THE MacBETH REPORT:

 D Brett Palin (Kelowna, 2000-05) signed a one-year contract with Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg (Germany, DEL). He had six goals and seven assists in 50 games with Chomutov (Czech Republic, Extraliga) this season. . . .




F Rastislav Konecny (Saskatoon, 2006-07) signed a one-year contract with Kosice (Slovakia, Extraliga). He had 21 goals and 13 assists in 47 games for Skalica (Slovakia, Extraliga) this season. . . .




D Robby Sandrock (Spokane, Swift Current, Medicine Hat, Kelowna, 1994-99) signed a one-year contract extension with the Belfast Giants (Northern Ireland, UK Elite). He had 16 goals and 27 assists in 47 games with the Giants this season and was named to the UK Elite second all-star team.
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Ken Dryden, as only he can do, takes a look at the Eric Gryba hit on Lars Eller, breaks down the reaction to it and offers up his interpretation of where we’re going with the game of hockey. It’s all right here.
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The Portland Winterhawks are able to wrap up the WHL championship tonight as they take a 3-1 lead over the Edmonton Oil Kings into Game 5 at the Rose Garden.
Here’s an ad that was spotted on Craigslist:
“Winterhawks Tickets Wanted (Delaying my induced child birth for this) - $30 (Portland/Vancouver)
“I am scheduled to have induced child birth on Friday 5/10. If I can find tickets for the game the doctor has agreed to move it until Monday. Please email if you have 2 tickets available.”
Sheesh, this must be a big game!
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Jack Todd of the Montreal Gazette has an interesting piece right here on Montreal Canadiens defenceman P.K. Subban and the love-hate relationship with fans.
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By now, you likely are aware of all that went on in social media implying a feud between April Reimer, the wife of Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender James Reimer, and Elisha Cuthbert, the fiancee of Toronto defenceman Dion Phaneuf. Of course, it’s not true. Dan Robson of Sportsnet has the story right here. Oh, and he also talks with the guy in the North Stars cap.
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Over at The Nation (thenation.com), Dave Zirin has written an excellent piece that carries this headline: The Cesspool: Why Youth Sports Stink. . . . It’s right here and well worth your time, unless you are a parent or a coach who is meeting your needs at the expense of kids, to paraphrase former NFLer Joe Ehrmann, who is quoted in this column.
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THE COACHING GAME:
The Regina Pats will be short two coaches after the Christmas break next season. Regina head coach Malcolm Cameron will be the head coach for Team West at the U17 World Hockey Challenge in Cape Breton. Regina assistant coach Josh Dixon will serve as an assistant coach. . . . The tournament begins on Dec. 29. . . .


The BCHL’s Alberni Valley Bulldogs have signed general manager/head coach Kevin Willison and Adam Hayduk, the assistant director of hockey operations and assistant coach, through 2014-15. . . . The Bulldogs finished the regular season at 29-20-2-5 this season. . . .


Greg Ireland will be back for a third season as head coach of the OHL’s Owen Sound Attack. General manager Dale DeGray announced Thursday that the team has picked up the option on Ireland’s contract. The Attack is 76-47-13 under Ireland.
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The WHL’s playoff situation:
CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL
Portland vs. Edmonton
(Portland leads, 3-1)
(All times local)
Game 1: Friday — Edmonton 4 at Portland 1 (10,097)
Game 2: Saturday — Edmonton 0 at Portland 3 (10,947)
Game 3: Tuesday — Portland 3 at Edmonton 1 (8,513)
Game 4: Wednesday — Portland 2 at Edmonton 1 (8,400)
Game 5: Today, at Portland (Rose Garden), 7 p.m.
x-Game 6: Sunday, at Edmonton, 4 p.m.
x-Game 7: Monday, May 13, at Portland (Rose Garden), 7 p.m.
x – if necessary.


All games are being televised by Shaw in Canada. They also will be televised in Portland, with Games 5 and 6 on Comcast SportsNet, and Game 7 on Root Sports.
Comcast and Roots will pick up the Shaw telecast that feature play-by-play man Dan Russell, along with Bill Wilms, Peter Loubardias and Andy Neal.
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THURSDAY’S GAME:
No Game Scheduled.
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CHECKING-FROM-BEHIND COUNT (21):
None

CHECKING-TO-THE-HEAD COUNT (7):
None
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From Sunaya Sapurji (@sunayas) of Yahoo! Sports: “One person is offering "PS3 for free with controllers and games plus $50" for tickets to the Mooseheads. #CrazyTown)
Sapurji has more on the drive to get tickets right here.

