Friday . . .

THE MacBETH REPORT:
D Robert Schnabel (Red Deer, 1997-99) signed a one-year contract with Slovan Bratislava (Slovakia Extraliga). He had no goals and four assists in 41 games with HK 36 Skalica (Slovakia Extraliga) last season. . . .
F Cam Paddock (Kelowna, 1999-2004) signed a one-year contract with the Iserlohn Roosters (Germany DEL). He had 15 goals and 12 assists in 80 games for the Peoria Riverman (AHL) last season. . . .
 F Randall Gelech (Kelowna, 2000-04) signed a one-year contract with Vipiteno (Italy Serie A2). He had 21 goals and 25 assists in 63 games for the Victoria Salmon Kings (ECHL) last season.
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D Jeff Regier, 19, is back with the Everett Silvertips after playing last season for the BCHL’s Surrey Eagles. Regier, a second-round pick by Everett in the 2006 bantam draft, was dealt to the Prince George Cougars early in 2008-09. He left the Cougars a year ago, was dropped from their list, and now is in camp with the Silvertips. . . . With the Silvertips having lost two 20-year-old defencemen — Curtis Kulchar and Chris de la Lande, both of whom chose not to return for their final season — they definitely have room for some experience on the back end.
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A couple of notes from A Bird Brain, one of the blogs over there on the left:
“The (Seattle Thunderbirds’) No. 1 bantam draft pick from this past spring, Jared Hauf, was not playing because of an ankle injury that he suffered at conditioning camp. I understand he will probably be around this weekend but will not be able to participate. . . .
“In my preview of this year's team I mentioned that 18-year-old-Austin Baecker hadn't played yet in the WHL and that wasn't a good sign. I learned today that he badly injured his back last July while training and wasn't able to walk until late October and didn't get on the ice until late November. By that time Lethbridge had made trades for other D-men and Austin asked to be traded. From what I understand he fully intends to make the Birds this year. He is now 6 foot 7 and 239 pounds!”
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F Wacey Rabbit (Saskatoon, Vancouver, 2001-07) appears to be on his way across the pond. He posted on Facebook that he has signed with KHL Medvescak Zagreb and is “leaving saturday . . . smell ya later north america HELLOOOOOOOOO europe.” . . . Last season, he had 18 points in 76 games with the AHL’s Milwaukee Admirals. . . . Garth MacBeth checked it out and it seems that Medvescak Zabreg has yet to make the announcement. There was nothing on its website, the Croatian hockey website, or the Erste Bank Liga web site. “Medvescak just signed Don MacLean to a try-out — that is their most recent signing,” MacBeth reported late Friday night, adding that “the KHL is part of the team name — KHL Medvescak Zagreb — and they play in Austria's Erste Bank Liga. The KHL stands for Klub Hokeja na Ledu, which means Club ice hockey.”
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The Regina Pats have a handful of WHL veteran forwards in their camp who played elsewhere last season. Jesse Hall (Brandon), Dane Muench (Swift Current), Corey Tyrell (Prince George) and Devin Balness (Edmonton Oil Kings) reported to Regina, which opens camp Saturday morning. . . . G Cory Nygaard, 17, had offseason knee surgery so isn’t yet participating in the Pats’ camp. . . . Greg Harder of the Regina Leader-Post has a good look at the Pats in his Slap Shots blog over there on the left.
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LW Jesse Paradis, 19, didn’t even get on the ice with the Moose Jaw Warriors before he was sent home. “He is not meeting our team standards,” Warriors head coach Dave Hunchak told Matthew Gourlie of the Moose Jaw Times-Herald. Hunchak refused to elaborate, but did add: “As a result he’s been sent home to get himself in a position where he can meet team standards.” Paradis, who came over from the Kelowna Rockets in a trade last season, had 20 points in 65 games in 2009-10.
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The Vancouver Giants will have a guest coach at training camp early next week. Former Kamloops Blazers head coach Ken Hitchcock, who now is a consultant with Columbus after the Blue Jackets fired him last season, will be on hand Sunday and Monday. Hitchcock and Giants head coach Don Hay are long-time friends.
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D Carter Berg, a second-round pick, 26th overall, by the Chilliwack Bruins in the 2007 bantam draft, is back in the WHL. Berg, 6-foot-4 and 190 pounds, was dealt to the Calgary Hitmen last season, for a fourth-round pick in the 2011 bantam draft, but played just one game for them. Instead, he played with the SJHL’s Melfort Mustangs. Berg, who turns 18 on Sept. 4, will be in camp with the Hitmen.
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First came a note from a friend that carried with it the subject line: He still doesn’t like you.
Sheesh, I wondered, who doesn’t like me?
In the body of the note was this: “WHL blog god Gregg Drinnan was crowing on his website the other day that his page has attracted 2,000,000 all-time hits. I guess since we're talking about it, this website hit 4,000,000 all-time hits on the weekend. Thank you for you continued patronage."
Shortly after that, an anonymous posting showed up on this blog:
“Hey Gregg,
“Just to let you know, you are apparently known to Rod Pedersen as Greggy (on his blog in the comments section).....he was pointing out how many hits his blog has on his ‘Friday Rodservations.’ ”
And then this one popped up:
“I love reading Roddy's blog, hilarious each time I go there. What a shocker, he wouldnt have taken the PBP job if offered just wanted the experience, exactly what I said when Burger King didnt hire me at 14.
“I also wonder how an american getting the Oiler job is political? Racking my brain to see how this is political.
By the way, did you realize you were crowing here Gregg?”
Uhh, no, I didn’t realize I was crowing. Unlike some fatheaded bloggers out there, some of whom are nothing but cheerleaders for the teams they yap about, I was trying to make a point with the WHL and its 22 teams.
But why, oh why, would the god of gods, the icon of icons, the cheerleader of cheerleaders fire the first shot? Geez, he hasn’t spoken to me since that night more than 10 years ago when I asked him on the record to explain how he felt about lying to his listeners. (In two preseason games, the Pats had played a player under an assumed name and he, knowing full well what was going on, didn’t let on to his listeners that Connor McRae actually was Konrad McKay. The later-to-be king of bloggers turned his back and walked away without answering. The Pats later were disciplined by the WHL.)
But I digress . . .
Please allow me to state quite clearly that, being the only computer-literate person in the free world who doesn't visit THE blog, until that second note arrived, I had no idea what Rodservations was. In fact, it strikes me as a direct ripoff of Robservations, a column that has long been written by Rob Vanstone of the Regina Leader-Post.
Also, please allow me to point out that some people aren’t as well-known as they think they are.
Here’s a snippet from the Edmonton Journal that I noticed earlier this week and at the time chose to ignore:
“The Oilers were bowled over by the applications. They considered the Kelowna Rockets' Regan Bartel and Toronto Marlies' John Bartlett closely, along with Steve Kouleas of The SCORE. Dennis Beyak, who used to work here and now does the Toronto Maple Leafs radio games; Ron Pedersen, the Regina Pats and Riders CFL play-by-play voice; and TSN's Ryan Rishaug were also considered.”