Clark’s Olympic gold a sweet Sask. feel good sports moment

Emily Clark, centre, pictured with some of her former Stars teammates.

The underage player from the Saskatoon Stars became gold medal winner at the Olympics.

Way back in September of 2009, Emily Clark joined the Stars female under-18 AAA hockey team as an underage forward at age 13. As the youngest player on the Stars, she had the last pick of jersey numbers and selected number 13 as a reminder of her age when she first started skating with the team.

On September 9, 2009, she scored a goal skating in her first game with the Stars in a 3-2 exhibition win at the Gemini Arena over the Prince Albert A & W Bears, who are now known as the Prince Albert Northern Bears.

Clark would turn 14-years-old in late November of 2009, and she played in all of the Stars 28 regular season games collecting two goals and two assists. Before joining the Stars, Clark played on boys teams in Saskatoon in the Flyers Zone.

Her father, Del, was a long time coach and executive with the Flyer program.

Actually, Emily Clark first began playing the game at age three at a University of Saskatchewan Huskies kids camp run by legendary Huskies men’s hockey head coach Dave Adolph.

An Olympic champion was born from that modest start.

An Emily Clark hockey card.

Fast forward to the early morning hours last Thursday in Saskatchewan time. Many in province were awake to watch Clark and her teammates on Canada’s Senior National Women’s Hockey team capture the gold medal at the Winter Olympics in Beijing, China.

Canada downed their forever rivals in the United States 3-2 in the gold medal final held at the Wukesong Arena.

At age 26, Clark has realized her ultimate hockey dream. The power forward picked up two goals and an assist appearing in six of Canada’s seven games.

Clark missed one preliminary round contest against the Russian Olympic Committee due to an inconclusive coronavirus (COVID-19) test. That goes down as a forever side note reminder that the 2022 Winter Olympics were played with the world still in the grips of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Between that first exhibition game victory with the Stars and the gold medal win with Canada, Clark, who stands 5-foot-7, has piled up many accolades in her hockey journey.

In the 2010-11 campaign, Clark helped the Stars win the female division of the prestigious Mac’s Tournament in Calgary.

In 2011-12, she set the Stars record for most points scored in one regular season at 60 coming off 26 goals and 34 assists in 26 regular season games. That team record would ultimately be matched by Mackenna Parker in the 2017-18 campaign.

Clark’s number 13 was retired by the Stars in December of 2019.

Clark put up big numbers playing for the Okanagan Hockey Academy under-18 prep female team collecting 34 goals and 35 assists in 57 games in two seasons from 2012 to 2014.

A second Emily Clark hockey card.

She proceeded to star for four seasons with the University of Wisconsin Badgers Women’s Hockey team in the NCAA Division I ranks from 2014 to 2019. She left the Badgers for one season in 2017-18 to play for Canada at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, where Canada took home the silver medal falling 3-2 after a tiebreaking shootout to the United States in the gold medal final.

With the Badgers, Clark played in 147 career games posting 70 goals and 76 assists. During her final season with the Badgers in 2018-19, she helped them win an NCAA championship.

On the international scene, Clark helped Canada win gold at two under-18 women’s world championships, three silver medals, one bronze medal and one gold medal at women’s worlds to go with the silver at the 2018 Winter Olympics.

The gold medal win at women’s worlds can in August of 2021, when the tournament was held in a bubble environment in Calgary.

Following her time with the Stars, Clark usually wore number 26, which is double the number 13.

No matter where Clark goes in hockey, she still keeps strong ties to her home city of Saskatoon and to Saskatchewan as a province. Some of her favourite teammates from her time in the sport include former Stars teammates like Marley Ervine, Lauren Zary, Sara Greschner and Brooke Mutch.

Clark made numerous friends on the men’s side of the game growing up including Rourke Chartier, who plays with the AHL’s Belleville Senators and Evan Fiala, who plays for the U of Saskatchewan Huskies men’s team in the U Sports ranks.

Everywhere Clark has gone to play hockey, she has been an enduring and favourite teammate. She is also taken to heart because her style of play mirrors that of Wendel Clark, who starred for the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades and the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs. Emily and Wendel are not related.

Emily Clark signs autographs for youngster in November of 2018.

In the Saskatchewan hockey community and Saskatoon as a city, it seems there is just a one or two degrees of separation from knowing someone that knows Emily and her family.

That connection added to how awe inspiring it was to see Clark and her team to realize their golden moment at the Winter OIympics.

In today’s world that is engulfed in news events that can seem chaotic, it felt that much more special to see Clark realize her ultimate gold medal dream on the sports world’s biggest stage.

Memorial Cup gets new dates, WHL schedule adjusted

The Acadie-Bathurst Titan celebrate their Memorial Cup win in 2018.

Last Wednesday, the CHL announced its Memorial Cup championship tournament was being pushed back.

The CHL announced the change with its three member leagues in the OHL, QMJHL and WHL have to extend regular season schedules to play games that were postponed due to challenges with the COVID-19 pandemic. The WHL has also dealt with postponements due to bad weather.

The upcoming Memorial Cup is being hosted by the QMJHL’s Saint John Sea Dogs in Saint John, New Brunswick. The event was originally scheduled to be held from June 4 to 13, but it will now be held from June 20 to 29.

