A note from the Jim Murray Memorial Foundation . . .
Join us for the LIVE ONLINE BROADCAST from ESPN SportsCenter Studios @ LA LIVE (http://livestream.com/grunzy) for the Inaugural JMMF Sports & Media Symposium on Tuesday, Dec. 1, 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Pacific time. ESPN SportsCenter host Neil Everett will moderate panelists J.A. Adande (ESPN.com), Helene Elliott (Los Angeles Times) and Mark Kriegel (FoxSports.com) in a LIVE discussion of this year's JMMF Essay Question: "How has the media landscape, and the manner in which sports journalists cover events, changed over the past 20 years?" LIVE CHAT will allow you to send in questions for the panelists.
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The Jim Murray Memorial Foundation (JMMF), an organization dedicated to furthering the educations of aspiring journalists, will welcome this year's class of "Murray Scholars" to Los Angeles for a check presentation ceremony on Dec. 1 at Staples Center during the Los Angeles Lakers vs. New Orleans Hornets halftime at center court.
"I am so grateful to the Lakers organization for its ongoing support of the JMMF,
and for spotlighting our Murray Scholars during this Lakers' 50th season in LA.
Jim Murray traveled with the Lakers in those early years, and wrote hundreds of columns on the Lakers, from Jerry West and Elgin Baylor to Shaq and Kobe," said Linda McCoy-Murray, widow of the late, great Los Angeles Times sports columnist. "Our hope is that these bright young minds will carry on the spirit of Jim Murray in their writings for generations to come."
Monday, November 30, 2009
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Charron delivering message to Blazers
By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
After two games — and two losses — head coach Guy Charron’s message to the Kamloops Blazers was pretty simple.
“My message to them was, ‘We made little steps but we’re not where we want to be,’ ” the WHL team’s head coach said Sunday afternoon, less than 24 hours after a 3-0 loss to the Bruins in the Chilliwack.
That defeat came one night after the Blazers blew a 4-0 third-period lead to the visiting Kootenay Ice and fell 6-5 in a shootout.
The result was that the Blazers, who often have been given a day off after playing back-to-back games, skated Sunday morning.
“The days off . . . they’re going to have to earn them,” Charron said.
So, he said, the club “had a pretty intense workout as far as skating.”
Part of that was because Charron admitted to being concerned about the level of the players’ conditioning.
“We had a good go at it,” he said. “The players responded very well to it. I was encouraged.”
The skate came the morning after the Blazers were outshot 36-15 and shut out for the second time this season, this time by Lucas Gore, a 19-year-old Kamloopsian who earned his second shutout of the season and the second of his career.
“I thought our team battled hard to some extent,” Charron said. “The shots . . . we didn’t generate what we should have offensively but we were doing some good things. We were only down by one goal. Our goalie was playing well.
“The penalties took the wind right out of our sails.”
Ahh, yes, the penalties . . .
The Blazers, outshot 30-7 through two periods, got a solid effort out of goaltender Jon Groenheyde. But things came apart in the third period when they were hit with four straight minor penalties and gave up two power-play goals.
By game’s end, the Bruins were 2-for-10 on the power play, while the Blazers, who took 10 of 14 minors, were 0-for-4. The Blazers actually were the beneficiaries of the game’s first two power plays and then surrendered 10 in a row.
And, after just two games, Charron admitted to being bothered by what he sees as a lack of consistency by the referees.
“I brought it at one point to the referees’ attention,” said Charron, who watched veterans Matt Kirk and Colby Smith work in Chilliwack. “I don’t have a problem with what they call, but I would like to see some consistency on both teams.”
Charron felt his side’s penalty killers “did well for two periods . . . then they get a 5-on-3 . . . and we get two power plays at the end of the game when the game is out of reach.”
Still, he has been around long enough to know that this is something with which his club is going to have to deal.
“I talked to the players (Sunday),” he said. “I said, ‘We’re the most penalized team . . . we have to try to improve. If we have a call go against us, we have to go to the box.' ”
The Blazers continue to be the WHL’s most-penalized team and their penalty killers have faced more opposition power plays (177) than any team in the league. Kamloops also has given up more power-play goals (47) than anyone else. It also has given up at least one power-play goal in 14 straight games and has surrendered at least one in 23 of 29 games this season.
The Bruins got a first-period goal from winger Alexander Wiklund and third-period power-play scores from defenceman Jesse Craige and forward Chris Collins.
The victory lifted the Bruins (12-13-1-4) past the Kelowna Rockets, who lost 4-2 to the visiting Kootenay Ice on Saturday, and into sixth place in the Western Conference.
The Blazers, who start a stretch of three home games in four nights when they play the Edmonton Oil Kings on Wednesday, are eighth, two points ahead of the Seattle Thunderbirds.
Kamloops (11-14-2-2) goes into that game having lost seven of its last eight games.
p p p
The Blazers had three healthy scratches Saturday, with defencemen Zak Stebner and Josh Caron joining forward Dylan Willick in the stands. While Caron was a healthy scratch for the 11th time this season, it was a first for Stebner and Willick.
Charron said he is a firm believer in rewarding good performances and that the opposite also holds true.
“We discussed it,” Charron said. “The performances (Friday) were not up to par. They reacted professionally.”
JUST NOTES: The Saturday game also signalled Charron’s first WHL road trip. As he put it, with a chuckle: “I had my first bus trip and it wasn’t too bad.” . . . Kamloops has been outshot in 24 of 29 games this season and has surrendered 35 or more shots in 23 of those games. . . . Kamloops and Chilliwack have already met six times. The Blazers are 4-2-0-0 in the series, while the Bruins are 2-2-0-2.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
gdrinnan.blogspot.com
Daily News Sports Editor
After two games — and two losses — head coach Guy Charron’s message to the Kamloops Blazers was pretty simple.
“My message to them was, ‘We made little steps but we’re not where we want to be,’ ” the WHL team’s head coach said Sunday afternoon, less than 24 hours after a 3-0 loss to the Bruins in the Chilliwack.
That defeat came one night after the Blazers blew a 4-0 third-period lead to the visiting Kootenay Ice and fell 6-5 in a shootout.
The result was that the Blazers, who often have been given a day off after playing back-to-back games, skated Sunday morning.
“The days off . . . they’re going to have to earn them,” Charron said.
So, he said, the club “had a pretty intense workout as far as skating.”
Part of that was because Charron admitted to being concerned about the level of the players’ conditioning.
“We had a good go at it,” he said. “The players responded very well to it. I was encouraged.”
The skate came the morning after the Blazers were outshot 36-15 and shut out for the second time this season, this time by Lucas Gore, a 19-year-old Kamloopsian who earned his second shutout of the season and the second of his career.
“I thought our team battled hard to some extent,” Charron said. “The shots . . . we didn’t generate what we should have offensively but we were doing some good things. We were only down by one goal. Our goalie was playing well.
“The penalties took the wind right out of our sails.”
Ahh, yes, the penalties . . .
The Blazers, outshot 30-7 through two periods, got a solid effort out of goaltender Jon Groenheyde. But things came apart in the third period when they were hit with four straight minor penalties and gave up two power-play goals.
By game’s end, the Bruins were 2-for-10 on the power play, while the Blazers, who took 10 of 14 minors, were 0-for-4. The Blazers actually were the beneficiaries of the game’s first two power plays and then surrendered 10 in a row.
And, after just two games, Charron admitted to being bothered by what he sees as a lack of consistency by the referees.
“I brought it at one point to the referees’ attention,” said Charron, who watched veterans Matt Kirk and Colby Smith work in Chilliwack. “I don’t have a problem with what they call, but I would like to see some consistency on both teams.”
Charron felt his side’s penalty killers “did well for two periods . . . then they get a 5-on-3 . . . and we get two power plays at the end of the game when the game is out of reach.”
Still, he has been around long enough to know that this is something with which his club is going to have to deal.
“I talked to the players (Sunday),” he said. “I said, ‘We’re the most penalized team . . . we have to try to improve. If we have a call go against us, we have to go to the box.' ”
The Blazers continue to be the WHL’s most-penalized team and their penalty killers have faced more opposition power plays (177) than any team in the league. Kamloops also has given up more power-play goals (47) than anyone else. It also has given up at least one power-play goal in 14 straight games and has surrendered at least one in 23 of 29 games this season.
The Bruins got a first-period goal from winger Alexander Wiklund and third-period power-play scores from defenceman Jesse Craige and forward Chris Collins.
The victory lifted the Bruins (12-13-1-4) past the Kelowna Rockets, who lost 4-2 to the visiting Kootenay Ice on Saturday, and into sixth place in the Western Conference.
The Blazers, who start a stretch of three home games in four nights when they play the Edmonton Oil Kings on Wednesday, are eighth, two points ahead of the Seattle Thunderbirds.
Kamloops (11-14-2-2) goes into that game having lost seven of its last eight games.
p p p
The Blazers had three healthy scratches Saturday, with defencemen Zak Stebner and Josh Caron joining forward Dylan Willick in the stands. While Caron was a healthy scratch for the 11th time this season, it was a first for Stebner and Willick.
Charron said he is a firm believer in rewarding good performances and that the opposite also holds true.
“We discussed it,” Charron said. “The performances (Friday) were not up to par. They reacted professionally.”
JUST NOTES: The Saturday game also signalled Charron’s first WHL road trip. As he put it, with a chuckle: “I had my first bus trip and it wasn’t too bad.” . . . Kamloops has been outshot in 24 of 29 games this season and has surrendered 35 or more shots in 23 of those games. . . . Kamloops and Chilliwack have already met six times. The Blazers are 4-2-0-0 in the series, while the Bruins are 2-2-0-2.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
gdrinnan.blogspot.com
Saturday . . .
A reminder: There won’t be any WHL games on Sunday. Why not? Because it’s Grey Cup Sunday in Canada. For our American friends, it’s the Saskatchewan Roughriders, backed by the watermelon heads, against the Montreal Alouettes in Calgary. . . . I believe Montreal is a 9.5-point favourite. . . . The best story from Grey Cup Week involved Safeway trucking in lots and lots and lots of watermelons so Roughriders fans would be certain to be able to find appropriate headwear. I’m sorry, but you just don’t find stories like that during Super Bowl Week. . . . If you don't believe it, check out the watermelon story right here.
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A Saturday note from the QMJHL:
The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League Disciplinary Prefect announced today that players Ashton Bernard (Cape Breton) and Marshall Worden (Acadie-Bathurst) have been both suspended 10 games. It’s an automatic suspension following their fight during the warm-up, before (Friday’s) game between the Screaming Eagles and the Titan, played at Centre 200 in Sydney.
Other suspensions and/or fines could be announced by the disciplinary prefect, after reviewing the videotape of the incident and after consulting all concerned parties.
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Sheesh, a fight in the pregame warmup. Now that brings back memories of the good old days, eh?
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Former WHL G Ryan Holfeld, 20, has left the USHL’s Fargo, N.D., Force and joined the BCHL’s Victoria Grizzlies. Holfeld played 122 regular-season WHL games over the last three seasons with the Medicine Hat Tigers.
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SATURDAY:
In Saskatoon, the Calgary Hitmen opened up a 5-1 lead early in the third period and hung on for a 5-4 victory over the Blades. . . . This game featured the Eastern Conference’s top two teams. . . . The Hitmen (20-8-1-0) had lost three in a row. They now are two points behind the Blades, who hold two games in hand. . . . The Blades (20-4-0-3) had won five straight. They now are 11-2-0-0 at home, where they went into the night having won 10 in a row. . . . The Hitmen got two goals and two assists from F Brandon Kozun, who moved at least temporarily into the lead in the WHL scoring derby, one point ahead of Regina Pats F Jordan Eberle. Eberle would play later in the evening against the Chiefs in Spokane. . . . Kozun’s 13th goal of the season, 15 seconds into the third period, gave Calgary a 5-1 lead. . . . The Blades scored three times in the second half of the third period. . . . F Joel Broda also had two goals for Calgary. He has 14 on the season. . . . F Derek Hulak had a goal, his 13th, and two assists for the Blades. . . . Calgary G Martin Jones stopped 18 shots, while Saskatoon’s Steven Stanford turned aside 25. . . . Stanford has made back-to-back starts after Adam Morrison, the Blades’ other goaltender, hasn’t felt well after getting an H1N1 shot. . . . Attendance was 4,332.
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In Prince Albert, F Igor Revenko had two goals to help the Riaders to a 6-1 victory over the Lethbridge Hurricanes. . . . Revenko also set up a goal, while teammate Dustin Cameron drew three assists. . . . Lethbridge got its goal from D Luca Sbisa, his first in 11 games since returning from the NHL’s Anaheim Ducks. He cut the Raiders’ lead to 2-1 early in the second period. . . . Prince Albert had a 48-30 edge in shots. . . . The Raiders (15-12-1-2) have won three in a row and four of five. . . . The Hurricanes, who are 3-10-0-1 on the road, are 8-15-3-1 overall and are 0-4-1-1 in their last six outings. . . . Attendance was 1,898.
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In Swift Current, F Justin Dowling scored three times to lead the Broncos to a 5-4 victory over the Brandon Wheat Kings. . . . One night earlier, the Wheat Kings had beaten the Broncos 4-2 in Brandon. . . . Dowling, a third-year player from Cochrane, Alta., has 18 goals this season. He finished last season with 22 in 71 games. . . . The Broncos (14-12-0-2) held 2-1 and 4-3 period leads, with Dowling giving them a 5-3 lead at 4:30 of the third period. . . . F Jay Fehr pulled Brandon (17-11-0-2) to within one at 18:35. . . . The Wheat Kings had a four-game winning streak snapped. . . . F Aaron Lewadniuk, who had three points Friday, scored twice, giving him 10 this season. . . . Fehr also set up two goals. . . . Swift Current F Cody Eakin scored his WHL-leading 25th goal. He had 24 goals in 54 games last season, his second in the WHL. . . . Attendance was 2,103. . . . The Wheat Kings lost F Scott Glennie (ill) in the first period and D Dallas Ehrhardt (knee) in the second.
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In Edmonton, the Moose Jaw Warriors erased a 2-0 deficit and beat the Oil Kings 3-2 in overtime on Dylan Hood’s ninth goal of the season. . . . Hood scored at 3:14 of extra time. . . . The Oil Kings (8-13-4-4) had taken a 2-0 lead with first-period goals 39 seconds apart by F Michael Burns and F Brent Raedeke, his 14th. . . . The Warriors (16-10-1-1) got third-period goals from F Spencer Edwards, his ninth, at 13:04, and F Quinton Howden, his 13th, at 14:27. . . . Edmonton has lost five in a row, including two straight in OT. The Oil Kings have won win in their last 12 outings, but because they are 1-5-4-2 over that stretch they actually have earned up eight points. . . . Attendance was announced at 4,467 but the Edmonton Journal reported that fewer than 1,000 fans were in the stands.
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In Red Deer, freshman F Emerson Etem scored his 20th goal as the Medicine Hat Tigers beat the Rebels, 4-1. . . . The Tigers (16-9-2-3) have won five in a row and are 6-0-0-1 in their last seven. . . . The Rebels (13-14-0-0) had won three of four. . . . Red Deer freshman F Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored his 16th goal. He has five goals in his last five games. . . . Attendance was 4,619. . . . Medicine Hat F Bretton Cameron scored his 23rd goal of the season, an empty-netter. He went into this season with 22 goals in 111 career regular-season games.
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In Prince George, F Brendan Gallagher scored four times to lead the Vancouver Giants to a 6-2 victory over the Cougars. . . . The Giants (18-8-1-2) broke a 2-2 tie with four third-period goals. . . . Gallagher, who has 19 goals, scored three straight goals. He forged a 2-2 tie at 14:46 of the second period, then scored again at 2:46 and 5:12 of the third. . . . He got his fourth at 18:37. . . . Last season, Gallagher scored 10 goals in 52 games. . . . Vancouver D Kevin Connauton, a 19-year-old Vancouver Canucks draft pick and NCAA refugee, scored his 12th goal of the season. . . . Attendance was 1,930. . . . The Cougars slipped to 4-20-1-1 with their second loss of the weekend. The Giants, who have won three in a row, won 5-4 on Friday.
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In Chilliwack, G Lucas Gore stopped 15 Shots to lead the Bruins to a 3-0 victory over the Kamloops Blazers. . . . Gore, who is from Kamloops, posted his second shutout of the season and second of his career. . . . The Bruins (12-13-1-4) had lost two in a row at home. The victory lifted them past the Kelowna Rockets and into sixth place in the Western Conference. . . . F Alexander Wiklund got the game’s first goal, his second of the season, at 13:35 of the second period, with D Jesse Craige and F Chris Collins adding third-period PP goals. . . . The Blazers, the WHL’s most-penalized team, faced 10 Chilliwack PP opportunities. . . . The Blazers (11-14-2-2) had beaten the Bruins 4-3 in a shootout one week earlier. . . . Kamloops has lost seven of its last eight games. . . . Kamloops has been blanked twice this season. . . . The Blazers are 4-2-0-0 in six games with the Bruins, who are 2-2-0-2 against the Blazers. . . . Attendance was 3,168.
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In Kelowna, the Kootenay Ice scored the game’s last three goals and beat the Rockets, 4-2. . . . The Ice (13-13-1-1) is 2-0 on its swing into the B.C. Division, having beaten the Blazers 6-5 in a shootout in Kamloops on Friday. . . . Kootenay D Brayden McNabb, in his second game after an eight-game absence, scored two PP goals -- at 11:29 of the second and 2:26 of the third -- to erase a 2-1 deficit. . . . McNabb had a goal and an assist on Friday in Kamloops. . . . Attendance was 6,146. . . . The teams divided 109 penalty minutes. . . . Each team was 2-for-8 on the PP. . . . The Rockets are 13-14-1-0. . . . Ice D Ryan Molle (concussion) didn’t play. . . . Kelowna F Shane McColgan, who had two goals in a 2-1 victory over the Bruins in Chilliwack on Friday, got his ninth goal of the season on a second-period PP.
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In Spokane, G James Reid stopped 22 shots to help the Chiefs beat the Regina Pats, 4-0. . . . It was Reid’s third shutout this season and the seventh of his career. . . . Attendance was 7,217. . . . F Tyler Johnson’s 15th goal, at 11:05 the first period, stood up as the winner for the Chiefs (16-8-2-0). That was his sixth goal in five games. . . . Regina (15-13-3-0) won four games on a six-game road swing that ended in Spokane. . . . The Chiefs are 8-2-1-0 in their last 11 outings. . . . Regina has been blanked four times this season. . . . The Chiefs went 10-2-1-0 in November.
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In Kennewick, Wash., the Everett Silvertips scored the game’s first three goals and went on to a 6-1 victory over the host Tri-City Americans. . . . F Shane Harper and F D. Jay McGrath each scored twice for the Silvertips (16-8-1-0). Harper has 19 on the season, while McGrath got his first two WHL goals in his 11th game this season and the 14th of his career. . . . McGrath scored the game’s first two goals, at 9:53 and 17:12 of the first period. . . . Everett G Kent Simpson stopped 36 shots. . . . Everett was 0-for-3 on the PP; the Ams were 0-for-8. . . . The Americans (19-8-0-0), who opened the season with nine straight home-ice victories, have lost three of their last four at home. . . . The Americans, who lost 4-1 to the visiting Spokane Chiefs on Friday, last lost two in a row at home late in 2007-08. . . . Attendance was 3,956.
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In Portland, F Spencer Bennett scored twice, including the Teddy Bear goal, as the Winterhawks got past the Seattle Thunderbirds of Kent, 5-3. . . . Bennett’s first goal, at 2:52 of the first period, allowed the crowd of 10,197 in the Rose Garden to unleash a storm of stuffed toys. The latest count had 16,321 toys on the ice. . . . Nine seconds after the ice was cleaned off, Seattle F Lindsay Nielsen tied the score. . . . But the Winterhawks (18-12-0-0) got the game’s next two goals and were never caught. . . . Bennett, whose second goal was an empty-netter, has 12 goals this season. . . . Portland freshman F Nino Niederreiter scored his 16th goal. He has six goals and an assist over his last four games. . . . F Prab Rai got his 16th for Seattle (10-16-1-3) to get his side to within a goal early in the third. . . . Seattle G Calvin Pickard stopped 41 shots, while Portland’s Ian Curtis turned aside 23. . . . Portland, which won 6-4 in Kent on Friday, is 5-0-0-0 against Seattle this season. . . . The loss cost Seattle a chance to pull into a tie with the Kamloops Blazers for the Western Conference’s eighth and final playoff spot. . . . Seattle D Jeremy Schappert had his 10-game point streak snapped. He had 16 points, including seven goals, over that stretch.
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A Saturday note from the QMJHL:
The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League Disciplinary Prefect announced today that players Ashton Bernard (Cape Breton) and Marshall Worden (Acadie-Bathurst) have been both suspended 10 games. It’s an automatic suspension following their fight during the warm-up, before (Friday’s) game between the Screaming Eagles and the Titan, played at Centre 200 in Sydney.
Other suspensions and/or fines could be announced by the disciplinary prefect, after reviewing the videotape of the incident and after consulting all concerned parties.
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Sheesh, a fight in the pregame warmup. Now that brings back memories of the good old days, eh?
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Former WHL G Ryan Holfeld, 20, has left the USHL’s Fargo, N.D., Force and joined the BCHL’s Victoria Grizzlies. Holfeld played 122 regular-season WHL games over the last three seasons with the Medicine Hat Tigers.
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SATURDAY:
In Saskatoon, the Calgary Hitmen opened up a 5-1 lead early in the third period and hung on for a 5-4 victory over the Blades. . . . This game featured the Eastern Conference’s top two teams. . . . The Hitmen (20-8-1-0) had lost three in a row. They now are two points behind the Blades, who hold two games in hand. . . . The Blades (20-4-0-3) had won five straight. They now are 11-2-0-0 at home, where they went into the night having won 10 in a row. . . . The Hitmen got two goals and two assists from F Brandon Kozun, who moved at least temporarily into the lead in the WHL scoring derby, one point ahead of Regina Pats F Jordan Eberle. Eberle would play later in the evening against the Chiefs in Spokane. . . . Kozun’s 13th goal of the season, 15 seconds into the third period, gave Calgary a 5-1 lead. . . . The Blades scored three times in the second half of the third period. . . . F Joel Broda also had two goals for Calgary. He has 14 on the season. . . . F Derek Hulak had a goal, his 13th, and two assists for the Blades. . . . Calgary G Martin Jones stopped 18 shots, while Saskatoon’s Steven Stanford turned aside 25. . . . Stanford has made back-to-back starts after Adam Morrison, the Blades’ other goaltender, hasn’t felt well after getting an H1N1 shot. . . . Attendance was 4,332.
