THE MacBETH REPORT:
F Todd Dutiaume (Brandon, 1991-94) signed a one-year contract extension as player-head coach with the Fife Flyers (Scotland, UK Elite). He had nine goals and 17 assists in 54 games with the Flyers this season. Dutiaume has been with the Flyers since 1999 and has been the playing head coach since 2005. You can read about it right here and also get a look at Fife’s sweaters. You have to admire a team that has a tartan as part of the sweater, both home and away.

F Scott Wasden (Medicine Hat, Kamloops, 2004-09) signed a one-year contract with Duisburg (Germany, Oberliga). He had 11 goals and five assists in 28 games with the U of British Columbia Thunderbirds (CIS) this season.

———



 

1. Jason Vondersmith of the Portland Tribune takes a look back a the career of Portland Winterhawks sniper Ty Rattie right here. Where does former Winterhawks GM/head coach Ken Hodge rank Rattie in Portland’s history?

2. The Red Deer Rebels have acquired F Lukas Sutter, 20, from the Saskatoon Blades in a deal that comes with some conditions. . . . For starters, the Blades will get a third-round selection in the 2014 bantam draft should Sutter be returned by the NHL’s Winnipeg Jets. . . . The Blades also will get D Kevin Pochuk, 18, or a seventh-round selection in the 2014 bantam draft. The Blades will have to make that choice. . . . Pochuk, from Winnipeg, had five points in 32 games this season. He was a fifth-round selection in the 2010 bantam draft. . . . Sutter played three seasons with the Blades, finishing with 103 points, 45 of them goals, and 520 penalty minutes in 220 games. . . . This season he had 24 points, including 13 goals, and 168 penalty minutes in 72 games. . . . Sutter was a second-round selection by Winnipeg in the NHL’s 2012 draft but hasn’t signed with the Jets. . . . Lukas is a nephew — his father is Rich Sutter — to Brent Sutter, the Rebels’ owner, general manager and head coach. . . .

3. Here’s what Brent Sutter told Greg Meachem, the sports editor of the Red Deer Advocate: “You look at our top nine forwards and it was important to add someone like Lukas to our team,” said Sutter. “Our hockey operations staff sat down and evaluated players in our league who we thought could fit in here with an element that we need, and he was at the top of our list. Yes, there are things that have to happen to get him here and Winnipeg will decide that. That being said, it’s a deal that was worth doing. Lukas should fill a gap in our forward group. If we can get him here, he’ll be a great addition to our team.”

4. Lukas Sutter’s presence leaves the Rebels with five 1993-born players on their rosters, the others being F Rhyse Dieno, F Tyson Ness, D Cody Thiel and G Patrik Bartosak. . . . The Blades, who aleady have traded away three players off the roster that played in the Memorial Cup last month, still have a dozen 1993-born players on their roster, although two of those are imports.

5. Willy Palov of the Halifax Chronicle Herald checks in right here with his opinion of the CHL’s ban on European goaltenders. No, he doesn’t like it, either.

6. The Lethbridge Hurricanes have a new look and a new logo. It all was unveiled at a news conference on Thursday morning. . . . The Hurricanes were forced into the change when they, according to a news release, “were informed by the NHL that they could no longer use their current logo.” It was too similar to the logo that belongs to the Washington Capitals. . . . At the same news conference, the Hurricanes announced a partnership with the Lethbridge Minor Hockey Association. All LMHA rep teams will be nicknamed the Junior Hurricanes and will use the same logo.

7. Austin Madaisky and his family are back in their Surrey, B.C., home for the first time since it was gutted by fire on Aug. 11. . . . Madaisky, who played four seasons in the WHL (Calgary, Kamloops, 2008-12), tweeted: “First time sleeping back in the house since the fire...it sure has come a long way #home”

8. Hockey fans are hoping for the best but fearing the worst as former Edmonton Oil Kings F Kristians Pelss is missing and feared dead in Riga, Latvia. . . . There have been numerous reports of a man believed to be Pelss having jumped from the Stone Bridge and into the Daugava River in Riga. . . . However, a body has yet to be found. . . . The Edmonton Journal has more right here.

