End of the ECHL Era for the Ontario Reign -- Justin Kemp

There's always a little bit of information left over when you put together season ending stories. Here's some of the quotes that didn't make the paper in our Reign finale and the conversation with Justin Kemp. 

Justin Kemp may have left his post with the Reign when the team announced its move into the American Hockey League. He was a regular visitor at the games, and still visited with the team in the locker room area.

But it was definitely a different experience, he said.

"I mean it is definitely different, because you’re watching it as a fan as opposed to an employee of the team. At the same time I still felt the expectations for the fans, for the team itself, hockey ops staff, of course the front office staff. From that aspect, not a lot changed. Certainly my passion and desire to win never wavered. In some ways it was kind of nice because I had the opportunity to sit back and watch it and take advantage and just enjoy it from a hockey standpoint without any of the other distractions."

One of the hallmarks of the Reign over the last few years has been the addition of players from Southern California. From contract players such as Kyle Bigos to players such as Matt White, Dennis Brown and CJ Stretch, the ECHL version of the Reign allowed local players a chance to play at home.

It wasn't by design, as coach Jason Christie was able to track down the best players for his squad, but it didn't hurt the bottom line, either, Kemp said.

"I think it was probably Jason finding the right guys. But any time you can find a quality player that’s in your own back yard, that’s a plus. In the 20 years or so that I’ve been in this business, I’ve seen so much growth in the terms of the number of players that have come out of Southern California who have played at some sort of professional level. You have some legitimate talent now. It’s not just a novelty any more to have a player on your roster, like a Kyle Bigos, for instance, from right here in Upland. That’s not an accident. He’s a legitimate player, especially for this league and spent some time up in the American League. If you see it’s between two players one of which is local and one isn’t, yeah, there’s all kinds of reasons why you would do that, none of which are smaller than the fact you might get more fans in the building. But, let’s face it, we’re an American-run business, it’s cheaper, more economical to have an American player than a Canadian player."

As far as Kemp's future, it's still in the air. But he's done resting and is itching to take on a new challenge.

“At this point, I’ve realized I don’t think what I anticipated is how hard it is to figure out what it is that’s going to trigger your interest after having something that’s been as fulfilling as this over the last near decade,” he said. “I kind of thought I’ll take a month off and I’ll be ready to jump back into something. Mentally I’m ready to jump back into something, because I’m not used to having time on my hands like this. But it’s really important for me to find the right fit.

“I think to have an opportunity to start up another franchise somewhere or even help resurrect an existing franchise somewhere, would be something of interest to me. If not, something completely outside of team sports but involves growing another business. I’ve looked at a bunch of different things, but nothing has caught just yet. But I’m trying to be patient and methodical about it. I’m confident that at some point here, before this year is out, something will fall into place.”

End of the ECHL Era for the Ontario Reign -- Derek Couture

There's always a little bit of information left over when you put together season ending stories. Here's some of the quotes that didn't make the paper in our Reign finale and the conversation with Justin Kemp.

The biggest thing that didn't make the final cut was information about Derek Couture. The Reign captain told me before the playoffs started that he was unsure about his future in hockey. Nothing's changed.

"I don’t know. I mean, this game is crazy, like I’ve said before. You know, you can tell yourself you’re prepared to walk away from it, but when it comes down to it, maybe you’re not ready and you’ll play this game until someone says ‘Hey, it’s time to hang ‘em up.’ "

He missed the Reign's final game due to a suspension incurred in a Game 6 altercation. He received a match penalty for his actions.

"To me, it was a fight. It was a hockey fight. And, maybe the league or the ref didn’t think it was a fight. But whenever you’re engaged one on one with a guy, he knew he was in a fight. Whether you want to fight back or not, it’s up to him."

And not being able to play in the deciding game was painful for the veteran.

"You don’t even know. There was a lot that was going through my mind at the time. One, you never want to watch the game. But two, I was a little disappointed and I don’t know. It kind of felt like I was letting the team down by getting suspended there. But it’s hockey, man. Things happen. Emotions are running high, especially in the playoffs."

Coach Jason Christie had nothing but praise for the work his captain has done over the past four years. 

