Blazers prepping for weekend

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
Barry Smith’s whistle got a workout Tuesday.
The Kamloops Blazers’ head coach got down to serious business — not that he hasn’t been serious before this — as his WHL team began to get into what will be its routine this season.
With school back in, the Blazers were on the Interior Savings Centre ice surface for an afternoon practice. When they are at home this season, they are scheduled to be on the ice from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Yesterday’s session, which actually went until 4:30 p.m., was interrupted frequently by whistles as Smith got down to coaching.
“Quit trying to be so (bleeping) fancy,” he yelled on one occasion.
Another time, it was: “Get it to the net . . . find a way to get it to the net.”
After another stoppage, he yelled: “That’s a weak-ass play.”
Later, after an especially soft attempt at clearing a puck from the defensive zone, Smith blew the play dead and addressed the guilty party: “Unless you’re going to score 50 goals that puck had better be out.”
The Blazers, who are 1-1 in the exhibition season, are preparing for a weekend home-and-home series with the Chilliwack Bruins. They will play here on Friday night and in the ’Wack on Saturday. Game time both nights is 7 o’clock.
The Bruins went 2-1 at the Everett Silvertips tournament on the weekend.
The Blazers’ roster is at 29, including three goaltenders and 17 forwards.
Smith said the Blazers plan to maintain the “status quo for a while” because they will lose four players to pro camp over the next few days.
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Centre Scott Wasden, 20, has left the club to attend the funeral of his cousin, Cpl. Dustin Wasden, who was killed while on duty in Zharey District of Afghanistan on Aug. 20. The funeral is to be this afternoon at Bourdages Cameron Memorial Arena in Spiritwood, Sask.
Shortly after rejoining the Blazers, Scott Wasden will leave for Traverse City, Mich., where he will play for the Minnesota Wild prospects in an eight-team tournament, Sept. 13-17. Wasden will be there on a tryout basis.
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Blazers RW Brady Calla, 20, will play for the Florida Panthers at a rookie tournament in Kitchener, Sept. 12-15.
Also on Florida’s 22-man roster are LW Kenndal McArdle, RW Michal Repik, D Keaton Ellerby, D Colby Robak and G Tyler Plante, all of whom played in the WHL. The Blazers acquired Calla from the Moose Jaw Warriors last season in exchange for Ellerby.
Calla, a third-round selection by Florida in the NHL’s 2006 draft while he was with the Everett Silvertips, has signed with the Panthers. Calla, 20, is expected to open the season with the AHL’s Rochester Americans.
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RW Tyler Shattock, 18, leaves the Blazers on Sept. 11 to join the San Jose Sharks’ rookie team. The Sharks will play the Anaheim Ducks’ prospects in Las Vegas on Sept. 16. The Sharks’ team plans to practise in Las Vegas, Sept. 14 and 15.
Shattock, who wasn’t selected in the NHL’s 2008 draft, took part in a San Jose developmental camp earlier in the summer.
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D Nick Ross, 19, will join the Phoenix Coyotes’ rookie team for two games against the visiting Los Angeles Kings prospects, Sept. 16 and 17.
Ross, taken 30th overall by Phoenix in the 2007 draft while with the Regina Pats, has signed with the Coyotes.
If Ross doesn’t make the Coyotes’ roster, he will be returned to the Blazers.
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JUST NOTES: Kamloops general manager Craig Bonner watched the Blazers fall 4-1 to the Vancouver Giants in Ladner on Friday. He spent Saturday at the Everett Silvertips tournament and Sunday in Edmonton at the Oil Kings’ tournament. All told, he got a look at 11 of the WHL’s other 21 teams. . . . C Colin Smith, the Blazers’ first pick in the 2008 bantam draft, returned home to Edmonton after Saturday’s 4-2 victory over the visiting Giants. Bonner ran into Smith and his father Sunday at the Oil Kings’ tournament. . . . RW Jimmy Bubnick (shoulder) practised yesterday but was wearing a yellow (no conact) jersey. . . . Brian Kilrea, the head coach of the OHL’s Ottawa 67’s and the winningest coach in major junior history, appears poised to announce that he will retire after this season. He is 74 years of age.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca