Day 8 . . . is over!

DAY 8 AT THE 2010 MASTERCARD MEMORIAL CUP . . .

FACES IN THE CROWD: A person walking the concourse prior to Friday’s game could have chatted with former Wheat Kings star Kelly Glowa. He shares the WHL record for most points in one regular-season game, having picked up 10 (five goals, five assists) in a 12-6 victory over the Prince Albert Raiders on Jan. 9, 1983. . . . He is one of only five players to have had 10-point outings in the WHL. . . . Also on the concourse was former Wheat Kings captain Ken Schneider, the father of Brandon D Mark Schneider, who was acquired from the Kamloops Blazers last season. . . . Ken recently signed on as head coach of the midget AAA Wheat Kings. He was an assistant coach this season. . . . I ran into former Moose Jaw Warriors GM Chad Lang again. He says he is not the next play-by-play voice of the Regina Pats. . . . After the game, there was Ken King, the president and CEO of the NHL’s Calgary Flames, who own the Hitmen, in a hallway behind the Hitmen dressing room, looking as though he wasn’t sure what had happened. There were a lot of people in these parts who were like that.
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JUST NOTES: Thanks to the gang running the Media Centre for having coffee on hand after Friday's game was over. Now it's a Media Centre again. . . . Alan Maki of The Globe and Mail, who is based in Calgary, has speculated that Calgary GM Kelly Kisio may be ticketed for the front office of the NHL’s Flames, perhaps as assistant GM. Remember that the Flames own the Hitmen. Remember, too, that under Kisio the Hitmen have developed a habit of playing into the early summer, something that seems to have escaped the Flames of late. . . . Headline in Friday’s Winnipeg Sun: Get ready, mosquitoes are coming. . . . So it must be about time to head for home. . . . It seems the recent heat wave has sped up this season’s first crop of the midget dive bombers. . . . The Windsor Spitfires last played Tuesday, meaning they have had ample time off as they prepare for Sunday’s final. And what have they been up to? Well, head coach Bob Boughner suggested that they stay off the waterslides that are so prevalent in hotels here. So, of course, the players got into the water and, yes, they had fun on a waterslide, at one point forming what they called a 16-man luge. . . . On Thursday, the Spitfires spent part of the morning with the Grade 5 and 6 classes at a local school. School children in Brandon had done projects on each of the CHL’s 60 teams, and those two had done theirs on the Spitfires.
The QMJHL released its 2010-11 regular-season schedule — albeit a tentative one — on Friday. I don’t know about the OHL, but that’s almost three months before we are likely see a WHL schedule. . . . Saturday is an off-day at the 2010 MasterCard Memorial Cup. The CHL awards ceremony will be in the spotlight.
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F Morgan Zulinick, an Edmonton Oil Kings’ draft pick, has committed to attend the U of Wisconsin and play for the Badgers. Zulinick, from Kamloops, was a third-round selection by Edmonton in 2009. He played his draft season with Pursuit of Excellence in Kelowna and this season was with the major midget Thompson Blazers, who play out of Kamloops.
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The NAHL’s board of governors has approved the sale of the Texas Tornado to a group led by Bill Yuill, who is the president of Consolidated Sports Holdings USA, Inc. Yuill used to own the Seattle Thunderbirds of the WHL, and now owns the WHL’s Everett Silvertips.
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THE COACHING GAME: While we are going to hear a lot of names over the next while — Steve Hamilton, Perry Pearn, Eric Thurston et al — there are a few that may fly under the radar for a bit. . . . Someone may want to take another look at Troy Mick, for example. Mick last coached in the WHL with the Kamloops Blazers, but cut it short for health reasons. He is hale and hearty these days and led the Revelstoke Grizzlies to the Western Canadian junior B title. . . . There is noise the Rylan Ferster, the GM and head coach of the BCHL’s Salmon Arm Silverbacks, may be a candidate for a position or two. . . . And someone has whispered to me that Terry Ballard, out as head coach of the Edmonton-based NAIT Ooks after something like 12 seasons, may be worth a look. . . . Kris Knoblauch, the assistant coach with the Kootenay Ice, was one of the applicants for the Edmonton Oil Kings’ head-coaching spot and may get an interview. He almost certainly will be interviewed by Ice GM Jeff Chynoweth, who is looking to replace Mark Holick, now the head coach of the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch. With the high level of coaching in the WHL these days, though, Knoblauch and other young assistants may be a season or two away from getting to the top of the ladder. However, it won’t hurt the portfolio to go through an interview process or two.