Exciting playoff

Comments

Peter Koziol

Spring in Edmonton during the 1980's was always a special time as the Edmonton Oilers held the attention of the city for two solid months of exciting playoff action as they played in seven Stanley Cup finals during the decade. Unfortunately this fever has been replaced to ten days of jam packed fun over the past decade and every year we are left with the feeling of what could have been if the Oilers could have solved the puzzle called the Dallas Stars.

In any regard, the Skyreach Centre has replaced the old Chicago Stadium as the loudest arena in the NHL and with a few improvements, can stand with any of the new stadiums that I visited this past season. On a recent Oiler road trip to Los Angeles with Bernie Robitaille and the Korchinski family Al, Ken, Jim, and Jerry; (where they picked up the latest addition to the Blue Sky Limo Fleet), we were thoroughly impressed with the Staples Centre and the Arrowhead Pond in a number of areas. Skyreach Centre would do well to look at installing the half sized nets behind the glass that do not obstruct the view of the patrons in the upper deck, a sports bar that fans could visit prior to and after the event, and a deli that serves fresh carved sandwiches. A new feature that Dallas and Minnesota have added is a live band and dance floor for weekend games in their club level sections. As it stands now most Oiler fans arrive minutes before the game and leave as soon as the final whistle because there is little reason to stay at the Skyreach Centre.

With the approaching football season the bar owners in Edmonton are delighted to see that the Edmonton Eskimos have scheduled seven of their nine home games on either Friday or Saturday nights. This allows clubs like Overtime, Ceili's, Jimmy Ray's, Maxwell Taylor's, Red's, The Standard, The Sidetrack, Jox Sports Bar, Century Grill, Mo's Sports Bar and Sherlock Holmes to offer pre and post game specials and transportation to the weekend games. It is really too bad that we do not have an NFL sized parking lot at Commonwealth Stadium as the tailgating tradition in NFL cities is a production that has to be experienced with thousands of people mingling and BBQ'ing hours before each game. If you plan to attend an NFL game this season, the best cities that I have found for tailgating are Buffalo, Chicago, Kansas City, Oakland and San Diego.

The April 23 edition of the National Post finally recognizes the fact that Edmonton is very much the equal of Calgary in economic growth and it now places the Edmonton - Calgary corridor as one of the fastest growing regions in the World. The best news is that Downtown Edmonton has grown by 17,000 residents in the past few years. With the continued commitment to downtown residential condominium and apartment construction by people like Greg Christenson of Christenson Developments, Dan White of Worthington Properties, and Reza Mostashari of Langham Properties we should see the further revitalization of Downtown Edmonton for the foreseeable future.

Congratulations to Jay Ball, who was appointed as the President of Edmonton Junior Achievement on April 16. Having known Jay from his tireless volunteer work with numerous local organizations, I am sure that he and his excellent staff at Junior Achievement will make this organization flourish when it comes to developing future Edmonton entrepreneurs.

Also we would like to congratulate the Chairman of Board of the Thursday Night Social Club, Doug Derkatch on turning 40 this month (Fantastic birthday party at Overtime by the way) and on the merging of his company Mobilcom Wireless with Jim Morin's AMC Technologies. The new company will be focusing on wireless services including providing high-speed wireless connections to the Internet.

Nigglies of the Month 

Why is it that when some drivers have a coveted parking spot and can see that another driver is waiting for him or her to exit, that they take two to three extra minutes to adjust their seat belt, comb their hair, look in the mirror, etc. just to hold onto the space as if they own it and they hate to give it up any sooner than necessary?

Why do people on crammed airplanes insist upon immediately pushing their seats back as soon as they are allowed to? Is the extra three inches of space worth the inconvenience of shoving the tray of the person behind them for hours on end?