9. When Kevin Constantine walked into a news conference to be introduced as the new head coach of the Everett Silvertips, he received a standing ovation. Constantine, 54, is back for a second go-round with the Silvertips, having been the head coach for the first four years of their existence. They won seven playoff series under his guidance; they haven’t won any since his departure. . . . Nick Patterson of the Everett Herald has more right here.


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Evil Empire next up for Blazers

It has been 30 years since then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan is first believed to have referred to the then-Soviet Union as the “evil empire.”
Obviously, Reagan, who died in 2004, won’t be in Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Portland on Friday when the WHL’s Western Conference final begins, but a newly branded Evil Empire will be there.
The Kamloops Blazers and the Winterhawks (aka the Evil Empire) open a best-of-seven series with games there on Friday and Saturday nights.
The Evil Empire, as the team has been dubbed by fans, will be rolling into Kamloops for Games 3 and 4 on April 23 and 24. Hide the women and children. Lock the doors. Make sure the toys are put away. Put the street patrols on red alert.
You will recall that the WHL dropped the hammer – not just any hammer, but a 100-pound sledge – on the Winterhawks in late November. That was the conclusion of an investigation that involved sending an auditor into the Winterhawks’ offices and looking everywhere – in desk drawers, behind couch cushions and in hollow table legs – for evidence of wrongdoing.
This came after two or three years of rumours and innuendo involving illegal payments to players. Oh, yes, the whispers were everywhere; they still are, in fact. The Winterhawks were (are?) paying players, especially imports, under the table, dontcha know. How else do you think they were getting guys like Nino Niederreiter and Sven Baertschi out of Switzerland? What, you think they landed Seth Jones because there’s a great bookstore in Portland? How else do you think an organization went from 19 victories in its first season under new ownership to 44 the following season and to WHL championship finals in 2011 and 2012?
It couldn’t have been because the new owner, Calgary-based businessman Bill Gallacher, had a plan and hired good hockey people to implement that plan. No. There had to be more to it than that.
But there wasn’t. At least not according to the WHL news release that was attached to that hammer. That release stated that the Winterhawks were guilty of “player benefit violations.”
It seems the Winterhawks paid for some flights for parents, some offseason workouts for some players, and some cell phones for captains.
“Our independent investigation in this case,” WHL commissioner Ron Robison was quoted as saying in that news release, “revealed there were multiple violations over an extended period for player benefits that are not permitted under WHL Regulations and were not disclosed to the WHL.
“It should also be noted through the course of the investigation there was no evidence of any payments or enhanced education benefits provided to players that would be contrary to WHL Regulations as previous media reports indicated.”
The Winterhawks lost Mike Johnston, their general manager and head coach, for the duration of this season. They were fined $200,000. They were barred from the first five rounds of the 2013 bantam draft and lost their first-round selections through the 2017 draft.
Don’t think for a moment that the Winterhawks aren’t using this, especially the loss of Johnston, as fuel for their fire.
“It’d be a disappointment if we didn’t (make the Memorial Cup),” goaltender Mac Carruth told Jason Vondersmith of the Portland Tribune prior to the start of these playoffs. “We’d be letting down Mike. . . . It’s absolutely motivation. Some of us have forgotten about it, and we need to get back to that — the Portland Outlaws. We’re getting our minds right for the playoffs.”
Veteran forward Taylor Peters added: “Losing Mike, although devastating to our organization, hasn’t really slowed us down. But, moving forward, we have the chip on our shoulder, and we’re playing up how we battled adversity all year. The Evil Empire thing, we’ve definitely jumped on that, and use it as fuel.”
The hockey world, with the NHL in lockout mode at the time, had lots of time on its hands and, with the punishment seemingly far exceeding any crimes, was left to wonder what had really happened in Portland. In fact, hockey people continue to ask questions. There had to be more to it than that, they suggest. They wonder, ‘When will Gallacher respond?’ And they ask: ‘What did Johnston really do?’ ”
Meanwhile, the whispers and the innuendo haven’t gone away. There are people who are involved with the WHL who continue to claim – off the record, of course – that the Winterhawks had to be involved in making illegal payments to players. Never mind that no one seems to have any evidence of that.
It all has served to turn the Winterhawks into the most despised – nay, most hated – organization in the history of the WHL, which has been around since the summer of 1966. Who’s No. 2? No one. The Winterhawks are the only entrant. They rule. They own the category. Back in the day, the Flin Flon Bombers and the big, bad New Westminster Bruins were feared for what they might do to you on the ice. But the organizations weren’t hated.
The Winterhawks are. Period.
This also has served to define the hockey club’s mission. They badly want to make a third trip to the championship final. On Twitter, players have been known to use the hashtag #adversityhawks.
Robison has yet to address the situation in Portland or even speak with the Portland press corps. In Portland, then, the folks are hoping for another trip to the championship final, this one as the No. 1 seed, meaning the pre-series news conference, which the commissioner historically has attended, would be held there.
The fans and media there also would love nothing more than to have the Winterhawks win the championship on home ice. Watching their boys with the Ed Chynoweth Cup would be one thing; to have Robison have to present it to them would be icing on the cake.
It is into this maelstrom that the Blazers are skating, like a ship sailing into a hurricane.
It isn’t enough that the Blazers carry the weight of a city whose boys haven’t been to a WHL final since 1999 on their shoulders. It isn’t enough that they represent the smallest community of the four teams still standing – the Edmonton Oil Kings and Calgary Hitmen are to play for the Eastern Conference title.
The Blazers also are carrying around the hopes of most of the other WHL teams, certainly the ones that have adopted the ABP playoff plan.
ABP? Anyone But Portland.

