I feel like it’s important to talk a lil’ bit more about what happened to the 2012 Allan Cup playoffs before I go delving back into Army-Specific details. The Gens’ had a lot on their plate, obviously. But SR AAA around other parts of Canada had an opportunity to make a step

Ahead & grow its brand & looking back now...I think a lot of people who were involved at some level will agree when I say there were some systematic failures and a missed opportunity. One of the things that I believe undermined the product was “Document Management”.

I don’t wanna drag this out...so...basically...the online systems used to register players, rosters, coaches, teams, games, suspensions, fines, transfers et al...is a lazy & confusing network which waaaayyyy too many times caused MASSIVE CONTROVERSY & BIG MONEY WASTED in SR AAA.

One of many glaring examples happened just weeks after the 2012 HL Thunder has KO’ed The Gens & advanced to the SR AAA Finals vs Stony Plain Eagles. Horse Lake went into Stony & won G-1 of a Best-7. The next morning, news broke Hockey Alberta was overturning the win & giving it

To Stony Plain because HL had dressed “Too Many Imports”. Can you imagine an SCF game getting overturned?! A Mem’ Cup game?! No. Not in modern days, not with real-time information sharing technology. But BS like this happened, EVERY YEAR, at SR AAA level. It had happened twice

Just one year prior, where a team in HNO Branch actually lost an Allan Cup Berth & ACTUALLY...the 2012 Allan Cup HOST, Border Kings had played in the neighborhood of 9 games while unknowingly breaching the Import Player Rule, as well. Those games were swept under the rug but HL

Got fucked out of their win. It was shameful. Stony qualified for Allan Cup 2012 with 3 ACTUAL Wins inna 7 Game Series. And that was the last time we ever saw Horse Lake. But it wasn’t the last time official games had to be fed to a paper shredder. Far from it. It continued to

Happen again & again & again. And everytime it happened...was needless & inexcusable! All we ever needed was a Branch Official to cross-reference each roster with a auto-loaded online checklist of compliance criteria...OR...just do it manually at the timekeeping bench. That’s it!

That’s all that needs to happen. It takes under a minute before a game is officially STARTED. This way, when a the clock runs out on a game...everyone KNOWS...that result is OFFICIAL. It’s locked in. It will never be undone. But...Hockey Canada has failed to implement such a

Process and finally...at Allan Cup 2016... it but them in the ass on the National Stage. The IDC North Stars, under alleged approval from their own Branch Counsel, breached the Import Player Rule in an Allan Cup Tournament round robin game. And only 24 hrs after they’d done it

Did it get detected, so, as IDC was getting ready to come out & play an elimination game in the quarter-finals of the tournament & 2500 fans awaiting the biggest SR AAA game of the season...the biggest 25 minute fuck-show ever, was going on in the underbelly of the Steinbach Rink

And The DCOSH live tweeted the entire thing to my Twitter followers, which back then, was about 5000+ people all over Canada! Haha. I guess I always had this habit of walking/sneaking around in the back halls of the rinks when games were happening. See, that’s where shit goes

Down. And I think because all the officials & executives had gotten used to me just kinda “being there” over the years...they started talking to me & treating me almost like an Official. In fact, I had multiple executives & officials texting me in the minutes of that game delay

My indelible image of that mess was Lee Goren, a massive Manitoba Hockey name, who’d played for the Canucks & was IDC’s big show pony, standing inside a doorway whispering into his hockey glove while 12 Hockey Canada Executives were dancing like ants under a magnifying glass

And utterly failing to make sense of the situation. IDC had a potential champion in Steinbach that year & they’d dominated Stony Creek- 8-3 but when they attempted to dress the same roster the next nite, the import breach became an issue & Hockey Canada decided to take the win

Over Stony Creek away and subsequently re-do the seeding for the elimination round. Therefore, 2500 fans were told to come back at 2300HRS local time and a re-drawn quarterfinal game would be played. Shellbrook Elks went from a daunting date with IDC to an easier draw vs

Stony Creek & SEPT & IDC faced off at midnight of the longest day in Allan Cup history. There was a lot of finger pointing but the ROOT CAUSE? Hockey Canada and their archaic & bumbling system which had fucked over multiple games in multiple years prior was the real reason.

Were there teams involved in helping force the hand of Hockey Canada to enforce punishments after the non-compliant roster completed a game? Yes. And The Gens were definitely accused of being that team...but...that’s not exactly accurate. The non-compliant issue was pointed out

Multiple times before it was mistakenly endorsed by a Hockey Manitoba Official and while the dispute went unresolved behind the scenes...games were played that never should’ve been allowed to start, let alone finish. The Gens’ simply wanted to know WHY? And I was right there when

Hockey Canada basically told EVERYONE...”it’s too late now”...but the next wave of trouble was standing there in the dressing room door! IDC was 5 mins away from playing ANOTHER non-compliant game. The non-compliant game sheet had to be shamefully/discreetly removed from the

Timekeeping bench & the game postponed OR...the import rule be waived for the entire tournament field. And ...some teams might’ve been willing to do that but ultimately that’s non-protocol. Some people...a lot of people...insisted the Gens benefited from the ruling. I think

Before anyone connects those dots, they’d be remise of not simply leaving blame at the feet of the aforementioned ROOT CAUSE. And the saddest thing of all was it never did get fixed, similar controversy continued to happen & a big reason why The Lacombe Generals eventually

Pulled out of SR AAA competition. They demanded better governance and essentially they got blamed for not governing the entire damned thing themselves. End Thread