Something on my Mind: Hockey Views and Hues

If this is early November, then we must be a few weeks into a brand-new NHL season. This is the third column I have written on hockey, and I also know there is another columnist who writes sports stuff, but, hey, I'm human, too, you know—and a Canadian human, to boot.

One of the iconic symbols of being a Canadian is his or her love for hockey, whatever form it takes. My form includes blathering about the game.

For the most part, things are falling into place, in terms of winning and losing, scoring and saving, and the usual death watch on which coach will lose his head, er, job first.

The one rare exception (at this point of writing) is the Edmonton Oilers: They're winning and winning well. Good on them. I can't bring myself to make a comment about the Canucks. They started so well and now they look like, well, the Canucks. Maybe Desjardin will be the first coach to be given his head on a platter..

As much as I like the Canucks, I am still a fan of the New York Islanders and Minnesota Wild. This is not to say that they will come out of the East and West, respectively, and battle for Lord Stanley's Thing. I just happen to like both teams.

And then there's the "exciting" news about the brand-new Las Vegas franchise. They will be needing a team name, logo, and colours. I feel it is my moral duty to help with the process, so I will help the powers-that-be with some suggestions—assuming they are reading this column.

For a name, it's going to be hard to be original. What with dozens upon dozens of professional teams out there, there's bound to be some duplication. However, I understand from my sources that they are working with something with the word "hawks" in it.

Let's see: "Night Hawk," "Desert Hawk," even just "Hawk." It can't be Blackhawk (Chicago) and should not look like it's named after anything to do with a so-called First Nation. They're pretty touchy about teams with Indian names. So that rules out the Las Vegas "Tomahawks" I guess.

Either way, I can't resist the quip "hawkey" club somewhere. (Yes, thank you: I thought that was quite witty, too.)

I'll pass on the logo until I know that name. However, if those same powers-that-be are still with me, the hawk could have a hawkey stick (sorry) in its beak or claws, not unlike the San Jose Sharks shark having one in its mouth.

Now on to colours. Here is a list of what colours they can't choose: red, blue, or black. With a palette of so many colours and so many shades within those colour schemes, I cannot believe how many teams have red, blue, or black (count them up yourself).

For that matter, here's a trivia question: How many teams have some shade of yellow (the next most common colour) on their jerseys?

I humbly (okay, maybe I'm not all that humble) urge the Las Vegas team to develop a mix of burgundy and gold. Only Colorado has some burgundy and no team has gold, though there are degrees of yellow on some teams (and I believe "seven" is the answer to to the trivia question).

Burgundy is a distant cousin to red, but different enough to be distinctive. Most teams have an intriguing mix of two to three colours, plus the home white, so maybe a shade of brown could be a fit.

Or perhaps just green and white would satisfy me, green being the colour of money and "Lost Wages" (Los Vegas—get it, Maurice?) being the city that takes peoples' (green) money all the time.

Oh, by the way, I did have another name for the team, but it doesn't include the word "hawk." It does conjure up the sense of strength, power, toughness, and machismo. You probably thought of it already, and I thank you:

The Las Vegas Craigs. C-r-a-i-g-s, as in the name of the writer of this column.

And the logo could be this really swell dud, er, dude, with a hockey stick cracked in two over his bald head., missing a few teeth, with a dishevelled look about him—kind of like me first thing in the morning.

Either way, the idea would be a crapshoot—but isn't that was Las Vegas is all about?

Something on my Mind: The Big Business of Hockey

Let's face it: Hockey is big business and big business is good for any economy. There are exceptions to this rule, but they are few and far between.

Considering the role that the NHL has here in Alberta, we have ample evidence of the financial benefits of hockey Even though I take good-natured shots at the Calgary Flames franchise, I see them as a great example of the beneficial role the hockey business plays in a provincial economy.

While my loyalties will always be with the Vancouver Canucks, my greater loyalties are with all NHL-based teams when it comes to the positive business influence each team has. On that basis, I root for every NHL team.

Money, of course, was the main reason that Las Vegas was granted a franchise for the 2017-2018 season. If it was based on culture or tradition or even fan base, Saskatoon or Quebec City would have won out.