The changes to the Memorial Cup’s schedule were expected.

In late January, the QMJHL said it intended to play its full 68-game regular season that will conclude on May 1. The QMJHL plays are slated to be held from May 5 to June 15.

Last Thursday, the WHL announced its regular season that was originally slated to end on April 3 will now end on April 17. The adjustment was made to allow the circuit’s member teams to get in their postponed contests in order for each club to play a 68-game regular season.

If any standing tiebreaking games need to be played, they will be held on April 19.

The WHL playoffs are schedule to begin April 22 and could potentially run to June 14, if a series deciding Game 7 is needed for the WHL Championship series.

The WHL is also adjusting its playoff format. Instead of using the division format that was used from 2015 to 2020, the circuit is going back to a conference playoff format that was last used in 2014.

That means, the two division winners in each conference will be seeded one and two in their respective conference brackets. After the division winners, the next six teams in each conference with the most standings points will also make the post-season.

Clubs advancing in each round of the playoffs will be reseeded based on regular season points. Each round of the WHL playoffs will be contested in best-of-seven series.

Controversies plentiful for 2022 Winter Olympics

Controversies seemed to come out of the woodworks to plague the 2022 Winter Olympics that were held in Beijing, China.

They seemly took flight on February 2, which was two days before the games themselves began. That initial one came with Belgian skeleton racer Kim Meylemans asked over Instagram for the International Olympic Committee to free her from one of Beijing’s COVID-19 isolation facilities.

She was placed there instead of the Athletes’ Village isolation centre.

Meylemans tested positive for COVID-19 upon arriving in China. The Belgian delegation stepped in quickly, and Meylemans was moved to the Village one day later.

Some of the controversies will continue to play out after the games came to a conclusion on Sunday.

In Canada, the games will be remembered for the country taking home a total of 26 medals including four gold medals, eight silver medals and 14 bronze medals.

Overall, the 2022 Winter Olympics might be best remembered on the world stage for the controversy swirling around 15-year-old Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva, who was favoured to win gold in the women’s singles competition.

Before the women’s singles event took place, news surfaced Valieva tested positive for trimetazidine, which is a heart drug used to prevent angina and also acts as an oxygen booster. The drug is banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency.

Due to Valieva being a minor, it was decided that she would be allowed to compete as the investigation around the positive test continued.

She collapsed in the free skate and finished fourth in the women’s singles event. Russian 17-year-old teammates Anna Shcherbakova and Alexandra Trusova finished first and second respectively, but the medal wins were far from a dream finish for either athlete.

As for other controversies, we had Russian president Vladimir Putin looking like he was going to fall asleep when Ukraine was introduced during the opening ceremonies.

There were a couple of questionable video reviews that gave China gold medals in speed skating and China trying to censor an athlete from Finland for showing flooding in her part of the Athletes Village on social media.

On Sunday, Yahoo Sports posted a list of the various controversies, and that post can be found by clicking right here.

Blades’ Crnkovic retakes WHL scoring lead

Kyle Crnkovic retook the WHL scoring lead.

Saskatoon Blades star left-winger Kyle Crnkovic retook the lead in the WHL scoring race with a three-point night on Sunday.

Entering play on Sunday, Crnkovic trailed Red Deer Rebels overage left-winger Arshdeep Bains by one point for top spot in the scoring race.

Playing before 5,737 spectators at the Scotiabank Saddledown in Calgary against the host Hitmen on Sunday, Crnkovic potted two goals and an assist to power the Blades to a 4-1 regular season victory.

Thanks to that offensive outburst, the Chestermere, Alta., product leads the WHL in scoring with 73 points coming off 32 goals and 41 assists. Crnkovic’s goal and point totals are career highs.

Bains sits second in the scoring race with 71 points coming off 25 goals and 46 assists.

The Blades also received goals from centres Trevor Wong and Trevor Robins, who has a signed NHL entry-level contract with the San Jose Sharks.

Zac Funk had the lone reply for the Hitmen.

Rookie Ethan Chadwick made 23 saves to pick up the win in goal for the Blades (27-18-1-1). Ethan Buenaventura turned away 31 shots to take the setback in net for the Hitmen (18-22-5-2).

Blades sophomore left-winger Vaughn Watterodt and Hitmen 20-year-old centre Blake Allan engaged in a first period fight.

The Blades return to action on Wednesday when they travel to Brandon to take on the 25-15-3-2 Wheat Kings (7 p.m. Saskatchewan time, 600 CJWW).

Vitelli nets pair in Raiders 4-1 win over Tigers, other notes

Reece Vitelli scored twice for the Raiders on Monday.

Captain Reece Vitelli got his Prince Albert Raiders back in the win column.

On Monday, Vitelli scored twice in the third period to lift the Raiders to a 4-1 regular season victory over the host Medicine Hat Tigers playing before 2,390 spectators at Co-Op Place.

The Tigers went ahead 1-0 on a goal from Owen MacNeil at the 7:08 mark of the first period.

Before the opening frame ended, Sloan Stanick tallied for the Raiders to even the game’s score at 1-1.

After a scoreless second period, Vitelli scored twice in the third to put the Raiders up 3-1. Veteran centre Keaton Sorensen rounded out the contest’s scoring an empty-net goal for the visitors with three minutes remaining in the third.

