Cornwall Is....Almost Hockeyville

Cornwall Is....Almost Hockeyville

Call it a close heart attack, Cornwall finished second in the Kraft Hockeyville voting. So it's close but no cigar - or in this case, an NHL exhibition game.

Congratulation to the city of North Bay, surely an awesome hockey town, and well worthy of the title this year.

Cornwall will definitely be back next year. I'm already feeling a bit guilty for only voting 25 times! I should have voted 500 times.

I feel the worst for my oldest daughter who voted even more than I, as she was included in the promo clip expounding Cornwall's virtues as Hockeyville. In my heart, Hockeyville is wherever she plays!

You can hear me, along with my two girls, moaning slightly when Gary Bettman announces North Bay as the winner.

What really kills me about all this, is why on God's hockey playing Earth does a righteous Canadian hockey stronghold like North Bay get a Thrashers - Islanders game?

Like, shouldn't a pair of Canadian teams be participating?

Makes me almost happy to win it another year!

Well at least Cornwall can still lay claim to the best kick ass shinny team in the country - the Cornwall Six Shooters! One of my daughter's hockey coach's is pictured second from the left - Yvon Besner. If you could see this guy fire a shot, you'd know why they claimed the Masters prize in the Pond Hockey Challenge in Muskoka.

Cornwall Is Hockeyville - No Kidding!

From "Newsy" to Chad, Orval to Lori, Cornwall has the Hockey credentials covered, now give us that Hockeyville prize!









With news that the city of Cornwall has reached the top 5 in the Kraft Hockeyville competition, I thought I'd bring some historical perspective on the game's history in our town.

As all Cornwallite hockey fans must know, the roots of the game run deep here. While we may no longer have an OHL hockey club to boast of, our love of hockey manifests itself it many different and positive ways for ciitizens of all ages.

The one thing that always strikes me is how involved the youth in our city are in the game.







For a small region of roughly 50,000 in population, our boys and girls simply eat the sport up.

We have the largest percentage, per capita of children registered in hockey via the CMHA for boys, and the Kinsmen sponsored CGHA for girls. Compared to other cities our size, our hockey playing population dwarfs all challengers in numbers. Add in the fact that the Huron Hockey School has been entrenched in the players development for decades, and one can plainly understand why we not only have the numbers, but we are darn good at the game as well.

The city presently in the grip of Hockeyville fever, also has the Royal Bank Cup on the horizon for 2008, in which the Cornwall Colts will act as the host team for the national Junior A tournament.






























The Hockeyville competition is indeed aptly timed, as Cornwall's mayor, Bob Kilger former NHL referee and Memorial Cup winning coach, is of course, the father of Toronto Maple Leafs forward Chad Kilger.

Local sportswriter Todd Hambleton made mention in his column yesterday that Cornwall also boasts one heck of good shinny team.Todd writes that "Other Cornwall Hockeyville angles perhaps got left on the cutting room floor, (of the Hockeyville promo clip), like our flourishing girls' hockey association, or the fact that we have one of the world's best shinny teams. The Cornwall Six-Shooters - Mike Lamarche, Scott Barnes, Harry Marsolais, Rod Lemieux, Yvon Besner and Chris Villeneuve - almost beat the world champs from Boston at last year's international semifinal in New Brunswick."























Just this past month, the Six-Shooters won the inaugural Canadian National Masters Championships in Muskoka, Ontario, with a 9-0 record. The men who not only have the right to claim the first-ever Canadian National Masters Championship Cup, but also the spirit of the Championship. After enduring the true Pond Hockey Challenge - 4 games in just over 4 hours - the Six-Shooters defeated The Jokers 33-13 in a gunslinging final.

A pond hockey championship should be worth 100,000 bonus votes in the Hockeyville competition.

Our city's passion for the sticks whacking pucks on ice likely stretches farther back in time than recorded history allows us to view. Going as far back as the early 1900's, the city had a team in the Federal Amateur Hockey League. Two of Cornwall's more reknowned players from the era were Edouard "Newsy" Lalonde and Cy Denneny.

