Oil Kings have a head coach . . . More coaching news, too

F Dustin Cameron (Saskatoon, Prince Albert, 2004-10) has signed a one-year contract with Heilbronner Falken (Germany, DEL2). Last season, with the Ravensburg Towerstars (Germany, DEL2), he had 58 points, including 23 goals, in 53 games. He finished second in scoring on his team.
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1. Steve Hamilton was introduced Monday as the new head coach of the Memorial Cup-champion Edmonton Oil Kings. Hamilton takes over from Derek Laxdal, who left after four seasons to become the head coach of the AHL’s Texas Stars. . . . Hamilton, 40, was an assistant under Laxdal for the past four seasons. . . . The son of former Oil Kings defenceman Al Hamilton, Steve joined the Oil Kings after spending four seasons as GM/head coach of the AJHL’s Spruce Grove Saints. He won three AJHL coach-of-the-year awards. . . . The Oil Kings will hire another assistant coach, who will join Hamilton, assistant coach Sean Brown and goaltending consultant Dustin Schwartz on staff.

2. There now are four WHL teams still without head coaches. The Moose Jaw Warriors, Portland Winterhawks, Regina Pats and Vancouver Giants continue to look for new men to run their benches. . . . The Winterhawks are believed to be close to introducing a GM/head coach to replace Mike Johnston, who now is the head coach of the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins. I was told on Monday that the Winterhawks are on the verge of signing an “NHL guy.”

3. The NHL’s Vancouver Canucks revealed that they are adding Doug Lidster to their coaching staff as an assistant to head coach Willie Desjardins. The two worked together with the Medicine Hat Tigers (2002-03) and the last two seasons with Texas Stars, who won the 2014 Calder Cup as AHL champions. . . . Glen Gulutzan, who was on John Tortorella’s staff in Vancouver last season, is expected to remain with the Canucks as an assistant coach.

4. There seems to be another move afoot to unionize major junior hockey players, but as Rick Westhead and Robert Cribb of the Toronto Star reports right here, it already seems to be stumbling around like a thirsty man in the desert.
Sunaya Sapurji of Yahoo! Sports Canada has more on this story right here.

5. There is quite a scrap going on in Oakland involving the A’s. At least one man, Oakland City Councilman Larry Reid, thinks it all could end with the A’s moving to Montreal or San Antonio. There is more on that right here.

6. It has come to this. . . . The Manitoba Soccer Association has suspended a player for 15 years for an alleged attack on a referee. Oliver Sachgau of the Winnipeg Free Press has more right here. Interestingly, Branko Dukic, who also has been charged with assault causing bodily harm, is a referee himself.
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Mike Kelly, who did a turn as head coach of the Brandon Wheat Kings (2003-04), has joined the NHL’s Florida Panthers as an assistant coach under head coach Gerard Gallant. He and Kelly worked together with the QMJHL’s Saint John Sea Dogs. . . . The Panthers also hired Mark Morris as an assistant coach. He spent the past eight season as the head coach of the Manchester Monarchs, the Los Angeles Kings’ AHL affiliate. When the Kings didn’t renew his contract, it created the opening that has since been filled by Mike Stothers, who left the Moose Jaw Warriors. . . . Dwayne Gylywoychuk, who played with the Brandon Wheat Kings and also was in the organization as the head coach and an assistant coach, has been named an assistant coach with Canada’s national women’s hockey team. Doug Derraugh, the head coach of the women‘s team at Cornell U for nine seasons, is the head coach. The other assistant is Tim Bothwell, a former Medicine Hat Tigers head coach (1990-92), who is on staff at the Edge School in Calgary.
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Watching Tsn and im pretty sure this roger sloan guy is a hockey player disguised as a golfer #beaut
— Brendan Riddall (@sonofrawhead) July 7, 2014

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A mother talks about her son and mental illness . . . Lambert takes over in Kelowna

