Some early Saturday stuff . . .

THE MacBETH REPORT: D Gerhard Unterluggauer (Brandon) had his contract cancelled by Innsbruck (Austria Erste Bank Liga) for financial reasons. Unterluggauer, whose contract was to run through next season, had 14 goals and 26 assists in 58 games for Innsbruck this season. Innsbruck announced its withdrawal from the Erste Bank Liga and voluntary relegation to Division 2 after the club's board meeting on Tuesday evening.
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Regan Bartel, the radio voice of the Kelowna Rockets, has corrected something I wrote here yesterday. If you are a regular here, I wrote a small piece about Bob Ridley, the long-time voice of the Medicine Hat Tigers on CHAT-FM, and the fact that he has missed only one game in the WHL team’s history. I ended the piece by stating that ‘When it comes to the WHL and the radio bunch, there isn’t any doubt who is THE MAN!” . . . Well, Bartel got on his keyboard early Saturday (well, it was early for me) and pointed out that “Rids isn’t the man . . . he’s God.” . . . Bartel, as usual, is correct. . . . Bartel also pointed out that on his Feb. 28 posting, he, in fact, wrote: "Bob Ridley (Medicine Hat), Craig West (Tri-City) Rod Pederson (Regina), Bruce Luebke (Brandon) are also in the 1,000 games called club. Ridley is almost at 3,000. I'll be 70 to reach that mark!" . . . The purpose of what I wrote about Ridley wasn’t to denigrate anyone or to belittle anyone’s accomplishment(s); it simply was to point out how incredibly amazing Ridley’s broadcasting career has been.
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Judging by the comment from Mr. Anonymous, who obviously has a limited vocabulary, at least one person took something posted here early Saturday morning the wrong way. Unless, Mr. Anonymous (Mrs. Anonymous would have big enough cojones to use her real name, wouldn’t she?) was upset about a score or a referee’s call or something. . . . I will say it surely is easy to ruin Mr. Anonymous’s day, and I wish I could say that upsets me. No. It definitely makes my day. . . . So, thank you, Mr. Anonymous, for your inane comment. Keep 'em coming.
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Former WHL goaltender Kelly Hrudey, who now is a Hockey Night in Canada regular, has a blog over at cbc.ca. Recently, he posted a terrific piece on a young WHL player. Hrudey’s thoughts are right here.
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Well, well, well . . . Richard Doerksen, the WHL’s disciplinarian, was busy on Saturday and the WHL coffers are $1,500 richer as a result.
It seems that the host Seattle Thunderbirds and the Tri-City Americans introduced the fans of Kent, Wash., to the world of multiple fight situations on Friday night. As a result, Seattle got dinged for $250 for being in its second such incident, while the Americans were touched for $750 as this was their fourth.
As well, Tri-City head coach Don Nachbaur was suspended for one game. That’s automatic for a fourth such incident.
The interesting one came out of Vancouver where Giants owner Ron Toigo, a man of considerable influence in the WHL, was fined $500 for “comments re” officiating during March 6 game versus Calgary.”
Toigo’s Giants lost that game 4-0 as the Hitmen went 4-for-7 on the PP; the Giants were 0-for-2. . . . The referees? Devin Klein and Derek Zalaski.
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FINES:
The WHL’s unofficial team standings, showing number of incidents and amount fined:
Spokane 3/$1,500
Tri-City 3/$1,500
Lethbridge 3/$1,250
Chilliwack 2/$750
Prince George 2/$500
Seattle 2/$500
Regina 1/$500
Vancouver 1/$250
Prince Albert 1/$250
Saskatoon 1/$250
Edmonton 1/$250
Kamloops 1/$250
Red Deer 1/$250
Portland 1$250
TOTALS 23/$8,250
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The WHL’s unofficial individual standings, showing number of fines and total amount fined:
Steve Pleau, Edmonton 2/$1,500
Michael Dyck, Lethbridge 1/$500
Brent Parker, Regina 1/$500
Roy Stasiuk, Lethbridge 1/$500
Rob Sumner, Seattle 1/$500
Ron Toigo, Vancouver 1/$500
Terry Virtue, Tri-City 1/$500
TOTALS 8/$4,500