Now those were some penalty totals! . . . Lang sparks Hitmen past Wheaties

F Zdeněk Blatný (Seattle, Kootenay, 1998-2001) has signed a one-year contract with Frederikshavn (Denmark, Metal Ligaen). Last season, with Orli Znojmo (Czech Republic, Erste Bank Liga), he had 29 points, including nine goals, in 40 games.
---

THE LEGEND OF TOPPER:

Late last month, the person behind the Twitter account TBird Tidbits (@TBirdTidbits) noticed a discrepancy involving WHL penalty minutes.
In using game summaries to track players’ penalty minutes, Tbird came to the realization that the numbers didn’t match those in the individual stats pages of the WHL website.
If you aren’t aware, that is because the WHL chooses not to include penalties such as misconducts and game misconducts in a player’s penalty minute totals.
Why? Who knows. But it’s something that has been going on for years now. A few years ago, over dinner in a Kamloops restaurant, WHL commissioner Ron Robison told me that he would discontinue the practice, but that never happened.
But so it was that TBird did a little Internet research, and he found some interesting numbers that had been posted a while ago on a WHL chat group.
Some of that info follows and if you are new to the WHL, you may find the numbers absolutely crazy. They belong to Kerry Toporowski, a defenceman who spent two seasons (1989-91) with the Spokane Chiefs.
1989-90 regular season:
Games played: 65
PIM: 384
Fighting majors: 58
Minor penalties : 47
---
1990 playoffs:
Games played: 6
PIM: 37
Fighting majors: 5
Minor penalties: 6
---
1990-91 regular season:
Games played: 65
PIM: 505
Fighting majors: 65
Minor penalties: 90
---
1991 playoffs:
Games played: 15
PIM: 108
Fighting majors: 14
Minor penalties: 19
---
Tbird continues:
Now here's what's really interesting: The WHL doesn’t include or count misconducts, game misconducts, match penalties and gross misconducts in the PIM totals. . . . So here's Topper's TRUE PIM's for his two infamous seasons with the Spokane Chiefs . . .
---
1989-90 regular season:
Misconducts: 16
Game misconducts: 5
TRUE PIM : 594, not 384
---
1990 playoffs:
Misconducts: 2
Game misconducts: 2
TRUE PIM: 77, not 37
---
1990-91 regular season:
Misconducts: 16
Game misconducts: 5
TRUE PIM: 715, not 505
---
1991 playoffs:
Misconducts: 4
Game misconducts: 2
TRUE PIM: 168, not 108
---
Some additional notes from the info that TBird uncovered . . .
John Badduke holds the WHL record for most PIM's in a season with 515 in 1991-92 with the Portland WinterHawks. . . . 142 fights for "The Topper" in two years in the WHL. A record that will never be broken. . . . Guys who have come close to breaking Topper's record: David Kaczowka got into 50 fights in 63 games for the Regina Pats in 2000-01 season. . . . Eric Godard had 48 fights in 60 games for the Lethbridge Hurricanes in 1999-2000. . . . John Badduke had 67 fights including the playoffs for Portland in 1991-92 season. . . . Kevin Sawyer had 45 fights in 54 games for the Spokane Chiefs in 1994-95.
---
I know of one instance in which a player, unaware that penalty totals didn’t include various penalties, piled up the minutes in the final game of the regular season.
All because, he told me, he wanted to get to 300 penalty minutes.
He was completely oblivious to the fact that when you included all of his penalties he was well over 300 minutes going into that final game. The end result was that his antics in that particular game drew a two-game suspension that he served when the playoffs opened.
---



