Gulp!
Parker must have been choked after his club fell 7-2 to the Tigers Monday night.
Was he upset at the officials or at his team?
Likely both.
It's times like this that it's extremely hard to blame just the team, because in essence you are pointing at yourself, so the referee's are always a good scape goat.
Let's be honest here...the Pats are simply outclassed by a far superior team in the Tigers.
Lets give the Pats a win in one of the next two home games, but to steal home ice advantage away from Willie Desjardins team is next to impossible.
Are the Tigers beatable?
Sure they are, but not with the type of team the Pats have assembled.
It will be interesting to see how many fans attend game three in Regina Wednesday night?
If it's anything like what the Pats did Monday night, many won't show up!
An ESPN writer has lifted the curtains on an article he did while visiting the Swift Current Broncos in late December.
The article focused on the 20th anniversary of the Broncos bus crash, and also looked at the damage Graham James inflicted on the team in the mid to late 80's.
To say the article was negative would be an understatement.
It points to the Broncos organization not doing enough to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the crash, and focused on the community turning a blind eye to the wrong doings of the former Bronco head coach.
I question several aspects of the article including an interview that was conducted with former Bronco Joe Sakic.
The quote that is used is "old fashioned reserve".
Sakic's comment is used in the context that the city's attitude about the bus tragedy is "old fashioned reserve".
That's the best quote the writer could get out of Joe Sakic?
You track down an NHL player for an interview on likely a topic he is very uncomfortable with and that's your 'gem' of a quote?
He is also quoted as saying "People in Swift Current aren't comfortable opening up".
What questioned was asked to get such a response?
Prior to the interview, the reporter was told Sakic didn't want to talk about the bus accident.
If that was the case, then why conduct the interview?
The writer describes former Broncos trainer Gord Hahn as "a world-weary, sad faced man".
Why don't you just kick him in the teeth first before conducting the interview?
I have gotten to know Hahn (Honda to his friends) over the years, and worked with him for several summers with the Parks Department with the City of Swift Current and thought he was a great guy.
He always says hi when I make a return trip to Swift Current, and I even had the privilege of golfing with him several times at the Elmwood Golf and Country Club.
A yes, he kicked my butt.
To be honest, who doesn't?
In the article Bronco forward Brady Leovold (pic on left) had some comments about how the Broncos are perceived/treated at the local high school and in the community that simply shouldn't have been said.
My question to the Broncos organization would be, were your players not briefed on this sports writer coming to town with the potential of him/her stirring the pot?
'Be guarded against this sports writer when questioned' should have been one of the first things expressed by the coaching staff when they gathered wind that an ESPN writer wanted to do a story on the team.
Like many organizations in the WHL a media savvy individual needs to have sessions with the players pertaining to media relations, with an emphasis being placed on what to and what not to say to a reporter who you don't know and simply can't trust.
And while the organization didn't exactly have editorial control, it should have been pointed out that if the writer was able to travel with the team and was given free access to the players, in return it should have been stipulated that the article feature them in somewhat of a positive light.
So the Broncos gave the writer free access, and get a slap in the face in return.
The article even talked about the Krugars being from the 'wrong side of town'.
They lived on the Southside of the city, near Fairview school!
I played hockey with Darren and Trevor Krugar and won a pee-wee provincial championships with them.
To say they were from the 'wrong side of town' is totally false.
The neighborhood nor the home the Kruger boys grew up in wasn't exactly Trump Towers, but it wasn't skid row like the article wants you to believe.
In retrospect, the Broncos organization should have done more in commemorating the 20th anniversary of the bus crash.
30 seconds of silence didn't cut it, and the fact that an ESPN reporter was on the scene taking down notes and critiquing the ceremony and the teams every move should have set off a light bulb inside the head of the Broncos marketing staff that things needed to be done right.
The sub par ceremony only gave the ESPN writer another log to throw on the all ready blazing inferno.
You can read the entire article at http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=swiftcurrent&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab1pos1
I've often heard the saying that 'bad press is better than no press at all', but it doesn't apply with this article.
The ESPN writer shows no mercy from the start until the very end, and makes me feel embarrassed for a community I was born and raised in.
