Blades add fifth 20-year-old . . .

One of my favourite people in all of hockey is Andy Murray, now the head coach of the St. Louis Blues. Maybe it’s because we go back a few years . . . like to when Murray was the quarterback for a rag-tag university football team -- the Brandon University Bobcats -- and his favourite receiver was Joe Willie Parkes. . . . There is a team that someone should have made a movie about, like the time the Bobcats bus got locked in the parking lot -- not in the school, in the parking lot -- at Bismarck State College in North Dakota. . . . Murray, the pride of Souris, Man., was a pretty fair hockey player for the Bobcats, too. . . . And it’s funny how Gary Davidson, who would later own the BCHL’s Salmon Arm Silverbacks with Murray, was on the BU football and hockey teams with Murray. Of course, they were boyhood pals in Souris. . . . Glen (Ab) Williamson, who also did some coaching in the NHL, filled out the Souris triumvirate and I think now is coaching somewhere in Europe. . . . Anyway, I would have liked to have been in Los Angeles on Saturday night when Murray’s Blues faced his former team, the Los Angeles Kings. That’s because Murray’s son, Brady, who played in Salmon Arm before going on to North Dakota and then to Switzerland for a season, has cracked the Kings’ roster. . . . You’ve got think that Andy, who most times appears as unemotional as they come, was smiling on the inside. Dad won, too, 5-3. And, no, Brady didn‘t get a point. . . . According to the Elias Sports Bureau this was only the fourth time in NHL history that a coach opposed his son. . . . The others: Bob Johnson, coaching the Calgary Flames, against his son Mark with the Hartford Whalers (Oct. 21, 1982); Philadelphia Flyers head coach Bill Dineen against his son Gord and the Ottawa Senators (Feb. 9, 1993); and, Dallas Stars head coach Rick Wilson against his son Landon and the Phoenix Coyotes (Feb. 26, 2002). . . .

Obviously, there are some changes coming to the roster of the Saskatoon Blades, who have acquired D John Flatters, 20, from the Prince Albert Raiders for LW Dustin Cameron, 18, who was a third-round pick by the Blades in the 2004 bantam draft. . . . Flatters’ arrival leaves the Blades with five 20-year-olds, two over the limit with the deadline to declare three arriving on Thursday. The others are D Curtis Patterson, RW Michael Kaye and C Chris Durand, three Saskatoon boys who were acquired over the summer, and LW Ondrej Fiala, a two-spotter (20-year-old import) who was acquired from the Everett Silvertips last week. . . . Durand has four points and is minus-5; Kaye has an assist and is minus-1; Patterson is pointless and is minus-2. . . . The Blades are 1-4-1-0. . . . The Blades play one more game before Thursday’s deadline -- they are at home to the Regina Pats on Monday. . . . By trading Flatters, the Raiders now have three 20-year-olds -- G Dustin Butler, D Mike Gauthier and D Jeff May. . . . Saskatoon also has sent LW Cody Wutzke, 17, to the SJHL's Nipawin Hawks. Wutzke (concussion) didn't get into a regular-season game with the Blades.