Sequoia Swan

I remember when I was a little boy. Yes, I was a little boy once. I watched the Stanley Cup playoffs on television. It was my first experience watching this new invention. It was the 1955-56 hockey season and I was watching TV in the gym at the Oblate residential school where I was trying to avoid studies and learn to play hockey. Montreal Canadiens won. They beat the Maple Leafs which only the late Father Guy Lavallee cheered for. Everyone else was a Montreal fan including yours truly. If you have not yet read the children’s book ‘The Hockey Sweater” by Roch Carriere, you must get it now and read it. You will immediately get the flavour of what it was then to be a Montreal hockey fan.

That season was the start of the incredible five-year domination of the Stanley Cup champion Canadiens. The roster was an array of unforgettable characters and hockey legends including ‘Rocket’ Richard, his little brother Henri, Jean Beliveau, Bernie Geoffrion, Doug Harvey, Dickie Moore, and others. The hockey barons changed the penalty rule to allow the penalized player back on the ice after a goal is scored to stop the Montreal onslaught with the man advantage.

That was a long time ago and I rarely watch ‘ice hockey’ any more. I missed many seasons while I lived in Australia from 1974-82 and when I came back the game had changed to something like roller derby on ice. No more fancy stick-handling and passing plays: just dumping the puck in and chasing it, with lots of cross-checking, interference and high-sticking. That grated on my referee’s nerves, I having taken to officiating to earn money to go to university and then ending up as the Referee-in-Chief for Australia, where the game was a very minor sport played mostly by Canadian ex-pats. I see that the game has made a good come-back, with the players being bigger, stronger, and faster than ‘back in the day’, a fact that I will not admit in the depths of my soul. Back then, it was commented that ‘Moose’ Vasko, a defenceman for Chicago Black Hawks, was too big to play hockey at 205 pounds. Today many forwards are much larger than that.

Another development is body protection equipment that seems to have been designed for tank warfare. I am puzzled not only by the hard elbow pads that make great weapons but especially by the helmets that seem designed to ensure concussions rather than prevent them. Recent scientific studies have shown what was plain to ordinary folks like my good friend: the helmets are next to useless because they have no absorption quality but simply transfer the blow to the head. Why not use softer helmets that absorb shock?  Try this test: put on a helmet and bang yourself on the head. When you wake up you will be convinced something is amiss.

A round of applause for young Sequoia Swan, Anishinabe Pee Wee player who made the Western Selects roster that recently played in an international tournament in Europe. Sequoia is the grandson of friends Jenn and Darcy Wood and a member of Cape Croker First Nation, all of whom live in Winnipeg where Sequoia is the star player for the local elite Rebels team. Proud parents are Jenn and Darcy’s daughter Shylo and Clint Swan of Peguis First Nation. The Selects won all five first round games but were stymied by a hot Finnish goaltender in the quarter-finals.

A polite ‘congrats’ to our friend Milton Tootoosis for his work in promoting hockey in Saskatchewan. Keep up the good work Milton! Sports need more people like you.

COMMERCIAL BREAK

Your humble scribe  (aka ‘ink-stained wretch’) has been called to the Bar in Manitoba, which means I have joined Boudreau Law a firm specializing in Aboriginal Law in Winnipeg. I have not however thrown away my goose quill, having resolved to work part-time at a law practice while writing books on legal subjects, a task which local friends and Saskatoon publishers Purich Publishing keep reminding me about when I lag behind schedule!

LAST WORD

Speaking of the NHL playoffs it appears that a flock of Ducks recently downed some Jets in the Winnipeg area, leading to a great gnashing of teeth by fans who had not tasted Stanley Cup playoffs in many years. 

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