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In Prince Albert, F Igor Revenko had two goals to help the Riaders to a 6-1 victory over the Lethbridge Hurricanes. . . . Revenko also set up a goal, while teammate Dustin Cameron drew three assists. . . . Lethbridge got its goal from D Luca Sbisa, his first in 11 games since returning from the NHL’s Anaheim Ducks. He cut the Raiders’ lead to 2-1 early in the second period. . . . Prince Albert had a 48-30 edge in shots. . . . The Raiders (15-12-1-2) have won three in a row and four of five. . . . The Hurricanes, who are 3-10-0-1 on the road, are 8-15-3-1 overall and are 0-4-1-1 in their last six outings. . . . Attendance was 1,898.
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In Swift Current, F Justin Dowling scored three times to lead the Broncos to a 5-4 victory over the Brandon Wheat Kings. . . . One night earlier, the Wheat Kings had beaten the Broncos 4-2 in Brandon. . . . Dowling, a third-year player from Cochrane, Alta., has 18 goals this season. He finished last season with 22 in 71 games. . . . The Broncos (14-12-0-2) held 2-1 and 4-3 period leads, with Dowling giving them a 5-3 lead at 4:30 of the third period. . . . F Jay Fehr pulled Brandon (17-11-0-2) to within one at 18:35. . . . The Wheat Kings had a four-game winning streak snapped. . . . F Aaron Lewadniuk, who had three points Friday, scored twice, giving him 10 this season. . . . Fehr also set up two goals. . . . Swift Current F Cody Eakin scored his WHL-leading 25th goal. He had 24 goals in 54 games last season, his second in the WHL. . . . Attendance was 2,103. . . . The Wheat Kings lost F Scott Glennie (ill) in the first period and D Dallas Ehrhardt (knee) in the second.
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In Edmonton, the Moose Jaw Warriors erased a 2-0 deficit and beat the Oil Kings 3-2 in overtime on Dylan Hood’s ninth goal of the season. . . . Hood scored at 3:14 of extra time. . . . The Oil Kings (8-13-4-4) had taken a 2-0 lead with first-period goals 39 seconds apart by F Michael Burns and F Brent Raedeke, his 14th. . . . The Warriors (16-10-1-1) got third-period goals from F Spencer Edwards, his ninth, at 13:04, and F Quinton Howden, his 13th, at 14:27. . . . Edmonton has lost five in a row, including two straight in OT. The Oil Kings have won win in their last 12 outings, but because they are 1-5-4-2 over that stretch they actually have earned up eight points. . . . Attendance was announced at 4,467 but the Edmonton Journal reported that fewer than 1,000 fans were in the stands.
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In Red Deer, freshman F Emerson Etem scored his 20th goal as the Medicine Hat Tigers beat the Rebels, 4-1. . . . The Tigers (16-9-2-3) have won five in a row and are 6-0-0-1 in their last seven. . . . The Rebels (13-14-0-0) had won three of four. . . . Red Deer freshman F Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored his 16th goal. He has five goals in his last five games. . . . Attendance was 4,619. . . . Medicine Hat F Bretton Cameron scored his 23rd goal of the season, an empty-netter. He went into this season with 22 goals in 111 career regular-season games.
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In Prince George, F Brendan Gallagher scored four times to lead the Vancouver Giants to a 6-2 victory over the Cougars. . . . The Giants (18-8-1-2) broke a 2-2 tie with four third-period goals. . . . Gallagher, who has 19 goals, scored three straight goals. He forged a 2-2 tie at 14:46 of the second period, then scored again at 2:46 and 5:12 of the third. . . . He got his fourth at 18:37. . . . Last season, Gallagher scored 10 goals in 52 games. . . . Vancouver D Kevin Connauton, a 19-year-old Vancouver Canucks draft pick and NCAA refugee, scored his 12th goal of the season. . . . Attendance was 1,930. . . . The Cougars slipped to 4-20-1-1 with their second loss of the weekend. The Giants, who have won three in a row, won 5-4 on Friday.
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In Chilliwack, G Lucas Gore stopped 15 Shots to lead the Bruins to a 3-0 victory over the Kamloops Blazers. . . . Gore, who is from Kamloops, posted his second shutout of the season and second of his career. . . . The Bruins (12-13-1-4) had lost two in a row at home. The victory lifted them past the Kelowna Rockets and into sixth place in the Western Conference. . . . F Alexander Wiklund got the game’s first goal, his second of the season, at 13:35 of the second period, with D Jesse Craige and F Chris Collins adding third-period PP goals. . . . The Blazers, the WHL’s most-penalized team, faced 10 Chilliwack PP opportunities. . . . The Blazers (11-14-2-2) had beaten the Bruins 4-3 in a shootout one week earlier. . . . Kamloops has lost seven of its last eight games. . . . Kamloops has been blanked twice this season. . . . The Blazers are 4-2-0-0 in six games with the Bruins, who are 2-2-0-2 against the Blazers. . . . Attendance was 3,168.
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In Kelowna, the Kootenay Ice scored the game’s last three goals and beat the Rockets, 4-2. . . . The Ice (13-13-1-1) is 2-0 on its swing into the B.C. Division, having beaten the Blazers 6-5 in a shootout in Kamloops on Friday. . . . Kootenay D Brayden McNabb, in his second game after an eight-game absence, scored two PP goals -- at 11:29 of the second and 2:26 of the third -- to erase a 2-1 deficit. . . . McNabb had a goal and an assist on Friday in Kamloops. . . . Attendance was 6,146. . . . The teams divided 109 penalty minutes. . . . Each team was 2-for-8 on the PP. . . . The Rockets are 13-14-1-0. . . . Ice D Ryan Molle (concussion) didn’t play. . . . Kelowna F Shane McColgan, who had two goals in a 2-1 victory over the Bruins in Chilliwack on Friday, got his ninth goal of the season on a second-period PP.
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In Spokane, G James Reid stopped 22 shots to help the Chiefs beat the Regina Pats, 4-0. . . . It was Reid’s third shutout this season and the seventh of his career. . . . Attendance was 7,217. . . . F Tyler Johnson’s 15th goal, at 11:05 the first period, stood up as the winner for the Chiefs (16-8-2-0). That was his sixth goal in five games. . . . Regina (15-13-3-0) won four games on a six-game road swing that ended in Spokane. . . . The Chiefs are 8-2-1-0 in their last 11 outings. . . . Regina has been blanked four times this season. . . . The Chiefs went 10-2-1-0 in November.
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In Kennewick, Wash., the Everett Silvertips scored the game’s first three goals and went on to a 6-1 victory over the host Tri-City Americans. . . . F Shane Harper and F D. Jay McGrath each scored twice for the Silvertips (16-8-1-0). Harper has 19 on the season, while McGrath got his first two WHL goals in his 11th game this season and the 14th of his career. . . . McGrath scored the game’s first two goals, at 9:53 and 17:12 of the first period. . . . Everett G Kent Simpson stopped 36 shots. . . . Everett was 0-for-3 on the PP; the Ams were 0-for-8. . . . The Americans (19-8-0-0), who opened the season with nine straight home-ice victories, have lost three of their last four at home. . . . The Americans, who lost 4-1 to the visiting Spokane Chiefs on Friday, last lost two in a row at home late in 2007-08. . . . Attendance was 3,956.
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In Portland, F Spencer Bennett scored twice, including the Teddy Bear goal, as the Winterhawks got past the Seattle Thunderbirds of Kent, 5-3. . . . Bennett’s first goal, at 2:52 of the first period, allowed the crowd of 10,197 in the Rose Garden to unleash a storm of stuffed toys. The latest count had 16,321 toys on the ice. . . . Nine seconds after the ice was cleaned off, Seattle F Lindsay Nielsen tied the score. . . . But the Winterhawks (18-12-0-0) got the game’s next two goals and were never caught. . . . Bennett, whose second goal was an empty-netter, has 12 goals this season. . . . Portland freshman F Nino Niederreiter scored his 16th goal. He has six goals and an assist over his last four games. . . . F Prab Rai got his 16th for Seattle (10-16-1-3) to get his side to within a goal early in the third. . . . Seattle G Calvin Pickard stopped 41 shots, while Portland’s Ian Curtis turned aside 23. . . . Portland, which won 6-4 in Kent on Friday, is 5-0-0-0 against Seattle this season. . . . The loss cost Seattle a chance to pull into a tie with the Kamloops Blazers for the Western Conference’s eighth and final playoff spot. . . . Seattle D Jeremy Schappert had his 10-game point streak snapped. He had 16 points, including seven goals, over that stretch.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Questions, questions . . .
Questions, questions . . . we’ve got questions . . .
1. Has any head coach ever had a rougher initiation to the WHL than Guy Charron, who watched his Kamloops Blazers take a 4-0 lead into the third period before losing 6-5 in a shootout to the visiting Kootenay Ice on Friday?
2. How is it that those same Blazers, who are hardly tough to play against, are leading the WHL in penalty minutes again?
3. When Team WHL played the Russians in Kelowna on Thursday night, why wouldn’t the coaching staff simply roll four lines all game long and play whichever line was up on the power play?
4. Or had the decisions already been made as to whose names will be on the list of invitees when Hockey Canada announces Wednesday just who it is who will attend the selection camp in December?
5. What really happened with Tiger Woods and his wife, and how long are we going to have to read and hear about this mess? Will Tiger show up Tuesday for a scheduled news conference that originally was to have kicked off the Chevron World Challenge, a tournament to which he is playing host? Will all of the world’s media put in an appearance?
6. When Lorne Molleken appears on the Saskatoon Blades’ bench at Credit Union Central, does the music man salute the club’s GM/head coach by playing Sharp Dressed Man by ZZ Top?
7. The Regina Pats won again in the U.S. Division on Friday night and now are three games over .500 and up to fifth in the Eastern Conference. Regina is 4-1 on a six-game swing that ends tonight against the Chiefs in Spokane. Is this the road trip on which the Pats discover their mojo?
8. The Brandon Wheat Kings go into Swift Current tonight having won four in a row. Is this the Wheat Kings team everyone has been waiting to see?
9. Thanks to loser points, 15 of the WHL’s 22 teams are shown with winning percentages of .500 or better, when there really are 12 teams with as many or more victories than losses. So far, 56 loser points have been handed out, which is 8.5 per cent of all points. When is someone in hockey going to realize just how badly these loser points distort everything?
10. Is Landon Ferraro back? The Red Deer sniper, who scored 37 goals last season, was bothered by a wonky knee early on. He got his fourth goal of this season on Friday. It looks like about eight teams will battle for the Eastern Conference’s last five playoff spots and he could be a difference-maker.
11. How badly do the Lethbridge Hurricanes miss goaltender Linden Rowat? The 20-year-old has ligament damage in an ankle and won’t play again until after the Christmas break.
12. The Calgary Hitmen lost their third game in a row Friday night, and who saw that coming?
13. And, finally . . . with a name like Steele Boomer, the Kootenay Ice forward has to be tougher than Chuck Norris, doesn’t he?
1. Has any head coach ever had a rougher initiation to the WHL than Guy Charron, who watched his Kamloops Blazers take a 4-0 lead into the third period before losing 6-5 in a shootout to the visiting Kootenay Ice on Friday?
2. How is it that those same Blazers, who are hardly tough to play against, are leading the WHL in penalty minutes again?
3. When Team WHL played the Russians in Kelowna on Thursday night, why wouldn’t the coaching staff simply roll four lines all game long and play whichever line was up on the power play?
4. Or had the decisions already been made as to whose names will be on the list of invitees when Hockey Canada announces Wednesday just who it is who will attend the selection camp in December?
5. What really happened with Tiger Woods and his wife, and how long are we going to have to read and hear about this mess? Will Tiger show up Tuesday for a scheduled news conference that originally was to have kicked off the Chevron World Challenge, a tournament to which he is playing host? Will all of the world’s media put in an appearance?
6. When Lorne Molleken appears on the Saskatoon Blades’ bench at Credit Union Central, does the music man salute the club’s GM/head coach by playing Sharp Dressed Man by ZZ Top?
7. The Regina Pats won again in the U.S. Division on Friday night and now are three games over .500 and up to fifth in the Eastern Conference. Regina is 4-1 on a six-game swing that ends tonight against the Chiefs in Spokane. Is this the road trip on which the Pats discover their mojo?
8. The Brandon Wheat Kings go into Swift Current tonight having won four in a row. Is this the Wheat Kings team everyone has been waiting to see?
9. Thanks to loser points, 15 of the WHL’s 22 teams are shown with winning percentages of .500 or better, when there really are 12 teams with as many or more victories than losses. So far, 56 loser points have been handed out, which is 8.5 per cent of all points. When is someone in hockey going to realize just how badly these loser points distort everything?
10. Is Landon Ferraro back? The Red Deer sniper, who scored 37 goals last season, was bothered by a wonky knee early on. He got his fourth goal of this season on Friday. It looks like about eight teams will battle for the Eastern Conference’s last five playoff spots and he could be a difference-maker.
11. How badly do the Lethbridge Hurricanes miss goaltender Linden Rowat? The 20-year-old has ligament damage in an ankle and won’t play again until after the Christmas break.
12. The Calgary Hitmen lost their third game in a row Friday night, and who saw that coming?
13. And, finally . . . with a name like Steele Boomer, the Kootenay Ice forward has to be tougher than Chuck Norris, doesn’t he?
Keeping Score
Frank McCourt, the owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, is in a messy situation with his soon-to-be ex-wife Jamie. She wants money and he says he doesn’t have any. He told a court the other day that he is low on cash. Sheesh, he admitted that his personal chequing account had all but bottomed out at, yes, $167,000. The last time my chequing account was in that neighbourhood, my wife went shopping. . . . In case you were wondering, a TSN press release points out that the “combined weight in pounds of the CFL on TSN panel” is 1,050. . . . By the way, TSN will have a total of 150 people working Sunday’s Grey Cup telecast from Calgary. . . . Have we yet begun to contemplate the world of afternoon TV without Oprah? Or do we even want to go there? . . . Thankfully, her smiling mug will continue to shine down on us from the cover of her magazine.
“Bud Selig said that next year Major League Baseball will try to have less off-days between playoff games,” notes the Left Coast Sports Babe. “Translation: Fox has decided the World Series going into November hurts their fall schedule.” . . . Ian Hamilton, in the Regina Leader-Post: “Word out of Vancouver says the Canucks are the latest NHL team to jump the queue to get their H1N1 shots. Once again, a group of men suffers the embarrassment of premature inoculation.” . . . The Frick and Frack Tap House was the sight of an interesting gathering on Monday evening. Al Trotter, a decorated veteran and an author, was in some Fast Company as he broke bread with four young Kamloops athletes — speed skating sisters Josie and Tori Spence, race car driver Brendan Langlois and mountain biker Chayse Marshall — as part of a local mentoring program. And wouldn’t it have been great to hear some of those yarns?
Mark Mangino, the, uhh, overweight head football coach at Kansas, had a brain cramp the other day and blasted some parents. Now he is in the eye of a hurricane. . . . Scott Ostler, in the San Francisco Chronicle: “While Kansas football tyrant Mark Mangino is threatening to send his players back to the ghetto, maybe he should consider sending himself back to the salad bar.” . . . David Whitley, over at FanHouse: “In case you missed it, Kansas launched an investigation into Mangino’s alleged tyrannical abuse of football players. We say ‘alleged’ because Mangino apparently ate three of the players set to testify against him.”
So . . . the Kamloops Blazers didn’t hire you as their latest head coach? Perhaps you’re next in line. . . . Let’s be honest. Even if the B.C. Lions could have tackled they wouldn’t have come close to beating the Montreal Alouettes on Sunday. Besides, would there not have been something wrong about a team from Vancouver representing the East in a Grey Cup game played in Calgary? . . . The Lions still came out ahead this season if only because they now have an undisputed No. 1 quarterback in Casey Printers. You are able to win in the NFL without a star at quarterback, but you can’t do it in the CFL. . . . As for Sunday’s big game, take the Alouettes and give whatever points are required. . . . From R.J. Currie, over at sportsdeke.com: “The women ski jumpers hoping to get into the 2010 Olympics lost their case before the B.C. Court of Appeal. They now suggest IOC president Jacques Rogge be the one to take a flying leap.”
Greg Cote, in the Miami Herald: “The Giants’ Tim Lincecum, recently busted for marijuana possession, won the NL High Young award again. Wait. Sorry. I meant Cy Young. A couple of days later, reformed pot-smoker Ricky Williams scored three touchdowns to lead the Dolphins’ big Thursday night victory. Parents, you might want to wait awhile on that talk with your kids about how weed will destroy their bodies and ruin their lives.” . . . One more from Cote: “Remember when Allen Iverson wrote on his Twitter site: ‘God chose Memphis?’ Didn’t quite work out. ‘Even I make mistakes,’ Tweeted God.” . . . Jeff Blair of theglobeandmail.com, after Montreal Canadiens heavy Georges Laraque took out Detroit Red Wings defenceman Niklas Kronwall with a knee-on-knee hit: “No group of professional athletes have less respect for their peers than hockey players. None.”
The only way NASCAR could have added excitement to its last few weeks would have been to have Jimmy Johnson, the old football coach, driving Jimmie Johnson’s car. . . . Eric Francis reports in the Calgary Sun: “Dion Phaneuf’s 15-year-old brother Dane caused a bit of a stir in Edmonton last week when he rubbed out Hayley Wickenheiser in a non-contact exhibition game against the women’s national team. Wickenheiser, 31, took exception to the jarring and let him know by applying a rather violent choke-hold from behind in an effort to try wrestling him to the ice. Dion thought it was funny . . .” The younger Phaneuf’s WHL rights belong to the Prince George Cougars. . . . Social note: Cleveland Browns quarterback Brady Quinn and U.S. gymnast Alicia Sacramone are an item. She has been to Browns games; he has yet to attend a gymnastics meet.
Gregg Drinnan is sports editor of The Daily News. He is at gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca and gdrinnan.blogspot.com. Keeping Score appears Saturdays.
“Bud Selig said that next year Major League Baseball will try to have less off-days between playoff games,” notes the Left Coast Sports Babe. “Translation: Fox has decided the World Series going into November hurts their fall schedule.” . . . Ian Hamilton, in the Regina Leader-Post: “Word out of Vancouver says the Canucks are the latest NHL team to jump the queue to get their H1N1 shots. Once again, a group of men suffers the embarrassment of premature inoculation.” . . . The Frick and Frack Tap House was the sight of an interesting gathering on Monday evening. Al Trotter, a decorated veteran and an author, was in some Fast Company as he broke bread with four young Kamloops athletes — speed skating sisters Josie and Tori Spence, race car driver Brendan Langlois and mountain biker Chayse Marshall — as part of a local mentoring program. And wouldn’t it have been great to hear some of those yarns?
Mark Mangino, the, uhh, overweight head football coach at Kansas, had a brain cramp the other day and blasted some parents. Now he is in the eye of a hurricane. . . . Scott Ostler, in the San Francisco Chronicle: “While Kansas football tyrant Mark Mangino is threatening to send his players back to the ghetto, maybe he should consider sending himself back to the salad bar.” . . . David Whitley, over at FanHouse: “In case you missed it, Kansas launched an investigation into Mangino’s alleged tyrannical abuse of football players. We say ‘alleged’ because Mangino apparently ate three of the players set to testify against him.”
So . . . the Kamloops Blazers didn’t hire you as their latest head coach? Perhaps you’re next in line. . . . Let’s be honest. Even if the B.C. Lions could have tackled they wouldn’t have come close to beating the Montreal Alouettes on Sunday. Besides, would there not have been something wrong about a team from Vancouver representing the East in a Grey Cup game played in Calgary? . . . The Lions still came out ahead this season if only because they now have an undisputed No. 1 quarterback in Casey Printers. You are able to win in the NFL without a star at quarterback, but you can’t do it in the CFL. . . . As for Sunday’s big game, take the Alouettes and give whatever points are required. . . . From R.J. Currie, over at sportsdeke.com: “The women ski jumpers hoping to get into the 2010 Olympics lost their case before the B.C. Court of Appeal. They now suggest IOC president Jacques Rogge be the one to take a flying leap.”
Greg Cote, in the Miami Herald: “The Giants’ Tim Lincecum, recently busted for marijuana possession, won the NL High Young award again. Wait. Sorry. I meant Cy Young. A couple of days later, reformed pot-smoker Ricky Williams scored three touchdowns to lead the Dolphins’ big Thursday night victory. Parents, you might want to wait awhile on that talk with your kids about how weed will destroy their bodies and ruin their lives.” . . . One more from Cote: “Remember when Allen Iverson wrote on his Twitter site: ‘God chose Memphis?’ Didn’t quite work out. ‘Even I make mistakes,’ Tweeted God.” . . . Jeff Blair of theglobeandmail.com, after Montreal Canadiens heavy Georges Laraque took out Detroit Red Wings defenceman Niklas Kronwall with a knee-on-knee hit: “No group of professional athletes have less respect for their peers than hockey players. None.”
The only way NASCAR could have added excitement to its last few weeks would have been to have Jimmy Johnson, the old football coach, driving Jimmie Johnson’s car. . . . Eric Francis reports in the Calgary Sun: “Dion Phaneuf’s 15-year-old brother Dane caused a bit of a stir in Edmonton last week when he rubbed out Hayley Wickenheiser in a non-contact exhibition game against the women’s national team. Wickenheiser, 31, took exception to the jarring and let him know by applying a rather violent choke-hold from behind in an effort to try wrestling him to the ice. Dion thought it was funny . . .” The younger Phaneuf’s WHL rights belong to the Prince George Cougars. . . . Social note: Cleveland Browns quarterback Brady Quinn and U.S. gymnast Alicia Sacramone are an item. She has been to Browns games; he has yet to attend a gymnastics meet.
Gregg Drinnan is sports editor of The Daily News. He is at gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca and gdrinnan.blogspot.com. Keeping Score appears Saturdays.
Friday . . .
FRIDAY:
In Kamloops, the Kootenay Ice erased a 4-0 third-period deficit and beat the Blazers 6-4 in a shootout. . . . The game was the first for Guy Charron since he signed on as the Blazers’ head coach on Monday. . . . Kootenay (12-13-1-1) tied the game 4-4 with four power-play goals and then took a 5-4 lead on F Joe Antilla’s goal at 16:18. . . . Kamloops F Tyler Shattock then tied it with 11.8 seconds left on the clock. . . . F Jesse Ismond won it in the shootout. . . . The Ice is 12-13-1-1. . . . Kamloops G Kurtis Mucha, in his first start since being acquired from the Portland Winterhawks on Sunday, stopped 42 shots. . . . Kootenay was 4-for-8 on the PP; the Blazers were 3-for-7. . . . Attendance was 4,610. . . . The Ice lost D Ryan Molle with a suspected concussion after he was hit by teammate Hayden Rintoul, who was trying to check F JC Lipon, who danced between the two. Molle won’t play Saturday when the Ice meets the Rockets in Kelowna. . . . This was the only meeting of the season between the Ice and Blazers.
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In Brandon, the Wheat Kings fell behind 2-0 in the first behind then came back to beat the Swift Current Broncos, 4-2. . . . The Broncos got first-period goals from F Michael Stickland and F Brad Hoban, before Brandon F Jay Fehr scored at 18:37 of the first period. . . . The Wheat Kings then got second-period goals from D Brodie Melynchuk, F Michael Ferland and F Brayden Schenn. . . . F Scott Glennie and F Aaron Lewadniuk each drew three assists for Brandon (17-10-0-2), which has won four in a row. . . . The Broncos are 13-12-0-2. . . . Attendance was 4,456. . . . Brandon visits Swift Current on Saturday.
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In Chilliwack, F Shane McColgan scored twice to give the Kelowna Rockets a 2-1 victory over the Bruins. . . . F Brandon McMillan assisted on both Kelowna goals. . . . F Dylen McKinlay gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead in the second period. McColgan tied it later in the period and broke a 1-1 tie in the third. . . . G Adam Brown stopped 32 shots for the Rockets (13-13-1-0), who pulled into a sixth-place tie with the Bruins (11-13-1-4) in the Western Conference. . . . Chilliwack G Mark Friesen stopped 27 shots. . . . Attendance was 3,168.
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In Everett, F Jordan Eberle’s three goals sparked the Regina Pats to a 4-2 victory over the Silvertips. . . . Regina (15-12-3-0) was 3-for-5 on the PP, while Everett (15-8-1-0) was 0-for-8. . . . Eberle, who scored the game’s last three goals, moved into the WHL scoring lead, with 50 points, three ahead of Calgary Hitmen F Brandon Kozun. . . . Eberle has 23 goals, one fewer than Cody Eakin of the Swift Current Broncos. . . . Regina G Damien Ketlo stopped 34 shots, including 20 in the third period. . . . Everett G Thomas Heemskerk stopped 36 shots. . . . Attendance was 5,810.
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In Prince Albert, F Ryan Harrison’s eighth goal of the season, just 50 seconds into overtime, gave the Raiders a 3-2 victory over the Calgary Hitmen. . . . Calgary F Joel Broda forced OT with his 12th goal at 19:53 of the third period. . . . The Raiders (14-12-1-2) are 10-3-0-1 at home. . . . The Hitmen (19-8-1-0) have lost three in a row. . . . Attendance was 2,204.
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In Kent, Wash., F Nino Niederreiter scored two goals and set up two others as the Portland Winter Hawks scored a 6-4 victory over the Seattle Thunderbirds. . . . Portland is 4-0 against Seattle this season with one of the victories coming in a shootout. . . . Seattle led this one 4-1 midway in the second period. . . . Portland D Taylor Aronson broke a 4-4 tie with his second goal of the game and his second of the season at 13:20 of the third period on the PP. . . . . F Prab Rai had a goal and an assist for Seattle. He has 20 points in 11 November games. . . . Seattle D Jeremy Schappert scored his eighth goal of the season on a second-period penalty shot. . . . The Winterhawks (17-12-0-0) had lost four in a row. . . . Seattle (10-15-1-3) went in having won six of eight. . . . Attendance was 4,213.
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In Prince George, F Craig Cunningham’s goal at 19:28 of the third period broke a 4-4 tie and gave the Vancouver Giants a 5-4 victory over the Cougars. . . . Cunningham also had two assists. . . . The Cougars (4-19-1-1) took a 3-2 lead into the third period but Vancouver tied it on D Kevin Connauton’s PP goal six seconds into the frame. . . . F Brett Connolly, who had missed all but seven games this season because of a hip injury and then strep throat, gave the Cougars the lead, only to have Connauton tie it with another PP goalat 9:25. . . . F Garry Nunn, playing his first game of the season for Vancouver (17-8-1-2) after recovering from a broken leg and ligament damage in an ankle, had one goal. . . . F Spencer Asuchak, acquired by the Cougars from the Tri-City Americans earlier in the week, had a goal in his first game for P.G. . . . Vancouver was 3-for-6 on the PP; Prince George was 0-for-7. . . . Attendance was 2,074. . . . Vancouver is 5-2-1-2 on the road. It is playing a lot of home games in the first half of the schedule because it will have to vacate its building in January for the Olympic Winter Games.
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In Red Deer, F Andrej Kudrna had a goal and two assists to lead the Rebels to a 4-1 victory over the Moose Jaw Warriors. . . . Kudrna’s 13th goal of the season, at 9:22 of the second period, broke a 1-1 tie. . . . Attendance was 4,355. . . . The Rebels improved to 13-13-0-0, while the Warriors now are 15-10-1-1 and have lost four in a row. . . . Moose Jaw F Jason Bast, who had surgery this week to repair a broken bone in his face, is back skating but didn’t play. He isn’t expected to play Saturday in Edmonton.
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In Saskatoon, F Derek Hulak, the first shooter in the fifth round of the shootout, scored to give the Blades a 3-2 victory over the Lethbridge Hurricanes. . . . Lethbridge led 2-0 on a PP goal from F Carter Ashton, at 8:40 of the first, and a shorthanded goal by F Craig Orfino, at 6:17 of the second. . . . Saskatoon got PP goals from F Jeremy Boyer, at 7:24 of the second, and F Walker Wintoneak, at 7:31 of the third. . . . Saskatoon (20-3-0-3) became the first team to 20 victories, with the Calgary Hitmen and Tri-City Americans both losing to remain at 19. . . . Saskatoon has won five in a row and is 11-1-0-0 at home. . . . The Hurricanes (8-14-3-1) have lost five straight. . . . Attendance was 4,170.
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In Kennewick, Wash., G James Reid stopped 41 shots to lead the Spokane Chiefs to a 4-1 victory over the host Tri-City Americans. . . . The Chiefs (15-8-2-0) have won nine of their last 12. . . . The Chiefs (15-8-2-0) and Americans (19-7-0-0) have evenly split four games this season. They’ll meet eight more times. . . . The Chiefs got off to a great start when F Tyler Johnson scored shorthanded at 3:09 of the first period. . . . Tri-City G Drew Owsley stopped a career-high 43 shots. . . . Tri-City had a 20-5 edge in third-period shots. . . . Reid lost his shutout bid when F Brendan Shinnimin scored on the PP at 13:57 of the third period. . . . Reid has not allowed more than one goal in eight of his last 10 starts. . . . Spokane was 1-for-7 on the PP; Tri-City was 1-for-9. . . . Attendance was 5,265, the largest crowd of the season in the Toyota Centre.
In Kamloops, the Kootenay Ice erased a 4-0 third-period deficit and beat the Blazers 6-4 in a shootout. . . . The game was the first for Guy Charron since he signed on as the Blazers’ head coach on Monday. . . . Kootenay (12-13-1-1) tied the game 4-4 with four power-play goals and then took a 5-4 lead on F Joe Antilla’s goal at 16:18. . . . Kamloops F Tyler Shattock then tied it with 11.8 seconds left on the clock. . . . F Jesse Ismond won it in the shootout. . . . The Ice is 12-13-1-1. . . . Kamloops G Kurtis Mucha, in his first start since being acquired from the Portland Winterhawks on Sunday, stopped 42 shots. . . . Kootenay was 4-for-8 on the PP; the Blazers were 3-for-7. . . . Attendance was 4,610. . . . The Ice lost D Ryan Molle with a suspected concussion after he was hit by teammate Hayden Rintoul, who was trying to check F JC Lipon, who danced between the two. Molle won’t play Saturday when the Ice meets the Rockets in Kelowna. . . . This was the only meeting of the season between the Ice and Blazers.
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In Brandon, the Wheat Kings fell behind 2-0 in the first behind then came back to beat the Swift Current Broncos, 4-2. . . . The Broncos got first-period goals from F Michael Stickland and F Brad Hoban, before Brandon F Jay Fehr scored at 18:37 of the first period. . . . The Wheat Kings then got second-period goals from D Brodie Melynchuk, F Michael Ferland and F Brayden Schenn. . . . F Scott Glennie and F Aaron Lewadniuk each drew three assists for Brandon (17-10-0-2), which has won four in a row. . . . The Broncos are 13-12-0-2. . . . Attendance was 4,456. . . . Brandon visits Swift Current on Saturday.
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In Chilliwack, F Shane McColgan scored twice to give the Kelowna Rockets a 2-1 victory over the Bruins. . . . F Brandon McMillan assisted on both Kelowna goals. . . . F Dylen McKinlay gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead in the second period. McColgan tied it later in the period and broke a 1-1 tie in the third. . . . G Adam Brown stopped 32 shots for the Rockets (13-13-1-0), who pulled into a sixth-place tie with the Bruins (11-13-1-4) in the Western Conference. . . . Chilliwack G Mark Friesen stopped 27 shots. . . . Attendance was 3,168.
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In Everett, F Jordan Eberle’s three goals sparked the Regina Pats to a 4-2 victory over the Silvertips. . . . Regina (15-12-3-0) was 3-for-5 on the PP, while Everett (15-8-1-0) was 0-for-8. . . . Eberle, who scored the game’s last three goals, moved into the WHL scoring lead, with 50 points, three ahead of Calgary Hitmen F Brandon Kozun. . . . Eberle has 23 goals, one fewer than Cody Eakin of the Swift Current Broncos. . . . Regina G Damien Ketlo stopped 34 shots, including 20 in the third period. . . . Everett G Thomas Heemskerk stopped 36 shots. . . . Attendance was 5,810.
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In Prince Albert, F Ryan Harrison’s eighth goal of the season, just 50 seconds into overtime, gave the Raiders a 3-2 victory over the Calgary Hitmen. . . . Calgary F Joel Broda forced OT with his 12th goal at 19:53 of the third period. . . . The Raiders (14-12-1-2) are 10-3-0-1 at home. . . . The Hitmen (19-8-1-0) have lost three in a row. . . . Attendance was 2,204.
———
In Kent, Wash., F Nino Niederreiter scored two goals and set up two others as the Portland Winter Hawks scored a 6-4 victory over the Seattle Thunderbirds. . . . Portland is 4-0 against Seattle this season with one of the victories coming in a shootout. . . . Seattle led this one 4-1 midway in the second period. . . . Portland D Taylor Aronson broke a 4-4 tie with his second goal of the game and his second of the season at 13:20 of the third period on the PP. . . . . F Prab Rai had a goal and an assist for Seattle. He has 20 points in 11 November games. . . . Seattle D Jeremy Schappert scored his eighth goal of the season on a second-period penalty shot. . . . The Winterhawks (17-12-0-0) had lost four in a row. . . . Seattle (10-15-1-3) went in having won six of eight. . . . Attendance was 4,213.
———
In Prince George, F Craig Cunningham’s goal at 19:28 of the third period broke a 4-4 tie and gave the Vancouver Giants a 5-4 victory over the Cougars. . . . Cunningham also had two assists. . . . The Cougars (4-19-1-1) took a 3-2 lead into the third period but Vancouver tied it on D Kevin Connauton’s PP goal six seconds into the frame. . . . F Brett Connolly, who had missed all but seven games this season because of a hip injury and then strep throat, gave the Cougars the lead, only to have Connauton tie it with another PP goalat 9:25. . . . F Garry Nunn, playing his first game of the season for Vancouver (17-8-1-2) after recovering from a broken leg and ligament damage in an ankle, had one goal. . . . F Spencer Asuchak, acquired by the Cougars from the Tri-City Americans earlier in the week, had a goal in his first game for P.G. . . . Vancouver was 3-for-6 on the PP; Prince George was 0-for-7. . . . Attendance was 2,074. . . . Vancouver is 5-2-1-2 on the road. It is playing a lot of home games in the first half of the schedule because it will have to vacate its building in January for the Olympic Winter Games.
———
In Red Deer, F Andrej Kudrna had a goal and two assists to lead the Rebels to a 4-1 victory over the Moose Jaw Warriors. . . . Kudrna’s 13th goal of the season, at 9:22 of the second period, broke a 1-1 tie. . . . Attendance was 4,355. . . . The Rebels improved to 13-13-0-0, while the Warriors now are 15-10-1-1 and have lost four in a row. . . . Moose Jaw F Jason Bast, who had surgery this week to repair a broken bone in his face, is back skating but didn’t play. He isn’t expected to play Saturday in Edmonton.
———
In Saskatoon, F Derek Hulak, the first shooter in the fifth round of the shootout, scored to give the Blades a 3-2 victory over the Lethbridge Hurricanes. . . . Lethbridge led 2-0 on a PP goal from F Carter Ashton, at 8:40 of the first, and a shorthanded goal by F Craig Orfino, at 6:17 of the second. . . . Saskatoon got PP goals from F Jeremy Boyer, at 7:24 of the second, and F Walker Wintoneak, at 7:31 of the third. . . . Saskatoon (20-3-0-3) became the first team to 20 victories, with the Calgary Hitmen and Tri-City Americans both losing to remain at 19. . . . Saskatoon has won five in a row and is 11-1-0-0 at home. . . . The Hurricanes (8-14-3-1) have lost five straight. . . . Attendance was 4,170.
———
In Kennewick, Wash., G James Reid stopped 41 shots to lead the Spokane Chiefs to a 4-1 victory over the host Tri-City Americans. . . . The Chiefs (15-8-2-0) have won nine of their last 12. . . . The Chiefs (15-8-2-0) and Americans (19-7-0-0) have evenly split four games this season. They’ll meet eight more times. . . . The Chiefs got off to a great start when F Tyler Johnson scored shorthanded at 3:09 of the first period. . . . Tri-City G Drew Owsley stopped a career-high 43 shots. . . . Tri-City had a 20-5 edge in third-period shots. . . . Reid lost his shutout bid when F Brendan Shinnimin scored on the PP at 13:57 of the third period. . . . Reid has not allowed more than one goal in eight of his last 10 starts. . . . Spokane was 1-for-7 on the PP; Tri-City was 1-for-9. . . . Attendance was 5,265, the largest crowd of the season in the Toyota Centre.
Blazers cough one up to Ice
By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
Just when you think you’ve seen it all, the Kamloops Blazers reach into their bag of tricks and — PRESTO! — they show you something new.
Like Friday night, when they coughed up a hair ball bigger than a puddy tat and dropped a 6-5 shootout decision to the Kootenay Ice in a WHL game played before 4,610 mostly disbelieving fans at Interior Savings Centre.
The loser point left the Blazers (11-13-2-2) with 26 points and in sole possession of the Western Conference’s eighth and final playoff spot. They are two points ahead of the Seattle Thunderbirds and one behind the Kelowna Rockets and Chilliwack Bruins. The Blazers are in Chilliwack tonight.
Last night, the Blazers took a 4-0 lead into the third period and looked as calm, cool and collected as George Clooney on a red carpet.
But the Ice (12-13-1-1), which had given up three power-play goals in falling behind 4-0 by 3:55 of the second period, wouldn’t go away.
“All I said was, ‘If we get one early, who knows?’ ” offered Ice head coach Mark Holick. “You get one and then all of a sudden you get another one.”
And another one and another one and another one . . .
And when left-winger Jesse Ismond, with three goals this season, scores in the shootout, you get the victory.
Guy Charron, who signed on Monday as the Blazers’ fifth head coach in 106 weeks, got a bird’s-eye view of what has ailed his club.
The Blazers are easily the WHL’s most-penalized team and their overworked penalty killers are ranked 21st of 22 teams.
“We have to avoid putting ourselves in that kind of predicament,” Charron said. “We scored on our power play, they scored on their power play. Unfortunately, they scored to give them momentum.”
The Ice finished up 4-for-8 with the man advantage, while the Blazers were 3-for-7.
Brendan Ranford, with two, C.J. Stretch and Ryan Funk, who was acquired Monday from the Vancouver Giants, scored to give the Blazers a fat 4-0 lead before the game was 24 minutes old.
However, Ice captain Dustin Sylvester, who is not related to the puddy tat, scored on a power play just 31 seconds into the third period and the visitors were rolling.
Steele Boomer, Brayden McNabb and Sylvester, again, scored three more PP goals and the Ice had the score tied at 11:42.
When right-winger Joe Antilla scored at 16:17, it looked as though the Ice was going to steal away with this one.
However, Kamloops captain Tyler Shattock took a nifty pass from centre Dalibor Bortnak and beat goaltender Todd Mathews with 11.8 seconds left on the clock to force overtime.
In the shootout, the Blazers got a goal from Shayne Wiebe, but the Ice got goals from Sylvester and Isfeld and took the two points.
“I thought we lost a lot of battles,” Charron said after his squad was outshot 47-28. “They basically just threw the puck at the net. We know the area we have to be better . . . defensively . . . but it comes down to winning the battles one-on-one.”
The new head coach also took time to let his players know that there isn’t a whole lot of time for this learning process to take hold.
“I don’t know about patience,” he said. “We’re at the stage of the season . . . you can’t go into the third period and give up four goals. Certainly, there were four power-play goals, but there has to be better discipline.
“These guys are going to have to catch on a little bit quicker.”
“We were really good for two periods,” Shattock said, “but obviously two periods isn’t enough in this league. Discipline was an issue again.”
Goaltender Kurtis Mucha, who was acquired from the Portland Winterhawks on Sunday, was fine in his Blazers debut. He stopped 42 shots but then, as Shattock said, “We kind of left him high and dry in the third period.”
Mathews, who had started the Ice’s previous 12 games, turned aside 19 of 21 shots after coming in for Nathan Lieuwen following the Blazers’ third goal.
Lieuwen, who has been trying to come back from a neck strain that was causing headaches, stopped four of seven shots in his first start since Oct. 23.
JUST NOTES: Referees Jeff Ingram and Graham Skilliter gave the Blazers 15 of 28 minors and two of four majors. The Ice took the lone misconduct. . . . The Ice lost D Ryan Molle to a suspected concussion midway through the first period when he was drilled by teammate Hayden Rintoul, who was trying to hit a darting JC Lipon. Molle will sit out the Ice’s game tonight in Kelowna against the Rockets. . . . The Daily News Three Stars: 1. Sylvester — wouldn’t let his guys quit; 2. Shattock — good night capped by big goal to force OT; 3. McNabb — leads the Ice from the back end. . . . Kamloops D Bronson Maschmeyer drew four assists, three of them on the PP.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
gdrinnan.blogspot.com
Daily News Sports Editor
Just when you think you’ve seen it all, the Kamloops Blazers reach into their bag of tricks and — PRESTO! — they show you something new.
Like Friday night, when they coughed up a hair ball bigger than a puddy tat and dropped a 6-5 shootout decision to the Kootenay Ice in a WHL game played before 4,610 mostly disbelieving fans at Interior Savings Centre.
The loser point left the Blazers (11-13-2-2) with 26 points and in sole possession of the Western Conference’s eighth and final playoff spot. They are two points ahead of the Seattle Thunderbirds and one behind the Kelowna Rockets and Chilliwack Bruins. The Blazers are in Chilliwack tonight.
Last night, the Blazers took a 4-0 lead into the third period and looked as calm, cool and collected as George Clooney on a red carpet.
But the Ice (12-13-1-1), which had given up three power-play goals in falling behind 4-0 by 3:55 of the second period, wouldn’t go away.
“All I said was, ‘If we get one early, who knows?’ ” offered Ice head coach Mark Holick. “You get one and then all of a sudden you get another one.”
And another one and another one and another one . . .
And when left-winger Jesse Ismond, with three goals this season, scores in the shootout, you get the victory.
Guy Charron, who signed on Monday as the Blazers’ fifth head coach in 106 weeks, got a bird’s-eye view of what has ailed his club.
The Blazers are easily the WHL’s most-penalized team and their overworked penalty killers are ranked 21st of 22 teams.
“We have to avoid putting ourselves in that kind of predicament,” Charron said. “We scored on our power play, they scored on their power play. Unfortunately, they scored to give them momentum.”
The Ice finished up 4-for-8 with the man advantage, while the Blazers were 3-for-7.
Brendan Ranford, with two, C.J. Stretch and Ryan Funk, who was acquired Monday from the Vancouver Giants, scored to give the Blazers a fat 4-0 lead before the game was 24 minutes old.
However, Ice captain Dustin Sylvester, who is not related to the puddy tat, scored on a power play just 31 seconds into the third period and the visitors were rolling.
Steele Boomer, Brayden McNabb and Sylvester, again, scored three more PP goals and the Ice had the score tied at 11:42.
When right-winger Joe Antilla scored at 16:17, it looked as though the Ice was going to steal away with this one.
However, Kamloops captain Tyler Shattock took a nifty pass from centre Dalibor Bortnak and beat goaltender Todd Mathews with 11.8 seconds left on the clock to force overtime.
In the shootout, the Blazers got a goal from Shayne Wiebe, but the Ice got goals from Sylvester and Isfeld and took the two points.
“I thought we lost a lot of battles,” Charron said after his squad was outshot 47-28. “They basically just threw the puck at the net. We know the area we have to be better . . . defensively . . . but it comes down to winning the battles one-on-one.”
