Troy Dumville's stint as coach of the Pictou County Weeks Crushers came to an end this week, when he resigned due to family commitments. Dumville's one-year run included two playoff series wins over the Halifax Lions and rival Truro Bearcats, and a trip to the Maritime Junior 'A' Hockey League championship series. While the playoffs is often usually about what the players do, you also have to give some credit to the coach: Dumville pulled the right strings and likely got as much from his players as he could during their post-season run.
There might be challenges ahead for the Crushers, and we aren't just talking about finding a new coach: it's difficult to predict in the month of June what an MJAHL team will look like next fall and winter, but the Crushers are losing a lot of front-line talent to graduation - Geoff Hum, Dan Joyce and Scott McDonald immediately spring to mind, and there are others whose contributions won't be easily replaced. The Metro Marauders (the old Halifax Lions) will see almost their entire roster return next season, and there's little doubt the Truro Bearcats will do what they have to do, in order to ice a competitive team.
Call me a pessimist, but the 2010-'11 Crushers might fall in the "rebuilding" category, unless A.) they bring in some offensive firepower via trades; or B.) some of the kids step up and provide consistent production. Right now, it's easy to see them battling to secure a playoff spot next February, as opposed to challenging for first place in the Maurice Bent division. As always, we shall see.
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It's hard to say why the North Nova Gryphons have been able to field such powerful rugby teams in recent years.
There is no feeder system for rugby in Pictou County (or anywhere else that I know of, although I could research that I suppose.... nah, you do it), as these players reach high school as raw as could be, in terms of having acquired rugby skills (although the most important skills in rugby is heart and guts and I'm not sure those can be taught).
Coaching certainly has a lot to do with the success of our high school ruggers and it's probably the biggest reason they fare so well: there is a deep rugby tradition here, and enough old schoolers are more than happy to pass the torch, as it were. It could also be argued that Pictou County at present is in a time of athletic growth (which can wax and wane); with many good athletes reaching their high school years at once, it can make for a happy convergence.
Whatever the reason, the bar has been set for high school rugby teams in Pictou County, and it might not be an easy one for future teams to reach.
Both NNEC squads open defence of their respective NSSAF titles this weekend in Truro, and were looking to make rugby history in Nova Scotia: no school has ever won back-to-back championships in both girls and boys rugby.
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Not much to add about the Stanley Cup final, which has the Chicago Blackhawks up 2-1 in the series over the Philadelphia Flyers. Game 4 was last night in Philly, and a Chicago victory would put the Flyers in a very bad place. The Cup final so far has been a good one (not great so far, but not bad), with the margin of victory in all three games being a single goal, one of those a Philadelphia OT win on Wednesday, which they quite desperately needed if they wanted to entertain serious thoughts of hoisting Lord Stanley over the next few days.
(Old-school rant to follow): A Chicago defenceman whose name escaped me was attempting a pass Wednesday night at the Flyers' blue line, and must have slightly fanned on it or something because suddenly one of those new age, hundreds-of-dollar-priced hockey sticks broke in about three pieces in his hands. It looks positively goofy when that happens, and this time it led to strong Philadelphia pressure: it didn't result in a goal but easily could have.
Whenever I see one of those contraptions fall apart for no good reason, I think about the time that Cape Breton's own Al MacInnis, in the skills competition during the all-star game festivities some years ago (just as wood sticks were becoming passé) won the hardest shot competition with a wooden stick.
Perhaps it isn't the wand - maybe it's the magician.
