Sell The Fronts, Springer

My memories of the Kingston Memorial Centre harken back to the fries at the canteen. I remember when the Lions’ Den was packed to capacity with a bunch of guys from North Of Princess who looked like they’d never seen a can of OV before in their entire lives, all so pissed to the gills that they could barely manage to stagger to their standing room seats in the time for the third period, only to find out they had lost the 50/50 draw for the 26th time that season. I remember torn-up losing 50/50 tickets raining down on me like I was a Red Sox player in a ticker-tape parade, I remember pre-game parking jams on Alfred St. that rival Los Angeles freeways, the smell of smoke, sweat, cooking oil and the night I just missed beaning Belleville’s Darren McCarty with a Gatorade bottle.

I wasn’t there for Mark Napier’s Goal That Wasn’t in ’75, but I was there the night someone launched an almost-full Coke from the vicinity of the Arnold’s Auto Wrecking sign (Kingston’s version of the grassy knoll) in the direction of the Oshawa Generals bench, mostly likely intended for Eric Lindros. No one’s sure who did it, but it was enough for Oshawa coach Rick Cornacchia to pull his team off the ice and for the Kingston police to line the rink for the last 1:22 of the game. That game remains, to this day, Kingston’s version of Woodstock — everyone either was there, knows someone who was there or was supposed to be there, which is bloody impossible in a rink that only holds 3,300 people in a town of 150,000. 

All of that was almost 20 years ago, yet Larry Mavety is still kicking around. Doug Springer has owned the team for 10 years, and it has never won a playoff series, the only OHL team who hasn’t done so in that time.

If all goes well, Mavety will be sent off into retirement, and Springer will sell the team, which has NEVER WON A PLAYOFF SERIES SINCE HE BOUGHT IT IN 1998. 

This is not meant as a personal attack on Larry Mavety. Everyone has a soft spot for old hockey guys like Mavs, who’s probably been in every rink in Ontario. It’s not an attack on Doug Springer, who obviously knows something about business, but just knows sweet F-all about hockey.

It’s a satirical comment on the sad state of the Kingston Frontenacs and a plaintive hope that one day, it will get better. It will require a new GM and probably a new owner.

If this strikes a chord with you or you just want to bitch about the plight of the Fronts, send an e-mail to firemavety@yahoo.ca.