MARCH 14, 2007

THE CADRE * 10

SPORTS

I like to throw rocks at houses!

Martha MacIntyre Reporter

It is a sport that is not very expensive to play, and does not cost very much to register. However, the sport of curling is guaranteed to make any new member make many new friends that will last a lifetime. Many memories will also be made.

“Names such as Kevin Martin, John Morris and Brad Gushue are not famous singers, they’re not actors, they are a few of Canada’s favorite and most talented curlers.

Curling is a team sport made up of four players on two teams. It is played in a tink on a long, narrow ice surface. On one end of the ice surface, there are two rings called the house which are painted into the ice. The inside ring is called the button.

Each player throws two rocks down the ice. The object of curling is to throw a rock down the ice and see who can put it the closest to the button.

Each player wears shoes that have slid-

ers on them, so they can slide down the ice wile using brooms to sweep the ice which can influence where the rock goes and where it stops on the ice. Charlottetown curler Robbie Doherty said the atmosphere while playing the

game is the main reason for sticking to

it.

“T love curling in PE.I. because we are all one big family. All the teams are such good friends, and friendship comes before competition. We battle each other hard on the ice, but are always willing to party just as hard off the ice,” he said.

Although P.E.I. is the smallest province in Canada, it has produced some World champion curlers. Bill Jenkins won PE.I’s first World Men’s Junior Champi- onship in 1977. Twenty-four years later it was Summerside’s Suzanne Gaudet who brought the gold back to PE.I when she won the 2001 World Junior Women’s Championship.

She also finished 4th place in this year’s Scotties Tournament of Hearts. .

Brett Gallant has talent! Gallant and his team finished runner-up at the Canadian Juniors, and are favorites to win the gold medal at the Canada Games. With most of his rink only being 17, anyone can only imagine the good things to come from Gallant and his young rink in the future. TALENT!

So next time someone says to you “I like to throw rocks at houses” it just might not be what you think! Curl- ing does happen to be one of the only sports a person can keep playing until they are 90-years-old!

What was Simon thinking?

Josh Lewis Sports Editor

(Ed. Note: Simon received 15 regular season and 10 playoff games. The NHL drops the ball again. Good job, Colie. Next time the blood will be on your hands.)

Dear Steve Moote, Happy third anniversary! See how far

we’ve come?

-Signed, Colin Campbell, NHL ‘disciplinarian’

Three years to the day after Todd Ber-

tuzzi’s sucker punch to the back of Steve Moore’s head, the NHL has sustained yet another black eye after Islanders forward

Chris Simon served up a two-hander to

the chin of Ryan Hollweg of the Rang-

ers last Thursday.

The ugly slash came after Hollweg delivered a borderline hit from behind on Simon, who got up, skated toward Hollweg, and swung for the fences. The Rangers sophomore returned later in the game after being attended to by medical staff.

If Simon had made contact just a few inches higher or lower, Hollweg may have wound up in a casket.

But that won’t matter to the league. Since Colin Campbell became vice-president of hockey operations in 1998, he has developed a pattern of suspending based on injury instead of intent. And that makes sense. After all, no autopsy, no foul, right?

The fact that NHL suspensions are woe- fully insufficient was reinforced yet again two weeks ago when-Devils enforcer Cam Janssen drilled Leafs blueliner

Tomas Kaberle with a late shoulder to the head. Janssen’s intent was obvious. He changed his course after Kaberle had dished the puck to Carlo Colaiacovo, charged an unsuspecting Kaberle, and left his feet to hammer him as high as possible. Kaberle was knocked out cold and slammed head-first into the boards, suffering a concussion. Janssen’s pen- alty? Three games. Wow, New Jersey’s sure going to miss his three minutes per game. Meanwhile, the Leafs’ best

defenseman may be gone for the year in

the middle of a dogfight for the playoffs.

The NHL has a golden opportunity to do itself a big fat favour by making an example of Simon. The crackdown on obstruction has prevented talent-less

goons from slowing down skilled play- ets with hooks and holds, but it hasn’t

stopped them from using their sticks as

lethal weapons. Hockey can ill afford to continue to have its best players taken out by this buffoonery, especially in the midst of a marketing crisis in the United States.

This will be Simon’s sixth career sus- pension. Make it count. Slap him with

a lifetime ban, if that’s what it takes to end this garbage. It may not be fair to Simon to punish him more heavily than previous offenders, but there’s too much at stake for the NHL to put his interests ahead of their own.

Enough is enough. Three of these inci- dents in seven years should be more than enough motivation for the league to start cleaning up its act. And if they don’t do it soon, someone’s going to end up in a

body bag.