Through the years, many teams calling Cornwall home, played before thousands of fans, providing the thrills that have lined our heritage. There have been, in no particular order, the Cornwall Flyers, the Chevy's, the Aces, the Victorias, the Comets, the Colts, and most proudly, our 3 time Memorial Cup Champion Cornwall Royals.










Cornwall has helped launch the careers of many great players,coaches, and hockey executives into the big leagues.

Famous names of those born or passing through the Seaway City on the road to larger dreams include Lalonde, Denneny, Doug Gilmour, Billy Smith, Orval Tessier, Ray Miron, Dale Hawerchuk, Ron Ward, Alain Chevrier, Doug Carpenter, Mathieu Schneider, Owen Nolan, and current NHLer Chad Kilger.

Surely, from the multitudes, some names are passing me by.

And that's just the boys!

On the girls side of hockey greatness, Cornwall's Olympian Gold medalist Laurie Dupuis has many former and present Typhoons girls in line to assume the mantle of Cornwall's best ever female hockey player.




























Kilger, who is home grown and bred, carries the current Cornwall torch in the NHL. A highly skilled and useful defensive forward for the Maple Leafs, Kilger has also played for Cornwall's other favorite NHL franchise, the Canadiens. He recently made national headlines by registering the hardest shot on record, 106.1 mph, at a Leafs charity event. Chad was also clocked as the fastest skater on the Buds - no surprise to some of the local boys who go up against him in the off season.






















Lalonde, with the Montreal Canadiens, and Denneny with the Ottawa Senators of the day, were not mere participants in the early times of the NHL, but two of the fledgling league's brightest stars. Their accomplishments passed through league records, legendary on ice battles, Stanley Cup wins, to now reside in the history books and the Hockey Hall Of fame for all to be proud of.

Lalonde was a leading scorer for the Canadiens for six years, he served as captain from 1915 to 1921. The tenacious forward with a gift for scoring was a member of the first Montreal Canadiens team to win the Stanley Cup in 1916. Lalonde was scoring champion five times in the NHA, the PCHA and NHL, an unprecedented feat in the major professional ranks and unsurpassed until Gordie Howe's sixth scoring title in 1963.

























Sportswriter Dick Beddoes once called Lalonde "a survivor of a truly permissive age when hockey was genuinely a mug's racket, mottled with roughnecks who prefered to drink an opponants blood at body temperature."

In six NHL seasons covering 99 games, Lalonde hit for an astounding 124 goals, an accomplishment that can never truly be diminished by time.

From 1910 to 1954, he held the record for the most goals scored by a major league hockey player, including his pre-NHL totals -- 441 goals, a record later broken by Maurice Richard.

In 1950, he was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame, and the Canadian Lacrosse Hall Of Fame also inducted him in 1965. The Sports Hall of Fame of Canada, in Toronto, acknowledged Lalonde by having him light the torch upon their opening ceremonies in 1955.

In 1998, 71 years after his last game and 76 years after initial retirement, he was ranked number 32 on The Hockey New's list of the 100 Greatest Hockey Players, making him the highest-ranking player on the list who had played in a professional league before the founding of the NHL.









Cyril "Cy" Denneny, nicknamed the "Cornwall Colt" was born in nearby Farrow's Point in 1894. As a left winger with the 1920's era Ottawa Senators, he topped the 20 goal plateau eight times. Joined by brother Corb, Cy won four Stanley Cups with the Senators before capping off his career with a fifth, in a Bruins uniform in 1929.

Denneny ranked as the NHL's all time leading goal scorer from 1919 to 1934, having been only briefly surpassed by Joe Malone in 1923. In NHA and NHL play, he combined to score 279 goals in 368 games. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall Of Fame in 1959.

To the growing number of voices proclaiming Cornwall is Hockeyville, it can be added that Cornwall has in fact been Hockeyville going on a hundred years now.

