’Tis the season for politics and hockey sticks

RANDOM SPORTS THOUGHTS:

The Junior A Crushers seem to have problems with the Valley Wildcats.

The Crushers are beating everybody but Valley these days (or so it seems). They blanked the vaunted Summerside Western Capitals 2-0 on Dec. 12, went to Valley and eked out an overtime win the next night, (against the team with the worst record in the Maritime Junior Hockey League, it should be noted) and the night after that, lost to the Wildcats on home ice.

Sometimes, a team has another team’s number no matter what the standings say, and sometimes, teams can have a tendency to play down to their opposition, which is a very dangerous way to operate. Maybe it’s a little bit of both. On the plus side, the Crushers are 11-2-1 in their past 14 games and are steaming toward the top of the South Division.

Oh, Merry Christmas. Best Christmas presents that I can remember getting as a kid: a table-top hockey game, a new Koho stick, which I had to shorten because it was made for an adult.

A minor hockey coach once told me that the butt end of your hockey stick should be just under your chin when you’re standing on skates – that’s when you know it’s the right length for you.

Update from Cleveland: with two games to go in the season, and looking like a race horse with a broken leg hobbling down the stretch run, the Browns still have a chance at the NFL playoffs.

NON-SPORTS THOUGHT OF THE WEEK:

Missed their fries and hot fudge sundaes so much, I took a fast food chain off my boycott list (still have a couple others on it, though). That can change, so it’d be best to keep my order straight.

Of course Peter MacKay is going to run for the Conservative leadership – he can’t very well be the next prime minister of Canada if he doesn’t, can he?

Which is exactly what is going to happen, as stated previously in this space. If he were to run in Central Nova, it would be a shame for Sean Fraser, who seems to be good person and an effective politician, but one who might not have enough to stop the MacKay train if it starts tumbling through this riding.

Downside about MacKay being the PM: it’ll be more difficult for the local media to get a hold of him, which will mean less talk about the state of the Buffalo Bills and Cleveland Browns (one team is doing well this year, the other is doing the usual. Well, maybe a tad better than usual, but still not nearly good enough).

My best advice for Peter, once he becomes the prime minister:

Pick your ministers based on merit, and not anything else.

Take the high road when debating in Parliament, even if you don’t always want to. The high road has less traffic, and thusly, in this case, it’s all about quality over quantity.

Defund the CBC (a personal request) because it’s no longer necessary. In fact, it’s a hindrance to democracy and freedom of thought, because the CBC has a few pet causes that it can’t shut up about (it appears one of them is to keep Justin Trudeau elected), and doesn’t want to hear or talk about the other side of any debate. Because to them, there is no other side of the debate. Which would be fine, if they weren’t funded by taxpayers.

At one time, the CBC was a way to help keep Canadians connected across this vast land, but these days, we have this thing called the Internet and Facetime.

So, what I’m saying is, we’re all good now.