Former Hero-Cap Kevin Kaminski, now the Head Coach of the Youngstown Steel Hounds of the Central Hockey League, is out on the road this week with his team. They’ll play in Colorado Friday night then swing through Texas for two dates before returning to Ohio in the middle of next week. They’ll have some home dates the following weekend, including $1 Beer Night on Friday, February 29 — when I’m preoccupied at Clyde’s with my bloggermates, colleague bloggers, and some big-hearted blog readers; otherwise, I’d be sipping value suds out in the Heartland with some old time hockey.
I’m not sure where in America Killer was holed up Wednesday night, but via email he was peppering me for updates on the Caps-Isles game. I happily obliged. He was excited, too, to learn of his old teammates Peter Bondra, Joe Reekie, and Chris Simon gathered in Verizon Center’s press box. He even had me pass along to Bonzai a hello in the form of “tell him I’ll still protect his [posterior].”
Kaminski’s Hounds are 28-17-4 this season, good for second place in the CHL’s Northeast division. Last season, Killer guided Youngstown to a 36-24-10 record and a postseason berth.
As with many other professional hockey teams at this time of year, Youngstown and its coach are focused on a slate of tough games with the postseason drawing near. But Killer is not so focused and removed from Washington to not respond to a plea for some help for a terrific cause back in the town where he made so many friends and earned so widespread and enduring a following. A week or so ago I dropped him a line to explain what a half dozen hockey blogs here were trying to do to help out the Wilson High hockey team. Late last night he asked me if it’d be too late for him to ship us some items for our auction at Clyde’s next Wednesday, the first day the Hounds are back from the road.
We may not receive his donation in time for that Friday night, but I’m pretty sure that doesn’t much matter. Be fun I think to hold a bit of an auction on line, for our friends who are out of town and can’t be in D.C. on the 29th but who have, in no small volume, contacted us and expressed their interest in helping.
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