For those who have seen the Cornwall Hockeyville clip, you'll notice that the last scene shows children in a grade 6 classroom shouting "Cornwall Is Hockeyville!" That class is from Immaculate Conception school, and the teacher, dressed as a referee is Joy Martel, who had a film crew come in and shoot the kids cheer.

My daughter Crystal, who is part of Mrs. Martel's class, was asked to help gather some hockey jerseys for the filming. She borrowed a few of mine including a Canadiens jersey she is wearing, and Detroit and San Jose duds that you might spot in the . I was lucky enough to get into class that morning and catch this little bit of fun with the digicam.



Cornwall also has it's share of very well known hockey fanatics. Witness the picture below of a gentleman with a collection of memorabilia so impressive, a former NHL'er stopped by to check it out.

Only in Hockeyville!

A Weekend Of The Best Kind Of Hockey Fun

Poke Check, a.k.a. Crystal L, first from the right.

Just a quick note to regular readers wondering why the content has gotten thin over the weekend.

I'm off in Brantford as of now for Poke Check's trip to the 26th annual Walter Gretzky Tournament. Her team, the Cornwall Pee Wee B Typhoons won this baby last year and we we're hoping to meet the Great One's Dad, but lucked out. Wally had just returned, slightly pooped and tired, from a disappointing Olympic experience with Wayne and made only a brief appearance. We're hoping this year that things will work out again and maybe, just maybe, the kids'll get to share a laugh and a picture or two with Mr.Gretzky.

For some fun reading, down below, I'll post my game summary that I do for the team's website and the local paper. We have a little 10 year old star, two years younger and a foot shorter than every other girl on the team, who had one wicked game!

That 6-0 win put our team into the Provincials tournament next month. It was nice that Poke Check banged in the game's opening goal to get the run started.

I'll soon be undertaking a major project here at EOTP. Since there are, give or take, 110 days until a new Stanley Cup winner is championed, I thought I would go just ballistic and try to post a different Cup winner for each year, every day, leading up to the day in early June when it's won again.

It should be quite the task. I have already begun to collect information for those posts, to get this marathon underway. You'll notice in my sidebar, that there are 6 done so far. The latest are the first Cup wins in 1893 and 1894 by the Montreal AAA. Others have included the 1907 Kenora Thistles, the 1915 Vancouver Millionaires, and legendary Leafs and Wings teams.

If any readers have any suggestions as to how they'd like to see me proceed with this, feel free to drop ideas in the comment box. I'm wondering if I should start chronologically from 1893 and bring it to the present, or randomly jump around from era to era. Anyone having a link to pertinent content for a given year can send that along also - I'd be quite happy to add it into the post at any time.

On occasion I like to pass a plug along for other blogs that I find of interest and three that always keep me coming back for more are Joe's Pelletier's Legends Network, E's Theory Of Ice, and Current Habs History And Opinion.

Joe's topics have branched out alot lately. I always never ( ! ) know what I'll find there on my daily visits. Today I learned how how a trip to the dump can change one's life. Joe had a thought to turn his hockey altering life moment into a blogger tag - not a bad idea. I may just tag along when I get back home.

Mine, has to do with Guy Lafleur.

E at Theory Of Ice wrote about the trade deadline with a more human perspective than any blogger you'll find. The posts there are so well thought out and introspective, that one learns just as much about oneself, as they do of the topic, when reading it. That's a feat few can accomplish! The site is deep in that way. You might actually find yourself going back to read something over again, as I often do. Be sure to check out "What We Could And Couldn't Do" and "The Soul Of Nowhere". E will one day write a best seller on hockey that will be compared to Dryden's best work, I am convinced!

For the end all on Habs content, Matt's Current Habs History And Opinion has got it. This young journalist shares his Canadiens insights with readers on a very personal level. He's just suffered some blows as his favorite players have taken hits, and gotten traded. He's actually even taken a hit himself, of the fender bender variety. He also has his hand in at Habs World where even more content is linked to. Within a year Matt will have the best Habs blog going - check him out!
















