GENE'S BLOG: Happy New Year

Some of you might be waking up this morning wondering what happened last night.

I can't speak for what happened to you, but I know what happened to the Edmonton Oilers. They continued to win by putting together a 7-2 victory over Anaheim, making it five in a row for their second-longest winning streak of the season.

There were lots of goals and a few fireworks in the game against the Ducks. When the clock struck midnight, the team was on a plane somewhere over the northern U.S. but was about to cross into Alberta – just about an hour away from landing back home and putting a wrap on the year. The last victory of the calendar year meant Edmonton finished 2023 with a 54-28-8 record, including regular season and playoffs.

I would suggest sleep, coffee and a couple of Aspirin if necessary as a good way to get the first day of 2024 off to a good start. The Oilers intend on doing that Tuesday when they host Philadelphia in the first game of the new year. By then, some of you may have already broken your New Year's resolutions.

A resolution is a promise you make to yourself to start doing something good or stop doing something bad on the first day of the year. Back when I was growing up, the resolutions were pretty standard – eat less, work out more, stop smoking and be kind to people. Those still exist today. You can add some to the list like less time spent on social media, cutting down on your texts, emails and Snapchats, etc.

The world has changed and for some, so have resolutions; for others, they have not.

Here are a couple of old-school resolutions and let's start with Brett Kulak, who scored the final goal of 2023 for the Oilers and the final goal for the NHL's calendar year. Kulak started last year with a New Year's resolution. It involved a friend and former teammate named Travis McEvoy.

The two had previously been teammates 10 years before they spent a couple of seasons side by side with the WHL's Vancouver Giants.

The resolution was to exercise more (not that the Oilers blueliner doesn't do enough of that already). The plan was to do 100 push-ups a day – every day. The two would touch base and send a checkmark to each other to satisfy the other's curiosity that the daily task had been completed. Kulak laughed about it and said the former Giant made it to 67 days (6,700 pushups) before they stopped. A pretty impressive run for a resolution that put both Kulak and McEvoy into a better frame of body and mind.

Not that the Stony Plain-born Oiler needed anyone to verify the resolution, but Ryan McLeod did. He said you would see Kulak doing push-ups anywhere and everywhere. It might have reminded him of a New Year's resolution he made when he was only 17 years old, which also revolved around a healthier lifestyle. He decided to give up pop.

Now, for a teenager to give up pop, that is quite a commitment. It would not be an easy one to do considering so many of his friends would have indulged in their choice of soft drinks and done so around him. The now 24-year-old said he was drinking up to two to three cans of a carbonated beverage daily. He decided to give it up and all these years later he has, for the most part, continued to stick with his resolution.

With that front-teeth-missing smile of his, McLeod did acknowledge that occasionally he will still have a pop. Nonetheless, it's still an impressive commitment as it moves into its eighth year.

One of the changes for the better is our awareness of our mental health and that of others. It used to be all about being better physically to start a new year, but now, anything done to improve your mental health is a lock to improve your life. Darnell Nurse suggested if he had to make a New Year's resolution, his would be reading more because you can never have enough knowledge. Knowledge is a weapon to be used to make us all better people.

What's your resolution? Mine is less time on my phone, which means it's time to go. Wishing you and yours all the best in 2024. Happy New Year!