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VIEWPOINT: SCOTT OAKEQ
& A
Each week, Sports Online will turn the tables on Scott Oake,
who's used to peppering others with questions.
Though the proposal to have 14-year-olds available for
the OHL draft was turned down by the league on Wednesday, the issue
of drafting underage players will likely continue to float around
as long as there are teenage phenoms out there playing the game. What
do you think of 14-year-olds being allowed to play major junior hockey?
If you had a 14-year-old son, how would you feel if he got drafted?
I would not have wanted my son to leave home at the age of 14. However,
I may eventually regret saying that as, right now, it looks like he
could be in the basement until he's 37.
I do not like the notion of drafting 14-year-olds into major junior
hockey. Yes, there are some who are physically able to play at that
age but that doesn't mean they're mature enough. Players like Sidney
Crosby are an extraordinarily rare find and kids leaving home at age
14 in the misguided hope of becoming the next Sidney Crosby or Wayne
Gretzky are wrong. I'm a big believer in the security blanket provided
by family at least until the age of 17.
Performance-enhancing drugs have obviously been in the news lately
because of baseball, but now some hockey players are saying that their
sport is not immune to drug use. Steroids may not be prevalent, but
Sudafed and ephedrine are. Do you think hockey should look at employing
a tighter drug testing policy if and when the season starts up again?
There is no compelling evidence steroids or other performance-enhancing
substances are a major problem in hockey. In fact, it's quite the
opposite as shown by repeated tests on the game's best players in
international tournaments.
I think one of the few ever to test positive was [Winnipeg] Jets'
defenceman Randy Carlyle in the 1988 world championships. Randy was
never known for his enormous musculature. They took one look at his
body and declared the test to be a grievous error. In the end, it
was a big mistake and the analysis of the B sample proved it.
Nonetheless, although not rampant, we'd be naive to think some players
haven't used illegal substances to help attain or sustain a lucrative
career in hockey. So, yes, there should be official testing with stiff
penalties. This is a no-brainer.
What do you think of figure skating's new scoring system? Is there
a fair balance between skills and the perfection/execution of skills? Do you feel Canada's Jeffrey Buttle benefited from the new system?
I think you can look at figure skating in the same way boxing was being viewed after the 1988 Olympics. Some decisions in Seoul were outrageously corrupt … none more so than Roy Jones Jr.'s loss in his gold medal final. Boxing absolutely had to come up with a new judging system in an attempt to restore credibility. Figure skating had to do the same after the Sale-Pelletier fiasco in Salt Lake City.
Although figure skating is always going to be subjective, the new system, although complicated, is designed to be less so. My understanding is there is a specific value assigned to every part of the program. If it makes judging more objective then that's a step in the right direction.
As for whether the new system helped deliver Jeffrey Buttle the silver. Obviously it did. As he said, he didn't need the quad as long as he made sure what he did have looked good.
But, judging wasn't that only thing that helped Buttle. There were
a lot of monumental collapses. [CBC figure skating analyst] Paul Martini
called it the worst night of figure skating he'd ever seen. So wouldn't
you conclude that, regardless of the judging system, medals on that
night were going to be handed out for sub-par performances?
Lightning-round questions:
Roberto Alomar – Hall of Famer? Yes or No
Yes
Will the Toronto Raptors make the playoffs?
No
Name five players you'd like to see named to Team Canada's world championship roster.
Jarome Iginla, Vincent Lecavalier, Brad Richards, Joe Sakic, Martin Brodeur
Are you in an NCAA basketball pool? If so, how would you describe the status of your Final Four bracket?
I'm not in an NCAA pool. I'm far too occupied looking stupid in my golf pool. Apparently all my picks have withdrawn from the PGA Tour.
Place to party - George Street in St. John's or the Exchange District in Winnipeg?
George Street in St. John's. It wasn't huge when I lived there but it is now.
Americans love goals. Without tons and tons of goals, they find
hockey more boring than basketball. The difference between the
the Players' Association and the NHL offers was about $10 million
per team!
With two less players on the team, the salary cap gap will become much smaller and theoretically more people will watch the new high scoring game! On the bright side as well, the Senators will probably win the Stanley cup (unless the Rangers beat us to it).
So forget about bigger nets, forget about getting two men to stop playing
games, welcome to the highest scoring era in hockey history. Beware, because Team Canada will probably get creamed in the new game, but what the hey.
George Jost
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Scott began his career by volunteering at the university radio station during three years of pre-med. studies at Memorial University in St. John's, Nfld. After two summers working at CBC-St. John's in radio and television, he was hired full-time in 1974. Since then, Oake has covered the Olympic Winter and Summer Games and the Commonwealth Games as a commentator for wrestling, hockey, alpine skiing, swimming, rowing, diving, boxing and athletics.
FULL
BIO
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