Other interesting reads I stumbled across today were Zanstorm's joke at Waiting For Stanley - absolutely hilarious! There's an article on Anaheim GM Brian Burke's trade diary that sheds some light on the inner workings of a GM at the deadline. Precious and funny stuff - if you think like Burke. Finally, a piece I was happy to read, on Sheldon Souray's summertime decision on the Habs resigning him. I call this good news, and you can learn more about his complicated relationship with actress Angelica Bridges that could make or break his stay in Montreal.












Finally, my hometown of Cornwall has earned a Kraft Hockeyville prize. A nifty $10,000 bonus comes with being given the Family Merit Award. I wish I were able to link to the city's submitted clip, as Poke Check's class is in it at the very end shouting "Cornwall is Hockeyville." I was in class at the time, filming with my digicam, and may be uploading that clip here in the near future.

Hopefully, in my technicolour dreams, I'll return to town to read much on the Canadiens back to back wins over the weekend. Now is catching RDS west of the Big Smoke a pipe dream?

Enjoy the reads, all. Have a good weekend!

Here is the Cornwall Typhoons piece from my local paper, the Standard-Freeholder.

TYPHOONS QUALIFY FOR PROVINCIALS

The Cornwall Pee Wee B Typhoons are off to the Ontario Provincials!

After back to back wins against the Russell Invaders, the Typhoons took care of the Napanee Crunch, winning two games and tying the other in the best of three format to cement their place in Ontario's biggest tournament. In a nailbitter of a scenario, the Typhoons took care of the Crunch in high flying fashion, posting a 6-0 shutout win.

Edging Napanee 3-2 in the Cornwall opener, the Typhoons came from behind to get a 1-1 draw in game two in Napanee. As familiarity with an opponant breeds a more precise game plan, the Typhoons executed perfectly in sweeping to victory.

The Typhoons started early when Jenna Merpaw spotted Katryne Villeneuve, alone behind the Napanee goal. Villeneuve fed Crystal Lefebvre at the edge of the crease and the winger popped it five hole for the early lead. Minutes later, a pretty give and go from Taylor Samson to Villeneuve and back, gave the Typhoons a 2 goal margin. Before the period was out, Lefebvre hit Villeneuve with a pass and her rising shot rolled over the Crunch goalie's shoulder. Merpaw was "Johnny on the spot" to tap in the rebound and put the game out of reach.

Villeneuve added three goals to her three assists to round out the scoring. On the first, she intercepted a mid ice pass to burst in and deke a helpless goaltender. She added two more in the third period for the hat trick.

Playing with the comfortable lead, a total Typhoons team effort was needed to shut down a Crunch team that wouldn't quit. The Napanee squad features several backliners capable of blistering slapshots and a bevy of sleek offensive moves. Typhoons forwards Caitlin Champagne and Allison Boots, both quality penalty killers, spent the game blocking point shots and turning chances up ice. Goalie Bianka Emmell was rarely left alone with shooters, and foiled the Crunch's best chances at every turn.

On defense, the Typhoons rearguards make few mistakes in limiting the Napanee opportunities. Lauren Seguin and Myriam Lefebvre kept all Crunch attacks on the outside. Josee Daze handled one on one's with expertise. Chantal Quenneville was a physical presence in the corners and along the boards. All four played poised positional play, handing their forwards well timed passes that gave the game its fast pace.

Rounding out the points for the 3 Napanee games were a pair of markers from Villeneuve, with a single to Seguin, 2 assists to Bianca Lemire, and one each for Crystal Lefebvre, Myriam Lefebvre, Daze, Champagne, Merpaw and Villeneuve.

Achieving the Provincials is quite an accomplishment for the Typhoons who have had their fair share of hard luck earlier in the season. The team is currently on a 8-2-1 roll since making the finals in the Nepean tourney. Full credit to coach Dave Merpaw and assistants for their work and dedication.

The Typhoons next adventure is the 26th annual Walter Gretzky tournament in Brantford starting March 1st.

