The Edmonton Oil Kings are rewriting the franchise’s modern day record book. In the process, this team is setting the bar for the teams that will follow.
Of course, the modern-day Oil Kings are in only their fifth season but, still, the numbers are impressive.
Here’s a quick look at some of the franchise records that already have fallen (with a tip of the hat to Ryan Ohashi, the Oil Kings’ manager of communications):
REGULAR SEASON
Most Points (Team): 83
Previous record: 69 (2010-11)
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Most Wins (Team): 38
Previous record: 34 (2010-11)
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Most Assists: 54 (Dylan Wruck)
Previous Record: 48 (Michael St.Croix, 2010-11)
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CAREER
Most Games Played: 255 (T.J. Foster)
Previous record: 218 (Adrian Van De Mosselaer, 2007-11)
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Most Goals: 83 (Michael St. Croix)
Previous Record: 50 (Brent Raedeke and Tomas Vincour, both 2007-10)
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Most Assists: 129 (Michael St.Croix, 2009-11)
Previous Record: 77 (Michael St.Croix, 2009-11)
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Most Points: 212 (Michael St.Croix, 2009-11)
Previous Record: 123 (Michael St.Croix, 2009-11)
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Most Shutouts: 5 (Laurent Brossoit)
Previous Record: 4 (Torrie Jung, 2008-10)
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The Oil Kings also lead the wHL in goals scored (244) and goal differential (plus-97). . . . The Oil Kings continue their record run tonight when they meet the Giants in Vancouver.
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THE COACHING GAME:
The Southern Professional league’s Fayetteville FireAntz have brought in Todd Bidner to replace the fired Sean Gillam (Spokane, 1992-96). . . . The FireAntz went 12-25-5 under Gillam, who was in his first season. They are in last place in the SPHL. . . . Bidner, 40, was selected by the Washington Capitals in the sixth round of the NHL’s 1980 draft. He played most of his pro career in Great Britain.
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JUST NOTES:
The Saskatoon Blades have brought in D Brett Lernout, 16, from the midget AAA Winnipeg Wild. The 6-foot-4, 190-pound Lernout has 35 points and is plus-54 in 44 games with the Wild. A late birthday, he will be eligible for the 2013 NHL draft. . . . Kevin Pochuk, another Wild defenceman, also is in the WHL. He is with the Red Deer Rebels on their swing into the B.C. Division. Pochuk has 64 points and is plus-81 in 42 games with the Wild. . . . If you were wondering, the Wild is 41-2-1. . . . Saskatoon also owns the WHL rights to Wild G Alex Moodie, who had a good run with the Blades early in the new year following an injury to starter Andrey Markarov.
The Kelowna Rockets should have F Brett Lyon and F Jessey Astles back in the lineup tonight when they play host to the Calgary Hitmen. Lyon, 20, has served a WHL-issued six-game suspension, while Astles, 18, has missed 18 games with what the team says is an “upper-body injury.” It is believed that he was out with a concussion. . . . Due to injuries and Lyon’s suspensions, the Rockets had six 16-year-olds dressed on Tuesday when they lost 6-3 to the visiting Edmonton Oil Kings. . . .
The Vancouver Giants will add D Cody Franson of the Toronto Maple Leafs to their Ring of Honour tonight as part of the festivities when they play host to the Edmonton Oil Kings. Franson, 24, played three full seasons (2004-07) for the Giants. His younger brother Cain, 18, plays for the Giants now. "It's exciting and I'm very honoured to have this happen but I also haven't seen my brother play since he was 15 years old, or maybe even younger than that," Cody told Steve Ewen of the Vancouver Province. "I'm very excited to watch him play." . . . Vancouver has lost F Anthony Ast to a four-game suspension for a charging major he incurred during a game against the Tri-City Americans on Tuesday. Ast didn’t play in Wednesday’s 2-1 victory over the Chiefs in Spokane so has three games left to serve. F Mitch Messier, the subject of Ast’s hit, didn’t return to Tuesday’s game and didn’t play Wednesday in a ?? loss to the host Portland Winterhawks. . . . The Giants also will be without F Marek Tvrdon, who picked up a match penalty for spearing in Spokane. . . . Ewen reports that the Giants will have F Brodyn Nielsen, 18, in their lineup tonight. He already has played seven games with the Giants this season but plays regularly for the junior B North Vancouver Wolf Pack. . . . The Giants also may get F Carter Popoff, a 16-year-old from the junior B Richmond Sockeyes into their lineup. . . .
