THE MacBETH REPORT:
D Roman Polak (Kootenay, 2004-05) signed a lockout contract with Vitkovice Ostrava (Czech Republic, Extraliga). He had 11 assists in 77 games with the St. Louis Blues last season.
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After being a healthy scratch twice on the weekend, F Matt Bellerive has requested a trade and left the Vancouver Giants.
Bellerive, who turns 18 on Dec. 7, didn’t play in either of the Giants’ first two games — a 6-4 loss to the visiting Victoria Royals on Friday and a 3-2 setback in Victoria on Saturday.
Bellerive, a second-round selection in the 2009 bantam draft, is from North Vancouver. He had 14 points, including six goals, in 46 games last season. In his freshman season (2010-11), he had six points, four of them goals, in 50 games.
The Giants were 1-3-2 in the exhibition season, before opening with the two losses against victory.
They now have dropped three forwards off last season’s team, as F Taylor Makin, 20, was assigned to the AJHL’s Brooks Bandits sometime after Saturday’s game, while D Kiefer McNaughton, 19, joined the BCHL’s Chilliwack Chiefs earlier this month.
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SUNDAY’S NOTES:
The Edmonton Oil Kings ran their regular-season winning streak to 13 games as they beat the visiting Red Deer Rebels, 6-2. . . . Edmonton F Curtis Lazar scored three times for the first time in a WHL game. . . . The Rebels lost F Turner Elson, 20, in the second period with an undisclosed injury. . . .
The Portland Winterhawks went into Kennewick, Wash., and beat the Tri-City Americans, 4-2. . . . Tri-City, which lost 5-2 to the visiting Spokane Chiefs on Saturday, last lost its first two home games in 2005-06. . . . The Winterhawks were without F Ty Rattie (suspended) and F Taylor Leier, who has the dreaded lower body injury. . . . F Patrick Holland earned one assist for the Americans as he played what may have been his final WHL game. He now leaves to join the AHL’s Hamilton Bulldogs for training camp. He has 209 points, including 63 goals, in 206 games with the Americans. . . . Portland D Troy Rutkowski had three assists and perhaps someday someone will explain why an NHL team didn’t sign him over the summer. . . .
In Everett, the Prince George Cougars erased a 6-3 third-period deficit and beat the Silvertips, 7-6, in a shootout. . . . The seven-round shootout featured seven goals with F Jordan Tkatch finally winning it. . . . The Cougars scratched F Chase Witala, who was injured in Saturday’s 6-0 victory in Everett, and then lost F Jari Erricson to a headshot major and game misconduct.
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Everett F Jari Erricson is one of at least nine players who were involved in weekend incidents that will get a serious look from Richard Doerksen, the WHL’s vice-president, hockey. As part of his duties, Doerksen handles the WHL’s discipline.
And you have to think that he will be quite concerned with an opening weekend on which nine players got tossed from games with majors and game misconducts:
D Joel Edmundson, Moose Jaw, major, fighting off faceoff
F Josh Nicholls, Saskatoon, major, charging
D Mathew Dumba, Red Deer, major, check to head
F Justin Kirsch, Moose Jaw, major, checking from behind
F Andrew Johnson, Moose Jaw, major, charging
F Kale Kessy, Medicine Hat, major, check to head
D Spencer Galbraith, Lethbridge, major, check to head
F Ty Rattie, Portland, major, cross-checking
F Jari Erricson, major, headshot
Of that bunch, Rattie, Edmundson, Kirsch, Dumba and Nicholls all received ‘tbd’ suspensions on the weekend. Rattie and Dumba already have sat out one game.
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TWEET OF THE DAY:
Sunaya Sapurji (@sunayas), of Yahoo! Sports: “Red Wings Sr. VP Jim Devellano is at the Hershey Centre this afternoon to watch the young calves before they become full-grown cattle. #NHL”


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THE MacBETH REPORT:
F Michal Psurny (Medicine Hat, Kootenay, 2005-06) signed a one-year contract with the Manchester Phoenix (England, Premier). He had seven goals and 25 assists in 49 games with Olomouc (Czech Republic, 1.Liga) last season. . . .
D Dave Sutter (Seattle, 2010-12) has been assigned on loan by Genève-Servette (Switzerland, NL A) to Red Ice Martigny (Switzerland, NL B). He has no points in two games with Genève-Servette this season. Last season, Sutter had five goals and 14 assists in 66 games with the Thunderbirds.
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Judging from all the chatter on Twitter on Tuesday evening, the OHL is poised to announce a few rules adjustments today, including suspensions to players who indulge themselves in more than 10 fights.
Apparently, OHL commissioner David Branch and team representatives will be discussing all of this on a conference call today.
Yes, there will be a lot of gnashing of teeth and wailing from the fight fans. But, really, major junior hockey has no choice but to move away from fighting.
In fact, I would suggest, as I did on occasion last season, that we are within a couple of years of an outright ban. In other words, the day is on the horizon when a fight will carry with it a game misconduct and an automatic suspension.
You have to understand that this has nothing to do with hockey or entertainment.
It has everything to do with safety issues and legalities.
Everyone in authority seems to agree that a crackdown on headshots was and continues to be a necessity. Therefore, it only stands to reason that you move to get rid of fighting.
After all, the powers-that-be in major junior hockey don’t want to find themselves in a courtroom sometime in the future, trying to explain how they worked so hard to get rid of shoulders and elbows to the heads of unsuspecting opponents, but did nothing to stop two teenagers from pounding away at each others’ heads with their bare fists.
On top of all that, no one knows what’s in the future for hockey in terms of concussion-related lawsuits. The NFL right now is being sued by more than 3,000 former players. Hockey doesn’t want to find itself in the same boat.
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You may have noticed that the CHLPA hasn’t received a whole lot of mention in this space over the last while.
And nothing explains why any better than this right here from the gang at The Pipeline Show.
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I thought I had linked to this story when it was posted earlier this month, but it seems I did not.
So . . . right here is a look by Tim Pigulski of 710 ESPN in Seattle at the CHL versus NCAA debate.
It relies quite a bit on Carlos Sosa, who once was on the Seattle Thunderbirds’ radio crew and now is a partner in Turning Point Sports Management.
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Regan Bartel, the radio voice of the Kelowna Rockets, tweeted Tuesday evening that “three veteran WHL referee's have retired. Andy Thiessen, Colby Smith and Ryan Bonnett have put down the whistle.”. . . . Bartel also noted that “the WHL graduated three officials to the NHL. Trevor Hanson, Trent Knorr and linesman Kiel Murchison are moving on.” . . . You may find Bartel on Twitter at @Reganrant. . . . On occasion, he does. Rant, that is.
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Here’s a Tuesday tweet from James Shewaga (@JamesShewaga), the sports editor of the Brandon Sun: “The Brandon Wheat Kings hvae sold 2,395 season tickets, with about 2,800 tickets sold for Friday’s WHL season opener (2,300 left).”
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F Chris Collins, who lost out in the 20-year-old game with the Saskatoon Blades, has joined the AJHL’s Okotoks Oilers. . . . The Edmonton Oil Kings have released D Ryan Dech, 19, who had 13 points in 40 games as a sophomore last season. . . . The Oil Kings have kept two freshmen defencemen in Stephen Shmoorkoff, who turns 18 on Oct. 24, and Dysin Mayo, 16, along with freshman F Brett Pollock, 16. . . . Mayo was a third-round selection by Edmonton in the 2010 bantam draft. Pollock went in the fifth round in 2011. . . . The Swift Current Broncos have assigned F Denis Bosc to the MJHL’s Steinbach Pistons. Bosc, 17, was a sixth-round pick in the 2010 bantam draft. He had 21 points in 52 games with the Pistons last season. . . . The Vancouver Giants have assigned D Kiefer McNaughton, 19, to the BCHL’s Chilliwack Chiefs. Last season, the 6-foot-3, 210-pound McNaughton had seven points and 54 penalty minutes in 42 games with the Giants last season. That move got Vancouver’s roster down to 28 players.
The Prince Albert Raiders trimmed three players from their roster on Tuesday and now are carrying 24 players. G Rylan Parenteau, 16, was returned to the midget AAA Saskatoon Contacts, while F Luke Mahura, 17, is to join an undisclosed AJHL team, with F Jesse Knowler, 18, off to an undisclosed BCHL team. Parenteau was a third-round pick in the 2011 bantam draft. Mahura, who got into 39 games with the Raiders last season, was a third-round selection in the 2010 bantam draft. Knowler had six points in 57 games with the Raiders last season.
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A few notes involving three 20-year-olds. . . . Greg Harder of the Regina Leader-Post reports that Regina Pats D Colton Jobke, who played in one exhibition game, is done with the WHL, at least until he goes to camp with the AHL’s Houston Aeros. He is under contract with the NHL’s Minnesota Wild and the team has requested that he not play in the WHL for insurance reasons. . . . The same situation exists in Kamloops where D Austin Madaisky, 20, of the Blazers played in one exhibition game before being put in the stands. He is under contract to the NHL’s Columbus Blue Jackets and wil go to camp with the AHL’s Springfield Falcons. . . . Meanwhile, John MacNeil of Black Press reports that the NHL’s Calgary Flames have told F Turner Elson, 20, that he will play a fourth season with the Red Deer Rebels. Elson attended the Flames’ camp last season as a free agent and earned a contract. He is eligible to play for the AHL’s Abbotsford Heat but won’t go to its camp.

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