Showing posts with label Mark Lamb. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mark Lamb. Show all posts

Saturday, 11 April 2020

Hockey community mourns passing of Cave

Oilers system forward, Broncos alum left good mark on many

Broncos captain Colby Cave (#10) in a WHL post-series handshake in 2014.
    It was a piece of news that those in the hockey world know it would make a lot of people sad.
    Early Saturday morning, Colby Cave, a forward in the Edmonton Oilers system, passed away after suffering a brain bleed on Monday. The North Battleford, Sask., product and alumnus of the WHL’s Swift Current Broncos was just 25-years-old.
    The Oilers confirmed Cave’s death with a statement from his family. His death didn’t have any link to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that is currently raging havoc on the world.
    Cave had been admitted to a hospital in Barrie, Ont., on Monday, and he had to be airlifted to Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto.
    He was placed in a medically-induced coma on Tuesday at Sunnybrook Hospital and underwent emergency surgery with doctors removing a colloid cyst that was causing pressure on his brain.
    Cave, who stood 6-foot-1 and weighed 200 pounds, suited up for 11 games for the Oilers this season collecting a goal and dressed in 44 games with their AHL affiliate the Bakersfield Condors posting 11 goals and 12 assists.
    Almost immediately after his passing was made public, condolences poured in over various social media lines. Cave was one of hockey’s good guys, who built numerous friendships in the game.
    His wife, Emily, created a warm, emotional and heartbreaking post on Instagram including photos of her clutching Colby in hospital to say goodbye to him along with a heartfelt caption.
    They got married on July 19, 2019 and won’t get to celebrate a first anniversary together.






To my best friend & love of my life, Colby 🤍 My heart is shattered. The amount of physical, mental, and emotional pain I am in when I think about never seeing, touching, or holding you again is unbearable. You are and will always be my person, my hero, the greatest thing to happen to me. I never dreamed of being a widow before our first wedding anniversary. Although, every cell in my body is lost without you, I promise to continue to make you proud. You were the best friend, husband, doggy daddy, and oh how I wished to see you as a baby daddy. I’ll see you again soon, Colb. You’ll be in heaven meeting me with a warm wet kiss. You’ll be with me every step of the way. I don’t want to stop writing just like I didn’t want to stop holding you this morning at the hospital. You are my everything. You always will be. Thank you for now being the best Guardian Angel. Just as you ended your vows, I am going to end with one word, AGAPE. ✨
A post shared by Emily Cave (@em.cave) on

    Their Instagram accounts are filled with cute young couple photos of the two together. After seeing those photos, it is as automatic gut punch reminder that life isn’t fair, when you think about Colby’s passing.
    On Saturday, The Canadian Press caught up with Mark Lamb, who was the Broncos head coach and general manager during Cave’s career with the team from 2011 to 2015. Lamb, who is now the head coach and general manager of the WHL’s Prince George Cougars, gave lots of praise for Cave.
    “It’s just his infectious smile and that he was a great person to be around,” said Lamb from his home in Prince George, B.C., to The Canadian Press. “That’s the thing I remember about him most.
    “He was the type of player that could do it all. He was our leader in pretty much every category on our team. He was our leading scorer.
    “He was our best faceoff guy. He was just an all-around player, and probably, if he wasn’t the best two-way player in the league, he was right there.”

    Way back in the 2009 WHL Bantam Draft, Cave was selected in the first round and 13th overall by the Kootenay Ice, but he never played a regular season or post-season game with the Ice.
    He came to the Broncos as part of the massive Cody Eakin trade made on Jan.9, 2011. In that deal, the Broncos traded Eakin, who was their star captain, to the Ice in exchange for Ice roster forward Christian Magnus, four list players including Cave, Ryan Bloom, Jarett Zentner and Steven Myland, 1st and 2nd round selections in the 2011 WHL Bantam Draft and third round pick in the 2012 WHL Bantam Draft.
    Eakin helped the Ice win the WHL championship that season.
    Cave was playing for his hometown Battlefords Stars in the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League and was in his 16-year-old season at the time of the trade. He made his debut with the Broncos before the 2010-11 campaign came to an end.
    He played in 287 career regular season games with the Broncos piling up 95 goals and 107 assists for 202 points.

