U of A Bears in CIS final

[Replacement*]

True I'm sure but you just need to know where to look and listen. A trip to the U of A athletics website is a good place to start. All of the Golden Bears/Pandas games in most sports are live-streamed there.

Huge congrats to the hockey Bears on their 14th national championship!

Canada West also has a lot of the games so that people can watch games they missed.

I'd recommend the first game of the Canada West final against Calgary. afairc it was march 7. Its archived and a good ol Golden Bears Slaughter of the Dinos.

Gotta hand it to the Huskies. I've feared this club throughout even though Alberta rolled through them in reg season but imo one of the teams that could give Alberta a tough game.
The final yesterday should be available soon on Canada West for archived viewing. Sometimes it takes a few days for the game to be viewable.

 

[Replacement*]

A few comments to the thread.

As far as inevitable CIS NCAA comparisons.

Should be remembered that U of A are unlike most of their CIS brethren and have contained some stacked lineups and several players that have made it to the NHL. The Cory Cross memories kind of belittle this but in different times players like Randy Gregg cast better light on U of A Alumni players.

But I think in the convo its impossible to forget that one of the things that makes the Golden Bears program eternally great is the world class coaching and guidance. Of Clare Drake, considered one of the best hockey minds ever in the game and with Babcock, Hitchcock, Renney etc saying they wouldn't be NHL coaches without Clare Drakes tutelage and influence.

http://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/20...are-drake-named-to-order-of-hockey-in-canada/


I was watching the CIS final yesterday, then the Topten NCAA final yesterday. What immediately struck is some players in NCAA may be more talented but that the Bears played a superior system. Rarely will you see the Bears for instance give up breakaways or odd man rushes. Conversely you often see them generating chances off of turnovers and excellent NZ, PK, play. With the Bears acknowledged to have introduced aggressive PK under Drake several decades ago.

Not only is Bears hockey a deep tradition. The way the players play the game, and adhere to it, is also a tradition. A tradition of coaching excellence leading to excellent clubs.

 

[The Dayvan Cowboy]

True I'm sure but you just need to know where to look and listen. A trip to the U of A athletics website is a good place to start. All of the Golden Bears/Pandas games in most sports are live-streamed there.

Huge congrats to the hockey Bears on their 14th national championship!

One thing that irks me about the U of A website is how they hide the athletics page. On most University websites it is one of the banner tiles, whereas for the U of A I'm pretty sure you have to click on something like "Student Life" and then two other sub categories just to get to the Varsity page.

There is no excuse for not knowing. Twitter is a great way to follow the team. You can watch it online and listen to the games. I've followed it all season.

My excuse would be not really caring. I would love to have all sorts of school spirit and pride, but when no one else really does it is hard (for me at least) to really get behind it and care, when I already follow a tonne of sports and fill my time with a lot of University related stuff.

I was just speaking to the fact that I have a lot of U of A students on Facebook (I'm even close friends with a number of Varsity athletes), a lot of those people being somewhat of "Campus Ambassadors" (I know that is an actual thing, and I'm not referring to that thing) and people in student leadership positions accross campus and not a single person I knew had a single thing to say about it. I wasn't complaining about the lack of access (I know how to access something if I want it), I was just speaking to general apathy on campus, even amongst the really active students.

 

[EchoesoftheEighties]

I heard about it from my friend who's a trainer or something for the team.

Pretty cool and congrats to them. I'll re-iterate what Dayvan said though and that's most of the student body doesn't really care.

 

[joestevens29]

I heard about it from my friend who's a trainer or something for the team.

Pretty cool and congrats to them. I'll re-iterate what Dayvan said though and that's most of the student body doesn't really care.

So is it because what the other poster said, how these guys don't really have a chance at being pros?

You look at NCAA teams and guys live and bleed their college colours and in all sports for the rest of their lives. Here it just doesn't seem to mean anything.

 

[EchoesoftheEighties]

So is it because what the other poster said, how these guys don't really have a chance at being pros?

You look at NCAA teams and guys live and bleed their college colours and in all sports for the rest of their lives. Here it just doesn't seem to mean anything.

I think part of it is because they are unlikely to go pro and another is that the NCAA is just better competition. In Canada we seem to not really care about amateur sports in general.

I think this has to do with the different school cultures though. In the USA you're encouraged to go to college out of state or something similar so people buy into "school spirit" a lot more. Here, I spend more time with my high school or junior high friends who go to Mac or NAIT than putting in effort to meet people at UAlberta. This makes me not really give a crap about school spirit.

Just how I see things.

 

[CornKicker]

So is it because what the other poster said, how these guys don't really have a chance at being pros?

You look at NCAA teams and guys live and bleed their college colours and in all sports for the rest of their lives. Here it just doesn't seem to mean anything.

i think it is more cultural honestly. I met a girl from Boise a few summers ago and she had Boise St everything, i mean shirts, hats, sweatpants all kinds of stuff. She mentioned that her grandpa cheered for boise state and her dad and uncles all did and so do her brothers. You never see that in Canada in regards to the universities, even when i was going to one you rarely if ever saw someone wearing a university teams hat/shirt.

