Hockey weeps and remembers . . . Oil Kings lose a coach . . . Two WHL draft picks opt for NCAA

In a treasured photo from the Hicketts family album, here's the late Pat Quinn
with brothers, Matt, left, and Joe, after the latter, now a defenceman
with the Victoria Royals, had been named Hockey Now's B.C. minor hockey
player of the year for 2010-11.
(Photo courtesy Lee-Gaye Hicketts)

F Curtis Huppe (Medicine Hat, Lethbridge, Tri-City, 1995-2000) has been released by the Guildford Flames (England, Premier). He had two goals and an assist in three games.
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What a tough day for hockey!
First came news of the death in Moscow of Soviet/Russian hockey coach Viktor Tikhonov, the man who guided the then-USSR team through the Summit Series in 1972.
Tikhonov, 84, died after a long illness.
That was followed by the news that Pat Quinn, one of the most respected people in all of hockey, had died in Vancouver after an illness. He was 71.
The hockey world also lost Murray Oliver, who died Sunday of a heart attack. Oliver, who lived in Edina, Minn., was 77. Oliver played, and played well, for three of the NHL’s Original Six franchises.
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Eric Duhatschek of The Globe and Mail remembers Pat Quinn right here.
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Iain MacIntyre of the Vancouver Sun has his own thoughts on Pat Quinn right here.
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Cam Cole of the Vancouver Sun reminisces about the Big Irishman right here.
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Ken Campbell of The Hockey News was a young reporter with the Toronto Star and his beat was the Toronto Maple Leafs, who were coached by Pat Quinn. Campbell remembers that and more right here.
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Most times standing in front of the players’ bench, Viktor Tikhonov coached teams to three Olympic gold medals and eight World championship titles between 1979 and 1992. . . . He also was the Soviet team’s coach during the Miracle on Ice at the 1980 Olympic Winter Games in Lake Placid, N.Y. . . . The IIHF’s website has more right here.
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Dmitry Chesnokov, over at Puck Daddy, has a look right here at the life and legacy of Viktor Tikhonov.
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On the ice, Tikhonov’s grandson, Viktor Jr., had two goals and an assist for SKA in a KHL game on Monday. But his SKA side dropped a 5-3 decision to his grandfather’s team, CSKA Moscow. There’s more on the game right here.
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The Minneapolis StarTribune has more on Murray Oliver right here.
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On Monday evening, Dave Hodge of TSN flipped his pencil into the air and tweeted: “Jan. 7, 1980. MIN 7 PHIL 1. Flyers' 35-game unbeaten streak ends. PHIL head coach was Pat Quinn. MIN ass't was Murray Oliver. May both RIP.”
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Have you heard about the 41-year-old Swede who was the only person in the Philadelphia concert hall for a show by Bob Dylan on Sunday afternoon? Check out that story right here.
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Earlier this month, a couple of OHL players were suspended after getting tangled up in a situation on Tinder, one of those social media things. Chris Dilks of sbncollegehockey.com has a story right here that involves NCAA hockey players and Tinder. Privacy on the Internet? Uhh, no!
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The NHL’s Edmonton Oilers fired goaltending coach Frederic Chabot on Monday, replacing him with Dustin Schwartz, who had been the goaltending coach for the WHL’s Edmonton Oil Kings. . . . Of course, the Oilers own the Oil Kings.
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Dr. Nigel Painter, who is listed in the WHL Guide as the Prince Albert Raiders’ team physician, won’t be practising medicine for at least a year. The College of Physicians and Surgeons has taken away his licence for having sex with a patient. There’s more right here.
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F Colton Kehler, who was a seventh-round pick by the Edmonton Oil Kings in the WHL’s 2012 bantam draft, has committed to attend Clarkson University and play for the Golden Knights. Kehler, 17, is from Port Coquitlam, B.C. He presently is with the BCHL’s Langley Rivermen.
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F Baron Thompson, a 15-year-old from Lakeville, Minn., has committed to the U of Maine and the Black Bears. A third-round pick of the Victoria Royals in the 2014 bantam draft, he is playing for the Omaha AAA Lancers U16 team this season.
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Thanks everyone for all the prayers and thoughts this weekend. Feeling much better now and hope to be back on the ice soon!
— nikita scherbak (@nikscherbak) November 24, 2014

