Do Better, Media

I read a lot of news on twitter mostly about the Montreal Canadiens (Habs) or the Winnipeg Jets. Lately there have been numerous comments from players on the Habs about how to watch the game. The latest one was Subban saying that if you think he is bad on defence you that you are not watching enough or not paying attention. The Habs players have been on the media for over a week about how the game is reported upon and what should actually be watched for.

The jest of all the comments the Habs players have made boil down to watch for this and you will get what we are doing. It lines up with what analytics are saying teams should do to win, down to their starting goalie not starting on back to backs. It is really fascinating to listen to because it makes so much sense. The best part is there are people in the media in Montreal who are defending the players and explaining what they have said in layman's terms.

This brings me to the Jets. They are the opposite of the Habs; they are bad. And their players don't say things like "Offensive defence men are good defensively because they have the puck" they talk about hitting guys and blocking shots. The most praised player in Winnipeg most nights seems to be Mark Stuart, a bad defence man. In Montreal it is Subban and Markov with a side of Price, Plekanec, Pacioretty/whoever is hot that particular night. The media, though they struggle with it sometimes typically pick good players to praise. In Winnipeg they praise bad players regularly.

Never mind that they TSN Jets broadcast today talked about Mason going to the Olympics because a 21 game sample size is how you want to pick an Olympic team, not seasons of evidence that he is not a good goalie. Broadcasters have a job, as do reporters, to know the game they cover and they do not do that very well because they play into narratives and do not listen to the analytics that can tell them otherwise.

Players are starting to hold the media accountable in Montreal and the media is responding somewhat receptively (it depends on the member) but will this happen in Winnipeg or will good players like Kane and Burmistrov continue to get run out of town with no defenders except for knowledgable fans.

Letter Writing and Learning

Yesterday I participated in my first ever parent/teacher/student conferences and I learned a lot. Most of it is the students are generally aware of where they struggle and can help find strategies that will help them. One of the students talked about writing letters to people to help her write more and this made me think of how I learned to write in grade four, a pen pal.

My grade four teacher did a lot of work centred around the north and every year she set up pen pals for her students to send letters to. I believe I had two in fact but I cannot remember correctly. I remember how exciting it was when we got the letters and got to write responses, we had so many questions for them. We sent pictures and shared about our lives in an entirely different environment. We studied the communities that our pen pals lived in. We learned about Canada in a way we would have not learned if it wasn't for our pen pals.

I do not still have these letters from them but I really enjoyed it in grade four. It was probably a disaster writing wise and a lot of work to set up but was it worth it to me as a student? Yes and I bet it was worth it for my teacher (Mrs. Gartrell who was awesome and had so many unique lessons) because she was able to teach us about Northern Canada by us asking other kids. Students were engaged, practiced penmanship and writing. We learned about an area of the country we knew very little about. I still remember where my pen pal lived too. She lived in Inuvik.

A Day in the Life of Chevy

Kevin Cheveldayoff is the GM of the Winnipeg Jets. He also has a love of claiming players off waivers and not doing much else. The only time he traded away a soon-to-be unrestricted free agent was in his first year when he traded Johnny Oduya to Chicago for a second round pick. Because of all that Chevy does all day to improve the Jets there is a question on Twitter #WhatDidChevyDoToday and so I give you a day in the life of Chevy. This is a non game day in Winnipeg

7:00 am- Wake up
7:05- Shower
7:15- Get dressed
7:20- Make coffee
7:25- Pour a bowl of milk and Cherrios
7:45- Shovel his driveway
8:00- Drive to his office
8:30-8:45 Arrive at office
8:45-9:00 Get ready for his day
9:00- Call Mark Stuart's agent to see what his contract demands are, talk for over an hour about how valuable Stuart is to the team
10:30- call James Wright's agent to see what his contract demands are, tells him how Wright is the perfect bottom six player and can fill in on a top six line when injuries hit, talk for over an hour
11:45- Decides to go eat lunch, goes out to McDonald's for the Filet-o-Fish when Stella's is closer with a tastier and healthier fish burger
12:15- Heads back to his office calls Chris Thorburn's agent to learn his contract demands, they talk about how his fighting sparks the team for over an hour
1:45- Decides he needs a nap
3:15- Wakes up and logs onto his computer to read Allan Walsh's Twitter account about how Pavelectric Pavelec is
3:45- Decides he's done enough work for the day and heads home
4:15-4:30 Arrives home, helps his kids with homework
5:30- Eats supper with his family
6:00- Watches CTV News
7:00 Finds and Watches a Two and a Half Men marathon
8:30 Puts his kids to bed
9:00 Goes back to watching Two and a Half Men
10:00 Turns to TSN to watch That's Hockey 2Night
11:00 Goes to bed to rest up for another busy day