D Jonathan Harty (Everett, 2004-08) has signed a one-year contract with Björklöven Umeå (Sweden, Allsvenskan). Last season, with Mora (Sweden, Allsvenskan), he had nine points, including three goals, in 46 games.
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After writing a bit about hockey and mental illness in this space yesterday, I heard from a mother.
It was heart-wrenching. It’s one thing to deal with mental illness in a parent; I can’t imaging what it must be like when one of your children is affected.
This mother has a teenage son who is a hockey player and who “suffers from depression and anxiety.“
“He has always had anxiety disorder and this year it crept into the dark side of depression,” she wrote. “The sad truth is no one wants to talk about it. When I spoke to his coaches about it and what was happening, it almost seemed as though they thought he was just mentally weak. I feel like coaches/teachers and such need to learn more and realize this is an illness, not a sign of weakness.
“It makes me mad,” she continued. “If you were diagnosed with cancer your employer . . . would rally around you.”
Yes, mental illness is just that . . . an illness, and the sooner people realize it is,  the better off we all will be. Unfortunately, when it comes to mental illness, there are employers in the hockey world who prefer to look the other way.
When we are ill, we take medication. I have had open-heart surgery and take medication. My wife has had a kidney transplant and takes medication. When someone has a mental illness, of course there is medication involved.
“Our son is on medication right now and is doing so much better,” the mother wrote, adding that there are times when he wants to go off his meds.
“We just say to him when he wants to stop taking meds that a diabetic doesn't stop his insulin when he is feeling good,” she wrote. “I take meds and am not afraid to admit they help me.”
A couple of other notes . . .
Her husband is involved in hockey and she noted that because of his experience at home he “is very aware of little changes in his own players now and is not afraid to ask questions and investigate when he thinks something is a little off.”
This family has a history in hockey, something she said led to her son facing “unreal” expectations.
Unfortunately, I’m guessing that there are a lot of stories out there that are just like this one, and the thought that there are people out there who may not get the help they need is terrifying.
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Dan Lambert is the new head coach of the WHL’s Kelowna Rockets. His promotion from assistant coach was announced Monday afternoon, about three hours after the NHL’s Calgary Flames announced that they had signed Rockets head coach Ryan Huska as the head coach of their AHL affiliate, the Adirondack Flames.
In time, observers will recognize Huska as one of the best coaches in WHL history.
With 295 regular-season victories, he is the winningest coach in franchise history. Only once, in 2011-12, did one of his teams not finish above .500; that team went 31-31-10. The Rockets followed that up with 52- and 57-victory seasons, both of which were franchise records.
Huska was never one to promote himself, so he hadn’t pursued other positions. In the end, the Flames came calling. He was in Calgary on Thursday and a contract offer arrive on Friday.
"I felt really good about the meetings I had and told my wife, Denise, when I got home that I hoped things would work out," Huska told the Kelowna Capital News. "What they stand for just feels right. . . . It's a great opportunity that I'm looking forward to."
No one has won more Memorial Cup championships than Huska, who won three with the Kamloops Blazers (1992, 1994, 1995) and one (2004) as an assistant coach with the Rockets.
A native of Cranbrook, Huska, who turns 39 on July 2, understands how important it is to surround yourself with good people.
"If you don't have good people who aren't passionate about what they do, then you don't get to have individual success," Huska told the Capital News. "Reflecting back, we're proud of the records we've had and the banners we've had, but I'm going to be remembering the team, and all the people that allowed us to get to that point, and allowed me the opportunity to move on. That's what's really special about this organization."
The Flames’ AHL affiliate, which is relocating from Abbotsford, B.C., where it was the Heat, will play out of Glens Falls, N.Y. Huska will replace Troy Ward, whose contract wasn’t renewed.
The 44-year-old Lambert, meanwhile, is a former all-star defenceman with the Swift Current Broncos, who had been an assistant coach with the Rockets for five seasons. He won a Memorial Cup with the 1989 Broncos.
"We spent a lot of time together over the last five years,” Lambert told the Capital News, “and it is sad to see him go but there's no doubt Ryan was ready to move on.
“Him being successful has allowed me to grow as a young coach and now to get this opportunity, I'm very grateful to the Hamilton family and that they trust in me that I can follow in Ryan's footsteps."
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1. That’s quite the Medicine Hat Mafia that the Vancouver Canucks are putting together. . . . Willie Desjardins, signed to a four-year deal as head coach, is, of course, a former Tigers GM and head coach. Canucks president Trevor Linden played for the Tigers and is from Medicine Hat. . . . It’s also expected that Doug Lidster, an assistant coach under Desjardins with the AHL’s Texas Stars, will be on the Vancouver coaching staff. Lidster, a native of Kamloops, is a former Tigers coach. He was on Desjardins’ staff with the Tigers in 2002-03; that was Desjardins’ first season as head coach. Lidster also is a former Canucks captain; in fact, Linden followed Lidster in that role.

