Tuesday . . .

The Everett Silvertips have acquired D Brennan Yadlowski, 19, from the Lethbridge Hurricanes for two bantam draft picks -- a second-rounder in 2011 and a fifth-rounder in 2012. . . . Yadlowski is in his fourth WHL season, all of them with Lethbridge. He was a fifth-round pick in the 2006 bantam draft. . . . He put up 58 points and 336 penalty minutes in 197 regular-season games with Lethbridge. This season, he had four assists in five games. Last season, he finished with 34 points in 70 games.
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The Brandon Wheat Kings have assigned LW Carter Proft, 16, to the midget AAA team in St. Albert, Alta. He was a fifth-round pick in the 2009 bantam draft. . . . Brandon now is carrying 29 players on its roster, including C Brayden Schenn, 19, who is with the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings. Brandon still has four goaltenders on its roster, along with 10 defencemen and 15 forwards.
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The Kamloops Blazers will have five regulars sidelined when they play host to the Spokane Chiefs on Wednesday night.
D Josh Caron (broken collarbone) will be out for another six weeks or so, while F Jordan DePape (shoulder) and F Chase Souto (concussion) were hurt Saturday in a 6-1 loss to the Bruins in Chilliwack.
D Brandon Underwood picked up a fighting major and a game misconduct, by himself, in that one and was hit with a one-game suspension on Tuesday.
D Linden Saip will sit out Game 2 of a two-game suspension resulting from a hit he threw on Silvertips F Clayton Cumiseky in Everett on Friday night.
This all gives F Matthew Needham, the eighth overall pick in the 2010 bantam draft, the opportunity to make his WHL debut. Needham‘s father, Mike, played for the Blazers (1986-90), putting up 243 points in 176 games. Matthew is playing for the Okanagan Hockey Academy U-18 midget AAA team in Penticton, B.C., and has four goals in seven games.
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F Blair Wentworth of the Chilliwack Bruins was hit with a two-game suspension for the hit that left F Chase Souto of the Kamloops Blazers with the concussion. . . . D Kendall McFaull of the Moose Jaw Warriors had his suspension, which originally was TBD, set a two games. He drew a match penalty for biting during a 6-2 loss to the Hitmen in Calgary on Saturday.
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The Southwest Booster reports that the Swift Current Broncos announced a loss of $58,927 at their annual meeting. It would seem that’s the price the team paid for being out of the Credit Union iples for the first round of the playoffs. With the world women’s curling championship in Swift Current, the Broncos were forced to play first-round ‘home’ games in Regina’s Brandt Centre. In the spring of 2009, the Broncos had four home playoff games and revenue of $99,308. In 2010, that number was $39,560 for two games played in Regina. The City of Swift Current provided some compensation to the Broncos but not enough to get them into the black for the season.
“We didn’t know the affect that it was really going to have on our team and the sales and it was huge,” Mark Lamb, the Broncos general manager and head coach, told the Southwest Booster. “We gained no momentum at all and were kind of out of sight and out of mind. The curling was such a success that we were just put on the back burner and we are feeling the affects right now.
“When you break it right down and you see it on the financial statements it is a huge loss. Hopefully, it never happens again”
Perhaps the most telling figure was $820,688 -- that’s the loss in hockey operations, as the Booster reported, “before other income such as corporate sponsorship, suite rentals, the Hockey Hounds contributions, NHL developmental and draft money, and World Junior Hockey Championship incomes were factored in.”
That right there shows you just what small-market teams are up against in today’s major junior hockey world.
The Booster’s complete story is right here.
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Sports columnist Rob Vanstone, in the Regina Leader-Post:
“Regina Pats goaltender Damien Ketlo is recovering from the most pointless sports-related injury in quite some time. On Friday at the Brandt Centre, Ketlo invited his opposite number — Cam Lanigan of the Edmonton Oil Kings — to take part in a fight that proved to be one-sided in favour of the visiting goalkeeper. Ketlo ended up stopping some additional shots, in the form of haymakers, and emerged from the fray with the dreaded “upper-body injury.’’ Ketlo is shelved for a week to 10 days, and it was all so avoidable. It is too easy to point the finger at Ketlo. The hockey culture is to blame here.
“Proponents of fighting in hockey assert, ad nauseam, that it is a byproduct of the heat of battle, and an emotional release that guards against stick fouls and other indiscretions of that nature. So how do you explain or justify goalies, who are largely exempt from body contact, partaking in pugilism? It is simply fighting for the sake of fighting. Sad.”