And that is what a day in the life of Chevy looks like
(this was fiction and is by no means real in any way, shape, or form)

The Young and the Marginalized

Canadian Conservative MP Dean Del Mastro tweeted last night that only 30% of eligible voters took part in the Federal by-election yesterday. This is an alarming number but instead of saying that something is wrong with voters in Canada maybe politicians should ask themselves how to engage those who are not as likely to vote. The two groups I think they should target is the young vote and the marginalized members of society, specifically the FNMI (First Nations, Metis, Inuit) community. This article in the Winniprg Free Press touches on voter turn out quite nicely (http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/special/democracy-project/only-band-politics-matters-on-reserve-113752239.html?device=mobile).

To not engage people who are less likely to vote is a bad idea. New voters are ready to be painted by a party and to ignore them is irresponsible. Being unengaging to the unengaged is a good way to leave them out of the political spectrum forever, but all is not lost because there is a way to get the young vote and the FNMI vote to start (this is not fool proof and I may be wrong but hey, I'm young).

1. Go to them- Instead of holding debates and information nights that require them to come to you go to where they are. This means engaging them at their homes, community centres and other gathering places.

2. Engage them in meaningful discourse.- This means using your listening ears and actually understanding what would make these voters vote. Better mental health, accessible post-secondary education, better student loans, proper housing solution? Whatever they say is a concern for them note it and use the ones most frequently mentioned in your platform.

3. Make polling accessible and easy. -Not everyone has the type of id needed to vote. Make voting as easy as possible. Besides offering rides to voting sites offer childcare while there to make the parents life easy. This will make going with parents to the polls a fun experience for kids and make them want to engage in voting when they get older.

4. Have debates in schools. -Have debates in schools during school hours. Many teachers would take their students to listen to part of the democratic process. Schools are also opened to the community and so those who work nights or have a day off can come by and listen to the debate as well.

These ideas aren't perfect and I am not saying do all of them at once, but people are less likely to vote if they feel like they are not being heard. Engage in the young and the marginalized and listen to them. If this doesn't change anything be better and things may change. Alienation and blaming the voter cannot be the way to go anymore.

The Awesomeness of Princesses (Part 1)

So some people like to call men princesses to insult them. This is unacceptable and therefore deserves shaming in the best way possible, them learning how awesome princesses can be. By using both real and Disney "Princesses" (including those who are not princesses but considered to be in "princess movies" like Mulan). This is no ranking but a reminder of how awesome princesses can be and why that is a bad insult.

Mulan

Mulan is the quintessential badass. She lies that she's a boy so her father, who was permanently disabled while in combat for the Chinese Imperial Army. She not only puts herself in danger by going in place of her father, but she also causes the chance of dishonour to her family if she is discovered. Of course she is discovered to be female after saving her comrades from the Huns and is sent home, only to realize the Huns were not killed off and they were going to the Imperial City. She gets there just in time to battle the Huns one last time, saving the Emperor and bringing honour to her family. Never mind she was clever throughout, using her brain to help her overcome her physical limitations.

Queen Elizabeth II

She is now the Queen of England but when she was a mere princess in 1944 and just 18 years of age she convinced her father to let her serve as a mechanic and truck driver in London. No one would have let the future Queen of England go to war but she is the only female monarch to serve in the British Forces to any degree.

Belle

Belle is awesome and usually accused of being otherwise. She sees beauty in an animal that no one else can see beauty in and she sees how horrible Gaston is when no one else can. Unique and smart, Belle kills 'em with kindness. She refuses to see the Beast as he sees himself and eventually he realizes that he can be nice and they fall in love. This love story is all about seeing what is underneath the looks and not what everyone else thinks.

Esmeralda

The last princess tonight is Esmeralda from Hunchback of Notre Dame. She is sweet and kind to Quasimodo, protecting him from the evil crowds and saving his life. She leaves him in the end but she is not there to be his lover but instead his beautiful friend and there is nothing wrong with that.

Why I'll Never Melt Sugar (or the Dangers of Glue Guns)

I am somewhat klutzy. My knees are perpetually bruised at the ripe old age of 20 and I can never tell you how they have become bruised. I am also a pre-service teacher in an integrated education program meaning I take education classes from my first year on instead of doing a post-bach. Because of this I am in a grade 4/5 classroom this year and sometimes do those annoying jobs that teachers don't have time for like hanging art on the wall. Except this is harder when you are 5'3", a klutz, and using a glue gun.