 

[Replacement*]

i think it is more cultural honestly. I met a girl from Boise a few summers ago and she had Boise St everything, i mean shirts, hats, sweatpants all kinds of stuff. She mentioned that her grandpa cheered for boise state and her dad and uncles all did and so do her brothers. You never see that in Canada in regards to the universities, even when i was going to one you rarely if ever saw someone wearing a university teams hat/shirt.

Isn't it due to Americans being much more "patriot" inclined? It seems the rebel republic, in everything the do is partisan and in support of Country, State, City etc. Very allegiance inclined and even with the type of sports played being "Merican" To wit baseball, football. So we even the sporting choices being patriotic. It just seems very insular and so people are much more inclined to support something local and be suspicious of other influence, countries etc.

Canada is much more of a global nation with multicultural values. People here in short are just as likely to fans of Bayern-Munich, FC Barcelona, Real Madrid or cricket, or F! or just about anything. I think that Canadian cultural and entertainment interests extend beyond borders much more.

 

[Replacement*]

I heard about it from my friend who's a trainer or something for the team.

Pretty cool and congrats to them. I'll re-iterate what Dayvan said though and that's most of the student body doesn't really care.

I think part of it is because they are unlikely to go pro and another is that the NCAA is just better competition. In Canada we seem to not really care about amateur sports in general.

I think this has to do with the different school cultures though. In the USA you're encouraged to go to college out of state or something similar so people buy into "school spirit" a lot more. Here, I spend more time with my high school or junior high friends who go to Mac or NAIT than putting in effort to meet people at UAlberta. This makes me not really give a crap about school spirit.

Just how I see things.

But isn't this just an extension to a feeling about school allegiance in general? That even starts out in highschool here? With people not feeling branded by the particular school they go to. For instance in the US highschool football, state championships etc is a bigdeal. Here it really isn't so much. Maybe 1k show up for a provincial final on a great day if that. In the US several times that will show up for every reg season highschool ball games depending on state, city.

The suppor clubs get has nothing to do with how good they are, its whether one thinks its extremely important to identify themselves by school. Canadians are more independent of that. Less labeled by that. In the US what school you go to is perceived to matter, ivy league, top tech, etc. To be a big deal. Here what matters in the same context is post secondary or not. With the brands and branding being unimportant. But this feeling of not being defined by a school, and not identifying with it strongly starts far before post secondary. I'm surprised you identify with your highschool. Most people just pass off the 3yrs wanting it to fly by on the way to becoming adults.

 

[EchoesoftheEighties]

But isn't this just an extension to a feeling about school allegiance in general? That even starts out in highschool here? With people not feeling branded by the particular school they go to. For instance in the US highschool football, state championships etc is a bigdeal. Here it really isn't so much. Maybe 1k show up for a provincial final on a great day if that. In the US several times that will show up for every reg season highschool ball games depending on state, city.

The suppor clubs get has nothing to do with how good they are, its whether one thinks its extremely important to identify themselves by school. Canadians are more independent of that. Less labeled by that. In the US what school you go to is perceived to matter, ivy league, top tech, etc. To be a big deal. Here what matters in the same context is post secondary or not. With the brands and branding being unimportant. But this feeling of not being defined by a school, and not identifying with it strongly starts far before post secondary. I'm surprised you identify with your highschool. Most people just pass off the 3yrs wanting it to fly by on the way to becoming adults.

I'll agree with this that it does matter in High School too where I didn't give a crap. School spirit just matters more in the US

 

[Up the Irons]

Isn't it due to Americans being much more "patriot" inclined? It seems the rebel republic, in everything the do is partisan and in support of Country, State, City etc. Very allegiance inclined and even with the type of sports played being "Merican" To wit baseball, football. So we even the sporting choices being patriotic. It just seems very insular and so people are much more inclined to support something local and be suspicious of other influence, countries etc.

Canada is much more of a global nation with multicultural values. People here in short are just as likely to fans of Bayern-Munich, FC Barcelona, Real Madrid or cricket, or F! or just about anything. I think that Canadian cultural and entertainment interests extend beyond borders much more.

that, and they market everything and make everything an extravaganza. Look at tailgating. We don't do it here because: 'oh the children, the drunks, that noise!!!'. Yet, you go to an NFL game, College Football, Nascar and there are literally over 100,000 people socializing, drinking, not a sign of drunkeness, vandalizm, violence. We are far too uptight and, dare I say, boring to allow anything fun to happen. I get so tired of all the anti-American crap we spew. If you haven't been to an NFL game, put it on your bucket list. you'll be amazed, envious and a bit embarrassed.

 

[Perfect_Drug]

I teach at an American School part time (Montreal Campus).

My students will owe over $250,000 in student loans after 4 years.


