And no crowd noise? Actually, there wasn't even a crowd in the arena. I don't think I could have imagined a worse video. They totally and completey relied on the legend of the song. The song is good, but after watching this, its clear that the CBC's old videos had just as much to do with tradition as the song, even after changing them multiple times over the years. Shame on TSN for shooting a blank on the video. You pay for the song and then ruin it with the video.

Meanwhile, the CBC lays down an instantly classic video. I'm not a big fan of the new song, but it has promise and the video makers at CBC tied it all togther like Pros. The biggest shock I had after watching this video was that I completely forgot about how much I love the "old" song. It was as though the 2 videos switched places and the CBC was actually the classic/beloved song while TSN's was just another publicity stunt.

In any event, its all over now. We can all keep on loving the classic "hockey theme", but I think that, with TSN, it lost a lot of its sparkle. In my opinion, CBC is still the place for classic/traditional/authentic hockey coverage.

But I live in China, so what do I know?


***EDIT***
I thought that this was the new CBC intro:

CBC intro

Confusing, to say the least. Both CBC videos are miles ahead of TSN's. But for the record, this intro is the champion in my book... but do they still use it?

ps. This video also rules:

Opening Night Intro

New NHL Season: The Good, the Bad, and the Coffey

Coffee and Coffey are both tasty and compelling

Top 10 things to look forward to:

1. the prospect of Peter Fosberg’s career being over… dead, buried, in the ground with fresh flowers laid across the gravestone.

2. 2008-2009 World Championship Yahoo! Fantasy Hockey League! (only 1 spot left!)

3. Patrice Bergeron back in action after almost a year. If you don’t remember, he got his head rammed into the boards. It was a dirty hit from a dirty player, a Philadelphia Flyer. Those guys were all over the ice last year; swinging sticks, slamming bodies from behind into the boards, whining, dishing out cheap shots. Not a pretty sight. Not really hockey at all.

4. Jarret Stoll suiting up for the LA Kings. This is interesting because Stoll is now a heck of a lot closer to his girlfriend, former wife of Rod Stewart! I am not kidding! Jarrett Stoll, 26, had been dating Rachel Hunter, 38, for about 2 years and in August they got engaged. Crazy!

"She is engaged. She's never been happier," said the rep, Mike Heller. "She has been with Jarret for a long time and everyone is thrilled for them. He was recently traded to the L.A. Kings, so it's a really exciting time in their life together. He is an amazing guy and she is an amazing girl – they're truly meant to be."

From small town Canada to LA and a superstar wife! Sound familiar? This is in the top 10 because it is really funny and, according to rep Mike Heller, Rachel Hunter has finally found the right 26 year old father for her 16 and 14 year old children. Go Jarret!

The life of a hockey player in California

5. 46 year old Chris Chelios suits up for his 25th NHL season. He first hit the ice with the Montreal Canadiens back in 1984, when I was 3 and a half years old! I don’t really like the guy that much, but he is the only player still around from the first days that I started watching hockey. A faint memory of him on the Canadiens seems to reside in my mind. When he’s done playing I will officially feel a lot older than I think I am now. I count down my life in hockey years.

6. When the season starts there will be less time for the temptation of looking at Eklund’s crappy hockey rumor blog.

7. Erik Cole is on the Oilers! I love this guy. Ever since he played in the finals with a broken neck I’ve loved him! He’s fast, strong, and likes to score goals. That’s pretty much what we want. My modest Erik Cole prediction: GP 79 G 32 A 38. Watch this move.

8. Something a friend of mine pointed out to me last season. Watching Pierre McGuire of TSN pronounce the names of NHL players, my friend noticed that he usually says the player’s full name. “Steven Staios”, “Daniel Heatley”, “Joseph Thornton”, “Christopher Pronger”. Actually, its quite a fun game to play and its quite refreshing after hearing so many annoying nick-names that fans seem to make up for every single player in the league. Go Pierre!

"Should I call you Sidney or Sidonio?"

9. Joni Pitkanen will wander around the ice for another team far away on the other side of the continent. I hope someone over there can help him figure some things out. Maybe he’s depressed.

10. The Oilers have a good team. There is a lot of depth in case of injuries and it seems like the playoff expectations are well deserved.

I can’t watch the games at all, but I can listen to them on the radio. This helps me to use my imagination. It’s always good to use your imagination, so that’s why this is the #1 thing to look forward to. Imaginations rule!


Top 10 Things to Avoid:

1. Avoid Swedes with green/clear eyes. The possibility that Peter Forsberg will return to play for the Flyers/Aves/Preds/ sometime around January or February makes me a little sick. A few shifts into his comeback and we’ll expect him to injure himself one last time. This, hopefully, will result in his retirement. The worst thing is that the media will talk about him before, during, and after all of the above happens.

2. Avoid the CBC. Though it does not affect me much at all, listening to the “hockey theme song” before games on TSN instead of CBC will break many hearts. Is it just me or does it seem that TSN is trying to monopolize the Canadian sports industry? It seems as though CBC is getting ready to die or something.

I have heard it said: “A TV station cannot live on re-runs of The Littlest Hobo and Road to Avonlea alone, but must be sustained by the traditions of pucks, toothless grins, and skates.” Wise words.





I hate to say it, but by now the Littlest Hobo is most certainly dead! Tomorrow's settling down came and went a long time ago. He had so many chances.





3. Avoid looking up Mike Comrie in People Magazine. He is reportedly still dating Hilary Duff. Some rumors even suggest that they are engaged. We Oiler fans remember all of the “interesting” controversy surrounding little Mikey. I find it funny that he continues to intrigue. She seems a little young for him. Isn’t she still on Disney? I guess not. Actually, good for Mike. I hope you grow a whole field of Comries.