I was quietly hanging up show boxes while math was being corrected doing the seemingly easy job of hot gluing shoe boxes on the wall over computers. Again this is an easy job except I am terrible with hot glue guns and it showed. Though everything stuck to the wall I managed to track glue strings over the computers and get some on the counter-top. Then I struck and managed to a) get a large amount of glue on my thumb, and b) not remove it quickly.

This incident led to me having to leave the classroom three times. Twice to run my finger under water and the last time to get ice. I blame that on me trying to "tough it out" and not take care of the burn immediately (smart move Cara). Finally I was given Polysporm and sent was okay. But it is embarrassing when you have to go to the office to get an ice pack for yourself. But they will let me teach one day and I will be avoiding glue guns because they poise a danger to me.

Vimy, Reading, and Teaching Myself

I have a bizarre love of history from around WWI to present. The modern conflicts that have made the world we live in today the way it is engross me. My Dad has always talked about the Battle of Vimy Ridge because his Great-Grandfather died there. Him and I are planning to visit there together in a couple years because it is a place that I would really like to see.

Grade 7 was when I realized that i loved history. I read a book that I did not fully understand and it impacted me for the rest of my life. That book was Vimy by Pierre Berton. Reading it at a young age was painful, but I inflicted myself with the pain and finished it, becoming fascinated with WWI history in the process. How could this happen? How could the world fall into such turmoil? I have learned some of those answers at university but the lingering question still remains to me, who were the people who fought and what are their stories?

I have learned more of those stories through reading books like Unlikely Soldiers by Jonathan Vance and Fighting in Hell (about WWII on the Eastern Front). These books helped paint a picture of the people who fought. I cannot understand why we do not learn about the Eastern Front in history because without the Soviet Red Army, the world would probably look a lot different today.

I have also learned about many atrocities that have occurred without little public education: The Armenian Genocide (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/headline/article15530249/), the Night of the Broken Glass in Germany and Austria, the rapping of women by Japanese Soldiers during the war in the Pacific and numerous other brutalities that have occurred (hopefully the Canadian Museum of Human Rights will feature these). This is why reading history is important to me. I cannot say that I know the whole story, ever. The idea that educating everything to make Canada look good is a bad one. You have to see the world through someone else's eyes at some point. The Boy in the Stripped Pyjamas is an excellent story for this reason, you see through the enemies eyes.

I do not know if I would have fallen in love with history to the same extent that I did if I hadn't read Vimy in grade 7. I'm glad that I will never know because I have a stack of books to read and most of them are historical non-fiction.

Max Pacioretty is Smart and Defence in Water Polo

I played water polo, refereed water polo, minor officiated water polo, and coached water polo for year. Only the past two years have I not spent at least four days a week at the pool. This leads me to a series of smart comments from Max Pacioretty of the Montreal Canadiens.

All I know about hockey analytics comes from reading people who write about them and asking questions. These questions range from how important face-offs are (not very) to how bad Douglas Murray is (very). This leads me to Max Pacioretty. He is a consistently underrated forward for the Montreal Canadiens who has made a habit out of saying smart things this year. The first smart thing he said this year was that the Habs would struggle if they tried to play a tougher game because they are meant to be a fast team and not one that fights (http://www.montrealgazette.com/sports/Emphasis+toughness+might+hurt+Habs/8999114/story.html) .

He also said that he was playing a different role this year, one that forced him to focus more on defence ( http://canadiens.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=690962). He is again right. If you are thinking he knows what he is talking about, you are thinking correctly.

Yesterday he said something that was really smart and not just self-aware but something that coaches should listen to (http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/hearsay-pacioretty-downplays-canadiens-defence/). The comments about offensive defence men not having to be as good defensively is important. You need the puck to score. If PK Subban or Dustin Byfulglien have the puck the other team cannot score.

He also talks about passive defence. Passive defence was the death of me when I was coaching water polo. Movement creates everything in water polo and passive defence allowed the other team to move freely and get shots on net. Shots are really important in water polo as you only have 30 seconds to get a shot in net but you get a new shot clock once you get a shot on net. Anyways, passive defence lets shots happen easier. Shots don't get interrupted. Also if you are blocking a shot you are not pressuring the ball (or the puck in hockey) and letting people have easy shots on your goalie.

