Beer

Hello everyone,

How did the weekend treat you? I spent my second of three consecutive weekends in Regina. This weekend was not Rider related, as I was in a squash tournament. Yes I play squash, and yes I'm serious enough about it to travel to tournaments.

A little tidbit about me is that I'm a beer snob. You know, one of those people that scoffs internally when you order a Canadian and if there are four people at a table and won't share in the pitcher. In general, a minor pain in the ass. My preference is ales, porters and stouts (darker beers) and having travelled a bit, I thought I'd share some of my favourite beers that you may have not heard of. It's also some advice if you are ever in New York or the West Coast and don't feel like a Budweiser and want to try something new.


Brooklyn Lager. I've started to see this a bit one in Canada, specifically some stores in Calgary that have a bit more of a selection. You can also get it at my favourite Regina pub - Beer Bros . It's from Brooklyn and widely available on the East Coast. Similar to: Sleeman's Cream/Honey Brown




Black Butte Porter. This one is basically only available in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, and is brewed in Bend, Oregon. It's a Porter, so its a very dark flavourful beer. If you like Guinness, give this one a try if you ever find yourself in Seattle or Portland OR.




Garrison Raspberry Wheat. I'm using this one as an example, as the Garrison brewery in Halifax, NS has 5 other beers that are worth trying as well. This one has the distinction of being the best flavoured beer I've ever had (yes girls, better than bud light lime). A lot of microbrewed berry beers are too sweet and taste a bit too fruity for a manly beer drinker. This one has a hint of rasperry that compliments the beer, instead of overpowering it.

Palm. Now for a beer from overseas. Palm is a Belgian beer that doesn't have as strong a hoppy taste as other Belgian beers like Hoegaarden and Leffe. But, like other Belgian beers it's strong (7.5%) so you can't drink it like a Canadian.








Samuel Adams Octoberfest Ale. I assume most people are familiar with Sam Adams Boston Lager (Always a good decision). However, the Sam Adams brewery produces a lot of Seasonal beers for the NorthEast United States market. One of these beers is the OctoberFest Ale, which is their fall beer. It is modelled after the Octoberfest beer that is served in Munich. It's as good as Sam Adams Boston Lager (one of my favourites). If you enjoy Rickards or Keith's Red give this one a try.



That's all for today.



Cheers.

WHL Drafting and some Theo Comments

Hi everyone,

Just enjoying a couple weeks working in downtown Saskatoon before my project starts up in Calgary at the end of the month. It's strange, I've lived in Saskatoon for 13 years and have not worked downtown since 1999. It's nice going out for a walk at lunchtime, taking the bus to work, and being a block from my gym for a quick lunchtime workout. Saskatoon does not have a great downtown core concentration, and this needs to improve as our city grows.

I'm sure many a hockey fan had their suspicions confirmed when Theo Fleury revealed he was molested by ex-coach Graham James. Out of this, the topic of how to better protect teenage hockey players is being revisited. What popped to my head immediately is some of the hardship that young hockey players go through in being seperated from their families at the age of 16 or younger to go to a strange city to play hockey. Because of this, the primary adult in a lot of these kids' lives is their hockey coach.

Compounding the issue is that the kids are often playing hockey a considerable distance from their families, especially in the Western Hockey League. The Southern/Western most team, the Portland WinterHawks, are 2,200km from the Eastern most team; the Brandon Wheat Kings. Granted, these teams only travel to play each other every other season, but it does display the reach of a junior hockey league. Contrast this to the Ontario Hockey League where the most remote team, the Sault Ste Marie Greyhounds is less than 1000km away from its farthest competition the Erie Otters. Even the distance between Rouyn Noranda QC to Charlottetown in the QMJHL is less than Brandon to Portland.

Granted, the teams that are far apart don't play against each other very often. However, when Bantam kids are drafted nothing stops Portland from taking a kid from Brandon and vice versa. Therein lies part of the problem. I am sure it has been explored before but one must think that having a kid playing reasonably close to home has got to be easier on both the kid and his family. Also having the child's support system within a days drive away could help in ensuring that an abusive coach doesn't become the primary adult in his life.

Currently in the WHL, there is 1 team in Manitoba, 5 in Saskatchewan, 5 in Alberta, 6 in British Columbia, and 5 in the Western United States. The WHL could establish some kind of regional drafting system that would allow the kids to be closer to home, while still maintaining fairness in the league. In the 2009 WHL draft, the number of kids drafted in the first 5 rounds were as such:

Manitoba: 17
Saskatchewan: 22
Alberta: 37
B.C.: 29
United States: 5

One suggestion would be to only allow teams to draft from an adjacent province. For teams in Saskatchewan that would mean they could only draft from Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. For British Columbia, they could draft from B.C. and Alberta. For the U.S. teams, they would have exclusive rights to U.S. born players in the Western U.S. (as the OHL and QMJHL draft out of the Eastern States) and B.C. players. Of course, a kid from Medicine Hat could still end up playing in Vancouver or Prince George, but the situation where the kid from Saskatoon ends up playing in Portland or Seattle is eliminated. What this would also do is ensure that kids are often playing in a division close to home. For example, let's say a kid from Rosetown is playing in Prince Albert. Parents can easily come watch road games in Saskatoon and Swift Current, and home games in Prince Albert and spend time with their kids more often. That is not really feasible if that kid from Rosetown ends up in Kelowna. For example, in this year's draft the Portland WinterHawks had the first pick and selected a kid from Weyburn SK. Moose Jaw had the second pick and selected a kid from Vancouver. The kid from Weyburn will be almost 2000km from home, and the kid from Vancouver will be 1700 km from home. If the above rules applied, the Weyburn kid would be 150km from home, and the Vancouver kid would be 500km from home without affecting the competitiveness and fairness of the league.

Teams should also be able to "reserve" 1 or 2 hometown talents every draft if they choose. This is not only good for the kids but it is good for business. If two years ago, the Saskatoon Blades were able to have both Luke and Braydon Schenn dress for them, fan support may have increased to see these local products suit up for the home team. Same can be said for Ryan Getzlaf playing for the Pats instead of the Hitmen or Patrick Marleau playing for the Swift Current Broncos instead of Seattle.

Well, that's all today. It will also be the last hockey related blog for a while. 3 in a row is enough, and there is sufficient hockey discussion in cyberspace as it is.

Cheers.

Happy Thanksgiving and NHL stuff

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope everyone had some good eats over the weekend. Since my thanksgiving was just me and the folks this year, my dad cooked a prime rib instead on the ol' BBQ. I'm thankful we had that instead of turkey.


So, some interesting rumblings out of the NHL in that Bettman did not rule out the possibility of a return to the NHL for the Quebec Nordiques contingent on a new arena being built in Quebec City. My opinion of "I'll believe it when I see it" with regards to anything that little weasel Bettman says it did get me thinking of when the Nordiques were in the NHL.

It also got me thinking about a rule in the six team NHL era that allowed the Montreal Canadiens to have first crack at any Francophone NHL players. This rule was ended in the early 1970's as the league had expanded to 12 teams but the players were still largely Canadian and the already powerhouse Canadiens were able to unfairly get players like Guy Lafleur and Rejean Houle before the much weaker expansion teams.

However, with 30 teams in the NHL and almost half of all NHL's coming from countries other than Canada it got me wondering if such a rule would be feasible again. So, for the sake of killing time and fun let's assume the Quebec Nordiques never moved and are still in Quebec. Let's keep the rule simple, and say that if the Quebec Nordiques or Montreal Canadiens have a first round pick they MUST draft a Quebec born player but they have access to any Quebec born player, regardless of where they pick. So, if Montreal has the 10th pick, and there is a francophone player projected to go fourth Montreal could get that player.

I've taken the first round picks from the last 20 years for the Habs and the Nordiques/Avs to see how their different the teams may have looked. Note that whoever finished lower in the standings between Montreal and Quebec gets the first pick of the francophones.

Montreal
Actually Picked Francophone Picked
1988 Eric Charron Martin Gelinas
1989 Lindsay Vallis Steve Larouche
1990 Turner Stevenson Karl Dykhuis
1991 Brent Bilodeau Martin Lapointe
1992 David Wilkie Manny Fernandez
1993 Saku Koivu Alexandre Daigle
1994 Brad Brown Jean-Yves Laroux
1995 Terry Ryan J.S Giguire
1996 Matt Higgins J.P. Dumont
1997 Jason Ward Roberto Luongo
1998 Eric Chouinard Vincent Lecavalier
1999 N/A Martin Grenier
2000 Ron Hainsey Antoine Vermette
2001 Mike Komisarek Pascal Leclaire
2002 Chris Higgins Pierre Marc Bouchard
2003 Andrei Kostitsyn Marc-Andre Fleury
2004 Kyle Chipchura Alexandre Picard
2005 Carey Price Benoit Pouliot
2006 David Fischer Jonathon Bernier
2007 Max Pacioretty David Perron
2008 N/A Nicolas Deschamps
2009 Louis LeBlanc Jordan Caron