On the other hand, the franchise in Phoenix is a classic example of a business call by Commissioner Bettman that went wrong. While I think it is slowly recovering, how many millions of dollars have been wasted on that franchise over the decades? And let's not talk about Atlanta, now zero for two in missed opportunities.

The benefits of a professional (and amateur) hockey franchise in any given city is direct and immediate. Take the outside benefit: parking, accommodations, travel, and meals. Multiply that figure by how many fans attend each game, then multiply that figure by forty-one home games.

Do the math. The beneficial role is astounding!

Moving from the outside, let's look inside the rink. Consider the cost of tickets, food, and souvenirs—again, multiplied by the number of spectators, and multiplied further by the number of games per year. Granted, not all spectators blow their money on junk inside the rink (tickets, notwithstanding), but you get the sense there's a lot of money floating around.

Beyond the immediate area ,the spin-off effect is good in the general trading area, though not as good as near the core. Using Calgary as an example, Red Deer or Camrose will definitely benefit from NHL hockey to some extent.

On a personal note, I can take in a Hurricanes game for $15, and my co-fan (not a word, Maurice) picks up the tab for the fancy coffee. I'll put a few dollars in for gas, maybe grab another coffee or burger on the way home. It's a good feeling: having fun and helping the economy at the same time.

Back to hockey in the big leagues: Think of all the goods and services, the jobs, the gas and food, hotel revenue that's generated. These are provided to make the game work, and are all good for the economy.

Even something as monumental as the new arena in downtown Edmonton is a wonderful example. Yes, it's not on-going in the sense that money is always being generated on a game-by-game basis, but the building stage, and now the booking stage are huge. Drawing more people into the downtown core is very fashionable these days—and lucrative, for that matter.

Big business takes many hits these days, especially within a socialist environment that has very weak economic principles. While no one wants to water down the product on the ice, community leaders and hockey leaders need to work together to make everything, well, work together better.

The "Calgary Now" project, is great example in many ways of what I'm taking about. If nothing else, the city and the province should throw some funding towards that proposal.

When I was in Kamloops years ago, there was such serious resistance to moving the Blazers from a dumpy 2,000-seat barn to a (then) state-of-the-art arena that they now have. The shift has revitalized the downtown core. The economic benefits have been immeasurable.

There is a place in a Canadian context for hockey and business. And when they combine as Peter Maher would say, "You can put it in the win (-win) column."

Something on my Mind: Hockey Night in Our Canada

By the time you read this, Canada's national winter sport (represented, in part, by the National Hockey League), will be in full swing. Most of Canada's hockey addiction goes well beyond boy millionaires skating with a piece of wood between their hands, chasing a rubber puck-thing, but it's a good place to start.

Hockey season, in this configuration, generally runs from early October through to the end of June, from training camp to the end of the Stanley Cup playoffs—then on to the start of free agency. Is it me, or is the season getting longer and longer?

The start-up of the hockey season is very much like the first day or week of school: fresh start, high hopes, and strong motivation. And then with the hockey players, there is always that chance to kiss Lord Stanley's mug—the cup, of course, not his face.

It is hard to see the NHL as a reflection of Canada's national winter sport any longer, when so many

of the teams are made up of more than just Canadians. There are seemingly just as many Americans and Europeans as there are Canadians playing. The first five picks in the draft of 2016 is a case in point.

I even heard that an Australian was trying to make one of the teams this year. Word has it that every time he threw his stick away it kept on coming back.

I was not raised with television, so watching Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday night was not a weekly ritual for me. I wish it had been, but somehow I survived to write about it. However, as an indirect result, I will watch any game I can get my eyes on. That could even include a Flames-Blue Jackets game

I have never played ice hockey, though I can hold my own when it comes to floorhockey and table hockey, if that's worth anything. I am more of a fan of the sport than anything else.

Owing to where I live, I support the Lethbridge Hurricanes over these past few years. When I first started following them, they were the WHL's version of the Calgary Flames. It's been fascinating to see their mercurial rise to the top in just two short years. Now if we could just clone their success and inject the Vancouver Canucks with it...

As I have stated before in this space, if I were involved in hockey at any level, it would be in management of some sort, possibly as an assistant general manager. I may not be good at passing the puck, but I think I would be good at passing the buck.

