Canucks Coming To Prince George Sept 18-20

  Once again the New Ice Age has brought notoriety and a big time event to the city of Prince George. The Vancouver Canucks are bringing their main training to the CN Centre during the middle of September as part of their goal of connecting with all Canuck fans in British Columbia. Trevor Linden made the announcement alongside Greg Pocock and other distinguished guests in order to kick off the countdown till the team arrives. Linden said after the conference that the main reason that he and the rest of the Canucks organization decided to come to Prince George was because the team wanted to be British Columbia's and not just Vancouver's team. Linden reminisced about his playing days and how the team always travelled to a new town for part of their training camp but never made it to "the Gateway to the North". Linden expressed that he was excited for the opportunity to have fans create more of a personal connection by having all practices be open to the public. When asked how the discussion came about to have the Canucks come to Prince George, he said that Andy Beasley was to mastermind behind the scenes, who worked tirelessly for months to make sure that the training camp became a reality. Despite having a strong connection between the Canucks and the Cougars with defenceman Dan Hamhuis being a part owner of the WHL club, Linden said that connection never had any real saying as to whether the Canucks were going to commit to Prince George or not.

What does this mean for the city of Prince George?

The first and most obvious answers is that fans all over the north get to see hockey at its highest calibre. of course most of the veterans will be shaking off the rust, the level of skill that will be on display is undeniable. Having the likes of the Sedins and Vrbata performing their magic, or having the shutdown pairing of Tanev and Edler show young hockey players how to defend against the best will be a sight to behold. Let's not forget the one of the best goaltending duos in the NHL (when healthy); Ryan Miller and Eddie Lack. Just having those types of players and more displaying their talents for developing hockey players to witness will do wonders for the minor league programs in Prince George. Another positive manner for the Canucks coming to PG is the short-term boost in the local economy for the city. Every time their is a major event in any city, the profit that local business get is off the charts. The hotels will be full of Canucks as well as fans that are coming in from out of town. The restaurants will be stacked every night with hungry hockey players eating their entire stocks of pasta, vegetables, and meat. Even the local gift shops will probably record better sales if they market properly. Lastly, the Prince George Cougars will have a chance to skate with some of their hockey heroes and learn from the best. The training camp is strategically placed right around the Cougars own training camp and preseason games, therefore the young WHL players will have first hand knowledge of the level that they have to elevate themselves to during their own season in order to get a chance to be drafted and play for a team such as the Canucks one day. For all the positive impacts that the Canucks will have on the community, are there any downfalls to hosting this event?

In short, not really. Of course the school year will have just started up, so there will be kids that are running on fumes on the following Monday because they spent every waking moment of the September weekend following their idols. President and part-owner of the Prince George Cougars already joked about the potential problem by saying that the organization will have "ready-made notes to excuse the students for their tiredness or tardiness" on the Monday after the event. Some people have also expressed that their might not be enough room for all the fans to see their favorite players if it's on a "first come first serve" basis as far as seating is concerned. Trevor Linden & co have already started to address this potential issue by stating that they might have to end up selling tickets for the open practices. Need not worry about your wallet though, Linden quickly added that the tickets will be very cheap and that all the proceeds will going towards an organization such as: the Spirit of the North healthcare foundation; specifics will be finalized at a later date.

All in all, the Canucks coming to Prince George will be a spectacle that all hockey fans of any age should go out and enjoy. Who knows, maybe if the support for the event is big enough, the Canucks might play an exhibition game in our beautiful city; time will tell.

Where Have All the Goals Gone?

 

The NHL has been struck by a pandemic that no one in the hockey world saw coming; all the goals dried up. Lately the red lights behind the goalies of the NHL have been going dim as the goal production has taken a nose dive. Not since the 1970's has a NHL leading point producer have less that 88 points in the season; Jamie Benn of the Dallas Stars was the Art Ross winner with a mere 87 points. So, what is the reason for this downturn in goals? There are three particular reasons why this phenomenon has happened.

