Isle aux Morts comes home for hockey in this week's Land & Sea
Land & Sea's final episode of the season is all about a good old hockey game in Isle aux Morts. The annual Winter Classic brings the community together for a weekend of fun, games and gathering.
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Winnipeg Free Press
2 days ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
New Bruins coach Marco Sturm has seen the passion of Boston fans – from both sides
BOSTON (AP) — Marco Sturm got his first taste of the passionate Bruins fans when he was traded to Boston for No. 1 overall draft pick — and soon-to-be NHL MVP — Joe Thornton. 'I mean, it wasn't my fault, right?' the former Bruins forward told chuckling reporters on Tuesday at a news conference to introduce him as the team's coach. 'I got here, and it was difficult. I'm not going to lie. You read the paper or social media or even you go on the street, people will let you know, right? 'But also it pushes you. And I saw it in the positive way,' Sturm said. 'I've got such good memories here. And I know the fans, as soon as they feel that there's something good happening here, they will support you. I know that. It kind of goes the other way, too. But I don't want to talk about that. I want to look forward.' A three-time Olympian and first-round draft pick who played five of his 14 NHL seasons for the Bruins, Sturm led Germany to a silver medal at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics and spent the next six years in the Los Angeles Kings organization, the last three as head coach of its AHL affiliate. The 46-year-old former left wing replaces Joe Sacco, who finished the season as the interim coach after Jim Montgomery was fired in November. Bruins general manager Don Sweeney said that as the team tries to rebuild after missing the playoffs for the first time since 2016 it was important to have a coach 'who understands our fan base and values the same things — of being incredibly hard out each and every night.' The Bruins marked the occasion with a news conference in their offices overlooking Causeway Street and the TD Garden. Former captain Patrice Bergeron, who assisted on Sturm's overtime game-winner in the 2010 Winter Classic at Fenway Park, was in the front row as a show of support. German chocolate cupcakes — a nod to the new coach's heritage — were served. Sturm said he never considered coaching while he played, but he started working with his own kids before getting the job as head coach and general manager of the German national team in 2015. 'And that's where I really realized, 'This is actually me,'' he said. 'And that's where I have passion. That's where I'm good at. And then to go after that.' He put his plans for family time on hold and spent six years living in Los Angeles, away from his wife and children. 'I was chasing my dream,' Sturm said, adding that the children, who are now 19 and 21, missed Boston since moving away. 'My kids grew up there. They always wanted to come back. And here I am. Now they get their wish.' Thursdays Keep up to date on sports with Mike McIntyre's weekly newsletter. Sturm said he wouldn't have taken just any opening, but the Bruins presented a team that has strong goaltending in Jeremy Swayman and a solid core led by defenseman Charlie McAvoy and forward David Pastrnak that could push for the playoffs if it stays healthy. Boston also stockpiled draft picks and young talent from the midseason trade deadline purge that shipped off several veterans — including Brad Marchand, the only remaining member of their 2011 Stanley Cup championship roster. After posting 100-plus points in six straight non-pandemic-shortened seasons — including a Presidents' Trophy in 2023, when they set NHL records of 65 wins and 135 points — the Bruins finished with 76 points this season; only three teams were worse. 'Every job — it doesn't matter if you're in Boston or not — will be a challenge. But it's a good challenge. I love challenges,' Sturm said. 'I know the expectations here. I know how it is. But as long as I'm putting my work and preparation in, I know I will be in good shape.' ___ AP NHL:
CBC
08-05-2025
- CBC
Madeleine Thien's new time-bending novel is haunted by her father's story
Madeleine Thien is one of Canada's most acclaimed storytellers. Her novel Do Not Say We Have Nothing received both the Giller Prize and the Governor General's Literary Award in 2016, telling the story of musicians during the Chinese Cultural Revolution and its aftermath. Now, she returns with her latest novel, The Book of Records, which continues her exploration of history, memory and the political forces that shape individual lives. "As Madeleine has said herself, she doesn't see history as separate from the present moment," said Mattea Roach in the introduction to their interview on Bookends. "With this story, she questions the very nature of time, asking, 'How do we engage with great thinkers of the past, and what can they teach us about how to live now?'" Set 100 years in the future, The Book of Records follows Lina, a young girl from China, and her ailing father as they seek refuge in a place called "the Sea," where time has collapsed. In this world, voyagers and philosophers from centuries past coexist with migrants from around the globe. Lina grows up with only three books, each