Sports fans in the Pacific Northwest have been desperate for a professional basketball team to return after the Sonics were ripped away to Oklahoma City a few years ago. While hockey isn’t as popular as basketball in Seattle or its surrounding areas, there are a lot of diehard hockey fans in the Seattle area.
There are a lot of risks related to the construction of a facility home to a professional sports team (or two). Financially, the city the facility is located in and its associated taxpayers are often footed with the bill, while the team’s owner can minimize or avoid losses and the local politicians who signed off on the contribution of public funds typically escape criticism. These facilities can have a significant impact on surrounding businesses, traffic flow, and the environment for good and bad.
How is Chris Hansen minimizing these risks with his proposed arena for the SoDo (south of downtown) Seattle arena?
With three goals in the first three games of the season, Vancouver Giants forward Cain Franson is already reaping the rewards of another summer of hard work. The third-year forward has gone from a frequent healthy scratch to a vital part of the Giants roster in less than two years.
What makes Franson relevant to the Canucks? Well, for one, he is undrafted. And secondly, he spent this past summer with the Canucks at their annual prospect development camp. He didn’t stand out, but he didn’t look out of place, either. For Franson to earn an NHL contract in the future he has to continue to add size and strength to his lanky 6-0, 170 pound frame (and he has had to work his butt off to get to 170 pounds).
Would he be someone the Canucks look at next summer?
It isn’t often that a forward playing Junior B hockey at the age of 17 develops into a top four NHL defenseman. Don’t tell that to Jason Garrison, though. Most hockey fans had little idea who he was before the 2011-12 season, unless they were a fan of the Florida Panthers or happened to stumble uponJames Mirtle’s 2011 column on the top defensive defensemen around the league.
Scoring 16 goals in 2011-12 changed all of that. Garrison was one of the most sought after UFAs this past summer. He rose from relative obscurity to sign a six-year deal worth $4.6 million per season in a little over two years. How, exactly, did he do it?
Read on past the jump to find out.
Jim McCrossin has been with the Philadelphia Flyers organization for over a decade, and a member of the organization for almost two. He’s the team’s Athletic Trainer and Strength and Conditioning Coach.
He is a Certified Athletic Trainer (ATC) and a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS), as well as a member of the National Athletic Trainers Association, the National Strength and Conditioning Association, and the American Academy of Sports Medicine. Simply put, he knows his stuff.
Over the last few days, I have taken some fitness and nutrition-related questions from my Twitter followers (I can be found on Twitter @anguscertified).
Read on to find out my thoughts on protein shakes, playing sports as a vegetarian, why grains are evil, some Gary Roberts-type workouts for the ‘Regular Joe,’ and more. Continue reading
