February 22-23

Had lunch with Jenny and her mother on Saturday, in the evening we were back at the Arena for game #2 of the Royals' all-Canadian home weekend. The Brampton Beast was in town for the third of their four visits. The Royals entered on an eight-game winning streak which was ended on this night in rather emphatic fashion. The visitors from the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) scored three goals in the first period, in the middle stanza Corey Mackin got the Royals on the board. Brampton replied quickly to go up 4-1, an empty-netter in the final moments put the wrap on a 5-1 decision. Veteran goaltender Tom McCollum made his Royals debut and suffered the loss. Earlier in the week the Flyers reassigned Kirill Ustemenko to the AHL Phantoms, McCollum (an eleven-year pro with a ton of AHL experience) was acquired by the organization and assigned to the Royals. The club's mark sits at 31-15-5 overall and 21-6-2 at home, the next home date is on Wednesday the 26th when the Maine Mariners visit. On Sunday the long-standing APBA baseball league my friends founded in 1978 held its annual free agent draft, I was there to moderate the proceedings. There were nine players in the inaugural season, the membership now is up to fourteen. I played in the league the first six years, three of the original group have been active for the entire run. They always contact me when the draft comes around, if I'm able to be there I take care of the bookkeeping and it makes the entire day run a lot smoother for everyone else. The meeting started at 10:30, the draft itself began before 11:00 and was finished by 2:30. Take care, thanks for reading.