1) Goalies:

Goalies this year have just been standing on their collective heads. Led by Carey Price, the Goals Against Average of most of the starting goalies in the NHL was under 2.5 goals per game. Compare this stat to the mid 80's where the average hovered around 5.2. Goalies in the past little while have been far more active in their nets as far as their ability to get from post-to post in record time. The overall position that the goalies have from even 5 years ago has dramatically improved. No longer do we have the Dominik Hasek's diving around looking like a wounded duck. Even Roberto Luongo has had to change his playing style to keep up with the goaltenders of today. When you take a look at the series that just finished between the Tampa bay Lightning and the Montreal Canadiens, you saw two of the best goalies on display. Carey Prince continued his strong play into the second round by challenging the shooters without having to make too many unorthodox saves. Ben Bishop on the opposite end of the rink had a series to remember (except for game 4), as he didn't allow more than two goals in a game. Bishop, being a giant of a goalie at 6ft6 without skates, uses his size and mobility to utilize his butterfly technique better than most goalies; on his knees he still covers the whole net. Defenses around the league have been thanking their collective lucky stars that goaltenders around the league have been improving at such a rapid pace, that even the sharpest shooters in the league are baffled at their own inability to score.

2) Defence:

The defence and the defencive systems that the teams are implementing this year have been some of the best that the young generation has seen. With such young defensive stars as Aaron Ekblad, Alex Pietrangelo, and Hampus Lindholm leading the way, defenceman are getting more mobile in their own zone as well as becoming better quarterbacks for their teams on the PP. In the 90's and early 2000's, the job of a defenseman was to sit at the blueline and crank shots from the point faster than the Flash can get dressed in the morning. This tactic left the defensemen stationary and easy for the forwards to chip the puck past them and go for an odd man rush or breakaway. Now, defensemen have to be much more mobile on the back end in order to help set up an offensive chance as well as being able to recover if the puck is turned over. This mobility also comes in the form of having an active stick and better body positioning against the oncoming forwards. Looking back on the days of Ray Bourque and Chris Chelios, the defenceman were able to hack and hook to their hearts delight because of the relaxed rules, but now a defensmam as slow as Chelios has gone the way of the doodoo bird because they are unable to keep pace with the Patrick Kane's of the world. Footwork and overall quickness in the transitioning between the offensive and defensive zones are increasingly important. D-Men such as Lindholm have the proper skillset in order to switch from skating forwards to backwards, keeping the amount of breakaways down and  dampening the amount of scoring chances that the goalies have to face.

3) Coaching

Along with sound defencive strategies from masterminds such as: Babcock, Quenneville, Cooper, and Therrien, the management of shift length and penalty killing strategies have been somewhat of a marvel throughout the season and into the playoffs. Just take a look at the futility of the Montreal Canadiens powerplay in the playoffs so far; an abysmal 5.9%. The main reason for this futility on offense for the Canadiens, and an overall futility for the rest of the league, is because the strategies of the coaching staff have been better. The head coaches in the modern era have been able to find a way to clog up the neutral zone, if they are in the lead, or make a stand at their own blueline if they are on the penalty kill. Looking at Tampa's strategy against the Canadiens, John Cooper created a system where the team created a wall on the blue line, which forced their opponents had to dump-and-chase the puck. the mobile defensive pairing that GM Yzerman has put together gets the puck and clears it out of the zone or starts the defensive breakout. This strategy and more were the reason that the Canadiens could not sustain any pressure and were only limited to 19 shots in an elimination game.

The league and the NHLPA are going to have meeting over the summer and try to implement new rules in order to give fans a more exciting product on the ice with more goals and more action than ever before, but how long will it take for coaches and defensmen alike to figure out a way to keep the scoring chances to a minimum and have another Art Ross winner with less than 90 points? Only time will tell.

WHC: The Best Canadian Team Nobody is Watching

In a country where hockey is next to religion for most people, Hockey Canada has assembled the best team possible for the World Hockey Championships (WHC) in the Czech Republic. Think of it as The New Avengers without some of the big name talent. The problem is, nobody in North America is watching them dominate the tournament. As of now, the top two teams in the tournament are: Canada and the United States, ironically enough, they are the two countries with the least amount of viewers and local support. Why is this the case?

The reason that no one cares about the WHC, is because the players that are there are either from teams that didn't make the NHL playoffs, or players whose teams bowed out in the first round. It is the annual consolation prize for hockey players that failed in taking their team to the promised land of the 2nd round and beyond. Therefore, most fans of hockey in North America are glued to their television trying to see if the Canadian teams can break out of their 2-0 series hole. Fans in the U.S are also being treated to some amazing hockey as the Washington Capitals and the New York Rangers are in a razor thin series, where 1 goal has decided every game so far. So, why in the world would anyone start watching the WHC during the best time in NHL hockey?

