The Cougars had 18 players and staff test positive for COVID-19.
There are moments during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic
you want to tell some in the sports scene or some fans of the scene to go take
a valium or go smoke some medical marijuana.
It seems like any time there is a change with the sports scene
that people want to lash out emotionally. It is almost like you get some sort
of high by being triggered. During the COVID-19 pandemic, there are lots of
opportunities to get triggered by changes in the sports scene.
Those people don’t seem to settle down, step back and think
thinks out with a calm mind.
When you look at the sports world, it can be understandable.
In the sports world, it seems society loves to see their sports figures be emotional,
passionate and show heart. The same goes for the fans.
The emotion, passion and heart show you care about the sport
and care about the team you are playing for, work for or cheer for.
What sometimes gets forgotten is sport rewards those who can
control their emotion and passion and can conduct themselves in a cerebral and
professional manner.
Joe Montana, who built a Pro Football Hall of Fame career
playing for the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs, was known by
one of his nicknames as “Joe Cool.”
Why was Montana known as “Joe Cool?”
Montana was “Joe Cool,” because no matter how big the stakes
were in a game, or what adversities were faced in the contest he was playing,
he never lost his cool.
He always shut out the noise and acted in control. He
formulated a plan in his mind that this is what you had to do to get things
done, and he would go out and execute those things to win the game.
You could find those types of qualities in most of the best
athletes like hockey icon Wayne Gretzky and basketball icon Michael Jordan.
A lot of times, you don’t even need to look at the top
levels of professional sports to find those qualities.
The Prince Albert Raiders displayed those qualities during
the 2018-19 campaign when they finished first overall in the WHL and won the
WHL title. As a unit, the players didn’t lose their cool and were focused on
what needed to be done in the game they were playing that day.
Provincials in 2021 are mostly no in Man., uncertain for Westman Wildcats.
Even if scrums or fight situations developed and one of the
Raiders showed great passion at that time, that player was still in control and
knew what he was doing.
Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic that has gripped the world
is a different animal. In North America, there have been some sort of
restrictions in place to battle COVID-19 for a little over the past
eight-and-a-half months.
As new case numbers have spiked throughout November in North
America, restrictions have been reintroduced at different levels everywhere.
There have been situations that society has never dealt with
as a collective in its history. One of those points came in late March and
early April when pretty much all non-essential services in the world were
stopped.
The last time the world experienced a pandemic that
paralleled what is happening with the current COVID-19 pandemic was the Spanish Flu pandemic that ran from 1918 to 1920. Shutdowns did happen during the
Spanish Flu pandemic, but only a handful of people in today’s world were alive
back then and most would have been too young to have recollections of the
Spanish Flu.
The Spanish Flu pandemic was caused by an H1N1 influenza A
virus, and vaccines created by medical science in the current day have kept
influenza viruses under control.
Still as a collective, society in the current day doesn’t
have experience dealing with something like what the COVID-19 pandemic has
presented.
In the sports world, the natural reaction is to act
emotionally when a change occurs. At times, people that are lashing out need to
step back and really look at what they are reacting to.
They have to ask themselves is it really worth ranting and
raving over what they are reacting to or triggered from.
If you are ranting and raving over something immediately,
that usually is a sign that you have been triggered.
In the current sports climate, the changes and the breaking
news isn’t going to stop coming. That has been true even in the past couple of
days.
On Monday, Hockey Manitoba announced all minor hockey
provincials for the 2021 have been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Those tournaments would have run across the province throughout February and
March of 2021.
An opening was still in place to allow provincial leagues to name a provincial champion in Manitoba.
The Acadie-Bathurst Titan and QMJHL are off until Jan. 2021.
On Monday, it was also announced that 18 members of the
Mount Royal University Cougars men’s hockey team had tested positive for
COVID-19. The positives tests included both players and staff members. The team is in isolation and due to Alberta public health orders, the Cougars won’t be training again until next year.
Also on Monday, the QMJHL announced all league activities
are suspended starting on Tuesday and running through to Jan. 3, 2021 due to
the COVID-19 pandemic.
If that wasn’t enough, Brady Lang of 650 CKOM reported on
Monday the City of Saskatoon pulled all hockey nets off outdoor community rinks
due to the provincial public health orders that are in place. Those
restrictions are currently set to be in place until Dec. 17.
To different degrees, you could find people raging on any of
these topics. At the end of the day, does that rage really help anything
outside of blowing off steam?
You could also react too far in joyful way when good news
appears to occur.
On Tuesday, Curling Canada announced the 2021 Scotties, the
Brier, the men’s world curling championship and the Canadian national mixed
doubles will all be hosted at the Canada Olympic Park in Calgary, Alta., in a
bubble city format. The official dates of these events are still to be
announced.
When this bit of news dropped, there were those that acted
like life was going to return to normal starting tomorrow.
The Curling Canada announcement was great news, but you do
have to take the news knowing that there is a risk those four events still
might not happen.
There is also great optimism about the four vaccine
candidates that mainstream media outlets have done a number of stories on the
past handful of days. The expectation of what might happen in those stories
still has to be tempered.
For myself when I hear those vaccine stories, I have moments
where I envision everything returning to normal by September of 2021. I realize
the game isn’t over and there are still a lot of steps that have to be taken to
get to that point.
I don’t try to set a date for those things and try to let it
play out as it will play out and react the best I can to the developments.
With all that said, I am not against athletes having a good
cry or being upset session, if their season comes to an unexpected end. If they
can do that with a friend or teammate and even talk those feelings out with a
teammate, that type of action is even better.
The 2019 WHL champion Raiders were cool even in emotional times.
The up and down waves of emotion are going to continue to
come during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Here is hoping everyone in society can find a way to ride
those waves out as evenly as possible.
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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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.
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.”
Heavy heart today. You were an amazing person and always brought so much energy and positivity into the room and peoples lives. You will be deeply missed Caver. Sending all my love to Emily and the entire Cave family through this difficult time. pic.twitter.com/tcIgfbZRbo
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.
I don’t know where I would be if it wasn’t for Caver. He showed me what hard work looked like and the true meaning of being a leader. Gone too soon ❤️ RIP
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.
Absolutely devastating news. I don’t know what to say. I‘m absolutely gutted for his family. He was a terrific young man. Rest In Peace, Colby. https://t.co/OcPUpvrrOU
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.
I took a look back through the @WinnipegNews archives to see what life was like in Winnipeg during the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic. So much of it is strikingly familiar and could be lifted off those old pages and reprinted today.
– a very long thread (I know you have time) 1/50 pic.twitter.com/tElRuQnFX3
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.
Manitoba Sports Moment to Remember with former @NHLJets General Manager John Ferguson. In November of 1985 at the Arena Fergie put on the black and white as a Wrestling Referee for the AWA Championship cage match between Rick Martel and Boris Zhukov and had a hand in the outcome pic.twitter.com/6QTwoNLtJj
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.
