Taking Note

Please take a couple of minutes out of your busy day and remember Brad McCrimmon by clicking on right here.
McCrimmon, one of the best defencemen ever to play in the WHL, was the head coach of Lokomotiv Yaroslavl and one of 44 people killed in a plane crash on Sept. 7.
A funeral mass will be held today in Farmington, Mich.
McCrimmon, the older brother of Kelly McCrimmon, the Brandon Wheat Kings’ owner and general manager, was 52.
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The Victoria Royals (nee Chilliwack Bruins) played at home for the first time on Friday night. They lost 3-2 to the Vancouver Giants.
The big news, however, was at the gate as 5,396 fans took in the game.
Cleve Dheensaw of the Victoria Times Colonist was there and his story is right here.
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JUST NOTES: D William Wrenn, 20, was back from the San Jose Sharks’ camp and skating with the Portland Winterhawks on Friday. . . . The WHL has suspended Regina Pats F Mikael Jung for four games for a check to the head on Brandon Wheat Kings F Jason Swyripa on Wednesday night. The host Pats won that game 4-0. . . . .Neither Jung nor Swyripa played in Friday’s rematch in Brandon, won 5-0 by the Wheat Kings. . . . Regina got D Art Bidlevskii, 20, back from the camp of the New York Islanders, but he didn’t play. Regina still has five players at NHL camps — D Brandon Davidson (Edmonton), D Ricard Blidstrand and F Campbell Elynuik (Philadelphia), F Garrett Mitchell (Washington) and F Jordan Weal (Los Angeles). . . . Davidson and Mitchell both are 20, while Mitchell also has signed with Washington. . . .
F Killian Hutt scored one goal to help the host Fort McMurray Oil Barons to a 4-2 victory over the Okotoks Oilers in an AJHL game on Friday night. Hutt, 20, hadn’t played since Dec. 10 when he suffered a serious concussion during a game in Kamloops against the Blazers. He was with the Swift Current Broncos, who released him prior to training camp as they worked to get down to three 20-year-olds. . . . The Moose Jaw Warriors had D Morgan Rielly back in the lineup Friday as they beat the visiting Saskatoon Blades, 4-3. Rielly had his appendix taken out a couple of weeks ago. . . .
The Vancouver Giants went into Everett and beat the Silvertips 4-2 without four players who have advanced to main camps with NHL teams. F Brendan Gallagher (Montreal), D Davi Musil and D Wes Vannieuwenhuizen (Edmonton) and F Marek Tvrdon (Detroit) all advanced. . . . F Chris Bruton, who captained the 2008 Memorial Cup-winning Spokane Chiefs, has signed with the ECHL-champion Alaska Aces. Bruton, 24, played the last three seasons at Acadia University in Wolfville, N.S.
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The Wall Street Journal’s Bankruptcy Beat blog reports that the Dallas Stars dropped more than US$91.5 million in the three years leading up to Thursday’s bankruptcy filing, and are projected to lose $31 million in the fast-approaching season.
There’s more right here.

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
     
gdrinnan.blogspot.com
     
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