There are two critical reasons why people should watch or just have a passing interest in the WHC. The first reason could also be titled reason #87. For the first time since 2006, Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins is suiting up for Canada in this tournament. Before this year, either the Penguins went deep into the playoffs, or Crosby was too injured to attend. Crosby already has 4 points in 3 games and is 3rd in the tournament in goals. Couple his impressive stats with the fact that he is on a line with Jason Spezza of the Dallas Stars and Nathan Mackinnon of the Colorado Avalanche, and you have a glance into the future of team Canada that might be going to Seoul, South Korea in the next Olympic games. The second important reason to keep an eye on the WHC is the young guns that are making a huge impact in the tournament. There are so many shining young stars one might go as blind as Daredevil if you stare directly at it. If you take a look at almost every team in the tournament, one can see a young prospect or star take over any given game. On the Canadian squad, you have the likes of AAron Ekblad of the Florida Panthers (1st overall in 2014 NHL Draft), previously mentioned 2013 1st overall pick Nathan Mackinnon, and 2010 first overall pick of the Oilers Taylor Hall. Our neighbors to the south have their own youth movement going on with projected #2 NHL prospect Jack Eichel and 2013 4th overall pick of the Nashville Predators Seth Jones. Both players figure to play a prominent role in future international tournaments as well as have lengthy careers in the NHL. Sweden can proudly say that they might have the most dynamic young forward suiting up for them as Filip Forsberg burst onto the NHL scene with a season that should have nabbed him Rookie of the Year honors. He responded to the snub by the awards committee by being a lethal force in the first round against the Blackhawks and then going over to the WHC tournament and scoring a hat-trick in his first game. All these players and more are the reason that hockey fans should keep an eye on the Czech Republic. So, how can the NHL and IIHF change the format of this tournament to make it more enticing to watch?

The biggest problem with this tournament is when it takes place. Apparently some monkey threw a dart at a calendar and decided that a hockey tournament should take place right in the middle of the NHL Playoffs, the NBA playoffs, and the start of the MLB season. With one swoop you take out a large majority of the viewership in the two of the largest hockey populations. The simple solution to this issue would be to move the tournament to early August. With this movement, the IIHF can make certain that most of the players will be well rested and less prone to injury. Another reason that August is the best time for the tournament is that players are given the chance to shake the rust off from the summer, then can transition straight into the NHL season without the first few games looking like a toddler trying to walk for the first time. Not only would this give the stars of the NHL time to warm up, the prospects and NHL hopefuls from each team will get a better look from their teams management without the distraction of having to compete against the likes of Crosby and Ovechkin.

It is a shame that Canada has put together a WHC team for the ages, a dominant unstoppable force that has no immovable object to stand in its path to golden glory; whose only problem, is nobody's  watching.

MMA Thanks Boxing for Mayweather Vs. Pacquiao

On Saturday May 2nd, boxing became relevant again in the eyes of sports fans around the world as Mayweather vs. Pacquiao invaded Las Vegas. Billed as the fight of the century; fans, celebrities, and billionaires alike wanted to soak in a fight they could tell their children about. What the world got, was a snooze fest that could have put Richard Simmons in a coma. Despite PacMan trying his hardest to goat Mayweather into an actual fight, Mayweather was content to run a marathon backwards with intermittent jabs to keep the judges on his side. Every round it seemed that Pacquiao was chasing down Mayweather and cornering him. Once in the corners, Pacquiao tried to unleash a flurry of punches to the head and gut of his opponent before Mayweather slithered out and continued his marathon run. As a casual observer to boxing, it must be noted that, even though Pacquiao has Mayweather in danger and in corners most rounds, he failed to do any serious damage to the head or body of his opponent. Pacquiao instead decided to play the cautious game of waiting for prime opportunities before unleashing his arsenal. Due to the lack of drive and killer instinct on the part of Pacquiao, Mayweather was allowed to dictate the flow of the match. At the end of the 12 rounds, fans had thought that PacMan Pacquiao did enough to earn the decision, but the judges had other plans. All three scorecards called for a lopsided victory in favor of Mayweather to put a rotten cherry on top of the mud sundae. So, with all that went on, who really won on May 2nd?

The UFC and the rest of MMA won by a landslide after the dust had settled on Las Vegas. Boxing was trying to make a comeback after MMA was making them irrelevant, but failed miserably in its attempt. Dana White (President of the UFC) was no doubt laughing his head off after the fight was over because he knows that the majority of the fights that he puts on would put Mayweather vs. Pacquiao to shame. A prime example is the free Fight Night that will be on public tv May 16th. The headliner has two former champions facing off in the featherweight division: Frankie Edgar vs. Uriah Faber. Even if this was a straight boxing match, the outcome would be insurmountably better than what was seen on May 2nd. Now, throw in at least a dozen more martial arts disciplines into the fight and we have a product that boxing can no longer compete with. From start to finish, Edgar vs. Faber is bound to have fans on the edge of their couches as you have two wrestlers with elite ground skills going for 25 mins to see who gets one step closer to facing champion Jose Aldo. And that's just the main event. The co-main event has hard hitting Gegard Mousasi (ranked #7) vs Costa Philippou (ranked #12). This fight is sure to be a clash of styles as Kick Boxing meets Boxing as someone is sure to get knocked out. These fights and more are given to MMA fans at least once a month for free instead of the $100 PPV damage that was done to every boxing fans wallet.

