 | Friday, March 05, 2021
By Jesse Campigotto
Here's what you need to know right now in the world of sports: | |  | Friday, March 05, 2021
By Jesse Campigotto
Here's what you need to know right now in the world of sports: | | Canada lost its greatest hockey dad | | | Walter Gretzky died yesterday at the age of 82 after a long battle with Parkinson’s and other health issues. In sharing the sad news, Wayne Gretzky said his father was “the reason I fell in love with the game of hockey. He inspired me to be the best I could be not just in the game of hockey, but in life.”
Walter, famously, built the backyard rink on which the greatest hockey player of all time honed his talents during winters as a kid in Brantford, Ont. Wayne also credits his dad for teaching him his revolutionary (at least in North America) way of seeing and playing the game. Walter’s “go to where the puck is going, not where it’s been” mantra guided the Great One as he broke pretty much every NHL scoring record and won four Stanley Cups.
But what set Walter apart from other well-known sports parents, and helped make him a cultural icon in Canada, was how generously he shared himself with hockey fans. And just how ordinary he seemed. Long after his son became one of the richest and most famous athletes in the world, Walter continued to live at the same house in Brantford. He coached local minor-hockey teams, helped with tournaments and did charity work. He’d regularly show up to junior A, even junior B, games around southern Ontario. And you could just go right up and talk to him.
Countless tributes have poured in from the hockey world, but a simple anecdote from Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe after last night’s game captured Walter’s essence as well as anything. Keefe recalls the world’s most famous hockey dad visiting tiny Pembroke, Ont., a few years ago as part of some NHL old-timers event. Walter spent “what seemed like hours” signing autographs, taking photos and just talking to people. "It was pretty cool to see someone of his stature, what he means to the game, what he's brought to the game, all the way out in Pembroke, Ontario, taking part in an event like that with people who might not usually get a chance," Keefe said.
The best thing about Walter? That story is not at all unique. Seems like everyone of a certain age who lived anywhere near him has one just like it. They met Walter at their local arena. Or a coffee shop. Or some other run-of-the-mill place. And he just… talked to them. For as long as they wanted. So friendly, everyone says. So modest.
Those personal connections are one reason why Walter’s death hits so hard. Another is that it gets us thinking about our own dads (and moms) and the backyard rinks (or pitcher’s mounds, soccer nets, basketball hoops...) they built for us. And hoping we can be that kind of parent too. | | |  | Walter Gretzky. (Nathan Denette/Canadian Press) | | | The Brier starts tonight | | | Just five days after Kerri Einarson’s team repeated as Canadian women’s curling champions by winning the Scotties Tournament of Hearts, the national men’s championship opens in the same spectator-less Calgary bubble. Here are a few things to know for the Brier:
The format is the same as the Scotties’. That means we don’t get the usual play-in game tonight to decide the final wild card for a 16-team field. Instead, three wild cards were granted entry to the full tournament based on the Canadian rankings, increasing the field to 18 teams. As in the past, they’re divided into two pools for round-robin play, with the top four in each pool advancing (and carrying their records) to the championship pool. But the playoffs are different this year. The four-team Page system is out. Instead, only the top three teams from the championship pool advance. The top seed gets a bye to the final, where it meets the winner of the semifinal between the second and third seeds.
Brad Gushue’s Team Canada is favoured to repeat. Only slightly, though. The betting odds to win the tournament suggest it’s close to a three-way tossup between Gushue’s rink, 2013 Brier champion Brad Jacobs’ Northern Ontario squad, and four-time Brier winner Kevin Koe’s wild card team. Not far behind them is Brendan Bottcher’s Alberta rink, which has made it to the last three Brier finals — and lost all three.
Koe and Gushue can make history. Koe is currently tied with Kevin Martin, Randy Ferbey and Ernie Richardson for most Brier titles as a skip. If he wins his fifth in Calgary, the record will be all his. Gushue has three titles, so another one would make it a five-man club at the top. There’s a good chance one of these things happens because, between them, Koe and Gushue have won five consecutive Briers. If Gushue repeats, he’ll have taken four of the last five. No skip has done that since Ferbey from 2001-05.
Read a full Brier preview here and short capsules on each of the 18 teams here. Also, That Curling Show is back. Hosts Devin Heroux and Colleen Jones will be joined by some of the Brier’s biggest stars and other special guests every night at 7:30 p.m. ET. You can watch live on the CBC Olympics Twitter, Facebook and YouTube pages, as well as on CBC Gem and CBCSports.ca. | | | Quickly... | | | A women’s world championship was added to the Calgary curling bubble. This is especially great news for Kerri Einarson’s team. After winning last year’s Scotties, they were denied the chance to play in their first worlds when the pandemic wiped out the tournament. And it looked like the same thing would happen again after health authorities in Switzerland said no to holding this year’s tournament there. But the successful completion of the Scotties in the Calgary bubble last weekend seemed to convince the World Curling Federation that the women’s worlds could happen there too. They’ll start on April 30 -- after the bubble hosts the Brier, the Canadian mixed doubles championship, the men’s world championship and a pair of Grand Slam events. Read more about the decision to play the women’s worlds in Calgary here.
Chris Schultz died suddenly. Best known for his work as a CFL analyst on TSN, Schultz is connected to a storied football moment on each side of the border. The 6-foot-8 Canadian lineman was picked in the seventh round of the famed 1983 NFL draft by the Dallas Cowboys. He later joined the CFL and played nine seasons for the Toronto Argonauts, earning two all-star selections and winning the Grey Cup with the legendary ‘91 Argos team that featured Rocket Ismail and had Wayne Gretzky and John Candy as co-owners. Schultz died of a heart attack at the age of 61.
The Calgary Flames brought Darryl Sutter back as head coach. Geoff Ward lasted only 66 regular-season games before getting fired following last night’s 7-3 win over Ottawa. At 11-11-2, Calgary is fifth in the North Division but only two points out of a playoff spot. Sutter, 62, coached the Flames from 2002 to 2006 (guiding them to the Stanley Cup final in 2004) and was their GM from 2003 to 2010. He coached the Los Angeles Kings to Stanley Cups in 2012 and ‘14 and has also coached San Jose and Calgary. Read more about Calgary’s coaching change here. | | | This weekend on CBC Sports | | | Short track speed skating world championships: Ten Canadians are competing in the first (and last) big short track meet of the season — headlined by three-time Olympic gold medallist Charles Hamelin, who’s appearing in his 17th world championships and will try to add to his 13 world titles. Stream every race live Saturday from 4:35-11:45 a.m. ET and Sunday from 5:10-11 a.m. ET here. The short track worlds will also be featured on the Road to the Olympic Games shows Saturday and Sunday afternoon on the CBC TV network.
Women’s hockey Dream Gap Tour: After playing at Madison Square Garden last weekend, the barnstorming series continues in Chicago. Watch Sunday’s game live at 11:30 a.m. ET here.
This weekend’s live streaming menu also includes World Cup alpine skiing and snowboarding, and world championship races in cross-country skiing. See the full schedule here. | | | Share this newsletter | | or subscribe if this was
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