2. With Vancouver, the Nashville Predators (Peter Laviolette), Washington Capitals (Barry Trotz), Florida Panthers (Gerard Gallant) and Carolina Hurricanes (Bill Peters) having signed head coaches, all eyes turn to the Pittsburgh Penguins. They lost out on Peters and Desjardins, and now GM Jimmy Rutherford will be going back on the interview circuit. It’s believed that one person he wants to chat with is Mike Johnston, the GM and head coach of the Portland Winterhawks. . . . Darren Dreger of TSN tweeted Monday evening that Johnston “is considered a strong candidate.”

3. Steve Smith has left the Edmonton Oilers after four seasons as an assistant coach. He has signed on as an assistant with the Carolina Hurricanes. That will lead to speculation involving Derek Laxdal, the head coach of the Memorial Cup-champion Edmonton Oil Kings. . . . Oilers head coach Dallas Eakins wanted Smith to move from behind the bench to the press box as an eye in the sky during games. Smith chose to leave for Carolina. . . . You wonder if Laxdal would want to make such a move if it means being the eye in the sky and being that far from the game action.

4. Of course, the Oilers own the Oil Kings. So if Laxdal were to end up on Eakins’ staff, one has to surmise that Oil Kings assistant coach Steve Hamilton, who is highly thought of, would be promoted to head coach.

5. The AHL’s Texas Stars now need a head coach, with Desjardins having moved to the Canucks. Perhaps Laxdal ends up there. . . . Don’t you just love the coaching game of musical chairs?

6. Elliotte Friedman, who is leaving Hockey Night in Canada (RIP) for Sportsnet and its NHL coverage team, has filed his latest 30 Thoughts and it’s right here. Among the news: The Vancouver Canucks, in pursuit of the No. 1 selection in this weekend’s NHL draft, may have offered Medicine Hat Tigers F Hunter Shinkaruk to the Florida Panthers.

7. The Vancouver Giants are the lone WHL team without a head coach. I’m thinking the best candidate is Jim Hiller, who has had success as a WHL head coach with the Chilliwack Bruins (remember them?) and Tri-City Americans. . . . Of course, perhaps he is shopping for a pro job, and maybe that’s holding things up in Vancouver.

8. "Back when we were young, we thought it (smokeless tobacco) was a safe alternative to smoking,” San Diego Padres manager Bruce Bochy told Richard Justice of MLB.com. "We didn't realize how dangerous it was. It's one of the hardest habits to break."
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THE COACHING GAME:
If you are a coach with junior/high performance experience, you may be interested in stepping behind the bench with the major midget Okanagan Rockets, who are based in Kelowna. . . . Mack O’Rourke, who led the Rockets to a league championship, a Pacific Regional title and a third-place finish at the TELUS Cup, is leaving for a job in the oil and gas field. . . . That means that GM David Michaud is searching for a successor. . . . “Our program,” Michaud tells me, “has pushed itself to the point where we need a high-level coach.”
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The BCHL’s Salmon Arm Silverbacks have added Misko Antisin to their coaching staff as an assistant under head coach Brandon West. Antisin (Victoria Cougars, 1983-85) had a lengthy playing career in Europe before getting into coaching. From Vancouver, Antisin has coached in the BCHL, as an assistant coach with the Westside Warriors, and also in the B.C. Major Midget League, as well as in Switzerland.
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The NHL’s Anaheim Ducks have signed Trent Yawney as an assistant coach. Yawney had been the head coach of their AHL affiliate, the Norfolk Admirals. . . . In Anaheim, Yawney will work under head coach Bruce Boudreau and alongside assistants Brad Lauer and Scott Niedermayer, and video co-ordinator Joe Piscotty. . . . Yawney (Saskatoon, 1982-85) is no stranger to the Ducks, having been an associate coach with their AHL team when it was in Syracuse. He also has scouted for the Ducks. . . . Jim Hodges, in the Hampton Roads Virginian-Pilot, reported last night that Admirals assistant coach Jarrod Skaldi is expected to move up as Norfolk’s head coach.
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According to a Monday morning tweet from News1130 Sports, the Vancouver Giants “won't name Don Hay's replacement as head coach till after the NHL draft.” . . . The Lethbridge Hurricanes and Rock 106, which is owned by Rogers Media, have signed a three-year contract involving broadcast rights. They haven’t haven’t yet named a play-by-play voice. The Hurricanes had been heard on 94.1 CJOC for the past seven seasons. . . .
The Seattle Thunderbirds have signed D Sahvan Khaira, who was selected in the ninth round of the WHL’s 2013 bantam draft. Last season, with the Penticton, B.C.-based Okanagan Hockey Academy midget prep team, the 6-foot-1, 210-pounder had 22 points, two of them goals, in 28 games. A native of Cloverdale, B.C., he is the younger brother of F Jujhar Khaira, who played last season with the Everett Silvertips after being a third-round pick by the Edmonton Oilers in the NHL’s 2012 draft. . . . The Vancouver Giants have signed F James Malm, a second-round pick in the 2014 bantam draft, to a WHL contract. Malm, from Langley, B.C., had 144 points, including 70 goals, in 56 games with the Burnaby Winter Club’s Bantam A1 Tier 1 team. . . . The Saskatoon Blades have signed D Schael Higson, a Grande Prairie, Alta., native they listed after he wasn’t selected in the 2013 bantam draft. Higson attended the Blades’ camp prior to last season, then spent the season with the midget AAA Grande Prairie Storm, putting up 20 points, including eight goals, in 33 games.
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Thank you to the @HockeyHallFame @DallasStars @DetroitRedWings @PARaidersHockey what a humbling honor. Words don't do it justice.
— Mike Modano (@9modano) June 23, 2014