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Goaltender Ty Rimmer of the Tri-City Americans reaches for a shot while
Brandon Magee of the Victoria Royals looks for a rebound on Tuesday night.
The Americans, in their first visit to Vancouver Island in 17 years,
beat the Royals, 6-2.
(Photo by Jonathon Howe)

With the late Derek Boogaard’s brain having been found to contain CTE, Gary Bettman, the NHL commissioner, was denying, denying, denying.
Here’s the Toronto Star’s Damien Cox:
“Gary Bettman was talking about Derek Boogaard and the possible connection between hockey, Boogaard’s death and a serious brain ailment.
“He just sounded like a global warming denier.
“The language was the same. A ‘limited data base.’ The need not to ‘jump to conclusions.’ The ‘gap in the science.’ The science being ‘in its infancy.’
By now it has become quite obvious that the NHL doesn’t want anything to do with any conversation involving the danger of fights to those absorbing the punches.
The players, at least a lot of them, are quite willing to catch punches with their faces and damn the consequences.
“It’s a physical sport,” Tim Jackman of the Calgary Flames told The Globe and Mail. “It’s our choice to play it … it’s kind of the price that we pay to play in this league.”
Jackman, something of a scrapper, also said: “Hopefully, I don’t have anything wrong with my brain.”
In the same story, Tanner Glass of the Winnipeg Jets is quoted as saying: “I feel like I can take it. It’s just the way I feel . . . maybe it’s not the brightest way to think right now.”
And then there is former NHLer Denis Gauthier, who told The Globe and Mail:
“I didn’t care about the consequences when I was a kid, but now I have three kids and I really want to be around for them. Would I do it again knowing what I do now? Probably. But my mentality would be completely different.”
Active hockey players worry only about the next game. That is how they are trained. One game at a time. Very few of them are concerned about whether they will be able to hug their grandchildren in 30 years.
And that’s too bad, because the evidence is mounting that points to concussions as carrying with them delibitating consequences in a lot of cases.
In the meantime, league officials, in the professional and junior ranks, love to point out how they are cracking down on headshots and taking better care of concussed players.
And yet they continue to allow players to punch each other in the face.
Which makes about as much sense as trying to stop a train by standing in front of it.
In junior hockey, where the players are not yet old enough to realize that none of us is on this earth forever, someone has to start protecting these players from each other.
There simply are too many players who aren’t able to complete their careers. There are too many players taking punches to the face without understanding what the consequences might be down the road.
The WHL is to be commended for the steps it has taken to penalize players for checks to the head. The natural progression is to ban punches to the head.
Isn’t it?
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Rob Vanstone, in the Regina Leader-Post, writes that “the tragic, untimely death of Derek Boogaard must not be in vain.” In this column right here, Vanstone writes that it’s time for fighting to go.
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Geoff Courtnall’s NHL career was brought to an end by concussions. These days he is working to raise concussion awareness. Cleve Dheensaw of the Victoria Times Colonist has that story right here.
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In a piece headlined The NHL continues to trade money for brain cells, Roy MacGregor of The Globe and Mail opines on fighting in the NHL right here.
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And here is a piece written by Greg Harder of the Regina Leader-Post that appeared late last month. Harder spoke with Patrick Neary, the executive director of the Dr. Paul Schwann Applied Health and Research Centre in Regina.
Among other things, Neary said, in discussing athletes who ignore concussion symptoms: “People are going to have to make decisions. ‘If I have another 60 or 70 years on this planet, how do I want to live it? Do I want to live it in a wheelchair with somebody feeding me or do I want to be a productive member of society?’ ”
Neary, who is an avid hockey fan and still plays the game, also said:
“With the information I know now and all the research I’ve done, I would be hesitant to send (my son) into the hockey environment with somebody taking a shot at him, hitting him in the head, using their elbow, that type of thing. The (guilty party) gets a two-minute minor or maybe a five-minute major and maybe kicked out of the game. (The victim) might be kicked out of life. We need to have more respect for our opponent. If I knew that they were controlling the (illegal) hitting and if I knew there was no longer any fighting, then I would probably allow him to play, but the way the situation is right now I would certainly say, ‘We need to reconsider. Let’s take up tennis or golf.’ ”
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THE COACHING GAME:
The BCHL’s Alberni Valley Bulldogs have fired Paul Esdale, their head coach and assistant director of hockey operations. The Bulldogs are 10-14-1 and in last place in the Coastal Conference. . . . They are expected to introduce Kevin Willison as their new head coach today. He resigned as the AJHL’s Olds Grizzlys’ director of hockey operations and head coach on Nov. 28.
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JUST NOTES:
The Kamloops Blazers and Tri-City Americans both launched apps for iPhone and Android devices on Tuesday. For more info on those, visit the teams’ respective websites. . . .
Greg Harder of the Regina Leader-Post reported late Tuesday night that “the Edmonton Oilers will face the New York Islanders in September in NHL pre-season action at the Brandt Centre. A formal announcement by Evraz Place is slated for 11:30 a.m. today at the Queensbury Centre.” . . .
The Czech Republic’s preliminary roster for its national junior team includes three WHLers -- D Marek Hrbas, Kamloops; D David Musil, Vancouver; and F Dominik Uher, Spokane. There are nine defencemen and 15 forwards, along with three goaltenders, on the roster. The players from Europe will arrive in Calgary on Dec. 17 and a camp will open in Lethbridge on Dec. 18. . . .
F Alessio Bertaggia of the Brandon Wheat Kings will attend the Switzerland national junior team’s selection camp. Bertaggia, 18, is the third member of the Wheat Kings invited to a selection camp -- F Michael Ferland and F Mark Stone will join the Canadian team in Calgary on Saturday. Bertaggia, in his first WHL season, has 27 points, including 13 goals, in 31 games. . . . The Swiss will gather in Red Deer on Dec. 17. . . .
F Victor Rask of the Calgary Hitmen is on the Swedish national junior team roster that will play in the World Junior Championship that opens Dec. 26 in Calgary and Edmonton. Rask, 18, has 24 points, including a team-high 15 goals, in his first season with the Hitmen. . . .
F Josh Nicholls of the Saskatoon Blades will miss up to two weeks with a knee injury suffered in a 6-3 loss to the Hurricanes in Lethbridge on Saturday night. How do we know that Nicholls is out? Well, he has been spotted using crutches to get around. And then on Tuesday afternoon he tweeted: “It's official...out 6-8 weeks with a grade 2 mcl sprain/tear :( ” . . .
F Jake Trask of the Saskatoon Blades drew a two-game suspension for a check to the head on Sunday in an 8-3 loss to the Oil Kings in Edmonton. That means he won’t play Saturday against the visiting Regina Pats and a week from tonight against his old club, the Kamloops Blazers, who will be on an East Division swing. . . .
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In Prince George, F Ty Rattie struck for three goals to lead the Portland Winterhawks to a 5-3 victory over the Cougars. . . . Portland F Ty Rattie scored the game’s first two goals to become the first WHLer to 30 snipes this season. . . . He later completed his second hat trick this season. . . . Portland has won five in a row. . . . D Martin Marincin gave the Cougars a 3-2 lead early in the third period, but Rattie tied it at 5:01 and F Nic Petan got the winner with 1:25 left. . . . Rattie has 31 goals in 30 games. . . . Portland F Sven Bartschi had three assists and leads the WHL with 40. . . . They’ll do it all over again tonight. . . .
In Prince Albert, F Mike Winther scored three PP goals in the second period and the Raiders went on to beat the Regina Pats, 6-3. . . . Winther, 17, finished up with his first WHL hat trick and two assists. . . . The sixth overall pick in the 2009 bantam draft, Winther has 22 points, including 12 goals, in 32 games. Last season, he had 10 points, nine of them goals, in 61 games. . . . The Raiders, who have won three in a row, were 4-for-6 on the PP and scored twice while shorthanded. Regina was 0-for-6. . . . F Brandon Herrod had two goals and two assists for the Raiders, who got a goal and two helpers from F Mark McNeill and three apples from D Josh Morrissey. . . . McNeill will be in Calgary on Saturday for the start of the Canadian national junior team’s selection camp. . . . Regina was without D Brandon Underwood (foot), who blocked a shot in a 2-0 victory in Brandon on Sunday. . . .
In Moose Jaw, F Quinton Howden scored the game’s last two goals as the Warriors beat the Red Deer Rebels, 6-5. . . . F Tyson Ness gave the Rebels a 5-4 lead at 14:12 of the third period. . . . Howden tied it at 14:34 and won it with 4.8 seconds to play. . . . Howden has 14 goals. . . . The Rebels have lost 10 in a row. . . . Moose Jaw F Andrew Johnson had three assists. . . . The Warriors had lost eight in a row to Red Deer before this one. . . . Red Deer F Turner Elson served the last game of a six-game WHL suspension. . . . The Rebels remain without D Aaron Borejko, F Josh Cowen, F Adam Kambeitz and F Daulton Siwak, all of whom are injured. . . .
In Edmonton, the Oil Kings ran their winning streak to seven games as they dumped the Calgary Hitmen, 6-2. . . . Edmonton D Griffin Reinhart had a goal and two assists. . . . Edmonton F Dylan Wruck, with a goal and an assist, and linemate Tyler Maxwell, with two assists, ran their point streaks to nine games. . . . Edmonton scored three times on the PP. . . . That PP unit is 8-for-14 in its last two games, including Sunday’s 8-3 victory over the visiting Saskatoon Blades. . . . The Oil Kings now are tied with the Kootenay Ice for first place in the Central Division, and with the Ice and Moose Jaw Warriors for the Eastern Conference lead. . . .
In Victoria, F Justin Feser had two goals and two assists as the Tri-City Americans beat the Royals, 6-2. . . . Feser has 14 goals. . . . The Americans lead the WHL with 22 victories. . . . Tri-City F Brendan Shinnimin added two goals, giving him 13, and an assist. . . . They will play in Victoria again tonight. . . . With 44 points, the Americans lead the WHL’s overall standings, but there are five teams within three points back. The Portland Winterhawks have 42 points, with the Edmonton Oil Kings, Moose Jaw Warriors, Kootenay Ice and Kamloops Blazers all at 41.
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TUESDAY’S CHECKING-FROM-BEHIND COUNT:
F Austin Bourhis, Prince Albert.
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If you are wanting some background on The New York Times’ stunning three-part series on the late Derek Boogaard, check out this right here. David Brauer of MinnPost.com talks with John Branch, who wrote the NYT series, about how it all came together. This, people, is how journalism is supposed to work.
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THE MacBETH REPORT:
D Oleg Tverdovsky (Brandon, 1994-95) was released by Salavat Yulaev Ufa (Russia, KHL). He had no points in 12 games this season. Tverdovsky cleared KHL waivers last week but elected not to report to Salavat Yulaev's farm club, Toros Neftekamsk (Russia, Vysshaya Liga).
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JUST NOTES: F Filip Vasko, 18, of the Kelowna Rockets will attend the Slovakian national junior team’s selection camp in Three Hills, Alta., Dec. 15-23. Vasko, in his freshman WHL season, has 11 assists in 24 games with the Rockets. . . .
F Geordie Wudrick (Swift Current, Kelowna, 2005-11) is leaving the Rosenheim Star Bulls, a German pro team, to join the U of New Brunswick Varsity Reds, the No. 1 team in Canadian Interuniversity Sport’s latest rankings. . . . Wudrick had 59 points, 43 of them goals, in 71 games with the Kelowna Rockets last season. . . . He will play for the V-Reds after Christmas. . . . Wudrick had nine points in 14 games with Rosenheim, which plays in the 2.Bundesliga. . . .
F Thomas Frazee (Portland, Medicine Hat, Regina, Moose Jaw, Kamloops, 2005-11) will play for the Lakehead University Thunderwolves after Christmas. Frazee, 21, finished up his WHL eligibility with the Kamloops Blazers last season. He went to camp this season with the NHL”s Washington Capitals and began the season with the ECHL’s Bakersfield Condors, finishing up with a goal and three assists. . . .
F Adam Rockwood of the Northeast Chiefs put up 28 points in eight B.C. major midget league games in November. That broke the record for most points in a month set by F Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, now with the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers. . . . Rockwood is on the Medicine Hat Tigers’ list. . . . The Chiefs, who are coached by Doneau Menard (New Westminster, Victoria, 1985-89), are on an 8-0 run. . . . The Federal Hockey League’s Vermont Wild, who played out of Morrisville, have ceased operations. They lasted 10 games, going 3-7-0. . . .
The NHL’s Columbus Blue Jackets have returned F Oliver Gabriel, 20, to the Portland Winterhawks. He should play Friday against the visiting Everett Silvertips. Gabriel, a free-agent signee of the Blue Jackets, was with the AHL’s Springfield Falcons. He had one goal in 11 games. Last season, he had 32 points in 41 games with Portland before suffering a season-ending shoulder injury in January. . . . Gabriel’s arrival leaves Portland with four 20-year-olds, one over the limit. The others are D William Wrenn, the team’s captain, F Dillon Wagner and F Charles Wells. The Winterhawks have two weeks from Gabriel’s arrival to get down to three. . . .
The Lethbridge Hurricanes have assigned G Tanner Kovacs to the AJHL’s St. Albert Steel. That leaves the Hurricanes with Damien Ketlo, 20, and Liam Liston, 18, as their goaltenders. Kovacs, 17, had gotten into only three games.
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THE COACHING GAME:
Former WHL player and coach Brad Lauer has joined the Anaheim Ducks as an assistant coach. The move came as the Ducks fired head coach Randy Carlyle and replaced him with Bruce Boudreau, who had been dumped a couple of days earlier by the Washington Capitals. Lauer was an assistant under Cory Clouston with the NHL’s Ottawa Senators last season. After Ottawa cleaned house, he signed as an assistant with the Syracuse Crunch, Anaheim’s AHL affiliate. . . .
The USHL’s Omaha Lancers fired GM/head coach Bliss Littler on Wednesday, replacing him with assistant coach Mike Aikens, at least on an interim basis. The Lancers were 9-8-2 and third in the Western Conference in Littler’s fourth season with them. He was 117-60-22 in Omaha. . . . Perhaps it’s a sign of the times that Littler announced his firing via Twitter. Here’s his tweet: “Fired this morning. Good luck to a bunch of great kids and staff.” . . .
Earlier in the week, Kevin Willison resigned as director of hockey operations and head coach of the AJHL’s Olds Grizzlys. Assistant coach Brett Hopfe is the interim head coach. Olds was 9-18-0-3 after going 0-7-1-2 in November. Willison had been with the Grizzlys since August 2010. . . .
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In Saskatoon, the Reinhart brothers combined for seven points as the Kootenay Ice whipped the Blades, 6-1. . . . F Max Reinhart scored three times, while his younger brother, Sam, drew four assists. . . . Ice G Nathan Lieuwen stopped 20 shots. . . . Max Reinhart, 19, has 34 points, including 15 goals, in 24 games. In his career, he has 191 points in 229 games. . . . This was his third WHL hat trick — he had a four-goal game and three-goal game last season. . . . Sam Reinhart, 16, has 26 points, 18 of them assists, in 27 games. He has followed three pointless games by putting up 18 points in his last six games. He has had at least two points in each of those games, as he has alternated two- and four-point outings. . . . The Ice also set a franchise record with its seventh straight road victory. . . . The defending-champion Ice (19-5-3) boasts the WHL’s best record. . . . “That was like some of the girls you used to date, Daniel,” Lorne Molleken, the Blades’ GM/head coach, said to Daniel Nugent-Bowman of the Saskatoon StarPhoenix. . . .

In Brandon, F Brenden Walker had a goal and two assists as the Wheat Kings scored the game’s last three goals and beat the Vancouver Giants, 5-4. . . . F Mark Stone, the WHL scoring leader, got the winner just 38 seconds into the third period. He has 25 goals. . . . Brandon, which had lost three straight, trailed 4-2 when it scored two quick PP goals, the first on the 5-on-3. . . . F Alessio Bertaggia got the Wheaties to within one and D Brodie Melnychuk tied it. . . . F Brendan Gallagher had three goals for the Giants, giving him 22 on the season. . . . Vancouver D Kiefer McNaughton didn’t return after taking a punch from Brandon F Mike Ferland in a second-period bout. . . . The teams became involved in a donnybrook of sorts at games end. It resulted in six fighting majors, which means it was a multi-fight situation. That means — ch-ch-ching! — there will be fines. And just in time for Christmas shopping, too. . . . The Wheat Kings were without G Brandon Anderson (flu), so had Tyrel Heap of a local high school team, the Crocus Plains Plainsmen, backing up Corbin Boes. . . .

In Prince Albert, G Luke Siemens stopped 18 shots to help the Moose Jaw Warriors to a 3-0 victory over the Raiders. . . . Siemens has two shutouts this season. . . . Prince Albert D Tyler Hart took a cross-checking major and game misconduct at 11:02 of the third period. . . . The Warriors had a 35-18 edge in shots. . . . D Dylan McIlrath was back in Moose Jaw’s lineup after sitting out a three-game suspension. . . .

In Medicine Hat, the Lethbridge Hurricanes erased a 2-0 deficit and went on to beat the Tigers, 4-3. . . . D James Bettauer had two goals and an assist for the Tigers. He has 12 points, including seven goals, in 16 games. . . . The Hurricanes were one skater short due to injuries. . . . Lethbridge G Damien Ketlo stopped 35 shots. . . . The Hurricanes were without F Graham Hood (suspension), who is awaiting supplementary discipline for a hit on Red Deer F Josh Cowen, who didn’t play last night in a loss to the Spokane Chiefs. . . . Lethbridge did have D Albin Blomqvist and F Juraj Bezuch back after one-game absences (flu). . . .

In Red Deer, F Mitch Holmberg scored twice as the Spokane Chiefs beat the Rebels, 5-2. . . . The Chiefs, who won for the first time in nine road games this season, are 1-1 on their Central Division trek. . . . The Chiefs had a 22-15 edge in shots. . . . Spokane captain Darren Kramer scored his 10th goal of the season in his 22nd game. he had seven in 68 games last season. . . . Chiefs D Brenden Kichton, one of the WHL’s more under-appreciated players, had a goal and two assists. He has 24 points in 23 games. . . . The Rebels have lost seven in a row. . . . Red Deer had four forwards and two defencemen out with injury or suspension. The Rebels dressed F Conner Bleackley of the midget AAA UFA Bisons. He was their first pick in the 2011 bantam draft. F Scott Feser, an eighth-round pick in 2010, played his second straight game. He plays for the midget AAA Red Deer Optimist Rebels. . . . All told, the Rebels were without D Alex Petrovic, D Aaron Borejko, F Turner Elson, F Josh Cowen, F Daulton Siwak and F Adam Kambeitz. . . . The Rebels open a four-game road trip in Brandon on Friday. . . .

In Kelowna, F Brett Bulmer scored two goals to help the Rockets dump the Tri-City Americans, 6-2. . . . Bulmer has eight goals. . . . The Rockets are 6-3-1 in their last 10 outings. . . . The Americans had won four in a row and finished November with an 8-2-0 record for the month. . . .

In Victoria, F Chase Schaber’s fourth goal in two games, at 2:30 of overtime, gave the Kamloops Blazers a 6-5 victory over the Royals. . . . Schaber’s goal came with Victoria forward Jesse Pauls in the penalty box for slashing. . . . Schaber had scored three times Tuesday night as the Blazers beat the Royals 4-3 in Victoria. . . . Kamloops has now beaten the Royals four straight times this season, including 4-1 in Kamloops on Friday night. . . . The teams meet for the fourth time in nine nights on Saturday in Kamloops. . . . The Blazers (18-7-1) are 6-1-1 in their last eight games and have won four in a row. They boast the WHL’s best road record (9-2-1) and are 10-2 inside the B.C. Division, which they now lead by a point over the Vancouver Giants. Kamloops also is within a point of the Western Conference-leading Tri-City Americans. . . . The Royals (11-15-2) now have lost six in a row and nine of 10.
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WEDNESDAY’S CHECKING-FROM-BEHIND COUNT:
D Justin Weller, Red Deer
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TWEET OF THE NIGHT:
From Edmonton Oil Kings F Tyler Maxwell, who tweets as KingMaxymus23: “I'm proud to be part of a generation that was once mesmerized by Lite-Brites but now complains if we can't stream HD video from our phones.”
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gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
     
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