The new head coach also took time to let his players know that there isn’t a whole lot of time for this learning process to take hold.
“I don’t know about patience,” he said. “We’re at the stage of the season . . . you can’t go into the third period and give up four goals. Certainly, there were four power-play goals, but there has to be better discipline.
“These guys are going to have to catch on a little bit quicker.”
“We were really good for two periods,” Shattock said, “but obviously two periods isn’t enough in this league. Discipline was an issue again.”
Goaltender Kurtis Mucha, who was acquired from the Portland Winterhawks on Sunday, was fine in his Blazers debut. He stopped 42 shots but then, as Shattock said, “We kind of left him high and dry in the third period.”
Mathews, who had started the Ice’s previous 12 games, turned aside 19 of 21 shots after coming in for Nathan Lieuwen following the Blazers’ third goal.
Lieuwen, who has been trying to come back from a neck strain that was causing headaches, stopped four of seven shots in his first start since Oct. 23.
JUST NOTES: Referees Jeff Ingram and Graham Skilliter gave the Blazers 15 of 28 minors and two of four majors. The Ice took the lone misconduct. . . . The Ice lost D Ryan Molle to a suspected concussion midway through the first period when he was drilled by teammate Hayden Rintoul, who was trying to hit a darting JC Lipon. Molle will sit out the Ice’s game tonight in Kelowna against the Rockets. . . . The Daily News Three Stars: 1. Sylvester — wouldn’t let his guys quit; 2. Shattock — good night capped by big goal to force OT; 3. McNabb — leads the Ice from the back end. . . . Kamloops D Bronson Maschmeyer drew four assists, three of them on the PP.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
gdrinnan.blogspot.com
Friday, November 27, 2009
Schenn update
C Brayden Schenn has made it from Vancouver to Brandon and will play for the Wheat Kings tonight against the visiting Swift Current Broncos. The Los Angeles Kings, who selected Schenn with the fifth pick in the 2009 NHL draft, signed him to an amateur tryout contract and he made his NHL debut in a 4-1 loss to the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday night. Schenn, who wore No. 55, played 12 minutes 31 seconds and finished minus-1.
Hamilton update
F Curtis Hamilton of the Saskatoon Blades will be out for up to six weeks after suffering what I'm told is a cracked collarbone during Team WHL's 4-2 victory over that touring Russian team in Kelowna. Hamilton, who is in his draft year, was injured about six minutes into the second period when he appeared to lose an edge and slid hard into the boards to his left of the Russian net.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Thursday . . .
As the injuries continue to mount throughout the sporting world, but especially in football and hockey, I continue to wonder if the frantic offseason training regimens don’t play a part. I am hardly an expert but have watched in awe as athletes have gone from spending summers at the beach to spending them in gyms covered in perspiration.
Is it not possible that with most athletes working out and/or competing for at least 11 months of the year that maybe, just maybe, there are body parts that become fatigued and simply break down?
But I wonder if those days aren’t coming to an end? Or, if, at least, a change is in the offing?
Here’s Sports Illustrated’s Peter King, after chatting with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell:
He said he thinks organized offseason conditioning has spiraled out of control. (And bully for him on this — it's ridiculous how year-round a job playing and coaching has become.)
"I'm a firm believer that players are overworked in the offseason,'' Goodell said. "They probably need to get away from the game a little bit more. And when they're away, they probably work harder.
"There needs to be limitations in the offseason with respect to the type of work, and how much work, is done. . . .”
(If you’re an NFL fan and don’t check out King’s Monday Morning Quarterback, his weekly roundup of NFL action, well, you’re cheating yourself.)
———
Sometimes the dream just never dies, as in the case of F Ryan Keller (Saskatoon, 2001-05), who was recalled from the AHL’s Binghamton Senators and made his NHL debut Wednesday with Ottawa against the host New Jersey Devils.
Here’s the Ottawa Sun’s Chris Stevenson:
After spending a couple of years playing in Finland, Ryan Keller signed with the Binghamton Senators to chase his dream of playing in the NHL. He got his shot Wednesday night as he made his NHL debut with the Senators after Mike Fisher hurt himself in practice Tuesday. “I loved very minute of it,” he said of his time overseas, “and I’d go back in a heartbeat. But its every player’s dream to play in the NHL. I kind of feel like I made the right decision because I’m getting this opportunity.” Keller, 25, has been having a great season in Bingo, leading the team in scoring with 13 goals and nine assists in 20 games. It was a whirlwind for him after the getting the callup Monday night. “I don’t know if it’s sunk in yet,” he said. “It’s a game played between the boards. I’m just going to forget everything else . . . it’s the same game you played as a kid.” . . . Keller’s dad, Mark, managed to make it in from Saskatoon to see his son’s debut. Good for him.
———
F Marek Viedensky of the Prince George Cougars will play in the 2010 World Junior Championship, the second straight season in which he has played for the Slovakian entry. Viedensky, 19, had four assists in seven games as Slovakia finished fourth in the 2009 tournament. . . . The 2010 tournament, which will be centred in Regina and Saskatoon, runs from Dec. 26 through Jan. 5. . . . Viedensky, 19, has 16 points in 21 games with the Cougars. He was a seventh-round pick by the San Jose Sharks in the NHL’s 2009 draft.
———
If you missed it, Brandon Wheat Kings C Brayden Schenn made his NHL debut Thursday night with the Los Angeles Kings. He wore No. 55 as the Kings lost 4-1 to the Canucks in Vancouver. . . . .Schenn, 18, was selected by the Kings with the fifth overall pick in the NHL’s 2009 draft. He became the third-youngest player and the 19th teenager ever to play for the Kings. . . . Schenn has a team-high 28 points in 24 games with the Wheat Kings. . . . He played for Team WHL in its 2-1 victory over a Russian team in Victoria on Wednesday, then signed a one-day amateur tryout deal with the Kings. The Wheat Kings said Friday that they expect him back in Brandon in time to play Friday against the visiting Swift Current Broncos. However, the L.A. Kings’ website reports that Schenn may sign an entry level deal and stay in Tinseltown for a while. . . . The Kings have been rocked by injuries and on Thursday placed F Andrei Loktionov on injured reserve. Loktionov, 19, was recalled from the AHL’s Manchester Monarchs on Wednesday and suffered an upper-body injury that night in a 3-1 victory over the host Edmonton Oilers. He was a fifth-round selection in the 2008 NHL draft.
———
Team WHL got past the Russian side 4-2 in Kelowna on Thursday night, meaning the CHL swept all six games from the visitors in the Subway Super Series. Uhh, maybe it’s not so super. . . . The highlight? That had to be the warm ovation given to WHL honourary captain Gerry Zimmerman, who was Kelowna’s fire chief during the burning summer of 2003. . . . I’m told that Saskatoon Blades F Curtis Hamilton left the game with a shoulder injury and was taken to hospital. There weren’t any further details late Thursday night. Hamilton, who is eligible for the 2010 NHL draft, has 16 points in 25 games with the Blades. He missed 14 games last season with a knee injury. He is the son of Bruce Hamilton, the Kelowna Rockets’ president and general manager and the chairman of the WHL’s board of governors.
———
The QMJHL’s Moncton Wildcats have lost LW Kirill Kabanov (wrist) for up to three months. The freshman Russian had surgery Nov. 19 and hopes to be back by early February. Kabanov, 17, had 14 points in 11 games when he was injured. . . . "I injured my wrist in the playoffs last season (in Russia's Kontinental Hockey League), but I didn't know what it was,” Kabanov told Neil Hodge of the Moncton Times & Transcript. “I only found out when I came here. I should have had the surgery after last season. I had bad medical advice (in Russia).'' . . . Kabanov was No. 2 on the NHL Central Scouting’s list of QMJHL players eligible for the 2010 draft when it was released earlier this month. He was the seventh overall pick in the CHL’s 2009 import draft.
———
F Levi Lind (Regina, 2004-08) is alive and doing well with the Central league’s Columbus Cottonmouths. In fact, he even got a recent taste of ECHL action. Kathy Gierer of the Mobile Ledger-Enquirer has a story on Lind right here. Columbus head coach Jerome Bechard is also a former WHLer, having played in Moose Jaw (1985-90).
———
If you’re hungering for a taste of the game of hockey the way it used to be played, check out this story right here. It’s a November of 1977 piece by Peter Gammons, who was then writing for Sports Illustrated and it’s a dandy.
———
A recent business deal worth $50 million has something of a WHL angle to it. Seacliff Construction Corp. has agreed to purchase the Prince Albert-based Broda Construction Group. Gord Broda, the group’s CEO, is the father of Calgary Hitmen F Joel Broda. There’s a story right here.
Is it not possible that with most athletes working out and/or competing for at least 11 months of the year that maybe, just maybe, there are body parts that become fatigued and simply break down?
But I wonder if those days aren’t coming to an end? Or, if, at least, a change is in the offing?
Here’s Sports Illustrated’s Peter King, after chatting with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell:
He said he thinks organized offseason conditioning has spiraled out of control. (And bully for him on this — it's ridiculous how year-round a job playing and coaching has become.)
"I'm a firm believer that players are overworked in the offseason,'' Goodell said. "They probably need to get away from the game a little bit more. And when they're away, they probably work harder.
"There needs to be limitations in the offseason with respect to the type of work, and how much work, is done. . . .”
(If you’re an NFL fan and don’t check out King’s Monday Morning Quarterback, his weekly roundup of NFL action, well, you’re cheating yourself.)
———
Sometimes the dream just never dies, as in the case of F Ryan Keller (Saskatoon, 2001-05), who was recalled from the AHL’s Binghamton Senators and made his NHL debut Wednesday with Ottawa against the host New Jersey Devils.
Here’s the Ottawa Sun’s Chris Stevenson:
After spending a couple of years playing in Finland, Ryan Keller signed with the Binghamton Senators to chase his dream of playing in the NHL. He got his shot Wednesday night as he made his NHL debut with the Senators after Mike Fisher hurt himself in practice Tuesday. “I loved very minute of it,” he said of his time overseas, “and I’d go back in a heartbeat. But its every player’s dream to play in the NHL. I kind of feel like I made the right decision because I’m getting this opportunity.” Keller, 25, has been having a great season in Bingo, leading the team in scoring with 13 goals and nine assists in 20 games. It was a whirlwind for him after the getting the callup Monday night. “I don’t know if it’s sunk in yet,” he said. “It’s a game played between the boards. I’m just going to forget everything else . . . it’s the same game you played as a kid.” . . . Keller’s dad, Mark, managed to make it in from Saskatoon to see his son’s debut. Good for him.
———
F Marek Viedensky of the Prince George Cougars will play in the 2010 World Junior Championship, the second straight season in which he has played for the Slovakian entry. Viedensky, 19, had four assists in seven games as Slovakia finished fourth in the 2009 tournament. . . . The 2010 tournament, which will be centred in Regina and Saskatoon, runs from Dec. 26 through Jan. 5. . . . Viedensky, 19, has 16 points in 21 games with the Cougars. He was a seventh-round pick by the San Jose Sharks in the NHL’s 2009 draft.
———
If you missed it, Brandon Wheat Kings C Brayden Schenn made his NHL debut Thursday night with the Los Angeles Kings. He wore No. 55 as the Kings lost 4-1 to the Canucks in Vancouver. . . . .Schenn, 18, was selected by the Kings with the fifth overall pick in the NHL’s 2009 draft. He became the third-youngest player and the 19th teenager ever to play for the Kings. . . . Schenn has a team-high 28 points in 24 games with the Wheat Kings. . . . He played for Team WHL in its 2-1 victory over a Russian team in Victoria on Wednesday, then signed a one-day amateur tryout deal with the Kings. The Wheat Kings said Friday that they expect him back in Brandon in time to play Friday against the visiting Swift Current Broncos. However, the L.A. Kings’ website reports that Schenn may sign an entry level deal and stay in Tinseltown for a while. . . . The Kings have been rocked by injuries and on Thursday placed F Andrei Loktionov on injured reserve. Loktionov, 19, was recalled from the AHL’s Manchester Monarchs on Wednesday and suffered an upper-body injury that night in a 3-1 victory over the host Edmonton Oilers. He was a fifth-round selection in the 2008 NHL draft.
———
Team WHL got past the Russian side 4-2 in Kelowna on Thursday night, meaning the CHL swept all six games from the visitors in the Subway Super Series. Uhh, maybe it’s not so super. . . . The highlight? That had to be the warm ovation given to WHL honourary captain Gerry Zimmerman, who was Kelowna’s fire chief during the burning summer of 2003. . . . I’m told that Saskatoon Blades F Curtis Hamilton left the game with a shoulder injury and was taken to hospital. There weren’t any further details late Thursday night. Hamilton, who is eligible for the 2010 NHL draft, has 16 points in 25 games with the Blades. He missed 14 games last season with a knee injury. He is the son of Bruce Hamilton, the Kelowna Rockets’ president and general manager and the chairman of the WHL’s board of governors.
———
The QMJHL’s Moncton Wildcats have lost LW Kirill Kabanov (wrist) for up to three months. The freshman Russian had surgery Nov. 19 and hopes to be back by early February. Kabanov, 17, had 14 points in 11 games when he was injured. . . . "I injured my wrist in the playoffs last season (in Russia's Kontinental Hockey League), but I didn't know what it was,” Kabanov told Neil Hodge of the Moncton Times & Transcript. “I only found out when I came here. I should have had the surgery after last season. I had bad medical advice (in Russia).'' . . . Kabanov was No. 2 on the NHL Central Scouting’s list of QMJHL players eligible for the 2010 draft when it was released earlier this month. He was the seventh overall pick in the CHL’s 2009 import draft.
———
F Levi Lind (Regina, 2004-08) is alive and doing well with the Central league’s Columbus Cottonmouths. In fact, he even got a recent taste of ECHL action. Kathy Gierer of the Mobile Ledger-Enquirer has a story on Lind right here. Columbus head coach Jerome Bechard is also a former WHLer, having played in Moose Jaw (1985-90).
———
If you’re hungering for a taste of the game of hockey the way it used to be played, check out this story right here. It’s a November of 1977 piece by Peter Gammons, who was then writing for Sports Illustrated and it’s a dandy.
———
A recent business deal worth $50 million has something of a WHL angle to it. Seacliff Construction Corp. has agreed to purchase the Prince Albert-based Broda Construction Group. Gord Broda, the group’s CEO, is the father of Calgary Hitmen F Joel Broda. There’s a story right here.
Charron era set to begin in Kamloops
By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
It has been a few years since Guy Charron stood behind a hockey team’s bench as its head coach.
Charron, into his fifth day as the Kamloops Blazers’ head coach, will run the WHL team’s bench tonight as it entertains the Kootenay Ice at Interior Savings Centre.
Butterflies?
“Oh, yeah . . . I’m anxious,” Charron said with a chuckle prior to Thursday’s practice. “It’ll probably be like when you play. The adrenaline is running. Maybe after the first couple of rotations, things will calm down.”
Charron last ran his own bench on April 8, 2001, when he was the interim head coach of the NHL’s Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. On that occasion, the Ducks lost 4-1 to the visiting San Jose Sharks, completing Charron’s 14-26-7-2 run as a replacement for the fired Craig Hartsburg.
By the time the 2001-02 season arrived, Bryan Murray was the Ducks’ head coach and Charron was back to being an assistant coach, a role he filled for 12 NHL seasons with five teams.
It’s because of that experience that the 60-year-old Charron has spent a lot of his first days in Kamloops working to forge a relationship with assistant coaches Scott Ferguson and Geoff Smith.
“I have great support. I can’t say enough about those two guys,” Charron said. “They’ve been very helpful.
“I’ve been an assistant coach for many years. As an assistant coach, you want to feel that you’re part of something. I try to do everything I can for them to be part of this. . . . Right now, we’re working by committee.”
And you can bet they’ll be coaching by committee tonight, too, at least in part because Charron doesn’t yet know everything he wants to know about his personnel, including names.
“I’m a personable guy and when I see someone I like to be able to call them by name,” he said. “I’ll have my card and I’ll be looking at my card before I call the names.”
Charron also is anxious to see his charges in game action, which is completely different from the controlled atmosphere of practice. Like everyone else, he wants to see how the team reacts to the changes that occurred this week, including the departures of veterans Justin Leclerc, Giffen Nyren and Brett Lyon, and the arrivals of Kurtis Mucha and Ryan Funk.
“Right now, everything is rosy,” he said. “The quicker we find a way to stabilize the team and be successful will dictate how the rest of the way goes. . . . It’s a matter of getting everybody on board and believing in each other and performing to the best of their ability.
“The success will dictate how all this goes.”
And that success will depend on the players buying into Charron’s philosophy, which stems from the nine years he spent working with Dave King — five with the Canadian national team and four with the Calgary Flames.
“We as the Olympic team were always faced with the greater challenge in terms of opposition,” Charron explained. “We had to put a strong emphasis on thinking defence first.”
They did that at the 1988 Olympic Winter Games in Calgary, where Canada finished fourth. Charron used that same defence-first philosophy as head coach of Canada’s entry in the 1990 World Junior Championship in Helsinki, Finland.
“The players bought in,” Charron said. Yes, Canada, including former Blazers star winger Dave Chyzowski, won the gold medal in Finland.
With the Blazers, Charron said, “If we can generate success through good defence that’s half our battle.”
Good defence, he stated, is “commitment to do the little things.”
Then he added: “Especially in your own zone. You don’t want people ad-libbing. You don’t take chances in your own zone. You stop. You start. You block shots. You support the puck carrier. You do the little things like that.”
Charron also pointed the finger squarely at the Blazers “skilled players.”
“When a team has struggled defensively . . . this team has a good crop of forwards but they aren’t committed to play defensively,” he said. “You don’t give up 4.6 goals a game and expect to win games even though you think you have a good offence.
“I would put more pressure right now on our skilled players to produce defensively . . . to be committed to defence.”
JUST NOTES: Game time tonight is 7 o’clock. . . . Mucha will make his Blazers debut as he will start tonight against the Ice. . . . The Blazers meet the Bruins in Chilliwack on Saturday, then return home to face the Edmonton Oil Kings on Wednesday. You’re right. The Oil Kings were just here Nov. 6. . . . While the Oil Kings make their second appearance here in less than a month, the Ice will be here for the second time in four years. The Ice last played in Kamloops on Nov. 24, 2007, when it beat the Blazers, 3-2. The Ice lost 4-1 to the Blazers here on Oct. 12, 2005. . . . Leclerc, the ex-Blazers goaltender who cleared WHL waivers on Wednesday, expects to practise for a few days with the TRU WolfPack while he contemplates his immediate future.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
gdrinnan.blogspot.com
The coaching fraternity being the small community that it is, it really isn’t a surprise that Guy Charron, the new head coach of the Kamloops Blazers, has ties to a number of WHL head coaches.
Charron was hired by Craig Hartsburg, who was then Anaheim’s head coach, and ultimately replaced him on an interim basis in 2000-01. Hartsburg now is into his first season as head coach of the Everett Silvertips.
Charron, with the Calgary Flames in the early-1990s, got to know Willie Desjardins, the GM/head coach of the Medicine Hat Tigers, who was then on the coaching staff at the U of Calgary.
While with Anaheim, Charron coached against Vancouver Giants head coach Don Hay, who was the Flames’ head coach in 2000-01, and Mike Johnston, the GM/head coach of the Portland Winterhawks, who was on the Vancouver Canucks’ staff.
Curtis Hunt, the Regina Pats’ head coach, was an assistant coach with Charron, who was the head coach of the IHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins about 10 years ago.
Charron, then with the Montreal Canadiens, coached against Lorne Molleken, the GM/head coach of the Saskatoon Blades, who was an assistant with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2003-04. They since have met on occasion in no small part because both men are married to women from Regina.
———
Hartsburg and Hunt will renew acquaintances Friday night in Everett. And who would have thought a year ago that that would happen?
A year ago, Hartsburg was the head coach of the NHL’s Ottawa Senators and Hunt was one of his assistants. Hunt also worked under Hunt with Canada’s national junior team as it won gold at the 2007 and 2008 World Junior Championship.
The run in Ottawa ended during last season when Hartsburg was fired and Hunt ended up as head coach of the AHL’s Binghamton Senators. He replaced former Kootenay Ice head coach Cory Clouston, who took over in Ottawa.
“I have the advantage because I know what (Hartsburg) does but he doesn’t know what we do,” a chuckling Hunt told the Regina Leader-Post’s Greg Harder. “I have it circled (on the calendar). I want to beat him. I’m sure we’ll have an opportunity to shoot the breeze a little bit before business kicks in. I’d go through the wall for Hartsy. He’s a good person, he’s a good coach and I’m excited to match up against him.”
Daily News Sports Editor
It has been a few years since Guy Charron stood behind a hockey team’s bench as its head coach.
Charron, into his fifth day as the Kamloops Blazers’ head coach, will run the WHL team’s bench tonight as it entertains the Kootenay Ice at Interior Savings Centre.
Butterflies?
“Oh, yeah . . . I’m anxious,” Charron said with a chuckle prior to Thursday’s practice. “It’ll probably be like when you play. The adrenaline is running. Maybe after the first couple of rotations, things will calm down.”
Charron last ran his own bench on April 8, 2001, when he was the interim head coach of the NHL’s Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. On that occasion, the Ducks lost 4-1 to the visiting San Jose Sharks, completing Charron’s 14-26-7-2 run as a replacement for the fired Craig Hartsburg.
By the time the 2001-02 season arrived, Bryan Murray was the Ducks’ head coach and Charron was back to being an assistant coach, a role he filled for 12 NHL seasons with five teams.
It’s because of that experience that the 60-year-old Charron has spent a lot of his first days in Kamloops working to forge a relationship with assistant coaches Scott Ferguson and Geoff Smith.
“I have great support. I can’t say enough about those two guys,” Charron said. “They’ve been very helpful.
“I’ve been an assistant coach for many years. As an assistant coach, you want to feel that you’re part of something. I try to do everything I can for them to be part of this. . . . Right now, we’re working by committee.”
And you can bet they’ll be coaching by committee tonight, too, at least in part because Charron doesn’t yet know everything he wants to know about his personnel, including names.
“I’m a personable guy and when I see someone I like to be able to call them by name,” he said. “I’ll have my card and I’ll be looking at my card before I call the names.”
Charron also is anxious to see his charges in game action, which is completely different from the controlled atmosphere of practice. Like everyone else, he wants to see how the team reacts to the changes that occurred this week, including the departures of veterans Justin Leclerc, Giffen Nyren and Brett Lyon, and the arrivals of Kurtis Mucha and Ryan Funk.
“Right now, everything is rosy,” he said. “The quicker we find a way to stabilize the team and be successful will dictate how the rest of the way goes. . . . It’s a matter of getting everybody on board and believing in each other and performing to the best of their ability.
“The success will dictate how all this goes.”
And that success will depend on the players buying into Charron’s philosophy, which stems from the nine years he spent working with Dave King — five with the Canadian national team and four with the Calgary Flames.
“We as the Olympic team were always faced with the greater challenge in terms of opposition,” Charron explained. “We had to put a strong emphasis on thinking defence first.”
They did that at the 1988 Olympic Winter Games in Calgary, where Canada finished fourth. Charron used that same defence-first philosophy as head coach of Canada’s entry in the 1990 World Junior Championship in Helsinki, Finland.
“The players bought in,” Charron said. Yes, Canada, including former Blazers star winger Dave Chyzowski, won the gold medal in Finland.
With the Blazers, Charron said, “If we can generate success through good defence that’s half our battle.”
Good defence, he stated, is “commitment to do the little things.”
Then he added: “Especially in your own zone. You don’t want people ad-libbing. You don’t take chances in your own zone. You stop. You start. You block shots. You support the puck carrier. You do the little things like that.”
Charron also pointed the finger squarely at the Blazers “skilled players.”
“When a team has struggled defensively . . . this team has a good crop of forwards but they aren’t committed to play defensively,” he said. “You don’t give up 4.6 goals a game and expect to win games even though you think you have a good offence.
“I would put more pressure right now on our skilled players to produce defensively . . . to be committed to defence.”
JUST NOTES: Game time tonight is 7 o’clock. . . . Mucha will make his Blazers debut as he will start tonight against the Ice. . . . The Blazers meet the Bruins in Chilliwack on Saturday, then return home to face the Edmonton Oil Kings on Wednesday. You’re right. The Oil Kings were just here Nov. 6. . . . While the Oil Kings make their second appearance here in less than a month, the Ice will be here for the second time in four years. The Ice last played in Kamloops on Nov. 24, 2007, when it beat the Blazers, 3-2. The Ice lost 4-1 to the Blazers here on Oct. 12, 2005. . . . Leclerc, the ex-Blazers goaltender who cleared WHL waivers on Wednesday, expects to practise for a few days with the TRU WolfPack while he contemplates his immediate future.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
gdrinnan.blogspot.com
The coaching fraternity being the small community that it is, it really isn’t a surprise that Guy Charron, the new head coach of the Kamloops Blazers, has ties to a number of WHL head coaches.
Charron was hired by Craig Hartsburg, who was then Anaheim’s head coach, and ultimately replaced him on an interim basis in 2000-01. Hartsburg now is into his first season as head coach of the Everett Silvertips.
Charron, with the Calgary Flames in the early-1990s, got to know Willie Desjardins, the GM/head coach of the Medicine Hat Tigers, who was then on the coaching staff at the U of Calgary.
While with Anaheim, Charron coached against Vancouver Giants head coach Don Hay, who was the Flames’ head coach in 2000-01, and Mike Johnston, the GM/head coach of the Portland Winterhawks, who was on the Vancouver Canucks’ staff.
Curtis Hunt, the Regina Pats’ head coach, was an assistant coach with Charron, who was the head coach of the IHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins about 10 years ago.
Charron, then with the Montreal Canadiens, coached against Lorne Molleken, the GM/head coach of the Saskatoon Blades, who was an assistant with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2003-04. They since have met on occasion in no small part because both men are married to women from Regina.
———
Hartsburg and Hunt will renew acquaintances Friday night in Everett. And who would have thought a year ago that that would happen?
A year ago, Hartsburg was the head coach of the NHL’s Ottawa Senators and Hunt was one of his assistants. Hunt also worked under Hunt with Canada’s national junior team as it won gold at the 2007 and 2008 World Junior Championship.
The run in Ottawa ended during last season when Hartsburg was fired and Hunt ended up as head coach of the AHL’s Binghamton Senators. He replaced former Kootenay Ice head coach Cory Clouston, who took over in Ottawa.
“I have the advantage because I know what (Hartsburg) does but he doesn’t know what we do,” a chuckling Hunt told the Regina Leader-Post’s Greg Harder. “I have it circled (on the calendar). I want to beat him. I’m sure we’ll have an opportunity to shoot the breeze a little bit before business kicks in. I’d go through the wall for Hartsy. He’s a good person, he’s a good coach and I’m excited to match up against him.”
The Victoria ????
The most important number from the Super Subway Series game in Victoria on Wednesday night wasn’t the score.
Yes, Team WHL beat the Russians 2-1, marking the 12th victory in 13 games for the westerners.
The number that really mattered, however, was the attendance -- 6,695.
Victoria is home to a BCHL franchise, the Grizzlies, who play out of Bear Mountain Arena, and the ECHL’s Salmon Kings, who play out of the 7,000-seat Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre, the same building in which Wednesday’s game was played.
Ron Rauch of the Victoria Times Colonist spent some time chatting with fans on Wednesday and his story is right here.
WHL officials have long said they would love to move back to Vancouver Island -- the Cougars left Victoria for Prince George after the 1993-94 season -- but would only seriously entertain such thoughts were they able to have two franchises on the island.
That, of course, means Victoria and Nanaimo. The latter is home to the BCHL’s Clippers, who are owned in part by Bill Gallacher, the owner of the Portland Winterhawks. Nanaimo, however, doesn’t have a facility that meets WHL standards and, despite ample talk over the past number of years, there doesn‘t seem to be one on the drawing boards.
---
The Portland Winterhawks and Swift Current Broncos have confirmed a trade that was reported here early, early on Thursday morning.
And, yes, it was a one-for-one exchange involving two veteran defencemen, with Travis Bobbee heading east for Eric Doyle.
Yes, Team WHL beat the Russians 2-1, marking the 12th victory in 13 games for the westerners.
The number that really mattered, however, was the attendance -- 6,695.
Victoria is home to a BCHL franchise, the Grizzlies, who play out of Bear Mountain Arena, and the ECHL’s Salmon Kings, who play out of the 7,000-seat Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre, the same building in which Wednesday’s game was played.
Ron Rauch of the Victoria Times Colonist spent some time chatting with fans on Wednesday and his story is right here.
WHL officials have long said they would love to move back to Vancouver Island -- the Cougars left Victoria for Prince George after the 1993-94 season -- but would only seriously entertain such thoughts were they able to have two franchises on the island.
That, of course, means Victoria and Nanaimo. The latter is home to the BCHL’s Clippers, who are owned in part by Bill Gallacher, the owner of the Portland Winterhawks. Nanaimo, however, doesn’t have a facility that meets WHL standards and, despite ample talk over the past number of years, there doesn‘t seem to be one on the drawing boards.
---
The Portland Winterhawks and Swift Current Broncos have confirmed a trade that was reported here early, early on Thursday morning.
And, yes, it was a one-for-one exchange involving two veteran defencemen, with Travis Bobbee heading east for Eric Doyle.
Portland, Swift Current make a deal
Portland and Swift Current made a deal late Wednesday that will have D Travis Bobbee, 19, move from the Winterhawks to the Broncos for D Eric Doyle, 20.
A source familiar with the situation said there may also be draft picks involved, but indicated those two players are the main pieces in the exchange.
Bobbee, from Arborg, Man., was selected by the Lethbridge Hurricanes with the 15th overall pick in the 2005 bantam draft. This season, he has eight points in 28 games.
Portland acquired Bobbee two years ago, along with D Ryan Kerr, F Jacob Dietrich and F Nick Dietrich -- yes, they are brothers -- for F Colton Sceviour, F Nick Hotson and D Lucas Alexiuk.
Doyle, from Calgary, was picked by the Everett Silvertips with the 15th selection of the 2004 bantam draft. He has 16 points in 21 games this season.
Everett dealt Doyle to Swift Current in January 2007, getting back F Jordan Mistelbacher, D Dane Crowley and a conditional 2008 third-round draft pick.
Portland had room for a 20-year-old after trading G Kurtis Mucha to the Kamloops Blazers on Monday for a 2010 fourth-round draft pick.
Doyle joins F Chris Francis and F Stefan Schneider as Portland’s 1989-born players.
The Broncos had to make a move as the return of F Matt Tassone from offseason shoulder surgery left them with four 20-year-olds, the other two being F Michael Stickland and D Derek Claffey.
A source familiar with the situation said there may also be draft picks involved, but indicated those two players are the main pieces in the exchange.
Bobbee, from Arborg, Man., was selected by the Lethbridge Hurricanes with the 15th overall pick in the 2005 bantam draft. This season, he has eight points in 28 games.
Portland acquired Bobbee two years ago, along with D Ryan Kerr, F Jacob Dietrich and F Nick Dietrich -- yes, they are brothers -- for F Colton Sceviour, F Nick Hotson and D Lucas Alexiuk.
Doyle, from Calgary, was picked by the Everett Silvertips with the 15th selection of the 2004 bantam draft. He has 16 points in 21 games this season.
Everett dealt Doyle to Swift Current in January 2007, getting back F Jordan Mistelbacher, D Dane Crowley and a conditional 2008 third-round draft pick.
Portland had room for a 20-year-old after trading G Kurtis Mucha to the Kamloops Blazers on Monday for a 2010 fourth-round draft pick.
Doyle joins F Chris Francis and F Stefan Schneider as Portland’s 1989-born players.
The Broncos had to make a move as the return of F Matt Tassone from offseason shoulder surgery left them with four 20-year-olds, the other two being F Michael Stickland and D Derek Claffey.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Wednesday . . .
F Andrej Kudrna of the Red Deer Rebels will play for his native Slovakia at the 2010 World Junior Championship that runs Dec. 26 through Jan. 5 in Regina and Saskatoon. Kudrna, who was acquired from the Vancouver Giants on Oct. 6 for F Cass Mappin, leaves the Rebels on Dec. 15 to head for Prince Albert, the site of Slovakia’s pretournament camp. The 18-yer-old has 25 points in 21 games with the Rebels. . . . Vancouver has two players — D David Musil and F Sebastian Svendsen — invited to national junior team training camps. Musil, 16, will be in the Czech Republic’s tryout camp in Regina starting Dec. 17. He has nine points and is plus-13 in 26 games with the Giants. Svendsen, 18, will go to camp with Denmark in Geneva, Switzerland, on Dec. 9. Denmark plays in the Division 1, Group A tournament in France, Dec. 14-20. He has three goals and is plus-1 in 26 games with the Giants.
———
F Sahir Gill, whose WHL rights belong to the Kamloops Blazers, has committed to attend Boston University next season. Gill, whose rights the Blazers acquired last season from, yes, the Vancouver Giants, is with the USHL’s Chicago Steel. Gill played last season for the junior A champion Vernon, B.C., Vipers and chose to join the Steel shortly after the season ended. Gill, who is from Terrace, B.C., has 20 points in 16 games with the Steel.
———
The Kootenay Ice will be without F Dominick Pacovsky, 19, for up to six weeks after he broke a foot while blocking a shot against the visiting Regina Pats on Friday. Originally, it was thought the foot was bruised, but X-rays have shown a break. He underwent surgery on Monday.
———
The AHL’s San Antonio Rampage has added a couple of former WHLers — D Shaun Heshka and G Justin Pogge — to its roster. . . . Heshka (Everett, 2003-05) was assigned to the Rampage by the NHL’s Phoenix Coyotes. Heshka got into eight games with the Coyotes and recorded two assists — his first two NHL points. . . . The Anaheim Ducks moved Pogge (Prince George, Calgary, 2003-06) from the ECHL’s Bakersfield Condors to the Rampage. Pogge was 6-2-0 with a 2.69 GAA and a .902 save percentage with Bakersfield. No word on whether he likes the Bakersfield sound, though.
———
The Medicine Hat Tigers will be without Czech F Zdenek Okal for up to eight weeks after he needed surgery to repair damage to his right wrist. Okal was injured in Friday’s 6-4 victory over the visiting Prince Albert Raiders when his wrist was slashed by a skate. Tigers associate coach Shaun Clouston told Darren Steinke of the Medicine Hat News: “They had to sew a vein or an artery, I don’t know which one, back together. Then, there was a nick on one of the tendons. It is not severe. There was also a fairly major nerve that had to be put back as well. Basically, he is going to be really careful right now. He is in a cast.” . . . The injury takes Okal out of the World Junior Championship. He was to have attended the Czech team’s training camp. . . . The Tigers picked up F Josh Lazowski, 18, who was with the AJHL’s Spruce Grove Saints, and he likely will play against the Rebels in Red Deer on Saturday. He had 43 points in 29 games with the Saints. Lazowski had two points in 13 games with the Seattle Thunderbirds in 2007-08.
———
WEDNESDAY:
In Kent, Wash., the host Seattle Thunderbirds erased a 1-0 deficit with five straight goals as they beat the Regina Pats, 5-2. . . . D Jeremy Schappert scored Seattle’s last two goals. He has seven. . . . F Prab Rai scored his 14th goal and set up two others for Seattle (10-14-1-3). . . . The Pats (14-12-3-0) got shorthanded goals from F Garrett Mitchell and F Matt Strueby, his 18th. . . . Regina had won five in a row. . . . Seattle was 2-for-7 on the PP; Regina was 0-for-6. . . . Attendance was 3,018. . . . With Seattle G Calvin Pickard playing for Team WHL against a Russian side in Victoria, the Thunderbirds gave Kyle Jahraus a rare stop and he turned aside 26 shots.
———
In Everett, F Tyler Maxwell scored at 2:02 of overtime to give the Silvertips a 4-3 victory over the Spokane Chiefs. . . . F Shane Harper had two goals and an assist for the Silvertips (15-7-1-0). . . . Maxwell’s goal was his 16th, while Harper also has 16. . . . D Jared Spurgeon drew three assists for the Chiefs (14-9-1-0). . . . Attendance was 4,881. . . . Everett was 0-for-5 on the PP; Spokane was 2-for-3. . . . Everett G Kent Simpson stopped 34 shots, two fewer than Spokane’s James Reid. . . . Everett trailed this one 3-1 to start the third period, but forced OT with goals from F Chris Langkow, at 6:19, and Harper, at 7:05. . . . Prior to the game, the Silvertips designated D Drew McDermott, an 18-year-old from Saskatoon, was reassigned earlier in the day. He had three assists in 11 games, after picking up three points in 53 games last season.
———
In Kennewick, Wash., the Tri-City Americans had six different scorers as they beat the Portland Winterhawks, 6-2. . . . Tri-City (19-6-0-0) also had four different players with two assists each, none of whom scored a goal. . . . D Jarrett Toll, F Kruise Reddick, F Johnny Lazo, F Justin Feser, F Neal Prokop and D Brett Plouffe had the goals, while the two-assist men were F Sergei Drozd, F Brooks Macek, F Jordan Messier and F Adam Hughesman. . . . Portland started G Ian Curtis, but he left after giving up two goals on eight shots in the game’s first 7:49. Freshman Mac Carruth came on to turn aside 30 of 34 shots. . . . Tri-City G Drew Owsley stopped 24 shots. . . . Portland F Luke Walker picked up an elbowing major and game misconduct at 17:35 of the third period. . . . The Americans were 3-for-8 on the PP; the Winterhawks (16-12-0-0) were 0-for-4. . . . Portland has lost four in a row. . . . Attendance was 3,764.
———
F Sahir Gill, whose WHL rights belong to the Kamloops Blazers, has committed to attend Boston University next season. Gill, whose rights the Blazers acquired last season from, yes, the Vancouver Giants, is with the USHL’s Chicago Steel. Gill played last season for the junior A champion Vernon, B.C., Vipers and chose to join the Steel shortly after the season ended. Gill, who is from Terrace, B.C., has 20 points in 16 games with the Steel.
———
The Kootenay Ice will be without F Dominick Pacovsky, 19, for up to six weeks after he broke a foot while blocking a shot against the visiting Regina Pats on Friday. Originally, it was thought the foot was bruised, but X-rays have shown a break. He underwent surgery on Monday.
———
The AHL’s San Antonio Rampage has added a couple of former WHLers — D Shaun Heshka and G Justin Pogge — to its roster. . . . Heshka (Everett, 2003-05) was assigned to the Rampage by the NHL’s Phoenix Coyotes. Heshka got into eight games with the Coyotes and recorded two assists — his first two NHL points. . . . The Anaheim Ducks moved Pogge (Prince George, Calgary, 2003-06) from the ECHL’s Bakersfield Condors to the Rampage. Pogge was 6-2-0 with a 2.69 GAA and a .902 save percentage with Bakersfield. No word on whether he likes the Bakersfield sound, though.
———
The Medicine Hat Tigers will be without Czech F Zdenek Okal for up to eight weeks after he needed surgery to repair damage to his right wrist. Okal was injured in Friday’s 6-4 victory over the visiting Prince Albert Raiders when his wrist was slashed by a skate. Tigers associate coach Shaun Clouston told Darren Steinke of the Medicine Hat News: “They had to sew a vein or an artery, I don’t know which one, back together. Then, there was a nick on one of the tendons. It is not severe. There was also a fairly major nerve that had to be put back as well. Basically, he is going to be really careful right now. He is in a cast.” . . . The injury takes Okal out of the World Junior Championship. He was to have attended the Czech team’s training camp. . . . The Tigers picked up F Josh Lazowski, 18, who was with the AJHL’s Spruce Grove Saints, and he likely will play against the Rebels in Red Deer on Saturday. He had 43 points in 29 games with the Saints. Lazowski had two points in 13 games with the Seattle Thunderbirds in 2007-08.
———
WEDNESDAY:
In Kent, Wash., the host Seattle Thunderbirds erased a 1-0 deficit with five straight goals as they beat the Regina Pats, 5-2. . . . D Jeremy Schappert scored Seattle’s last two goals. He has seven. . . . F Prab Rai scored his 14th goal and set up two others for Seattle (10-14-1-3). . . . The Pats (14-12-3-0) got shorthanded goals from F Garrett Mitchell and F Matt Strueby, his 18th. . . . Regina had won five in a row. . . . Seattle was 2-for-7 on the PP; Regina was 0-for-6. . . . Attendance was 3,018. . . . With Seattle G Calvin Pickard playing for Team WHL against a Russian side in Victoria, the Thunderbirds gave Kyle Jahraus a rare stop and he turned aside 26 shots.
———
In Everett, F Tyler Maxwell scored at 2:02 of overtime to give the Silvertips a 4-3 victory over the Spokane Chiefs. . . . F Shane Harper had two goals and an assist for the Silvertips (15-7-1-0). . . . Maxwell’s goal was his 16th, while Harper also has 16. . . . D Jared Spurgeon drew three assists for the Chiefs (14-9-1-0). . . . Attendance was 4,881. . . . Everett was 0-for-5 on the PP; Spokane was 2-for-3. . . . Everett G Kent Simpson stopped 34 shots, two fewer than Spokane’s James Reid. . . . Everett trailed this one 3-1 to start the third period, but forced OT with goals from F Chris Langkow, at 6:19, and Harper, at 7:05. . . . Prior to the game, the Silvertips designated D Drew McDermott, an 18-year-old from Saskatoon, was reassigned earlier in the day. He had three assists in 11 games, after picking up three points in 53 games last season.
———
In Kennewick, Wash., the Tri-City Americans had six different scorers as they beat the Portland Winterhawks, 6-2. . . . Tri-City (19-6-0-0) also had four different players with two assists each, none of whom scored a goal. . . . D Jarrett Toll, F Kruise Reddick, F Johnny Lazo, F Justin Feser, F Neal Prokop and D Brett Plouffe had the goals, while the two-assist men were F Sergei Drozd, F Brooks Macek, F Jordan Messier and F Adam Hughesman. . . . Portland started G Ian Curtis, but he left after giving up two goals on eight shots in the game’s first 7:49. Freshman Mac Carruth came on to turn aside 30 of 34 shots. . . . Tri-City G Drew Owsley stopped 24 shots. . . . Portland F Luke Walker picked up an elbowing major and game misconduct at 17:35 of the third period. . . . The Americans were 3-for-8 on the PP; the Winterhawks (16-12-0-0) were 0-for-4. . . . Portland has lost four in a row. . . . Attendance was 3,764.
Bortnak eager to return, play
By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
While 22 players on the Kamloops Blazers’ roster are preparing for Game No. 28 in the WHL’s regular season, centre Dalibor Bortnak is readying for his home-opener.
Bortnak, an 18-year-old Slovakian in his second season with the Blazers, hasn’t played in a game since Aug. 25 when he suffered a spleen injury during the team’s intrasquad game. He has been cleared to play Friday when the Kootenay Ice pays a visit.
“That was little weird because I hit a guy, no one hit me,” Bortnak recalled of the injury after practice Wednesday at Interior Savings Centre. “I came to the bench and it wasn’t that bad but after a while it was really sore and an ambulance came.
“I first thought I had a broken rib but after a scan they told me my spleen was bleeding.”
Colin Robinson, the Blazers’ athletic therapist, likened the injury to a hairline fracture. He added that a major concern at the time was internal bleeding and pointed out that when medical staff tried rotating Bortnak’s hips, the flow of blood was already posing an impediment.
“Yeah, it was frustrating because it was after summer and one week before NHL camp,” said Bortnak, who had worked hard all summer and was to have gone to camp with the Edmonton Oilers. “I didn’t think it would be that long, but now I am really excited and hungry to play.”
Now, however, after three months of waiting and watching, working out and skating, Bortnak is ready.
“Finally, I am back and I am ready to play,” he said with a smile. “I had lots of practices and I am excited to play again. I will try to help the guys as much as I can.”
Prior to this season, the 6-foot-4, 190-pound Bortnak was projected as the Blazers’ No. 2 centre, behind veteran C.J. Stretch. Bortnak was coming off a freshman season in which he totaled 28 points in 68 games, with 13 of those points coming in 31 post-Christmas games.
