Tuesday . . .

THE MacBETH REPORT: F Shaun Sutter (Lethbridge/Medicine Hat/Calgary) signed with Alleghe (Italy Serie A) for the rest of this season after his release from Weisswasser (Germany 2.Bundelsiga). Sutter had 11 goals and seven assists in 32 games with Weisswasser. . . . G Nolan McDonald, who played two games with Spokane in 1996-97, signed with Kassel (Germany DEL) for the rest of this season. he had spent the last three seasons with Weisswasser but was unsigned this season.
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THE FIRING: On a day when Bruce Springsteen released a new album, the Chilliwack Bruins headed off in a new direction. As you may be aware of by now, the Bruins fired general manager Darrell May on Tuesday, with Darryl Porter, one of the franchise’s owners and its governor, taking over for the remainder of this season.
The Bruins (14-31-2-3) don’t play until Friday when they meet the Chiefs in Spokane. Chilliwack went into the week in ninth place in the 10-team Western Conference, six points behind the Prince George Cougars, who hold down the eighth and last playoff spot.
The Bruins are in their third season of existence; they made the playoffs each of the other two seasons.
May might well have paid the price for not having pulled the trigger on more trades during the 2007-08 season. Perhaps he should have forsaken a playoff spot last season and traded away the likes of Mark Santorelli, Oscar Moller and Nick Holden.
“We’ve had a number of bad breaks,” Porter told Eric J. Welsh of the Chilliwack Progress. “And that made this situation very difficult to analyze. You put Evan Pighin and Jadon Potter and Oscar Moller on the team and it looks quite a bit different. But what I saw was a lack of depth and I think that’s led to a lot of the challenges we’ve faced this year.”
Santorelli and Holden were 20-year-olds last season. Moller, now 19, cracked the lineup of the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings. Pighin, 20, refused to report to the Bruins, choosing instead to play for the BCHL’s Victoria Grizzlies. Potter, 19, had his season come to an end before Christmas when he suffered a broken bone in his neck.
Had May traded away any of his big three last season, perhaps he could have acquired some of the depth Porter feels is lacking.
Porter said that a new general manager won’t be hired until the offseason. But, in what is perhaps the most interesting development in all of this, he added that head coach Jim Hiller, who in his third season, isn’t going anywhere.
“I believe we have an exceptional head coach who’s had to overcome a lot of obstacles,” Porter told Welsh. “What I’m most proud of is this team is still working its tail off, and I believe this is still a playoff team and I have full confidence in Jim and his staff and he will be our head coach next year.”
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THE MISSING: There was news Monday that the Swift Current Broncos are going to honour 13 men who were instrumental in the return of WHL hockey to that city in time for the 1986-87 season.
On second glance, one name was conspicuous by its absence from the list.
Yes, Paddy Ginnell’s name should have been, and should be, on the list.
While there may have been a falling out before the group was able to purchase the Lethbridge Broncos and move the franchise to Swift Current, a case certainly can be made for Ginnell’s having been a big part of helping the community gets its foot back in the door.
Ginnell, a veteran of the WHL wars, was able to use his familiarity with the league to keep Swift Current interests informed on happenings. Which is how at one time the Seattle franchise came awfully close to ending up in Swift Current.
Ginnell, who died on Nov. 17, 2003, also was a big part of helping raise the $300,000 that was then needed to buy a franchise.
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Jim Swanson, the sports editor of the Prince George Citizen, spoke with Cougars owner Rick Brodsky and has a state of the franchise story in Wednedsay’s sports pages. That story, which lets the world know that the Cougars aren’t going anywhere, is right here.
The package also includes a story in which Brodsky tells Swanson that interim head coach Wade Klippenstein will be back next season, but his role has yet to be defined. That story is right here.
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JUST NOTES: The Vancouver Giants have five days off next week so D Jon Blum is outta here. He will head home to Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif., for some R and R. Blum captained the U.S. entry in the World Junior Championship so didn’t get any time off over Christmas. . . . Steve Ewen of the Vancouver Province points out that the Giants are on pace to break a whack of records, a couple of which are rather longstanding. The Giants take a 41-4-0-3 record into Wednesday’s game against the visiting Medicine Hat Tigers. The Giants, as Ewen writes, are on pace for 127 points, which would break the record (125) held by the 1978-79 Brandon Wheat Kings. Vancouver also is on pace for 62 victories; the 1980-81 Victoria Cougars won 60 games. . . . The Tri-City Herald reports that LW Colton Yellow Horn, who played out his major junior eligibility with the Americans last season, has signed with the ECHL’s Elmira, N.Y., Jackals. He had been playing with Salzburg EC in Austria.
The Brandon Wheat Kings will hold their annual CKLQ Sportsman’s Dinner on Feb. 12 in the Keystone Centre’s UCT Pavillion. Former NHLer Wendel Clark, who starred with the Saskatoon Blades, will be the keynote speaker. Former Wheat Kings forward Jeff Odgers also will be at the head table, as will comedian Bruce Clark and emcee Dick Jonckowski, who is the public address announcer for the Minnesota Golden Gophers men’s baseball and basketball teams. . . . Lethbridge Hurricanes F Kyle Beach has been suspended while the WHL office investigates an incident in which he is alleged to have shot a puck into the crowd following a game in Red Deer on Jan. 24.
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In Cranbrook, the Kootenay Ice scored the game’s last five goals, four of them in third period, and beat the Regina Pats, 7-3. . . . F Ryan Fox, a trade-deadline acquisition from the Calgary Hitmen, had a goal and two assists for the Ice. . . . F Tylan Stephens had two goals for Kootenay. . . . F Matt Robertson got his 20th goal of the season for Regina. . . . D Colton Teubert was back in Regina’s lineup after behind a healthy scratch on Sunday in Calgary. He had one assist but was minus-3. . . . Regina F Brett Leffler left late in the second period after absorbing a hit by D Eric Frere. Leffler didn’t return. Leffler scored his 27th goal early in the second period.
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In Red Deer, F Nathan Green scored Brandon’s third shootout goal and it stood up as the Wheat Kings beat the Rebels, 2-1. . . . Red Deer F Landon Ferraro, who had missed three games with a groin injury, scored his 28th goal. . . . F Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, the first pick in the 2008 bantam draft, drew an assist on the goal. He now has played five WHL games and, as a 15-year-old, can’t play again until his club team, the major midget Vancouver-North West Giants, has its season come to an end. He had six points in his five games. . . . Brandon G Andrew Hayes stopped 35 shots to win his 20th game of the season. . . .
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In Kent, Wash., the Medicine Hat Tigers scored two goals eight seconds apart late in the first period and went on to a 5-4 victory over the Seattle Thunderbirds. . . . It was Medicine Hat’s first game in a western swing. The Tigers meet the Giants in Vancouver on Wednesday. . . . D Bo Montgomery played his first game of the season for the Tigers and picked up one assist. Montgomery, 18, chose not to report to the Portland Winter Hawks for a third season and was dealt to the Tigers on Jan. 10. . . . Medicine Hat G Ryan Holfeld stopped 32 shots as his side was outshot 36-21. . . . Tigers F Tyler Ennis went into the game with 199 career points. He scored twice and set up another goal.