The Toronto Sport and Social Club (TSSC) has a fairly good reputation in Toronto for providing fun and social after-work sports. In fact, sportaholik.com visitors (80+ of them) have given the TSSC a rating of 4.1 out of 5. (more…)
Looks like the Toronto Raptors made it to the top of the popular social news site Reddit.com today with this YouTube clip. It’s a short video of the Raptor mascot devouring one of the cheerleaders. I guess anything really can go viral.
Want to watch the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics opening ceremony? I had to look this up last night so here you have it: (more…)
Hockey goalie masks have changed dramatically over time. Fifty years ago tomorrow was when the first goalie mask was worn in the NHL. It was Jacques Plante of the Montreal Canadiens, after taking yet another bruising puck to the head. Red Fisher describes that night:
“What happened was that 3:06 into the game, Plante had been struck in the face by a short shot from Rangers right-winger Andy Bathgate, opening a deep, seven-stitch cut running from the corner of the goaltender’s lips through his nostril. Then, after a delay of 21 minutes, he returned to the ice wearing a full-face mask - the first goaltender in NHL history to do so.”
To me the best goalie masks are still the ones from the older days. Most had scarier looks and more simple paint jobs. Flipping through the retro goalie masks shown on hockeymasks.com (where, yes, you can order your own replicas!) and found some great ones. Clicking the link will take you to an image of the mask.
Top favourites:
Other notable goalie masks:
Mostly simple white masks, but still awesome:
The masks of today totally don’t compare to those above, in my opinion. Obviously goalie mask design had to change to keep up with harder shots and better sticks - for safety reasons. Unfortunately that took away from some of the sinister look and uniqueness of goalie masks being worn.
Below is the Jacques Plante story, as retold in a Canadian Heritage moment. He had to stand up to coach Toe Blake who wanted no part of him wearing a goalie mask due to reduced visibility.
Some interesting information on the history of the goalie mask, as told by a goalie mask historian.
Attention all Toronto shinny hockey players: We’ve put together a Google map of Toronto shinny rinks for you to easily find shinny rinks near you. From Etobicoke to Scarborough, Lake Ontario up to Steeles, we’ve taken a list of City of Toronto rinks that offer shinny and placed them on an easy to use map. Note that most of these rinks have special times that shinny is played (as they are shared with pleasure skating times). Also, many of the time slots are for certain ages, gender, or skill levels. We thought about including all of this data, but decided to link instead to a resource that has it, ensuring accurate information going forward. Find a rink that’s near you and then click through on the link to the City of Toronto Parks site that provides you with schedules for each rink. If you are looking for more detailed information about the rinks themselves, try cityrinks.ca, which has a crazy (crazy good!) amount of information about each rink. Enjoy!
Yep, we’re now officially at 200 active Toronto player profiles on sportaholik.com Toronto! This means 200 Toronto players that have sports and levels of play filled out on their profiles. Two-hundred players that you can contact to join your game or team for recreational sports. The sportaholik.com Toronto database now includes over 80 Toronto soccer players, nearly 40 Toronto hockey players, nearly 40 Toronto basketball players… with more on the way, of course. Apparently, water polo is not too popular, though. So, we’re off to a good start here with sportaholik.com Toronto, with other cities across Canada slowly being rolled out as well. Thanks for joining us!
Two things every rec hockey team needs is 1) a jersey colour, and 2) a team name. Whether you’re playing ice hockey, floor hockey or any other type of hockey, these are essential. Many teams go the humour route when choosing their team names. Some come up with things that are, for sure, inside jokes (my ball hockey team years ago was the ‘Tuna Melts’, because my roommate at the time seemed to eat them every second day for dinner). Another ball hockey team of mine has gone under the ‘HomeWreckers’ banner since inception years ago (it’s a reference to one of the bowling teams on The Simpsons; other teams in that episode being Pin Pals, Channel 6 Wastelanders, DMV Regulation Kings, Springfield Police Framers, Holy Rollers, and The Stereotypes). Some teams we face in the TCSSC have names that I’m surprised make it past the censors (if there are any) but I must say I enjoy a creative (and clean) team name. Over at FantasyTeamNames.net they have a user generated list of hockey team names. Some of my favourites being the following:
What is the name of your hockey team? Feel free to comment below.
Via Stephen Taylor, Stephane Dion shows off his, ummm, ball hockey skills below in this classic YouTube capture. We’re not taking political sides here at sportaholik.com, but you must admit Dion could use a bit of help with his game. It’s not exactly the best image you want to portray when you’re running for Prime Minister. I counted 12 shots, 0 goals. Anyone know where he can find some buddies to practice with? I wonder if Stephane Dion’s display of ball hockey prowess will make it into Stephen Harper’s upcoming hockey book?
sportaholik.com connects recreational sport playing adults, however it’s always interesting to see what is going on with Canadian kids and their participation in organized sports.
Canadian children are getting lazier, as participation in organized sports declined significantly among the elementary-school-aged set over a 13-year period, suggests a Statistics Canada study.
New data suggests that only 47% of children in Toronto and Vancouver are sport participants. Also, those of higher income families were more likely to be playing organized sports than those of lower incomes. The top three sports across Canada, for children between 5 and 14 years of age, were soccer, swimming and hockey. More at cbc.ca.