I‘ve been in the ‘Freep’ hockey pool for roughly eleven years; or to use a hockey metaphor: as long as the Sedin twins have been in the NHL.

This year, I was surprised to see seventeen people show up to the draft night last October, held at some gastropub on south Osborne. As with over-expansion in the NHL itself, I was concerned about the rapid depletion of quality draft picks with so many participants. I was doubly surprised, nay, disappointed, once the ‘hat’ was passed around the tables to determine the draft order, that I was picking 16th or second last. Ouch!

This, however, is where the dedicated ‘poolie’ gets to show their mettle. Can you turn a seemingly horrendous draft position on its head and come out not smelling like a mildewy duffle bag? Well, that’s what I was hoping to achieve.

Things began auspiciously. In the 1st round I managed to snag Martin St. Louis. Nice. I followed that with my typical (though hardly fool-proof) strategy: 2 more forwards, a goalie, 2 defensemen and then the best of an assuredly bad lot. The 2 forwards were Kovalchuk (whoops) and Rick Nash, then Brodeur (whoops again), with Visnovsky and Goligoski forming my primary defense. Not bad at first blush. Though time did, as they say, tell.

Within the first 2 months of the season, I plummeted deeply into the bottom half of the standings; due in no small part to an injury to my No. 1 goalie and Kovie’s difficult transition to the Devil’s playbook and coaching style. I had 1 thing in my favor: second pick during the December supplemental draft.

With that, I grabbed the Kings’ oft-injured Justin Williams. Fine. But I knew that any chance I had of gaining ground in the standings would require some shrewd deals. The first order of business was improving my goaltending.

Scanning the other poolies’ squads, I spotted Cam Ward on a team already benefiting from the renaissance of Tim Thomas. I made my pitch. My counterpart asked for Nash, so I suggested my recently acquired Williams, who at the time had more points than the Blue Jacket’s marquee center. Done. I even managed to get Lecavalier as additional trade-bait for future moves. Good.
With that, I suddenly rose into the upper-half. But more deals needed to be made.

One of the vets ahead of me had lost a defenseman for the season with a leg injury. If I could snag more ‘d’ from someone, I could parlay that move into improving my forward core.

I made an offer to someone else with my Hornqvist, from the Predators, for his Zdeno Chara. The Preds don’t score, so I had no problem getting rid of him, knowing I should be able to improve my forwards later with another trade (using the recently acquired Chara).

Chara, who I would likely drop (we can only keep 2 defensemen after the NHL trade deadline) was shipped-off with Ryan Smyth for the aforementioned vet’s Nathan Horton, who I believed to be a slight improvement over the older & oft-injured King. With that, I thought my deals were done; that is, until the day of the league-wide, team cut-down.

In the ‘trash talk’ section of the our pool website was a message from the league’s commissioner’s son, who lives in New Zealand. I had contacted him earlier, hoping to swap goaltenders, in an attempt to improve my back-end for the final twenty games. His offer was different than mine and included a player I hadn’t initially considered trading. I ended up unloading Cam Ward, Kovalchuk & Lecavalier (who would have been dropped) to his team for Jimmy Howard and Logan Couture. It might seem lopsided on paper, but I felt it was ultimately a fair deal for both parties.

All the effort seems to have paid off (touch wood). I’m now positioned in 6th place, 2 points out of a money spot and a mere 11 points shy of 1st place. Fortunes can change between now and the end of the season to be sure, but it’s been a much more entertaining winter pretending to be an NHL general manager when you’re prepared to pull the trigger to improve the team.

(editor’s note: luck can intervene in the form of a trade in the NHL. Goligoski was traded from the Penguins to the Stars and will now likely see a considerable boost in playing time, both at even strength & on the PP. Good for me)

The Family Homestead at Woodlands, Manitoba

This year, 2010, marks the 100th anniversary of our family home in Woodlands.

Purchased by my parents in 1965, the house is situated on 320 acres (one half of a section) of bush, sloughs and numerous clearings. I lived there until I was 19. At that point, I knew it was time to leave. The lights of Winnipeg, reflected on the clouds to the south east signaled promise and opportunity.

Country life was great – don’t get me wrong. Many of my fondest memories are linked permanently to a childhood steeped in its aura: our border collie, Hamish, chasing thunder, certain it was a wild animal trying to attack; a large, bent maple tree, festooned with branches, draped with bedsheets, that served as my pirate ship sailing across the ocean lawn; the CN freight train lurching slowly northward toward Gypsumville at 10:30 each night (I knew then, I had stayed up too late); the richly sweet aroma of fermenting grain in late summer.

Though my parents left Woodlands several years ago for a less demanding, though no less fruitful lifestyle in Stonewall, the homestead remains in the family. My brother and his wife bought the farm – adding their own signature to the house and property.

How much longer will our family govern the Shoal Farm estate? Will it all be around 100 years from now?

I don’t think that’s as important as what I bring with me after growing up in such a special place.

I‘ve been suffering from a bout of writers block. So in place of a freshly minted post, I submit a piece of advice from American filmmaker Jim Jarmusch (and JLG):

A great quote to read regularly