QUEBEC SNUBBED AS HOST FOR HOCKEY DAY — AGAIN
CBC celebrations, now in 19th year, have never been held in this province
The Canadiens will host the Toronto Maple Leafs Saturday night and the game will be telecast across Canada on CBC as part of the annual Hockey Day in the Rest of Canada celebrations. This is the 19th Hockey Day and it marks the 19th time the host city for the event is not in Quebec. Nine of the 10 provinces and two of Canada’s three territories have served as the host for the event, which this year will be based in Swift Current, Sask. Ontario has hosted the event four times, beginning with the first Hockey Day in Toronto in 2000. This is Saskatchewan’s third kick at the can while Alberta, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland-Labrador and British Columbia have all hosted two events. It would be understandable if Quebec hadn’t played an important role in the history of hockey, but this is the epicentre of the Canadian experience. While the debate over the origins of the game is ongoing, Montreal has a strong claim as the birthplace of hockey. The other claimant is Windsor, N.S., which was accorded the honour of hosting the third Hockey Day in 2002. Stanley Cup? We all know that the Canadiens hold the record with 24 victories, but the province can claim ownership of 55 Stanley Cup victories. The Montreal Maroons won the Cup in 1926 and an assortment of teams — the Wanderers, the Montreal Hockey Club, the Shamrocks, the Victorias, the Canadiens and the Quebec Bulldogs — combined for 31 Cup wins in the pre-NHL era. Since the first Hockey Day, the organizers have steered away from the NHL and emphasized the grassroots, and that’s why Quebec City would be an ideal host. Think of it as a consolation prize for building the Vidéotron Centre and then being jerked around by the NHL. The city has served as the training ground for Jean Béliveau and Guy Lafleur, while Patrick Roy and Patrice Bergeron came out of the city’s minor-hockey programs. I’m not sure why Quebec has been snubbed. Maybe Don Cherry and Ron MacLean can’t stomach the idea of spending four days in Quebec. Maybe there’s an appeal to spending the weekend in Swift Current, which currently is under an extreme cold-weather warning. Whatever the reason, Quebec has reason to feel left out. Women get some exposure: Rogers has thrown the local market a bone by parachuting a reporter into Montreal to do some interviews during Saturday’s Canadian Women’s Hockey League game between Les Canadiennes and the Toronto Furies. Les Canadiennes are fighting for first place in the CWHL. They have 35 points after 23 games and are two points behind the first-place Calgary Inferno. The Montreal team features the CWHL’s top two scorers, Marie-Philip Poulin and Ann-Sophie Bettez. The Furies are a distant fifth in the standings and need a win to keep their playoff hopes alive. They are led by Olympians Natalie Spooner and Sarah Nurse. Game time is 2 p.m. at the Étienne-Desmarteau complex’s Caroline Ouellette rink, which was renamed in 2010 in honour of the Les Canadiennes coach. The arena is located at 3430 Bellechasse St. Kotkaniemi climbs in EA ratings: When EA Sports released its ratings for NHL19 in August, Canadiens rookie Jesperi Kotkaniemi was given a 66 rating and wasn’t among the top 10 rookies in the virtual world. But the 18-year-old Finn’s on-ice performance has been recognized by the gaming community and his current rating has risen to 81. Telling it like it is: Here’s the way Winnipeg coach Paul Maurice summed up Thursday’s 5-2 loss to the Canadiens: "You don’t have a game too often, fortunately, where the coach was no good, the players were no good, the food was no good. You just hope the plane works.” Losing streak continues for Schneider: The good news for New Jersey Devils goaltender Cory Schneider is that he looked good Thursday as he stopped 27 of 28 shots in his return from an abdominal strain that had sidelined him since Dec. 14. The bad news is that it wasn’t good enough to produce a win as the New York Islanders beat the Devils 2-1 in a shootout. Schneider, who is in the fourth season of a seven-year deal with an annual cap hit of US$6 million, hasn’t won a regular-season game since Dec. 27, 2017.