“I worked real hard all summer because they told me I was going to an NHL camp,” he said. “I expect more from myself after my first (season) because I’m older and I want to help the team more than the first (season).
“I know the league, I know the people around me. It should be easier for me than the first season.”
Bortnak said he feels “really good,” adding that he has been working hard with skating and off-ice workouts.
“And now I see the team is not doing really well so I am excited to help the team,” he said.
The Blazers haven’t played since Saturday, when they halted a five-game losing streak with a 4-3 shootout victory over the Bruins in Chilliwack. Since then, they have jettisoned goaltender Justin Leclerc, traded for goaltender Kurtis Mucha, traded away defenceman Giffen Nyren and left-winger Brett Lyon, acquired defenceman Ryan Funk and signed a new head coach in Guy Charron.
“We have a couple of changes — a new coach, goalie and defenceman,” Bortnak said. “Hopefully, the team will be improved and I can help.”
Funk, who was acquired from the Vancouver Giants, and Mucha, who came over from the Portland Winterhawks, skated with their new teammates for the second time yesterday.
Afterwards, both likened it to the start of training camp.
With a new coach in town and a couple of new players added to the group, Funk, a 20-year-old from Morden, Man., explained that a lot of it is about “looking to establish relationships.”
“But,” he added, “everything is pretty professional and this looks to me like a very talented group.”
Funk is hopeful that because it’s his fifth season in the WHL — he played four seasons with the Saskatoon Blades — he’ll be able to help in the leadership department and “help with the young guys.”
Mucha said that it’s almost like the start of a new season.
“I get a clean slate and 22 other guys get a clean slate, too, because we’ve got a brand new coach,” Mucha said.
The way Mucha sees it, the Blazers should get a spark from all that has happened of late. And he expects the club to play well in the short term, which seems to be what frequently happens following a coaching change, and then to keep it rolling.
“I don’t want to see a slide,” he said. “I like the fact that I’m coming into a situation where it’s not like we’re chasing teams to get into the playoffs. We are in a playoff spot — I know we haven’t been good lately — but we’re one or two wins from jumping up two or three spots in the standings.”
The Blazers (11-13-2-1) are tied with the Kelowna Rockets for seventh in the 10-team Western Conference. They are two points behind the Chilliwack Bruins and four in back of the Everett Silvertips and Spokane Chiefs.
And just above those two are the Winterhawks with whom Mucha and the Blazers have three games remaining.
“I want to take six points from them,” Mucha said with a smile. “I’m not going to settle for anything less than that.”
The Blazers play host to the Winterhawks on Jan. 13 and travel to Portland on Jan. 20 and Feb. 3.
JUST NOTES: G Justin Leclerc, who was dropped Sunday with the acquisition of Mucha, cleared waivers Wednesday and now is a free agent. He is expected to practice with the BCHL’s Nanaimo Clippers while he decides on his immediate future. . . . Blazers GM Craig Bonner and RW Tyler Shattock left for Kelowna late yesterday afternoon. Shattock will play for Team WHL in a Subway Super Series game against a touring Russian side tonight. . . . The game between the Ice and Blazers here Friday will be televised by Shaw Cable. . . . F Sahir Gill, whose WHL rights were acquired by the Blazers from Vancouver last season, has decided to attend Boston University and play for the Terriers next season. Gill, who left the BCHL’s Vernon Vipers after last season, has 20 points in 16 games with the USHL’s Chicago Steel. He is from Terrace.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
gdrinnan.blogspot.com
Daily News Sports Editor
While 22 players on the Kamloops Blazers’ roster are preparing for Game No. 28 in the WHL’s regular season, centre Dalibor Bortnak is readying for his home-opener.
Bortnak, an 18-year-old Slovakian in his second season with the Blazers, hasn’t played in a game since Aug. 25 when he suffered a spleen injury during the team’s intrasquad game. He has been cleared to play Friday when the Kootenay Ice pays a visit.
“That was little weird because I hit a guy, no one hit me,” Bortnak recalled of the injury after practice Wednesday at Interior Savings Centre. “I came to the bench and it wasn’t that bad but after a while it was really sore and an ambulance came.
“I first thought I had a broken rib but after a scan they told me my spleen was bleeding.”
Colin Robinson, the Blazers’ athletic therapist, likened the injury to a hairline fracture. He added that a major concern at the time was internal bleeding and pointed out that when medical staff tried rotating Bortnak’s hips, the flow of blood was already posing an impediment.
“Yeah, it was frustrating because it was after summer and one week before NHL camp,” said Bortnak, who had worked hard all summer and was to have gone to camp with the Edmonton Oilers. “I didn’t think it would be that long, but now I am really excited and hungry to play.”
Now, however, after three months of waiting and watching, working out and skating, Bortnak is ready.
“Finally, I am back and I am ready to play,” he said with a smile. “I had lots of practices and I am excited to play again. I will try to help the guys as much as I can.”
Prior to this season, the 6-foot-4, 190-pound Bortnak was projected as the Blazers’ No. 2 centre, behind veteran C.J. Stretch. Bortnak was coming off a freshman season in which he totaled 28 points in 68 games, with 13 of those points coming in 31 post-Christmas games.
“I worked real hard all summer because they told me I was going to an NHL camp,” he said. “I expect more from myself after my first (season) because I’m older and I want to help the team more than the first (season).
“I know the league, I know the people around me. It should be easier for me than the first season.”
Bortnak said he feels “really good,” adding that he has been working hard with skating and off-ice workouts.
“And now I see the team is not doing really well so I am excited to help the team,” he said.
The Blazers haven’t played since Saturday, when they halted a five-game losing streak with a 4-3 shootout victory over the Bruins in Chilliwack. Since then, they have jettisoned goaltender Justin Leclerc, traded for goaltender Kurtis Mucha, traded away defenceman Giffen Nyren and left-winger Brett Lyon, acquired defenceman Ryan Funk and signed a new head coach in Guy Charron.
“We have a couple of changes — a new coach, goalie and defenceman,” Bortnak said. “Hopefully, the team will be improved and I can help.”
Funk, who was acquired from the Vancouver Giants, and Mucha, who came over from the Portland Winterhawks, skated with their new teammates for the second time yesterday.
Afterwards, both likened it to the start of training camp.
With a new coach in town and a couple of new players added to the group, Funk, a 20-year-old from Morden, Man., explained that a lot of it is about “looking to establish relationships.”
“But,” he added, “everything is pretty professional and this looks to me like a very talented group.”
Funk is hopeful that because it’s his fifth season in the WHL — he played four seasons with the Saskatoon Blades — he’ll be able to help in the leadership department and “help with the young guys.”
Mucha said that it’s almost like the start of a new season.
“I get a clean slate and 22 other guys get a clean slate, too, because we’ve got a brand new coach,” Mucha said.
The way Mucha sees it, the Blazers should get a spark from all that has happened of late. And he expects the club to play well in the short term, which seems to be what frequently happens following a coaching change, and then to keep it rolling.
“I don’t want to see a slide,” he said. “I like the fact that I’m coming into a situation where it’s not like we’re chasing teams to get into the playoffs. We are in a playoff spot — I know we haven’t been good lately — but we’re one or two wins from jumping up two or three spots in the standings.”
The Blazers (11-13-2-1) are tied with the Kelowna Rockets for seventh in the 10-team Western Conference. They are two points behind the Chilliwack Bruins and four in back of the Everett Silvertips and Spokane Chiefs.
And just above those two are the Winterhawks with whom Mucha and the Blazers have three games remaining.
“I want to take six points from them,” Mucha said with a smile. “I’m not going to settle for anything less than that.”
The Blazers play host to the Winterhawks on Jan. 13 and travel to Portland on Jan. 20 and Feb. 3.
JUST NOTES: G Justin Leclerc, who was dropped Sunday with the acquisition of Mucha, cleared waivers Wednesday and now is a free agent. He is expected to practice with the BCHL’s Nanaimo Clippers while he decides on his immediate future. . . . Blazers GM Craig Bonner and RW Tyler Shattock left for Kelowna late yesterday afternoon. Shattock will play for Team WHL in a Subway Super Series game against a touring Russian side tonight. . . . The game between the Ice and Blazers here Friday will be televised by Shaw Cable. . . . F Sahir Gill, whose WHL rights were acquired by the Blazers from Vancouver last season, has decided to attend Boston University and play for the Terriers next season. Gill, who left the BCHL’s Vernon Vipers after last season, has 20 points in 16 games with the USHL’s Chicago Steel. He is from Terrace.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
gdrinnan.blogspot.com
Happy Thanksgiving to our American friends
Here is Mondays with Murray . . . even if it's Wednesday/Thursday . . .
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1963, SPORTS
Copyright 1963/THE TIMES MIRROR COMPANY
JIM MURRAY
Letter From Washington
THANKSGIVING DAY-1963. And, for the first time in years, a nation doesn't know whether to give thanks or say "Why us?"
A picture of a small boy saluting is a stab in the national heart. And a tall man from Texas asks only that we respect one another and that we change the word "United" in our nation's name from an adjective to a fact.
It is a small thing, perhaps a minor brush with history — but, on Friday, the day our President was shot, I received in the mail a booklet from the Senate of the United States. It was franked "Mike Mansfield."
"Mike Mansfield" was just a name to me Friday morning, a faceless man who performed whatever mysterious duties the majority leader of the Senate was called upon for.
By Saturday morning, Mike Mansfield became a man who bespoke the grief of all of us, our surrogate in sorrow, a pinch-faced, heart-broken friend who stood at the brier and uttered the eulogy we shall always remember! "And she took a ring from her finger and placed it in his hand."
'Best Amateur Team in U.S.'
My missive from Mike Mansfield was from a happier time. It was a copy of the Congressional Record atop which he had scrawled: "Dear Jim, You may be interested in 'the best amateur football team in the U.S.' P.A-6975. Regards, Mike Mansfield."
Page A-6975 showed what a more carefree world Mike Mansfield dwelt in a week ago, not to say all of us. It was about his Alma Mater, the Montana School of Mines, which Sen. Mansfield chucklingly noted had only the year before won its first football game in 10 years, a record even Harvard might envy, a 44-game losing streak.
"This year," boasted the Senator, "I was again present at a game in which the 'Orediggers' triumphed. This time, they won after they had lost only five games in a row.”
The Senator went on: "Mr. President, we are often accused of cluttering up the RECORD with matters of local interest only. The Orediggers football team may, indeed, be of local interest to the people in the Nation, what it stands for in the wise relating of education and sports is not of local interest only . . . It would be my hope that the RECORD will always contain occasional statements such as this one, which serve as a kind of tonic for the spirit and replenishment of hope for the future.”
Team Held in High Esteem
Sen. Mansfield enclosed a letter from a professor, John G. McCaslin. In it, the professor noted that the Senator had stated editorially, "For many reasons, some readily apparent and others requiring some fathoming, the Mines team is held in high esteem by Butte fans."
The professor pointed out that the fathoming was not deep: that 25 of 35 members of the squad came from Butte and "Butte fans also know that none of the players receives board, room or — good heavens — spending money to play football.”
He added: "On our campus, if a football player is being congratulated on Monday, it is probably for making an 'A' on a calculus examination, as well as for the fine play he made Saturday.
"He may miss practice on Wednesday, not to pose for press photographers, but to finish an experiment in a laboratory.
"You will note another interesting aspect of the Mines team if you watch the statistics. The Mines players consistently lose fewer yards from penalties than their opponents. I have never seen a Mines player ejected from a game for poor sportsmanship.
"The Orediggers also have a rather unique way of 'hanging the coach in effigy.' At the recent homecoming dance, the coach received a beautiful plaque inscribed: 'To Coach Simonich, in appreciation of long-standing dedication to School of Mines Athletics. Our thanks.' "
I have to think there's nothing terribly wrong with our country when, 3,000 miles to the West and 200 years this side of history of the Ivy League, frontier miners' sons can put the field of play in this wise and humorous perspective.
As I said to a friend today, if you listen, you can still hear the pot melting in this country, the crucible still glowing and fired up. But, gradually, the pure alloy, the homogeneous American, will emerge, the ingot we've been waiting for since 1776. It may be 100 Thanksgivings from now, but it'll be well worth waiting for and the dead can rest in more honor knowing they worked for it. And I wish Sen. Mansfield and all of you, not a "happy" Thanksgiving but certainly a hopeful one.
Reprinted with permission by the Los Angeles Times
Jim Murray Memorial Foundation | P.O. Box 995 | La Quinta | CA | 92247
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1963, SPORTS
Copyright 1963/THE TIMES MIRROR COMPANY
JIM MURRAY
Letter From Washington
THANKSGIVING DAY-1963. And, for the first time in years, a nation doesn't know whether to give thanks or say "Why us?"
A picture of a small boy saluting is a stab in the national heart. And a tall man from Texas asks only that we respect one another and that we change the word "United" in our nation's name from an adjective to a fact.
It is a small thing, perhaps a minor brush with history — but, on Friday, the day our President was shot, I received in the mail a booklet from the Senate of the United States. It was franked "Mike Mansfield."
"Mike Mansfield" was just a name to me Friday morning, a faceless man who performed whatever mysterious duties the majority leader of the Senate was called upon for.
By Saturday morning, Mike Mansfield became a man who bespoke the grief of all of us, our surrogate in sorrow, a pinch-faced, heart-broken friend who stood at the brier and uttered the eulogy we shall always remember! "And she took a ring from her finger and placed it in his hand."
'Best Amateur Team in U.S.'
My missive from Mike Mansfield was from a happier time. It was a copy of the Congressional Record atop which he had scrawled: "Dear Jim, You may be interested in 'the best amateur football team in the U.S.' P.A-6975. Regards, Mike Mansfield."
Page A-6975 showed what a more carefree world Mike Mansfield dwelt in a week ago, not to say all of us. It was about his Alma Mater, the Montana School of Mines, which Sen. Mansfield chucklingly noted had only the year before won its first football game in 10 years, a record even Harvard might envy, a 44-game losing streak.
"This year," boasted the Senator, "I was again present at a game in which the 'Orediggers' triumphed. This time, they won after they had lost only five games in a row.”
The Senator went on: "Mr. President, we are often accused of cluttering up the RECORD with matters of local interest only. The Orediggers football team may, indeed, be of local interest to the people in the Nation, what it stands for in the wise relating of education and sports is not of local interest only . . . It would be my hope that the RECORD will always contain occasional statements such as this one, which serve as a kind of tonic for the spirit and replenishment of hope for the future.”
Team Held in High Esteem
Sen. Mansfield enclosed a letter from a professor, John G. McCaslin. In it, the professor noted that the Senator had stated editorially, "For many reasons, some readily apparent and others requiring some fathoming, the Mines team is held in high esteem by Butte fans."
The professor pointed out that the fathoming was not deep: that 25 of 35 members of the squad came from Butte and "Butte fans also know that none of the players receives board, room or — good heavens — spending money to play football.”
He added: "On our campus, if a football player is being congratulated on Monday, it is probably for making an 'A' on a calculus examination, as well as for the fine play he made Saturday.
"He may miss practice on Wednesday, not to pose for press photographers, but to finish an experiment in a laboratory.
"You will note another interesting aspect of the Mines team if you watch the statistics. The Mines players consistently lose fewer yards from penalties than their opponents. I have never seen a Mines player ejected from a game for poor sportsmanship.
"The Orediggers also have a rather unique way of 'hanging the coach in effigy.' At the recent homecoming dance, the coach received a beautiful plaque inscribed: 'To Coach Simonich, in appreciation of long-standing dedication to School of Mines Athletics. Our thanks.' "
I have to think there's nothing terribly wrong with our country when, 3,000 miles to the West and 200 years this side of history of the Ivy League, frontier miners' sons can put the field of play in this wise and humorous perspective.
As I said to a friend today, if you listen, you can still hear the pot melting in this country, the crucible still glowing and fired up. But, gradually, the pure alloy, the homogeneous American, will emerge, the ingot we've been waiting for since 1776. It may be 100 Thanksgivings from now, but it'll be well worth waiting for and the dead can rest in more honor knowing they worked for it. And I wish Sen. Mansfield and all of you, not a "happy" Thanksgiving but certainly a hopeful one.
Reprinted with permission by the Los Angeles Times
Jim Murray Memorial Foundation | P.O. Box 995 | La Quinta | CA | 92247
Leclerc waiting, hoping for phone call
By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
It was late Monday night and Justin Leclerc admitted that his head still was spinning.
More than 24 hours had passed since he had been cut loose by the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers and, he said, “I don’t think it has really sunk in yet.”
On Saturday night, Leclerc, a 20-year-old goaltender, stopped 40 shots through overtime and five more in a shootout to help the Blazers beat the Bruins 4-3 in Chilliwack.
On Sunday morning, he was called into general manager Craig Bonner’s office and told the Blazers were going in a different direction. Suddenly, Leclerc was a man without a team. Bonner told him he had been placed on waivers.
Leclerc, from Saskatoon, was into his third season with the Blazers after having been acquired from the Lethbridge Hurricanes prior to the 2007-08 season.
“Yeah, it was pretty shocking,” Leclerc said of his meeting with Bonner. “He didn’t really give me a reason and I don’t think you every really have to. He didn’t even say there was another 20-year-old goalie coming in; he just said someone’s coming in.”
That other goalie is Kurtis Mucha, 20, who was acquired Sunday from the Portland Winterhawks for a fourth-round pick in the 2010 bantam draft.
Asked if he found it strange to be replaced by another 20-year-old, Leclerc said: “I’m sure (Bonner) has his reasons but . . . each to his own. I guess it is surprising, especially since Jon (Groenheyde) is playing so well.”
Leclerc and Groenheyde, 18, were into their second season as the Blazers’ goaltending tandem.
Leclerc said concerns about his traditional slow starts were expressed in early-season meetings with then-head coach Barry Smith.
“I have never started out of the gate well,” Leclerc admitted, after a farewell dinner with defenceman Giffen Nyren, who was traded to the Calgary Hitmen on Monday. “This season, battling with Jon sparked me to have a good start.”
The Blazers, backed by strong goaltending, started 7-1-2-0 and, at one point, were leading the Western Conference. But they were doing it with smoke and mirrors. In Games 7 through 10, although they went 2-0-2-0, they gave up 200 shots. Three of the games went to overtime and the Blazers were outshot 20-0 in extra time.
“Then the team started to slide,” Leclerc said, “and you look at any guy in the dressing room and no one was playing well while we struggled. (When that happens), no one looks like they’ve been playing well.
“But I thought through that the goaltenders kind of held up their end for the most part.”
If no one claims him this morning, Leclerc will clear waivers and become a free agent.
“I don’t know where the future is going right now,” he said. “So I don’t really know . . . I think it’ll be more sunk in once I end up wherever I’m headed.”
Leclerc’s first choice is to “play somewhere in the Western league. If that doesn’t happen, probably somewhere in the BCHL. I don’t know . . . it’s kind of wide open after that. I’m kind of waiting and hoping that I’ll end up somewhere in the (WHL).”
With more than four seasons in the WHL under his belt, he has a fair amount of education money owing him, something he said he wouldn’t be prepared to throw away for a risky run at the pro game.
“But I think there are some exceptions where you can sign an amateur tryout contract or something like that,” he said. “There is always that type of thing and I’d be willing to entertain any type of offer.”
In the meantime, Leclerc will say goodbye to friends here and then he said he will journey to Nanaimo. He has been invited to practise with the BCHL’s Clippers.
By coincidence, the Clippers are in the market for a goaltender, having lost Mark Segal, 18, to the Vancouver Giants just last week.
“I haven’t committed to them,” Leclerc said. “It depends on who does what and when, but that is definitely an option.”
Ironicially, one of the Clippers’ owners is Bill Gallacher, who also owns the Winterhawks, the team from which the Blazers acquired Leclerc’s replacement.
JUST NOTES: The Blazers are at home to the Kootenay Ice on Friday, 7 p.m., and C Dalibor Bortnak has been cleared to play. Bortnak, 18, suffered a spleen injury on Aug. 25 and has yet to play this season. . . . Mucha and D Ryan Funk, who was acquired Monday from the Vancouver Giants, both practised with their new team for the first time yesterday. . . . F Todd Kennedy, 19, who was a sixth-round bantam draft pick of the Blazers in 2005, has been traded by the Vancouver Giants to the Tri-City Americans for a 13th-round 2010 draft pick.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
gdrinnan.blogspot.com
Daily News Sports Editor
It was late Monday night and Justin Leclerc admitted that his head still was spinning.
More than 24 hours had passed since he had been cut loose by the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers and, he said, “I don’t think it has really sunk in yet.”
On Saturday night, Leclerc, a 20-year-old goaltender, stopped 40 shots through overtime and five more in a shootout to help the Blazers beat the Bruins 4-3 in Chilliwack.
On Sunday morning, he was called into general manager Craig Bonner’s office and told the Blazers were going in a different direction. Suddenly, Leclerc was a man without a team. Bonner told him he had been placed on waivers.
Leclerc, from Saskatoon, was into his third season with the Blazers after having been acquired from the Lethbridge Hurricanes prior to the 2007-08 season.
“Yeah, it was pretty shocking,” Leclerc said of his meeting with Bonner. “He didn’t really give me a reason and I don’t think you every really have to. He didn’t even say there was another 20-year-old goalie coming in; he just said someone’s coming in.”
That other goalie is Kurtis Mucha, 20, who was acquired Sunday from the Portland Winterhawks for a fourth-round pick in the 2010 bantam draft.
Asked if he found it strange to be replaced by another 20-year-old, Leclerc said: “I’m sure (Bonner) has his reasons but . . . each to his own. I guess it is surprising, especially since Jon (Groenheyde) is playing so well.”
Leclerc and Groenheyde, 18, were into their second season as the Blazers’ goaltending tandem.
Leclerc said concerns about his traditional slow starts were expressed in early-season meetings with then-head coach Barry Smith.
“I have never started out of the gate well,” Leclerc admitted, after a farewell dinner with defenceman Giffen Nyren, who was traded to the Calgary Hitmen on Monday. “This season, battling with Jon sparked me to have a good start.”
The Blazers, backed by strong goaltending, started 7-1-2-0 and, at one point, were leading the Western Conference. But they were doing it with smoke and mirrors. In Games 7 through 10, although they went 2-0-2-0, they gave up 200 shots. Three of the games went to overtime and the Blazers were outshot 20-0 in extra time.
