Reserved for Walter Gretzky

Hockey dad/Twitter friend from St. Catharines posted this parking space photo from the newly renovated Wayne Gretzky Sports Centre in Brantford. If you've ever been to a tournament or had your kid's team play there, you know Walter's dedicated presence as a man who puts kids first.

Gretzky's hometown hockey embraces sportsmanship

Playing in the same league as the Brantford 99ers generated more than its fair share of complaints stories from the stands during the past few seasons. From "line fights" to celebrating injuries of opposing players, Brantford kids gained a reputation as being the misfits of the league.
No longer - hopefully.
With leadership from the top down, Brantford Minor Hockey is initiating a new program that isn't a magic bullet, but should help shift attitudes to the sport.
Although they bury the lead, the Brantford Expositor reports hockey parents will soon be required to take a one-hour online course impressing upon them the influence they have on the kids (on both teams) playing the sport. Calgary already has a program like this in place where kids can't play until parents complete the courset.
In Brantford's case, it's being rolled out with the city's high-skill AAA and A teams first, then to house league. The course is professionally designed by Respect in Sport. Watch for it to be rolled out at other minor sports associations - not just hockey.
It looks like a great season ahead for Brantford, where renovations are complete at the Gretztky Sports Centre, the city's minor hockey palace. The association is also rolling out newly designed jerseys.
By the way, competitive teams in Brantford are nicknamed for Wayne Gretzky - the 99ers.

Beckham the hockey dad?

If Wayne's Gretzky's son can be a pro baseball player, I wonder if soccer star David Beckham's kids can become pro hockey players?
Beckham, fresh from having Canadian superstar Justin Bieber sing for his children at a private party, was at a minor hockey registration when he caught the attention of hockey moms, according to E!.
Of course, if he really wants his kids to become hockey stars, he'll want to decamp for Canada.

Trevor Gretzky: Future pro

Wayne Gretzky's 18-year-old son is talented athlete with pro potential - but not in hockey.
Trevor Gretzky is aiming for a pro career in baseball. Click here for the Toronto Star story.

Good hockey skills can be relative

Do genetics play a role in creating great hockey players?
Sometimes. Two of Gordie Howe's sons were good enough to play pro hockey and Marty was a great defenceman, if not truly a superstar. But there's no third generation of hockey Howes coming down the 'pike.
Bobby Orr's two sons, Darren and Brent, were not athletes despite the fact their father changed the way the game is played and, along with Howe and Wayne Gretzky, is the interchangeable answer as to who was the greatest player to ever lace 'em up in the NHL. None of Gretzky's kids have pro hockey potential.
But sometimes there is a second generation. One of the best 15-year-old players in Canada is Max Domi, the son of former Toronto Maple Leafs enforcer Tie Domi. Max is a skilled forward winding up his minor midget days in Toronto and planning to continue his education and play in the United States instead of playing major junior in the Ontario Hockey League. No one wishes to jinx a teen, but there's a lot of buzz about Max's potential.
The OHL Belleville Bulls have lots of players with dads who played in the NHL. Carter Sandlak, who played minor hockey for the London Jr. Knights, is the son of former Vancouver Canuck Jim Sandlak. Bjorn Krupp is son of Ewe Krupp, ex of the Detroit Red Wings. Dylan Corson is the son of Shayne Corson, who played for the Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs and Dallas Stars. Dylan's uncle, by marriage, is Darcy Tucker, whose NHL career took him to Montreal, Tampa Bay, Toronto and Colorado. Andy Bathgate's father didn't play in the NHL, but his grandfather and namesake did - with the Toronto Maple Leafs, New York Rangers, Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins before finishing his pro career in the old World Hockey Association with the Vancouver Blazers.
Just for good measure, Belleville has the brother of an NHLer on the team, goaltender Malcolm Subban. Malcolm's brother, PK, is a rookie defenceman with the Canadiens.
So it seems sometimes at least hockey skills can be all relative.

Wayne Gretzky at 14

Here's a CTV story from when Wayne Gretzky of Brantford was 14 and his family wanted him to play for the Toronto Nationals. He was not allowed due to residency rules.

A new holiday in Canada?

In its report about today being Wayne Gretzky's 50th birthday, the local TV channel suggested that if you polled Canadians and asked if this should be a national hockey, most would likely say yes.
Considering we don't even honour our first prime minister's birthday with a holiday, that'd be quite a thing to fete an athlete.
Still, given hockey's popularity, I wonder if the the various provincial governments that have created Family Day in February as a holiday got it wrong. Maybe they should've called the holiday Hockey Day. For many of us, it's the same as Family Day anyway.

Our tournament time goes south

The Christmas break is tournament time for thousands of minor hockey players and parents.
Mostly a week for house league events, we never had to do the travel/hotel thing during our Christmas years, unless you count going back and forth to Brantford for the annual Wayne Gretzky competitive tournament.
For those who've never been, the Gretzky tournament is a cut above most others in terms of the effort to make it a show of friendship and love of hockey. An Olympic-style opening ceremony at the Brantford Civic Centre, an historic old barn strategically located next to the city's casino, is an awesome experience.
Or at least it should be. The year our team played in Brantford, there was such a gap between games all but three players went back to London. It didn't leave much of a team representation to march onto the ice. But other teams were there, including some from far away, drawn by the fun of playing in the home town of hockey's greatest star.
Brantford has an arena and swimming pool complex named in honour of Gretzky and this year's tournament marks a milestone of sorts for that facility. It is undergoing extensive renovations and this is the last year will be played on the old ice pads.
Just by coincidence, the tournament has 99 teams entered this year. Another odd coincidence? It's 99 kilometres from our driveway to the Gretzky arena.
As for our current team, we're off the ice during the Christmas break. When we found out our own West London Minor Hockey Association had cancelled our midget division in a February tournament because only three teams had registered, I found a replacement tournament this week in Hespeler. But while I found a tournament, I lost a team with most families and our coach having made other plans.
Given that we played our most recent league game with only 10 players, entering a tournament would've been a disaster.
Meanwhile, the focus is on a mega-trip in January to Franklin, TN, a half-hour drive south of Nashville where we'll line up against the Huntsville Chargers, South Florida Golden Wolves and Houston Wild.
It's a day-long, two-driver, $7,000 chartered bus ride to get to this tournament, so it's a little different than scooting done to Western Fair or St. Thomas for a few games.
Our teenagers will appreciate it, right?