Quebec/Colorado
Actually Picked Francophone Picked
1988 Curtis Leschyshyn Daniel Dore
1989 Mats Sundin Patrice Brisebois
1990 Owen Nolan Martin Brodeur
1991 Eric Lindros Patrick Poulin
1992 Todd Warriner Paul Brousseau
1993 Jocelyn Thibault Jocelyn Thibault
1994 Wade Belak Eric Fichaud
1995 Marc Denis Denis Gauthier
1996 Peter Ratchuk Daniel Briere
1997 Kevin Grimes J.F. Fortin
1998 Alex Tanguay Alex Tanguay
1999 Mikhail Kuleshov Brent Clouthier
2000 Vaclav Nedorost Mathieu Chouinard
2001 N/A Jason Pominville
2002 Jonas Johansson Martin Vagner
2003 N/A Steve Bernier
2004 Wojtek Wolski Nick Fugere
2005 N/A Luc Bourdon
2006 Chris Stewart Derick Brassard
2007 Kevin Shattenkirk Angelo Esposito
2008 N/A Yann Sauve
2009 Matt Duchene Louis Leblanc

Interesting. As expected from drafting out of the QMJHL, lots of offense and goaltending and light on defense. The 2000s have great for producing excellent prospects out of the QMJHL, following a terrible 1990s. Most of the Canadian players drafted in the 1990s were out of either the WHL or OHL. Likely, both Quebec and Montreal would have a glut of great goaltenders that they could trade and have excellent clubs because of that. Colorado likely would not have 2 Stanley Cups though without being able to draft Sundin, Lindros and Nolan.

That's it for time wastin today.

Cheers.

Fall (Winter?) Update

Well, after a gorgeous September the weather we were expecting came to visit this week. I'm working in Calgary this week, and I had trouble seeing across the Bow River from downtown.

The NHL hockey season has started, and yours truly got a little choked up watching the jersey of one of the greatest players to ever play in the NHL raise to the rafters of the Pepsi center in Denver.

I'm a bit biased, but Sakic is the best #19 to ever play hockey. The debate, of course, would be compared to another great player in Steve Yzerman. Valid arguments on that side too, other than he played on my hated wings. Because I'm in a hotel room in Calgary taking it easy I've decided to make some career comparisons to kill some time. The similarities are uncanny in their careers: multiple Stanley Cup winners, long time captain of the same franchise, Olympic gold medal winner,

Sakic:

20 Seasons

Goals: 625

Assists: 1016

Points: 1641

Games Played: 1378

Points per game: 1.19

Stanley Cups: 2

Hart Trophy: 2001

Conn Smythe: 1996

Olympic MVP 2002

Yzerman:

22 Seasons

Goals: 692
Assists: 1063
Points: 1755
Games Played: 1514
Points per game: 1.16
Stanley Cups: 3

Conn Smythe: 1997

Again, what may tip Sakic over the top is his Hart Trophy and his MVP performance in the 2002 Olympics. And, the fact that Sakic had his two best offensive years in 1996 and 2001. The two years the Avalanche won the Stanley Cup. Yzerman is a first ballot hall of famer, and Sakic is a sure thing for that as well.

This season is weird though, my heart is not into cheering for the Avalanche any more. So, I'm just enjoying the game for entertainment so far instead of as a fan. It's actually a lot better...

Cheers.

A long time coming...

Hey everyone,

It's been a long time coming for this post, but the last several weeks my head has been focused solely on getting set up for the new job, which starts Monday. Now I can relax, and enjoy the last couple days of my time off.

I was also on a trip to the Eastern United States splitting time between the great cities of New York and Boston. These are the types vacations I prefer, as opposed to resort type vacations in the winter. As you would expect it was a great time, and I lucked out with watching a Blue Jays and Yankees brawl and a Lewis Black appearance on a Daily Show taping.


This was my 3rd time to NYC and my second time in Boston. I've said numerous times that New York is a great place to visit, but I would live in Boston. A very active, urban, and walkable town with excellent public transit and a safe downtown core. Living in a city like that facilitates being active. My friend even said that she thought she needed to run while there just to fit in. Politicians that are in charge of urban development should be required to visit Boston to see how a vibrant urban life can be built. Calgary and Edmonton really missed the boat when they grew their cities to be more suburban focused. I see Saskatoon going down this road as well. Our council says they want a vibrant core, and at the same time permits big box developments with three large Wal-Mart stores spread around the outskirts of the city. In a city of our size, it is very difficult to have both.

Oh yeah, and U2 kicked ass.



Cheers.

Michael Vick

Hi everyone,

Here's a topic that I'm sure has been blogged about and discussed to no length over the last couple years, and it is now being talked about again. Michael Vick, who most people know served nearly two years in prison for running a dogfighting ring out of his home, has finished his sentence and has recently signed on with the Philadelphia Eagles. With this, the discussion on whether Philly should have taken him and a discussion of whether he has paid his debt to society has been ongoing.