Tikhon Chaika stopped 23 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Raiders (18-26-2-1). Garin Bjorklund turned away 19-of-22 shots to take the setback in net for the Tigers (9-33-3-1).

Raiders star centre Ozzy Wiesblatt and Tigers left-winger Brayden Boehm engaged in a second period fight.

Inside the final 31 seconds of the third, Raiders defenceman Trevor Thurston received a major for cross-checking, a major for charging and a 10-minute misconduct. The two major penalties will be automatically be reviewed by the WHL office for a possible suspension.

The Raiders win on Monday unofficially marked the 572^nd career regular season head coaching victory for Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid. The win total includes Habscheid’s time with the Kamloops Blazers, Kelowna Rockets, and the Chilliwack Bruins/Victoria Royals franchise. Habscheid’s first season holding a WHL team’s head coaching duties came in the 1997/98 campaign with the Blazers.

If that total gets verified as official, Habscheid would equal Mike Williamson for the fifth most career regular season head coaching victories in the history of the WHL. Williamson collected his head coaching victories working behind the bench of the Portland Winterhawks, Calgary Hitmen and Tri-City Americans from the 1999-2000 campaign to the 2017-18 campaign.

The Raiders return to action on Wednesday when they travel to Calgary to take on the 18-22-5-2 Hitmen (6 p.m. Saskatchewan time, 900 CKBI).

• Prince Albert product and 16-year-old left-winger Tanner Howe is having a strong season with the WHL’s Regina Pats. In 40 regular season games, Howe has 19 goals and 23 assists for 42 points.
• A spectacular season has vaulted Regina Rebels forward Alexis Petford into a tie for 10^th place on the all-time career regular season scoring list for the Saskatchewan Female Under-18 AAA Hockey League. In 28 regular season games in the current campaign, Petford has 75 points on 37 goals and 38 assists. All of those totals are career highs for Petford, who is in her final season of under-18 AAA eligibility. In 90 career SFU18AAAHL regular season games, Petford has 126 points coming on 62 goals and 64 assists and is the Rebels all-time career regular season scoring leader. She has equalled Lauren Zary for 10^th on the SFU18AAAHL career regular season scoring list. Zary collected her 126 points on 44 goals and 82 assists playing 103 career regular season games for the Saskatoon Stars from 2008 to 2012. The Rebels have one game remaining on their regular season schedule when they travel to Wilcox on Wednesday to face the Notre Dame Hounds.
• The B.C. Division leading Kamloops Blazers clinched a berth in the WHL playoffs, when they downed the U.S. Division leading Everett Silvertips 4-3 after a tiebreaking shootout on Monday at the Sandman Centre in Kamloops. The Blazers took the tiebreaking shootout 2-1. The Blazers improved to 35-13-2 with the win, while the Silvertips record moved to 35-7-2-5. The Silvertips came into the contest with a WHL playoff berth already locked up.

If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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A unique championship night you wish could last forever

Huskies first Canada West title at Merlis a lasting memory

Collin Shirley (#11) and family celebrate a Canada West title win.

Had anyone known how the world was going to change in the three proceeding weeks, maybe the University of Saskatchewan Huskies men’s hockey team and their supporters would have soaked in the Canada West title win a little longer?

Likely, that goes down as 20-20 vision thinking.

On February 29, 2020, the Huskies downed the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds 3-1 in Game 2 of the Canada West Championship series to sweet the best-of-three set 2-0. The series clinching game was played before a standing room record crowd of 2,667 spectators at Merlis Belsher Place.

The Huskies pour off their bench after their Canada West title win.

The best place to be was on the ice surface with the Huskies family and friends following the win, which was the first conference title the team won since moving to Merlis before the start of the 2018-19 campaign. Laughter and jokes filled the air and smiles could be seen all over the place.

People were racing to get photos taken by mobile phone cameras posted on their social media accounts most notably on Instagram. A lot of the pictures included the Dr. W.G. Hardy Trophy and the Canada West championship banner.

The Huskies raise the Dr. W.G. Hardy Trophy.

A lot of other photos were pictures filled with all sorts of combinations of Huskies players, Huskies coaches, Huskies staff members, family members and friends.

It was as joyful a Saturday night as anyone could have asked for. Looking back on that night, everyone who had a link with the Huskies soaked in and enjoyed that night like they should have.

No one knew how the world would change.

After a full week of practices at home, the Huskies departed for Halifax, N.S., for the David Johnston University Cup, which is the U Sports men’s hockey national championship tournament.

Tanner Lishchynsky takes the Dr. W.G. Hardy Trophy for a spin.

On the U Sports awards night on March 11, 2020, Huskies netminder Taran Kozun was named the recipient of the Senator Joseph A. Sullivan Trophy as the U Sports player of the year, and he took honours as the U Sports goaltender of the year.

Huskies fifth-year right-winger Levi Cable captured the R.W. Pugh Fair Play Award as the most sportsmanlike player in U Sports. Huskies centre Jared Dmytriw was named to the U Sports all-rookie team.

Before the awards night took place, talk of a coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic was starting to filter into conversations. Teams at the David Johnston University Cup were told there would be no post-game handshakes during the tournament and players to use their own personal water bottle during practices and games.

Jeff Faith, left, and Evan Fiala ham it up.

