Christopher Foulds, editor, Kamloops This Week, is dissing the Osoyoos Coyotes and Osoyoos in this week’s Osoyoos Times. Times Editor Keith Lacey ran a counter-column in Kamloops This Week saying the Coyotes will thump the Storm and Osoyoos is a nicer place than Kamloops to live anyway. (Photo supplied)
How do I know the Kamloops Storm will prevail in their playoff series against the Osoyoos Coyotes?
Well, we are the Tournament Capital, a scintillating slogan that sums up peerless sporting excellence.
Osoyoos? It’s best known as the place where motels go to die in the winter.
Osoyoos is a cute place to visit in the summer, when the intense heat warms up its eponymous lake, allowing visitors to bathe in the bathwater before showering and returning home.
But, remember, Osoyoos has had three different junior B teams in recent times (the Heat, the Storm and the current Coyotes), so longevity and consistency is not the town’s calling card.
Kamloops? We’ve had but one junior B club in that same span — and it chose Kamloops after leaving Osoyoos, so there’s that.
Yes, the Coyotes did surprise many by taking Game 1 in Kamloops on Monday night by a 3-0 margin. We in the River City blame that on bad officiating, bad luck and the obvious decision by the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League powers-that-be to ensure the Storm do not roll too smoothly to a conference title.
Like a Hollywood producer, the league knows uncertainty — even if scripted — is good for business.
Off the ice, Kamloops is the odds-on favourite to not only win this series, but to capture the league title and advance to the provincial junior B championship tourney in Nelson next month, where it is all but assured the Storm will lift the Cyclone Taylor Cup before moving on to conquer Western Canada.
Why? Because Kamloops is bigger, bolder and still basking in the legions of championships captured by its legendary major junior hockey team and its various other sporting squads at various levels of play.
Osoyoos, on the other hand, has that warm lake. And motels.
On the ice, the disparity is even more pronounced.
The Storm finished the regular season first overall in the 20-team league with a mighty 85 points and only nine losses. Osoyoos was a middling eighth with a pedestrian 59 points — mere Canuck territory.
Kamloops had an astounding goal differential of +102, while the Coyotes scratched their way to a mark of +23. My cat could finish the season at +23 — and he can’t even skate very well.
The Storm have won two playoff series en route to this championship season.
The Storm have won two playoff series en route to this championship season. While the club swept 100 Mile House, it did allow Sicamous to win one game because, well, what else can the Shuswap hamlet cling to during the long winter months?
The Storm organization is nothing if not benevolent; hence the Game 1 gift to the Coyotes.
The series will end in five games with a Storm victory on Sunday, March 23, in the Sun Bowl Arena.
But, fear not, fans of the desert dogs — you can savour victory (pre-ordained, just as in the Storm-Coyotes series) when the pro ‘rasslin’ show comes to the Sonora Community Centre on March 30.
Editor’s note: Christopher Foulds is the veteran editor of Kamloops This Week. Osoyoos Times editor Keith Lacey wrote a column for that publication earlier this week explaining why the Coyotes are going to upset the Storm and advance to the KIJHL championship series. He also explained why Osoyoos is a much better place to live than Kamloops.
