The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
This week in the Sports Experts, there is a lot of exciting hockey action to sort out. Unfortunately, there were some important games on Wednesday night and Thursday morning after the print deadline, so keep in mind that this was written on Wednesday afternoon. After three games at the Royal Bank Cup, the Weyburn Red Wings are looking good with a 2-1 record. They defeated the favoured Camrose Kodiaks in the round robin, and that should be a huge confidence booster for them. (Watch TSN early Sunday evening for the final). "Weyburn has really surprised me at the Royal Bank Cup by being 2-1 at this point but by beating Camrose, they could have a really big momentum booster to carry them through the weekend." - Tom T. "The RBC will turn out to be pretty interesting. The team to beat no doubt is the Kodiaks from Camrose who have played top notch hockey all year. They finished the season with 48 wins, 8 ties and 8 losses and 104 points and had the best record in Canada. How cool would that be for Weyburn to prove everyone wrong and be the spoilers and win the RBC? I'm going out on a limb when I say that, but it could happen! But for the record, it will be the Kodiaks and Terriers in the RBC finals with the Kodiaks winning." - Jeremy E. In Brandon, the Wheat Kings needed a win on Tuesday night to get back in their series with the Kelowna Rockets, which they got. "The Brandon Wheat Kings looked pretty good at home in game 3 against Kelowna. Game 4 is Wednesday and this should tell the tale of whether they can pull this out, however they still have to beat Kelowna at home to win the whole thing and get to London which will be no easy chore." - Tom T. In the AHL, the Manitoba Moose are ahead of the Rochester Americans 2-1. The Moose are the last surviving Canadian team in this year's playoffs. "The Manitoba Moose are up 2-1 against a very strong Rochester Americans (I can't believe that they are Buffalo Sabres farm club and still be this strong). Game 4 is Wednesday and the Moose need to control every end of the game once again to put the Americans in a tough position. They could really use Jason King back right about now." - Tom T. How about Team Canada at the Worlds? I don't know about you but I'm a little nervous. "Team Canada has a quarter-final game against Slovakia and this should prove to be quite the test. If you are going to win this tournament you have to beat the best to be the best so it should not really matter who Canada plays at this stage of the game. It would be quite funny if the Swedes got beat by the Swiss because they took them too lightly." - Tom T. And how about a couple of guys named Nash in the headlines this week? Steve Nash is Canada's first NBA MVP, and Rick Nash is lighting it up at the World Hockey Championships, and also dodged a bullet after bullying the officials. You can't do that and get away with it! Oh wait . . . "Rick Nash should be suspended. He made contact with two on ice officials. He intentionally hooked a referee twice and shoved another one. Even though there were no injuries or concerns from the officials, some type of action should have taken place. Officials are off limits even if they are doing a poor job." - Rob B. "Thumbs up to Steve Nash getting his just dues. While I agree with Nash that Shaq deserved it too, I'm glad it was Steve. Proves that you don't need to be the highest scoring man every night to be the most valuable to your team, and the entire league." - Jeff K. Baseball is finally becoming a competitive sport again. It seems that any team can win on any given night. Take the steroids out of baseball, and anything is possible. "I like how baseball has been going lately. The Yankees in the dumps, offensive numbers are going well, without the home run taking precedent, and no sign of Barry Bonds. Baseball is the most exciting it's been for a long time. Games feel like playoff games, and it's only May." - Jeff K. "I agree with you about the lack of home runs in the majors this year but what I do not understand is why the only players getting caught for using banned substances are minor leaguers. Have all the users in the majors really stopped or are they really checking like they said they would? With the lack of power so far this year, maybe these guys were smart enough to stop before they got caught which begs the question of when will the Americans complain that maybe steroids are not a bad thing and get off the players backs and bring on the home runs?" - Tom Therien That is it for this week. For the record, Shane C. is still leading the baseball pool, but I tied him 4-4 last week, so he is slowing down. If you would like to join the Sports Experts, send an email to [email protected].