4. Avoid Mats Sundin in your hockey pool, who, while I am writing this, is still “thinking” about his future. How long does it take for someone to figure out if they want to spend the rest of their life swinging a golf club or if they want to play professional hockey for one more year, while making a ridiculous amount of money?

“Make up your mind already! You are a great hockey player, but you don’t deserve all of this media attention. It is annoying to hear your agent say every couple of weeks that you are still “undecided”. You are hovering dangerously close to Forsberg territory. I am starting to not like you. Not as a hockey player but just for your decision making skills.”

UPDATE: after trashing the guy, I realized that he's on one of my fantasy teams!

5. Avoid Ryan Smyth. We must witness another awkward season with Ryan Smyth on the Colorado Avalanche. That was really awkward last season, wasn’t it? So awkward. If you see him at a party or some other function, walk to the other side of the room and sip your drink. You can stare back at him awkwardly, but don’t let him catch you doing it. Imagine if he did?! That would be awkward.

Sad, but also very awkward.

6. Stop thinking that Bertuzzi is finished. I don’t like the guy but he is a good hockey player and he makes less money than a lot of junk on a lot of other teams. I think he will light it up. This is not good for the Oilers, at all. My modest Bertuzzi prediction: GP 78 G 37 A 33. All that equals a pretty good deal for the Flames.

7. If they sell chicken wings at your hometown arena, you’re going to want to avoid them. They are too sticky and it is gross to imagine 10 000 fans with sticky chicken wing fingers. Yuck!

8. Avoid printing your own name on the back of your hometown jersey. Despite what you may think, the league will never have any players named “Gruggs” or “Horne” or “Platch”. If it ever does, it won’t be you!

9. Avoid wearing your home team’s jersey to anywhere but the game. Those jerseys are way too big for you to be taken seriously. I mean, they are meant to have a bunch of hockey equipment under them, not your thin, phuny, weak little body. They look too much like the nighties that women sometimes wear to bed. The only place that they actually look okay is on a professional hockey player’s body, or on a lot of people in one place. That place is the arena.

10. Avoid cheering for the Maple Leafs. They have a gazzilion dollars and with that they bought about 5 professional players and 18 minor leaguers pretending to be professionals, and some pucks. Probably nice pucks, but still.


And finally, Paul Coffey rules!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

I knew it would come to this.

As the cold air continues to choke the life out of another summer, I can’t help but get excited for the upcoming hockey season. Actually, the truth is, I’ve been taking looks at my favorite hockey websites (look to the left) every couple of days ever since the Red Wings hoisted the cup back in June. What was I looking for? What news did I expect to find? Not much, I guess. But every once in a while I found a tiny morsel or a small scrap of something lying on the floor of the hockey dining room. These sources of nutrients kept me alive all summer long, just barely, and now I can finally nurse myself back to health as the season is only a few weeks from dropping the puck on itself.

So, what to say? I live in China. Not much hockey going on over here. When I bring it up with the locals it usually takes a little bit of explaining for them to understand what I’m talking about. Hockey, in Chinese, is “Bing Qiu – 冰求”. The translation for that is “Ice Ball” so you know that, from the name, there is not much interest in the sport.

Yet every fall I actually set up a little bit of a schedule that allows me to listen to the Oiler games on the internet via 630 CHED radio station. I am very thankful for that. Live Oilers action at 7am with a cup of coffee and a few slices of toast is something one must get used to while living life over here.

Rumor has it that I might even be able to watch a few games this year. After openly criticizing TSN for quite a while (I wrote them a letter) I am actually quite thankful for them now. They have a Video on Demand section that enables people, like me, to watch entire CFL football games on the Internet. Though they aren’t live, it is often loaded only a few hours after the game ends. That is nice. I noticed an NHL section on there as well. I’m hoping that it will soon be full up with all kinds of hockey goodness.

Whenever I am needing to actually watch a hockey game and nothing is available on the internet, I always have my stash of Oiler games from “The Cup Run” on DVD. Thank you to my friend Phil for the DVDs!

Thus is my situation. Being one of the only Canadian men living in this city (there is another guy from Ontario, but he lets his son wear a Leafs jersey) I am usually left alone in a lot in my hockey conversations. The bulk of this void usually falls on my poor, yet understanding wife. The only other guys that can maintain a hockey conversation for more than 2 minutes are both from Texas and… well, you get the idea.

So, that is the background. Now I want to look into the future. What does it hold and how much of whatever it holds does it hold?

One of the answers to that is something called “fantasy sports”. Kind of sounds like a questionable activity, but I swear that it is actually quite respectable in some circles. The city in which I live, Xining, has a very large circle. To learn more about fantasy sports go here.

We stick to the basic food groups of fantasy sports: baseball and football. I follow along with the Americans. At first (3 years ago), I didn’t care much for either, but as the time went by baseball has actually turned out to be my favorite. Football is growing on me too.

But what about hockey?

Trying to find people for my fantasy hockey league is like trying to find some sort of ancient treasure. It’s a desert, nothing but sand and empty water canteens. One of the Texans signed up but that’s it.

Plan B? To search the free agent waters of facebook. So far, so good. It’s actually turning into quite a diverse league. People from Xining to California to Calgary to Edmonton to Montreal and all the way around to Eastern Europe. This league should be a lot of fun. 3 spots left. Let me know if you are interested.

On top of this league I am also apart of the Kateri Super League. This league is going into it’s 2nd season and things are looking really exciting there. Most of the teams in this league are either related to me or are related to or friends with the people that I’m related to.

So, if you were worried that Brett might be loosing interest in sports, fear not! Even though they may not be real sports, they are still real fantasy sports.

Stay tuned for the next hockey blog where I count down the top 10 things to look forward to and the bottom 10 things to avoid regarding the 08-09 NHL season.