Apparently, my lack of web knowledge is severely hindering many of my readers’ attempts to read the blog. My new flash-based site is creating havoc for many of your browsers and had completely disabled your ability to read the blog on your mobile devices.
Not to worry – despite that I spent hours on a flash-based site, I’d hate to lose readers or interfere with your ability to enjoy the forum, so back to WordPress I’ll go.
I might keep some of the flash pages, like the recruit and alumni pages, etc. But, the blog (and the address) will point to WordPress.
In an effort to explain what I was trying to do, I found WordPress increasingly frustrating because I couldn’t customize the page the way I wanted; hence the many and frequent template changes. The flash site allowed me to use IFrames, embed things that WordPress simply doesn’t allow.
But none of that is worth it if people can’t read the blog!
Ultimately, this forum is all about the content and the readers. So, back to the drawing board I go. If I were a web designer, I’d surely have better solutions, but I’m not. Please pardon me, again, while I switch everything back over. Things will be back to normal soon, I promise.
Check out this video I came across … it’s Maine’s senior night against the Warriors from 1991. Merrimack’s starting lineups (and old-school uni’s) are featured in the video.
It has nothing to do with hockey, but I came across this video this morning (Boston.com) and found it absolutely fascinating.
Roger Gentilhomme, a Cape Cod resident, celebrated his 100th birthday doing what he still does everyday – he played tennis.
This guy is amazing. He not only heads out everyday day and still plays a game he loves, but he’s also an award winning athlete.
Gentilhomme is entering the National Senior Games in San Francisco this summer. In 2007 he won the “Male Athlete of the Year” at the Florida Senior Games. He won two gold medals at the National Senior Olympics in Kentucky the same year and won two more golds (in tennis and bowling) at the Massachusetts Senior Games.
In September, he’ll travel across the pond to the Netherlands for the World Senior Games.
This guy is incredible.
Good luck this summer, Roger, I’ll be rooting for you.
Not sure how many of you caught last night’s 4-0 Game 5 victory for the Boston Bruins (Carolina still leads the series 3-2), but Hurricanes forward Scott Walker delivered a sucker punch to the left eye of Bruins defense Aaron Ward with a few minutes left in the third period.
Ward, who was tangled with Matt Cullen, still had his gloves on and his hands at his side when Walker’s right fist came flying at his unprotected face. Unconfirmed reports are that Ward suffered a broken orbital bone. Here’s the play:
Automatic suspension, right? I mean, if Milan Lucic got suspended for cross-checking Maxim Lapierre, certainly Walker’s actions would suffer a similar fate.
Nope.
Walker was not only spared a suspension, but was slapped on the wrist with an embarrassing $2,500 fine.
“Based on what was said on the ice as I was dropping my gloves, it was my understanding that I was engaged in an altercation,” Walker said in a statement issued by the team.
Hey Scott, you’re a terrible liar.
Ward barely had the time to mutter anything your way – after all, he was busy going at it with your teammate before you so eloquently injected yourself into the equation.
“In reviewing what I saw, I just didn’t like what happened. . . . I just don’t think there was any need for that,” said Bruins head coach Claude Julien after practice on Monday. “He sucker-punched him once coming into the scrum when (Ward) was involved with another player. And then he dropped his gloves and sucker-punched him.
“I don’t care what people say about, `Ward should’ve protected himself.’ He had no intention of getting involved,” he added. “We asked our guys to stay composed and not fall into that trap, and he just did that. A guy with Walker’s experience should know better than to sucker-punch a guy.”
Carolina general manager Jim Rutherford said the incident was “clearly brought on by them,” according to TSN, and said he felt the Hurricanes had taken shots from Boston players throughout the series. He isn’t worried about the possibility of the Bruins retaliating against Walker during Game 6 Tuesday night.
“We are satisfied with the league’s ruling,” Rutherford said in a statement. “After our team received several punches throughout the series leading up to Game 5, it was a matter of time before one was going to be thrown back.
“If that’s the way the game’s going to be played, that’s the way we’ll play the game,” he said.
I’m not so sure about that, Jim. Between Ward’s broken face and a near shattered ankle of Zdeno Chara after a nifty little slash by Jussi Jokinen, I wouldn’t be shocked to see Shawn Thornton grab a hold of one of those guys to send a message.
(Side note: I will give Rutherford a small bit of credit — the hit that Milan Lucic buried Dennis Seidenberg with at teh end of the first period was a classic hit from behind. Seidenberg was hit in the numbers and had his face planted to that glass. If that means that the ‘Canes have the right to break faces and attempt to break ankles, then so be it).
Believe me, from personal experience, these guys work their tails off. Rob’s right on when he says that it’s a 50-plus hour per week job, and that’s on top of being a fulltime college student. Almost always, the equipment guys are the first ones in the locker room (around 1:30-2:00, when I was there) and the last ones out of the locker room (about 6:30-7:00). That’s the schedule Monday-Thursday. On a typical weekend, you have a Friday game, which means getting things ready for the morning skate first thing, before class, and then heading off for studies. Then going back to the rink about 1:30 to make sure laundry is ready and the jerseys are in the stalls (if it’s a road game, you have to pack – how joyful). Usually you get back to your room in time for a quick 90 minute nap, then it’s time to shower and head back to the rink by 4:30 until you leave at about 10:30.
Oh, and on Saturday, you usually have video/skate at 10:00 or so, then more laundry and packing/getting shirts ready to go, followed by another game. Sunday is more video and a full practice.
It’s not an easy schedule for the players, either.
Make no mistake about it, it’s not easy being a college hockey player, or a college student equipment manager – good to see the boys finally get some pub – I wish I thought of it!
My colleague, Alan Siegel, wrote a story last year on Boston Bruins’ forward Milan Lucic, a husky young Vancouver kid with a knack for not only the net, but for dropping the mits.
My colleague, Alan Siegel, wrote a story last year on Boston Bruins’ forward Milan Lucic, a husky young Vancouver kid with a knack for not only the net, but for dropping the mits.
Mike McMahon