(Gregg Drinnan is sports editor of The Daily News. He is at gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca.)

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ICE . . . ICE . . . BABY!

ON THE ICE FRIDAY:
It’s over.
The Kootenay Ice scored a 4-1 victory over the Winterhawks in Portland on Friday night to win the WHL’s best-of-seven championship, 4-1.

JEFF CHYNOWETH

You can bet that this was an extra-special victory for the Ice, which was presented with the Ed Chynoweth Cup after the game. The late Ed Chynoweth was the Ice’s owner and governor at the time of his death on April 22, 2008.
Jeff Chynoweth, one of Ed’s two sons, is the Ice’s president, governor and general manager. After the game, in a moment for the ages, the Ice players stepped aside as D Brayden McNabb Jeff to be the first member of the organization to hoist the trophy.
The Ice began life in Edmonton but moved to Cranbrook after two seasons. In 13 seasons in Cranbrook, the Ice has won three WHL titles, this one joining the ones from 1999-2000 and 2001-02. The Ice also won the Memorial Cup in the spring of 2002.
Kootenay went 16-3 in these playoffs, meaning that the Ice has a postseason record of 87-59 over those 13 springs. That is a .596 winning percentage at the time when games are toughest to win.

KRIS KNOBLAUCH

And here’s another note from the last 13 seasons — the Ice has had playoff runs of 21, 11, 22, 11, 16, 10 and now 19 games.
The Ice also won the WHL title with head coach Kris Knoblauch in his first season in that position.
And there can be no doubt but that the Ice is the champion; after all, it took out three of the WHL’s top five regular-season teams — Portland, the Saskatoon Blades and Medicine Hat Tigers — over the last three rounds, losing one game in the process. And that loss, in Game 1 to Portland, was in OT.
Ice, Ice, baby. Ice, Ice!
———

