News you need to get through the day …
A few thoughts for the final Saturday morning of 2017. Happy New Year all ….
GREAT DAYS
As you’ve surely — hopefully — heard by now, three Hamilton-area women have been named to Canada’s Olympic hockey team.
This area has now had a player on every Olympic team. Becky Kellar — from Burlington via Hagersville — played in 1998, 2002, 2006 and 2010. Laura Fortino was on the team in 2014.
Now Fortino, Renata Fast and Sarah Nurse will all be part of the 2018 team.
TOUGH DAYS
Great as the news was for those women, the most-difficult spot in the country on Friday when the team was named might’ve been the Potomak house in B.C.
Both Sarah and Amy Potomak made it to the centralization camp, two of 28 players that had to be whittled to 23.
Sarah was one of the final three cuts. Her sister, Amy, was cut a month ago.
TOO MUCH OF EVERYTHING
On a list of bad ideas, an outdoor game for the World Junior Championship is right up there alongside do-it-yourself home lobotomy kits, a Milli Vanilli comeback tour and beef jerky underwear (this really exists, it’s called Brief Jerky).
Outdoor games in general have been done to death and their best-before date is long expired. An outdoor game in a polar vortex with bursts of heavy lake-effect snow that could significantly impact the outcome of a world tournament with ticket prices reaching as high as $156 is just ludicrous.
DRAKE DRECK
The new fourth or fifth Raptors’ jerseys — who can keep track? — that were released on the NBA’s European website are in Drake black and gold with NORTH emblazoned across the front instead of the team or city name. They are butt ugly.
But it’s not just the awful design. It’s the volume. This team now has white-based uniforms with red and black trim, red-based uniforms with white and black trim, black-based uniforms with white and red trim, original purple and white uniforms, super-throwback Toronto Huskies blue and white uniforms, red and white uniforms with Chinese lettering for Chinese New Year, and now black and gold uniforms. Maybe more.
But it’s not about selling merchandise, right?
SIZE MATTERS
You’ve heard of fighters missing weight by a pound of two, then immediately going to the sauna or the gym to sweat it off. Not sure that was going to work for MMA fighter Gabi Garcia. Prior to a bout scheduled for Thursday in Japan, she came in slightly over the allotted weight limit.
Twenty eight pounds over.
THE BOUCHER SWOON
Seems to be a bit of a pattern developing with Ottawa Senators’ coach Guy Boucher.
When he was head coach of Tampa Bay he had a terrific first season in which the Lightning made it to the third round of the playoffs. His second year was a disaster with the Bolts missing the playoffs.
He then went to Europe where he coached Bern to the second round of the playoffs in his first season. Year Two there saw the team stumble to a 10-12 record.
Now in Ottawa, he led the Senators to the third round in his first year. This season? They’re third-last in the league and won’t make the post-season.
STILL PUTTIN’ ON THE FOIL
Two sports movies coming out in 2018 look like must-see.
“I, Tonya” about the Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan story leading up to the 1994 Winter Olympics has promise. As does “Thrilla In Manila.” about the 1975 Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier fight.
Still, pretty confident neither will be as good as “Slap Shot” — the greatest sports movie ever made — which celebrated its 40th anniversary this year.
XFL II?
Reports say Vince McMahon is seriously working on bringing back the XFL.
Could it work in its second iteration? If you watched the “30-for-30” episode about the league, you’d realize parts of what it did were simply way ahead of its time back in 2001, and later adopted by other leagues. But the football itself was bad.
So, the question is, nearly two decades later do people now want great football or great entertainment, hype and production values?
WHAT, NO BLOW TORCH?
There is a seven-pound, four-and-a-half-inch-wide Swiss Army Knife for sale on Amazon. It has 87 implements, including a chisel-point reamer, a tire tread gauge, a telescopic pointer, a cupped cigar cutter, a shoe-spike wrench and a snap shackle. Honestly, I don’t even know what all those things are. Doesn’t matter. What does is that it costs $9,999. The one tool it’s missing? Whatever device it is you need to help the Cleveland Browns win a game.
sradley@thespec.com 905-526-2440 | @radleyatthespec Spectator columnist Scott Radley hosts The Scott Radley Show weeknights from 6-8 on 900CHML