    Cave was the Broncos captain in his final two seasons with the club, which were his best campaigns in the WHL.
    In 2013-14, Cave played in all of the Broncos 72 regular season games piling up 33 goals and 37 assists and a plus-20 rating in the plus-minus department. During his final campaign with the Broncos in 2014-15, Cave again appeared in all 72 regular season games recording 35 goals, 40 assists and a plus-three rating.
    Cave joined the Broncos at a time when they were rebuilding and trying to re-establish links in Swift Current and the surrounding area communities. He was a regular in getting out in the community to do that ground work.
    The Broncos made the playoffs in Cave’s last three years with the club. They had a strong season in 2013-14 posting a 38-25-3-6 regular season record and came up one point in the standings short of overtaking the Regina Pats for first place in the East Division.
    Sellout post-season crowds of 2,890 returned to the Innovation Credit Union i-Plex, which were vocally and enthusiastically behind the Broncos. It was the first time in a while engaged crowds had been seen like that in the Broncos home rink.
    In a first round playoff series against the Medicine Hat Tigers in 2014, Broncos fans followed their team to Medicine Hat to invade the Tigers long time old home rink in The Arena. The Broncos intro video for their home games in that post-season featured a number of highlights from Cave.
    The Tigers ultimately claimed that best-of-seven series in six games.
    During his final season with the Broncos, Cave was teammates with a sophomore 17-year-old centre named Glenn Gawdin and a rookie 16-year-old right-winger in Tyler Steenbergen. Both Gawdin and Steenbergen became key pieces in helping the Broncos win the WHL title in 2017-18.
    Following his time with the Broncos, Cave joined the Boston Bruins organization and would appear in 23 NHL regular season games with that club.
    The Oilers claimed Cave off waivers on Jan. 15, 2019. Cave finished the 2018-19 season playing 33 regular season games with the Oilers registering two goals and one assist.
    With the outpouring of support that has been shown for Cave on social media since his passing, it feels like he was destined to do more in the physical world. In the short time he was here, he touched and had a positive impact on a large number of lives.

Free Press columnist looks at 1918 Spanish Flu, other notes

    With the world currently battling the grips of the COVID-19 pandemic, Winnipeg Free Press business columnist Brent Bellamy decided to go back in time and take a look at how his publication covered the Spanish Flu pandemic from 1918-19.
    In some places in the world, the Spanish Flu pandemic continued to 1920.
    The Spanish Flu was an H1N1 influenza strain that proved to be particularly deadly. It is estimated it infected about 500-million people in the world, which would have been a third of the world’s population at that time.
    It is estimated the Spanish Flu killed 20 to 50-million people worldwide.
    Bellamy noted there were many similarities of what happened with the Spanish Flu back then compared to the COVID-19 pandemic of today. He put out his discoveries in a series of tweets on Thursday.
    Bellamy said the Free Press in 1918 noted New York City was a hotspot for the Spanish Flu, and New York City is a hotspot for COVID-19 in today’s time.
    He found out that in early October of 1918 a few cases of the Spanish Flu began to appear in Winnipeg without major headlines in the Free Press.
    Bellamy found a column in 1918 asking people to stay home in order to halt the spread of the Spanish Flu. In the current day, Canada as a country is observing lockdown measures to battle COVID-19.
    He found an article from October 11, 1918 warning of impending closures. Bellamy proceeded to show and article from October 12, 1918 ordering the closure of all public meeting places.
    That included the closures of schools and churches.
    He showed how the growing number of local cases of Spanish Flu were reported in the Free Press on a daily basis and how the Winnipeg media outlet kept an eye on what was going on in the rest of the world.
    There was talk in Winnipeg about flattening the curve of the Spanish Flu, which is a familiar refrain these days when it comes to battling COVID-19.
    Bellamy found a piece that universities were sending homework and assignments to students through the mail during the time of the Spanish Flu. In the current day, university students are doing work online in the face of COVID-19.
    In 1918 Winnipeg, there was a fear the Spanish Flu could break out in prisons and wearing masks in public was hotly debated. Those types of issues are occurring in the current day with COVID-19.
    There were stories during the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic in Winnipeg about health care workers being most at risk. Those types of concerns are happening in the current day with the COVID-19 pandemic.
    Bellamy found an article from November 28, 1918 stating the shutdowns in Winnipeg over the Spanish Flu were being lifted.  
    Bellamy continued to document Spanish Flu developments in the rest of Canada and the world from the old Free Press archives. He quoted a Spanish Flu wrap up piece from 1919 stating 12,000 people in Winnipeg became ill because of the disease and 824 people died.
    Even though the Spanish Flu pandemic happened just over 100 years ago, Bellamy’s journey through the Free Press archives shows just how much history can repeat itself.
    Another similarity the research didn’t uncover was that there was no vaccine for the Spanish Flu during the years that pandemic was active from 1918-20. The first licensed flu vaccine didn’t appear until the 1940s.
    In the current day, there is no vaccine for COVID-19. No one is certain when a vaccine will be discovered for COVID-19 either.
    I pulled those nuggets of information from a documentary piece on the Spanish Flu created by the History Channel.
    It should be noted that the statistics from the Spanish Flu pandemic are estimates, because statistics weren’t well kept in some instances. In other instances, statistics for the Spanish Flu were under-reported in media outlets due to government control measures that were in place from the First World War, which was coming to an end in 1918 when the Spanish Flu broke out.