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There is one player in the WHL whose name-bar had to be shrunk to prevent it from going from one elbow to the other. Elliott Pap of the Vancouver Sun has that story right here.
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The Prince George Citizen didn’t assign a writer to cover the Cougars’ second home game of the season -- the Vancouver Giants posted a 3-1 victory. Is that the first time in WHL history (at least, in recent WHL history) that a Canadian team didn’t receive game coverage from the daily newspaper in its city? . . . It’ll be a special night Friday in Regina as the Pats raise three names into the Brandt Centre rafters in the Builders category of their hall of fame. Al Ritchie, Gord Staseson and Del Wilson will join initial inductees Lorne Davis, Graham Tuer and Bob Turner, who were honoured during 2007-08. Wilson was a longtime Pats GM and a driving force within the WHL. Staseson is well-known in Regina’s sporting community and was a junior player and coach in the city. He also chaired the push for the construction of the Agridome (now the Brandt Centre). Ritchie was a big, big name in the early days of Canada’s oldest junior hockey franchise. Among The Silver Fox’s many accomplishments was coaching the Pats to Memorial Cup titles in 1925 and 1930. . . . Red Deer F Josh Cowen has been diagnosed with mononucleosis, so the Rebels will have to do without him for at least three weeks. At the same time, F Turner Elson (concussion) likely won’t play until Oct. 15. . . . Red Deer placed D Brad Haber, 20, on waivers Tuesday, another victim of the 20-year-old rule. He was acquired last season from the Seattle Thunderbirds. The Rebels have D Colin Archer, G Darcy Kuemper and F Brett Ferguson as their 20-year-olds. . . . According to Steve Ewen of the Vancouver Province, “League sources say (the Vancouver Giants) have added Slovak centre Andrej Stastny, 19, to their protected list.” The Saskatoon Blades selected Stastny in the 2010 import draft, but they dropped him from their list last week after being unable to garner his release.
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TUESDAY`S HIGHLIGHTS:
TRI-CITY 2 at PRINCE ALBERT 5: The Raiders, who are preparing to head out on a six-game swing that will take them into the B.C. Division and finish up in Red Deer, won their third straight game to get to .500 (3-3-0-0). . . And they had to erase a 2-0 deficit to do it. . . . After a scoreless first period, power-play goals by D Brock Sutherland F Brendan Shinnimin gave the visitors a 2-0 lead by 10:57 of the second. . . . But the Raiders took a 3-2 lead into the third after getting three goals in 4:41, with F Justin Maylan, F Jonathan Parker and F Mark McNeill scoring. . . . F Igor Revenko and Parker, linemates with Maylan, added insurance in the third period. . . . Parker and MacNeill each has four goals this season. . . . D James Bettauer, 19, had three assists. He had six in 68 games with the Chilliwack Bruins last season. . . . Parker also had two assists, for a four-point night, while Maylan also drew two helpers. . . . Raiders G Jamie Tucker stopped 25 shots, five fewer than Tri-City’s Drew Owsley. . . . The Americans (4-2-0-0) were 2-for-5 on the PP; the home side was 0-for-2. . . . Raiders F Brandon Herrod, who had 10 points on the club’s first 16 goals, was pointless, but finished plus-1. . . . Attendance was 2,096. . . . The Raiders were without veteran D Jordan Rowley, 20, who has a broken right wrist and has missed five games. He is in a cast for the next couple of weeks, when he hopes to be fitted with a playing cast. . . . The Raiders, with nine defencemen on their roster, may have lost another one Tuesday when D Emerson Hrynyk, 18, left with an apparent arm injury.
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RED DEER 6 at SWIFT CURRENT 0: G Darcy Kuemper stopped 20 shots for his first shutout of the season and the seventh of his career. . . . The Rebels (4-2-0-0) had lost their last two games. . . . The Broncos (1-4-0-0) now have lost four in a row. . . . Swift Current G Mark Friesen stopped 29 shots. . . . The Rebels scored once in the first period, twice in the second and three times in the third. . . . F Andrej Kudrna scored twice, giving him six goals in six games, and added an assist. . . . F Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had three assists, with D Lucas Grayson getting two. . . . The Rebels were 2-for-9 on the PP; the Broncos were 0-for-5. . . . Attendance was 1,839.
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SPOKANE 1 at CHILLIWACK 2: F Roman Horak set up two PP goals for the Bruins (3-1-0-0), who have won three in a row. . . . Horak has nine points in three games since returning from the camp of the NHL’s New York Rangers. . . . D Brandon Manning scored on the PP at 10:56 of the first period and F Robin Soudek got his first goal of the season at 12:12 of the third. . . . Spokane F Steven Kuhn had tied the game on the PP at 15:18 of the second period. . . . The Bruins were 2-for-7 on the PP; the Chiefs (1-3-0-0) were 1-for-6. . . . Chilliwack F Ryan Howse, who had seven goals in his club’s first three games, was held to one assist. . . . Chilliwack G Braden Gamble stopped 27 shots, three more than Spokane’s James Reid. . . . Attendance was 2,670.