On March 12, 2020, the Huskies got to play their quarter-final game falling 3-2 to the University of Western Ontario Mustangs. The Huskies were missing a number of players including Cable as a flu bug worked through the team.

 At the end of the night, word came down that the rest of the U Sports men’s hockey championship has been cancelled due to concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic. In other locations, the remainder of the U Sports women’s hockey national championship tournament and the U Sports men’s and women’s volleyball national championship tournaments were also cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic fears.

On March 13, 2020, a large number of sports governing bodies in Canada had halted sanctioning of events including Hockey Canada due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a crazy twist, pretty much all of the Huskies who were battled the flu recovered by the morning of March 13, 2020. Due to the fact they couldn’t return to Saskatoon until taking their scheduled return flights after the tournament was supposed to end on March 15, 2020, the Huskies players, coaches, staff and families took in some site seeing before journeying back west.

Levi Cable was the most sportsmanlike player in U Sports.

At the moment, the Huskies still haven’t returned to the ice for any games since that Canada West title clinching win over the Thunderbirds and that quarter-final U Sports tournament loss to the Mustangs.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to grip the world, all U Sports nationals for the 2020-21 campaign were cancelled and all regular season play for the Canada West Conference in 2020-21 was cancelled. Ultimately, all four conferences that play under the U Sports umbrella cancelled their 2020-21 campaigns due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

For almost a year now, the world has experienced various levels of restrictions brought on to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

Merlis Belsher Place has been turned into a COVID-19 field hospital in waiting. The processing of some COVID-19 tests and COVID-19 vaccinations take place there now.

Jared Dmytriw made the U Sports all-rookie team.

The developments in the world make those that were at Merlis Belsher Place on February 29, 2020 look even more fondly back on that day. On that day and night, no one was really even thinking about a COVID-19 pandemic.

That day and night played out like most championships winning game days would.

During the 2019-20 campaign, the Huskies men’s hockey team had a season where it seemed the intangibles all fell into place.

The Huskies actually stumbled out of the gates going 0-3-1 over their first four regular season games in 2019-20. They roared back to finish second in the Canada West Conference with a 22-4-2 record.

U of S ended up hosting the Canada West Championship series after the first place University of Alberta Golden Bears, who were 23-5 in the regular season, were upset in their Canada West semifinal series by the Thunderbirds, who were fifth in Canada West with a 9-14-5 regular season record.

Taran Kozun was the U Sports player of the year.

With Merlis being the site of the Canada West Championship series, the Huskies faithful came out in droves. The Huskies slipped past the Thunderbirds 3-2 in Game 1 of the series on February 28, 2020 playing in front of 2,281 spectators.

That set the stage for the record gathering of 2,667 spectators in the Huskies series clinching win in Game 2 on February 29, 2020.

The Huskies came out flying in Game 2 going ahead 2-0 after 20 minutes on goals from Carson Stadnyk and Cable. Cable, who was playing in his 175^th consecutive game for the Huskies including action in the U Sports regular season and post-season, netted his second of the contest with 2:37 remaining the second period, while U of S was working on the power play.

Carson Stadnyk came through with key goals.

The hosts took that 3-0 lead into the second intermission holding a 23-13 edge in shots on goal.

Thunderbirds left-winger Jake Kryski scored to put the visitors on the board with a power-play goal with 3:16 remaining in the third to round out the 3-1 final in favour of the Huskies.

Kozun made 17 saves to pick up the win in goal for the Huskies. Saskatoon product Rylan Toth turned away 26 shots to take the setback in goal for the Thunderbirds.

Pandemonium filled the ice after time expired on the third period clock.

One of the most heartwarming scenes from the post-game celebration was when legendary Huskies head coach Dave Adolph gave his gold medal to Ben Bauml, who is the younger brother of Huskies fifth-year centre Kohl.

Ben, who has Down syndrome and is non-verbal, has been Kohl’s biggest fan throughout Kohl’s hockey career. The brothers have a tight bond.

Huskies fans cheer after their team scores a goal.

Ben attended all of the Huskies home games and became a big part of the team’s culture. He joined the Huskies in the dressing room for post-victory celebrations, and he was in the front row for the on-ice team picture after the Canada West title game victory.

Adolph wanted to make the night a little extra special for Ben with the gift of the Canada West gold medal.

No one knew at the time that would ultimately be Adolph’s last victory behind the bench as Huskies head coach. He announced on December 7, 2020 that he would be retiring.

Adolph’s retirement becomes official this coming May 1. All-world hockey bench boss, Mike Babcock will be coming home to Saskatoon to take over as the Huskies head coach for the next two seasons.

Looking back, all those linked with the Huskies wished those celebrations on the night of February 29, 2020 could have gone on a little longer.

The Huskies pose for a team photo after a Canada West title win.

With how the world changed following that night, the Huskies first Canada West title win at Merlis is treasured that much more.

If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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“Babs” coming home to coach Huskies and it is good

Mike Babcock pictured in a Sports Illustrated from 2010.

The University of Saskatchewan Huskies blew up the Internet and some social media lines early Saturday afternoon.

As the lunch hour started in Saskatchewan, TSN’s Darren Dreger reported that all-world coach Mike Babcock was expected to be announced as the new head coach for the University of Saskatchewan Huskies men’s hockey team in the coming week.