"He’s what you want to build your team around – a real pro. He’s been great. When we first came in here, Harpo (former assistant coach Mark Hardy) and I, there was a lot on his shoulders being the captain and setting what we want to build around. Hey, I have nothing but the utmost respect for how hard he played, what he brought to the organization, but him as a person."

It was a sentiment echoed by Justin Kemp.

"There’s no question. He was a true professional from day one. He kept the bar high. He is really one of those who practices what he preaches. He’s just a class act. He’s always a class act for this organization. You can see the difference when he’s in the lineup versus not. And I don’t think there’s any greater example of that then that Game 7 the other night when he was suspended. In fact that could have been the difference maker having him in that lineup. He’s actually been a cornerstone for this organization the last four years. He’s exactly the type of player that we like having represent us."

Christie, like his captain, is unsure about the future for the right winger.

"The thing about him, he only knows how to play one way, and is the age catching up to him? I don’t know. He has to play one way, that’s the only way he knows how to play. Unfortunately,it’s time right now, where he has to decide and it’s a tough. I feel for him, because it’s a tough thing to go through. I’ve been through as an ex-player, and when is when? He’s a first class person that I have nothing but obviously great things to whatever he does."

The Tears of the Clown

Everyone has that one "celebrity" whose death hits us harder than it should.
For many in my generation, it was Kurt Cobain. River Phoenix was a big one for others. Len Bias was a great cautionary tale for kids my age.
For me, however, none of them held a candle to Robin Williams. His death hurt. And a week out, it still hurts.
Aladdin is on my TV for the second time this weekend, as Disney is playing the movie in tribute on its various networks. And as much as my son and I laugh while watching, I know we're going to get to the end. And then he'll be gone again, with the heroic, but now tragic, line of "Genie, you're free." And the tears will come once more.
It's hard thinking that a celebrity would cause that kind of emotion. After all, it's not like I knew the man. He was just someone I saw on my TV and movie screens.
But he was more. From Mork to Popeye to the Genie to Mrs. Doubtfire, his manic genius was a huge part of the laughter in my life. How many times did you fire off one of his one liners from a movie? We quote his interactions with the Sgt. Major in "Good Morning, Vietnam" to this day.

Sgt. Major Dickerson: [Pointing to his rank insignia] What does three up and three down mean to you, airman?
Adrian Cronauer: End of an inning?

And it wasn't just those acting roles.
His standup comedy was legendary. Anytime he was on a talk show, it was worth stopping to watch -- even on Jay Leno's show. Look them up -- he's never not funny. I wore out a copy of his Live at the Met performance on cassette tape, and got a second one because I had to have it to listen to in my car. He would crack up fellow comics with his material. Track down some of his Comic Relief bits, as Billy Crystal and Whoopi Goldberg tried -- and mostly failed -- to keep up. And then there was his bit "Inside the Actor's Studio" when he did a 10-15 minute improv riff using a woman's scarf. Epic.
Was everything he did great? No, and not all laugh out loud funny. But he still came back to laughter. And it was always great to see. Even his return to TV last fall on "The Crazy Ones" was funny. But it didn't play to Middle America, and so it didn't get a second season. 
And so I'm left to grieve this man I never met. Like the grieving process for those closest to us, the feeling will pass. But for now, I'd expect a few tears whenever I see his picture or run across him on video. RIP Robin. Thanks for the laughter.

ONTARIO REIGN POST-MORTEM QUOTES

There's only so much room in the newspaper for what was said in my season-ending interviews with the Reign staff. Here's what didn't make the final article:

FROM JASON CHRISTIE

On the season ending the way it did:

“It leaves that empty feeling in your stomach. It’s not what we wanted. It’s tough, even tougher this year with the movements we had, and we thought we had the horses this year. Obviously injuries down the stretch hurt us. Our goaltender sprained his ankle the first game. And we had Parker out. Overall, it was touch just losing Calla and Van de Moss, those guys are proven leaders.”

Injuries played a role, but...

"There’s no excuses. We lost. Give Stockton credit. They had some good players sent down from Bridgeport. And Hunt is probably one of the best leaders in the league. And you win with guys like that. And for us, we couldn’t sustain any pressure.”