NATHAN LIEUWEN

Portland D Tyler Wotherspoon sent his guys out front at 2:26 of the first period but the Winterhawks wouldn’t beat G Nathan Lieuwen again. . . . Lieuwen, with 16 playoff victories, was named the playoff MVP. . . . That lead lasted until 15:47 of the first period when F Steele Boomer pulled the Ice even. . . . Ice F Matt Fraser scored the game’s next two goals, at 19:16 of the second period, on a PP, and at 14:15 of the third. . . . Fraser finished with a WHL-leading 17 playoff goals. He and teammate Max Reinhart, who had 15 goals, had 27 points, one shy of Porlland F Ryan Johansen, who led the league. Also at 27 points were Ice F Cody Eakin, Ice D Brayden McNabb and Portland Fs Sven Bartschi and Nino Niederreiter. . . Ice F Jesse Ismond, who had four points in Game 5, closed it out with an empty-netter. Ismond also had an assist, giving him six games over the last two games. . . . McNabb had two assists, giving him a WHL-leading 24. . . . Eakin, who was acquired by Chynoweth from the Swift Current Broncos in a blockbuster deal on Jan. 9, put up 27 points, including 11 goals, in 19 playoff games. In 45 total games with the Ice, he had 71 points, 29 of them goals, and was plus-25. In the five-game final, he had nine points, including three goals. . . . Lieuwen finished with 26 saves, 10 fewer than Portland’s Mac Carruth. . . . Referees were Pat Smith and Nathan Wieler. . . . The Ice was 1-for-2 on the PP; the Winterhawks were 0-for-2. . . . Attendance was 10,947 as the Rose Garden, in its hockey configuration, was sold out for a second straight game.
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FRIDAY’S CHECKING-FROM-BEHIND COUNT:
None.
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Jim Beseda of the Oregonian covered Game 5 of the WHL final series. His story is right here.
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Jason Vondersmith of the Portland Tribune was there, too, and his story is right here.
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Portland GM/head coach Mike Johnston has agreed to a four-year contract extension. Travis Green, the assistant GM/assistant coach, and assistant coach Kyle Gustafson also have agreed to four-year extensions.
Kerry Eggers, the Tribune’s veteran sports columnist, has that and more right here.
———
THE MacBETH REPORT:
F Duncan Milroy (Swift Current, Kootenay, 1998-2003) signed a one-year contract extension with the Krefeld Pinguine (Germany, DEL). He had three goals and 12 assists in 32 games for Krefeld after starting the season with Mlada Boleslav (Czech Republic, Extraliga), where he had three goals and three assists in 20 games. . . .
F Justin Kelly (Spokane, Prince Albert, Saskatoon, 1997-2002) signed a one-year contract with the DEG Metro Stars Dusseldorf (Germany, DEL). He had 11 goals and 18 assists in 52 games with the Krefeld Pinguinie (Germany, DEL) this season.
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Steve Ewen is one of the good guys and not just in sports . . . one of the good guys. Period.
And it has finally happened — he is going back home. To live. Yes, he is finally using that Get Out of Jail Free card that he got for Christmas.
Ewen, who has covered the Vancouver Giants and the WHL for the Vancouver Province, has been in hospital and rehab since late November when he was diagnosed with a kind of cancer that only he knows how to spell. He also has gone — as he must have written in his previous life — “under the knife” on eight separate occasions.
Anyway . . . for the latest on his saga check out Crush The Tumour With Humour’s latest entries right here and right here.
And once you’ve read that stop whining about the officiating.
———
In the QMJHL’s final, the visiting Gatineau Olympiques scored a 3-2 victory over the Saint John Sea Dogs on Friday, to take the series to a sixth game. . . . The Sea Dogs, with a 3-2 lead, have another chance to wrap it up when they play in Gatineau on Sunday. . . . Gatineau G Maxime Clermont stopped 25 shots, five more than Saint John’s Jacob DeSerres. . . . Attendance was 6,488.
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F Reed Linaker of the AJHL’s St. Albert Steel has committed to play for the Penn State Nittany Lions, who will begin play in the fall of 2012. Linaker, who will turn 20 on Nov. 4, was a 10th round pick by the Lethbridge Hurricanes in the WHL’s 2006 bantam draft.
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OLD STUFF:
If you are a regular visitor here, you may have noticed that Blogger was having some technical problems. Anyway, this is stuff that didn’t show up due to those problems. . . .
In the OHL on Thursday night, the host Owen Sound Attack got 41 saves from G Jordan Binnington as it beat the Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors 3-2 to tie the championship final at 3-3. . . . Game 7 is scheduled for Sunday afternoon in Mississauga. . . . Of course, Mississauga is the host team for the Memorial Cup, so both teams already have berths in the four-team tournament.
———
D Martin Marincin of the Prince George Cougars signed a three-year deal with the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers earlier this month. Capgeek.com reports that his annual AHL salary will be US$67,500, with NHL salaries of $690,000, $690,000 and $900,000. He got a $270,000 signing bonus over three years. . . . Marincin was selected by the Oilers in the second round of the NHL’s 2010 draft.
———
Morris Dalla Costa of the London Free Press says the OHL draft is letting down the weaker teams and suggests that it’s time to stop the games being played by players, parents, agents, err, advisers and hockey executives.
That piece is right here.

