THE MacBETH REPORT:
F Ladislav Kohn (Brandon, Swift Current, 1993-95) signed a three-month contract through the end of December with Ceske Budejovice (Czech Republic, Extraliga). He had five goals and 14 assists in 37 games with Trinec (Czech Republic, Extraliga) last season before moving on to Ambri-Piotta, where he had one goal and three assists in eight games. . . .
D Zdeno Chara (Prince George, 1996-97) signed a lockout contract with Lev Prague (Czech Republic, Extraliga). He had 12 goals and 40 assists in 79 games with the Boston Bruins last season.
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F Brendan Ranford of the Kamloops Blazers was one of nine players released outright from the camp of the AHL’s Hamilton Bulldogs on Wednesday night. Ranford, 20, is expected to return to the Blazers and could play Friday against the visiting Seattle Thunderbirds. . . . Ranford was selected by Philadelphia in the seventh round of the 2010 NHL draft, but never did sign with the Flyers. He went back into the 2012 draft but wasn’t selected. He agreed to a tryout deal with the Montreal Canadiens, the Bulldogs’ parent club, but that went by the wayside with the lockout. . . . D Antoine Corbin, 20, of the Prince Albert Raiders was not among the players released or assigned by the Bulldogs. . . . Swedish D Sebastian Owuya, who played with the Medicine Hat Tigers in 2010-11, also was released outright from the Bulldogs’ camp. He played 35 games last season with the ECHL’s Stockton Thunder. . . . Also released by Hamilton was F Spencer Bennett (Portland, Vancouver, 2009-11).
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A couple of weeks into the hockey season and fans in some OHL cities have noticed that the goal judges are gone. It seems that the OHL’s board of governors voted to eliminate them at its AGM in August. “Now that we have video and four on-ice officials, they’re redundant,” Conrad Hache, the OHL’s director of officiating, told John Matisz of Metro Canada. . . . Some OHL teams have kept them in place, simply because of tradition, but in other arenas the goal judges are no more. . . . With video replay at every major junior game now, you can understand why there really isn’t any need to continue with goal judges, who surely have the worst seats in the house. . . . Matisz’s story is right here.
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The Regina Pats had planned on saluting former star F Jordan Eberle by retiring his number on Oct. 9 with the Portland Winterhawks in town. . . . That was before the NHL lockout came along and the Edmonton Oilers assigned Eberle to the AHL’s Oklahoma City Barons. . . . With Eberle in OKC, the Pats have had to postpone the festivities. . . . It will be rescheduled at a day yet to be determined.
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F Dylan Wruck, 20, is expected to return to the Edmonton Oil Kings’ lineup tonight as they play host to the Prince Albert Raiders. Wruck, who had 80 points in 66 games last season, suffered a shoulder injury in Game 4 of a second-round series against the Brandon Wheat Kings in the spring and later underwent surgery for a torn labrum. . . . “It’s a relief to get back playing,” Wruck tells Evan Daum of the Edmonton Journal, “because I haven’t been able to do a lot of that for the last five months, so it’s good to get back in there and battle with the guys.” . . . Daum’s complete story is right here.
The Oil Kings also are without D Keegan Lowe, who blocked a shot in a 3-0 victory over the Hurricanes in Lethbridge on Sept. 26 and spent some time in a walking cast. . . . Edmonton goes into tonight’s game having lost 4-1 to the visiting Calgary Hitmen on Friday. The Oil Kings last lost two straight games on Nov. 11 and 12 when they fell in Kelowna and Kamloops. . . . They haven’t lost two in a row at home since January 2011 when they dropped four straight.
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F Marty Standish (Portland, 1995-99) has decided to retire from hockey. He had signed to play one more season with the Central league’s Tulsa Oilers but has decided the time is right to walk away. He will be going to work for a construction company in Oklahoma City. . . . He played 13 seasons of pro hockey, seven of them with the now-defunct Oklahoma City Blazers of the Central league. . . . "I don't know if there ever really is a right time to walk away,” Standish said in an Oilers news release, “but I really want to be around my family more and I made this decision for them. Now is as good a time as any, but that doesn't mean it's going to be easy. I know once the season gets going, I'm really going to miss being around the guys, I'm going to miss the Oilers staff, and I'll especially miss all the fans who treated me so well." . . . Standish’s wife, Jenifer, is expecting their second child. . . . The 5-foot-6, 160-pound Standish, from Kelvington, Sask., leaves having scored 12 points in his final 10 games last season. . . . In his final season with Portland, Standish put up 66 points, including 26 goals, and 192 penalty minutes. That latter figure may be a record for a 5-foot-6 WHLer.
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James Mirtle of The Globe and Mail begins a piece from today’s paper like this:
“It’s a problem that doesn’t appear to be going anywhere.
"Minor hockey registration is either flat or down in this country depending on what age range you look at, with just an estimated 10 per cent of Canadians between the ages of 5 and 19 playing the game.”
In an interesting piece, Mirtle goes on to explain how Bauer is getting involved in a program that it hopes will learn why parents aren’t putting their children into hockey and, ultimately, will bring 1 million new youngsters to the game.
Check it out right here.
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WEDNESDAY:
The Regina Pats scored three PP goals and one while shorthanded to beat the visiting Moose Jaw Warriors, 4-1. . . . F Morgan Klimchuk scored twice, giving him five this season. . . . The first game this season between the rivals drew 3,962 to the Brandt Centre. . . . Regina head coach Pat Conacher was back behind the bench after missing three games while dealing with a family situation in Calgary. . . .

