Dropping The Puck: The Ottawa Senators

The final team that I will be looking at in the "Dropping The Puck" series is the Ottawa Senators! The Senators have noticeably missed the presence of Daniel Alferedsson since he decided to go to Detroit as a free agent this past summer.  The major attempt that the team made to fill the hole that "Alffy" left was the acquisition of Bobby Ryan from Anaheim, Ryan has had a decent season being second on the team with 26 points in 29 games but those aren't the makings of an "Alffy" type season by any stretch of the imagination.  However, I wouldn't consider this series of events to be a disappointment as there are two other major problems that the Senators have to look at in Karlsson and Anderson.  Karlsson has brought the same problem to the Senators that Subban has brought to Montreal in that he leads the team in points and as I have stated previously, I feel this is a much bigger negative than it is a positive.  The next bone of contention is definitely Anderson, here's a goalie that was arguably in the Vezina conversation last year with the way that he put the team on his back, even took them to the first round of the playoffs, his save percentage this year has dropped to an abysmal 0.897 after his amazing 0.941 last year it has just been unacceptable for the team's success and in some ways has killed them.  The Sens are not a playoff team, just like the other Canadian teams that I have covered in this series and it will be a few years before we see the Cup here in Canada. 

Dropping The Puck: Toronto Maple Leafs

The Toronto Maple Leafs have finally started to work within the expectations that people have set for them since the Phil Kessel trade that saw Tyler Seguin go to Boston a few years back.  The expectation after the trade was lofty to say the least in that he was expected to carry the team to the promise land, heck even take them to a Stanley Cup in a very short period of time.  As ridiculous as this sounds, Leafs' fans quickly bought into the insanity and Kessel has definitly had his fair share of media woes as a result.  After years of painful seasons for the Leafs they finally have a team that in my opinion can be a contender, I realize that they are currently sitting 5th in their division, but with only a few points separating first and last in the ever strong Atlantic Division, the Leafs are the dark horse, both Kessel and Van Riemsdyk sitting at around the point per game mark and Johnathan Bernier fighting Reimer for a spot in the net each night the Leafs will be a contender throughout the course of the season.  I even believe that it's possible for them to be playoff contenders, I don't think that this is the year that they will hit the Cup but with strength finally emerging up front, the competition in the net and Dion Phaneuf finally being a real captain they are the team that I would keep an eye on in the Atlantic.  

Dropping The Puck: The Calgary Flames

The Calgary Flames are definitely a team that many would consider to be a work in progress.  With the retirement of franchise goalie Miikka Kiprusoff and the decision to move on by faithful captain through thick and thin Jarome Iginla the cupboards of the organization for the most part are bare.  The organization has put a lot of faith in their ability to develop players during this time through guys like Mikael Backlund and Sven Baertschi only to have both projects completely fall through.  Backlund has been around the league for a considerable amount of time with his 6 years experience and has under preformed at every possible opportunity.  Baertschi whilst still being new, has not shown the kind of all around game that the organization was hoping for, newly appointed President of Hockey Operations Brian Burke has been quoted as saying on multiple occasions that he believes that Baertschi is "only capable of playing in one zone" as such I feel like the once strong faith that the organization had in him is slowly slipping.  The one shining star for the club currently however is most certainly newly drafted Sean Monahan, this kid has burst on to the NHL scene by helping lead the struggling club with 14 points in 8 games and definitely has the makings of Mr. Franchise given a few years to develop.  In all honesty however, as far as this season goes the Flames would be lucky to touch the playoff picture with a ten foot pole.

Dropping The Puck: The Montreal Canadians 

Nearing the halfway point of the season, the Montreal Canadians have in my opinion over preformed.  With a record of 13-9-2 they are currently sitting 4th in the Atlantic division, behind Tampa Bay, Toronto and the first place Bruins.  Now, when you look at those three teams in front of Montreal, all three have a trademark strength, Tampa Bay has offense, Toronto has a young up and coming team, and Boston has the iron curtain defense led by Chara.  Montreal does have Carey Price, however they don't have much else, P.K. Subban is under preforming and no one else on that defensive unit is worth talking about. The offense has been lack luster to say the least, mainly because you don't usually see a team have their point leader be a defense man, Subban has issues in his own end and getting him this involved in the offensive game plan sheds more light on an already glaring problem that not to mention inflating what I would consider to be an already large ego. Montreal has no forwards that are capable of carrying the load, so in all honesty I can't see any feasible scenario where Montreal beats out one of these other three teams in the division for a playoff spot this year.