chronicling the lives of famous voyagers throughout history. Over time, these figures come to life as her eccentric neighbours, eventually becoming her friends. Thien joined Roach on Bookends to discuss the personal connection she feels to the fantastical world she has created, and what it means to exist in a place that blurs past and present. Mattea Roach: What would it mean for a building to be made of time, as Lina's father explains to her, because it's a very metaphysical concept? Lina's father describes it to her as a piece of string that keeps folding over itself, like a constellation knot. And really, what it is, is a crossroads of history. In some ways, it's the way that we hold history inside ourselves. It's the way that many centuries, many ideas, many philosophers, many words inhabit the space of our bodies. In a way, everyone has a kind of "Sea" within themselves. As a novelist, one tries to imagine what that would be like in a concrete sense. Escaping into literature, reading, writing, storytelling is something that Lina and a number of the other characters we meet in The Book of Records do. I understand that when you were growing up, books were somewhat scarce in your household, but you did have Encyclopedia Britannica at home. Were you an encyclopedia reader as a kid? Is your novel drawn from your own childhood reading? It's drawn from the intense longing to have books, definitely. I was just thinking about that this morning, actually — what was in the house? The Encyclopedia Britannica, condensed books and issues of Reader's Digest. I read everything that was lying around. I think, you know, my parents felt that given limited resources, what books could they put around that could kind of represent [an] abundance of reading material. I went to the library every weekend, and I'd just sit there looking at whatever I could find. The specific three encyclopedias that Lina reads over and over, are about the journeys of three historical figures — the 20th century political philosopher Hannah Arendt, the 17th century philosopher Baruch Spinoza and the eighth century Chinese poet Du Fu. Why these three people in particular? In the book itself, the father says it's random. They're the three books he plucked off the shelf in a chaotic moment and threw into a bag and then they had to leave. For me, The Sea housed many different people at many different times. It took me nine years to write the book and people kind of moved in and moved out. But I wanted to be true to a question that had been disturbing me for a long time, which was, 'How had I come to believe the things I believed? What things were so deeply instilled in me that I didn't see them?' So on that level, I stayed with writers and philosophers and poets who had meant a lot to me for decades. Lina's father is a complex man [and] cares a lot for his daughter. You've described your own father as being a complicated man in his own way. Did you find yourself drawing on your relationship with your father at all? Maybe only in the sense that there was an exceptional person in which something was unfulfilled, and a loving person. My father had to grow up in the shadow of a father who was executed during the Second World War — who was forced to collaborate during wartime occupation, and then was killed when the occupation ended by the occupiers, because he just knew too much. The complexity and the tragedy of my father's childhood is probably woven into all my work in some way or another. Those difficult choices and the long shadow of them haunts the work. What was [your father's] life trajectory? He was born in what was British North Borneo, and then became part of Malaysia. He was the youngest child, and eventually he was sent to college in Melbourne, Australia, and there he met my mother, who was born in China and then brought to Hong Kong as a baby, also during the war. They also were refugees. My parents came to Canada in 1974, and I think it was extremely difficult. My mother was pregnant with me, they had two other children. [It's] a story we know — that uprootedness, that profound desire to make a new home, to make a better life for their kids. It's a story that we know well in Canada. I think my father was the most loving man who tried to find a footing in this continuous uprootedness. In the novel, there are these series of books and there's this epigraph that opens all the books. It's Seneca and it says, "I leave you my one greatest possession, which is the pattern of my life." And I do feel that my parents left me this pattern of their lives that I'm kind of in awe of. I feel as a writer, and just as a person, an obligation to this remembrance and love, and maybe to not being silent in the face of things when I feel something should be said. I want to ask about the dedication to The Book of Records because I know it was dedicated to your best friend, Y-Dang Troeung, who passed away in 2022. Can you tell me a bit about her? Y-Dang was an extraordinary person. She was a professor, she taught Canadian literature. She and her family were named as the last refugees when they came to Canada in the early 1980s and were welcomed by Pierre Trudeau as one of the last of the 60,000 refugees to arrive from Southeast Asia. She's definitely one of those people who gives me courage. She was just a light, I wish she was here.
