It’s A Top 10 Tuesday After Long Weekend:

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Here is a smattering of my thoughts on this Tuesday morning.

10 – First a tip of the cap to Bob Ridley. The legendary voice of the Medicine Hat Tigers called his 3,542nd WHL game on Sunday in Edmonton. The only voice the Tigers have ever known also drives the team bus and he has been doing it all for 44 years. Best of all he is as professional and classy off the air as he is on it.

9 – My personal Bob Ridley story came five years ago when I was travelling with the Saskatoon Blades, as Les Lazaruk was away with the Saskatoon Hilltops. I was scrambling to get my equipment set up in time for my broadcast and because of a late arrival by the team to the rink scrambling is the understatement. Much to my chagrin my phone line had been pinched in transit and was not functioning. Basically, no phone line no broadcast. After a search in the Medicine Hat Tigers office and Zamboni room came up with nothing I sought out Rids to see if he could help a panicing broadcaster out. Fortunately, I was prepared and ready for my broadcast when I asked him if he could help me out. He assured me that I would have a new line in time for the game and told me to follow him. With time ticking Mr. Ridley made time to stop and say hello to seemingly everyone in the lobby on our way to search out the cord. After nothing retracing the steps that I had taken earlier I thought I was going to be SOL. However, cool and calm as ever he unplugged a line from a “fax machine,” although I’m sure it was a pay phone, and told me it would work and that the engineers from CHAT would replace it sometime down the road. Let’s just say at last check it hasn’t been replaced.

8 – Speaking of the Saskatoon Blades there is some murmuring that recently discarded Calgary Hitmen Head Coach Mike Williamson could be in line for the vacancy on the Blades bench. I wouldn’t read too much into that as I am sure the process the Blades will follow will be to find a General Manager and then allow him to choose his coach.

7 – More Hockey in Saskatoon and with a sporting announcement coming from Credit Union Centre today some are wondering if it may have anything to do with the American Hockey League. Earlier this spring the Calgary Flames confirmed that they are looking for a new home for their top farm-team as the red ink that the Abbotsford Heat were bleeding has come too much. All I can say is don’t get your hopes up!

6 – Staying with hockey franchises and should the Edmonton Oil Kings be considered the model franchise in the Western Hockey League? The Oil Kings have done things the right way by building from within and making the Alberta capital a very attractive option to would-be players. Sitting on the verge of a third consecutive trip to the league final and it’s hard to argue the point.

5 – OK halfway through the list and I finally will mention the NHL play-offs. I don’t think that it is the lack of Canadian teams in the post-season that has swayed my interest but rather my disdain for post-season officiating. The league plays 1230 regular season games under one standard but when game one of the play-offs open that gets thrown to the wind as the league wants its’ officials to let the players decide it. Nothing short of a mugging seems to be called which to me isn’t hockey.

4 – Staying with the NHL post season and I think Star Phoenix guest columnist Cam Cole summed it up appropriately when he wrote, “’Tis the season, once more, to celebrate the things humans will do to one another, and to themselves, in order to climb over their opponents’ cold, dead corpses to the next round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.” Player safety… laughable!

3 – One more and it is an embarrassment that the NHL allowed a goal call to be waived off in Montreal on the weekend. The disallowed goal didn’t allow Tampa Bay to take a lead in game three of their game and cost them momentum and the eventual loss may very likely cost them the series. The replay showed that goaltender Carey Price initiated the contact that caused the goal to be discredited. With the importance of every goal, especially in the post season, the NHL owes it to their fans and franchises to look at every goal and even override what may be deemed a judgement call.

2 – Staying with replay and MLB has got to figure it out. Allowing the managers to come out of the dugout to dispute a call, or essentially kill time while his bench coach speaks with someone monitoring the game to see if they will win a challenge of the call, is taking way to long. MLB should look at doing what football does and allowing until the next play/pitch to dispute the call. The manager has base coaches and players at his disposal on the field to make the split second decision. If he feels that strongly the call was missed stop the game and challenge. Don’t go out after every close play which is what is happening now.

1 – Lastly to curling where Alberta’s Kevin Martin won his final game, the championship at the Players Championship on the weekend in Prince Edward Island. The gold medal winning skip who was instrumental in creating the players tour and bringing high profile sponsors to the sport, announced earlier in the week that he was retiring from the game. At one point Martin led a boycott of the Brier to allow for more individual sponsorships. That stance has led essentially to the creation of professional curling teams which in turn may be hurting the grass roots of the game. It is becoming harder for young curlers to move up the ladder and trade year-round without sponsors and they cannot land those sponsors without climbing up the ladder. Martin’s legacy will be an interesting one to look at in time. There is no disputing his mastery of the game. However, the fundamental shift to the big money game away from grass roots good or bad may also be attributed to him.

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