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If you’ve watched any hockey on television this season, you will have noticed the avalanche of ads for betting sites. Most of the time it feels like two out of every three ads are for sites coaxing people to bet on hockey games and other sporting events.

Soccer stars are featured in the ads, track stars, hockey stars and even some curlers. During the NHL playoffs we’ve been inundated with gambling propaganda with ads that feature Toronto’s Auston Matthews, Edmonton’s Connor McDavid and the Great One, Wayne Gretzky.

Leaving aside the question of why Gretzky would tarnish his legacy by shilling for gambling outfits when there is lots of reliable research that suggests gambling is tax on the poor (who are desperately looking for a quick fix to a better life), I was pleasantly shocked to see that the province of Ontario has proposed a bill banning all gambling sites from using celebrities and high-profile athletes in any form of advertising.

The Ontario government has decided that children are vulnerable to gambling ads featuring celebrity athletes and is moving to have those ads banned to protect children.

Of all the verbal fireworks we’ve heard since Jets coach Rick Bowness showed his absolute disdain for the pathetic effort his team gave when facing elimination, goaltender Connor Hellebuyck’s season-ending comments were the most unhinged from reality:

“The feeling in the room is great…There’s a lot of heart and soul in that room, that gave it their all. I guess that’s all you ask for.”

That is provably false. Anyone watching the start of the Jets golf season – pardon me, I mean game 5 against Vegas – could see with their own eyes that the Jets did the exact opposite of what Hellebuyck described. Instead of giving it their all it looked like the team could hardly wait for the game to be over so they could get out of town and start their vacation.

How stupid does Hellebuyck think Jets fans are? Are we supposed to believe his words more than our eyes?

By all accounts, it’s been a memorable season for Anya and Linnea Misner. The pair of sisters from Springfield suited up as teammates throughout the entire season for the Balmoral Hall Blazers, and stayed teammates for Team Manitoba at the National Aboriginal Hockey Championships (NAHC) in Winnipeg.

“It’s an amazing experience, and a really proud moment for both of us, to be able to represent our Metis heritage and our province in this tournament,” Anya said after a 9-0 victory over Team Atlantic.

The Metis sisters aren’t the only Eastman players donning black-and-yellow Team Manitoba jerseys at the championships. Niverville’s Ginger Fast is also playing for the female team, with La Broqueire’s Eric Cote playing for the male side.

It was Linnea’s first season suiting up for the Blazers, a prep school team based out of Winnipeg which plays at an elite level.

The quarter section of farmland that has been in the family for 70 years has been transformed into a first class 18-hole community golf course, fulfilling a family dream for Roland Gauthier and his eight siblings.

Spring arrived at La Verendrye Golf Course when the Gauthiers brushed off the blanket of sand which had protected the front nine for the winter. Those greens, with the grass looking thick and lush, were coaxed back into life by a computerized irrigation system, providing the first clue that this 18-hole layout is much more than a revamped pasture.

The open space that surrounds the 4,000 square-foot clubhouse is a deceptive window to the course. A winding, treed path takes you to the second hole, where beaver dams, rolling hills and thick brush soon become part of the scenic La Verendrye Golf Course.

With the help of a brother who’s a steel rigger, six girded bridges were built to take golfers between the holes that play among the meandering Seine River. The soil is sandy, there is an island tee-off and several shots are played over the river.