The Portland Winterhawks head out on a six-game East Division swing this week, and they leave town wondering where their game has gone. At 1-7-2, the team that has been in four WHL championship finals in a row has the league’s second-poorest winning percentage (.200). As the Winterhawks prepare to meet the Warriors in Moose Jaw on Friday, Kerry Eggers of the Portland Tribune takes a look right here at the Winterhawks’ early struggles.
---
Steve Ewen of the Vancouver Province has done up a nifty story right here on Mac Stewart, a former waterboy with the Vancouver Giants who is on his way up hockey’s ladder. At the age of 20, Stewart is the equipment manager with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies.
---




F Chase Lang scored twice to lead the host Calgary Hitmen to a 6-2 victory over the Brandon Wheat Kings in Sunday’s lone WHL game. Lang, an 18-year-old from Nanaimo, B.C., has seven goals in seven games; last season, he scored 10 times in 68 games. . . . Brandon (6-1-1) was the last Eastern Conference team without a regulation-time loss. In the Western Conference, the Kelowna Rockets (8-0-0) and Everett Silvertips (5-0-2) have yet to lose in regulation time. . . . The Wheat Kings meet the Oil Kings in Edmonton in today’s lone game.

The Prince George Cougars may be without recently acquired F Cal Babych when they play the Thunderbirds in Seattle on Friday and the Giants in Vancouver on Saturday. According to Ted Clarke of the Prince George Citizen, Babych was injured Friday when he “collided with Giants defenceman Tyler Morrison and hit his head against the side board.” Babych, who was acquired last week from Calgary, didn’t return to Friday’s game and was scratched on Saturday. . . . The Cougars swept the two-game series with visting Vancouver, winning 2-1 both nights. . . .

The Saskatoon Blades ended an 18-game losing streak when they beat the visiting Prince Albert Raiders 3-2 on Saturday night. The Blades had lost their first six games this season, setting a franchise futility record for the start of a season. . . . “The Blades had lost so many consecutive times that (goaltender Alex) Moodie suffered a season-ending hip injury, was traded to Spokane in the off-season and then returned to the team since their last victory,” wrote Daniel Nugent-Bowman of the Saskatoon StarPhoenix. . . . The Blades hadn‘t won since beating the Rebels ?? in Red Deer on Feb. 15. . . . Nugent-Bowman also reported that Saturday’s triumph was the 1,600th victory in franchise history, coming in the 3,507th game.
---

Hey curfews I didn't miss you!!! #backtojunior
— Tim Bozon (@timbozon94) October 13, 2014

Hockey loses a legend

There was a time during my youth in northern Manitoba when my favourite hockey team was Canada’s national men’s team. I couldn’t wait for their international games that would be broadcast on CBC Radio, mostly with Fred Walker calling the play. These were the teams of Marshall Johnston and Roger Bourbonnais and Terry O’Malley and Barry McKenzie and Ray Cadieux and Gary Begg and the Golden Hawk, Fran Huck. Mostly, though, there was the goaltender, Seth Martin. To me, he was the greatest goaltender in the world, especially when Canada was up against the great Russian bear. The Russians, you can bet, respected Martin as much, if not more, than any other player back then. . . . In 1961, with Martin in goal, his hometown Trail Smoke Eaters won the world championship in Switzerland. . . . Seth Martin died Saturday in Trail, B.C. He was 81. . . . There is more right here. . . . Joe Pelletier, over at Greatest Hockey Legends, wrote about Martin in 2006. That piece is right here.
---
Police in Kingston, Ont., are looking for the public’s assistant as they search for Shawn Crickard, 32, who hasn’t been seen since the middle of the week. Crickard, a Kingston resident, once played with the SJHL’s Yorkton Terriers. . . . There is more right here.
---
A story that won’t go away involves the desire of some western-based NHL clubs to have AHL affiliates closer to them. Bill Ballou of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette has a story right here that looks at things from the perspective of the San Jose Sharks.
---
Kei Nishikori will play for the U.S. Open tennis championship this evening in New York City. Nishikori, 24, is the first Asian man in history to reach the final of a Grand Slam event. That means, as Hiroko Tabuchi of The New York Times reports right here, that he casts a rather large shadow in his native Japan . . . even though he has lived in Floriday since he was 14.
---
It used to be that when you heard of an athlete or ex-athlete behaving erratically, you automatically thought of alcohol and drugs. These days, however, you wonder about the possible involvement of brain injuries. Paola Boivin of the Arizona Republic wonders if that’s the case with former quarterback Max Hall, who had a run-in with the law late last week. Boivin’s piece is right here.
---
There were stories being told at the memorial service for comedy queen Joan Rivers in Manhattan on Sunday. James Barron of The New York Times reports right here. It includes Rivers’ instructions for her own funeral and if you haven’t seen them, you should.
---




