Leon Turnbull Photography

Since I grew up in Canada, I am a huge hockey fan. My team is the Vancouver Canucks and I have been a die-hard Canucklehead since I was a wee one (and it has mostly been die-hard with them over all those years). The team I can’t stand the most (for various reasons I won’t delve into) is the Detroit Red Wings, and of course, they just won the Cup over Pittsburgh.

The only good thing about this is that Dallas Drake plays for the Red Wings. Dallas is from my hometown of Rossland, British Columbia, and I actually played minor hockey with him in Rossland many many moons ago. Dallas is the first Rosslander to ever win the Stanley Cup (and actually, the first Rosslander ever to even play in the NHL), so it is pretty cool that he won it. These days, Dallas is a hard-working, hard-hitting, checker on the Wings and doesn’t score much (and he does his job very well). But back in the old days, Dallas was one of the play-making stars of our team, and could turn any opposing goalie inside out and upside down. We actually had quite a few great players on our team, and others that perhaps could have made it in the NHL as well (excluding myself). But Dallas was the only one who was determined enough to make it. So congratulations Dallas! This was well-earned, and all of Rossland is excited for you.