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THE MacBETH REPORT:
D Greg Kuznik (Seattle, 1995-98) signed a one-year contract with Fassa (Italy, Serie A). He had four goals and nine assists in 28 games with Villach (Austria, Erste Bank Liga) last season. This will be Kuznik's second tour of duty with Fassa, having played for them in 2005-06 and 2006-07. Fassa is coached by former NHL F Miroslav Frycer. . . .
F Kevin Saurette (Regina, 1997-99) signed a one-year contract with Kaufbeuren (Germany, 2.Bundesliga). He had 21 goals and 23 assists in 48 games for the Fischtown Pinguins Bremerhaven (Germany, 2.Bundesliga) last season.
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The Victoria Royals have named Cameron Hope as their general manager. Hope is a former assistant general manager responsible for hockey administration with the NHL’s New York Rangers. He was with the Rangers for seven seasons, the last four as assistant GM, before leaving prior to 2011-12. . . . Glen Sather, the Rangers’ president and general manager, was one of the owners of the Chilliwack Bruins, the franchise that was sold to RG Properties last summer and relocated to Victoria. . . . Hope has a law degree and spent the last year working in that area in his hometown of Edmonton. . . . Hope now is looking for a head coach for the Royals and said he hopes to sign someone over the next two weeks. . . . The Royals, of course, are replacing Marc Habscheid, who had been the franchise’s GM/head coach since June 3, 2009. He has been moved upstairs with the parent company, GSL Holdings Ltd.
Cleve Dheensaw of the Victoria Times Colonist has more right here.
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THE COACHING GAME:
The Texas Stars have hired Doug Lidster as an assistant coach under head coach Willie Desjardins. The Stars are the AHL affiliate of the Dallas Stars. . . . Lidster, who had a lengthy NHL playing career (1983-99) that included a stop in Dallas, is a former assistant coach of the Canadian national women’s team. Lidster was an assistant coach with the Medicine Hat Tigers in 2002-03 when Desjardins was the head coach. . . . For the last five seasons, Lidster, 41, has been the hockey director for the Victory Honda AAA youth program in Michigan. He also did a stint as head coach of the OHL’s Saginaw Spirit. . . .
Jeff Beukeboom is the new assistant coach with the Connecticut Whale, the AHL affiliate of the NHL’s New York Rangers. Hw had been an assistant coach with the OHL's Sudbury Wolves for three seasons. . . . Beukeboom replaces J.J. Daigneault, now an assistant coach with the NHL’s Montreal Canadiens. With the Whale, Beukeboom, 47, will work with head coach Ken Gernander and assistant coach Pat Boller.
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The CHL’s bad, horrible, terrible, horrendous anti-doping rule has struck again. This time, it’s F Steve Lebel, who played last season with the QMJHL’s Chicoutimi Saguenéens who will sit for eight games after testing positive for methylhexaneamine, a stimulant that appears on the list of substances banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency. . . . “Steve Lebel was very cooperative throughout this long process,” QMJHL commissioner Gilles Courteau said in a news release. “After hearing the player's explanations, we are convinced that the player used a supplement without knowledge that it contained a prohibited stimulant," stated QMJHL Commissioner, Gilles Courteau.” . . . This is at least the fourth CHL player who has drawn an eight-game suspension and been branded a druggie and a cheat because of inadvertent use of a banned substance in a supplement. All four have tested positive for the same thing, methylhexaneamine. A lot of ingredients, many of them banned substances, often don’t appear on the list of ingredients in supplements. . . . Lebel, 20, is expected to play for the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada next season. His suspension kicks in with the start of the season. Better he should have delivered a headshot and left an opponent concussed. Might only have gotten five games for that.
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The Moose Jaw Warriors have traded D Shayne Gwinner, 18, to the Prince Albert Raiders for two bantam draft picks — a fourth-rounder in 2013 and a sixth in 2014. . . . Gwinner was a second-round pick by the Warriors in the 2010 draft. . . . He had 11 points and 51 penalty minutes in 51 games with Moose Jaw last season.
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D Dylan McIlrath, a product of the Moose Jaw Warriors, has had surgery to repair a dislocated kneecap suffered last week during the New York Rangers’ prospects camp in Greenburgh, N.Y. . . . McIlrath, 20, had surgery on Friday. McIlrath was the 10th overall selection in the 2010 NHL draft. He still has one season of WHL eligibility remaining, but is expected to begin the 2012-13 season with the Rangers or the AHL’s Connecticut Whale. . . . Early this morning, McIlrath tweeted: “Would like to thank every one for the wonderful support, looking forward to a fast and healthy recovery!”