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
     
gdrinnan.blogspot.com
     
Taking Note on Twitter

Saturday . . .

In Portland on Saturday, the Kootenay Ice scored four straight PP goals, in a span of 5:45 in the second period, and went on to beat the Winterhawks, 7-5. . . . That ties the WHL’s championship final at 1-1 with Games 3 and 4 in Cranbrook on Tuesday and Wednesday. . . . This was a wild and crazy game. . . . The Winterhawks ran into some horrific penalty trouble and the Ice took advantage by going 4-for-7 on the PP. . . . The teams were 1-1 going into the second period. The Ice killed off a tripping penalty to D Hayden Rintoul and then F Matt Fraser broke the tie with his second goal of the game and 15th of the spring. . . . Portland then took two minors and two majors over a nine-minute stretch and the floodgates opened. "We took 18 penalty minutes in a row," Mike Johnston, Portland’s GM/head coach, told reporters. "I've never seen that. I've coached 25 years and never seen that many calls in a row on one team." . . . The Ice then got the four PP goals — F Max Reinhart (8:47), F Cody Eakin (10:15), F Steele Boomer (13:04) and F Kevin King (14:32) — to take a 6-1 lead. . . . Portland F Sven Bartschi, who had two goals in Portland’s 4-3 victory in Game 1 on Friday, then struck twice, shorthanded at 19:19 of the second and on the PP at 6:12 of the third. . . . F Taylor Peters, at 8:01, and D Joe Morrow, at 8:14, got the home team to within one but the comeback fell short. . . . King iced it with an empty-netter at 19:50. . . . Ice G Nathan Lieuwen stopped 39 shots and that included stopping Bartschi on a penalty shot with the score 1-1 at 2:40 of the second period. . . . Portland G Mac Carruth turned aside 23 of 29 shots, with Keith Hamilton coming on at 4:31 left in the second period and stopping all 13 shots he faced. . . . Referees Matt Kirk and Reagan Vetter hit Portland with 46 of the 60 minutes they handed out. While the Ice took seven minors, Portland picked up eight minors, two majors and two game misconducts. . . . The WHL is certain to look at two Portland penalties and maybe three. F Tayler Jordan took a checking-from-behind major at 7:48 of the second for a hit on Boomer. F Riley Boychuk was hit with an elbowing major at 15:59 for a check on Rintoul. Both penalties carry with them automatic game misconducts and will be looked at by the WHL office. . . . Portland F Brad Ross took roughing and tripping minors at 7:25 of the second period. Ross and Fraser, who was involved in the play, both left the game. Fraser, who appeared to suffer an injury to his left leg, didn’t return. Ross returned to the Portland bench but didn’t play again. . . . Attendance was 10,947. The Rose Garden, in its hockey configuration, was sold out. . . . The Winterhawks scratched D Tyler Wotherspoon (undisclosed) and inserted D Josh Hanson, 16, who played his first playoff game. . . . Game 5 is scheduled for Portland on Friday.
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SATURDAY’S CHECKING-FROM-BEHIND COUNT:
One major:
Portland F Tayler Jordan
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Jim Beseda of The Oregonian was at the game and his story is right here.
