The Blue Tongues Update – July 8, 2011.
Category: Sports
The Blue Tongues Update – July 8, 2011
Tonight’s games are key to our heroes playoff hopes. The play 2 against the Sydney Ice Dogs and a couple of victories would go a long way to our continued coverage. In preparation, I have gone over their roster and have selected a few players for us to keep an eye on. One is a Canadian (of course) and the other played for my old hometown team, the Saskatoon Blades. I was surprised to see this, and it makes me pleased we picked the Gold Coast Blue Tongues.
The Canadian, Matt Amado, is the teams leading scorer with 29 goals and 16 assists in 16 games. He hails from Langley, BC and played junior in Penticton, BC and 4 years with Notre Dame University in NCAA hockey. He kicked around some minor leagues in North America before heading to Europe where he played in France and Italy before ending up in Australia. He had played for Gold Coast in 2007 for 1 season and set an all time scoring record with 39 goals in 20 games. A force to be reckoned with.
Our second player is an Australian who played in Canada, Adam Geric. In fairness, he was born and raised in Canada, but he does have Australian citizenship, making him a local and he does not count against the league’s import limit. He played his junior in Nanaimo for a year before moving on to the Saskatoon Blades for 2 seasons. he played one season there with NHL star Devin Setoguchi. He has played only 3 games so far this season with 1 assist. Not a star,yet!
An interesting side note, a player on Sydney, Brook Robson, played his junior hockey in Manitoba, the Charleswood Hawks in Winnipeg. I have seen a few Hawks game when I lived in the Charleswood area of Winnipeg.
I look forward to tonight’s games, which is actually Saturday night because it is already tomorrow morning there.
Remembering Dick Williams
Dick Williams passed away today. For those who don’t remember, Dick was manager of several baseball teams in the 60’s,70’s and 80’s. He managed the Boston Red Sox to the 1967 World Series, then led the Oakland Athletics to back to back world series championships in 1972 and 1973. This was the era of Reggie Jackson and the first team with long hair and moustaches.
Fired by oakland in his 3rd season , went on to the California Angels and then to where I remember him best, managing the Montreal Expos. He led them from doormats to the NL Final in his tenure, where the Expos lost in heartbreaking fashion. Steve Rogers, a starter and their best pitcher, came on in relief in the final game to close out the Dodgers. In a moment that I still can’t bear to relive, Rick Monday tagged one out of the park, giving the LA Dodgers the pennant.
He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2007. A sad day for ball fans everywhere. He was, in many ways, one of the icons of baseball in his time.
Where is the Stanley Cup – Part 4 – Whitefish
There was no video of The Stanley Cup in Whitefish, Montana when I posted yesterday, but there is now. There is an intro that you may or may not want to watch, and the footage of it’s night in the Great Northern Bar in Whitefish with assistant coach Doug Houda starts at the 57 second mark.
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Where is the Stanley Cup – Part 4 – Whitefish
Remembering Dick Williams
Where is the Stanley Cup – Part 3
Where has the Stanley Cup been for the last few days. The answer is Montana and California.. As the grand tour began, Jeremy Jacobs, the owner of the Stanley Cup Champion Boston Bruins, fittingly, had the first go at it and took it to Yosemite National Park in California over the weekend. From there, it went to Whitefish, Montana on Tuesday with Assistant Coach, Doug Houda. More than 1000 people lined up in Whitefish to view the cup.
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http://www.usatoday.com/sports/hockey/nhl/2011-07-06-3671152611_x.htm
Where is the Stanley Cup – Part 3
Winnipeg Jets – Update – July 5
The Winnipeg Jets re-signed their captain today. Andrew Ladd signed a 5 year, 22 million dollar contract to stay put. Good on Andrew, but a little pricey based on what he has done so far. It could turn out to be a great move though if he continues to develop. The team really needed to sign him on so many levels. One big knock on Winnipeg was that no one wanted to play there, let alone stay. This signing represents that the opposite may in fact be the truth.
In other news, the Jets also signed forwards Aaron Gagnon and Rick Rypien as free agents. These would be considered as additional depth moves.
My other team made a few moves today as well. The Boston Bruins have had some addition and subtraction happenings over the past few days. Tomas Kaberle has left, signing a deal with the Carolina Hurricanes. This was expected and not entirely a bad thing for the team. To partially compensate they have signed Joe Corvo in a trade with Carolina. Michael Ryder has also left, signing a deal with the Dallas Stars.
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The Blue Tongues Win, The Blue Tongues Win!!!
I wrote a post yesterday in which I decided to follow the Australian Ice Hockey League. In said post (pretty good English eh?) I placed a poll to determine which team I would be following and would do some posts on that team and hopefully follow them all the way to a championship run. I am certain it will not be as exciting as the Bruins run, but it is better than nothing.
The poll results are in and, after a whopping 17 votes in total, and 6 for the winner, we will be paying rapt attention to the fortunes of the Gold Coast Blue Tongues. a catchy name if I have ever heard one. Apparently it is named after a lizard that has a blue tongue that is common in this part of Australia. Go figure. A good choice as well as an ex-Bruin once played for them, Rob Zamuner. I believe he even played for Team Canada once in the Olympics.
I will be doing a couple of posts between now and their next game (They only play on weekends, so the games won’t interfere with their jobs, I guess) and will focus on some team history and go over their roster. We will also take a closer look at their upcoming opponent. The Blue Tongues (kind of rolls off the tongue doesn’t it) are currently in 4th place in the league. The regular season ends on August 28th, followed by their playoffs.
To give us an idea on the league, I have attached a video about the Blue Tongues. It reminds me of playing in rec hockey in Martensville, Saskatchewan.
Go Blue Tongues Go!!!!
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