F Matt Bellerive drew three assists as the visiting Red Deer Rebels beat the Saskatoon Blades, 5-3. . . . Bellerive, who turns 18 on Dec. 7, was a recent acquisition from the Vancouver Giants. He has a goal and five assists in four games with Red Deer. . . . Red Deer D Brandon Underwood scored his sixth career goal in his 209th game. He had a career-high three goals last season with the Regina Pats. . . . Saskatoon F Brent Benson played in his 200th regular-season game. . . . G Andrey Makarov started his 15th straight game for the Blades — 11 in the regular season and four in last spring’s playoffs. . . . Among the crowd was Winnipeg Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff. Gotta wonder if his brother, Ken, was alongside him for this one? . . . The Cheveldayoffs are from Blaine Lake, Sask. Ken is the MLA for Saskatoon Silver Springs and is the Minister of Environment, among other things, in the governing Saskatchewan Party. . . .

G Eric Comrie stopped 35 shots as the Tri-City Americans beat the host Everett Silvertips, 2-0. . . . This was the first shutout this season and the fourth of his career for Comrie, a 17-year-old sophomore. . . . F Matte Strömwall scored his fourth goal in five games for Tri-City. He had 11 goals in 64 games last season. . . . Tri-City F Tyson Dallman was back in the lineup after missing the first four games with a concussion. . . .

G Jordon Cooke stopped 28 shots to help the host Kelowna Rockets to a 7-0 victory over the Vancouver Giants. . . . Cooke, a 19-year-old from Leduc, Alta., posted his first career shutout. It came in his 49th appearance. This is his first season as the Rockets’ starter; he played behind the graduated Adam Brown the last two seasons. . . . Kelowna scored five third-period goals. . . . F Colton Sissons had two goals and two assists for the Rockets. . . . The most surprising number may have been 5,064, which was the announced attendance in a building where 6,000-plus has long been the norm. . . . The Giants are 1-4-0 and have given up 23 goals while scoring only 12. . . . It’s early but Vancouver has the WHL’s worst winning percentage (.200). . . . Vancouver head coach Don Hay had been expected to give freshman Tyler Fuhr his second straight start, but went with veteran Liam Liston instead. Liston gave up seven goals on 28 shots. . . .

D Brett Cote scored at 3:04 of OT as the host Victoria Royals overcame a 3-0 deficit and beat the Medicine Hat Tigers, 4-3. . . . Cote, an 18-year-old from Oakbank, Man., had one goal in 65 games last season. He has two in five games this season. . . . F Trevor Cox scored twice for the Tigers, giving him four snipes in five games. He had 10 goals in 57 games last season. . . . Victoria G Patrik Polivka, a Czech freshman, ran his record to 4-0-0 with 17 saves. . . . Victoria D Tyler Stahl, in his second game after serving a six-game suspension, had two assists in a span of 4:15 late in the second period. Last season, the 20-year-old from Drumheller, Alta., totalled two assists in 20 games.
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CHECKING FROM BEHIND COUNT:
F Lucas Grayson, Everett
F Jessey Astles, Saskatoon
D Sam Grist, Tri-City
F Riley Kieser, Vancouver
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CHECKING TO THE HEAD COUNT:
None.
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TWEET OF THE DAY:
From Trevor Crawley (@tcrawls) of the Cranbook Daily Townsman: “Just judget @WHLKootenayICE’s Iron Chef contest featuring the entire team as contestants. #kitchen chaos #disheseverywhere”


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The WHL and concussions: A mother cries out for help

Killian Hutt's season with the Swift Current Broncos came to an end
in Kamloops on Dec. 10.
(Photo by Murray Mitchell/Kamloops Daily News)