  • Over the past week, Saskatoon keeps popping up as a potential quarantine city to play NHL playoffs games in to complete the 2019-20 season. From what I understand, players from teams would be housed in a city and would play their games in front of empty arenas. I don’t know if this will come to pass, but it is idea that has been floated out there.
  • On Friday, Prince Albert Minor Football cancelled all its spring programs due to the preventative measures that have been enacted by various governments to combat COVID-19. The sport body is still taking registrations for its fall programs.
  • On Friday morning, ESPN reported the XFL has suspended operations and laid off nearly all of its staff outside of a handful of executives and has no plans to return in 2021. The XFL suspended operations on March 12 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and officially cancelled the remainder of its season on March 20. The league is owned by WWE chairman/president Vince McMahon and Alpha Entertainment. The reboot was not the rowdy first version of the football circuit seen in 2001. The latest version of the XFL was operated as a new startup and had received lot of great reviews over the first five weeks of play. It appears theCOVID-19 pandemic might have stopped the rebooted XFL in its tracks, which is too bad.
  • It may sound crazy, but it is possible to like both the WHL’s Prince Albert Raiders and Saskatoon Blades. The teams are big rivals and just saying the above statement will likely have some fans of both teams fall out of their chairs.
  • Saskatoon Blades captain Chase Wouters took over his team’s Instagram account on Friday, and it was pretty fun. He provided numerous posts on the story function from his home Lloydminster, which is located on the border of Alberta and Saskatchewan. He showed off his home gym, said how much he likes hear the Blades victory song “Tongue Tied” by Grouplove and showed a picture of his father, Scott, wearing #44 in a Team Canada jersey from Hockey Canada. Scott played for the Lloydminster Border Kings when they faced Poland’s National team in a three game series in Poland in October of 2001. Chase said he wears #44, because that was Scott’s old number. Scott talked about how fun it was to introduce the Blades starting lineup before a game this past season. Overall, Chase did a great job running the Blades Instagram line for a day.
  • It is a smart and prudent move to take a break from social media and limit the time you spend taking in information from news sites on various platforms. There is so much uncertainty and anxiety happening over the COVID-19 pandemic it becomes mentally unhealthy to spend too much time consuming information over those lines.
  • One of the most entertaining tweets I’ve found comes from Joe Pascucci, who is a longtime sportscaster and sports director in Winnipeg. He found a clip from an AWA championship match held at the Winnipeg Arena between champion Rick Martel and challenger Boris Zhukov. Martel was the baby face and Zhukov was the heel. John Ferguson, who was the general manager of the NHL’s Winnipeg Jets at the time, was the special guest referee. Ferguson ensured the match was “fair” for Martel.
    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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Wednesday, 16 May 2018

