THE MacBETH REPORT:
F Ned Lukacevic (Spokane, Swift Current, 2001-06) has been released from his try-out contract by Eispiraten Crimmitschau (Germany, 2. Bundesliga). He was pointless in two games with the Ice Pirates.
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The Vancouver Giants have dealt sophomore F Austin Vetterl, 18, to the Kootenay Ice for a pair of 17-year-old prospects — F Douglas Morris and D Kyle Krabben.
This was a deal the Ice felt it had to make as it is desperately short of forwards heading into a three-game weekend.
“With our injuries and the departure of our captain, our line up is very depleted heading in to the three games this weekend,” Ice general manager Jeff Chynoweth said in a news release. “Austin will bring much needed experience to a roster that is currently the youngest in the WHL. We are hoping for him to play significant minutes in all key situations.”
Vetterl had 17 points in 60 games as a freshman last season. This season, he had gotten into seven of Vancouver’s 14 games and had two assists.
F Drew Czerwonka, the Ice captain, announced his retirement late last week, leaving the club without one of its three 20-year-old players.
As well, the WHL injury list shows the Ice missing F Luke Philp with a lower-body injury (he had his appendix removed) and F Collin Shirley (undisclosed).
The Ice is at home to the Saskatoon Blades tonight.
Morris is with the AJHL’s Spruce Grove Saints and has 12 points, 10 of them goals, in 15 game. Krabben, a sixth-round bantam draft pick in 2010, has two points in six games with the AJHL’s Okotoks Oilers.
Tyler King, the radio voice of the AJHL’s Fort McMurray Oil Barons, reported via Twitter on Thursday afternoon that the AJHL’s Brooks Bandits have added G Devon Fordyce, 18, from the Prince George Cougars. . . . The Bandits, with a 17-0 record, are the top-ranked team in the Canadian Junior A Hockey League. . . . Fordyce will share time with Michael Fredrick, 18, who is 16-0-0, 2.31, .891.
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Here’s another example of how silly the WHL’s system of reporting injuries as upper or lower body really is.
F Josh Winquist of the Everett Silvertips didn’t play the other night.
Why not?
Well, the WHL’s weekly injury report shows Winquist as being day-to-day with a lower body injury.
Winquist actually had what he thought was strep throat, the second time he had it this season.
On Thursday, the Silvertips revealed that Winquist has mononucleosis and is expected to miss at least three weeks.
Not sure if mononucleosis is an upper- or lower-body injury.
Meanwhile, the Silvertips have added F Brandon Bruce, a 19-year-old from Cranbrook who had been with the BCHL’s Merritt Centennials. He had five points in 15 games with Merritt. Bruce has WHL experience with the 2010-11 Swift Current Broncos for whom he had one assist in 34 games.
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THURSDAY’S GAMES:
In Medicine Hat, F Elgin Pearce broke a 1-1 tie at 4:44 of the second period and the Tigers went on to a 5-1 victory over the Vancouver Giants. . . . The Tigers have won five in a row. . . . Medicine Hat is 9-8-1 as 16 of the WHL’s 22 teams are playing at least .500 hockey. Thanks to the loser point, of course. . . . F Hunter Shinkaruk scored twice for Medicine Hat, giving him 11 on the season. . . . Former Tigers F Kale Kessy, who was traded to Vancouver last month, scored the Giants’ goal. . . . Cam Lanigan, the WHL’s goaltender of the month, stopped 37 shots for the Tigers. . . . Vancouver starter Liam Liston left with an injury after Pearce’s goal. Tyler Fuhr came on in relief. . . . Payton Lee, 16, who played a couple of games last week with the Giants before returning to the junior B Richmnd Sockeyes, was scheduled to join Vancouver in today even before Liston’s injury. The Giants (4-11-0) play Saturday in Cranbrook against the Kootenay Ice (4-9-0) and then travel to Kennewick, Wash., for a Sunday date with the Tri-City Americans (9-6-2). . . .

G Jordon Cooke stopped 19 shots to lead the host Kelowna Rockets to a 3-0 victory over Kamloops, ending the Blazers’ franchise-record winning streak at 14 games. . . . The Blazers (16-1-1) are the last of the CHL’s 60 teams to lose in regulation time. . . . Kamloops F Colin Smith had his 17-game point streak end. . . . F Cody Fowlie, 20, scored twice for Kelowna, his first goals in five games with the Rockets since joining them last month. . . . F Tyrell Goulbourne scored the game’s first goal, his first snipe in 29 games. . . . Cooke has a WHL-leading three shutouts.
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CHECKING-FROM-BEHIND COUNT:
None

CHECKING-TO-THE-HEAD COUNT:
F Marek Tvrdon, Vancouver
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TWEET OF THE DAY:
Former Regina Pats D Brandon Davidson (@bdavy3): “Thanks to all my family, friends, fans and everyone for all the love and support. It goes a long way. I appreciate everyone who has reached out and given me t he support. I wll be back and I will battle through this.”
Earlier in the day, the AHL’s Oklahoma City Barons revealed that Davidson is being treated for testicular cancer.