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Jason Vondersmith of the Portland Tribune also covered the game, and his story is right here.
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Tribune columnist Kerry Eggers also was in the house, and his piece is right here.
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An interesting note from the blog (Between The Lines) of Jeff Hollick, who calls the Ice play-by-play: In their history, the Ice have faced eight penalty shots in playoff games, while they have never been awarded one. . . . Ice goalies have stopped seven of the eight.
———
In the QMJHL final, the visiting Gatineau Olympiques got 38 saves form G Maxime Clermont as they beat the Saint John Sea Dogs 3-2 to even the series at 1-1. . . . Saint John G Jacob DeSerres stopped 21 shots. . . . Games 3 and 4 are Monday and Wednesday in Gatineau.
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ELSEWHERE:
Jim Matheson, the Edmonton Journal’s hall of fame hockey writer, notes today that “Ryan McGill, the former Oilers defenceman and Calgary Flames assistant coach, might catch on with the Phoenix Coyotes now that Ulf Samuelsson has departed for a head coaching job with MoDo of the Swedish Elite League.” . . . Matheson also notes that the Minnesota Wild have until June 1 to sign Red Deer Rebels G Darcy Kuemper or he becomes a free agent. The Wild selected Kuemper, the WHL’s player of the year, in the sixth round of the NHL’s 2009 draft. Matheson notes that “the trouble is that Kuemper . . . wants first-round draft money.”
———
Steve Simmons, in today’s Toronto Sun: “The Memorial Cup is coming to the so-called centre of the hockey universe and all indications are this event is in some trouble.
Staff from both the Ottawa Senators and the Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors — two teams owned by Eugene Melnyk — have been desperately working the phones of late trying to offer up discounted and single-game tickets, for the Canadian junior hockey championship.”
———
Cleve Dheensaw of the Victoria Times Colonist has a couple of interesting tidbits in a story he wrote on the folding by RG Properties of the ECHL’s Victoria Salmon Kings. RG Properties, of course, purchased the Chilliwack Bruins and is moving the WHL team to Victoria’s Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
1. Dave Dakers, the president of RG Properties’ sports and entertainment division, told Dheensaw that an announcement on a general manager and head coach “is a couple of weeks away.” Marc Habscheid, the Bruins’ GM/head coach for two seasons, ran the Bruins’ bantam draft on Thursday in Calgary.
2. RG Properties purchased the video scoreboard panels from Prospera Centre in Chilliwack when it bought the Bruins. It doesn’t seem certain that they will end up in the Victoria arena, though.
3. The Victoria franchise is working on a deal involving radio play-by-play.
Dheensaw’s story is right here.

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
     
gdrinnan.blogspot.com
     
Taking Note on Twitter

Thursday . . .

Defenceman Tyler Schmidt has scored the OT winner and the Tri-City Americans and their fans explode in joy.
(Photo by Doug Love / Tri-City Americans)