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

Gagging on a gag order

Members of the media who cover the Prince Albert Raiders received a note from the WHL club on Monday.
Signed by Bruce Vance, the club’s director of marketing, it read:
“As a review please find attached the 2010-11 WHL Media Services Policy.
“We welcome and encourage all media interviews to be done before or after games and practices as outlined in the policy.
“Interviews with players at any other time must be approved and arranged by (Vance, GM/head coach Bruno Campese or assistant GM/assistant coach Steve Young).
“Direct contact with the players at any time other than when they are at the arena is prohibited by the Western Hockey League.”
Furthermore, the note went on to point out that the Raiders “have changed our location for post-game interviews this season and appreciate the media’s cooperation with this. We would like to advise that access to this area should be via the stairs in the North east corner (by the weight room) only.”
The suggested route is longer than a direct route to the Raiders’ dressing room in the Art Hauser Memorial Centre and it keeps the media from walking in front of the door to that very dressing room.
The Raiders haven’t made the playoffs since the spring of 2007. All told, they have been observers in four of the last five postseasons and seven of the last 10.
This means that when they play, good seats still are available.
You might think then that the Raiders would be more concerned about improving access to the media than dictating terms of coverage.
But such is not the case.
This latest memo would seem to stem from whatever went on following the clash between Marc Mackenzie, then with the Raiders, and a would-be burglar in his billet’s home. (Mackenzie, you’ll recall, later was dealt to the Chilliwack Bruins. He perhaps paid the price for a difference of opinion between his father and Campese.)
Anyway, for whatever reason or reasons, the WHL and the Raiders chose not to capitalize on Mackenzie’s new-found fame after his physical confrontation with the burglar.
They never did make Mackenzie available to the media; no one held a news conference in an attempt to make hay out of the situation. You would think that it may have been worth someone’s while to hold a news conference — to bring in Mackenzie, along with a WHL official or two, a whole bunch of Raiders players and brass, a police officer or two and sing the kid’s praises.
At the same time, someone could have delivered the message that what Mackenzie did isn’t the recommended procedure when confronted by such a creature.
Dale McFee, a former Raiders player, is the president of the team’s board of directors and also is the Prince Albert city police chief. It might have been a natural for some kind of promotional tie-in between the Raiders, the city police and local and area schools.
But, instead of taking that tact, someone with some authority chose to issue a gag order that covered everyone in the Raiders’ organization.
Except that John MacNeil of the Prince Albert Daily Herald, recognizing this as a great news story, spoke with Mackenzie before the gag order was put in place. MacNeil called the billet home and left a message. Mackenzie, as any well-mannered young person should, returned the phone call. Just like that, MacNeil had his story.
The cat, of course, was out of the bag before The Daily Herald hit the street.
The punch-up between Mackenzie and the thief took place late on a Thursday morning. By that night, news of the incident was popping up on the Internet, in at least one forum and on Facebook, the latter having been posted by the billet Mom.
A gag order wasn’t going to stop people from talking about what was a great news story.
The WHL loves to tell people how much it is concerned with the education of its players, how it develops not only those players who will go on to professional hockey and how it helps prepare the others for ‘real’ life.
That being the case, perhaps it is time for the WHL to forget about gag orders and attempting to limit media access. Perhaps it should bring in a media consultant who could help those same players learn how to deal with newspaper, radio and TV reporters.
Perhaps it could do something to help its players improve their public-speaking skills.
And perhaps it should do away with gag orders. After all, they only make people ill.

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

Monday . . .

