When the axe falls, it falls hard

Even if you’re in your first year of coaching junior hockey, when you lose 10 of 12 games in what was once considered a promising year, as the Junior A Crushers did prior to firing coach Mike Danton on Feb. 13, the axe is always hovering above you. The axe did fall on Danton and maybe that’s not fair to a first-year coach – they have to learn on the job, too, and they don’t come out of a box a finished product when they first join the coaching fraternity – but as we say here on the east coast, that’s the way she goes, boys. Onward the Crushers go, wherever the road might lead them. We do know the Crushers lead the league in penalties, have had a ridiculous amount of player suspensions (losing starting goaltender Andrew MacLeod to a six-game suspension after he got into a fight in the game against the Valley Wildcats on Monday was the last thing they needed), and that is something that has to be addressed, either by the new coach or the players themselves. Leading scorer Dallas Farrell also could be suspended for getting into a fight Monday, which would be another blow to their post-season aspirations. Things happen in the heat of the moment, but getting yourself suspended when you’re in a battle for the playoffs is not very smart, to be blunt about it. Right now, the Crushers are focused on salvaging their season and have seven games left on the schedule, if you include their Feb. 19 tilt in Truro against the Bearcats. All these games are big now. The players want a ticket to the post-season dance, and their fans want playoff hockey back at the Pictou County Wellness Centre after a twoyear absence. To their credit, the Crushers did turn themselves around in the days that followed Danton’s ouster, winning three straight games to give themselves a reasonable chance at making the playoffs. If they get in, they’d go in with a fresh slate and at this point, after a strange, up-anddown season, that’s all the Crushers could ask for: get in, go from there. The Pictou County Major ▪ Bantam Bombers showed up at the rink on Feb. 19 in the Annapolis Valley. Trouble is, the referees didn’t make an appearance. So, the Bombers had to travel all the way back to the Valley the next day to play the game. What I wonder is, why wasn’t the game forfeited in the Bombers’ favour? Isn’t it up to Valley, as the home team, to ensure that on-ice officials show up at the rink? You’d think so, anyway.

NON-SPORTS THOUGHTS OF THE WEEK

Indigenous protesters have ▪ shut down CN Rail in eastern Canada and much of Via Rail’s services across the country, over opposition to the Coastal GasLink pipeline project running through traditional territory out in British Columbia. There’s nothing wrong with a peaceful protest, but they’re interrupting how the country conducts business, which should not be allowed to happen. Naturally, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau doesn’t want to send in the RCMP to remove the illegal blockade, which shows yet again how strong his backbone isn’t.