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The gang at The Coaches Site — that’s their ad at the top of Taking Note’s home page — have interviewed a number of prominent hockey coaches.

The first of these is with Brent Peterson, a former assistant coach who now is the hockey operations advisor with the NHL’s Nashville Predators.

That interview is right here. Enjoy!

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Lidster returns to Winter Games after 25 years

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
It has been 25 years since Doug Lidster took part in the Olympic Winter Games. That was in 1984 when he was a defenceman with the Canadian national men’s hockey team that finished fourth in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia.
Now Lidster, a 49-year-old native of Kamloops, is an assistant coach with Canada’s national women’s team. And he plans on enjoying this experience.
“When I played in the Olympics, it wasn’t nearly the event that it is now,” Lidster says. “This year it’s a bit different. It’s in Canada, and it’s a much bigger event than it was back then.”
Going back to Vancouver, where he played nine seasons for the NHL’s Canucks, “adds to the excitement,” he says. “B.C. . . . the fact it’s in Canada . . . all of that makes it that much more special and I think every Canadian is feeling that. It adds just a little bit more for me but I think everyone is feeling the pride.”
The women’s team spent last week in the resort community of Jasper, Alta., and flew into Vancouver on Sunday evening.
In Jasper, the women played a little pond hockey, did some curling, practised, played a game against the Hinton, Alta., midget AA boys team and relaxed.
“It was well-deserved,” Lidster says. “The girls (needed) the break. It was a real nice way to spend a week before the Olympics.”
That was somewhat of a contrast to what Lidster went through in 1984.
“Dave King was the coach,” recalls Lidster, who won two Stanley Cups in 16 NHL seasons. “We went every day but four from the beginning of August right up to the Olympics. We had only four days off! A lot of those days were two-a-days. I just remember it being an incredible grind.”
Lidster, head coach Melody Davidson and Peter Smith, the other assistant coach, wanted to make sure this experience isn’t a grind on their players. So they drove them hard until Feb. 1 before letting up.
It all began with what Lidster calls a “boot camp” in Dawson Creek and Tumbler Ridge.
And then there was the elongated schedule of 60 games — including some stretches of three games in four nights, plus all the travel — in less than six months. Lidster likens the schedule to someone playing 35 games in an NCAA season and then moving to a professional season.
“That’s what it’s like for these girls,” he says. “They’re not used to it because in noncentralized years they go back to their club teams and the intensity is just not there.”
When Canada lines up for its first game — it opens against Slovakia on Saturday — Lidster knows the intensity level will be there.
“These girls are really dedicated,” he says, his voice overflowing with admiration. “They work extremely hard. The girls are probably more self-driven to improve . . . they push themselves, they work hard.”
And with these women it’s all about pride and country . . .
“There’s no financial rainbow at the end,” Lidster points out. “It’s the day-in, day-out commitment without that financial rainbow at the end that I really admire.”
And when the Winter Games are over, well, Lidster isn’t sure what is in his future.
He took a leave of absence as coaching director with Victory Honda Hockey in Plymouth, Mich., but now he doesn’t have a job to which to return.
“About six months ago, I got laid off . . . me and 200 other employees,” says Lidster, who has lived in Michigan for four years. “I didn’t sell any cars or fix any cars. Things are really bad in Michigan.
“They’re still able to support the program but not my job anymore. I’m not sure what my plans will be after the Olympics, but right now I still have a house in Michigan.”
