THE MacBETH REPORT:
F Rhett Gordon (Regina, 1992-96) announced his retirement after helping the Nottingham Panthers (England, UK Elite) win the UK Elite championship. Gordon started the season with the Colorado Eagles (ECHL), getting one goal and four assists in 10 games. He joined the Panthers in January and had three goals and 16 assists in 19 games. Gordon, as quoted in Monday's online edition of the Sheffield Star: "This was a very difficult decision and I thought long and hard about it but I feel the time is right for me to retire." . . .
F Matt Pettinger (Calgary, 1999-2000) signed a two-year contract with the Hamburg Freezers (Germany, DEL). He had 14 goals and 23 assists in 52 games with Kölner Haie (Cologne Sharks) this season. Cologne GM Stephane Richer: "Matt will be a real asset to our team. He's agile, good on the road, strong and physical on the puck. He is also a reliable scorer and can bring his experience to our team also to enrich it off the ice. A player like Matt has been missing from our team." . . .
F Antonin Honejsek (Moose Jaw, 2009-11) signed a two-year contract extension with Zlin (Czech Republic, Extraliga). Honejsek had three goals and four assists in 34 games with Zlin, four goals and seven assists in six games with Zlin U20, and two assists in three games on loan to Horacka Slavia Trebic (Czech Republic, 1.Liga).
———
There weren’t any WHL games on Monday night, but three series resume tonight.
The Medicine Hat Tigers will have F Emerson Etem back in their lineup for Game 3 as they play host to the Moose Jaw Warriors. Etem sat out Game 2 after taking a kneeing major early in Game 1. The Warriors hold a 2-0 lead. . . .
The Edmonton Oil Kings hold a 2-0 lead as they head into Brandon for two games with the Wheat Kings. . . . Brandon hasn’t played at home since March 17. It played its first-round games in Winnipeg as the Royal Manitoba Winter Fair had taken over Westman Place in Brandon. . . .
Portland LW Oliver Gabriel has served one game and is awaiting a final ruling on his suspension stemming from a Game 1 collision with Kamloops G Cole Cheveldave … Medicine Hat RW?Emerson Etem has had his suspension finalized at one game — which he has already served — after taking a kneeing major in Game 1 of the Tigers’ series against Moose Jaw. . . .
The Kamloops Blazers won’t have G Cole Cheveldave for a second straight game as they take on the visiting Portland Winterhawks. Cheveldave was injured — no one is saying but it would appear he has a concussion — late in Game 1 when Portland F Oliver Gabriel ran over him behind the net. . . . Gabriel sat out Game 2 with a suspension. The length of that suspension hadn’t been determined as of early, early this morning. . . . The Winterhawks hold a 2-0 lead in this series. . . .
The Spokane Chiefs and Tri-City Americans, meanwhile, are tied 1-1 and will resume hostilities on Wednesday night in Spokane.
———
THE COACHING GAME:
The USHL’s Indiana Ice fired general manager and head coach Kyle Wallack on Monday. Wallack had been an associate head coach at Yale U since 2006. He signed with the Ice on June 1, 2011, agreeing to a deal through 2013-14. Wallack replaced Charlie Skjodt, who at the time moved up to president. Skjodt was named interim head coach through the end of this season. . . . The Ice was 37-19-4 last season when it was ousted in the second round of playoffs. This season, the Ice is 34-15-9 and second in the Eastern Conference. . . . "There were a number of factors that led me to make this decision at this time of the year, but team unity, improvement in team play during the season and the development of the players who sign up for the Indiana Ice will never be compromised, " said Ice CEO Paul Skjodt in a news release. . . . There have been five coaching changes in the 16-team USHL this season. . . . The USHL is into the final week of its regular season. . . .
The midget AAA Brandon Wheat Kings will have Ken Schneider as their head coach again in 2012-13. Schneider, one of hockey’s good guys, played in the WHL with Brandon (1979-82), finishing up as the Wheat Kings’ captain. He is the father of former WHL D Mark Schneider (Kamloops, Brandon, Regina, 2006-11). Mark played this season with the U of Regina Cougars. . . .
The Kootenay Ice has an opening on its coaching staff after the U of Regina Cougars named Todd Johnson as their new head coach, effective immediately. Johnson, who played in the WHL with Moose Jaw, Kamloops and Red Deer (1990-93), has been an assistant with the Ice for the last two seasons. With the Cougars, he takes over from Blaine Sautner, who resigned in order to return to the family farm. . . . “I’m really happy for Todd as he is a classy young man who . . . will do a real good job for them,” Jeff Chynoweth, the Ice’s president and general manager, told me Monday evening. “Proud also to have another coach move on up.” . . .
Ryan Pollock, the associate coach and assistant GM of the AJHL’s Bonnyville Pontiacs, has resigned, citing personal and family reasons. Pollock spent the last five seasons with the Pontiacs, starting as an assistant coach and moving to associate coach/assistant GM under Chad Mercier for this season. . . . The Pontiacs also are looking for a trainer after Kim Sydora left following the season.
———
Marc Habscheid, the general manager and head coach of the Victoria Royals, and team president Dave Dakers have denied a rumbling in the Edmonton Journal from the weekend. Jim Matheson, in his weekly Hockey World report, had speculated that Habscheid might be looking to give up the GM’s role, which might open the door for Doug Soeteart, the former Everett Silvertips’ GM, to land in Victoria. According to Cleve Dheensaw of the Victoria Times Colonist, Habscheid and Dakers responded identically: “There is nothing to it."