Just short of an hour later, Huskie Athletics put out a release that Babcock, who grew up in Saskatoon and is a graduate of Saskatoon’s Holy Cross High School, will indeed become the Huskies next head coach.

Babcock will lead the Huskies on a full-time volunteer basis for the next two seasons.

Babcock will be taking over for legendary Huskies head coach Dave Adolph, who announced on Dec. 7, 2020 that he would be retiring. Adolph, who holds the U Sports career record for coaching victories at 488, will officially retire on May 1, and Babcock will take over the head coach role from that point.

In an interview with Kevin Mitchell of the Saskatoon StarPhoenix, Babcock said he was a transfer coach and his goal was to work with Dave King, who is still the greatest coach the Huskies men’s team has ever had, and a hiring committee to find a new long-term head coach for the program.

Babcock, who has been working as a studio analyst for NHL broadcasts produced by NBC Sports, also stressed to Mitchell that he wants to win in the short term.

Babcock’s coaching career is long and distinguished. It began back in 1988, when he was head coach of the Red Deer College Kings men’s hockey team that plays out of the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association.

The highlights of the 57-year-old’s time behind the bench include guiding the NHL’s Detroit Red Wings to a Stanley Cup title in 2008.

Mike Babcock shown in a Sports Illustrated from 2010.

He coached Canada’s men’s hockey team to gold medal wins at the Winter Olympics in 2010 and 2014. In 2018, Babcock became a member of the Order of Hockey in Canada.

Babcock played one season on defence for the Huskies way back in 1981-82 and received an honourary doctor of Laws from the U of S in 2016.

As impressive as all those accomplishments are, Babcock’s best work as a coaching likely took place during the 1993-94 season, when he was the head coach of the now defunct University of Lethbridge Pronghorns men’s hockey team.

With the Pronghorns not having that much success in their history, Babcock guided them to a first place finish in the Canada West Conference with a regular season record of 19 wins, seven losses and two ties. The Pronghorns moved on to down the University of Guelph Gryphons 5-2 in the U Sports national championship game to capture the David Johnston University Cup at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

Babcock and his wife, Maureen, have often returned to Saskatoon and visited the Emma Lake area during summer months in the off-season. The bench boss was often involved in community fundraisers including one for the Leslie & Irene Dube Urology Centre of Health at St. Paul’s Hospital in 2014 and the One Voice fundraiser to raise money for the Neural Health Project at the U of Saskatchewan in 2015.

The hope of the Neural Health Project is to develop a more complete approach to the treatment of mental illness through a combination of conventional and alternative therapies. Babcock had a big hand in helping raise over $1-million at the One Voice fundraiser held on July 24, 2015 at TCU Place.

Collin Shirley is tabbed to return to the Huskies.

When Babcock comes back to town to take over the Huskies, it is safe to say the residents in Saskatoon and area and dare I say the province of Saskatchewan will be treating the return like a homecoming.

It was also noticeable that the last team Babcock coached in the NHL was the Toronto Maple Leafs for four complete seasons and a partial fifth campaign from 2015 to 2019. The Leafs fired Babcock on Nov. 20, 2019 with the team having lost six straight games to sit at 9-10-4.

In the aftermath of the firing, media reports came out that Maple Leafs right-winger Mitch Marner was asked to rank his teammates in order of how hard he though they worked back in his rookie campaign in 2016-17 by Babcock. Babcock later revealed the list to Marner’s teammates.

Babcock confirmed that report, expressed regret asking Marner to participate in something like that wasn’t a good idea and apologized to Marner at the time.

Shortly after the situation with Marner’s rookie season became public, Swedish right-winger Johan Franzen, who played for Babcock in Detroit, accused the bench boss of verbally abusing him. Chris Chelios, who is one of the all-time top defencemen to play in the NHL and one of Franzen’s former teammates, said the verbal abuse to Franzen did happen.

Chelios believed Babcock didn’t treat some of the Red Wings veterans well and dropped criticism there.

Within 50 minutes of the Huskies posting a Twitter post on Babcock’s hiring, the post attracted 65 responses and 151 quote retweets. Most of the responses had harsh words for the hiring, but most didn’t appear to come from Twitter handles from Saskatoon and area.

Evan Fiala is expected to return to the Huskies back end.

Some of the handles seemed to campaign to get Babcock fired before he even arrives in Saskatoon.

Other harsh responses were troll type comments putting down the quality of play in U Sports. On that front, the truth is U Sports is indeed a high-quality league when it comes to competition and the level of play in men’s and women’s hockey is quite outstanding.

Usually in most cases, Huskie Athletics might get five replies at most to a Twitter post.

The quote retweets on the Babcock post were more split in reaction.

On the Huskies Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts, a sizable number of the likes were from accounts I recognize from Saskatoon and Saskatchewan.

I personally believe those situations that were talked about in the aftermath of Babcock’s firing from the Maple Leafs are not that big of a deal. I believe a lot of the troll comments are from ultra-passionate Maple Leafs fans who can’t get over the fact their team hasn’t won the Stanley Cup since 1967.

Babcock apologized in the Marner case and it is impossible for any coach to be liked by every single player he or she has coached.

In the case of Chelios, he built a reputation for running his mouth over his hockey career, so him not having anything nice to say is not new.

