The Canadian Oxford Dictionary defines irony as follows: the expression of meaning using language that normally expresses the opposite.
Ethan Hawke’s character in Reality Bites (see 1994 in the dated reference section) said, “It’s when the actual meaning is the complete opposite from the literal meaning.”
Those two takes on the word are fine with me (don’t worry, I won’t go into Alanis Morissette’s Ironic lyrics), but some Rocky View residents witnessed irony first hand at the Spray Lake Sawmills Family Sports Centre in Cochrane on Aug. 27.
Wild Rose MP Blake Richards was hosting his third annual Hockey Challenge, featuring federal, provincial and municipal politicians, as well as several current and former NHL players, in a charity game. (See story on page 22).
Normally, charity games are played solely for fun and to raise money for a worthy cause – in this case victims services groups from across the Wild Rose constituency.
Victims who use these services are usually those that have been exposed to family violence, sexual assault and domestic assault – just to name a few.
Pretty serious stuff.
And I’m not trying to take anything away from these services, which are too often needed in our communities, so take this next section with a grain of salt (and sarcasm).
Richards was a victim of assault at his game.
The second-term Conservative MP suffered a broken nose during the second period of the Hockey Challenge. Richards was chasing down a puck into the offensive zone, with the chance of a breakaway.
But Airdrie-Chestermere MLA Rob Anderson had other plans. He came way out of his net to challenge the play, made a poke check and won the battle. The puck came up off Anderson’s stick and nailed Richards right between the eyes.
To Richards’ credit, he stayed on the ice, perhaps not knowing the severity of the injury, and tried to finish the shift. Maybe he was just trying to earn some street cred from some of the NHL alumni, like Dennis Polonich or Morris Lukowich, or current Winnipeg Jets enforcer Jason Jaffray.
Either way, it showed his determination.
I had a pretty good view of the play, as I was standing in the corner about 37 feet away (using Harry Neale’s old tape measure, for those who understand that reference), and it looked innocent enough.
Richards skated by with a surprised look on his face, but it didn’t look like a serious injury at that moment. About 15 minutes later, during the second intermission, word started spreading that Richards was on his way to a Cochrane clinic.
Asked about the incident after the game, Anderson quickly denied any notion of intent to injure and was actually surprised to find out that Richards’ injury came on the poke-check play.
It’s unsure if he was playing coy or not.
In all seriousness, Richards (who had is nose set the day after and is expecting a full recovery within a week or two) and his staff deserve a huge amount of credit for organizing such a great event.
Victims services groups will receive a total of $83,000 from the fundraiser.
That is a phenomenal amount of money going to a very worthwhile cause.
Fans who went to the game should be proud of themselves, as should former NHLer and victims services’ advocate Sheldon Kennedy, the rest of the NHL alumni, and current Calgary Flames players Mikael Backlund and T.J. Brodie, for their participation.
As for Richards, it’s still unsure if he needed some help from victims services, which, of course, would be ironic.