With something like what I'm going to talk about, I have to preface this and say I do like dogs. Not all dogs (yappy purse dogs annoy the hell out of me, and the huge dogs just seem excessive), but overall I do like dogs.

If you remember back when this dogfighting ring came to light, the public outrage was widespread. It wasn't just groups such as PETA, but everyday citizens who rallied against what Vick had done. I can understand the outrage, as people probably looked at their family dog and imagined some of the tragic things that happen to dogs in a dogfighting ring happening to their own dog.

While Vick deserved to be punished, no doubt, 23 months in prison has always seemed incredibly excessive to me. The typical standard in the USA for a more common underground activity; cockfighting, is a fine and a maximum of 6 months in jail. Why the discrepancy? Roosters and dogs are animals. Regardless that we have largely personified dogs over the last several decades, I don't believe that animal abuse laws are written to be specific to a type of animal.

So, now the question is - should they be? If Michael Vick ran a cockfighting ring, he would have likely not even seen the inside of a jail cell and been playing football that same year. An episode of Seinfeld was based on cockfighting, and it was a very funny episode. That same episode with "Little Jerry Seinfeld" being a dog would not have been funny at all.

So, if society has applied a higher standard for certain animals, should the laws be written to provide harsher sentences if people abuse these certain animals (dogs, cats, and horses are the three that come to mind immediately). Even though I personally agree that the idea of a cat, dog, or horse being abused is much more distasteful then abuse of a pig, cow, rooster, rat, or gopher. In the prairies, a common summer pastime is shooting gophers for fun. This is an idea I personally find distasteful, but our Western culture overall does not and nobody is ever going to be arrested for killing gophers on a farm.

Some food for thought...

Cheers.

More on Healthcare

Hey everyone. A Sunday post after a fun filled August long weekend and the annual street dance/buffoonery in Speedy Creek last night.

Our friends to the South continue to furiously debate the issue of health care reform. Through town hall meetings, talk shows, the debate has become increasingly vicious and the dialogue has been enhanced with some increased vitriol. It has been very tough to find an educated debate on this issue with points of view from both sides. Real Time With Bill Maher this past Friday was a refreshing exception.

In the debate, the inevitable comparison with the Canadian health care system has come up, and the mention of our system's trouble spots, such as elective and non life-threatening surgery wait times. However, the continued comparison and criticism of Canada's health system by opponents of Obama's reform bill is a red herring. The United States system was ranked 37th in the world by the World Health Organization. Canada's however, was only ranked 30th. To me if the Americans are looking to spend billions to reform healthcare they should be looking at other large industrial democracies that are ranked much higher such as France (1), Italy (2), and Spain (7). It is important to note that the United States system costs much more per capita ($6600) on healthcare compared to other large Western democracies ($2500 - $3500) such as France, Canada, Germany, Spain, Italy, and Great Britain.

The Boston Globe provided an excellent article highlighting the French system. The French system is a public/private hybrid system. Insurance companies manage the public health insurance system, and citizens have a choice of providers. Like Canadians, the French also can have relatively inexpensive supplemental coverage to look after the areas not covered by the public system. Doctors are given full professional control over their practices and medical decisions, which all but eliminates both rationing (common in Canadian and British systems) and the interference of private insurance common in the American system. Also interesting is that the French have greatly reduced the overhead required for practicing Doctors with a very simple billing and reimbursement system, eliminating the need for a large amount of non-medical support staff (which is very common in the States).

The Boston Globe article also touches on a very important issue that the debate in the United States has largely ignored, and that is medical liability litigation. A major reason why care in the United States is so expensive is the practice of "defensive medicine". This is the practice of ordering expansive and unnecessary tests to "cover all bases" to avoid litigation. Naturally, this is very expensive. The medical malpractice tort system needs to be overhauled in the United States to accomplish any real reform and to also get costs under control. Punitive damages and huge rewards have caused medical malpractice insurance premiums to skyrocket, often in the hundreds of thousands per year, per practice. According to a lot of legislators in the States, tort reform is not in Obama's package.

Why is this? Why isn't a main cause of high healthcare costs being reformed in Obama's bill? Simple. Trial Attorneys. Medical malpractice claims is a cash cow for personal injury law firms, and the trial attorney is a powerful lobby in Washington. Trial attorney associations are also a key contributor and supporter of the Democratic Party. The Democrats would have a tough time swallowing a bill that would lose them support and contributions of trial attorneys. Canadian and French systems in general only allow for economic damages in malpractice suits, which are typically significantly less then the punitive/pain and suffering awards given in the United States.

Some food for thought, and the coming weeks will continue to be very interesting in this debate.

Cheers.