THE MacBETH REPORT:
F Josiah Anderson (Kelowna, 2005-06) signed a contract for the rest of this season with Bad Nauheim (Germany, Oberliga) after a successful two-week tryout. He was pointless in two games during the tryout. Anderson last played in 2009-10, when he had one goal and four assists in 49 games with the Hannover Indians (Germany, 2. Bundesliga).
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Chris Clark, the assistant coach with the NAHL’s Wenatchee Wild, is all over the Internet after his Saturday night live performance.
Right here is a look at what Deadspin came up with, and make sure you check the comments.
Meanwhile, Chris Dilks, over at westerncollegehockeyblog.com, posted a link on his blog, too. If you visit there, you also will find a a link to what he refers to as “the greatest coach-on-the-ice moment ever.”
A cursory glance shows that Clark made it on sites belonging to USA Today, The Guardian, CBS Sports, diehardsports.com, ESPN, The Daily Mail and on and on.
And you just know that we’ll see this clip again and again when December arrives and the TV people are doing their year-in-review shows. Which means we’ll get to laugh all over again.
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D Ayrton Nikkel of the Everett Silvertips will be gone for up to two months after suffering ligament damage in a hand during a scrap with F Ryan Hanes of the host Prince George Cougars on Saturday. . . . Nikkel was acquired from the Brandon Wheat Kings at the Jan. 10 trade deadline. . . . The Silvertips also are without veteran D Austin Adams (concussion). . . . Nick Patterson of the Everett Herald also reports that Everett F Ryan Harrison suffered a concussion last week and won’t play tonight against the visiting Portland Winterhawks.
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The WHL has suspended D Tyler Stahl, the captain of the Victoria Royals, for eight games. That comes after he took a headshot major in a 6-4 victory over the visiting Vancouver Giants on Friday night. . . . This is Stahl’s third suspension this season. When it’s over, he will have sat out 16 games while under suspension. Earlier, he sat out six games for a headshot.
Stahl missed Saturday’s rematch with the Giants and won’t play tonight against the visiting Prince Albert Raiders. Cleve Dheensaw of the Victoria Times Colonist reports that F Alex Gogolev, the reigning WHL and CHL player of the week, didn’t practise on Monday but that head coach Dave Lowry “quipped to reports that he may just be keeping his leading scorer ‘rested and fresh.’ ” . . . Victoria F Ben Walker (concussion) may return tonight after missing 11 games.
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There is some ch-ch-ching on the WHL’s disciplinary site, too. . . . Calgary GM Kelly Kisio got touched for $500 after exchanging post-game greetings with the on-ice officials following a 6-4 loss to the Hurricanes in Lethbridge on Friday. . . . The Moose Jaw Warriors and Swift Current Broncos each tossed $500 into the pot for a line brawl that took place in Swift Current on Saturday night. The Warriors won that game, 5-2. . . . There could still be more coming, too, because there’s nothing there from Sunday’s game in which Lethbridge lost 7-1 to the Oil Kings in Edmonton. That one included a line brawl that featured battling goaltenders.
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MONDAY’S GAME:
In Kamloops, the Blazers scored the game’s last three goals, all on the PP, and beat the Kelowna Rockets, 6-5. . . . Kamloops F Colin Smith tied the game with 21.4 seconds left in the third period and F Chase Souto won it on a re-direction with 15 seconds left in OT. . . . Smith, F Brendan Ranford and F JC Lipon each had a goal and two assists for Kamloops. . . . F Myles Bell scored twice for the Rockets, who are 14-0-2 in their last 16 games. . . . It was Kelowna’s first appearance in Kamloops since Opening Night.
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From Swift Current Broncos F Denis Bosc (@DenisBosc): “Had the pleasure of getting yelled at today by legend himself #tiger Williams for not passing the puck hard enough #stillhas it”