Cops and Robbers, Kids being Kids, a Jersey, and Something Cheesy

There are weird stories and then there are hoodoo voodoo tales, those of the variety filled with such coincidental occurances, it makes one truly believe that at times there is a greater karma at work in our lives.

The mention of Mario Lemieux at the Waiting for Stanley blog got me thinking about such a weirdness that all came together a few months back. This story is right up Tapeleg's alley, as it has to do with a particular jersey my daughter received as a gift. Given all the coincidental twists this story has, I wouldn't be surprised to find out that Tapeleg and the giver of this gift have done business somewhere back in time.

There are a few back threads to unravelling this tale. Blindsided events back thru time that made everything oddly connect one particular morning. I'm rarely at a lost for words (insert joke here!), but I was on this day.

It starts when I met Thom Racine about 15 years ago. He is a well respected police officer with the Cornwall Police department. I know Thom just a little but he is very well known and much liked about town. He is quite active within the community doing a wide variety of activities. His father, Moe "The Toe" Racine was an excellent place kicker for the Ottawa Rough Riders in the 1960's. His brother Bruce was an NHL goalie for a time. Thom has done play by play on radio for the Cornwall Royals, been the house announcer for the Comets, hosted a sports card show on the community TV channel, and participated in dozens of other activities involving sport and community events. Among his most treasured passions is one wicked hockey memorabilia collection, with an accent on jerseys.

I didn't know this much about him when he knocked on my door all those years ago. He was at my home on a matter of police business. Back then I was heavily into the hockey card collecting and trading hobby and had a prized possesion stolen from right under my nose. My Mario Lemieux Rookie Card.

I had a neighbour with whom I exchanged cards with on a daily basis, and often she would send her son to pick up and deliver. One day, this boy was over to collect some trades, when the phone rang calling me to another room. Apparently this was when the boy lifted my card. I only noticed days later and was very hesistant to approach a friend to suggest her son had stolen from me. I managed to ease into the situation and find out that it was in fact he who'd stolen it. My friend had had enough of her sons sticky finger antics and wanted the police called. How Thom taught the boy a lesson without charging him was quite unique. He made him collate in numerical order a complete vendors case of 1990-91 O-Pee-Chee Hockey Cards. A set of 396 into likely 40 or so sets. I'm sure he never wanted to see, let alone touch, another hockey card for quite a long while after.

This was the circumstances under which I got to know Thom. Over the years we would run into each other periodically and reminisce over that day.

At some point, Thom began making the rounds of primary schools with parts of his memorabilia collection. It was always an entertaining day for the kids, who got to check out some cool hockey stuff and connect with a local officer. He stopped by my daughter's school two years ago for one such day, and the school principal decided it would be a neat tie-in to have prizes and a trivia contest.

Thom complied by bringing out 3 members of the Cornwall Colts team for autographs and questions. I found out all of this much later. At the time I had no idea that Thom was even involved. My daughter had only refered to him as "some guy with lots of stuff".

A contest was part of the fun day. All the questions had either a local sports angle to them or be somehow connected to the Habs, Leafs, or Sens, thus simplifying the kids search for correct answers. The principal was Kennedy McDonald, younger brother of former NHLer Blair McDonald. Blair was the beneficiary of some smooth Gretzky passes in 1979-80, accounting for 48 goals. That was question #1. Kennedy did not want anyone to get all the questions correct, so he loaded a trick answer to one of them, so no one would score 25 out of 25. Parents were of course allowed to help. Since no one would get all the right answers the first prize would be drawn from a hat filled with all 55 participants.

Yours truly, saw to it that the hat had but two names in it!

Yes I got all 25 right. I knew 19 of the answers off hand, and did net searches on the rest. Both my daughters scored perfect. As far as the tricky trivia questions goes, it had to do with which year the Ottawa Senators won their first Stanley Cup in the NHL. Most answered the first year that they'd won it, in the NHA instead.

