Hockey, jogging and well-timed clocks

This will be somewhat dated by the time Thursday's paper hits the streets or your mailbox, but while the Junior A Crushers' 2-0 win over the Truro Bearcats on Monday may have been a textbook case of executing a defensive game plan to near-perfection, it also provided 59 minutes and 43 seconds of heart-stopping action for Crushers fans (the time between Sean Hoyt's goal 13 seconds in until Geoff Hum's empty-netter with four seconds to go).

There were times when the Bearcats hemmed in the Crushers in their own end for so long it was almost painful to watch. Actually, it was painful and to be honest about it, I still can't figure out how Pictou County won the thing. But they found a way to hang on, in a game that was very close to being a must-win: going down 2-0 in the series against the 'Cats and heading to Truro for Game 3 might have been too much to overcome.

As it is now, they still have a fighting chance, no matter what happened last night. It should set the stage for a ding-donger on Friday night at JBM.

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Now that I've gone on another jogging kick (for about the 54th time, but honest, this one is for keeps), I notice the Pioneer Trail in New Glasgow is in decent shape for this time of year.

Whoever is responsible for maintaining it (the town, a group of citizens or even Mother Nature herself) is definitely doing something right.

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The new clock at JBM Stadium, which they raised to the rafters on Tuesday afternoon, isn't the space-eating monstrosity that I feared it might be. It seems to blend in with the surroundings nicely. Strange, as we live in an era where bigger is better and subtlety is really not an option. As a bonus, now some fans won't have to break their necks trying to look at the clock that now sits on the east end of the Stadium.

See!!! That's two nice things in a row!!! It's not all doom-and-gloom!!!

Kevin Adshade is a columnist for The News