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The Prince George Cougars may have taken something of a hit earlier this week when Finnish G Joonas Korpisalo, 18, signed a two-year extension with Jokerit Helsinki (SM-Liiga). . . . The Cougars had selected him fifth overall in the CHL’s 2012 import draft. . . . “It was a shot,” Prince George GM Dallas Thompson told me Tuesday afternoon. “We took the best player.” . . . The Columbus Blue Jackets took Korpisalo with the 62nd selection in the NHL’s 2012 draft. . . . Korpisalo, 6-foot-2 and 170 pounds, played last season with Jokerit Helsinki’s junior team, putting up a 2.04 GAA and .920 save percentage in 38 games. He also played for Finland in the U-18 World championship, going 3.02 and .902 in six games. Without Korpisalo on his way, it would appear that Devon Fordyce, 18, is No. 1 on the Cougars’ depth chart at goaltender. Fordyce, from Cochrane, Alta., got into 14 games last season, going 2-8-1, 4.30, .875.
Also on that depth chart at this point are Brett Zarowny, 17, of Edmonton, who was a third-round selection in the 2010 bantam draft; Tyler Santos, 18, of Edmonton, who was acquired from the Saskatoon Blades; and, Ty Edmonds, 16, of Winnipeg, who was a ninth-round pick in the 2011 bantam draft.
Santos was a 10th-round pick by the Blades in 2009 and was dealt to the Cougars at the trade deadline in 2010, along with a 2010 third-rounder and a 2011 conditional third-rounder for F Marek Viedensky.
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The Prince George Cougars have signed D Tate Olson, who was a second-round selection in the WHL’s 2012 bantam draft. Olson had 50 points, including 21 goals, in 36 games last season with his hometown bantam Saskatoon Stallions. . . . The Cougars now have signed there top three selections from that draft.
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Perhaps the most mysterious thing to happen in the WHL this offseason was the disappearing act pulled by Marc Habscheid.
One minute, the career coach was the general manager and head coach of the Victoria Royals, and the next he was shuffled upstairs in the Victoria Royals’ parent company.
And you can bet there are people in the WHL who wonder what happened.
Habscheid, who has a ranch in the Swift Current area, was in that city on Saturday night for the inaugural Saskatchewan Hockey Hall of Fame induction banquet. That was only fitting, because he was one of the folks who originally got behind the idea of such a Hall in the first place.
While there, Habscheid chatted with Broncos’ play-by-play man Shawn Mullin. That interview is right here, but in typical Habscheid fashion, he doesn’t say a whole lot.
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THE COACHING GAME:
Ryan Cuthbert has resigned from his position as an assistant coach with the Kelowna Rockets. According to Doyle Potenteau of the Kelowna Daily Courier, Cuthbert, a former Rockets captain, resigned “for undisclosed personal reasons.” . . . Cuthbert had been on the Rockets’ coaching staff for five seasons; he also played for the Rockets for five seasons. His pro career was cut short after three seasons due to post-concussion syndrome. . . . There aren’t any plans to replace him, leaving head coach Ryan Huska with assistants Kim Dillabaugh, who works with goaltenders, Kim Gellert and Dan Lambert. . . .
Scott Allen has signed on as an assistant coach with the Peoria Rivermen, the AHL affiliate of the NHL’s St. Louis Blues. Allen will work alongside Peoria head coach Dave Allison. . . . Allen, 46, spent the last three seasons as an assistant coach with the NHL’s New York Islanders. . . .
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The CHL has to be snickering into its hand today. Why? Because another hockey season is almost upon us and College Hockey Inc., which not that long ago was a tremendous pain in the you-know-where, is twiddling its thumbs.
As Chris Dilks at WCHBlog points out right here, at least one other NCAA sport, men’s basketball, has dealt with recruiting issues, while hockey hasn’t done much of anything.


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