“Then the team started to slide,” Leclerc said, “and you look at any guy in the dressing room and no one was playing well while we struggled. (When that happens), no one looks like they’ve been playing well.
“But I thought through that the goaltenders kind of held up their end for the most part.”
If no one claims him this morning, Leclerc will clear waivers and become a free agent.
“I don’t know where the future is going right now,” he said. “So I don’t really know . . . I think it’ll be more sunk in once I end up wherever I’m headed.”
Leclerc’s first choice is to “play somewhere in the Western league. If that doesn’t happen, probably somewhere in the BCHL. I don’t know . . . it’s kind of wide open after that. I’m kind of waiting and hoping that I’ll end up somewhere in the (WHL).”
With more than four seasons in the WHL under his belt, he has a fair amount of education money owing him, something he said he wouldn’t be prepared to throw away for a risky run at the pro game.
“But I think there are some exceptions where you can sign an amateur tryout contract or something like that,” he said. “There is always that type of thing and I’d be willing to entertain any type of offer.”
In the meantime, Leclerc will say goodbye to friends here and then he said he will journey to Nanaimo. He has been invited to practise with the BCHL’s Clippers.
By coincidence, the Clippers are in the market for a goaltender, having lost Mark Segal, 18, to the Vancouver Giants just last week.
“I haven’t committed to them,” Leclerc said. “It depends on who does what and when, but that is definitely an option.”
Ironicially, one of the Clippers’ owners is Bill Gallacher, who also owns the Winterhawks, the team from which the Blazers acquired Leclerc’s replacement.
JUST NOTES: The Blazers are at home to the Kootenay Ice on Friday, 7 p.m., and C Dalibor Bortnak has been cleared to play. Bortnak, 18, suffered a spleen injury on Aug. 25 and has yet to play this season. . . . Mucha and D Ryan Funk, who was acquired Monday from the Vancouver Giants, both practised with their new team for the first time yesterday. . . . F Todd Kennedy, 19, who was a sixth-round bantam draft pick of the Blazers in 2005, has been traded by the Vancouver Giants to the Tri-City Americans for a 13th-round 2010 draft pick.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
gdrinnan.blogspot.com
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Tuesday . . .
The Central league’s Rapid City Rush has its brother act back and intact. The AHL’s Manitoba Moose has returned F Derek LeBlanc (Brandon, Calgary, 2003-06) to the Rush where he joins brother Devon (Red Deer, Prince Albert, Seattle, 2004-09). Derek picked up one assist in nine games with the Winnipeg-based Moose. . . . And, now that you mention it, I did own their uncle, Sheldon, who fancied himself as something of a goaltender back in the day in the wilds of northern Manitoba.
---
Condolences to Kevin Kaminski, the director of hockey operations and head coach of the Central league’s Mississippi RiverKings on the death of his mother. Victoria Kaminski passed away Saturday in Churchbridge, Sask. She was 64. . . . “They helped me run my golf tournament for 13 years for minor hockey, ball, swimming pool, elementary and high school, and so on," Kaminski said of his parents in a statement issued by the RiverKings. "All of the money went back to the community to help build, buy and repair everything. They just helped out in every way possible. She was a sports mom. She drove her three kids to every sports event possible and we played every sport possible. She did everything for sports. I don't think her and dad have missed one game on the CHL computer. They loved to watch sports." . . . A prayer service has been scheduled for Friday, 7 p.m., and funeral mass will be said on Saturday, 11 a.m. . . . Friends and fans may send expressions of condolences to: The Kaminski Family, Box 144, 128 Sunset Drive, Churchbridge SK, S0A 0M0.
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About that rumour that had D Travis Ehrhardt perhaps returning to the Portland Winterhawks. Don’t know where you might have read that but he has been reassigned from the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins to the ECHL’s Toledo Walleyes, who are preparing to play three games in three nights this weekend. He had one assist and 13 penalty minutes in eight games with the Griffins but had been scratched from each of the last seven games.
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TUESDAY:
In Portland, Regina imports Tomas Hrcina and Hampus Gustafsson scored two goals each to lead the Pats to a 6-3 victory over the Winterhawks. . . . Hrcina, from Slovakia, and Gustafsson, from Sweden, each has four goals this season. . . . Swiss F Nino Niederreiter scored three times for Portland. He has 13 goals this season. . . . Attendance was 1,921. . . . Regina D Brandon Davidson had three assists and was plus-4. . . . Regina (14-11-3-0) is 3-0 on its six-game road wing, including two straight victories in the U.S. Division. The Pats are 4-0-1-0 in their last five and are up to sixth in the Eastern Conference, four points out of third. . . . Portland is 16-11-0-0 and has lost three in a row. . . . Regina F Brett Leffler left in the third period with a knee injury. He is doubtful for Wednesday’s game against the Seattle Thunderbirds of Kent. . . . The Pats were without F Jordan Eberle and D Colten Teubert, and the Winterhawks were missing D Brett Ponich. They were in Victoria practising with the WHL team that will play a Russian team there on Wednesday night. . . . Greg Harder of the Regina Leader-Post reports that the Pats appealed to the WHL, wanting Eberle and Teubert to play with them in Portland and then fly to Victoria for Wednesday’s game. The WHL, however, denied the request. . . . Eberle and Teubert also will miss Regina’s game against the Seattle Thunderbirds in Kent, Wash., on Wednesday night. . . . “For their part,” Harder wrote on his blog, Slap Shots, “Teubert and Eberle disagreed with the league's decision. Although both players said they were honoured to represent Team WHL, they didn’t think they should have to miss two games to do it.”
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Three top-end players will be missing Wednesday when the Spokane Chiefs meet the Silvertips in Everett. . . . Spokane will be without F Levko Koper and D Jared Cowen, while Everett will be minus F Byron Froese. . . . They will be playing for the WHL in Victoria. . . . The game has some significance because Spokane F Kyle Beach spent two-plus seasons stirring things up on behalf of the Silvertips before being dealt to the Lethbridge Hurricanes, who sent him to Spokane earlier this season. . . . Everett is expected to have D Ryan Murray, 16, back in its lineup. Murray, a top prospect, has been out since Oct. 17 with a broken thumb. . . . Everett F Cameron Abney has missed two games for disciplinary reasons -- he was late for the second time this season. He should be in the lineup Wednesday.
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In case you missed it, the WHL’s Christmas shopping fund has been increased by $1,750 in recent days. The Kootenay Ice, Red Deer Rebels and Vancouver Giants all tossed in $500 after being involved in their second multiple-fight situations of the season, while the Saskatoon Blades are in for $250 after being involved in their first such incident.
Hmmm, I wonder what the commish wants for Christmas?
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Condolences to Kevin Kaminski, the director of hockey operations and head coach of the Central league’s Mississippi RiverKings on the death of his mother. Victoria Kaminski passed away Saturday in Churchbridge, Sask. She was 64. . . . “They helped me run my golf tournament for 13 years for minor hockey, ball, swimming pool, elementary and high school, and so on," Kaminski said of his parents in a statement issued by the RiverKings. "All of the money went back to the community to help build, buy and repair everything. They just helped out in every way possible. She was a sports mom. She drove her three kids to every sports event possible and we played every sport possible. She did everything for sports. I don't think her and dad have missed one game on the CHL computer. They loved to watch sports." . . . A prayer service has been scheduled for Friday, 7 p.m., and funeral mass will be said on Saturday, 11 a.m. . . . Friends and fans may send expressions of condolences to: The Kaminski Family, Box 144, 128 Sunset Drive, Churchbridge SK, S0A 0M0.
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About that rumour that had D Travis Ehrhardt perhaps returning to the Portland Winterhawks. Don’t know where you might have read that but he has been reassigned from the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins to the ECHL’s Toledo Walleyes, who are preparing to play three games in three nights this weekend. He had one assist and 13 penalty minutes in eight games with the Griffins but had been scratched from each of the last seven games.
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TUESDAY:
In Portland, Regina imports Tomas Hrcina and Hampus Gustafsson scored two goals each to lead the Pats to a 6-3 victory over the Winterhawks. . . . Hrcina, from Slovakia, and Gustafsson, from Sweden, each has four goals this season. . . . Swiss F Nino Niederreiter scored three times for Portland. He has 13 goals this season. . . . Attendance was 1,921. . . . Regina D Brandon Davidson had three assists and was plus-4. . . . Regina (14-11-3-0) is 3-0 on its six-game road wing, including two straight victories in the U.S. Division. The Pats are 4-0-1-0 in their last five and are up to sixth in the Eastern Conference, four points out of third. . . . Portland is 16-11-0-0 and has lost three in a row. . . . Regina F Brett Leffler left in the third period with a knee injury. He is doubtful for Wednesday’s game against the Seattle Thunderbirds of Kent. . . . The Pats were without F Jordan Eberle and D Colten Teubert, and the Winterhawks were missing D Brett Ponich. They were in Victoria practising with the WHL team that will play a Russian team there on Wednesday night. . . . Greg Harder of the Regina Leader-Post reports that the Pats appealed to the WHL, wanting Eberle and Teubert to play with them in Portland and then fly to Victoria for Wednesday’s game. The WHL, however, denied the request. . . . Eberle and Teubert also will miss Regina’s game against the Seattle Thunderbirds in Kent, Wash., on Wednesday night. . . . “For their part,” Harder wrote on his blog, Slap Shots, “Teubert and Eberle disagreed with the league's decision. Although both players said they were honoured to represent Team WHL, they didn’t think they should have to miss two games to do it.”
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Three top-end players will be missing Wednesday when the Spokane Chiefs meet the Silvertips in Everett. . . . Spokane will be without F Levko Koper and D Jared Cowen, while Everett will be minus F Byron Froese. . . . They will be playing for the WHL in Victoria. . . . The game has some significance because Spokane F Kyle Beach spent two-plus seasons stirring things up on behalf of the Silvertips before being dealt to the Lethbridge Hurricanes, who sent him to Spokane earlier this season. . . . Everett is expected to have D Ryan Murray, 16, back in its lineup. Murray, a top prospect, has been out since Oct. 17 with a broken thumb. . . . Everett F Cameron Abney has missed two games for disciplinary reasons -- he was late for the second time this season. He should be in the lineup Wednesday.
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In case you missed it, the WHL’s Christmas shopping fund has been increased by $1,750 in recent days. The Kootenay Ice, Red Deer Rebels and Vancouver Giants all tossed in $500 after being involved in their second multiple-fight situations of the season, while the Saskatoon Blades are in for $250 after being involved in their first such incident.
Hmmm, I wonder what the commish wants for Christmas?
Portland, P.A. deal
The flurry of WHL trades continues . . .
The Portland Winterhawks have dealt C Colin Reddin, 19, to the Prince Albert Raiders for a fourth-round pick in the 2010 bantam draft.
Reddin, from Corona Del Mar, Calif., had six points in 24 games with Portland this season. He has 45 points in parts of three seasons with the Winterhawks after being the 51st selection in the 2005 bantam draft.
The Portland Winterhawks have dealt C Colin Reddin, 19, to the Prince Albert Raiders for a fourth-round pick in the 2010 bantam draft.
Reddin, from Corona Del Mar, Calif., had six points in 24 games with Portland this season. He has 45 points in parts of three seasons with the Winterhawks after being the 51st selection in the 2005 bantam draft.
Americans like Kennedy
The Tri-City Americans have acquired F Todd Kennedy, 19, from the Vancouver Giants for a 13th-round selection in the 2010 WHL bantam draft. Kennedy, 6-foot-3 and 212 pounds, was pointless with 16 penalty minutes in seven games with the Giants. In 76 career games with the Regina Pats and Vancouver, he has eight points and 162 penalty minutes. . . . The Americans traded away the draft pick they had acquired Monday from the Prince George Cougars for F Spencer Asuchak. . . . The Americans now are carrying 25 players, including 15 forwards and eight defencemen. . . . The Americans also announced that F Sergei Drozd, 19, will play for Belarussia in the IIHF U-20 Division 1 Group B championship in Gdansk, Poland. That tournament opens Dec. 14. Drozd will leave Dec. 5 and return on Boxing Day, so could miss up to seven games.
Monday . . .
To sum up the last little bit:
The Kamloops Blazers acquired G Kurtis Mucha, 20, from the Portland Winterhawks on Sunday for a fourth-round 2010 bantam draft pick. The Blazers then placed G Justin Leclerc, 20, on waivers, which kept them at the maximum of three 20s.
On Monday, the Blazers dealt D Giffen Nyren, 20, to the Calgary Hitmen for a conditional 2010 sixth-round draft pick. That left Kamloops with an opening for a 20 to go with F C.J. Stretch and and Mucha.
The Blazers filled that spot by dealing LW Brett Lyon, 18, to the Vancouver Giants for D Ryan Funk, 20. The Blazers had acquired Lyon from Vancouver last season for a 2010 sixth-round draft pick. The Giants had acquired Funk from the Saskatoon Blades in the offseason for a 2010 fifth-round pick.
Moving Funk allowed the Giants to stay at three 20-year-olds, what with F Garry Nunn soon to return from a broken leg and sprained ankle. The Giants’ other 20-year-olds are F Milan Kytnar and D Nolan Toigo.
The Giants are hopeful that Lyon and F Connor Redmond, 17, who was acquired from the Red Deer Rebels on Saturday, will add some size and grit to their forward ranks. It’s obvious that GM Scott Bonner and head coach Don Hay don’t feel the Giants are nearly hard enough to play against.
The Giants also announced that F Todd Kennedy, 19, is no longer with the team and that they are trying to trade him within the WHL. He didn’t have any points in seven games this season.
The Blazers, meanwhile, are hoping that moving Nyren, who is a high-risk, high-reward puck-rushing defenceman, and bringing in Funk will help shore up the defence of a team that has given up more goals than any other club in the WHL.
In Calgary, Nyren will join F Joel Broda and F Del Cowan as the Hitmen 20-year-olds.
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The Bonner brothers now have combined for six trades since Craig took over as the Blazers’ GM prior to the 2008-09 season. The Kamloops defence now includes Ryan Funk, Curtis Kulchar, Bronson Maschmeyer and Linden Saip, all of whom have come over from the Giants.
Before joining the Blazers, Craig was the Giants’ assistant GM/assistant coach, under his brother Scott, who is the only general manager the Giants have had since they entered the WHL for the 2001-02 season.
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The Prince George Cougars also added some size Monday when they acquired F Spencer Asuchak, 18, from the Tri-City Americans for a 13th round pick in the 2010 draft. The 6-foot-4, 210-pound Asuchak played some minor hockey in Prince George, before his family moved to Salmon Arm, B.C., and later to Kamloops.
Asuchak had seven points in 38 games as a rookie last season, and had four points in 12 games this season.
The Cougars, with sniper Brett Connolly on the verge of returning from a hip injury and then a bout with the flu, are looking for Asuchak to get in on the forecheck and bang some bodies.
Connolly was to have returned last weekend for a double-dip against the visiting Kelowna Rockets, but he came down with strep throat. Now he is expected to play for Team WHL against the Russians on Thursday in Kelowna and then return home to face the Vancouver Giants on Friday and Saturday.
Considering that Connolly originally was injured (hip flexor) while playing for Canada in the Ivan Hlinka Memorial tournament in August, the Cougars are keeping their fingers crossed.
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Let’s start a rumour: D Travis Ehrhardt, 20, has been a healthy scratch for a number of recent games with the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins and has but one assist in eight games. Could Ehrhardt, who is under contract to the NHL’s Detroit Red Wings, be headed back to the Portland Winterhawks, who have room for a 20-year-old after trading G Kurtis Mucha to the Kamloops Blazers on Sunday?
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The Phoenix Coyotes have fired Greg Ireland, the head coach of their AHL affiliate, the San Antonio Rampage. Assistant coach Ray Edwards has been named interim head coach. As well, Mike Pelino has signed on as an assistant coach with the Rampage. He spent five yearfs (2004-09) as an assistant with the New York Rangers. Pelino once worked in the WHL as an assistant with the Spokane Chiefs (1997-99).
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The Regina Pats will be missing a couple of key performers for two games in the U.S. Division this week as F Jordan Eberle and D Colten Teubert join Team WHL for two Subway Super Series games -- Wednesday in Victoria and Thursday in Kelowna. Greg Harder of the Regina Leader-Post, on his Slap Shots blog over there on the left, does a good job of pointing out how ludicrous this is. . . . Not only do fans in Portland and Kent, Wash., miss out on watching these two players for the last time -- East Division teams visit the U.S. every second season and Eberle and Teubert both will have moved on before the 2011-12 season -- but the last time I looked the Pats were in a fight for a playoff spot. . . . Here’s hoping the Pats don’t lose both games and then miss the playoffs by a point or two. . . . If that happens, they may look back at the week two of their top players left to take part in a meaningless exhibition series and wonder what might have been.
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The Portland Winterhawks will be without D Brett Ponich for two games -- Tuesday against Regina and Wednesday in Kennewick, Wash., against the Tri-City Americans -- as he joins Team WHL for the two exhibition games. . . . The Americans will be without F Brendan Shinnimin on Wednesday, as he, too, joins the WHL team.
Meanwhile, D Tyson Barrie of the Kelowna Rockets is looking at having to play four games in as many nights. He has been selected to play Wednesday and Thursday with Team WHL. He will rejoin the Rockets for games Friday in Chilliwack and Saturday against the visiting Kootenay Ice.
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You know, it’s bad enough that season-ticket holders and the ticket-buying public don’t get to watch the league’s best players from early December and into January when they are with their various country’s national junior teams. But to deprive fans of watching these players because of a couple of exhibition games against a touring Russian side that has no chance of winning, well, there is something smelly about it. . . . If the WHL is going to persist in having some of its players take part in the Super Series then it is time for the league to do right by its fans and suspend its schedule for the few days necessary to pay those games.
Yes, there are only four midweek games scheduled this week but that is still four too many.
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If you were wondering, the WHL has won 11 of 12 games with the Russians in this series over the years. And the WHL has a 59-18 edge in goals scored. . . . So far in this year’s exhibition series, the Russians are 0-4 and have been outscored 21-8. The QMJHL opened with 3-1 and 8-3 victories, before the OHL posted a pair of 5-2 victories.
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Former WHL defenceman Tyler Boldt (Kamloops, Brandon, Saskatoon, 2000-05) is going to work for the WHL in a brand new position. Boldt will start work in January as the manager of player development and recruitment. Boldt, 25, is in his third season with the junior B Chase, B.C., Chiefs, his second as general manager and head coach. He will continue with the Chiefs until the Christmas break.
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The ECHL’s Florida Everblades have signed F Dylan Stanley (Tri-City, 2000-05). Stanley, 25, signed with Florida over the summer but was injured in training camp with the AHL’s Springfield Falcons. He spent last season playing in Germany.
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The Red Deer Rebels have lost F Nathan Green, 20, for up to eight weeks. He suffered a broken fibula and a severed ligament after a linesman fell on him at the end of Sunday’s 3-1 loss to the Tigers in Medicine Hat. Green won’t need surgery to repair the damage, however. . . . Red Deer D Colin Archer, the team captain, is being monitored after experiencing concussion-like symptoms after Sunday’s game. . . . The Rebels already were without F Daulton Siwak, who suffered a concussion Nov. 14, and D Justin Weller (ribs).
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D Dennis Brown, who is with the USHL’s Omaha Lancers, has committed to attend Western Michigan and play for the Broncos. Brown, from Cypress, Calif., was once considered a prospect by the Kamloops Blazers.
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F Robbie Czarnik has left the U of Michigan Wolverines and joined the OHL’s Plymouth Whalers. The Los Angeles Kings selected him in the third round of the NHL’s 2008 draft. He has 22 points in 51 games with Michigan since the start of last season.
The Kamloops Blazers acquired G Kurtis Mucha, 20, from the Portland Winterhawks on Sunday for a fourth-round 2010 bantam draft pick. The Blazers then placed G Justin Leclerc, 20, on waivers, which kept them at the maximum of three 20s.
On Monday, the Blazers dealt D Giffen Nyren, 20, to the Calgary Hitmen for a conditional 2010 sixth-round draft pick. That left Kamloops with an opening for a 20 to go with F C.J. Stretch and and Mucha.
The Blazers filled that spot by dealing LW Brett Lyon, 18, to the Vancouver Giants for D Ryan Funk, 20. The Blazers had acquired Lyon from Vancouver last season for a 2010 sixth-round draft pick. The Giants had acquired Funk from the Saskatoon Blades in the offseason for a 2010 fifth-round pick.
Moving Funk allowed the Giants to stay at three 20-year-olds, what with F Garry Nunn soon to return from a broken leg and sprained ankle. The Giants’ other 20-year-olds are F Milan Kytnar and D Nolan Toigo.
The Giants are hopeful that Lyon and F Connor Redmond, 17, who was acquired from the Red Deer Rebels on Saturday, will add some size and grit to their forward ranks. It’s obvious that GM Scott Bonner and head coach Don Hay don’t feel the Giants are nearly hard enough to play against.
The Giants also announced that F Todd Kennedy, 19, is no longer with the team and that they are trying to trade him within the WHL. He didn’t have any points in seven games this season.
The Blazers, meanwhile, are hoping that moving Nyren, who is a high-risk, high-reward puck-rushing defenceman, and bringing in Funk will help shore up the defence of a team that has given up more goals than any other club in the WHL.
In Calgary, Nyren will join F Joel Broda and F Del Cowan as the Hitmen 20-year-olds.
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The Bonner brothers now have combined for six trades since Craig took over as the Blazers’ GM prior to the 2008-09 season. The Kamloops defence now includes Ryan Funk, Curtis Kulchar, Bronson Maschmeyer and Linden Saip, all of whom have come over from the Giants.
Before joining the Blazers, Craig was the Giants’ assistant GM/assistant coach, under his brother Scott, who is the only general manager the Giants have had since they entered the WHL for the 2001-02 season.
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The Prince George Cougars also added some size Monday when they acquired F Spencer Asuchak, 18, from the Tri-City Americans for a 13th round pick in the 2010 draft. The 6-foot-4, 210-pound Asuchak played some minor hockey in Prince George, before his family moved to Salmon Arm, B.C., and later to Kamloops.
