Random Sport Thoughts on a mild February afternoon…
• Most certainly, organizers were pleased with a good turnout at the Pictou County Wellness Centre on Wednesday, when they held a late night viewing party, giving people a chance to get together and watch Blayre Turnbull and her Team Canada mates play the U.S. at the 2018 Olympics.
Somewhere around 180 people, give or take a few, saw the teams play a terrific hockey game, with the good girls winning 2-1 in a game that had great goaltending, a penalty shot (Canadian netminder Genevieve Lacasse stoned an American on that penalty shot and was brilliant throughout), controversial non-goals, an acceptable amount of greasiness between the two sides and a nail-biting finish.
Admission was free, although, when someone asked if the bar was open (meaning ‘is there free beer for everyone?’), we all got a good chuckle out of it. Open bars in Pictou County are not, shall we say, financially feasible. Ask anyone who’s ever had an open bar at a staff Christmas party – it only happens once, unless you have a staff of three people.
It’s not like the PCWC made a lot of money off the night’s festivities, but the viewing party was an example of what venues like the PCWC can be: a community gathering place where people can get together for special events, have a good time in a common cause and hope no one gets arrested.
• The Pictou County Scotians were heading to Antigonish on Friday night for Game 2 in their playoff series against the Bulldogs. After losing the opener on home ice, Pictou County didn’t absolutely need to win Game 2, but a victory would make the road a lot easier moving forward.
• The Junior A Crushers also had a big Friday night game in Lunenburg against the South Shore Lumberjacks. If it seems like we are calling every Crushers game a big one these days, it’s only because they are.
Their 3-1 victory over South Shore on Thursday, which saw Jacob Hickey scored two goals and Dylan Riley the other, wasn’t a must-win either, but points are precious now if they hope to make the playoffs.
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Non-Sports Thoughts of the Week:
• In October, after the mass shooting in Las Vegas, President Donald Trump said that now “isn’t the time” to talk about gun legislation in the U.S., a country that has what I consider to be an unhealthy obsession with guns (and by unhealthy, I mean people keep getting killed by them, a lot of people, in a short period of time).
The right to bears arms was an idea that was reasonable in the late 1700s, just in case the British attacked and tried to take back the Colonies, but it hardly applies today. You know what staunch right wingers can be like, though – they aren’t big fans of change.
This week, after another mass shooting left 17 students dead at a Florida school, Trump offered his "prayers and condolences" but mentioned nothing about guns.
Praying doesn’t cut it, though. What’s needed is action, or these things will keep happening.
I’m not anti-gun (I like guns when other people go hunting with them and especially later on, when they give me deer chops or steak), I just think it’s too easy to get ahold of one in the United States of America.
Kevin Adshade is sportswriter with The News. His column appears each Saturday.
