Fleury Fan

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As a kid, my five favourite hockey players were Joe Sakic, Mike Modano, Wendel Clark, Theoren Fleury, and Steve Yzerman.

Reasons?  First, no one can dislike Yzerman.

The other four?  They’d all been parts of my childhood as I had watched them all in their junior days with the Swift Current Broncos, Prince Albert Raiders, Saskatoon Blades, and Moose Jaw Warriors respectively.

As of last week, only one of the five was still playing.

As of last night, another may be back.

Now age 41, having been absent from the league for 6 years, Theo is taking another stab at it.  The Flames granted him a spot at training camp–the rest is up to him.

Last night, he scored the shootout winner.

Looks like he may be serious.

And that would be more than fine by this fan.

Riders ’09: Game 10 (Wpg)

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Am I a bad person for feeling some pain for the poor Bombers today?  Because I did.  A little.

55-10 is a whooping on any day by any team.  Add 8 Winnipeg turnovers, and over 100 yards penalties by each team, and this one wasn’t pretty… unless you are a Riders’ fan.  What stood out?

  • Durant continues to develop.  Turnovers have been the one real gripe people have had against him.  Today, he limited that to one interception–and the Bombers’ Dockett had to make a decent play to get that one.
  • Cates continues to be a great running back for us.  Didn’t see his final numbers, but he brings everything to the table with his running, receiving, and blocking.
  • Siddeeq Shabazz, obviously frustrated by the loss, needed some reining in late in this game.  Glad to see that no one got hurt.
  • Fantuz looked a bit rusty up until he won the jumpball thrown to the endzone by Jason Armstead.  Nice to see a bit of trickery on offense.  Even nicer to see it work!
  • Stu Foord ran well with some touches today.
  • Dressler always gets a mention–he didn’t break loose today, but he’s always in the mix and making things happen.
  • Jyles looked fine in the 4th, and I was glad to see us get him in there.
  • The Bombers are not a terrible team, but they are in trouble.  And if any fans in the league know about the frustration of not having adequate QB’ing, it’s us Rider fans.  Mark it down: Casey Printers’ name WILL be spoken this week.  As I watched, I also wondered if there weren’t at least some regrets about letting both Glenn and Dinwiddie go in the off-season.
  • Congi did all we asked him to do today.  Can’t look for more than perfection on the chances you give a guy.
  • DB’s were buzzing today.  Some of our picks came because the Bombers’ QB’s made mistakes, but some were just hungry DB’s jumping on balls and out-battling receivers.  Gotta like seeing that.

As I said last week, a sweep of the Bombers is hardly big news this season.  But it had to be played out, and we played out well.  If we can hand a beating to the Esks next week, this province will be rocking.

Over and out for another week.

To Be Like Mike or Not to Be Like Mike

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The NBA inducted this year’s members to the Hall of Fame.  Some called it the best class ever.

Michael Jordan, David Robinson, John Stockton, Jerry Sloan, and C. Virginia Stringer (can’t say I know her).  That’s three guys from the original Dream Team (I know because I had the poster on my wall in ’92) along with a coach who’s been in Utah since before it was Mormon.

Should’ve been an evening of celebration and class, and it was.  Mostly.

Adrian Wojnarowski has written a great column for Yahoo! Sports.  The gist of it?  That MJ, who lives to win, was the night’s loser.  Robinson, Stockton, and Sloan–you’d be hard-pressed to find three classier NBA fellows in the past generation.  And MJ–well, that’s not exactly his strong suit.  I know, he can look like it is.  He’s got that smile and a slamming silhouette that is known in every country of the world.

But Mike might be slightly troubled.  And reading that great column (yes, I’m plugging it again) made me think.

Maybe nobody really wants to be like Mike.

Riders ’09: Game 9 (Wpg)

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The Labour Day Classic–I was there with 3o 000+ other fans.  I’m certain I’d had less to drink than 29 000 or more of them.

I’m not sure that I’d call this game a classic, but I enjoy every single game at Taylor Field so I’m easy to please.  Some highlights from the game…

  • Darian Durant looked good.  On our two scoring drives in the first quarter, he looked downright automatic.
  • Robb Bagg’s one-handed catch on the opening drove–OH MY!  One of the catches of the year, I’m sure.
  • Fred Reid, Mr. I’m-going-to-run-for-300-yards, looked nicely ordinary.
  • Mr. Bishop looked good too–three interceptions and a few timely sacks by Chick and Baggs–Mike looked just like the last time he was in Regina.
  • Armstead didn’t look out of place, as I feared he might.  Even had one return that made fans hopeful that our return game might climb out of the basement yet.
  • Dressler didn’t get to any of the big bombs from Durant, but it wasn’t for lack of hustle.  If we’d connected on a couple of those, the game might have been over before it began.
  • That stop on the 1-yard-line to end the first half was HUGE–maybe a bit of a Bomber back-breaker.

I’m desperately hoping (and expecting) a win in the Banjo Bowl tomorrow.  A sweep of the Bombers is hardly on the same level as Calgary’s recent sweeping of the Esks, but that’s not the point.  The point is winning the games you need to win, and we’ve got one of those tomorrow.

Go get ’em Green.  Time to hand the Bombers one more whooping!

For any who missed the highlights, have at ’em…

Graham Harrell

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Any die-hard Rider fans will recognize that name as a young QB currently with our club.

He has a more-than-impressive NCAA resume, and some dare to dream big things for his football future.  I read a great blog post on him recently, which speculated as to whether his game and our team might be perfect for one another.