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.

Looking for something good to ready today? Right here is Elliotte Friedman of Hockey Night in Canada and his popular weekly column.
———
PRO SIGNINGS: F Campbell Elynuik of the Prince George Cougars has signed an ATO with the Adirondack Phantoms, the AHL affiliate of the NHL’s Philadelphia Flyers. Elynuik, 19, had 11 points and 132 penalty minutes in 52 games with the Cougars, after picking up a goal, two assists and 24 penalty minutes in eight games with the Regina Pats. . . . He was in the Flyers’ prospects camp last summer. . . . D Richard Nedomlel, 18, has signed an ATO with the Grand Rapids Griffins, the Detroit Red Wings’ AHL affiliate. The Red Wings selected him in the sixth round of the 2011 NHL draft. The 6-foot-4, 225-pounder had 46 points in 72 games with the Broncos this season.
———
Veteran sports columnist Terry Jones of the Edmonton Sun is in Cranbrook following the Edmonton Oil Kings and Kootenay Ice, who play Game 3 of their series tonight. He writes right here about the Ice and its history.
———
JUST NOTES: The Saskatoon Blades expect to have F Michael Burns, 20, back in their lineup for Game 3 against the visiting Medicine Hat Tigers tonight. He has been out with a concussion. . . . The Portland Winterhawks may have C Presten Kopeck, 17, in their lineup tonight when they play Game 3 against the Rockets in Kelowna. Kopeck, a third-round pick in the 2010 bantam draft, signed with Portland on Jan. 24. He had 30 points in 56 games with the AJHL’s Lloydminster Bobcats this season. . . . D Nick Walters of the Everett Silvertips may miss Game 3 against the visiting Tri-City Americans tonight. He returned from an undisclosed injury and played in Game 1, but wasn’t available for Game 2.
———
THE COACHING GAME:
Ian Hamilton of the Regina Leader-Post is reporting that the University of Regina Cougars have short-listed four candidates as they look to replace Blaine Sautner, who after the season resigned as head coach in order to return to the family farm. On the list to be interviewed are Todd Johnson, an assistant coach with the Kootenay Ice, and former WHL coaches Don MacGillivray (Prince Albert Raiders) and Mike Blaisdell (Regina Pats). Also on the list is Jamie Fiesel, the head coach of the SJHL’s Melville Millionaires.

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.