On Mario Lamoureux leaving for Europe:

"You want them to play. He didn’t feel like he was getting the opportunity to move up. You’ve just got to move forward. In the ECHL you can’t sit here and dwell on it, you’ve got to move forward. I think we didn’t have a top line center. We were hoping to get DaSilva back, but he wasn’t going to come back. He would have helped. That number one center, we didn’t have that top center. We had good centers, but we just didn’t have that top-flight center to keep up with the Clark’s that they have on the other teams."

On whether we should expect much of the team back next year due to the number of contract players that played for the Reign this year: 

"They haven’t had that here in year’s past. It’s going to be tough for the fans. It’s something that we get affiliation with Winnipeg and L.A., just talking to Rob (Blake) there, it’s something that you will see guys – you want to see guys at the next level. You can’t stop a guy from making more money. You can’t stop a guy from his goal of making it to the NHL. There’s nobody happier in seeing that than myself. When I sit there and I can watch Darcy Kuemper, and obviously Cliffy was here during the lockout, and Hutchinson going up -- when you can see your players play at the NHL, it makes you pretty excited. And that’s everybody’s goal down here, is to be at the next level. And that’s why you have to have depth in your system."

Christie's thoughts on Derek Couture's status for next year:

"Couts is a guy, that’s for us, he’s a captain for a reason. He knows what we like here. It was tough for him to lose the DaSilvas and Callas, that older presence. That’s why we brough Jeremy Yablonski in, just for that older, wily veteran status -- mostly for the locker room. For Couts, we never know in the summer time, we haven’t had one-on-one meetings yet, so I’ll know more tomorrow. But he’s a guy, if I’m going to war, he’s a guy I want on my side."

FROM JUSTIN KEMP, PRESIDENT ONTARIO REIGN

On whether there were too many moves this season:

"I think there’s a lot of opinions out there about what was the reason. I think that may have something to do with it. We really haven’t sat down and evaluated what … what the reasonings were. I think there was more to it than that. But this was a year that we saw more change than we ‘ve ever seen before, which definitely makes it tough to establish a high level of continuity going into the postseason. I thought we went on that ten-game unbeaten streak near the end of the season, that we had sort of turned a corner, and we were playing as a team. And unfortunately, we didn’t see that once we got into the postseason."

I asked if the team's start gave a false sense of security: 

"It’s possible. The first half of the year, we had Hutchinson here in the goal, where he finished the year in the NHL. There were a lot of times at the start of the season, I think, that we felt that he was bailing us out quite a bit. Doing enough to give us the opportunity to win. And there’s a lot of things that happened at the same time mid-season, around the time that he left, we took on a lot new players with San Francisco and there were call-ups and injuries, just a lot of stuff that happened in a few week period that shook things up. I don’t think this first-round early exit was indicative of the team that won the division title this year. That’s tough. I fully support why we worked to get better midseason. We did feel like we were riding a hot goalie, and we didn’t want to feel like we had to rely on that. And unfortunately, all the pieces didn’t come together the way that we hoped."

On the coaching staff's future with the team:

"I still fully support the coaching staff. We have the best coaching staff in this league. Jason is still under contract, and he’s the guy that I want to lead this team. We’re definitely on board with that, and we’ll turn our focus here toward next year. Getting back to making progress, that’s what we set out to do when we hired him. It was get back to the playoffs. We got to the second round for the first time. Now we need to be looking to go beyond that. The goal is to still win a championship. We just need to figure out where maybe we could have done better this year and how we can make adjustments next year so we can get back to where we want to be."

On whether we'll see a core come back or not:

"We try to keep a core of guys. This year, unfortunately, we dealt with injuries as we do every year. But this year was worse by far, especially in the number of head injuries we had. I think we had 17 concussions this year – a lot for any team to deal with. Not to make excuses, that’s not what we’re doing, there was a lot of adversity that followed us throughout the year, despite a good regular season record and despite a lot of changes that were outside of our control."

On Mario Lamoureux leaving for Europe:

"He had an opportunity to play in Europe. Young players, when they get the opportunity to make more money and go abroad, it’s not uncommon. Obviously, we were disappointed, because he was the type of guy who could really help us. He’s an offensive spark out there, and it would have been great to have him in this series. But at the end of the day, it’s a business. A professional athlete has a finite amount of time that they can do what they do."