The Brandon Wheat Kings have been bitten by the injury bug as it seems have so many teams of late. The Wheat Kings beat the Hurricanes 4-2 in Lethbridge on Wednesday without the services of five forwards — Alessio Bertaggia, Dominick Favreau, Tyrel Seaman and Kevin Sundher and Jason Swyripa. The Wheat Kings are at home to the Prince Albert Raiders and apparently don’t know if any of the injured will return. . . .
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Saskatoon soon will have a new cardiac care lab and CTVNews has a piece right here that includes some time with Darren Lefebvre, who you will recall had a cardiac issue while playing for the Spokane Chiefs in 2002-03. That piece is right here.
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Today’s good read comes from The New Yorker and has nothing to do with hockey. Instead, it’s all about football. Rather, it’s all about Jon Gruden. Kelefa Sanneh has written a terrific piece and it’s right here. And it's lengthy, so be prepared.


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Silvertips land their man

Doug Soetaert (left), the general manager of the Everett Silvertips,
introduces Mark Ferner as the WHL team's new head coach.
(Photo courtesy Frank Deines III/Everett Silvertips)

THE MacBETH REPORT:
F Taggart Desmet (Calgary, 2000-01) signed a one-year contract with Valpellice (Italy, Serie A). He had 16 goals and 42 assists in 40 games for Brunico (Italy, Serie A) last season.
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THE COACHING GAME:
Mark Ferner is the new head coach of the WHL’s Everett Silvertips. Ferner, who spent four years as GM/head coach of the BCHL’s Vernon Vipers, was introduced to Everett at a news conference there on Wednesday afternoon. . . . Nick Patterson of the Everett Herald has the story right here. . . .
Guy Carbonneau is out and Marc-Etienne Hubert is in with the QMJHL’s Chicoutimi Sagueneens. Carbonneau, the former NHL player and coach, remains as the club’s president. Hubert is the new head coach after having served as an assistant since 2005. . . . Marc Fortier, a former NHL forward, is the club’s new general manager. . . . Carbonneau had been head coach since February when Richard Martel was fired. . . . Carbonneau’s decision prompted immediate speculation that he would be the next head coach of the NHL’s New Jersey Devils or would be signing on as an assistant coach with the Detroit Red Wings. He has denied all of that speculation. . . .
Former WHL/NHL D Robert Dirk is the new head coach of the junior B Penticton Lakers. The franchise, which is operated by the Okanagan Hockey Academy, plays in the Kootenay International junior league. Dirk has coaching experience in the United league, as well as the West Coast league and the ECHL. He has been part of the Okanagan Hockey Academy since 2007. . . . Should he so desire, you’ve got to think he will surface in the WHL one of these years. . . .
As was mentioned here on June 14, Sean Gillam (Spokane, 1992-96) is the new head coach of the Southern Professional league’s Fayetteville FireAntz. Gillam was introduced at a Wednesday news conference and Thomas Pope of the Fayetteville Observer was there. His story is right here.
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A Wednesday news release from the ECHL’s Trenton Devils begins:
“Newark, NJ — The ECHL’s Trenton Devils will suspend play beginning with the 2011-12 season. The New Jersey Devils are restructuring the organization’s player development system to be more in line with other NHL franchises. In fact, Trenton was the only ECHL team that was completely owned by an NHL club.
“The Devils purchased a majority interest in the Trenton Titans on Sept. 21, 2006. The team continued to be affiliated with the Philadelphia Flyers for the 2006-07 season before the Devils took it over as their ECHL – or Class AA – affiliate and changed the name to Trenton Devils.
“Since then, the team has been plagued by steadily declining attendance at Sun National Bank Center. The Trenton Devils finished last in the 19-team ECHL in 2010-11 with an average attendance of just 2,390 in a building that holds 7,605 for hockey. A source said the team has lost money every season since the Devils took over ownership.”
It is somewhat interesting that a press release from a team includes a paraphrased quote from an anonymous source. You don’t see that every day.
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Nick Patterson of the Everett Herald reports that the Silvertips have released F Markus McCrea, 19. A native of Canyon Lake, Calif., McCrea had 24 points, including 13 goals, in 175 games over three seasons. . . .
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D Joe Hicketts of Kamloops, who was selected by the Victoria Royals with their first pick in the WHL’s 2011 bantam draft, is the winner of the Hockey Now/B.C. Hockey Hall of Fame Minor Hockey Player Achievement Award. . . . Cleve Dheensaw of the Victoria Times Colonist has the story right here.
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The Prince Albert Raiders report that they have five players scheduled to attend NHL camps. . . . F Mark McNeill, the 18th pick in the NHL’s 2011 draft, will be in the Chicago Blackhawks’ development camp that runs today through Monday. . . . D Harrison Ruopp, a third-round selection by the Phoenix Coyotes, is in camp in Peoria, Ariz., from today through Sunday. . . . F Jonathan Parker, 20, is spending this week as an invitee to the Buffalo Sabres’ development camp. He also has signed an ATO with the ECHL’s Bakersfield Condors. . . . F Brandon Herrod, 20, has been invited to the Coyotes’ camp that opens Sept. 9. . . . D Antoine Corbin has been invited to the San Jose Sharks’ camp that begins Sept. 8.
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Joe Paisley of the Colorado Springs Gazette has the latest on what’s been happening involving U.S. college hockey, including all the rumours of a super league. That piece is right here.
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The AJHL’s Canmore Eagles, under general manager and head coach Andrew Milne, have secured enough capitalization to secure its short-term future.
Daniel Austin of the Canmore Leader has the story right here.

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

Monday . . .

It seems I wasn’t the only person to make the connection between the 2011 Stanley Cup final and the 1960 World Series.
Moments after writing the brief piece that appeared here last week, I heard from a fan of the Portland Winterhawks who had pretty much the same thoughts.
And then, a couple of days later, I heard from another reader of this blog:
“I had one of those coincidences where I let out a ‘wow’ and did a double take on Saturday.
“I had just gotten off the phone with my dad (White Plains, N.Y., native, ardent Yankees fan since birth). He was comparing this year’s Stanley Cup final to the 1960 World Series, and relived the Mazeroski home run to me through the eyes of (then) a seven-year-old (he cried).
“Not even two minutes after getting off the phone with him, I logged on to Taking Note and read your depiction of one of the greatest World Series ever played.
“I remember the excitement of sitting in front of my TV as a 12-year-old in 1993 during Joe Carter’s series-ending home run, but that doesn’t come close to equaling the scope of Mazeroski’s home run.
“Imagine how much fun Twitter would be if the Yankees and an anonymous NL team battled into the bottom of the ninth in a tied World Series Game 7!”
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Of course, the Boston Bruins whipped the visiting Vancouver Canucks 5-2 on Monday night, forcing Game 7 on Wednesday in Vancouver.
Through six games, the Bruins hold a 19-8 edge in goals scored. The Canucks went into Monday leading the series 3-2 despite having scored only six goals.
In 1960, the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the New York Yankees in seven games, winning the deciding game 10-9 on Bill Mazeroski’s walk-off home run, the first such blow in World Series history. It also was the only one before Joe Carter did it for the Toronto Blue Jays — albeit in Game 6 — in their victory over the Philadelphia Phillies in 1993.
In that 1960 World Series, the Yankees outscored the Pirates 55-27 but somehow managed to lose Game 7.
Here, from Wikipedia, is a look at Game 7. It was played Oct. 13 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh.
Linescore
Team                1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     R     H     E
New York         0     0     0     0     1     4     0     2     2     9     13     1
Pittsburgh         2     2     0     0     0     0     0     5     1     10   11     0
WP: Harvey Haddix (2–0)   LP: Ralph Terry (0–2)
Home runs:
NYY: Bill Skowron (2), Yogi Berra (1)
PIT: Rocky Nelson (1), Hal Smith (1), Bill Mazeroski (2)
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Bob Turley, the winning pitcher in Game 2, got the nod for the Yankees against the Pirates' Vern Law, the winning pitcher in Games 1 and 4.
Turley lasted only one inning. After the first two Pirates made out, Turley walked Bob Skinner, then Rocky Nelson homered to give the Pirates a 2–0 lead. Turley was then pulled after giving up a single to Smoky Burgess leading off the second. Don Hoak then drew a base on balls against new pitcher Bill Stafford, and Bill Mazeroski's bunt single loaded the bases. Stafford appeared to get the Yankees out of trouble after inducing Law to hit into a double play, pitcher to catcher to first. But Bill Virdon's single to right scored both Hoak and Mazeroski and increased the Pirates' lead to 4–0.
The Yankees got on the scoreboard in the fifth on Bill Skowron's leadoff home run, his second homer of the Series. In the sixth, Bobby Richardson led off with a single and Tony Kubek drew a base on balls. Elroy Face relieved Law and got Roger Maris to pop out to Hoak in foul territory, but Mickey Mantle singled to score Richardson. Yogi Berra followed with a home run that gave the Yankees their first lead, 5–4.
The Yankees plated two more runs in the eighth. With two out, Berra walked and Skowron singled. Johnny Blanchard then singled to score Berra, then Clete Boyer doubled to score Skowron.
The Pirates opened the bottom of the eighth inning with singles by Gino Cimoli (pinch-hitting for Face), then Virdon (the latter's was on a ground ball to short for what could have been a double play; instead the ball took a bad hop and struck Kubek in the throat). Dick Groat then chased Bobby Shantz (who had entered the game in the third and had pitched five innings, after not pitching more than four during the regular season) with a single to score Cimoli. Jim Coates replaced Shantz and got Skinner out on a sacrifice bunt, which moved the runners up. Nelson followed with a fly ball to right, and Virdon declined to challenge Maris' throwing arm. Coates then got two quick strikes on Roberto Clemente and was one strike away from getting the Yankees out of their most serious trouble of the afternoon.
Clemente eventually hit a Baltimore Chop towards first with first baseman Skowron and Coates trying to get to the ball at the same time at the cut of the infield grass. Clemente's speed forced Skowron to just hold onto the ball as Coates could not make it to the base on time after trying to get the groundball. The high chopper allowed Virdon to score, cutting the Yankee lead to 7–6. Hal Smith followed with a three-run home run to give the Pirates a 9–7 lead. Ralph Terry relieved Coates and got the last out.
Bob Friend, an eighteen-game-winner for the Pirates and their starter in Games 2 and 6, came on in the ninth to try to protect the lead. The Yankees' Bobby Richardson and pinch-hitter Dale Long both greeted Friend with singles, and Pirates manager Danny Murtaugh was forced to bench the veteran pitcher in favor of Harvey Haddix. Although he got Roger Maris to foul out, Haddix gave up a key single to Mickey Mantle that scored Richardson and moved Long to third. Yogi Berra followed, hitting a short grounder to first, with Rocky Nelson easily making the second out. In what, at the moment, stood as a monumental play, Mantle, seeing he had no chance to beat a play at second, scurried back to first and avoided Nelson's tag (which would have been the third out) as Gil McDougald (pinch-running for Long) raced home to tie the score, 9–9. (Had Mantle been out on the play, the run still would have counted if it had scored before the tag.)
Ralph Terry returned to the mound in the bottom of the ninth. The first batter to face him was Mazeroski. With a count of one ball and no strikes, the Pirates' second baseman smashed a historic long drive over the left field wall, ending the contest and crowning the National League as champions. As the Pirates erupted, the Yankees stood across the field in stunned disbelief. The improbable champions were outscored, outhit, and outplayed, but had managed to pull out a victory anyhow. Years later, Mickey Mantle was quoted as saying that losing the 1960 series was the biggest disappointment of his career, the only loss amateur or professional he cried actual tears over. For Bill Mazeroski, it was the highlight.
Mazeroski became the first player to hit a game-winning home run in the seventh game, to win a World Series. Thirty-three years later, Joe Carter would become the only other player to end the World Series with a home run, doing so for the Toronto Blue Jays in 1993, albeit in Game 6. Although most noted for the series-ending homer, Game 7 is also the only game in all of postseason history with no strikeouts recorded by either side.
Bobby Richardson of the Yankees was named MVP of the Series, the only time that someone from the defeated team has been so honored.
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Fans of the Boston Bruins and Vancouver Canucks are free to pore over Game 7 of that 1960 World Series in a search for omens of what awaits us on Wednesday. That is when the Bruins and Canucks will meet in Game 7 in Vancouver.
And let’s be honest — there isn’t anything better in all of the sporting world than a Game 7, no matter the sport.
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JUST NOTES: The Kamloops Blazers have signed D Jordan Thomson, the fourth overall selection in the 2011 bantam draft. Thomson, from Wawanesa, Man., had 16 points with the Southwest Cougars of the Manitoba Midget AAA league last season. He was the only 1996-born player in that league. . . .
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THE COACHING GAME: Sean Gillam is the new head coach of the Southern Professional league’s Fayetteville FireAntz. The 35-year-old Gillam (Spokane, 1992-96) is from Lethbridge. He had been an assistant coach with the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees for five seasons. Gillam replaces Tommy Stewart, who was let go following his fourth season with Fayetteville. . . . Gulutzan also played for the Killer Bees, who retired his jersey (No.7) in 2008. . . . The Dallas Morning News has reported that the Dallas Stars are negotiating with Glen Gulutzan, who could be named head coach later this week. Gulutzan (Moose Jaw, Brandon, Saskatoon, 1986-92) will turn 40 on Aug. 12. He is a native of The Pas, Man., which is also the hometown of Montreal Canadiens scout Vaughn Karpan. . . . Gulutzan spent the last two seasons as head coach of the AHL’s Texas Stars, going 87-56-17. With Dallas, he will replace Marc Crawford, who was dropped after the season. . . . The AHL’s Abbotsford Heat is looking for a head coach following the resignation of Jim Playfair, who has signed a multi-year deal as an associate coach with the NHL’s Phoenix Coyotes. Playfair (Portland, Calgary, 1981-84) has been in the coaching game since 1993-94. He spent the last two seasons with the Heat, the AHL affiliate of the NHL’s Calgary Flames. Playfair had been in the Flames’ organization since 2000-01. . . .
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Patrick Kennedy of the Kingston Whig-Standard has today’s good read. It’s a piece on former Vancouver Canucks D Dennis Kearns and it is terrific.
"When I was in Portland,” Kearns told Kennedy, “our coach, Hal Laycoe, wouldn't allow any water on the bench, but you could smoke between periods. I didn't smoke but I can still remember my defence partner Doug Messier, Mark's dad, coming into the dressing room dripping with sweat and reaching for a cigarette."
That piece is right here.

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