Knights Finish Season with Record Points, Paralympics Rant, Raptors Update

Hello everyone. I have some superb hockey news to pass along, and this news concerns the London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League. The team had a fantastic weekend on Friday and Saturday, where they defeated their Western Conference rivals Windsor Spitfires 4-3 in overtime on a Nazem Kadri winner in front of a packed house at the John Labatt Centre. London also played against the Erie Otters in Erie on Saturday, but were routed 8-3 partly due to the team resting its biggest stars Nazem Kadri and Steve Tarasuk. For more on the games, here are the links to the games (vs Windsor: http://londonknights.com/display_game_summary.asp?game=707 and vs Erie: http://londonknights.com/display_game_summary.asp?game=708). I will point this out before I move on to more pressing issues: by going into OT against Windsor on Friday, the Knights assured themselves of a 100+ season for the 6th time in 7 years. Talk about dominance!! 

Now that their season is over, London will face the 7th seeded Guelph Storm in their OHL Western Conference Quarter-Final. The 1st game is on Friday, March 19 at 7:00pm at their own rink, the John Labatt Centre. You can listen to the game either online at http://londonknights.com/default.asp or you can tune in to AM 1290 CJBK on your radio dial. In fact, you can catch ALL of the Knights games in either of these two ways. It should be a great series. More on the Knights later...

Many of us have undoubtedly experienced the heart wrenching fact that life is not always kind and fair. My own experiences this week have confirmed this fact to be true when it comes to the Paralympics that are occurring now in Vancouver. I am writing about the lack of coverage in the media concerning these great athletes and events. For starters, the coverage is ONLY on one channel: TSN, and the amount of coverage only adds up to 1.5 hours, with replays coming the rest of the day. When the Olympics were on however, the coverage almost ran most of the day on most days and nights and viewers could catch the action on many different stations. Also too, tonight's sledge hockey game for Canada starts at 11:30pm (Eastern Daylight Time), not at primetime the way that the men's hockey games at the Olympics were. This to me is completely uncalled for and unfair. It is almost as if TSN is telling its viewers: "Paralympics? Who cares, now that we've got the NHL back up and running? Besides, we've got money to make and a schedule to keep. We'll NEVER get rid of our hockey, so we're going to only give you 1.5 h highlights each day and we'll push the sledge hockey to the twilight hours. We'd rather show you Raptors and Leafs games anyway, even if they stink right now. You've seen enough; now GET LOST!!!" Even the London Free Press newspapers haven't written many stories on these athletes and the pain and determination they show as they struggle to compete for a gold medal. All I've been hearing is "we have our first gold in the Paralympics...and now we return to blah, blah, blah." I have a suggestion for these media buffoons: try the sports yourself (as Wendall Clark did with sledge hockey for a mini TV spot) and see if they're unimportant and "wussy"! Go ahead; you've got the money! Surely you'd breeze through the games and the courses, after all these athletes are HANDICAPPED!  In my opinion, the Paralympic athletes are accomplishing much more due to the fact that they have special circumstances that they are forced to deal with each day of their lives: some are paralyzed waist down, some have no use of their legs, some are blind, some are in wheelchairs, and still others have no legs at all! My own mother was equally upset; so much so that she went on TSN's Facebook page and complained about these very issues. To no one's surprise, there hasn't even been a whimper of acknowledgement of my mother's comment! It just goes to show you that a severe double-standard exists in the media and in society in general: if you look pretty, are in complete health and are a winner, you gain success and fame. If not, tough luck buddy. This is all immoral and grossly detrimental to anyone aspiring to lead a great life, especially if you are a handicapped person. Here's hoping that enough people will care to lobby TSN for more balanced coverage of the Paralympics and other related events that NEED to reach people for the better. 

So, I end off my blog now. Before I do however, I do wish to update you on the Raptors, as crummy as they are: the team is on a 5-game losing streak after losses to Sacramento, Golden State, Portland and other teams, and have now dropped from 5th seed to 8th seed in the NBA's Eastern Conference. If the playoffs started today the team would face the 1st place Cleveland Cavailers, which would most likely mean a first-round exit and a certain loss of the team's franchise player (Chris Bosh) to free agency in the offseason. They are playing the Atlanta Hawks tomorrow at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto. Tip-off is at 7:00pm on the TV channel TSN2. Now, let's end this puppy, and have a good one!