Water polo is different in hockey because blocking in a valid technique because the nets are so large that the goalie needs help against a good passing team, especially when killing a penalty. But that is where pressure comes in. When the passer is pressured they are forced into more difficult passes and it allows for movement from the defender to continuously pressure the ball or the puck. He gets it. It's better to have the puck (or ball in my example) than to not. And it is better to aggressively pressure the opposition for the puck (or ball) than respect them. It seems so simple but yet human instinct is to protect yourself instead of being aggressive. You are not safer backing up towards your own net than you are challenger the player who has possession or taking away their options. You are making life harder on your goalie than easier. The game is more aggressive and pleasing to the eye. Fans love it even if they don't understand everything. Shot blocking and passive play is what's making hockey harder to watch not goalies making great saves. Max Pacioretty gets a lot of subtle things about hockey that fans don't realize are really simple but his thoughts on defence seem to be spot on and should be listened to.

How the Atlanta Thrashers Created the Winnipeg Jets

Before reading this refer to this post about goalie trade value and what it means to the return for Kari Lehtonen. http://www.habseyesontheprize.com/2010/11/1/1779550/goaltender-trade-value

I got bored about a week ago and tried to figure out the players that the Thrashets still have in their system from three trades: Lehtonen, Hossa, and Kovalchuk. The reason for was a picture of Lehtonen sitting on top of his net.

The Atlanta Thrasher had two young goalies at one point. One who showed promise but got injured often (Lehtonen) and one who had barely played in the NHL at the point of the trade of Lehtonen. Furthermore, Lehtonen had just back surgery and Atlanta had no real need to rush Pavelec as he was not setting the world on fire in the AHL. But Don Waddell went through with the deal and got back a former first round pick Ivan Vishnevskiy who played part of one year for the Chicago Blackhawks before leaving for the KHL where he still plays. The fourth round pick turned into Ivan Telegin who has no stats for this year listed online and struggled with a hand infection last year in St. John's playing for the IceCaps. In all the return for Lehtonen does not deserve much criticism but the timing of the trade (Lehtonen eventually had to have another surgery before being healthy except for the odd groin injury) should draw criticism because Waddell sold low and lowered his potential return as a result.

After Lehtonen I looked at Marion Hossa. Hossa came to the Thrashers in an excellent deal for Waddell by trading a disgruntled Dany Heatley to the Ottawa Senators. When it became apparent in 2008 that Hossa was not going to re-sign with the Thrashers Waddell set forth to trade Hossa. there was a bidding war between two teams in the end; the Montreal Canadiens and the Pittsburgh Penguins. Waddell ultimately went with the Penguins and received Angelo Esposito who has since torn his ACL twice never had a season that measured up to his rookie season in the QMJHL where he played on a line with the now exhaled Radulov. If Waddell had instead chosen Montreal instead he would have received something along the lines of Alexei Emelin, a solid top four defence man, and Chris Higgins, a respectable top nine player, but alas it was not meant to be. The first round pick that was received in the trade turned into noted bust Dalton Leveille who is playing badly in the ECHL. And than there is injury prone Colby Armstrong who suffered from "Crosby can make anyone look good"Syndrome. He put up decent possession numbers in his role on the Canadiens fourth line last year and is now playing in Sweden. Of course Pascal Dupuis was also involved in that trade and is still with the Penguins even if Hossa is not.

The final trade I looked at was Kovalchuk to the New Jersey Devils. Note that Rick Dudley was the GM and made this trade. I am not going to include what the Devils had to give up due to penalties from the league for the illegal contract they tried to sign him to so there are fewer picks involved than if you look at it that way. The actual return was Johnny Oduya (who plays for Chicago and returned Winnipeg a second and third round pick), Niclas Bergfors (who was traded to the florida Panthers for Radek Dvorak in the Thrashers last season of existence), Patrice Cormier (who looks more suspect than prospect at this time), a first round pick that will be addressed later and a second round pick. Both these picks went to Chicago and were used on players who are not yet playing pro. Those picks are not of much matter though because the first round pick was used to acquire Byfuglien in a massive trade that the Thrashets did well in because Byfuglien is good. The Thrashers also traded for Andrew Ladd from Chicago the same year for Vishnevskiy and a second round pick the next year. That pick was Adam Clendening, a good defence man currently playing in the AHL.

As you can see if Don Waddell was never the GM of the Thrasher, there may have been more in the cupboards for the Jets when they came to Winnipeg. We do not know if Emelin would have some over like he did for the Canadiens if he was traded but Dudley's work ensured the Jets had a good captain and a good if not sometimes frustrating defence man.