We continue with Part Two of Sydney hockey “lifer” Blair Joseph who, for the majority of his 70-odd years, has been deeply devoted to the sport. Last time our focus was on Joseph’s early days growing up near the former Sydney Forum as well as his playing career. Now we’ll reminisce with him on his lengthy stretch behind the bench of numerous Cape Breton hockey teams. We’ll also touch on the short but sweet boxing career of the man affectionately known as “Bearcat.” It was while Joseph played for the marvelous Cape Breton Post Bombers hockey club in 1964 that he first took up coaching. “It was an after-school hockey program at the former St. Joseph’s Elementary School in Sydney,” he said. “I was at it for about 10 years and I really enjoyed helping the kids.” …show more content…
This time on a more serious note as the Sydney Merchants of the Cape Breton Senior Hockey League came calling. Joseph didn’t disappoint as he guided the club to two league championships. “The senior league produced great hockey,” Joseph recalled. “The Port Hood Bees were in it, along with the New Waterford Cavaliers, the UCCB Capers and Glace Bay. “Port Hood gave us some great competition,” he said. “They always showed up with full teams and ready to go. You couldn’t get into that rink in Port Hood. “The big name up there was the MacInnis family. Paul and Brian MacInnis contributed a lot to senior hockey in Port Hood. They were very involved.” In 1991-92, Joseph landed with the Cape Breton Colonels of the Nova Scotia “AAA” Midget Hockey League as an assistant coach to well-known local shinny guy from yesteryear, Ray “Boxer” George of Sydney. “That was a fantastic season,” Joseph said. “We won the Nova Scotia title and hosted the Atlantics. Unfortunately, New Brunswick coached by Danny Grant (former NHLer) took the tournament. We missed going to the Air Canada Cup by one
While being a talented and dominant hockey player, James Marsh indicates that while “[h]e came from humble beginnings, [he] fought for the culture he believed in, by way of sport. ” That is, throughout his career, he recognized that the English establishment of the NHL treated French Canadian players unfairly and intolerantly in comparison to English players. This is especially distinct in the events leading up to the Richard Riot of 1955, a sign of the growing French-Canadian nationalism in Quebec and the eventual onset of the Quiet Revolution in the 1960s.
On May 9th 1965 a leader was born, and that leader was Steve Yzerman. Yzerman was born in Cranbrook, British Columbia. He began skating when he was a mere 3 years old, but was still a little too young to play organized hockey with his older brother Mike, who was two years older. At age 5 Yzerman started playing organized ice hockey, but really couldn’t skate all that well. In fact, his first gino (goal) was scored because he had slipped up in front of the adversaries net and an opposing defenseman bounced the puck off a teammate. Since Yzerman was the closest to the puck, he was given credit for the goal. This was certainly not a foundation suitable for a legendary career.
Of course, minor hockey played an enormous role in Sulliman’s upbringing. The venue for his games and practice sessions was the once historic Glace Bay Miners Forum, which has since been replaced by the Bayplex Recreation
The uplifting story of an underdog hockey team at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York is told by the film Miracle. The team is composed of many college hockey players trying to better their game play. Tryouts come and go and it is when Coach Herb Brooks reads the final roster of the 1980 Olympic Men’s Hockey Team that starts the beginning of the greatest moment in sports history.
Maurice Richard’s historical significance in Canada was due to his importance as a hockey player in Montreal from 1942 to 1960. This was because hockey is “closer to a religion than a simple sporting pastime” in Canada. It was “a unifying force” in a nation where one state wanted to separate from the rest of Canada. Nevertheless hockey has had a major impact on the social, economic, cultural and political realms of Canada.For example: in the 2014 winter Olympics, bars across the country remained open past their legal closing times for the gold medal game. Maurice was “credited with raising the National Hockey League to major sport status”, he simply “sold the game” to French Canadians post great depression. He stopped the National Hockey league
The place was Halifax, Nova Scotia. The Day was Friday, August 7, 1987. On this day, a man, Troy, and a woman, Trina, rejoiced in the birth of their first born child, a son. A son that would soon choose to live, eat, and breathe hockey. A child, unknown at the time, who would soon take the National Hockey League by storm. A child who would become the greatest, talented player of all the hockey world, and who would remarkably achieve this goal by the age of nineteen.
In Lynn Coady’s essay, “Hockey Night in Port Hawkesbury,” her personal experience aligns with Campbell’s definition of a hero. First, Coady begins her spiritual journey at the status quo. During hockey games, she would often “sit at the... back of the living room with a selection of magazines on the table beside [her]” (Coady 333). At the dawn of her journey, Coady feels like an outsider: always on outside looking in, and never truly engaging with her small community. Second, Coady has a spiritual crisis and nearly quits her journey. She concluded that “someone like [her]...should never expect to have anything to do with such a vastly significant phenomenon” and isolates herself in literature "where nary a taint of hockey fever could be felt”
Last time in this space, I talked with Barry Verbeski, a member of the 1964-65 Glace Bay Junior Miners of the Cape Breton Junior Hockey League. His team had rallied from a 4-1 deficit in games to tie the Sydney Cape Breton Post Bombers in the league championship series only to suffer a heartbreaking loss in the ninth and deciding contest -- a match Verbeski thinks could have gone either way.
Or praise the dedication of each teams “Beer Guy” who each week without fail provides the best of the best beers to be found. But more so explain that although they may be slower and skate with more injuries, old-timer hockey is just as respectable as playing junior. For them, hockey is not just a sport it’s a commitment, it’s a lifestyle and a dream in which many continue to pursue even once their prime years have come to an end. Midnight Hockey aims to contribute to the cultural and emotional understanding the Canadian addiction that is
He then returned to Quebec for a second year in the QMJHL, scoring 66 goals and he was best young prospect in the world. Across North America Crosby earned similarities to some of
"Do you believe in miracles?" (Anderson). If you were alive to experience the 1980 U.S.A. Olympic hockey team, you sure do. The Soviet hockey team was expected to win, but America won handing the Soviets a heartbreaking loss. When they made it to the finals, and beat Finland it was just what put the cherry on top.
I played on a peewee house league team coached by Pat Rimar. I was not one of the the highly skilled players on that squad but I remember the time Pat spent with me and all the boys, particularly those who were not the stars. It was obvious he knew and loved the game and that he cared for us as people. He devoted an inordinate amount of time in his commitment to make us not only better hockey players but better men.
Steve’s first challenge after moving to our area as an adolescent was simply the struggle to find hockey gaems to watch on television. He started playing hockey in high school, casually, before entering various leagues throughout and after college. This included a stint on a doctors’ league which was later dubbed the SNHL (Saturday Night Hockey League). While Steve eventually decided to step off the ice in a player’s capacity to become a coach, he was still active when his Red Wing Jersey Clad son would sit in on his games alongside his mother, even in the very first years of his
Bowling argues, just how modern Hockey is become too political and is affecting the authentic of players performances skill due to economic gain through marketing and endorsements. “That Don Cherry can use his few minutes of nationally televised screen-time every week to lobby for increased support of Canada's armed forces proves just how powerfully the hockey/nationhood .This explains notions of patriotism and manhood
4 June 2016, I drove for 13 hours to Charlottetown from Montréal. I was sitting in the stands with my family waiting to her my name. it was the most stressful moment in my life. Every player wants to be drafted since they know about the NHL. I had work all year for that moment, every hit, and goal, time I went on the ice was for that moment. I finally head my name and it was the best feeling in the world. Being drafted in the QMJHL is an accomplishment, plus it’s a onetime thing. The same night, me and my family went out and ate lobster to celebrate. I won’t forget this