HOT CORNER: Big weekend of curling on P.E.I.

A small but select field of men’s and women’s curlers should make for a very good provincial championship weekend of curling in Cornwall. Only five men’s and five women’s teams are competing in a modified triple-knockout event that appears to be evenly matched.
Defending-champions Eddie MacKenzie and Robyn MacPhee are back, and are considered the favourites. The men’s winners are off to the Tim Horton’s Brier in March in Regina, Sask., while the women’s winner is off to the Scotties Tournament of Hearts beginning Jan. 27 in Penticton, B.C.
Curling fans will also be watching the fortunes of Brett Gallant, who is teamed up with Jocelyn Peterman at this week’s mixed doubles competition in Portage le Prairie, Man. The winner of this event represents Canada at next month’s Winter Olympics in South Korea. The Gallant/Peterman team won this event last year, and they’ve won their first seven games this week.
Winning this year would be extra special for Gallant as he would be joining his father, Peter, at the Olympics. Peter coaches the host South Korean women’s team.  
CBC will televise the mixed championship this weekend.

Charlottetown Islanders
The Charlottetown Islanders are the surprise team in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League this season. Thursday’s 2-1 win over Rimouski leaves the Islanders with a record of 23-12-2 (won-lost-overtime losses), seventh overall in league standings and second only to Halifax in the Maritime Division.
No one expected the Islanders to be this good, especially when it was supposed to be a rebuilding year. General manager and head coach Jim Hulton has done a great job since taking on the GM duties from Grant Sonier.
Sonier assembled a lot of the talent on last year’s team that finished in the Final 4, and some players are still remaining from the Summerside native’s days as GM.
Hulton deserves full marks for this year’s success, and Sonier deserves credit as well as he hired Hulton. It was too bad for Sonier that his hire ended up with his job, but that sometimes happens in sports.
The success the Islanders are having this year can at least be attributed in part to Sonier.

Outdoor hockey
The fad of outdoor hockey is wearing off, and it may be time to scale it back a bit. Last week’s world junior game between Canada and United States would have been much better indoors. There are too many variables that can affect any outdoor game, not the least of which is snow, rain and cold.
One looks forward to this annual game between these two nations, and instead of seeing a great game, we saw continuous stoppages for moving snow that stemmed the flow of what should have been a great game.  
The greater risk of injury to players on poor ice, combined with unpredictable weather, are enough to say farewell to outdoor games. I think a lot would agree that it should at least be the case in the world junior championship.  

Detroit Lions
The Detroit Lions have never won a Super Bowl. In fact, I was not born the last time the Lions won the NFL championship in 1957, when they beat Cleveland 59-14. They have been one of the worst – if not the worst – NFL team since. The Lions have recorded only one playoff win – 38-6 over Dallas 26 years ago – in the last 60 years.
They have had 17 coaches since 1957 championship, and are now looking for their 18th since dismissing Jim Caldwell earlier this week.
 I never was a big football fan, and maybe the Detroit Lions are the reason why!
Have a great week!

Joe MacIntyre is a Summerside resident. His column appears every Saturday. Comments and suggestions can be sent to [email protected].