What ensued was the stuff of a kids comedy show. My oldest daughter badly wanted the signed Colts jersey, my youngest had no idea what was of any value. She had her young eyes on the collections of McDonald's NHL replica trophies. The principal drew her name to go first (my oldest didn't get to go second) and she went straight for the shiney little plastic toys. My oldest was fuming, "Daddy would have wanted that sweater!" "Would have" is right. Today,I wouldn't trade it for this annecdote. My daughter never quite got over it though.

I still collect memorabilia odds and ends. At my Kraft workplace this past winter, the company was running a national promo called "Skate With The Greats". We have a small store on my way out of the plant, and they had two large cardboard cutouts of players featured in the promo along with booklets of contest rules and product tie ins. One immediatly caught my eye. It was one of Dale Hawerchuk and Darryl Sittler. I went in to put my name on it, but it had already been taken. A second one featuring Steve Shutt and Yvan Cournoyer became my possession three months later when the promo ended.

It was so huge that I had to put both the back and front seats down in the car just to haul it away.

I was planning to give it to a friend of mine for whom I'd gotten others for, such as a Don Cherry cutout, a Gretzky and a Muller/Gilmour silhouette. He didn't want it.

His apartment was now too small. I placed it in the darkness of friend restaurant owners office in order to spook him into keeping it. He didn't want it.

He offered to find a home for it for me, and kept it in his office to wake himself up in fright each morning and it sat there for weeks. I offered to take it off his hands but he really wanted to be the one to give it away. He had somebody in mind. They didn't want.

All said "Thanks, but no thanks" - it was way too huge to place anywhere!

When the Canadiens played the Hurricanes in game six of these past playoffs, I watched the game on the big screen at this restaurant and went to get the cutout. I thought that placing it next to our table would provide good luck to my Habs, with Shutt and Cournoyer looking on. I got the night shift manager and we snuck quietly into the darkened office and there it was - gone! Needless to say the Habs were eliminated that night.

I found my owner friend two days later and asked who finally had found room for the cardboard monolith. No it wasn't the kid that ripped off my Lemieux RC, but close. It was someone named McDonald - who giving it to their Dad! Hmmm!

Round about this time, a senior sports writer in the city had passed away. He was well known about town also and had once written a book on the Cornwall Royals called "The Frozen Stage". He had a small sports column in a local weekly and when he passed, I saw myself filling his shoes. I applied, was given some consideration, but the job in the end landed in the hands of one Thom Racine.

After he had published a few columns, I used his e-mail address to contact and congratulate him. I asked him a question or two, and after all these years he remembered me from the stolen card incident. We were e-mailing each other for a bit after that as he was on holidays at the time. One day he sent me some awesome pics from his basement collection. I showed them to my oldest daughter who immediatly said " That's the guy who was at school with the Colts jersey I didn't win!" I explained to her how I knew him as she told me that she'd seen all that memorabilia at her school.

Next day when I e-mailed Thom and told him all this, he laughed and said he remembered that day, and those two kids, very clearly. He thought the story of how we missed out on the jersey was funny as hell and agreed it was more special than the sweater itself. We were throwing trivia questions back and forth at each other for a bit when suddenly he was no longer responding.

A half hour later there is a knock at my door. There is Thom and he's pulling a jersey out of a bag. "Here", he said, "give this to your daughter. Maybe she won't be so sad anymore about losing the other one."

At first I thought he was pulling out a Colts jersey, but instead he hands me this beauty:


Funniest thing was, he had no idea I worked at Kraft. I asked where he'd gotten it and he said it was from a Kraft plant manager who was a friend. I asked if he worked at the same location as I did, and he said that he worked out of Montreal. He asked me not to tell anyone about it (Shhh! It's just between us!) As it was way too large for my daughter for now, I wore it to work the very next day.

When I arrived at work I found I was scheduled for a one hour meeting/seminar prior to heading off to my line. I walked into the makeshift classroom office when a gentleman walks in, puts his books down on the desk, takes one look at me and says, "Hey cool sweater, I just gave mine away to a dear friend last week!"