In Kennewick, Wash., D Tyler Schmidt scored at 2:32 of the second overtime period to give the host Tri-City Americans a 4-3 victory over the Spokane Chiefs. . . . It was the night’s only WHL playoff game. . . . The series now is tied 2-2. Game 5 is Sunday in Kennewick with Game 6 in Spokane on Tuesday. . . . The Chiefs had won the previous two games in the series. . . . The goal was Schmidt’s first of these playoffs. He sat out Game 3 with a one-game suspension after taking a clipping major in Game 2. . . . “It felt good to get that overtime winner,” Schmidt told Dave Trimmer of the Spokane Spokesman-Review. “I’ve never had one before in my career. I got lucky at the end. We needed this win.” . . . The Americans had a glorious opportunity to end it at 18:36 of the first OT when F Brendan Shinnimin was awarded a penalty shot. Spokane G James Reid kept it going with a right pad save. . . . Spokane F Tyler Johnson forced OT with his second goal of the game, via the PP, at 12:17 of OT. . . . The Chiefs led this one 2-0 early in the second period, only to have the Americans score three goals before the period ended. . . . Reid finished with 46 saves, one more than Tri-City’s Drew Owsley. . . . Owsley set a franchise record with his 18th playoff victory, one more than Chet Pickard. . . . Attendance was 3,888.
---
THURSDAY’S CHECKING-FROM-BEHIND COUNT:
One minor:
Spokane F Kenton Miller.
———
The Portland Winterhawks are at home tonight with a 3-1 lead over the Kelowna Rockets. The Winterhawks also will welcome back F Brad Ross, who has served a three-game suspension for a charging major he took in Game 1. Kelowna F Zach Franko, who took that hit by Ross, was left with a broken nose and a concussion, and isn’t expected to play.
Meanwhile, the Red Deer Rebels and Medicine Hat Tigers don’t play again until Saturday. The Tigers will take a 3-1 edge into the next game, which is to be played in Red Deer. The Rebels were without G Darcy Kuemper (ankle) for Game 4 — Dawson Guhle stopped 19 shots in a 1-0 victory — and it isn’t known yet if he will be able to dress, or play, in Game 5. The Rebels are still alive, despite having scored only three goals in four games.
———
The Kootenay Ice will spend the next few days enjoying what they have accomplished to this point in the WHL playoffs.
“Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought we would have swept this series,” Ice president and general manager Jeff Chynoweth said via text shortly after his club had swept the highly favoured Saskatoon Blades on Wednesday night. “Having said that, in all my years with the Ice, that is probably as good a four-game stretch as we have ever had.
“We will enjoy it for a few days, rest up and heal a bit, and get ready for The Hat or Red Deer, because it will not get any easier from here on out.”
The Medicine Hat Tigers take a 3-1 lead into Red Deer for Game 5 with the Rebels on Saturday.
If you were wondering, the Ice was 2-5-1 against Red Deer during the regular season and 4-1-1 versus Medicine Hat.
———
If you’re wondering why the Blades went out the way they did, perhaps you should look no further than two statistics.
The Blades scored five goals in the four games and went 0-for-16 on the PP.
———
The NHL’s Los Angeles Kings assigned Saskatoon Blades F Brayden Schenn to the Manchester Monarchs, their AHL affiliate.
As Helene Elliott of the Los Angeles Times tweeted: “Kings decision to send Brayden Schenn to AHL is based on their desire that he not feel pressure to relace (Anze) Kopitar when he's different player.”
———

JAY VARADY

Jay Varady, a long-time member of the Everett Silvertips’ coaching staff, is leaving the WHL. Varady, who has been with Everett through all eight of its seasons in the league, has stepped down as associate head coach to sign on as head coach of the Ducs d’Angers, a club that plays in Ligue Magnus, which is France’s top professional league.
Varady, 33, was an assistant coach with the Silvertips (2003-07), before being named associate head coach. He helped the Silvertips to a Western Conference championship and three U.S. Division titles. The team also was in the playoffs in each of his eight seasons there.
The Cahokia, IL native won a gold medal at the 2010 IIHF World Junior Championships with USA Hockey as the team’s video co-ordinator.
———
Jason Vondersmith of the Portland Tribune takes a look at Mike Johnston and Travis Green, the braintrust behind the success the Portland Winterhawks are enjoying. That story is right here.
———
Willy Palov of the Halifax Chronicle Herald takes a look at the names being bandied about as at least four QMJHL teams look for head coaches. That piece is right here.
———
Today’s good read comes from Pulitzer Prize-winner Buzz Bissinger, who writes about Tiger Woods. That piece is good and it’s right here.


gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
     
gdrinnan.blogspot.com
     
Taking Note on Twitter