By Liam Gill

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Since 2011 when Brendan Shanahan took over as the NHL’s chief disciplinarian, the League has seen a drastic change in Player Safety measures with fines and suspensions becoming a regularity in the league for both players and coaches. Last week, however, Shanahan abruptly left his position to join his childhood favourite Toronto Maple Leafs as their President and Alternate Governor. This sudden change has left his former department in limbo with no leader and an unclear direction. Nevertheless, with the playoffs underway this week, the department was forced to forge ahead and regulate the most physical and ruthless hockey games of the season.

By Lucas Seymour

Canada will defend its men's hockey gold in the Sochi, Russia 2014 Olympic Games.
“Since when did the US start playing hockey?”

Team Canada has recently announced its 25 man roster for the 2014 winter games in Sochi. It is built with a core of players from the gold medal team of Vancouver 2010, with some new, fresh faces filling out the rest of the roster. Some arguably surprising choices were made by team Canada in the selection process, as the likes of several surefire lock-ons were snubbed, and questionable players were selected by general manager Steve Yzerman.

WE LIKE SPORTS AND WE DON'T CARE WHO KNOWS
Hell yeah, here at TBAW we spell centre like any good Canadian should.

Updates from the front lines brought to you by: Connor Bullock

This past weekend the UCC Blues Varsity hockey team made the trek all the way out to Aurora for the annual Macpherson tournament. Showing up as the reigning champs we knew we’d have to come in and play with a bit of swagger. Due to previous league complications our first game was both a tournament game and league game. It was against the team right behind us in the standings: Appleby College. After a tough fought game we came out on top 2-1, a tournament win, but most importantly an exit from a losing streak.

I’d say it’s indispensable to the hockey team, but then we always have the other one.

By Connor Bullock

TBAW contributor Connor Bullock will be providing updates of UCC’s hockey prowess for the rest of the season, stay tuned.

This past weekend the Blues Varsity hockey team travelled to Appleby for their pre-season tournament, inviting Malvern collegiate and Blythe Academy for a four team mini tournament. The teams, though random, were all talented and led to a competitive weekend. We missed school on Friday and bussed to Oakville to play against Blythe Academy for our first of two games on the day. We ended up with a 4-4 tie with both teams not playing close to their full potential. At that point the Blues had yet to win a game all season, going into the tournament 0-3-2. After a nice team meal at Boston Pizza, the squad headed back to the rink for a 7 30 night game against the host team, Appleby College.

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By Connor Bullock

The UCC Blues Varsity Hockey team has a lot to prove this year. Starting the pre-season with last year’s championship still in the back of our minds we knew we would need to come out storming. We started with four games, all exhibition, two against Ridley and two against Appleby.  Both are regular season rivals. We were lacking numbers, weakened by the football players on our team, and we had plenty of call-ups from the JV squad. After the four games we were still winless, losing twice and tying twice. They are both teams we conquered last year on our way to becoming regular season and playoff champions, however they proved to be better than last year.

Stunner.
Stunner.

By Connor Bullock & Austin Walker 

Association Day is for “pride in blue”. It’s where we can express our love for the school with peers and old boys alike. Screaming as loud as you can while SAC’s 25 year olds take the field for the varsity football game.  Spirit is the highlight for many. For others, it is the excitement of being yelled at by Tebow’s mom. The varsity football game, which wraps-up the day, is the most meaningful game of the year. We are able to fiercely exclaim our pride in how much we hate our 905 rivals and although we did not win the majority of the events, students and faculty both agree that it was the best A-Day that UCC has ever hosted.

By James Macfarlane

I was at Montreal’s Bell Centre on Saturday to watch the Toronto Maple Leafs play the hometown Habs. It was a spectacular game on all levels, a high-scoring frenzy in which it seemed like every goal was immediately countered by another from the opposition. Ultimately, the Leafers got the last laugh, winning 5-4 on a Mikhail Grabovski OT goal. Even though Toronto triumphed on the ice, Montreal crushed us in spirit. And no, I’m not talking about their players; in game six of the regular season, fans at the Bell Centre were louder than Leafs fans would be in game six of the Stanley Cup Finals.