Boxing has the chance to once again be the premiere fighting sport in the world, but it was the UFC and MMA that came out as the real winner and kept their stranglehold on the fight game.

Cool People in NYC use Mixcloud TOO!

Original Article posted HERE on alldayeveryday.com...

Queen Majesty: Hot Sauce & Reggae

By Lele Saveri

01 30 15

When I first was going to "Reggae Nite" (Downtown Top Rankin') I kept earing about this resident DJ called Queen Majesty. Growing up going to reggae parties, was very rare to see female selectors, so I was very excited to know who she was..and finally one day she came in and did an amazing roots session - every record she was playing was a killer. When I finally took some courage and approached her to DJ at one of my fairs, she turned out to be the sweetest person, and I then discovered the amazing hot sauce she produced..

Hi Erica, how are you?

Hi Lele! I'm well, thank you.

Where are you from originally?

I grew up in Buffalo, NY but I've lived in Brooklyn for about half my life.

When did you get into reggae?

When I was a teenager I heard Rocksteady and Ska and fell in love. I started collecting Jamaican music then and my collection grew chronologically, pretty much.

Did you go to Jamaica often? What's your favorite spot there?

I have been there a few times. One of the best times I had there was hanging out at Freedom Sounds Studio in Kingston with the late, great Bertram Brown. I got to meet a bunch of artists and eat, talk music and watch kung fu movies with them.

Name your 3 favorite reggae love songs.

Only three? Here they are...

Side Note:

All CFUR DJs are available to play @ your wedding and festivities ;)

Check out this killer Fresh Sheet Episode!

Jealous? Well come up to CFUR and make your life awesome too!

Word UP (like no one says that anymore! OMG!)

20150430 - Fresh Sheet with Jesmeen by Deoj on Mixcloud

Smoke Stark Sports Director

 

Hey Sports Fans,

Your Sports Director reporting for duty. My name is Smoke Stark and I am thrilled to be joining the CFUR radio team in a director position.

About Me

A little about me. I have been a student of UNBC for the past 8 years or so, capturing the title of Bachelors of Political Science and working on capturing the elusive title of Teaching Certificate. I have been a sports fan all my life. As a child I watched the Calgary Flames of the early 90’s with star pitbull forward Theo Fleury. Even though the Flames were my childhood team, I know beeld the blue and green of the Vancouver Canucks. To see the Sedins cycle the puck in the offensive zone is like watching a Rembrandt being painted or Hermione Granger cast a spell. Despite being a die-hard hockey fan, I still have more than enough room in my heart for other great sports such as: Football, Soccer, Basketball, MMA, and Golf.

What Makes Me Good for Sports Director?

As well as having a love for all sports, I have been reporting on sports for more than three years now. I have a sports show on our very own CFUR 88.7fm station called “ The Smoke Show”. On the show we discuss all the big events for the week in the world of sports. Not only do we discuss the events with our panel of guest co-hosts, we also bring in guest experts and pros from around the sports world via phone interview. I have also been the sports writer for Over the Edge newspaper around UNBC for the past year. These experiences have given me a great opportunity to hone the skills necessary to be the best sports director possible.

What’s in Store for the Summer?

This summer, CFUR’s sports program is going to be amped up with more live shows and guest interviews than ever before. Since the Women’s World Cup of Soccer is in Canada this year, we will be following the tournament closely and trying to get interviews with personnel close to the action. On top of that, starting in June, we will have a focus on a local sports team every week so that our fans can connect with the Prince George sports community in a way that has never happened before. Lastly, we will have more fan interaction than ever before with live phone-in to The Smoke Show, as well as give fans the chance to participate through social media. More information on those outlets will be coming in the following weeks.

Live Long and Prosper Sports Fans!

Hip Hop Pizza Partiezzz. For your Supper.

Afternoon people!  It is the weekend! Make pizza! Have a hootin pizza party and dance along with the sweet boppin sounds of hip hop. Here is a Bacon Cheese Burger Pizza. Pardon me, do you have any Grey Poupon?

