Recently the Canadian Ball Hockey Association released its roster for the upcoming 2024 ISBHF World Championship being held in Visp, Switzerland, from June 21-29. And to virtually nobody's surprise, Timmins native Carley Blomberg was announced as part of the roster. Carley was selected as part of the defence corp for Team Canada "A" team at the Worlds.
The Timmins Sports Heritage Hall of Fame held its most recent induction ceremony this past weekend with a packed house in the J.P. Bickell room at the McIntyre Community Building. Guests from various areas of Canada and as far away as the USA were in attendance. And as always, the event was a heartfelt, emotional and celebratory day for all involved.
Frère Raymond Corbeil was presented with the inaugural Lou Battochio Friend of Sport Award. The nine other inductees were William Place, Wally Kapel, Gord Hansuld, Real Chevrefils, Kim Demers, Lisa Amsden, Jacques Belec, Danny Belisle, and Mark Bragagnolo. You can view their bios and see their plaques (which will now be prominently displayed in the Bickell room) as well as pictures from the event in detail at the Timmins Sports Heritage Hall of Fame Facebook page.
Oh ye of little faith! So the Oilers are down 2-0 in the Stanley Cup final. And already I have heard the cries of "It's such a deep hole to come back from." At all levels of hockey, you see teams go down 2-0 on the road, come home to tie it at 2-2, back on the road to end up down 3-2, back home to tie 3-3 and then the seventh game showdown where either team can end up victorious. Many, many of us have been in that situation more than once as players or coaches.
Florida's route to the cup is a little shorter than the Oilers is, but the Oilers are far from out of this series right now. A 1-1 split would have been nice, especially after their game one dominance, but if any team's offence can suddenly start to fire on all cylinders it's Edmonton. We are soon going to see if that happens.
One thing is for sure, Florida is getting timely scoring and superb efforts from it's ... lunch pail guys. Add that to Barkov and Bob's pivotal roles and the Panthers have a recipe for winning. I'm looking forward to the Oilers getting a huge boost in front of the home crowd and maybe a source of ignition offensively from their pail crew.
With 21 goalposts this playoffs, the Oilers could change their fortunes very quickly with a little more accuracy.
A bunch of us old washups were recently talking about the fact that we never had to pay anything to play hockey. And some of us who stayed active in the game relayed how we watched the game get more expensive with each and every year.
We had to find more and more inventive and clever ways to develop viable fundraisers for our teams and kids. And a lot of times that involved the kids being out in the community trying to sell stuff. But, with the exception of maybe teenagers, that no longer seems to be a viable option. It's a very different world. I need not tell any parent that.
So most of the fundraising falls to family or close friends to carry out. If you can help a kid participate in something they love, overlook the fact that the request is coming from an adult and remember that it really is coming from a kid. Whether it is sports, the arts, youth organizations or whatever ... community support is vital to keeping our kids active and involved in activities that are good for them.
Of course, there will always be kids whose parents can pay the freight and will not miss out on any extracurricular activities. But far too many kids miss out on opportunities due to the limited resources available to them. Those are the kids who need our support. Can a lot of organizations sharpen up and be more committed and efficient in fundraising? Of course they can. But it is a co-operative measure and after all isn't that what community is all about?
Later, skater.
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