The Kelowna Rockets will be without F Dillon Dube, the 21st overall selection in the 2013 bantam draft, for more than a month with an undisclosed injury. Rockets head coach Dan Lambert told Larry Fisher of the Kelowna Daily Courier that Dube was injured in practice. Dube, From Cochrane, Alta., had 63 points, including 21 goals, with the midget AAA Notre Dame Argos last season. . . . Eric Godard (Lethbridge, 1997-2000) has joined the coaching staff of the BCHL’s Vernon Vipers. He was with the BCHL’s Salmon Arm SilverBacks last season.

There has never been a subscription fee for this blog, but if you enjoy stopping by here, why not consider donating to the cause? Just click HERE. . . and thank you very much.

THE MacBETH REPORT:
F Tomas Karpov (Moose Jaw, Calgary, 2007-09) signed a one-year contract with the Basingstoke Bison (England, Premier). He had three goals and 11 assists in 22 games with Berounsti Medvedi (Czech Republic, 1. Liga) and 14 goals and 24 assists in 23 games with the Telford Tigers (England, Premier) last season.
———
The Spokane Chiefs apparently have signed D Jake Toporowski, a third-round selection in the WHL’s 2013 bantam draft. Toporowski, the son of former WHLer Kerry Toporowski, played for the Chicago Mission bantams last season. . . . He announced his signing via Twitter (@jaketop77): “Pretty sure my signature was different every time I signed because I was so shaky from excitement, but it’s official, proud to be a Chief!”
———
THE COACHING GAME
Travis Green is the new head coach of the Utica Comets, the AHL affiliate of the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks. Green is coming off a terrific WHL season, albeit one that came about under difficult circumstances. The assistant general manager and assistant head coach of the Winterhawks, Green was forced to the forefront when GM/head coach Mike Johnston was suspended by the WHL for the remainder of the season on Nov. 28. Green went on to lead the Winterhawks to the Ed Chynoweth Cup as WHL champions. Green had been with the Winterhawks since November 2008. . . . Green also is a former NHL and WHL player (Spokane, Medicine Hat, 1986-90).
Scott Sepich has more for The Oregonian right here.
———
The Salmon Arm SilverBacks have added Eric Godard to their staff as an assistant coach under GM/head coach Troy Mick. . . . Godard, from Vernon, B.C., played eight seasons in the NHL and has a Stanley Cup ring from the 2009 Pittsburgh Penguins. He also played three seasons with the Lethbridge Hurricanes (1997-2000).
———
The Federal league’s Dayton Demonz are in the market for a head coach after Marc Lefebvre resigned to pursue a job in Europe.
———
Kevin Oklobzija of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reports that Chadd Cassidy will be named head coach of the AHL’s Rochester Americans. Cassidy was an assistant coach with the Americans for a season and a half, and took over as head coach when Ron Rolston was promoted to the parent Buffalo Sabres on Feb. 20.
———


From The Hockey News’s Ken Campbell (@THNKenCampbell): “By my calculations, since free agency opened July 5, NHL teams have signed 79 players to guaranteed, one-way deals totalling $536,450,000.”


There has never been a subscription fee for this blog, but if you enjoy stopping by here, why not consider donating to the cause? Just click HERE. . . and thank you very much.