To Make some dough:

4 cups white flour

2 cups warm water

3/4 cup white wine

1 pkg yeast ( 7 grams)

2 TBS oil

Pinch or 2 of salt

• Combine above ingredients in a bowl until a nice ball forms
• Dust in flour so the ball does not stick to the bowl
• Cover with a  towel and allow dough to rise for about 30 minutes. If it does not rise, have no fear, it will still be good.
• After 30 minutes, flour a surface and kneed dough out about 10 times. This amount makes about 2 large cookie sheets of pizza. Fry up left over dough in oil and eat with sugar for doughnuts!

Toppings:

A couple of hamburger patties

4 strips of cooked and diced bacon

2 dill pickles sliced

1/4 onion chopped finely

1/4 sliced red bell pepper

Fresh tomato chunks

Mustard for da drizzle.

Lots of mozza and cheddar cheese. Or just one. Whatever you have!

Pizza sauce ( and if you don't have any, because who remembers to buy those little bitty cans, you can always just use salsa, spaghetti sauce, or if like me and real forgetful, reduce some canned tomatoes over medium high heat until a nice sauce appears).

MUSTARD for da drizzle.

Instructions:

• After you have spread your dough out ( tip: oil your hands!)
• Spread on some nice tomato sauce. Sprinkle cheese on top.
• Add cooked burger, bacon, pickles, onion, and bell pepper.
• Cook in oven around 400-425 for about 17 minutes
• TAKE OUT OF OVEN! DO IT! NOW!
• Drizzle with some lovely yellow mustard and top off with fresh tomatoes.
• Enjoy!

Listen to the playlist here !

BC logging activist Grant Hadwin in the Spotlight

We don't always think of The National Film Board as an exciting hub of Canadian filmic activity, but that's because we're a bunch of knobs. Look at how much pertinent, edgy, historicallly and artiscally valid, purely Canadian content is on their website by clicking on this sentence. Amazing eh? What's more, BC logging activist Grant Hadwin’s resolute struggle to reconcile what he regarded as an egregious affront—not just to the land, but to humanity as well, has been turned into BIG CRAZY MOVIE!

Hadwin's Judgement by Sasha Snow, National Film Board of Canada

Any of it sound familiar? Does it ring a bell as you think of the book, The Golden Spruce?

Same guy :), but what's the really big news? The film is showing at the Toronto International Film Festival. Not that anyone we know will actually be able to go see it there, but... BC REPRAZENT!

That's not all though, there's a metric ton of candy-like Can-Con at TIFF this year, if you've got 15 mins to check out trailers...

                                                           look out below!

Mysteries and disappearances stranger than anything in a detective novel.

Visionary one-of-a-kind figures in Canadian arts and politics. Feature documentaries and short works, and a live preview of the final installment in a legendary six-year digital project. It’s all part of a rich National Film Board of Canada (NFB) presence at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in Toronto, where NFB works will be showcased this year from April 23 to May 3, 2015.

Screening in the Canadian Spectrum program are Sophie Deraspe’s esperamos/NFB co-produced feature documentary The Amina Profile, which had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, and Serge Giguère’s Productions du Rapide-Blanc/NFB co-production Finding Macpherson, a captivating 10-year look at an artist at work, which was named Best Feature-Length Documentary at Quebec’s Jutra Awards on March 15. Justin Simms and William D. MacGillivray’s Danny, a portrait of legendary Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams, is one of just five titles chosen for Hot Docs’ Big Ideas program, while Mike Maryniuk’s eclectic multi-media film Home Cooked Music and Martin Bureau’s impressionistic Hell Runs on Gasoline! are featured in the Short Documentary program. Winner of the Grand Prize for Best Animated Feature-length Film at the Ottawa International Animation Film Festival, Luc Chamberland’s animated documentary Seth’s Dominion, about Canadian cartoonist Seth, is featured in the Next program, which explores creativity, pop culture and the arts.

As Hot Docs inaugurates its DocX program for innovative interactive documentaries, the festival will host a sneak preview of HIGHRISE: Universe Within with the one-night-only participatory live performance Universe Within, Live. Launching online later this year, HIGHRISE: Universe Within delves into the hidden digital lives of high-rise residents around the world and is the final iteration in the NFB’s many media, multi-year digital documentary project HIGHRISE, directed by Katerina Cizek, which has to date garnered a number of prestigious international honours: two Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award, a World Press Photo Prize, two Canadian Screen Awards, and the first-ever IDFA DocLab Award for Digital Storytelling.