Minor hockey Star

No one covers minor hockey issues as well as the Toronto Star.
Here's a piece today about making the kids' game non-contact for reasons of safety and fun. It's true: Contact hockey is the realm of elite players on evenly matched teams with the best coaches, trainers and referees. Contact hockey in more loosely organized leagues is at best too discouraging for less gifted kids and at worst too dangerous where serious injuries can and do happen.
Yesterday, the Star published a piece about the cost of hockey and the dreams chased by families of kids on AAA teams, the highest level for tweens and teens in Canada.
The odds of having it pay off with an NHL career worth millions or even an NCAA scholarship worth thousands are long. More likely is a life-long disadvantage from missed school days, lack of sleep, or injuries from over-training or on-ice mishaps.
I've always thought the cream will rise naturally to the top, no matter how many expensive, time- consuming tournaments or personalized training a 14-year-old consumes. Fun, fitness and friends -  not hotels, high-tech sticks and hockey hookey - should be the keywords for kids participating at any level.

Family moves to avoid small town coach

What's the worst minor hockey experience you've ever heard?
This story from Northern Ontario tops my list, where ill will, anger and a refusal to "release" a teen to play hockey in a nearby town left a family with no alternative but to sell their home of 16 years and move so their son could play the game he loves for a coach who doesn't have a track record of senseless screaming at kids.
For those not from Ontario, the province has an outdated geographic system of dictating where kids can play. Only for hockey. Other youth sports are just happy to have young people play, make friends and keep fit.

Strip tease delays Alberta hockey game

Seen a lot of games in a lot of arenas. Never seen nakedness, at least not outside the changeroom.
But here we have an apparently drunk woman delaying a game in Alberta by disrobing.
Maybe she was inspired by Slap Shot.

Moment of silence for Canadian juniors

A moment of silence for this year's Canadian national junior team, who again have missed their date with destiny and will not play for the gold medal for the second year in a row at the World Juniors after being blasted by the Americans 5-1.
It was a squandered championship - not often are NHL-calibre teens such as Ryan Nugent-Hopkins available for the Canadian team.
Too bad they didn't ask London Knights coach Dale Hunter to take the helm this year. Hunter, who quit this spring as coach of the Washington Capitals, has only been guiding the Knights to a 24-game win streak in the Ontario Hockey League.
Maybe next year, Canada. Maybe next year, Dale.

Empty feeling in Ann Arbor on NHL Winter Classic day

University of Michigan stadium, (Wayne Newton)

Today was supposed to be a hockey fan's utopia with the always-contending Canadian junior team playing in the world championship in Russia and two of the NHL's most storied teams, my beloved Toronto Maple Leafs and the model franchise Detroit Red Wings, meeting in and outdoor game at the Big House of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

The NHL lockout ruined the Winter Classic game - it was cancelled weeks ago and the impasse between the league and players continues and might now threaten the entire season again.

I hope the league and players get it together for a full 2013-14 season including the Red Wings-Maple Leafs game at the football stadium Big House - a game which will set the record for largest attendance at a hockey game.

The stadium already holds the current record of more than 100,000 for a NCAA game between Michigan and Michigan State in 2010.

Meanwhile, the many great restaurants and brew pubs of Ann Arbor and area are relatively quiet compared to what was supposed to have been.

Flights of premium brews await hockey fans
at Ann Arbor's Grizzly Peak Brewing Company.
 (Wayne Newton)

Maybe the only good thing about the lockout is that teenagers playing in the NHL such as Ryan Nugent-Hopkins are free to play in the world juniors, raising the bar of competition and making Canada the favourites to win.

As for Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan, maybe there's more high-profile hockey on the horizon once hosting the Winter Classic happens and raises the city's ice profile. The university's gorgeous and historic Yost arena would make an excellent co-host venue for a future world juniors in conjunction with nearby Detroit and over the border in Windsor, Ont.
We played at Yost when my son was in town for a Canada-U.S. minor hockey tournament a few years ago. It's a spectacular venue, one which the visited Canadian kids and their parents have etched in their minds.

The best attended, highest profile world juniors are those held in Canada or in the U.S. near the Canadian border. It'd be nothing but great to play the tournament at Yost, Joe Louis arena and the WFCU Centre.
For more on Ann Arbor, here's my story for the London Free Press, Toronto Sun and the rest of the Sun Media newspaper chain in Canada.
Update: Here's what the Winter Classic 2013 logos were going to look like.