The way Americans think about school is a LOT different than how we think about school for a LOT of reasons.

 

[Everest]

true, but, it is what it is. It's kinda like a good senior men's league. I wonder how the Bears would fair against the Bentley Generals? I suspect that Senior AAA is a bit higher then CIS.

The Bentley Generals have (several times) requested an exhibition game with Alberta Bears. In fact, Ian Herbers had agreed to a game last winter but he decided to cancel it a couple weeks ahead of puck drop.

The Generals have played U of C Dinos a couple of times...once in 2003 and once this past January. Bentley won the 03' game but was outskated/shot/scored (5-2) badly when they went to Father David Bauer Arena this season.

Thing is...the roster we took to Calgary for this most recent game...wasn't quite a "true" Gens' roster. We left 6 regulars at home & dressed a bunch of guys we were considering signing at the time. A few of those 6...we kept...and a few others we decided were too old/slow.

Bottom line...CIS hockey is faster/better conditioned than what the Bentley Generals typically play. Those kids are on the ice and/or in the gym every day. In order for the Bentley Generals to even up the odds...they would need to play an extremely intense/rugged/nasty style...kinda like how they play all the time.

Thing is...you can't request exhibition games against highly respected varsity programs which spend big bucks on their players...and then go out and beat the ever loving piss out of them just to prove a point. The Generals did just that back in 2003 and they beat U of C (3-2 if memory serves me exact)...but...U of C refused to play us again for 10 years after that. I think 2 of their better players got hurt in that game...although...it was worth all the controversy because Bentley built a strong tie with the U of C program and we now gain access to lots of their better graduating players who've become key pieces of our teams over the years.

Hypothetically...if we put something on the line...to make it worth everyones' while...and Alberta Bears/Generals played a game after both teams were completed their respective seasons...we would get an excellent hockey game. I think the Gens' would handle U of A...as good as they are.

Thing is...the Generals are a cut above almost all other SR AAA teams. So, while they might be able to pull it off...I can't say the same for other SR AAA teams. Other SR AAA teams don't have the depth or overall game we've been rolling here. Not trying to be arrogant. That's just the truth.

Anyways...someone was talking about CIS players viability as pro players...I'd like to say...first of all...the NHL isn't the only pro hockey out there. If you look at ECHL rosters...you will find lots of CIS alumni. The Colorado Eagles have harvested out of U of C for a number of years now and done very well with that relationship.

As for CIS players making it to the NHL...it happens. Bracken Kearns wasn't in the Sharks line-up tonight. Too bad. He's an interesting story and a solid depth player for them. He's a U of C alumni.

Typically...its AHL teams who will scout the CIS and offer PTO's at the conclusion of the CIS season. Because these CIS players are older than major JR players...they're viewed less as prospects and more as hole fillers...which is unfortunate. They tend to do "ok" on their initial try-out opportunities...but...they're the first guys to get moved to the ECHL or other AHL rosters anytime room needs to be made for an NHL affiliated player. And I can assure you...once you start moving around in the vast network of farm teams...it becomes almost impossible to generate a reputable line of stats that an NHL team is going to pick up on.

Also needs to be said...because something like 90% of the entire semi-pro circuit is composed of American based teams...a lot of Canadian players have not been given the contract(s) they're most deserving of. Not all...but some...of these farm teams feel they need to feature American born players. Its especially evident on teams located close to NCAA college(s). I've seen some laughably weak American born players with loooong semi-pro resumes/lots of semi-pro $$$$$...and I've seen some amazing Canadian guys come home from the states after a few months because they can't get any kind of a fair shot.

 

[LoudmouthHemskyfan#1]

I was watching the CIS final yesterday, then the Topten NCAA final yesterday. What immediately struck is some players in NCAA may be more talented but that the Bears played a superior system. Rarely will you see the Bears for instance give up breakaways or odd man rushes. Conversely you often see them generating chances off of turnovers and excellent NZ, PK, play. With the Bears acknowledged to have introduced aggressive PK under Drake several decades ago.

Not only is Bears hockey a deep tradition. The way the players play the game, and adhere to it, is also a tradition. A tradition of coaching excellence leading to excellent clubs.

My favorite classes bar none - despite the fact that they were also the hardest to get good grades in aside from effing Latin - were the two hockey coaching classes I took in my last year. Mostly consisted of drills and scrimmages with other hockey-playing students and a few Bears and Pandas sprinkled in for good measure. Always fun to test yourself against the Bears. A group from our class routinely lit up the Pandas team until their coach and captains decided it was beneath "the national champions" to lose scrimmages to what was effectively an intramural team.

The Bears coach and our instructor was Thurston at the time, but he still deployed Daum's system which I'm sure was an offshoot of Drake's. We learned it as part of the class. I've never seen it used by a pro team, but boy would it be something to watch. I bet a team with the talent of Washington could use it. There's maybe a line or two of Oilers forwards that could play it, but not the D and they're key to the whole thing.