On a personal front, Babcock has always been great to me. I moved to Saskatoon in the summer of 2014, and we had lengthy visits at the fundraiser for St. Paul’s Hospital in 2014 and the One Voice fundraiser in 2015.

Our talks mostly revolved around stories regarding mutual friends in hockey. Even in our first meeting, I was comfortable enough to talk with him about the issues with anxiety I dealt with, when they arose when I worked as a sports reporter with the Medicine Hat News in 2012.

Layne Young was a breakout forward with the Huskies in 2019-20.

When I first met Babcock, I didn’t talk to a lot of people about that subject. He was very empathetic and understanding, which led to me attending the One Voice fundraiser.

The One Voice fundraiser in 2015 was one of the best and most positive energy nights out I’ve ever had in my life.

For anyone that battled mental health issues, that night at the One Voice fundraiser was basically the night out we needed.

I believe Babcock has come to help the Huskies out of the goodness of his heart.

Let me repeat myself, I believe Babcock has come to help the Huskies out of the goodness of his heart.

Saskatoon is a community he cares a lot about, and he has a lot of ties to this community. He wants to help get the Huskies going with some positive momentum, when U Sports returns from its pause that started in March of 2020 due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The ultra-passionate fan type trolls elsewhere can say what they want, but I am confident enough to say that view isn’t shared by most of those in Saskatoon or Saskatchewan as a province.

Babcock coming to coach the Huskies is a great homecoming moment for “The Bridge City.”

When he gets here, I believe he will enjoy working with some quality returnees and high-character players like Collin Shirley, Evan Fiala and Layne Young. It should be noted the last time the Huskies skated on home ice they won the Canada West Conference title back on Feb. 29, 2020 at Merlis Belsher Place.

The Huskies celebrate their 2020 Canada West title win.

Right now, all that needs to be said on Babcock’s front is, “Welcome home coach, and we wish you the best of luck.”

If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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If you like what you see here, you might want to donate to the cause to keep independent media like this blog going. Should you choose to help out, feel free to click on the DONATE button in the upper right corner. Thank you for stopping in.

Normal playoff time makes U Sports absence even more eerie

The Huskies enjoy a players series OT win in 2019.

While whole world has been in the grips of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic for a little more than 11 months, it doesn’t prevent getting a weird feeling due to the absence of events that occur regularly on the calendar.

In Canada’s sports scene, post-season action in U Sports would normally be well underway right now. Sports like football, rugby and soccer would normally play their nationals in the fall semester, so everyone with connections there would have felt that absence.

The winter semester usually sees sports conclude that run year round. Sports like basketball, hockey, track and field, volleyball and wrestling would have started their post-season paths.

Usually by this time of year, first round action would have taken place in basketball, hockey and volleyball. 

Kirsten Chamberlin tightly identifies with the Pandas.

Playoff fever would be well in the air and it would usually wrap up around the middle of March, when the last scheduled national championship tournaments are played.

At the moment, U Sports arenas and gyms sit empty across Canada on regular post-season game days.

On the grounds of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, the Butterdome multi-purpose sports complex is a field hospital in waiting. It was recently turned into a field hospital in waiting due to urgency created due to a big spike of new COVID-19 cases and COVID-19 hospitalizations in Alberta.

On the grounds of the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, the twin pad hockey rink facility in Merlis Belsher Place, which has two basketball courts, has been a field hospital in waiting for a number of months. It is being used to help process COVID-19 tests and be a centre to administer COVID-19 vaccinations.

Those are the realities of the pandemic, which in Canada has pushed U Sports to the backburner.

While some will argue how relevant U Sports is on Canada’s overall sporting scene, the truth is it still has sizable relevance.

Golden Bears players have deep links to their team.

Just ask members of the University of Alberta Golden Bears men’s hockey team and the University of Alberta Pandas women’s hockey team how deeply imbedded their identification is to their programs along with the alums of each squad. Wherever those players go, they will be Golden Bears and Pandas for life.

In Saskatoon, current players and alums have strong identifications with the U of Saskatchewan Huskies programs on campus. It seem like you could always find someone wearing gear with the Huskies logo on it anywhere in Canada or seemingly around the world.

Over the last decade, it has become common for the Huskies men’s and women’s basketball and hockey teams to host home playoff games. At the start of the post-season, there was always great anticipation when the first of these contests came around.

Right now, the start of that playoff fever is missing. It is noticeable because this is the time the intensity level gets dialed up another notch.

The Huskies claimed a U Sports women’s basketball title in 2020.

Over the past 10 years, the Huskies women’s basketball team and the Huskies men’s hockey team have hosted a number of Canada West Conference championship games and series.

On February 28, 2020, a standing room crowd of 2,515 saw the Huskies women’s basketball team down the Pandas 62-51 in a winner take all Canada West Championship game at the Physical Activity Complex. 

No one at that game figured that would be at the moment the last time they saw a Huskies basketball team play at home.

Of course guided by their brilliant head coach Lisa Thomaidis, the Huskies women’s basketball team advanced to win the U Sports title. 

Levi Cable came up big for the Huskies in the 2020 post-season.

The Huskies thumped the Brock University Badgers 82-64 in the U Sports title game at TD Place in Ottawa, Ont.

