Runaway Future

At the beginning of the month, Hockey’s Future, one of the sites that I write for was sold to Crave Online, a site targeted towards men, covering things like action movies, gaming, babes, cars and yes..sports.

So far I still don’t know what that will mean for HF or more specifically for myself and my work with HF. All I have been hearing from the management is that for the time being things will remain the same.

Obviously, I have some concerns about the future of the site and so on, simply because I’ve been working with HF for 5 years now and the fact that I don’t know what to expect is weighing on me a bit. We’ve been handed a few documents of legalese to agree to about our writing and stuff and it’s all a bit too confusing and overwhelming.

From what I do know, Crave is owned by Gorilla Nation, an online advertisement company. The sale allows GN to serve ads to the HF network (replacing previous ads that were provided via our previous owners, First Beat Media). As pretty much the leader in hockey prospect news, as well as running the busiest hockey message board on the Internet, the attractiveness of the HF network to the advertisers is obvious.

With Crave and HF sharing roughly the same target demographic (for the most part males between the ages of 16 to 40 or so), the match becomes apparent. What’s a concern right now, for me and others, is how much of a match will it be and whether any integration into the Crave network will upset the “norm” of HF and the HFBoards. Will the scope of our content change? Will there be editorial changes? HF has worked hard to establish itself in a niche of the hockey world, which is a small part of the overall sports journalism pie, but still, there’s plenty of room for change and growth in many directions, not all of them positive and not all of them negative.

There are direct benefits, of course. We’re getting shiny new servers which should mean we will finally survive a trade deadline day, a draft and the first day of the free agent season. Our server load at those peak times has been too much to handle at times.

Anyway, that’s just something that’s happening and on my mind right now. Mark me down as being apprehensively optimistic.

Out of everything that I want to write, this is the one thing that touched me the most. I have been trying to write these words for well…almost two months now.

On September 18th, Peter Oliver died.

I can’t speak for his youth in Wales, his time in the Army, his work with Oval House in London, his tours of Europe acting or his social work in Toronto. But I can talk about what Peter meant to me. Quite frankly, it’s hard to even speak to that, to capture his influence in words alone.

I met Peter when I was in junior high, he was putting together what would eventually become Uranus Theatre, run out of Our House. I think I joined only because most of the girls that I hung around with were joining. But I stayed because of Peter.

Peter believed in youth, he really did. He believed in their potential and that they could realize that potential and capture it. He was huge on discovery of self and the inspiration that draws out of finding out what you’re really capable of.

If it wasn’t for Peter, I wouldn’t have my own ideas of self identity, my own confidence. If it wasn’t for Peter, I wouldn’t be the person I am today.

Peter was a muse, a mentor, a teacher, a thespian and a friend. And now, he’s no longer here.

Always with that mischevious, sly grin, a knowing wink and a wry sense of humour. Always throwing in social commentary even when it was lost on the audience, even when it was lost on the cast. Peter always challenged people to be better, to go past their comfort zones and see what was truly out there.

I’m going to miss him terribly, but I’m eternally grateful for being able to know him in the first place.

I’m not the only one who will miss him. Oval House, a theatre in London has a tribute page up for him now. It’s absolutely amazing with many people posting memories of him from his time in London. Carole Woddis wrote an amazing obituary that appeared in the Guardian. His passing was mentioned on the theatre site Rogues and Vagabonds. And finally, ten days before his passing, singer Maggie Nichols posted this small tribute to him.

Locally, the remnants of Basement Theatre both of today and years gone by and other Shelburne folk who crossed paths with Peter did a show at the beginning of the month. I understand that there’s going to be a scholarship of sorts named after him and available through SRHS.

I performed a monologue in the show, the first time I’ve done any sort of acting since my last time with Basement Theatre, five years ago in the Two and One Half Penny Opera. I didn’t know my lines well enough and had to refer to them once, but that energy is still there. It was so good to catch up with everyone.

Plus I got to visit with Joan, Peter’s wife prior to the show. He was in the process of writing a book, a history of sorts of Oval House. Now Joan and his daughter Odette are left with the remnants. I’ve offered my help and hopefully I can be of some use.

I still can’t believe he’s gone.

And so I throw my small tribute to Peter into the mix. It’s astonishing that a man could touch so many in a lifetime. It’s commendable and like a lot of what I picked up from my time knowing him, it’s a lesson to live by.

Bye Bye Peter.

Wanna see something scary?

This is a little late for Halloween, but here’s a map put together by the Coast showing all the violent incidents that have occurred in the HRM area in the past year.

I don’t think any further comment really is needed.

To follow up on my previous great idea, earlier this month James Duthie wrote a column on how to spice up the NHL All Star Game.

We need to Globetrotter the Shootout.

It’s time for a hockey version of the NBA Slam-Dunk Contest.

I want the most ridiculous “How’d he do that!?!” dekes, the sickest spineramas, the lacrosse-like over the shoulder flips.

I want celebrity judges with placards (Hey, I know a guy who could get Hilary Duff). I want screaming fans holding up “10″ signs. I want more YouTube hits than D*** in a Box.

They’re also talking about the same idea on the NHL on TSN tonight, stating that the NHLPA really like the idea and the NHL is “intrigued”.

Sound familiar? It should.

Back in January, I posted a similar solution here. After another lackadaisical All Star celebration, I posted my thoughts on how to add some spice to what should be a collection of great talent. Get the celebrities there as judges, Snoop Dogg, Lil Jon, Hillary Duff, all the people they show in the stands. Hell, get guys like Brett Hull and Jeremy Roenick for attitude and commentary. Let the imagination run wild and sit back and enjoy.

I think Duthie and I both agree that the powers that be share this opinion and we see some excitement in Atlanta.

Bob McKenzie just wrote a column about the NHL’s scheduling dilemma and how not every team plays every other team every season. (This whole thing has me with my fingers crossed that the Ducks will play in Toronto next year). Anyway, it appears the NHL is going to revisit the schedule at upcoming meetings later this month.

Of the proposals mentioned by McKenzie, we find this one:

Here’s another option that addresses those concerns to some degree:

• five games vs. each of four divisional opponents (20)
• three games vs. each of 10 conference opponents (30)
• two “wild-card” games (2)
• two games vs. each of 15 out of conference opponents (30)

This format still provides an emphasis on divisional games, is a little more consistent in terms of playing conference rivals and most importantly allows for the home-and-home series with the other conference.

Sound familiar? It should.

Back in February, I posted a similar solution here. The only difference is mine accounted for 76 games (4 games against division rivals) and this one is for 82 games with an additional two “wild-card” games. Preferably, the schedule wizs would try to make the wild-card games matchups that people would want to see like Toronto-Montreal, Montreal-Boston, Ottawa-Toronto, Calgary-Edmonton, LA-Anaheim and so on.

In my mind, that solution makes the most amount of sense, but who knows.