And the new chapter has begun.
I have officially moved to Medicine Hat to become a Reporter/Producer for Shaw TV. My years and experience in Whitecourt were excellent, and I will never forget the relationships and the memories.
One of which was with the late Elias Lachance, who officially had his number 22 jersey retired last Friday and Sunday in Spruce Grove and in Whitecourt. A classy move by a great organization that is going for their 4th straight championship this season. I'm looking forward to listening to Gino's broadcasts. You can check out his blog called the "De Paoli Debacle" on the right hand side....
Holidays were great in Winnipeg. I was able to relax and re-focus for this next step. Made a brief visit to the Med Hat Arena today to meet some of the front office staff, which I will be spending plenty of time around over the coming months. The Tigers are down to 31 players on their roster, and have 2 pre-season games left against Red Deer and Lethbridge on the road, before opening up at home to the Hurricanes next weekend.
The trip to the 'peg also included the Banjo Bowl, which was awful. I haven't blogged much about the CFL at all this summer, which is disappointing because I have lots to say. The "Swaggerville" Bombers have been knocked down to earth by the Riders. The East division which looked to be so so strong to start the year has plateaued. Actually, all 8 teams seem to have leveled off. Calgary looks to be the top team right now in the CFL, and in my opinion, the BC Lions aren't too far behind them. Their record doesn't reflect how good the team really is. Sure, Winnipeg has lost 2 ugly games in a row. And no, you can't pin the whole game on officiating. But they had a shot at the Labour day game. They got outplayed in the Banjo Bowl, flat out. But the Labour Day game was a refereeing catastrophe. The Arogs will continue to be awful, the Riders will get better and the Eskimos will fall to 4th place in the West. While the East will flip flop back and forth between the Als and Bombers for 1st, depending on the health of Buck Pierce (that's a shock.)
As for the NHL pre-season getting underway, wow it was cool to see the "Winnipeg Jets" in action last night. A 4-0 pre-season win in the young stars game over San Jose. Nothing to jump for joy about, unless you grew up in Winnipeg like I did. It is still pretty cool to hear their name being announced.
That's it for me. I should have a new email addy set up very shortly, so please don't send mail to dave@xm105.com anymore because that won't work.