Following that win, the Huskies returned home to enjoy an on campus victory rally on March 11, 2020 right before shutdowns and restrictions started to take root to battle the COVID-19 pandemic.

On February 29, 2020, a record standing room crowd of 2,667 watched the Huskies men’s hockey team down the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds 3-1 in Game 2 of the Canada West Championship series to sweep the best-of-three set 2-0.

As the Huskies raised the Dr. W.G. Hardy Trophy as Canada West champions, no one at Merlis that night could have imagined that was the last time to this day they would see a Huskies hockey team play at home.

The Huskies were able to play their quarter-final game at the University Cup in Halifax, N.S., before the event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Fans cheer the Huskies at Merlis Belsher Place on Feb. 29, 2020.

With a number of players legitimately down with the flu, the Huskies fell 3-2 to the University of Western Ontario Mustangs.

No one knew that would be the last contest Dave Adolph would work as the Huskies legendary and one of a kind character head coach. 

Adolph will officially retire as Huskies head coach on May 1 of this year.

Willie Desjardins, who was the captain of the Huskies men’s hockey team that won the U Sports national title in 1982-83, said as head coach and general manager of the WHL’s Medicine Hat Tigers on a frequent basis that legends are made in the playoffs.

In 2020-21, there were no opportunities for legends to be made as there is no U Sports action at all due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Huskies celebrate a Canada West title in 2020.

Anyone with attachments to U Sports has to hold on to hope that things will be different in 2021-22.

If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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Retirement brings Adolph era of Huskies hockey to a close

U Sports wins leader brought dry humour, honesty

Dave Adolph, centre, makes adjustments from the Huskies bench.

In talking about an injury to one of his players, Dave Adolph decided to show some leg.

Following a playoff win by the University of Saskatchewan Huskies men’s hockey team this past season, Adolph, who is Huskies head coach, was asked in a post-game media scrum about left-winger Collin Shirley leaving the contest early after favouring one of his legs.

The bench boss said his standout player was fine. Adolph proceeded to pull up one of his pant legs to point out the area of the leg Shirley sustained a big bruise to reinforce the skilled forward would be fine from that minor ding.

At times, you almost never knew when the dry humour from Adolph was going to surface. Often, the right situation presented itself to bring it out.

During a Thursday practice this past February, the Huskies were having one of their energetic practices to music, which is a weekly tradition on that day. Adolph is always excited and energetic in a fun way during those sessions.

He would blow his whistle to begin the next drills in that session, and he allowed the players to take control of what was happening on the ice.

Adolph looked like he was going to jump into one of the drills but never did.

Dave Adolph behind the Huskies bench at the Rutherford Rink.

I was able to call him over to the bench to fire off a fun interview question. When Adolph was a defenceman with the Huskies, he helped the Huskies win a national title in 1983 in his fifth and final year of eligibility alongside high scoring captain Willie Desjardins, who is a former NHL bench boss and head coach and general manager of the WHL’s Medicine Hat Tigers.

I mentioned to Adolph that if the Tigers were having a high energy practice like the one the Huskies were having, Desjardins would be trying to score to prove he still had it.

I asked Adolph why he wasn’t trying to score?

“I scored a hat trick once, and I am good,” said Adolph. “There is no need to over-extend it.”

On another occasion back in 2017, the Huskies advanced to the U Sports title of the University Cup national championship tournament to face the host University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds in Fredericton, N.B.

A reporter asked Adolph, who had already been named the U Sports coach of the year for men’s hockey that season, what it would mean if the Huskies could win that title game.

Adolph responded in a matter of fact tone that it would allow him come back and coach next season.

He often would give jabs to long time Saskatoon StarPhoenix sportswriter Darren Zary, and Zary could dish it right back and those exchanges never became personal. Of course, the two have seemingly known each other forever and those exchanges were always seen as fun at the end of the day and created a memory.

Dave Adolph eyes up the on ice action.

U Sports is set to lose one of its all-time biggest beauties, who happens be the circuit’s all-time leader in career regular season victories for men’s hockey at 488.

On Monday, the Huskies announced Adolph would be retiring from his position effective May 1, 2021. Due to the fact all U Sports hockey action has been cancelled for the 2020-21 campaign due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that has gripped the world, the 61-year-old veteran bench boss has already coached his final game with the team.

“After a lot of self-discussion, I’ve decided that now is the right time to step back as the men’s hockey coach,” said Adolph in a release. “Over the last 28 years, the team has accomplished more than I could have imagined, and my family and I are all proud to be members of the Huskie men’s hockey program.”

Overall, Adolph has put in 37 complete seasons with the Huskies men’s hockey team.

He patrolled the blue-line for five seasons. Adolph skated in the 1977-78 campaign, took a season off and returned for four straight campaigns from 1979 to 1983. In total, Adolph appeared in 117 regular season games collecting 10 goals and 34 assists.

The defenceman’s playing days were capped in 1983 by the Huskies winning the U Sports – then known as the CIAU - title game 6-2 over the Concordia University Stingers at the University Cup tournament held in Moncton, N.B.

Following his playing days, Adolph became a teacher at Saskatoon’s Aden Bowman Collegiate and rejoined the Huskies as an assistant coach for five seasons from 1984 to 1989.

The Swift Current, Sask., product then left “The Bridge City” to become the head coach of the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns men’s hockey team for four seasons from 1989 to 1993.

