Windspeaker Sports Briefs - December 2013

Nolan returns to Sabres

Ted Nolan agreed to take on some additional coaching responsibilities for an NHL club with which he previously had considerable success. Nolan, an Ojibwe from northern Ontario’s Garden River First Nation, was named the interim head coach of the Buffalo Sabres on Nov. 13.

Nolan was brought in as part of the Sabres’ major shakeup in response to the club’s start this season. Buffalo only managed to win four out of its first 20 regular season contests. As a result, the Sabres were dead last in the standings of the 30-team league.

Nolan, however, will continue to serve as the head coach of the Latvian men’s hockey team, a position he has held since August of 2011. He will be behind the Latvia bench for the upcoming Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia in February.

With the Sabres, Nolan replaces Ron Rolston, who was relieved of his coaching duties following Buffalo’s  slow start. Sabres’ GM Darcy Regier was also fired. Besides Nolan, the Sabres also brought in one of their former star players, Pat LaFontaine, as the team’s president of hockey operations.

Nolan had previously served as the Sabres’ head coach for two seasons, from 1995-97. After his second season with the squad, 1996-97, Nolan was presented with the Jack Adams Trophy as the NHL’s coach of the year.

But Nolan was not brought back the following season, reportedly because of rifts with then GM John Muckler and the team’s goalie Dominik Hasek. After that, it took almost a decade before Nolan returned to the NHL. He was hired by the New York Islanders in 2006 and spent two seasons with that franchise.

Nolan is also a former NHL player. During the ’80s he played 60 contests with the Detroit Red Wings and 18 more with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Teams seek more glory

The Canadian Lacrosse League will once again feature a pair of all-Aboriginal squads. Both the Ohsweken Demons and Iroquois Ironmen will compete in the third season of the loop, which is scheduled to begin in January.

As it did a year ago, the 2014 campaign will feature seven league entrants. But as of mid-November, however, an official league schedule had yet to be released.

Both the Demons and Ironmen, who play out of the Iroquois Lacrosse Arena in Ohsweken, have had their share of successes in the first two seasons of the league. The Demons captured the inaugural league championship in 2012, defeating the Ironmen 15-10 in the final. As for this past spring, the Ironmen pulled off three straight upsets to capture the league crown.

For starters, the Iroquois side, which had placed sixth in the regular season standings upset the third-seeded Demons in a quarter-final contest. The Ironmen then advanced to the league championship by knocking off the top-ranked Niagara Falls Monsters in a semi-final tilt.

The Iroquois team then hoisted the league trophy by defeating the second-ranked Toronto Shooting Stars 14-11 in the final.

Redden in limbo

Pro hockey player Wade Redden finds himself in limbo eagerly awaiting a phone call he hopes will one day come.

The 36-year-old Métis from Lloydminster, Sask., has been a pro since 1996 and has stated he is not ready to retire. He finished off last season with the Boston Bruins, who advanced to the Stanley Cup final.

But Redden, who has appeared in 1,129 NHL contests, is an unrestricted free agent who had not been signed by any team as of mid-November.

Artist designs necklace

Aboriginal artist Corrine Hunt, who designed the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic medals, has now created a necklace for a soccer organization.

Hunt, a British Columbia native who has Komoyue and Tingit heritage, designed the necklace for a non-profit organization called Why the Women’s World Cup Matters (WWWCM).
Canada will host the 2015 World Women’s Cup. Matches will be held in Edmonton, Moncton, Montreal, Ottawa, Winnipeg and Vancouver.

The necklace was designed as a fundraiser for the WWWCM, which is dedicated to creating positive changes for females on the soccer pitch, as well as off the field.

The necklace is titled Kiwkw, and features an eagle with an equal sign on the top. The other side of the necklace features a soccer ball. Both silver and gold necklaces are now available for sale. They can be purchased at www.wwcmatters.com.

Some of the proceeds from the necklace will go to support a First Nations girls’ soccer program. Proceeds will also go to a World Cup leadership program that will be held in schools, as well as a documentary which will be made exploring the role of soccer around the world and how it changes the lives of females.