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Garth McLennan
sports editor

 

Kyle Wellwood has always been a streaky
player. After being claimed off waivers

from Toronto last year, he failed to impress
during training camp and soon found himself
demoted to the AHL’s Manitoba Moose. He
was ready to depart for Europe when the
Canucks called him back up after an early

doubted his ability to follow through on that.
Then, early this season, the roof caved in.
So far, through 17 mostly ineffectual games
where he’s been basically invisible, Wellwood
set a new low in terms of streakiness. He
has just one point, and no goals, this entire
season. Head coach Alain Vigneault has tried
everything to get the mercurial center, who
entered the year with so much promise, going.
He’s called him out in the media, reduced
his ice time, increased his ice time, switched

“In an era where every dollar counts, Vancouver GM Mike Gillis can’t
afford to pay someone who is meant to be a scorer and not only can’t
put the puck in the net, but isn’t having any sort of real impact either.”

season injury and in the ensuing 21 games he
posted 10 goals and three assists.

Before long, there was talk that the
new Canuck super-scorer had been found;

a waiver-wire pickup who had suddenly
discovered 40 goal potential. Turns out, that
didn’t exactly pan out the way most people
were thinking. Over the next 53 regular season
games that year, Wellwood scored just eight
times, and produced a measly six assists. After
his initial goal surge, his numbers plunged,
and the drought was on.

One point in his next nine games,
followed shortly afterward by a 21-game
goalless streak. His ice time was reduced
dramatically and he soon found himself as a
third line checking center who most fans were
eager to see go at the trade deadline.

Then, he magically found his game again
in the playoffs, where he put up six points in
10 games in a strong end to the season. After
finishing the year with a career best 18 goals,
he was awarded $1.2 million on a one year
contract in salary arbitration over the summer
and showed up to start the year in the best
shape of his life. Expectations were high;
Wellwood spoke eagerly of his goals for a
20-25 goal campaign and there were few who

up his line mates multiple times and most
recently, stuck him on the second line and
placed him on the team’s first power play unit.
Despite all of this, nothing has worked.

For a guy who in the playoffs last year
talked encouragingly about how everyone
needed to take pay cuts to keep the team
together, and then went out and did the exact
opposite by demanding a raise and taking the
team to arbitration, this just isn’t acceptable.
In an era where every dollar counts,
Vancouver GM Mike Gillis can’t afford to pay
someone who is meant to be a scorer and not
only can’t put the puck in the net, but isn’t
having any sort of real impact either.

Now, there’s no denying that Wellwood
has the ability to light it up at virtually any
time. While he can be described as a “soft”
player, he can be a wizard with the puck and
has a versatile and accurate shot with a knack
for getting it through traffic to the goal.

It isn’t time to give up on Wellwood just
yet (and realistically speaking, how much
market value can a guy who has just five goals
in his last 65 games, including playoffs and
dating back to last season, really have?), but
he can’t get this much slack anymore.

 

 

 

20

By Garth McLennan, Sports Editor

favourite of gym teachers
across North America, and
n area where they can get a

little too involved with their pupils,
Dodgeball is almost universally
known as a game where nerds get
cracked in the face and the basis for
one of the best Vince Vaughn movies
of all time. While both assessments
have a good measure of truth to
them, the question has to be asked: is
Dodgeball a sport?

There’s no question that it is
a highly competitive game and a
great source of exercise. As Patches
O’Hoolahan said so eloquently in
the movie, you do have to “Dodge,
dip, duck, dive and dodge.” There
is without a doubt a big athletic
component to Dodgeball. You’re
constantly on the move around a
relatively confined area and have
to take out opponents with good
accuracy while at the same time keep
a sharp eye out for incoming balls and
move to avoid them.

Then there’s the competition
factor. If Dodgeball is a sport, it’s a
fringe one at best. The movie pokes
fun at by putting it on “ESPN 8,

The OCHO”, and that’s pretty close
to reality. Realistically speaking,
Dodgeball has very little going for it.
There aren’t any television or Pay-
Per-View deals or events to speak
of, it doesn’t have anything close

to Olympic status and it’s looked at

    

by 99 per cent of the population as
little more than a fun and sometimes
dangerous game that middle school
kids play.

While that is all true, on the
flip side, there is no shortage of little
known sports out there with next to
nothing in terms of publicity and
widespread appeal. Take competitive
shooting or rock climbing for
example, but both of them are
generally still accepted by most as
real sports.

THE VERDICT:

So where does Dodgeball fall? In
the end, I would consider it a sport.
It’s fast paced and physical, there’s a
team element, I suppose that there is
some measure of tactics or strategy,
it requires quick thinking and rapid
decision making. Also, while it may
not garner the same level of media
attention as say, the NFL, there are a
number of recreational leagues and
associations operating all over the
place, much like there are beer league
hockey teams and summer softball
seasons, even if the regular crowd
out to watch a Sunday Dodgeball
game does come to the bingo hall or
high school gym with a chemically-
induced vacant expression and a
brown paper bag.

So Dodgeball is odd, it’s a little
weird and I’d be very interested to
see what the social life of the average
player looks like, but Dodgeball is a

sport.

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