HELP! Kirk McLean's "Weird" skates???
Kevin Wiebe
I have noticed that all of Kirk's pairs of skates have the
word "WEIRD" written on the bottom of the left skate. I noticed
this last year and this year. It is printed with thick black
pen, sometimes capitals, sometimes not. I am not aware if
anything is written on the bottom of his right skates. Do you?
I assume this is because the slang word for "left" is "weird".
I did not know how common this slang word was. Do you think
most people/hockey players use this word? Do you know of any
other players who write it on their skates? Is this common?
Is this used to help Kirk get the skate on the the proper foot,
to help him tell his left from right :), or to help the
trainers when sharpening the skates, etc.?
I believe the Canucks employ several mentally handicapped young
people who help out with the practices, warm-ups, equipment, etc.
Just a guess, but I think that the labels might assist in the
handling of equipment, both for those who are handicapped and those
who aren't. Imagine how ticked he'd be if someone sharpened
his left skate as if it were a right!
Any ideas here?
-Kevin-
--
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Keith Evans
Kevin Wiebe <ke...@cs.ualberta.ca> wrote:
>I have noticed that all of Kirk's pairs of skates have the
>word "WEIRD" written on the bottom of the left skate. I noticed
Very weird (no pun intended). I never noticed that.
>I did not know how common this slang word was. Do you think
>most people/hockey players use this word? Do you know of any
>other players who write it on their skates? Is this common?
>
I've been around ice rinks/hockey all my life and have never seen this
before. (Sorry if that sounds vain.)
>to help him tell his left from right :), or to help the
>trainers when sharpening the skates, etc.?
>
Most ice-skates (yes, I know how to sharpen skates) are sharpened the
exact same way for both skates. Goalie skates are a bit different, since
you don't put much of a groove in them. Some goalies like having
absolutely no edge on their inside edge, but this is most easily obtained
by running a de-burring stone along the edge.
>I believe the Canucks employ several mentally handicapped young
>people who help out with the practices, warm-ups, equipment, etc.
>Just a guess, but I think that the labels might assist in the
>handling of equipment, both for those who are handicapped and those
>who aren't. Imagine how ticked he'd be if someone sharpened
>his left skate as if it were a right!
>
>Any ideas here?
>
My guess would be there's a personal story behind it. The Canucks' staff
are professional enough to know what they're doing. It's proly a
superstition thing, like the 4-leaf clover on the back of his mask. But
I'm only speculating, and would gladly listen to anyone with 'insider'
info, so to speak.
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