Did I mention the Crushers need a win?

Since it’s Thursday, it’s time for the weekly ‘the Crushers really need a win’ discussion.

The Maritime Hockey League team has not recorded a win since Sept. 13, their seasonopener. For those of you scoring at home, that’s 35 days and 10 straight games in the loss column.

It’s not like they’ve been terrible: they’ve been in most of those games, held leads in almost all of them but haven’t been able close one out.

Luckily for them – or unlucky, depending on your perspective they’ve managed to push enough games into overtime that they’ve been able to scrounge some points here and there, and have stayed within sight of the South Shore Lumberjacks, who occupy the final playoff spot in the South Division. (You really don’t want to be worrying about the playoffs with four months left in the season, but sometimes you have to, and this might be one of those times).

The Yarmouth Mariners, who have won nine of their first 11, will be in no mood to allow the Crushers’ losing skid to end when they visit the Pictou County Wellness Centre on Thursday, and will be a tough bunch to beat. But if the Crushers are to turn things around, this would be a good time to start.

Non-Sports Thoughts of the Week:

# It was a year ago on Wednesday that Gord Downie died, and we still miss the Tragically Hip front man. Completely unique, there won’t be another like him.

# Apparently, down at the Aberdeen Business Centre, there was an actual lineup outside the NSLC outlet on Wednesday morning at 9 a.m. – a full hour before it opened – and I don’t think it’s because they were having a sale on beer.

Nope, it might have had something to do with Wednesday being the first day that you could buy recreational marijuana legally in Canada. They were queued up before the doors opened for some reason, although I doubt the NSLC will be running out of weed anytime soon – unless the government totally under-estimated the drawing powers of the sticky.

Well then, Hallelujah and pass the pipe. And what do you have for munchies?

I don’t think legal pot will suddenly turn us into a nation of lazy stoners, because if a pot smoker exhibits traits of laziness, he was going to be lazy whether he smokes it or not - he (and she) were already wired that way, and by no means was that pun intended.

Other Sports Thought:

# It turned out that Thanksgiving on Oct. 8 was the final opportunity for local golfers to get in one more round at Eagle’s Chance, the little Par 3 course in Mount William that has been open for 25 years.

Owner Brian Affleck has been kicking over every rock, trying to ensure that the place will open up again next spring.

“The Yarmouth Mariners, who have won nine of their first 11, will be in no mood to allow the Crushers’ losing skid to end when they visit the Pictou County Wellness Centre on Thursday, and will be a tough bunch to beat. But if the Crushers are to turn things around, this would be a good time to start.”

I’ll miss the place if it closes for good. If nobody’s in front of you (sadly, that wasn’t much of a problem this year) you can zip around those nine holes in less than an hour, hitting wedges and little nineirons, which perfectly fits my antsy-pantsy-ness, since I find playing 18 holes at regular golf courses to be five hours’ worth of tedium.

Hopefully they’ll find a way to keep it open - the permanent closure of Eagle’s Chance would be yet another asset lost in Pictou County.

Kevin Adshade is a writer with The News. His column appears each week.