Broncos return to WHL mountaintop is inspiring

The Broncos veteran celebrate with the Ed Chynoweth Cup.
    SWIFT CURRENT, Sask. - At some point, fans of the Swift Current Broncos likely thought they would never see their team win a championship again.
    When the Broncos claimed the WHL title on Sunday night before a sellout crowd of 2,890 spectators at the Innovation Credit Union i-Plex in Swift Current, the sight on the ice had to have felt surreal among the euphoric joy. The Broncos skated to a 3-0 victory in Game 6 of the league title series with the Everett Silvertips to take the best-of-seven set 4-2.
    It was one of those nights you wish would never end, if you were associated with the Broncos.
    Back in 2004-05, the Broncos missed the WHL playoffs posting a 22-41-6-3 record to end a streak where the franchise had made the post-season in 31 consecutive campaigns. During many points on that run of making the playoffs in consecutive years, the Broncos were often seen as one of the powerhouse clubs in major junior hockey, while playing in the smallest market of the Canadian Hockey League.
The fans at the i-Plex cheer on the Broncos.
    Since missing the post-season in 2004-05, the Broncos have been good, but they have never really been viewed as being great.
    From the 2004-05 season to the 2015-16 campaign, the Broncos won only one playoff series taking out the Regina Pats in a best-of-seven series 4-2 in 2008. Besides missing the post-season in 2004-05, the Broncos failed to make the playoffs in the 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2015-16 campaigns.
    During the time period from 2004 to 2016, it seemed like Broncos fans saw some of their best players go on to do brighter things with other clubs. In 2010-11, star forward Cody Eakin was dealt to the Kootenay Ice in a blockbuster trade.
Glenn Gawdin has been a great captain for the Broncos.
    With Eakin, the Ice won the WHL title and appeared in the Memorial Cup championship tournament to battle for the CHL title.
    In 2015-16, the Broncos dealt star forward Jake DeBrusk to the Red Deer Rebels, who were hosting that season’s Memorial Cup. DeBrusk helped the Rebels advance to the WHL’s Eastern Conference Championship series for the first time in 12 years and make an appearance in the semifinal of the Memorial Cup tourney.
    It felt like Swift Current had been given the unwelcome title of “outpost” status. From 2004 to 2016, you would often hear rumours that players didn’t want to go there because it was too much of a fishbowl.
    When players did get there, they realized the fishbowl effect did not mean the fans were hyper critical of the team and players. Like any major junior centre, criticisms do come up. What you did find was a group of fans that longed to love their team.
    If the people in Swift Current saw a Broncos player as a genuine good person, they would have your back in a serious way.
    Still, the fact that results weren’t coming on the ice was discouraging, and it was common to see crowds of around 1,800 at the i-Plex during many regular season games from 2004 to 2016.
Broncos head coach Manny Viveiros lifts the Ed Chynoweth Cup.
    In July of 2009, the Broncos hired former NHL player Mark Lamb to be the team’s head coach and general manager, and he remained with the club until June of 2016 departing for a head coach position in the American Hockey League. 
    During his years in Swift Current, Lamb made it an emphasis and did a huge amount of leg work building up the respect of the Broncos to encourage players to come to the team and encourage fans to come out to games.
    When the Broncos were on the road, Lamb and Swift Current team members developed a reputation for being one the best groups to deal with among media in other centres. That was all part of the gritty leg work that was put in towards building a good reputation for the Broncos.
    Under Lamb, the Broncos brought in current stars in captain Glenn Gawdin and right-winger Tyler Steenbergen through the WHL Bantam Draft, Russian defenceman Artyom Minulin from the CHL Import Draft and offensive defenceman Colby Sissons as a list player. Lamb also acquired gritty left-winger Kaden Elder and sound defensive defenceman Sahvan Khaira via separate trades with the Seattle Thunderbirds.
Tyler Steenbergen (#17) has been a shining star for the Broncos.
    In July of 2016, the Broncos brought Manny Viveiros on board as the team’s head coach and director of player personnel. Viveiros was remembered in WHL circles for being an extremely talented offensive-defenceman with the Prince Albert Raiders from 1982 to 1986, and he played a key part in helping the Raiders win the Memorial Cup in 1985.
    He had a lengthy career playing professionally in Europe and transitioned into being an elite level coach once his playing days concluded. The Broncos made a great out of the box move in hiring Viveiros for his first head coaching position in North America. Often in the hockey world, coaches working overseas get overlooked when positions open in North America.
Aleksi Heponiemi has come through in big moments for the Broncos.
    Viveiros took over a good foundation that was in place and brought the Broncos to another level with their play on the ice. They added left-winger Aleksi Heponiemi from Finland before the start of the 2016-17 campaign and placed him on a line with Gawdin and Steenbergen.
    Together, that trio has become one of the best lines in the history of the Broncos and one of the most memorable forward units in the history of the WHL.
    The Broncos posted a 39-23-4-6 record in 2016-17, took out the Moose Jaw Warriors in a tough seven game first round playoff series before falling to the Regina Pats in a tough second round seven game series, which Swift Current had led 3-1.
    In Game 6 of the series with the Pats, the Broncos held a 3-1 lead in the second period and Gawdin had a breakaway on Pats netminder Tyler Brown. Brown made a robbery of a save to allow the Pats to rally back and take that contest 5-3.
