Saturday salutations

A few notes from a quiet Saturday . . .

Marc Habscheid, the former Kamloops Blazers/Kelowna Rockets head coach, won’t be joining the Edmonton Oilers’ coaching staff. Habscheid spent last season as the associate coach, with head coach Dave Lewis, of the Boston Bruins. Both were fired well after the season ended, although both have time left on their contracts so are still employed by the Bruins. The Oilers are looking to fill the vacancy created when Craig Simpson left last week to join Hockey Night in Canada’s staff. The Oilers likely will announce Simpson’s replacement on Monday.

The San Antonio Rampage, the Phoenix Coyotes’ AHL affiliate, finally has a head coach. Greg Ireland, whose contract with the Grand Rapids wasn’t renewed, will be introduced one of these days. It’s believed that the Coyotes first offered the job to Willie Desjardins, but he chose to stay in Medicine Hat as the Tigers’ general manager and head coach.

Spent part of Saturday evening at Music in the Park, a nightly concert series that is held in Riverside Park, beside the Interior Savings Centre, in Kamloops, from July 1 through Aug. 31. Providing the entertainment was The Peter Soberlak Band. You may remember Peter from his WHL career (1985-89, Kamloops and Swift Current). He now teaches at Thompson Rivers U in Kamloops and also is a musician; he and his band play country that is kind of middle of the road. They have an album coming out in September. Saturday’s show was quite entertaining. Check him out at myspace.com/petesoberlak.

Don’t know if you noticed but the 2007-08 hockey season began Friday. That’s when the QMJHL got started with the Chicoutimi Sagueneens opening training camp. The Baie-Comeau Drakkar and Rimouski Oceanic opened Saturday, with the Drummondville Voltigeurs, Moncton Wildcats, Shawinigan Cataractes and Val-d’Or Foreurs opening Sunday. . . . The first exhibition game of the new season goes Wednesday with the Quebec Remparts meeting Rimouski in Riviere-du-Loup. . . . The interesting part of the QMJHL exhibition season will be Sept. 7 and 8 when the Remparts and Oceanic meet two USHL teams (Indiana Ice and Omaha Lancers) in a four-game series.