Asuchak had seven points in 38 games as a rookie last season, and had four points in 12 games this season.
The Cougars, with sniper Brett Connolly on the verge of returning from a hip injury and then a bout with the flu, are looking for Asuchak to get in on the forecheck and bang some bodies.
Connolly was to have returned last weekend for a double-dip against the visiting Kelowna Rockets, but he came down with strep throat. Now he is expected to play for Team WHL against the Russians on Thursday in Kelowna and then return home to face the Vancouver Giants on Friday and Saturday.
Considering that Connolly originally was injured (hip flexor) while playing for Canada in the Ivan Hlinka Memorial tournament in August, the Cougars are keeping their fingers crossed.
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Let’s start a rumour: D Travis Ehrhardt, 20, has been a healthy scratch for a number of recent games with the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins and has but one assist in eight games. Could Ehrhardt, who is under contract to the NHL’s Detroit Red Wings, be headed back to the Portland Winterhawks, who have room for a 20-year-old after trading G Kurtis Mucha to the Kamloops Blazers on Sunday?
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The Phoenix Coyotes have fired Greg Ireland, the head coach of their AHL affiliate, the San Antonio Rampage. Assistant coach Ray Edwards has been named interim head coach. As well, Mike Pelino has signed on as an assistant coach with the Rampage. He spent five yearfs (2004-09) as an assistant with the New York Rangers. Pelino once worked in the WHL as an assistant with the Spokane Chiefs (1997-99).
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The Regina Pats will be missing a couple of key performers for two games in the U.S. Division this week as F Jordan Eberle and D Colten Teubert join Team WHL for two Subway Super Series games -- Wednesday in Victoria and Thursday in Kelowna. Greg Harder of the Regina Leader-Post, on his Slap Shots blog over there on the left, does a good job of pointing out how ludicrous this is. . . . Not only do fans in Portland and Kent, Wash., miss out on watching these two players for the last time -- East Division teams visit the U.S. every second season and Eberle and Teubert both will have moved on before the 2011-12 season -- but the last time I looked the Pats were in a fight for a playoff spot. . . . Here’s hoping the Pats don’t lose both games and then miss the playoffs by a point or two. . . . If that happens, they may look back at the week two of their top players left to take part in a meaningless exhibition series and wonder what might have been.
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The Portland Winterhawks will be without D Brett Ponich for two games -- Tuesday against Regina and Wednesday in Kennewick, Wash., against the Tri-City Americans -- as he joins Team WHL for the two exhibition games. . . . The Americans will be without F Brendan Shinnimin on Wednesday, as he, too, joins the WHL team.
Meanwhile, D Tyson Barrie of the Kelowna Rockets is looking at having to play four games in as many nights. He has been selected to play Wednesday and Thursday with Team WHL. He will rejoin the Rockets for games Friday in Chilliwack and Saturday against the visiting Kootenay Ice.
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You know, it’s bad enough that season-ticket holders and the ticket-buying public don’t get to watch the league’s best players from early December and into January when they are with their various country’s national junior teams. But to deprive fans of watching these players because of a couple of exhibition games against a touring Russian side that has no chance of winning, well, there is something smelly about it. . . . If the WHL is going to persist in having some of its players take part in the Super Series then it is time for the league to do right by its fans and suspend its schedule for the few days necessary to pay those games.
Yes, there are only four midweek games scheduled this week but that is still four too many.
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If you were wondering, the WHL has won 11 of 12 games with the Russians in this series over the years. And the WHL has a 59-18 edge in goals scored. . . . So far in this year’s exhibition series, the Russians are 0-4 and have been outscored 21-8. The QMJHL opened with 3-1 and 8-3 victories, before the OHL posted a pair of 5-2 victories.
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Former WHL defenceman Tyler Boldt (Kamloops, Brandon, Saskatoon, 2000-05) is going to work for the WHL in a brand new position. Boldt will start work in January as the manager of player development and recruitment. Boldt, 25, is in his third season with the junior B Chase, B.C., Chiefs, his second as general manager and head coach. He will continue with the Chiefs until the Christmas break.
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The ECHL’s Florida Everblades have signed F Dylan Stanley (Tri-City, 2000-05). Stanley, 25, signed with Florida over the summer but was injured in training camp with the AHL’s Springfield Falcons. He spent last season playing in Germany.
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The Red Deer Rebels have lost F Nathan Green, 20, for up to eight weeks. He suffered a broken fibula and a severed ligament after a linesman fell on him at the end of Sunday’s 3-1 loss to the Tigers in Medicine Hat. Green won’t need surgery to repair the damage, however. . . . Red Deer D Colin Archer, the team captain, is being monitored after experiencing concussion-like symptoms after Sunday’s game. . . . The Rebels already were without F Daulton Siwak, who suffered a concussion Nov. 14, and D Justin Weller (ribs).
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D Dennis Brown, who is with the USHL’s Omaha Lancers, has committed to attend Western Michigan and play for the Broncos. Brown, from Cypress, Calif., was once considered a prospect by the Kamloops Blazers.
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F Robbie Czarnik has left the U of Michigan Wolverines and joined the OHL’s Plymouth Whalers. The Los Angeles Kings selected him in the third round of the NHL’s 2008 draft. He has 22 points in 51 games with Michigan since the start of last season.
Ch-ch-changes in Kamloops
By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
The Kamloops Blazers’ dressing room is busier than a bus depot these days.
Guy Charron was introduced Monday as the WHL team’s new head coach -- the team’s third head coach this season is signed to a deal that covers the rest of this season -- and later ran his first practice at Interior Savings Centre.
“I thought the players, for the first practice, responded very well,” Charron said, adding that “I know I’m getting the support of” assistant coaches Scott Ferguson and Geoff Smith.
Ferguson had been the interim head coach since general manager Craig Bonner fired Barry Smith on Oct. 26. At that point, the Blazers, who are at home to the Kootenay Ice on Friday, were 8-7-2-0; they have gone 3-6-0-1 since the coaching change.
“It’s not going to be The Guy Charron Show here,” said Charron, a 60-year-old native of Verdun, Que., who has extensive coaching experience. “We’re going to work as a team and try to build something that will make the players proud and be successful.”
Bonner is hoping that Ferguson and Smith will “embrace” Charron’s hiring.
“You . . . be a sponge. It’ll be great for their careers,” Bonner said. “They’re going to get used a lot. He’s going to lean on them a lot.”
Meanwhile, two more players checked out yesterday, following goaltender Justin Leclerc, 20, who was released Sunday.
Defenceman Giffen Nyren, 20, and left-winger Brett Lyon, 18, left for the Calgary Hitmen and Vancouver Giants, respectively. Nyren, who had 14 points and 38 penalty minutes in 25 games, was dealt for a conditional sixth-round selection in the 2010 bantam draft. Lyon, with four points and 63 penalty minutes in 23 games, was swapped for defenceman Ryan Funk, 20, who should be on the ice with his new team today.
Funk, from Morden, Man., has played 242 games with the Saskatoon Blades and Vancouver. This season, in 27 games, the 6-foot-0, 188-pounder has five points and 49 penalty minutes.
Funk was a fourth-round pick by Saskatoon in the 2004 bantam draft. He played 72 games with the Blades last season, totalling 21 points and 127 penalty minutes. He also finished at plus-34.
As well, goaltender Kurtis Mucha, 20, who was acquired Sunday from the Portland Winterhawks, was making his way up the I-5 and over the Coquihalla on Monday. He, too, should practise with the Blazers today.
When Funk and Mucha arrive, they will find a head coach who has a reputation throughout hockey as a teacher and who says he will begin his work here by concentrating on goals-against and penalty killing. The Blazers have surrendered a WHL-high 122 goals; their penalty killing ranks 19th in the 22-team league.
“I had the opportunity to watch a couple of games on the Internet,” Charron said. “You can’t be too judgmental because you’re watching on a small screen. But I was able to see a couple of things . . . and the statistics don’t lie, whether it’s the goals-against or the penalty killing. I felt I could help the team in those specific areas, especially the goals-against.”
The players also will find a head coach who is every inch a professional.
“The first thing I really noticed was his professionalism . . . his preparation for the interview,” said Bonner who, along with majority owner Tom Gaglardi, met Charron last week in Calgary. “He knew our team. He had watched our team. He knew some of the personnel.”
Charron also got rave reviews from the likes of former Blazers coaches Tom Renney and Ken Hitchcock, and from Boston Bruins head coach Claude Julien who, as head coach of the Montreal Canadiens, had Charron on his staff.
“Those people talked highly of Guy,” Bonner said. “All have said he’s a good person . . . but they also said they’re not trying to sell him to us because he’s a good guy. They think he can help our program.”
Mark Recchi, one of the Blazers’ five owners, plays for the Bruins and spoke at length with Julien about Charron.
“I had some good people speak on my behalf,” Charron said. “I had a few people say nice things about me.”
The foundation for Charron’s coaching philosophy comes from the time he spent working under Dave King with the Canadian national team, including at the 1988 Olympic Winter Games in Calgary, and the Calgary Flames (1993-95).
“My stint with Dave King was very informative for me with the Olympic team and with the Calgary Flames,” Charron said. “I consider him one of the strongest teachers in our business.”
King, considered one of Canada’s all-time great coaches, now is an assistant coach with the Phoenix Coyotes.
Charron last coached two seasons ago, his third as an assistant with the Florida Panthers. A coaching change there brought in Peter DeBoer and Charron left rather than accept a move into player development.
“I decided I needed to reassess what I wanted to do,” Charron said of an NHL franchise that has struggled on the ice and with ownership concerns, “and the organization wasn’t as inviting as it might have been.”
He and his wife, Michele, who is a Regina native, moved to Calgary, where they originally met and where Charron’s two children from his first marriage live. The Charrons plan on retiring in western Canada.
JUST NOTES: Charron is the Blazers’ fifth head coach since this ownership group completed the purchase of the franchise on Oct. 25, 2007. . . . Bonner said he hadn’t yet heard of any interest from other teams in Leclerc, who was placed on waivers Monday morning. If Leclerc isn’t claimed by Wednesday morning he will become a free agent, meaning he could sign in any league. . . . Blazers RW Tyler Shattock, the team captain, will play for Team WHL against a touring Russian side on Thursday in Kelowna. . . . The Prince George Cougars have acquired F Spencer Asuchak, who turned 18 on Sunday, from the Tri-City Americans for a 13th-round 2010 bantam draft pick. The 6-foot-4, 210-pound Asuchak, who is from Kamloops, has four points in 12 games this season. He is expected to practise with the Cougars today and play Friday against the visiting Vancouver Giants.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
gdrinnan.blogspot.com
Daily News Sports Editor
The Kamloops Blazers’ dressing room is busier than a bus depot these days.
Guy Charron was introduced Monday as the WHL team’s new head coach -- the team’s third head coach this season is signed to a deal that covers the rest of this season -- and later ran his first practice at Interior Savings Centre.
“I thought the players, for the first practice, responded very well,” Charron said, adding that “I know I’m getting the support of” assistant coaches Scott Ferguson and Geoff Smith.
Ferguson had been the interim head coach since general manager Craig Bonner fired Barry Smith on Oct. 26. At that point, the Blazers, who are at home to the Kootenay Ice on Friday, were 8-7-2-0; they have gone 3-6-0-1 since the coaching change.
“It’s not going to be The Guy Charron Show here,” said Charron, a 60-year-old native of Verdun, Que., who has extensive coaching experience. “We’re going to work as a team and try to build something that will make the players proud and be successful.”
Bonner is hoping that Ferguson and Smith will “embrace” Charron’s hiring.
“You . . . be a sponge. It’ll be great for their careers,” Bonner said. “They’re going to get used a lot. He’s going to lean on them a lot.”
Meanwhile, two more players checked out yesterday, following goaltender Justin Leclerc, 20, who was released Sunday.
Defenceman Giffen Nyren, 20, and left-winger Brett Lyon, 18, left for the Calgary Hitmen and Vancouver Giants, respectively. Nyren, who had 14 points and 38 penalty minutes in 25 games, was dealt for a conditional sixth-round selection in the 2010 bantam draft. Lyon, with four points and 63 penalty minutes in 23 games, was swapped for defenceman Ryan Funk, 20, who should be on the ice with his new team today.
Funk, from Morden, Man., has played 242 games with the Saskatoon Blades and Vancouver. This season, in 27 games, the 6-foot-0, 188-pounder has five points and 49 penalty minutes.
Funk was a fourth-round pick by Saskatoon in the 2004 bantam draft. He played 72 games with the Blades last season, totalling 21 points and 127 penalty minutes. He also finished at plus-34.
As well, goaltender Kurtis Mucha, 20, who was acquired Sunday from the Portland Winterhawks, was making his way up the I-5 and over the Coquihalla on Monday. He, too, should practise with the Blazers today.
When Funk and Mucha arrive, they will find a head coach who has a reputation throughout hockey as a teacher and who says he will begin his work here by concentrating on goals-against and penalty killing. The Blazers have surrendered a WHL-high 122 goals; their penalty killing ranks 19th in the 22-team league.
“I had the opportunity to watch a couple of games on the Internet,” Charron said. “You can’t be too judgmental because you’re watching on a small screen. But I was able to see a couple of things . . . and the statistics don’t lie, whether it’s the goals-against or the penalty killing. I felt I could help the team in those specific areas, especially the goals-against.”
The players also will find a head coach who is every inch a professional.
“The first thing I really noticed was his professionalism . . . his preparation for the interview,” said Bonner who, along with majority owner Tom Gaglardi, met Charron last week in Calgary. “He knew our team. He had watched our team. He knew some of the personnel.”
Charron also got rave reviews from the likes of former Blazers coaches Tom Renney and Ken Hitchcock, and from Boston Bruins head coach Claude Julien who, as head coach of the Montreal Canadiens, had Charron on his staff.
“Those people talked highly of Guy,” Bonner said. “All have said he’s a good person . . . but they also said they’re not trying to sell him to us because he’s a good guy. They think he can help our program.”
Mark Recchi, one of the Blazers’ five owners, plays for the Bruins and spoke at length with Julien about Charron.
“I had some good people speak on my behalf,” Charron said. “I had a few people say nice things about me.”
The foundation for Charron’s coaching philosophy comes from the time he spent working under Dave King with the Canadian national team, including at the 1988 Olympic Winter Games in Calgary, and the Calgary Flames (1993-95).
“My stint with Dave King was very informative for me with the Olympic team and with the Calgary Flames,” Charron said. “I consider him one of the strongest teachers in our business.”
King, considered one of Canada’s all-time great coaches, now is an assistant coach with the Phoenix Coyotes.
Charron last coached two seasons ago, his third as an assistant with the Florida Panthers. A coaching change there brought in Peter DeBoer and Charron left rather than accept a move into player development.
“I decided I needed to reassess what I wanted to do,” Charron said of an NHL franchise that has struggled on the ice and with ownership concerns, “and the organization wasn’t as inviting as it might have been.”
He and his wife, Michele, who is a Regina native, moved to Calgary, where they originally met and where Charron’s two children from his first marriage live. The Charrons plan on retiring in western Canada.
JUST NOTES: Charron is the Blazers’ fifth head coach since this ownership group completed the purchase of the franchise on Oct. 25, 2007. . . . Bonner said he hadn’t yet heard of any interest from other teams in Leclerc, who was placed on waivers Monday morning. If Leclerc isn’t claimed by Wednesday morning he will become a free agent, meaning he could sign in any league. . . . Blazers RW Tyler Shattock, the team captain, will play for Team WHL against a touring Russian side on Thursday in Kelowna. . . . The Prince George Cougars have acquired F Spencer Asuchak, who turned 18 on Sunday, from the Tri-City Americans for a 13th-round 2010 bantam draft pick. The 6-foot-4, 210-pound Asuchak, who is from Kamloops, has four points in 12 games this season. He is expected to practise with the Cougars today and play Friday against the visiting Vancouver Giants.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
gdrinnan.blogspot.com
Monday, November 23, 2009
Kamloops and Vancouver make deal
The Kamloops Blazers have dealt F Brett Lyon, 18, to the Vancouver Giants for D Ryan Funk, 20. . . . Funk has played 242 WHL games with the Saskatoon Blades and Vancouver. This season, he has five points and 49 penalty minutes in 27 games with the Giants. . . . Lyon, whom the Blazers acquired from Vancouver midway through last season, has four points and 63 penalty minutes in 23 games with the Blazers this season.
Prince George and Tri-City make deal
The Prince George Cougars have acquired F Spencer Asuchak, 18, from the Tri-City Americans for a 2010 WHL bantam draft choice. The 6-foot-4, 210-pound Asuchak, who turned 18 on Sunday, is from Kamloops. He has four points in 12 games with the Americans this season.
Kamloops and Calgary do a deal
The Kamloops Blazers have dealt D Giffen Nyren, 20, to the Calgary Hitmen for a conditional sixth-round 2010 bantam draft pick. Nyren had 14 points and 38 penalty minutes in 25 games this season.
Blazers to get new head coach
By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
The Kamloops Blazers are expected to introduce a new head coach today.
The Daily News has learned that the WHL team is on the verge of signing Guy Charron as its head coach for the remainder of this season.
Sources familiar with the situation have told The Daily News that Blazers general manager Craig Bonner met with Charron, who lives in Calgary, sometime during the last week.
Charron, 60, is expected to sign a contract that will cover the rest of this season. After the season, both parties will have the option of re-examining the situation before deciding on whether Charron will remain as head coach.
It is believed that for that to happen it would have to be a mutual agreement.
Barry Smith, who signed as the Blazers’ head coach prior to 2007-08, was fired on Oct. 26. At that time, assistant coach Scott Ferguson was named interim head coach. Under Charron, Ferguson will return to his role as assistant coach.
Geoff Smith, the club’s other assistant coach, will remain in place, as will goaltending coach Dan De Palma.
One source told The Daily News that prior to this season Charron was in the running for the head-coaching position with the Calgary Hitmen. Ultimately, Calgary general manager Kelly Kisio went with Mike Williamson.
Charron has been in coaching for more than 20 years. He has NHL experience with the Calgary Flames, New York Islanders, Anaheim Ducks, Montreal Canadiens and Florida Panthers. He also coached Landshut EV in Germany, the IHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins, the QMJHL’s Hull Olympiques and the AHL’s San Antonio Rampage.
Charron was an assistant coach in Florida (2005-08) but lost his job when the Panthers hired Peter deBoer as head coach and he chose to hire his own assistant coaches.
Charron also has experience with Canada’s national team, having been an assistant from 1985-90. It was while with the national team that he formed a real bond with Dave King, one of Canada’s best known coaches. Charron was on the Canadian coaching staff at the 1988 Olympic Winter Games.
He also was the head coach of the Canadian national junior team that won the 1990 world junior championship in Helsinki, Finland. The leading scorer on the national junior team at that tournament was forward Dave Chyzowski, a product of the Blazers who was loaned to the Baby Nats by the NHL’s New York Islanders. He finished with 13 points, including nine goals, in seven games.
A native of Verdun, Que., Charron played for the Montreal Jr. Canadiens before going on to an NHL career that included stints with the Montreal Canadiens, Detroit Red Wings, Kansas City Scouts and Washington Capitals. He totalled 530 points in 734 games. Unfortuntately, the teams he played for didn’t have a whole lot of success -- he never played in even one NHL playoff game.
One of Charron’s claims to fame as a player was that he was involved in a trade involving Hall of Fame winger Frank Mahovlich. On Jan. 13, 1971, Detroit dealt the Big M to Montreal for forwards Mickey Redmond, Bill Collins and Charron.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
gdrinnan.blogspot.com
Daily News Sports Editor
The Kamloops Blazers are expected to introduce a new head coach today.
The Daily News has learned that the WHL team is on the verge of signing Guy Charron as its head coach for the remainder of this season.
Sources familiar with the situation have told The Daily News that Blazers general manager Craig Bonner met with Charron, who lives in Calgary, sometime during the last week.
Charron, 60, is expected to sign a contract that will cover the rest of this season. After the season, both parties will have the option of re-examining the situation before deciding on whether Charron will remain as head coach.
It is believed that for that to happen it would have to be a mutual agreement.
Barry Smith, who signed as the Blazers’ head coach prior to 2007-08, was fired on Oct. 26. At that time, assistant coach Scott Ferguson was named interim head coach. Under Charron, Ferguson will return to his role as assistant coach.
Geoff Smith, the club’s other assistant coach, will remain in place, as will goaltending coach Dan De Palma.
One source told The Daily News that prior to this season Charron was in the running for the head-coaching position with the Calgary Hitmen. Ultimately, Calgary general manager Kelly Kisio went with Mike Williamson.
Charron has been in coaching for more than 20 years. He has NHL experience with the Calgary Flames, New York Islanders, Anaheim Ducks, Montreal Canadiens and Florida Panthers. He also coached Landshut EV in Germany, the IHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins, the QMJHL’s Hull Olympiques and the AHL’s San Antonio Rampage.
Charron was an assistant coach in Florida (2005-08) but lost his job when the Panthers hired Peter deBoer as head coach and he chose to hire his own assistant coaches.
Charron also has experience with Canada’s national team, having been an assistant from 1985-90. It was while with the national team that he formed a real bond with Dave King, one of Canada’s best known coaches. Charron was on the Canadian coaching staff at the 1988 Olympic Winter Games.
He also was the head coach of the Canadian national junior team that won the 1990 world junior championship in Helsinki, Finland. The leading scorer on the national junior team at that tournament was forward Dave Chyzowski, a product of the Blazers who was loaned to the Baby Nats by the NHL’s New York Islanders. He finished with 13 points, including nine goals, in seven games.
A native of Verdun, Que., Charron played for the Montreal Jr. Canadiens before going on to an NHL career that included stints with the Montreal Canadiens, Detroit Red Wings, Kansas City Scouts and Washington Capitals. He totalled 530 points in 734 games. Unfortuntately, the teams he played for didn’t have a whole lot of success -- he never played in even one NHL playoff game.
One of Charron’s claims to fame as a player was that he was involved in a trade involving Hall of Fame winger Frank Mahovlich. On Jan. 13, 1971, Detroit dealt the Big M to Montreal for forwards Mickey Redmond, Bill Collins and Charron.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
gdrinnan.blogspot.com
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