Taking Things For Granted

Here in the 21st century we have a very bad habit of taking a lot of things for granted that are by no means given to us for free.  This can include anything from cars to transit to even the computer that I'm using to write this post to you right now. In my opinion however, this problem is not getting any better as the younger generation is coming up, in fact, if anything the problem is getting significantly worse.  Now you may be asking yourself why it is that the thought of taking things for granted came to my mind, the answer to that dear reader is fairly straight forward, it came from reading "The Story of my Life" by Helen Keller.

Helen Keller was the type of woman that most people would feel sorry for, especially with the belief systems that were afoot over the course of her life.  I know as a person in her situation that the last thing that you want from people when you have visible issues the last thing that you want is people to pity you, granted it is better then the alternative "hospitals" during that time.  The concept of being blind AND deaf is something that most people, myself included can't even fathom, again two things that we don't even consider in our day to day life, our sense of sight and hearing.  I mean what would you do if you couldn't hear during the lectures that your prof is giving, as well as not being able to see the PowerPoint slides that are put on the projector, by our standards this would be next to impossible!  As a person with a disability i understand the concept of needing to come up with some more creative methods in order to get daily tasks done but the idea that Helen and Anne came up with in regards to the placement of her fingers on Anne's face as she spoke to say the least simply amazed me.

 
It's people like Helen that should make the general public stop and think, as I said and I can't emphasize this enough, not to pity her but out of pure amazement that she could accomplish what she did in her life.  Although the absolute basic communication skills that she acquired took so long to master, she took what it was that she had and with assistance managed to write a book so that everyone who read it could understand the hurdles that she had to overcome in order to bring this information to them.

I state again that we here in the twenty first century are lucky enough to be able to turn on our computers and even be able to write a blog post like this.  The ability to instantly fix an error that sometimes in Helen's case would take minutes, so all I ask of you dear reader is that the next time you start up your computer to make that Facebook post or take the notes from your next lecture off the projector, stop and be thankful that you live in a world that is so accessible to everyone!

Anonymity For The Disabled In The Online Gaming Community

There are many misconceptions when it comes to disabled people in the online gaming community, most of which are just farfetched, and in some cases hurtful rumors that people feel that they are able to create from behind the keyboard.  This is most certainly the point in time where arguments can be created purely out of self defense and preservation for the person with the disability. The problem is this makes it so these people have an opening to attack and most certainly get rid of majority of the anonymity that you posses online. the two questions that come up for me from this are, one,  what kind of rumors are created and within that what can be done to make the disabled more comfortable in the gaming community and two, is it worth defending yourself from the onslaught that can occur?

The main belief that I find amongst people online in regards to the disabled simply put is that because a good number of disabled people are too involved to have jobs they have a lot of time on their hands, as a result of this they should automatically be the best when it comes to things like video games.  The funny thing about this belief is that in many cases, because of a person's disability the struggle to even hold the controller and do what it is that they want to accomplish within the game. Without a few extra hours of practice in order to get the series of commands on the controller correct they are unable to preform the tasks that some find so easy.  Luckily in some cases companies are willing to take a look at this issue and try and make it easier for people with disabilities to excel  at the game.  For example there is this adapted version of the popular EA Sports title "Madden" making it easier for people with physical and mental disabilities to participate. So even though there is a lot of negative beliefs in regards to the disabled community online there is still some positive spin put on the subject, and in a case like this it makes it much easier to withhold your anonymity. The reason for this is person that you are playing against will not be able to tell the difference from one gamer to another. The point that this raises however is, is it worth it to spend all the extra time and money to protect yourself?

There's a very fine line in the online community between protecting yourself and looking to pick a fight and that is something for sure that I often think people forget.  For example, in my situation I am not hindered enough physically for people to tell the difference between me, or your average ambulatory person online, however it does take me time to do things between games, such as make food or grab a drink.  The issue that this has created for me in the past is friends defending me when people start complaining that I am taking too long, obviously my friends had only good intentions. However telling someone online that the reason I am taking so long is because I am in a wheelchair can be considered picking a fight with the other party and open a can of worms.  The can of worms that I refer to for me in this situation is literally the choice of, "do I step up and defend myself?" realizing fully that in order to protect myself I would have to expose a bunch of information about my disability to prove I am just as capable as the other guy.  Then there is the other side of the argument in "do I just sit and deal with the flack and hope it stops?" Not looking to pick fights with people I usually choose this one because I don't feel as if it is any of their business what I can and can't do.

