Two Cent Tuesday

You know what they always say about long weekends... they're too short. But it's back to work for me after an extra day off yesterday.

-- The Estevan Bruins Sportsman's Dinner was a huge success. The dinner was able to raise over $65,000 for the hockey club. What the Bruins decide to use with that money remains to be seen, but hats off to everyone who helped make the dinner the success it was.

-- All of the speakers on Friday were great. Marty McSorley had some great stories to tell from his playing days. "Jungle" Jim Jerome provided a lot of humor with the ineraction with McSorley. Along with the stories, McSorley provided some of his thoughts on the current state of the game. One thing he mentioned was that he didn't believe the Oilers would select Nail Yakupov with the first overall pick with the draft. He really believes that they will trade down and select a defenceman. I personally think Toronto will do everything in their power to be that team who makes the deal with the Oilers.

-- Scott Schultz was great and everyone inside of Spectra Place laughing with a his jokes. Schultz is a life long Rider fan (along with obviously being a former player with the Riders) and I really enjoy listening to him talking about his experiences of watching guys like Bobby Jurasin, Jerald Baylis and Gary Lewis when he was growing up. I've been to over a 100 Rider games and no doubt Schultz's hit on Spergon Wynn is one my top ten list of greatest Rider moments.

-- Morris Lukowich maybe didn't have the attention as the other speakers, but it was interesting to hear about his old stories about the Winnipeg Jets and playing alongside some legends like Gordie Howe.

-- Of course Rod Pedersen did a great job as MC and I'm looking forward to listening him doing the play by play with the Saskatchewan Roughriders this season. 

-- Even though I heard the weather wasn't great, I'm glad the Estevan Bruins Alumni managed to get the Par 3 tournament in on Saturday at Woodlawn Golf Course. The golf tournament is the biggest fundraiser for the Estevan Bruins Alumni.

-- Speaking of the Bruins, I'll have more on their signings for next season later tonight on the blog as we can start talking about next season.

-- After the Bruins dinner, I made the long drive from Estevan to Candle Lake and it was worth it. The weather was beautiful, especially Sunday morning as it was nothing but blue skies, plenty of sunshine and no wind, the perfect golfing weather. (Unfortunately my golf game wasn't close to perfect)

-- The Stanley Cup Finals kick off tomorrow with the Kings and Devils in a final I'm sure no one predicted. Since I haven't picked against the Kings yet this playoffs, I'm going to keep that trend going and pick the Kings to win the final in 6. My pick for the Conn Smythe will be Dustin Brown, I think he will have a big series to help him win the playoff MVP.

-- Last weekend I mentioned some of the players that the  Blue Jays were interested in free agency like Yu Darvish or Prince Fielder would help the Blue Jays in a big way. One more player I would like to add to that list is Gio Gonzalez, he's one of the reasons why the Washington Nationals are in first place right now, and he would have a spot in the top end of the Jays rotation.

-- Maybe next week I'll offer some thoughts on UFC 146. I didn't get a chance to watch the PPV this weekend and I'm hoping I get a chance within the next two days to watch it. Judging by the results, there were no really big surprises.

 -- With Hard Knocks 24 set for Friday, there will be a press conference tomorrow night in front of Excessive Sports in Spectra Place at 6:00. The public is welcomed to attend. There will be some coverage on the blog tomorrow night.

-- ECS Elecs Football team is holding their spring camp, I'll have more on that at the end of the week.

-- In one month from now the Roughriders open the season against the Hamilton Ti-Cats. I'm looking forward to a very busy month of training camp to see who will be on the team in Week 1.

-- I'll have more thoughts next week, but I want to say congratulations to my broadcast colleague Craig Stein on a successful career in radio. Stein has decided to step down as the voice of the Yorkton Terriers and Melville Millionaires of the SJHL and Swan Valley and Waywaysseecappo of the MJHL. I would recommend you check out his latest blog posting about his radio career. And yes I still remember it like yesterday when he forgot his luggage on our first road trip together in Battlefords. But like I said, next week I'll have more of my thoughts about Craig and how he played a big role in my broadcasting career.

That's it for me today.