When Zdeno Chara ran Max Pacioretty into a turnbuckle in Montreal one night last week, who could have anticipated the aftermath?
Sheesh, even Air Canada and Via Rail got into the act, as did, predictably, the odd spotlight-seeking politician.
When things like this happen in places like Montreal and Boston, or Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, the tendency in our little corner of the world is to yawn, shrug and move on.
But if you are a fan of this great game of ours, perhaps you should be concerned. Because the rules changed this month.
When Boston University’s Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy revealed that the brain of former NHL enforcer Bob Probert exhibited "the same degenerative disease, chronic traumatic encephalopathy" that is connected to multiple concussions, the curtains were pulled back to reveal a whole new world.
Who in this generation could relate to CTE having been found in the brain of Reggie Fleming, who played in the NHL in the 1960s? Probert, though, is a different story. He’s recent. He’s more relevant.
That this news came with Sidney Crosby, the best player in the world, struggling with post-concussion syndrome only intensified the glare of the spotlight.
The WHL, if you haven’t noticed, isn’t a whole lot different than the NHL. Oh, the NHL’s players may be bigger, faster and more skilled, and they may get paid more, but the problems are the same.
And just like head shots and accompanying injuries are an epidemic in the NHL, they are an epidemic in the WHL.
In fact, a case can be made that concussions are more prevalent in the WHL than in the NHL.
No official numbers are available regarding the NHL, but the 30-team league has acknowledged that there have been about 80 players diagnosed with concussions this season.
The 22-team WHL’s weekly injury list, dated March 15, shows 11 players out with what are described as concussions or head injuries. That’s down from 21 the previous week. A study of this season’s 24 injury reports shows at least 97 instances in which a player has been shown as being out with a concussion or head injury. Eight players have twice been so injured, while one player appears to have had three head injuries.
The count also includes at least three players whose concussions have been season-ending.
And now the mother of a WHL player is wondering when enough is enough.
An email from her contains the subject line: Who killed Davey Moore?
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Davey Moore, an American featherweight boxer, died of inoperable brain damage on March 25, 1963, four days after losing a bout at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.
Shortly after, Bob Dylan penned the ballad Who Killed Davey Moore?
“Who killed Davey Moore
“Why an’ what’s the reason for?”
During the course of the song, the referee, the angry crowd, Moore’s manager, the gambling man, the boxing writer and Moore’s opponent all deny complicity in the boxer’s death.
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“I am the mother of a WHL player and I feel sick watching our children inflicting and receiving potentially life altering injuries and saying nothing,” she wrote.
This being hockey, of course, she asked for anonymity “in order not to damage my child’s chances.”
The email and subsequent communications reveal a woman who is heartbroken at what she is witnessing as hockey becomes more and more violent, although not in the bench-clearing ways of days of yore.
No, her son hasn’t suffered a concussion or head injury this season. But she has seen enough, just the same.
“The players work so hard to get to the WHL that we as parents are loathe to get in the way of their success,” she wrote. “So we stand by and watch a 19-year-old have a seizure on the ice in the name of entertainment for the crowd.
“Then a 16-year-old is being punched by a 19-year-old and the crowd is delighted.
“We all know this is not right. How can we as parents send our kids into this and not object to the failure of this league to adequately protect them? Nobody is protecting our children. These are not consenting adults with million dollar contracts and a players association.”
In Kamloops this season, we have watched as two players had their seasons ended by especially violent physical encounters.
First, on Dec. 10, Kamloops right-winger Jordan DePape drilled Swift Current forward Killian Hutt with a blind-side hit that drew a five-game suspension. Hutt went into convulsions, left the ice on a stretcher and spent a night in hospital. He was left with a severe concussion and, although he has skated, isn’t symptom free and won’t play again this season.
Then, on Feb. 4, Blazers defenceman Austin Madaisky was spun around and checked into the boards by Chilliwack Bruins defenceman Brandon Manning. Madaisky escaped a concussion but was left with a non-displaced fracture of the seventh cervicular vertebrae. Manning served a seven-game suspension; Madaisky continues to wear an Aspen collar and will for another couple of weeks. If the injury continues to heal properly, he will avoid surgery and will be back on the ice over the summer.
“When there is a spinal injury people will say, ‘That's hockey,’ ” the mother wrote. “But that's not true. These are preventable injuries and we are not even trying to prevent them; in fact, the WHL profits off them by catering to the bizarre tastes of some people in the crowd.
“This is not acceptable. These are our children. We are all responsible to them — parents, reporters, coaches, etc.
“They trust us and we betray that trust. When the consequences of those concussions hit home there will be no cheering crowds.”

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