Missing that spark on offense:

"Some of those guys that we lost, they were spark plugs to this team. I know people are going to have their opinions on why we made it, or was it good for the team. But at the end of the day, every move that we made was an attempt to get better and get stronger. It unfortunately didn’t work out this year. The intent was always certainly there."

THANK YOU, AND REST IN PEACE, ULTIMATE WARRIOR

He knew.
He had to know.
There was no other reason that Jim Hellwig had to make his peace with Vince McMahon and the WWE after all these years.
The Ultimate Warrior was dying. For real this time.
How else do you explain it? In the last year, he came back into the fold and allowed his likeness in the WWE's popular video game series. He got the full DVD documentary treatment. He went into the WWE Hall of Fame. He signed the Legends Contract, which allows his likeness to continue to be used for more DVD's and T-shirts and more and more merchandise (including, but not limited to, that mask he wore in the ring in his now prophetic last promo on Monday Night Raw).
And why would he do all that now?
Plain and simple: Money.
Money for his family. He was dying, and he wanted to make sure they were taken care of.
And it breaks my heart that it came down to that.
This was someone I grew up watching. Playing as a video game character on the old WWF Superstars arcade game (remember when we left our house and paid at 25 cents just for the chance to play a video game). I'd team him and "Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase to cause havoc in the ring. He was the guy whose intensity made him the guy who you knew was going to put on a show.
But as often occurs in an industry where egos run wilder than the Warrior's high octane entrance, Warrior's time in the limelight exploded. Over money, natch. This was still in the days that boys were the boys, before some of the guaranteed money that are built into the contracts of current WWE performers. Drinking, drugs, partying, sharing rooms and rental cars to save money and backstabbing were more the norm if you believe the stories from the era.
And with his physique, the cloud of steroid abuse followed him -- and likely played a role in his estrangement from the McMahon empire in the first place. And, when all is said and done, the abuse he put his body through (steroids or just the wrestling business in general) will have contributed to his premature death.
So while I remain just swimming through the emotions of his death, I'm happy he buried the hatchet and protected his legacy. He deserved it for all the moments of happiness he gave to his Warriors through the years.

Revisiting MySpace

A recent post from a friend made me want to go back and find something I had written six years ago on my MySpace blog. Well, it was gone. But, thankfully, I wasn't the only one, so it was a simple click and wait to get my blogs back -- not online, but downloaded for my own archives.

So, in honor of the friend who had an incident that inspired me to find my blogs -- the blog below -- I post an experience from six years ago that is the reason I will never have Verizon for my home service ever -- EVEEEEERRRR -- again.

I am tired of INCOMPETENT FUCKING PEOPLE.

When did customer service become an option?

When did job pride become obsolete?

OK, yeah, I'm in a bit of a foul mood. And all it took was one utility company.

The utility company in question, Verizon, has for months (years?) bombarded my apartment offering me their fantastic DSL service. Envelopes came in the mail - almost weekly - touting their wonderful service. When we got a new computer, it was finally time to take them up on their offer.

We signed up. And waited. Continued to receive offers in the mail touting the service.

Two weeks for the modem kit to be sent. Another week for the "Service Ready Date." Another week after the "Service Ready Date," with a second date assigned. And, yet another week after repeated calls to tech support to finally get them to send someone out to ACTUALLY PLUG THE THING IN TO THEIR SYSTEM IN THE APARTMENT COMPLEX BOX.

*DEEP BREATH*

So, last week, it came time to transfer the service. You see, we're picking up our little apartment and moving. Call the phone company, and no problem, here's your new phone number when you move in March. Oh, but wait, there's no DSL service available where you're going. All the available lines have been taken. Or, they're not taking more orders so we can sell you the upcoming fiber optic lines. Let me transfer you to the DSL folks so you can tell them to stop the service when you move out.

Talk to the next person. Explain that we're leaving in mid-March, so please cancel the service on March 13. OK, all set.

Fast-forward two hours. Time to check the e-mail.

"We're sorry, your DSL service has been cancelled, and you might want to take care of any address books, etc." (or something like that).

After a month of waiting for my service to start, it took two hours for them to figure out how to pull the plug.

Time for another phone call. First, I get useless tech support. They transfer me to the "retention" department, who in turns transfers me to another tech support person. I hang up. I call back, seething.