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This piece right here appeared in The Globe and Mail on Saturday. It is an oral history of the 1972 series between Canada and the Soviet Union. If you are old enough to have watched that eight-game series, this will bring back a lot of memories. If you aren’t old enough to remember, you will read this and wish you were.
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D Joe Morrow, who played the last four seasons with the Portland Winterhawks, got a bit excited Sunday morning and sniped at NHL commissioner Gary Bettman via Twitter.
According to Josh Yohe of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Morrow, the Pittsburgh Penguins’ first-round selection in the NHL’s 2011 draft, tweeted: "Bettmen should be the commissioner of a different sport ... Like knitting. What a joke. #stop ruining hockey."
The tweet was gone in less than an hour.
“I was speaking as a fan,” Morrow told Yohe, “not a hockey player.”
Morrow, who will turn 20 on Dec. 9, is expected to open the upcoming season with the AHL’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. He has yet to play in the NHL, so is not a member of the NHLPA.
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JUST NOTES: The Regina Pats have assigned D Sean Whelan and F Connor Gay to SJHL teams. Whelan, 18, played last season with the midget AAA Moose Jaw Generals and will join the Estevan Bruins. Gay, 17, spent last season with the midget AAA Saskatoon Blazers and now will play for the Kindersley Klippers. . . . The Kootenay Ice has its roster down to 25 after assigning two players on Sunday night. D Jordan Steenbergen, 16, will join the midget AAA Red Deer Rebels, while F Douglas Morris, 17, will join a team that has yet to be determined.
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If you have ever wondered about NCAA Division I hockey and finances, Monica Mendoza of the Colorado Springs Business Journal has taken a look at the Colorado College Tigers and how they feed their bank account. That piece is right here.
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Who is the WHL’s King of Twitter?
That’s easy.
Here’s Darren Kramer (@DarrenKramer22): “@JtBarnettAZDK teach me and @LiamStewart11 the ropes . . . How do you have so many followers!? #WHLtwitter legend”
To which @JtBarnett AZDK replied: “When you play on every team in the CHL they start to add up hahaha”
J.T. Barnett actually is with only his fourth WHL team, having been claimed by the Kelowna Rockets off waivers from the Everett Silver tips last week.
But he does have a whole lot of Twitter followers — 36,161 as of mid-day on Sunday. That’s down from the 37,095 who were there on Friday when Larry Fisher of the Kelowna Daily Courier wrote about this phenomenon.
Here’s part of what Fisher wrote:
For those not familiar with Twitter, that's a ton of traffic.
For comparison sake, the Rockets' official team account (@Kelowna_Rockets) had only 2,721 followers. Most of Kelowna's current roster can be found on Twitter, including head coach Ryan Huska and at least 20 players, though none can hold a candle to Barnett. (Colton) Sissons is a distant second at 999, Ryan Olsen third at 843 and Damon Severson fourth at 706. That trio has something in common, all being drafted players who have attracted a bigger following thanks to the NHL fan base.
That's further evidenced by some former Rockets who have found their way to the pro ranks, including Tyson Barrie (4,713), Tyler Myers (1,534) and Brett Bulmer (1,185). Barnett, though, is not drafted nor signed by an NHL team, although he's attended rookie camps in Minnesota . . . and in New Jersey this summer with Severson. Maybe Barnett's just the WHL's version of Paul Bissonnette (323,752), a Phoenix Coyotes enforcer better known as @BizNasty2point0.
But, really, what's the deal? How can Barnett be significantly more popular than his new teammates?
"I don't think I even have a hundred, so that's pretty impressive," said (Dylen) McKinlay, a Langley product who ranks among the bottom three Rockets with 94 followers, ahead of only Mitchell Wheaton (73) and Tanner Moar (39). "It's crazy . . . I don't know how he does it, but I think it's his Instagram."
Instagram is a social-media tool that acts as a free photo-sharing program.
"That's probably the main reason," admitted Barnett, trying to downplay his online fame. "It's funny, but I don't really care too much. I don't go on (Twitter) too much, I took like a month off and went back on and was just like 'wow.' It's a lot more popular down in California, I guess.
"And I go on Instagram a lot, which in the U.S. is like BBM (BlackBerry Messenger) up here, like every person has Instagram."
That makes some sense and might explain why California products Mitchell Callahan and Shane McColgan — two former Rockets — have 2,002 and 1,172 followers, respectively, on Twitter. But with 35,000 more followers than them, it was safe to assume many of Barnett's admirers were strangers or spam accounts, right?
Wrong, apparently.
"Mainly, they're my friends," he said straight-faced. "Most of them are my friends from down in Arizona and California, but some of them I don't know.
"It's just a good way to keep in touch with guys without necessarily having to text them and stuff. You can just read what they're doing and what's going on with them. And also guys that leave the league, you want to stay in touch with them and that's one of the ways you do it."
Fisher’s complete story is right here.
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Wally Hilgenberg was a mean and miserable football player as a linebacker with the Minnesota Vikings. But his death, at the age of 66, may have been because of repetitive brain trauma. . . . Mike Kaszuba of the Minneapolis Star Tribune has the story of the Hilgenberg family and its feelings towards the game of football. That story is right here and it is an interesting and conflicting read.


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