Researchers will examine Boogaard's brain

Three for the price of one:
There can be no tougher time for parents than when faced with the death of one of their children.
But that is the situation faced since Friday by Joanne and Len Boogaard, whose 28-year-old son, Derek, was found dead in his Minneapolis apartment by his two brothers.
Derek, who grew up in Regina and for whom a memorial service will be in the Saskatchewan capital on Saturday, was 6-foot-7 and 260 pounds. He played five seasons with the NHL’s Minnesota Wild, and had just completed the first year of a four-year, US$6.5-million contract with the New York Rangers.
However, he hadn’t played since Dec. 9 when, in a game against the Senators in Ottawa, he ended up concussed after a fight with Matt Carkner.
If you’re a hockey fan, you know that Boogaard was an enforcer.
And it just might be that his death becomes something of a tipping point. That’s because, as Michael Russo of the Minneapolis StarTribune reported immediately after it happened, Boogaard’s parents signed papers Saturday afternoon that will allow their son’s brain to be studied by researchers at Boston University.
This doesn’t mean, or even infer, that brain trauma had anything to do with Boogaard’s death, the cause of which won’t be known for a while, as toxicology tests have yet to be completed. An autopsy was done Saturday but results have yet to be released.
This, of course, is all about chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), brain degeneration that has been found in a number of ex-football players as well as former NHL tough guys Reggie Fleming and Bob Probert.
This is about scientists and researchers trying to learn about damage that may be caused by blows to the heads of young athletes.
“Derek loved sports and obviously in particular hockey,” Boogaard’s brother, Ryan, told Russo, “so we believe Derek would have liked to assist with research on a matter that had affected him later on in his career.”
According to the website hockeyfights.com, Boogaard had 184 fights from 1999-2000 through that bout with Carkner.
Think about that for a moment and try to imagine how many headshots he absorbed.
Of those bouts, 64 were in the NHL, 48 in the AHL and 70 were in 174 regular-season WHL games, where he played with the Regina Pats, Prince George Cougars and Medicine Hat Tigers.
While many hockey leagues, including the Ontario and Quebec Major Junior leagues, have rules prohibiting headshots, the WHL does not.
That was never more in evidence than during the recently completed championship final between the Kootenay Ice and Portland Winterhawks. Portland forward Riley Boychuk and Kootenay defenceman James Martin both received major penalties for hits that appeared to be high. However, neither player was suspended by the WHL.
Writer Jeff Bromley, who attended games in Cranbrook on behalf of the Cranbrook Daily Townsman, wrote on his blog: “The explanation I was given (for no suspensions) is that the WHL has yet to adopt a check-to-the-head rule like the NHL and the OHL or Q. It will likely be put in place over the summer but, as of now, it’s not there.”
It is shameful that the WHL, whose players suffered more than 100 concussions this season, doesn’t prohibit such hits. When it is addressed, presumably at the annual meeting in June, perhaps the WHL will show some real forward thinking and ban headshots and fighting.
And, then again, maybe not.
———
The Kootenay Ice, as you no doubt are aware, won the WHL championship on Friday in Portland, beating the Winterhawks 4-1 to win the best-of-seven affair in five games.
Going into the playoffs, one might have seen the Ice as a contender, but surely no one expected the kind of domination it showed.
En route to the title, the Ice went 16-3, that after losing two of its first three games, both to the Moose Jaw Warriors by 4-0 counts.
When the playoffs began, the Saskatoon Blades and Portland Winterhawks, each of them a conference leader, were seen as the favourites. The Ice took out the Blades in four games and the Winterhawks in five.
There is no doubt then as to which was the WHL’s best team in these playoffs.
———
Making the Ice’s run that much more remarkable is the fact that it did it with a rookie head coach in Kris Knoblauch.
Knoblauch, 32, spent the previous two seasons as an assistant coach under Mark Holick. When Holick left for the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch, Jeff Chynoweth, the Ice’s president and general manager, at first was adamant that Knoblauch wouldn’t be the franchiseís next on-ice leader.
In the end, Chynoweth changed his mind. He hired a couple of older assistant coaches — Jerry Bancks, 55, and Todd Johnson, 39 — to ride shotgun, and it turned out to be a winning combination.
After the final game Friday in Portland, Knoblauch summed up the entire season when he told The Canadian Press that “I’m not sure we can top this. We played well as a team. I don’t know if I’ll be able to coach a group of players like this ever again.”
What the Ice did was catch lightning in a bottle, something that very few teams, even championships teams, are able to do. They lost two of their first three playoff games and then ran roughshod over the field. This was a dominant performance, as dominant as any in WHL history.
And it could be that the Ice players won’t realize the enormity of their accomplishment until their hockey-playing days are behind them.

(Gregg Drinnan is sports editor of The Daily News. He is at gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca, gdrinnan.blogspot.com and twitter.com/gdrinnan.)