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Cougars captain Eric Hunter broke his ankle in game two of the Cougars series with the Tips.
It only adds to the problem as the Cougars see themselves down 0-2 in the best of seven series to the top team during the regular season.
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So far 53 games have been played in this years W.H.L playoffs, with the home team winning 39 of those games.
That means the home team is winning 72% of the games so far in this years playoffs.
The only series so far that saw the road team dominate was in the opening round series between Regina and Swift Current where the road team won 5 of the 6 games in the series.
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Of the 8 teams that advanced to the second round of the W.H.L playoffs, seven of them were winners of game one.
The only team unable to advance the second round despite grabbing game #1 were the Red Deer Rebels, who fell in 7 games to Medicine Hat.
5 comments:
Regan,
This Gare Joyce article has started a storm across the league. It was scathing wasn't it? A lot of local people are upset, the Broncos are fuming. Gare had an all-access pass to the team granted by the team. He travelled with us, ate with us, was in team meetings and was accommodated in every way. He knew Leavold was a "problem child" and went right after him like a shark seeing blood. I never want to be that kind of reporter. Never.
More to this, we promoted the article on our hockey broadcast and even interviewed him. I had ho idea this was the direction he was headed in.
I feel used...
Hey guys,
Happy to join in but, I can't agree with your viewpoints. I realize you both (Regan and, Jon) were clsoely connected to the "Swift Current family", so I thought I would post the observations of a person who followed the tragedies but not as intimately as you or have lived it.
One thing I picked up from the article is the grief people have lived with for many years and, sometimes that grief never goes away. The grief from the bus accident is dealt with every time a team boards a bus, not knowing what lies on the road ahead. The grief from the Grahame James story is like a dagger going into the back of hockey itself, and while it is part of history, I feel there are too many loose ends because people don't want to talk about, let alone think about it. It was horrible, very deplorable but so much of it was rumor before Sheldon Kennedy exposed it. There are still unconfirmed rumors out there. They will stay that way and, the healing will take longer.
Overall, I thought it was a very good article, delving into items and, such that have never really been brought to light in any detail. These were shown in a different fashion than many WHL reporters would pursue because of their links to the hockey club. I doubt that he went into the research with an attitude of 'I'm going to get them'. I think the power of the writing and, the research lent a great deal to some of the anxieties when the article looked at the situation differently than we may have, had we done it.
For the life of me, I don't know what the team was expecting. If the Broncos wanted a P.R. piece they should have hired someone. You can't tell people what to write. I can sympathize with you on the negatives that surfaced but, you have to take the good with the bad. From a professional standpoint, I take issue with any team wanting to put a different spin on things than what the reality is. If that were the case, we'd be reporting only the wins and, not the losses.
The beauty of sports broadcast-journalism is the ability to report on, or follow the highs &, lows of individuals or teams. We've had that here in Kamloops for the past 3+ years with the missing money scandal. Everyone though the embarassment would gone when Maxine Patrick was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in a federal pen last August. This week it was revealed she has been out on parole after 7 months, and, is eligible for full parole in October. Sometimes the pain just refuses to go away. I don't have pain for the hockey club, as that who was was just stupidity using archaic accounting methods in modern times. The pity I have is for the hundreds of volunteers who liked poured hundreds of thousands of hours in helping the club become financially stable, only to hear 10 to 15 years after the fact that there was a thief disguised as a trusted employee. The bad taste just doesn't go away.
Sorry this is so long....but I guess there are always skeletons lingering in many closets--no just those in Swift Current.
On another note, was it just a co-incidence that this story was released aftedr the Broncos bowed out of the playoffs??
And Regan, keep up the good work on the blog.
Jon....what in the heck is your blog address. I'll add it to my favourites.
Bear in the 'Loops (where the million dollars is still missing :-)
Bear,
www.jonkeen.blogspot.com - since Regan has yet to return the favor in his links to me. haha.
It's good to get an outside viewpoint. I don't agree but that's fine. It's very National Enquirer-esk writing. It's well written from that standpoint.
Sorry Keener.
I'll give you a plug on my main page.
I will also respond to the Bears comments on tomorrow's blog.
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