It never ceases to amaze how some conservatives will use any event, no matter how low they have to go nor what bottom of the barrel they have to scrape, to spread lies and unfounded conspiracies about COVID.

So it really came as no surprise when anti-vaxxers sprung into action a couple of weeks ago after a player in the NFL – Damar Hamlin of the Buffalo Bills - was administered CPR on the field. Hamlin was taken off the field in an ambulance and the NFL cancelled the game.

In a matter of minutes, conservative anti-vax snake oil salesmen were spreading unfounded lies that Hamlin’s on-field heart attack happened as result of Hamlin reacting to a COVID vaccine, instead of the most-likely real cause which was commotio cordis, a cardiac condition brought about by blunt impact to the chest area directly over the heart that causes it to stop beating.

There is so much that is wrong and evil and despicable when lies are used to spread propaganda that it’s hard to know where to begin with the conservative campaign of lies after Hamlin’s horrific collision.

When Paul Dyck received a phone call from a former teammate he simply relished the opportunity to catch up with an old friend. Instead, after chatting for 15 minutes the current head coach and general manager of the Steinbach Pistons received the news he was going to be inducted into the Moose Jaw Warriors hall of fame.

“It was a real pleasant surprise,” Dyck said, laughing.

Dyck’s playing career included nearly 150 games for the Saskatchewan-based Western Hockey League franchise across two seasons, where he racked up 68 points before being drafted by the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1991, becoming the first Steinbach player ever to be drafted to the NHL.

From there, the defenseman embarked on a 15-year professional career across the International Hockey League (IHL) and German top division.

The Niverville Force are having quite the year so far in the Mantioba Major Soccer League’s (MMSL) indoor second division.

The Force are undefeated on the season through eight games, only giving up seven goals, in the high-paced indoor game. The half-field game includes nine players per-side, no offsides and halves of 30 minutes.

For head coach Andry Giesbrecht, who also coaches the outdoor team, the results on the field are just a bonus.

“It’s been going really good for us,” Giesbrecht said after his team defeated Kucame B FC’s squad 4-1 Jan. 7.

Sports Flashback December 17, 1948

As soon as the ice was in, nearly 200 enthusiastic curlers took up their brooms to launch the roaring game in their own brand new rink in Steinbach.

Forty high school students, 44 women and 100 men began regularly scheduled games at the Steinbach Curling Club last night, just nine months after a small group got together to organize the club in March.

At the March 20 meeting, the Steinbach Curling Club elected a slate of officers to be headed by Bob Scarrow, the driving force behind the curling rink project. Dr M.R. Whetter was named first vice president, Ron Kreutzer, second vice president and J.P. Schmidt, treasurer. Other members of the executive of that first Steinbach Curling Club executive were Ed J. Friesen, Frank Sawatzky, Jac Fast and Jac Peters.

The Ukrainian national U25 hockey team will be coming to Manitoba to play an exhibition game against the University of Mantioba Bisons. The game is part of the Hockey Can’t Stop Tour, with the Ukrainian team playing universities across western Canada.

The tour includes games against the Universities of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Calgary and Manitoba, with Manitoba’s game against Ukraine set for Jan. 9 (7 p.m.) at the Canada Life Centre (formerly the MTS Centre) in downtown Winnipeg. The Manitoba stop is the final game of the tour.

Proceeds from ticket sales will be going to the Canada/Ukraine foundation, which supports humanitarian groups in both countries. The foundation plans to distribute most of the raised money to the Save Ukrainian Hockey Dream fund, which is dedicated to help rebuild hockey infrastructure in the war-torn country.

The charity is operated by the Ice Hockey Federation of Ukraine and the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF).