All marriages start out with high hopes, even the ones that require a shotgun to get the groom to the altar.
There appears to be a firm commitment to keeping the Junior A Crushers in Pictou County for the foreseeable future, now that the club has been purchased by Scott Burden and Bruce Ryan, who take control of the franchise on April 1.
Burden seems excited to be the co-owner of a junior A franchise, and raved about Pictou County’s love affair with hockey and the support they give to the team.
Those are very good things.
What could be a cause for potential conflict is the fact that the two owners both have sons who are on the Crushers’ roster. That isn’t necessarily a problem – until it becomes a problem, at which point it could be an enormous one.
There is no reason to believe that new ownership will walk in and start behaving like Jerry Jones, who bought the Dallas Cowboys and made himself the general manager and gave his children high-ranking positions with the organization. It was his right to do it, of course, since he owned the team, it just doesn’t usually lead to success, unless your idea of success is unfailing mediocrity.
Players play, coaches coach, and owners cheer them on from the private box on game nights.
• Since instant gratification is most gratifying, I have to say: I still don’t like the Jacob Hickey trade, and don’t really care about the long-term benefits of the deal.
Maybe it pays off down the road and Crushers’ brass will look like geniuses, but right now it bothers me (Hickey and Dylan Riley were traded last Wednesday to the Summerside Western Capitals).
Riley (a likeable enough guy) wanted out so, you know, good luck but see ’ya later. But Hickey, a 2015 Crushers’ draft pick, wanted to finish his junior career in Pictou County and was very disappointed when he was sent to P.E.I.
He was the most offensively explosive player on the team and his recent resurgence had a lot to do with Pictou County turning its season around.
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The winners of this coming Sunday’s NFL playoff matchups will face each other in the Super Bowl on Feb. 3., where the half-time performers reportedly play for free. I’m not sure that’s always the case, because the Rolling Stones played the half-time show in 2006 and Mick Jagger and the boys don’t do anything like that if they aren’t getting paid.
New England Patriots at Kansas City Chiefs
I keep wishing the Patriots would go away forever, but they don’t. They have a chance to reach the Super Bowl for the ninth time in Tom Brady’s legendary career (he’s won five of them).
The Chiefs are difficult to stop, but if anyone can devise a game plan to slow them down – or figure out a way to cheat their way to victory – it’s Patriots’ coach Bill Belichick. He’s a mad genius.
Chiefs win, 27-23.
Los Angeles Rams at New Orleans Saints
We are picking the Saints for a few reasons: they are playing at home, where the fans can play a big role under the dome, by being loud and relentless. Also, the Saints have a better defence. Also, I need this one to set up a big financial payoff, if and when New Orleans beats Kansas City in the Super Bowl, because then a bunch of guys will owe The Kid here a whole lotta money.
Saints win, 35-17.
Kevin Adshade is a writer with The News. His column appears each week.