In conclusion, in my opinion I feel as if there are options out there to improve your experience for those that are more involved, however you don't owe anything to anyone so be you, make your own decisions and game on!

Rant: Student Responsibility 

I feel as if student responsibility is something that can be undervalued even by the world's nicest professors and it can get extremely frustrating.  I feel as if we as university students regardless of age should be considered to be responsible for our own mistakes, assignments and tests with no more than a gentle reminder from the prof that is involved in the class, however that is not always the case.  Sometimes when I look at some university level classes it makes me feel as if I am back in elementary, bare in mind that this is not directed at a specific prof, class or program.

I imagine that you as the reader now expect me to go into a big long rant about the change into adulthood from adolescence but I feel as if we have all heard that speech so many times that it is completely unnecessary, so I can just dive right into what I consider to be the core problem behind the responsibility, or lack there of with some university level students.  The issue that I'm referring to is immaturity, you all know what I'm talking about, that one person in your group that comes up with a million different reasons as to why they can't do their portion of the project, or even the person that agreed to help you study for a test and bails on you last minute because they find something "more important" to do.  In all honesty this is the type of person that frustrates me to no end because they inevitably end up coming back to you asking a million questions about everything retaining to what it is that they agreed to, or were required to help you with in order to make themselves end up looking good.

To be quite blunt with you dear reader, this is also the kind of person that I feel should not even be in university in the first place.  If they are willing to spend their own thousands of dollars on tuition and books that is completely and utterly fine with me, but if you aren't capable or unwilling the required time to assist classmates in a group effort to get something done and end up sinking the whole ship as a result of your carelessness, please, I beg of you, do the university student body a large favor, take some stress off of our already stress filled lives and leave.

The Strangest Question I Have Ever Received

It was a beautiful spring day about 4 years ago, I had just gotten out of class for the day and I was meeting a friend so that we could head to his locker, grab his skateboard and head home until something absolutely ridiculous happened.

It is only fair however dear reader that before I reveal to you the insane event that took place I give you some background on what it was that had gone on earlier that day. I was never a fan of high school classes, anything from Math, to English, heck even CALM class was an exercise for me considering I almost failed it, (all you really had to do was show up and try.) Barring that in mind I did manage to have my one saving grace that day, Phys Ed! The teachers in this class were some of the best that I have ever had because they treated everyone as equals and would not take any crap from anyone, I enjoyed working with one of these teachers so much that we are still friends to this day! We had just finished another great rendition of one of my favourite units throughout the entire class, being Canadian as they come I don't think it would surprise many what it is that my answer is going to be, yeah you guessed it, it was hockey!

Needless to say, this was a perfect end to a really awesome day seeing as I had just received a pretty decent mark on an exam that I had gotten back as well, so I gathered all of my stuff and got ready to give my buddy a ride home on his skateboard (this detail will make the utmost sense shortly) Fast forward to where we left off, we had just grabbed my buddy's skateboard from his locker and were getting ready to head out for the day, our conversation on the way out went how it usually does, we talked about video games.  You are now probably asking yourself, "well what video games did they play?" As I know if I were reading this that would be one of my first thoughts, we were discussing this relativly new game, (now the most popular game worldwide) League of Legends as we had both just installed it and were trying to learn the ropes and loving every minute of it.

Then as we were about halfway to the door to exit the school and start the ride home that deeply confusing human being came up to me and said, "Hey nice new shoes!" I looked at him, looked down at my shoes and asked him to repeat himself, so he said it again, I paused and replied "These shoes aren't new I've had them for about five years." He looked at me confused took a deep breath and asked the question that to this day I still don't understand, he said to me "wow! how do you manage to keep them so white?!"

Now I completely understand that to the average person, this question would be natural but see, the thing is, I'm in a wheelchair, while I realize this post reveals my identity I couldn't help but share this story as I was hoping that you, dear reader could be kind enough to shed some light on what it is that this guy was thinking when he posed this question so that next time it is asked to me I will have a response that isn't gut wrenching laughter!

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