“There are no games this month (October)
“Select a different month from the calendar bar above.”
That is what I see on my Windows 7 every time I go in the KIJHL web site and click on, “Schedule.”
That is what I saw for the 2013/2014 season, as well.
It is annoying to me, but it should be infuriating for team operators. Just in case you live in an area in which several KIJHL teams are an easy drive from your home, the league apparently does not want you to know if there are any games in nearby rinks other than the one that is home to your first choice team, which you can find by clicking through to their individual web page.
There are a few KIJHL areas with more than one team within an easy drive of many fans’ homes, but unless you are willing to visit multiple individual team sites, information on who is playing when and where is unavailable.
Around here, the Nitehawks have one home game this weekend, then are in venues north for two weeks. Castlegar and Nelson are local teams, too, and one shouldn’t have to be familiar with their logo to find out if there is an easily accessible sports entertainment option that doesn’t include sitting on one’s couch.
Dear KIJHL, it is a disgrace. Fix it.
• Meanwhile, for a change, the schedule makers for local junior hockey have done an estimable job for this month. Nitehawks home, Smokies away, or vice versa, most of October.
In small, mixed markets like ours, where many hockey fans would like to support both their junior B teams and the regional junior A franchise, schedules arranged like that can make a difference.
When the schedule breaks like this month’s fans do not have to choose between the two clubs they wish to thrive or have a conflict between supporting one neighbour’s kids and another’s, or one child or nephew or grandkid over another. More than a few people here, for example, have season tickets to both the Smoke Eaters and the Nitehawks and must eschew the use of one or the other when their home games conflict. In this market, even a few extra butts in game seats can make a significant difference to, “bottom,” lines.
So, despite the fact it was probably entirely unintentional on the leagues’ parts - this is a very favourable disposition of dates, Good On You, schedule makers.
• Another big week for the Smokies and Hawks. Both teams can build on positive outings last weekend.
• Don’t, by the way, let recent post-season results fool you. Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers may be the next Sandy Koufax - and he has begun his dominance at a much younger age than the still-vital Brooklyn/LA leftie from back when.
Kershaw just completed, despite missing five weeks through an injury incurred the season opener in Australia, one of the three or four best pitching seasons in baseball history - he was dominant in almost every category of results and carried the Dodgers into first place almost by force of will as much as talent.
Meanwhile, the Cardinals beat the Dodgers fair and square with their team approach against LA’s me-first one.
BUT, major league umpiring is getting worse almost across the board and the league can apparently come up with nothing to improve the work rate and fundamentals of its officials except add more time-consuming replays. That means there is less and less of a baseball reason to attend the games and more and more of one to watch them on television.
Good thing we have decent ball and a nice little part to entice us here during the season.