Adolph returned to his alma mater becoming the Huskies head coach before the start of the 1993-94 campaign.

Between his time with the Pronghorns and Huskies, Adolph coached in 1,016 games including action in the U Sports regular season, Canada West Conference playoffs and University Cup tournament collecting 568 wins, 402 losses including extra time setbacks and 46 ties.

The Huskies team picture from their 2016 Canada West title win.

In U Sports regular season action, Adolph has coach in 868 games posting a U Sports career record 488 wins, 334 losses including extra time setbacks and 46 ties.

With just the Huskies, Adolph has coached in 904 games including action in the U Sports regular season, Canada West Conference playoffs, and University Cup tournament collecting 536 wins, 330 losses including extra time setbacks and 38 ties. He was named the Canada West coach of the year for men’s hockey on four occasions.

In U Sports regular season action as Huskies head coach, Adolph has been behind the bench for 756 games posting 456 wins, 262 losses including extra time setbacks and 38 ties.

All those wins were piled up with the Huskies calling the ancient Rutherford Rink and then Merlis Belsher Place home.

After the Huskies missed the post-season in the first two seasons under Adolph’s watch, he has guided the Huskies to their current active streak of making the playoffs for 25 campaigns in a row. Adolph has coached the Huskies to seven Canada West titles and 16 appearances in the U Sports championship tournament - the University Cup.

A quote on Twitter from one of Adolph’s former captains in star offensive-defenceman Jesse Forsberg gives a glimpse into why Adolph was successful.

What a legend! Not an easy gig coaching guys with big egos out of junior. Won’t find a more passionate or loyal guy. Believed in me to grow from an average junior player with a hot temper to an All-Canadian..with a hot temper. Going to be tough to replace. What a career! #3types

— Jesse Forsberg (@jbforsberg) December 7, 2020

Forsberg wrote, “What a legend! Not an easy gig coaching guys with big egos out of junior. Won’t find a more passionate or loyal guy. Believed in me to grow from an average junior player with a hot temper to an All-Canadian with a hot temper. Going to be tough to replace. What a career! #3types.”

Dave Adolph, back row right, focuses on the play on ice.

To be fair, Forsberg might have been a bit too hard in describing what the players were like when they came to the Huskies. What Forsberg’s comment did get at was the managing that Adolph had to do.

The players that came to Adolph out of the junior ranks were guided by a wide variety of coaches like Desjardins, Peter Anholt, Michael Dyck, Marc Habscheid, Don Hay, Lorne Molleken and Brent Sutter.

Players that arrive to a new team after being under the tutelage of those bench bosses have a programmed set idea of what things are supposed to look like when they are going right. Each of those visions will be slightly different from each other.

Adolph was able to mold the commonalities to get everyone to bond and jell together, while dealing with regular university politics too.

All of sudden, mottos like “no one outworks the Dogs” or “we all play the Cody Smuk way” became part of who the players were.

The “we all play the Cody Smuk way” motto came in tribute to hard-working, team-first, glue guy forward Cody Smuk, who passed away from cancer at age 26 in June of 2015. The players aspired to continue to hold those qualities high.

The players also learned pretty quickly that Adolph knows the game of hockey real well too.

Dave Adolph, back row left, keeps cool during a timeout.

It was common to see players that weren’t maybe viewed as professional prospects in junior develop into professional prospects by the end of their time with the Huskies. In a number of cases, those players should have been catching the eye of the NHL, but that will have to go down as the NHL’s loss.

Upon arrival, players learned they had become part of a new family in Huskies hockey that dated back to 1910. For players who had a strong identification with their junior teams like Brennan Bosch and Ryan Holfeld did with the WHL’s Medicine Hat Tigers and Derek Hulak did with the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades, they learned they could have that same strong identification with the Huskies.

Adolph will always be proud to note the players took care of their school work in the classroom too, which set them up for life after hockey.

Of course, the toughest pill to swallow on the wins and losses front was the fact the Huskies made the U Sports title game three times with Adolph as head coach and fell in all three appearances.

The most heartbreaking was arguably in 2005. The Huskies held a 3-1 lead after 40 minutes and ended up in a 4-3 overtime loss to the host University of Alberta Golden Bears, who are the Huskies “forever rivals,” at the rink once known as the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton, Alta.

Adolph deserved to win at least one U Sports national title as Huskies head coach. The fact that didn’t happen leans more to the lesson that life and sports isn’t fair sometimes.

You can a major number of things right, but the big team goal might still be never achieved.

Molleken as Blades head coach and general manager and Jack Brodsky as Blades owner went through a similar fate in the major junior ranks never being able to win a WHL title or a Memorial Cup title as CHL champions. They both did a large amount of things right and deserved to achieve those big accomplishments in WHL and Memorial Cup titles at least once.

The Huskies team photo from the 2020 Canada West title win.

Adolph did things the right way and had his own dry sense of humour spin on things while doing them. He was one of kind, and the head coach that takes the Huskies men’s hockey team into the era after the COVID-19 pandemic will have monster shoes to fill.

If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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If you like what you see here, you might want to donate to the cause to keep independent media like this blog going. Should you choose to help out, feel free to click on the DONATE button in the upper right corner. Thank you for stopping in.