CBC
22-03-2025
- CBC
Land & Sea: It doesn't get more tight-knit than this 'boot hockey' tournament in Isle aux Morts
This year marked the 10th annual Isle aux Morts Winter Classic. (Paul Pickett/CBC) The streets of Isle aux Morts, on Newfoundland's southwest coast, are quiet in winter. The town has lost a lot of life since the 1980s, when the fishery thrived and the population was about 1,200. Now, half that number call Isle aux Morts home. The fish plant closed in 1995. The school is down to 17 children, and there's only one fisherman working on the water. It's quiet, but there's still lots of energy in this tiny place — and every year, during a few days in February, there's also a deep expression of love, not just for St. Valentine, but for the community and a great Canadian game: hockey. This year marked the 10th annual Isle Aux Morts Winter Classic, spearheaded by Vic Lawrence, who founded the event. "Last year I think we had 12 men's teams and six women's teams. We play for 10 minutes, that's it, game over. We have a schedule made up," said Lawrence. February isn't the easiest time to travel, but the draw is irresistible for homesick, hockey-loving Isle aux Morters. Pond hockey has been played on Lorrie's Pond in Isle aux Morts for generations. This photo is from the 1960s. (Submitted) "People come back from everywhere: St. John's, Halifax, New Brunswick, Ontario. We have guys from Alberta," said Lawrence. Steve LeFrense grew up in Isle aux Morts and lives 15 minutes away in Port aux Basques. He says the event always brings excitement and raises spirits in the community. "I love everybody coming home and seeing lots of family and friends and people that you haven't seen in a while. Everybody's together for a full weekend. So we play hockey together, we eat together, then we're all at the bar together," said LeFrense. There, they relive old times and childhood memories from simpler days. "Everybody knows everybody and it's a really tight community," he says. "Growing up here ... I mean, we didn't have the technology things like kids have today. So our [time] was spent outside." A lot of winter fun in Isle aux Morts has always taken place on Lorrie's pond, where locals have gathered on the ice for generations to play pond hockey. "We'd stay there all day long on the weekends and as soon as we got out of school, we were back there again. We'd build the wooden nets and we'd go to our buddy's father's stage and cover it and we used them all winter. There were days it wasn't fit to be down there, but we were still there," said Lawrence. WATCH | Check out the full episode of Land & Sea: Lawrence recalls that some of the kids who'd play would have skates and some wouldn't. To make sure they could have as many people on the hockey teams as possible, they all agreed to play in their winter boots. Boot hockey, as they call it, is the game they play at the Isle aux Morts Winter Classic. "The first year there were 36 of us. And every year it's going bigger and bigger. Last year we had 150. This year, it looks like we're going to have more, probably 170," said Lawrence. The first several years the Classic was held right on Lorrie's pond. But in recent years the ice became unpredictable, so the event moved to a space that used to be the marine centre. When men like Vic Lawrence and Steve LeFrense were young boys, that space would have been filled with fishing boats all winter long. Now, there are none. And that's one of the reasons the Winter Classic means so much to the community: along with boosting spirits, it provides a financial injection into a dying town. All hands are deck for the annual winter classic. (Isle aux Morts/Facebook) All year long, in the lead-up to the weekend of pond hockey, Lawrence organizes online hockey pools. All the money raised goes back into the community. Over the past decade, the local Anglican church has scored a huge blessing: donations totalling some $30,000 to help with operating expenses. The community centre gets an annual cheque from the Winter Classic, and so does the Isle aux Morts Fifty Plus Club. Doreen Billard, club president, says the winter event has become an important gathering, both socially and economically. "The town comes alive. This weekend, wherever you go, she's full," Billard said. "We look forward to preparing for it because we know we're going to see people we haven't seen since last year." Freeman Walters moved away from Isle aux Morts in 1966 to find work in Nova Scotia. He hasn't missed one Winter Classic. In fact, he gets so excited to come home in February each year, there are nights he can't sleep. "There's nothing like seeing your family and all your friends and the people that you grew up with," Walters says. "Your heart and your brain is still in Newfoundland, regardless where you go." Download our free CBC News app to sign up for push alerts for CBC Newfoundland and Labrador. Sign up for our daily headlines newsletter here. Click here to visit our landing page.