Lidster’s wife, Joanne, and their daughter, Brianna, are in Michigan now, while son Ryan is in Japan teaching English. Colin, a bantam draft pick of the Kamloops Blazers in 2004, never played in the WHL and recently retired as a player. Colin, 20, lives in Calgary and is working the oil rigs.
Lidster did a turn as an assistant coach with the WHL’s Medicine Hat Tigers (2002-03) and started the 2004-05 season as head coach of the OHL’s Saginaw Spirit, which is how he came to be in Michigan. He resigned early in the season after a finger-in-the-chest confrontation with goaltender Mike Brown. It was a resignation many hockey people felt was driven by political correctness.
But it was after that when Lidster landed at Victory Honda. He had coached high school and minor hockey in St. Louis and New York during his NHL career, and was a minor hockey coach in Kamloops after his retirement.
He also was a player-assistant coach with Canada’s national team, and joined Hockey Canada again in 2003-04 as an assistant coach with the women’s team. He helped guide that team to the gold medal at the world championship in Halifax.
With all that experience, then, chances are that coaching will be in his future. But that is something he won’t worry about for at least a couple of weeks. After all, he’ll be too busy with this hockey tournament.
“I know the girls are prepared,” he says. “They’ve worked hard and I sense the emotion. I sense the excitement.”
Observers expect this tournament to end with Canada playing the United States in the gold medal game on Feb. 25. Assuming Canada does win a medal, however, there won’t be one for Lidster because Olympic coaches aren’t eligible.
“I think that’s a good thing,” he says. “I would love to get one but it really is about the athletes.
“It’s great that way.”
grinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
gdrinnan.blogspot.com


The Canadian women’s hockey team plays its first game at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games on Saturday when it meets Slovakia.
And the Canadian coaching staff has a rather important decision to make between now and then.
Who will be Canada’s starting goaltender?
The Canadian roster includes three goaltenders — veterans Charline Labonte and Kim St-Pierre, 31, and relative newcomer Shannon Szabados, 23.
Labonte, a 27-year-old from Boisbriand, Que., has been with the national team since 2000-01, playing in the 2006 Olympic Winter Games and four IIHF world championships. She was named the top goaltenders at the 2009 world championship.
This will be the third Winter Olympics for St-Pierre, who is from Chateauguay, Que., and is arguably the top goaltender in Canadian women’s hockey history. She has been with the national team since 1998 and has appeared in eight world championships.
Szabados, who is from Edmonton, has been with the national team program since 2006 and has played in one world tournament. She has played two seasons with the Grant MacEwan Griffins men’s college team. Before that, she played three seasons in the AJHL. In 2006-07, she was the junior A league’s top goaltender, with a 2.13 GAA and 31 victories with the Fort Saskatchewan Traders.
She was in training camp with the WHL’s Tri-City Americans in the fall of 2002 and got into four preseason games.
Her play with the national women’s team has presented the coaching staff with something of a problem.
“We have a very tough dilemma there and it’s a pleasant surprise,” assistant coach Doug Lidster says. “We have three goaltenders and they can all play.
“We’ve played 30 games against midget AAA boys. We played a game against the (AJHL’s) Calgary Canucks. I haven’t seen a goaltender that’s been better than any of the three we have.”
According to Lidster, Szabados “has been terrific and has made it a real three-way battle.”
It will be interesting to watch the goaltending situation unfold during the Olympic Games, if for no other reason than to see if this is, indeed, a changing of the guard.
— GREGG DRINNAN