Saturday . . . early

Steve Pleau, the head coach of the Edmonton Oil Kings, was so underwhelmed by his team’s 5-2 loss to the visiting Kamloops Blazers on Friday that he kept his team around after the game. "We're going to go for a nice little workout," Edmonton centre Brenden Dowd told Edmonton freelancer Chris O’Leary. "I'm not too excited about it. We're going to work for those 40 minutes that we didn't play. I know we're going to work for 40 minutes. Who knows what (the coaching staff) has in store." . . . Edmonton F Brett Breitkreuz offered; “We didn't come to play. We weren't mentally prepared. We weren't moving our feet and it showed. The game was in our hands. I still won't tell you that they're a better hockey team than us. They played hard, we didn't. End of story."
---
The Carolina Hurricanes announced Saturday that they have signed F Zach Boychuk of the Lethbridge Hurricanes to a three-year entry-level contract. The announcement was made on Boychuk’s 19th birthday. He was the 14th overall pick in the 2008 NHL draft. Boychuk had 72 points in 61 points last season. He has yet to play this season because of surgery to repair a broken wrist. . . . Should Boychuk stick with Carolina, he’ll earn US$787,500 in the first season, or US$65,000 in the minor leagues. He received a US$262,500 signing bonus.
---
The Calgary Flames have assigned F Mikael Backlund, 19, to Vasteras of the Swedish Elite League. Backlund’s WHL rights are owned by the Kelowna Rockets, who selected him in the 2007 CHL import draft.