EMPTY-NET HEARTACHE DASHED HOPES FOR RUSH
StarPhoenix sportswriters are looking back on their coverage highlights from 2017. Today, Kevin Mitchell reflects on the year that was.
FAVOURITE STORY
“Favourite” might not be the right word here, but I went to Moose Jaw and covered the last day, ever, in the history of a newsroom that was around more than a century. The shutting down of the Times-Herald hit me personally, given that I once worked there, so it was special to be there one more time.
And, to bring this around to sports, in its prime, that newspaper had the most comprehensive grassroots sports coverage of any publication I’ve seen in Canada. The sports scene won’t feel the same in Moose Jaw, with the daily paper vanished.
PLAY OF THE YEAR
What else?
The Saskatchewan Rush pull their goalie, while holding a one-goal lead, late in Game 2 of their National Lacrosse League championship clash with the Georgia Swarm.
It’s not a radical lacrosse strategy — the idea is to free up an extra player for a time-killing pass-and-run, but, well … Here’s what I wrote at the time. Saskatchewan’s Chris Corbeil couldn’t handle a bounced pass near mid-field. Two lightningquick Swarm passes later, while fans clutched their heads in horror, NLL scoring leader Lyle Thompson had a goalie-less net to shoot at. But there was his brother, Saskatchewan defender Jeremy Thompson, moving between the pipes and making a great save — only to have Joel White collect the rebound and fire it home with two seconds to play.
And in overtime, Lyle Thompson made an underhanded pass to brother Miles, who scored the winner, and turned the raucous throng into putty.
Final score: Georgia 15, Saskatchewan 14, and the Swarm sweep the best-of-three series two straight.
BEST QUOTES
“I got my injury report the other night, and I said to our physio, ‘when you play that soft, the chance of injury is pretty limited.’ So, we’re healthy.”
— Rush head coach Derek Keenan, a few days after his team’s 18-10 season-opening loss to Georgia.
“I’m a thousand per cent patient.”
— Blades owner Mike Priestner, after the team’s financial documents — which include fairly large annual deficits — were made public.
“I didn’t even know there was a second all-star team.”
— Blades goalie Logan Flodell, after making the WHL Eastern Conference second team.
“Pretty much everyone said ‘I guess you’re not repeating as sportsmanship player of the year,’ and they’re probably right, after that.”
— Saskatchewan Rush player Ben McIntosh, who was given a one-game suspension after a pre-season brawl with the Calgary Roughnecks. He won the NLL’s sportsmanship award the previous season.
“I’m no different than a pig in a barn. It’s my home and I’m comfortable there.”
— U of S Huskies men’s hockey coach Dave Adolph, on why he’ll miss rusty old Rutherford Rink, which is making way for a new facility next season.
“It’s like I lead a double life. Back home, it’s like you’re Clark Kent, just day-to-day, with a 9-to-5 job. Then on the weekends, you get to be a super hero every now and then.”
— Rush player Jeff Cornwall, who is a substitute high-school teacher back home in B.C.
“He couldn’t hit curve balls, but if you ever threw it straight down, he’d knock it eight miles. His arms were bigger than my leg.”
— Delisle’s Bev Bentley, on Gordie Howe’s baseball prowess. Bentley is the nephew of famed hockey players Max and Doug Bentley, and a pretty good goalie and baseball player back in the day.
“It’s not abnormal to see a little girl walk into any rink in Saskatoon with a hockey bag and a hockey stick. It makes me smile. It was a lot of tough go for me when I was that age, and it’s definitely not like that anymore.” — Hayley Wickenheiser, who retired this year after a glittering hockey career.
“It doesn’t matter who wins. All I know is at the end, I’ll be holding that trophy.”
— Deloris Thompson, who had three sons on the Georgia Swarm roster during last season’s NLL final, and one on the Saskatchewan Rush.
“When you win, you kind of sit around for a couple of months and it’s ‘Oh yeah, we’re the best and we’re great’ and you hear all these accolades — ‘I’m the greatest coach in the world.’ Well, now Eddie (Comeau) is the greatest coach in the world, so good on him. And I’m a dummy. There’s lots of hunger, that’s for sure.”
— Rush head coach and general Derek Keenan, reflecting during the off-season on a losing end to the 2017 campaign.
“When I wake up in the morning, when I go to bed, when I walk around during the day. I pretty much always know I played the game. The body tells me.”
— Longtime NHL player and former Saskatoon Blade Wendel Clark, on hockey’s long-term impact.
“It was a pretty straightforward decision. I’m not going to be using it. It’ll be a shell of a person that ultimately departs this planet, and whoever needs the component parts of that shell is welcome to it.”
— Former NHL enforcer Stu Grimson, on why he plans to donate his brain to science.
BEST COMEBACK
The Georgia Swarm. Game 2, NLL final. See “Play of the Year”.
I WISH I HAD SEEN
The first game ever played at now decommissioned Taylor Field. Oh, the stories that were made there ...
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT:
Two Saskatchewan women who made their mark on the sports world: Hayley Wickenheiser and Brianne Theisen-Eaton.
Both retired in January. Both inspired Saskatchewan girls, and showed them what’s possible with a hockey stick or a pair of track shoes.
GREATEST COMPETITOR
Hayley Wickenheiser. What a special, special hockey player, and what an impact on women’s hockey.
BEST NEWCOMER
Robotic football tackling dummies make their way into Saskatoon, thanks to the efforts of local philanthropist David Dube. They’re designed to reduce practice concussions by absorbing punishment that would otherwise be meted out on individual players. Plus, they’re fun to watch.
LOOKING FORWARD TO
Checking out the new, finished, arena complex on the U of S campus. Its creation is one of Saskatoon’s longest-running sports stories.