One thing that alarms me, though, is the excessive salaries many of these players—especially the young ones—are getting. I know they're not earning as much as baseball or basketball players, but it's too much for their own good.

There is no better time than now to be a professional hockey player. And no one is denying that they should take whatever they can whenever they can. Most players have a short shelf life (ie., play for only a few years), unless your name rhymes with Doan or Jagr.

Salary excesses notwithstanding, like every red-blooded Canadian, I love this game. It is the greatest sport on earth. And it has Canadiana written all over it. It strikes that over the years kids from many nooks and crannies throughout the Dominion have ended up in professional hockey, at one level or another. That's something we can't say about any other professional sport.

Like the first day of school, hockey players start on the same page (= even in the standings), there's no real playground bully...yet (= enforcer), there are regular breaks (= intermissions), and everyone is planning to move on to the next grade (= make the playoffs).

However, the comparison falls a little short in one definite area: One set of "students" is a whole lot richer than the other.

Something on my Mind: Thanksgiving Day(s)

This column comes a day after the big day (Maurice, that means today is Tuesday and yesterday, Monday, was Thanksgiving.  I could have penned, er, keyboarded, this last week, but a day late is probably more appropriate than six days early.

That only in occasional columns, of course. In life, early is always better.

I could come up with the usual jokes about stuffed turkeys (birds and otherwise), but I shan’t. Or I could attempt to explain the real reason for Thanksgiving. That’s it’s historical, cultural, and biblical basis, but it could come across as narrow-minded and parochial. We’ll have none of that, in these politically-correct, race-baiting, revisionist times, will we?

I love Thanksgiving, but probably for all the wrong reasons. I do love it for the right reasons, too, but sometimes my stomach has more say in the matter than my head.

As you may know, we raise our own turkeys and there nothing (as in N-O-T-H-I-N-G) like free- range, farm-fresh turkeys for dinner.. We have enjoyed this pleasure for years. We know where they’re coming from, what’s in them (and what’s not), and, oh right, they tastes really good.

I also like the thanksgiving season—the colours, the timing, the food (probably in that order). There’s nothing like the changing leaves, the nip in the air, and that serene period between summer’s labour and winter’s inconvenience.

Have you ever wondered why we celebrate Thanksgiving in early October and why that huge province to the south of us (America, Maurice, America) celebrates it in late November? I like our timing better: And for those who enjoy their stat holidays, early October is evenly spaced between Labour Day and Remembrance Day, with Christmas holidays tagging along a few weeks later.

I have a pretty good grasp as to why the American Thanksgiving came about, as well as ours. Among other factors, it has a religious basis, which, of course, has been removed from our pluralistic reference books.

Thanksgiving, (the act of versus the holiday), is also a good quality. One who is grateful, thankful, and appreciative (yes, these are synonyms; I use them for emphasis) is a well-adjusted, happy person.

Unfortunately, the inverse is true.

The pursuit of entitlement, individual rights, and fairness, is not wise. That perspective produces the spirit of crankiness. Thus, where privileges are expected then demanded, thanksgiving (and Thanksgiving) just doesn’t happen.

These often have come from two extreme perspectives: One involves the easy way (too few hardships, too much affluence); the other one comes the hard way (broken homes and many other related deprivations). Somehow there is this goofy notion that we deserve the same rights and privileges as everyone else; they we want to start where the previous generation finished off.

A bit of a generalization, to be sure. You’ll notice where I am including my generation in the blame game, too. There seems to be little commitment of working our way up from the bottom—like our parents did.

Somewhere along the way we we have imbibed the fallacy that we have unalienable rights in money matters and housing options, in employment, and possessions. Not so: Maybe we have to start small, with little to our name, and grow from there.

We teach our children to say “please” and “thank you”—and trust that a spirit of gratefulness is caught. Even if the words aren’t spoken, hopefully they develop the right attitude. I am as guilty as the next person for not thanking those who put themselves out for me—wife, kids, all authorities, just starters .

We need to be more grateful for what we have, what we don’t have, and everything in between.

So, let’s make everyday a thanksgiving (and Thanksgiving) day. Mind you, if you’re a turkey (double meaning there, Maurice), that may not go over too well.