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There's Hockey in Saskatoon |
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Well, it seems that any REAL information regarding Team Canada's U18 camp is actually found on TSN.ca. Gee.... what a surprise.
Even the HockeyCanada.ca site is a little slow in updating. But I will say that I do love the @MyTeamCanada Twitter account who has posted live updates from their two Red vs. White games from Saturday and Sunday.
The Saturday game had almost 2700 attendees for the game of Canada's best prospects. Tonight's game has an official attendance of 2488, or roughly what some media outlets will tell you is the average attendance on a Tuesday night in January for a NY Islander game.
The boys at this camp have been pretty busy as this is their audition for Team Canada. They did have Friday off to go play golf. (Because you know, you can't be a professional hockey player unless you can actually PLAY golf. No... For real. I think it's part of the NHLPA membership rules.)
So in looking for anything (and I mean ANYTHING) regarding Islanders prospects de Haan and Hamonic, the only thing I found was a) At Saturday night's game both de Haan and Hamonic assisted on Patrice Cormier's goal at :48 into the first. b) de Haan took a hooking penalty at only :13 into the second. Oopps.
Two minutes in the box is not how to get yourself noticed by a coach. But that's okay. He's young.
Neither Islanders prospect's name came up in tonight's game on the Twitter updates. They have not yet posted the box scores for the game, so I don't know if there is any pertinent info there.
What I do know is that there is the question of exactly WHO will be available to play in the World Juniors and the fact that these kids too take their careers into their own hands during the training camps.
There is already one broken collar bone due to a 'clean open ice hit' from yesterday's game that will take 6 - 8 weeks to heal. But the risks in this game are always great. It's part of the game. So I can understand the questions the NHLPA have regarding the Olympic camps and the insurance.
As bad as it is for a 17 year old kid to get hurt and lose 8 weeks of his training and development, it would be an exponential loss should an NHLer in his prime lose a good chunk of his career.
Something needs to be done somehow. It is an honor to be able to play a sport at the Olympic games and represent your country. It is not something that should be taken away from an athelete due to an insurance technicality. The Olympic committee, the NHLPA or the NHL need to take steps to find a way to help these players garner short term insurance for the training camps. And they need to do it NOW.
We are already closing out the first week of August. Time is flying by. Someone step up to the plate and hit a home run... like Alex Rodriguez against the Red Sox.
he he he he ....
New York Islanders Blogger • 
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