Mascot Charlie Horse meets the Broncos’ fans.
    Had Gawdin scored on that breakaway, it was more than likely the Broncos would have taken that contest and advanced to the WHL Eastern Conference Championship series.
    During the process of the 2016-17 campaign, the loud and raucous sellout crowds of 2,890 returned to the i-Plex on a regular basis. With a solid core of veterans set to return for the team’s training camp in August of 2017, there was optimism around the Broncos that the team could hit greater heights.
    It still seemed those types of thoughts still belonged in a dream. Getting to Game 7 of the second round was treated like a major accomplishment to be celebrated.
    Going into 2017-18, the Broncos weren’t listed in the CHL’s Top 10 rankings in the pre-season poll. They would be a staple in those ratings for the rest of the campaign.
Netminder Stuart Skinner (#74) tracks the puck during a net scramble.
    The Broncos finished second overall in the WHL’s regular season with a 48-17-5-2 record. As the WHL’s trade deadline neared, they actually loaded up to help the team make a long playoff run.
    On Nov. 25, 2017, a blockbuster trade with Calgary Hitmen brought the Broncos skilled overage centre Matteo Gennaro and gritty left-winger Beck Malenstyn. On Jan. 9 a day before the WHL’s trade deadline, the Broncos acquired skilled overage centre Giorgio Estephan, star netminder Stuart Skinner and gritty right-winger Tanner Nagel from the Lethbridge Hurricanes in another blockbuster trade.
    In Swift Current, locals would have a hard time remembering the last time the Broncos made these “all in” types of moves on the trade front.
Centre Matteo Gennaro was a big addition from Calgary for the Broncos.
    Viveiros was named the WHL’s coach of the year and Heponiemi was voted the league’s most sportsmanlike player due to the regular season the Broncos had.
    The Broncos proceeded to advance through the first two rounds of the WHL playoffs downing the Pats in a tough seven-game series in the first round and the Moose Jaw Warriors, who finished first overall in the WHL in the regular season, in a seven-game battle in the second round.
    Having made the Eastern Conference Championship series for the first time since 2001, fans in Swift Current could have likely said it was a great run, if it ended there.
Colby Sissons has been a rock on the Broncos blue-line.
    After dispatching the Hurricanes in six games in an extremely competitive conference championship tilt, the Broncos were back in the WHL Championship series since last winning it in 1993. They would face the Everett Silvertips, who finished third overall in the league at 47-20-2-3 and had a superstar in net in Carter Hart.
    At one point, it looked like the dream would end there. Everett took Game 1 in Swift Current 2-1 and held a 3-0 lead after 20 minutes in Game 2 at the i-Plex. Little anyone know, the “Miracle at the i-Plex” was about to take place.
    The Broncos scored once in the second to pull to within 3-1. They entered the ice for the start of the third period behind a rousing ovation from their home crowd.
    With Steenbergen scoring with 1:37 to play in the third, the hosts pulled even at 3-3. Estephan competed the comeback scoring at the 9:27 mark of overtime to give the Broncos a 4-3 win.
    In Game 3 in Everett, the Broncos trailed 2-1 in the third period, and Gawdin came to the rescue. He had the equalizer with 3:17 to play in the third and scored the winner at 2:40 of overtime to complete a hat trick performance in a 3-2 Broncos victory.
Artyom Minulin has helped anchor the back end for the Broncos.
    The Broncos returned to Swift Current for Game 6 holding a 3-2 lead in the series. On Sunday at the i-Plex in Game 6, the Broncos and their fans lived out a dream night that culminated in a 3-0 championship clinching victory. 
    They persevered taking the title playing a record 26 games in one WHL post-season surpassing the 25 games played by the Portland Winter Hawks in 1979 and the Medicine Hat Tigers in 1986.
    The Broncos WHL title wins this year, in 1993 and 1989 mark the last three times a Saskatchewan team has captured the league crown.
    For the Broncos fans, they had to be beside themselves watching their team skate around the i-Plex ice surface and celebrate with the Ed Chynoweth Cup. Even the most optimistic Broncos fan might have thought that sight was impossible.
    Swift Current reclaimed its place as the “title town” of the WHL. In the city “where life makes sense,” the Broncos had proven that anything is possible.
The fans of the Broncos got to see their team win a WHL title at home.
    Now the Broncos will try to win their second Memorial Cup in team history. Their only CHL title win to date came on May 13, 1989.
    On that day, the residents of Swift Current descended on Saskatoon to watch their Broncos pull out a 4-3 overtime victory over the host Blades at Saskatchewan Place in the tournament’s championship game on Tim Tisdale’s winner.
    The Broncos qualified for this year’s Memorial Cup winning the WHL crown 29 years to the day of winning major junior hockey’s biggest prize.
    This year’s Memorial Cup is about a two-and-a-half hour drive east on the Trans-Canada Highway in Regina beginning on Friday when the host Pats face the Ontario Hockey League champion Hamilton Bulldogs (8 p.m., Brandt Centre).
Athletic trainer Jamie LeBlanc, left, and his daughter enjoy the WHL title win.
    The Broncos hit the ice for their first game at that event on Saturday against the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League champion Acadie-Bathurst Titan (2 p.m., Brandt Centre).
    Broncos fans might to get see one more surreal sight, if their team lifts the Memorial Cup as CHL champions after the tournament’s title game on May 27.

    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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