I now know how to talk straight to the retention folks. I get a pleasant person who is amazed at how idiotic they are, and tells me that she'll work on it. She talks with the tech supervisors and assures me all is well. They'll be able to fix it without any service interruption.

Wanna bet how that one turned out?

Woke up this morning. No DSL. One week after I had called to ask them to shut it down on March 13 (one day after we're actually out), they've got it turned off.

Livid, I called. Decided I'd try tech services, in case it wasn't the shut down. Was put through the paces of the call center checklist of NOTHING I HAD CHANGED WITH THE SYSTEM. Before I exploded, I asked to be transfered to the retention folks. (Oh, the beauty here is I have to introduce myself and give them my phone number each time). "What's going on with my account?" "Oh, well, let's see. Oh, you need to talk to tech support."

ARRRRGGGGHHHH!

Hang up. Try again.

Go straight to retention folks. "Oh, here it is. Yeah, the order was sent through to be cut off today. And once they send the order through, there's no changing it, no matter what a customer requests. And, there's another order for your service to be started back up. But that could take up to seven days."

Seven days. We're gone five days after that. What else can you do for me?

"Well, maybe the tech level three folks can work around it." Gee, that would be nice.

Somehow, I don't think I got the tech level three guy. I got more runaround. Told him (along with others along the way that I'm going back to AOL dialup).

Decided I needed to find someone higher up in the food chain and called the phone company itself. Of course, found another drone call center worker. She apologized again for her company's idiocy, TRIED TO SELL ME ON OTHER SERVICES ... and proceeded to transfer me to the DSL retention folks.

After another five minutes on hold, I finally let the poor woman who had to field the call have it. Told them thanks for nothing, cancel the second order to restart their precious little service (because, since you can't fix it TODAY, what good is going to do me?) and told her that since they've got us grabbing our ankles and SOL, you might as well take the service and shove it straight up my ass (well, I did say two of those things).

Her response? "Sorry. Yeah, that's kinda bad. I can't believe this is happening. I'll put a note on your account to not charge you the amount for the service. And I'll make sure to note it was a connection issue."

So, if there's anyone from Verizon who comes trolling along and finds this rant, I'll have you know, I'll be happy the next two weeks doing AOL dial-up, then hooking into a cable modem at my new address.

Thanks for nothing.

Bugs Bunny, Highway Sign Maker

OK, we all know that I'm a professional a-hole. It's part of being a copy editor. You have to go up to people and correct their mistakes (thereby making them feel like crap for making said mistake).

(I will also admit to not being perfect, and likely to make a mistake or two along the way. We all need copy editors, it's just how you handle it that defines a person.)

Anyway, in what may become the first of many posts like this, we present the Copy Editor Police on Patrol.

So, we were traveling around town, dealing with numerous detours and the like due to the extreme amount of construction going on around us — they're working on widening and changing exits for both the major freeways and putting in a bus lane through San Bernardino. Good times.

So, imagine our surprise when coming to the southbound end of Wier Road in what is the borders of Colton, San Bernardino and Loma Linda, detour signs.

As you can see, the one on Wier, before you get to the intersection with Washington/Barton Road tells you that to get to Interstate 10, you should head left, and for Interstate 215, you turn right. Seems simple enough. Except, there's another sign on Washington/Barton, where Wier T's at the Montecito Cemetery. You probably can't see it in the picture above, so we'll provide you with a closer look.

Yes, according to sign No. 2, the 10 is just a right turn away, and you should hang a left to get to the 215.

Thankfully, having lived in the area for quite a long time, I know which way is right. And, to be honest, Wier isn't much of a road. It's really just a crescent shaped road that takes people from Waterman to Washington/Barton (when you can keep going on Waterman and accomplish the same thing in less time (but it helps to get around if there's funeral traffic). Also, Wier is the outer edge of a homeowner association controlled area, so there's not much "visitor" traffic coming through.

But I pity to the poor visitor who stumbles upon that area and really doesn't know the right answer to "Which way do I go?" Having those two signs aren't going to be much help.

For the record, the first sign is correct. A right turn takes cars directly to the 215 on Washington and Mt. Vernon. A left turn (followed by a left turn at Waterman), will get you to the 10.