Some WHL teams have been working at shedding 20-year-old players, in order to get down to the maximum of three by the Oct. 14 deadline.
Not the Prince George Cougars.
They added F Sena Acolatse via the trade route on Sunday.
On Monday, the Cougars added F Taylor Stefishen to their roster.
Stefishen, a sixth-round pick in the 2005 bantam draft, played the last two seasons for the Ohio State Buckeyes, an NCAA Division 1 team.
A 6-foot-0, 185-pounder from North Vancouver, he had 21 points and 14 penalty minutes in 42 games with the Buckeyes.
The Nashville Predators selected him in the fifth round of the NHL’s 2008 draft. He is a younger brother to F Adam Stefishen, who had 20 points and 195 penalty minutes with the Cougars in 2000-01.
With Acolatse, who also can play on the back end, and Stefishen, the Cougars are carrying five 20-year-olds. The other three are G Morgan Clark, F James Dobrowolski and F Parker Stanfield.
The Cougars next play Wednesday when they face the Kootenay Ice in Cranbrook. It will be interesting to see who is in head coach Dean Clark’s lineup.
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Dallas Thompson, the Cougars’ general manager, apparently stops by this site on occasion.
You might recall a recent piece here wondering why the WHL didn’t go to four or five 20-year-olds, from the present maximum of three.
Asked late last night via email whether he had dropped any of his 20-year-olds, Thompson responded:
“What do you mean drop? You said we should have 4 or 5. Now I have 5!”
Then he added: “Just taking note!”
Gotta love a WHL general manager who has a sense of humour.
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The Vancouver Giants have an opening for an import player.
F Casper Carning, 19, has left the Giants and returned to Sweden. He had two assists and two penalty minutes in six games.
According to Steve Ewen of the Vancouver Province, Carning told Giants GM Scott Bonner “that the situation wasn’t working out and he was returning home to Goteborg, Sweden.”
The Giants had selected Carning in the 2010 CHL import draft.
According to Ewen, the Giants “had pegged him as a top-six forward and gave him a chance to win a scoring-line spot, but he didn’t play with the type of urgency or intensity that coach Don Hay demands.”
For more, check out The Dub Hub.
Slovakian F Marek Tvrdon, the Giants’ other import, has four goals in six games.
The Giants are able to go out and get another import player, but that player will have to have been selected in the CHL import draft.
At present, only one WHL team shows three imports on their rosters.
The Swift Current Broncos show Slovakian F Juraj Roznik, who turns 18 on Oct. 14, Czech F Stepan Novotny, 20, and Czech D Richard Nedomlel, 17.
The Tri-City Americans’ roster includes Russian G Alex Pechurskiy, 20, Belarussian D Nikita Kardashev, 18, although Kardashev hasn’t yet appeared in a game. The Americans also selected Russian Russian D Nikita Nesterov, 17, in the 2010 import draft. But he has yet to get clearance to play over here.
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The Brandon Wheat Kings’ injury list grew and grew and grew on Monday.
Before the day was done the Wheat Kings had added three players to it, all with long-term injuries.
LW Michael Ferland is to have knee surgery Thursday in Winnipeg. He will be out indefinitely. Ferland, 18, was injured in Brandon’s training camp on Sept. 3. He attended the Calgary Flames’ training camp — he was a fifth-round pick in the NHL’s 2010 draft — where he received treatment. Cleared to play on Sept. 19, he was in Brandon’s lineup for three games, before reinsuring the knee Wednesday in a 5-2 victory over the Warriors in Moose Jaw.
RW David Toews, 20, suffered a high ankle sprain in Brandon’s 4-3 loss to the Blades in Saskatoon on Sunday and could miss up to eight weeks. Toews, who joined the Wheat Kings from the U of North Dakota, had six points in six games. He was a third-round selection by the New York Islanders in the 2008 NHL draft.
D Jordan Fransoo, 17, suffered a broken foot on Sept. 24 during the Wheat Kings’ season-opening 5-4 victory over the Regina Pats. Initial X-rays were negative, with the break showing up in later X-rays. Fransoo actually played in the club’s first six games, picking up three points. A fifth-round bantam draft pick in 2008, Fransoo is out indefinitely.
The Wheat Kings already were without D Rene Hunter (hip Flexor) and RW Jens Meilleur (broken hand).
At the same time, the Wheat Kings got their roster down to 30 players by reassigning RW Dakota Conroy, 16, to the midget AAA Edmonton Southside Athletic Club. He was a third-round pick in the 2009 bantam draft.
Brandon is carrying four goaltenders, 10 defencemen and 16 forwards, including C Brayden Schenn, 19, who is with the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings.
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Hey, how about the King brothers?
F Wheaton King, whose name ranks right up there Steele Boomer among present-day WHLers, is off to a fine start with his hometown Brandon Wheat Kings.
King had one goal in 10 games before being returned to the midget AAA Wheat Kings a year ago. And you know that had to hurt, what with the big Wheaties being the host team for the Memorial Cup.
King, 18, has come back in the right frame of mind, however, and has five points in five games.
And, as Rob Henderson of the Brandon Sun points out, King’s brother Sanfred is off to a great start, too.
Sanfred, 20, now is with the Kindersley Klippers and he goes into the week tied for the SJHL scoring lead, with 14 points.
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Greg Harder of the Regina Leader-Post reports that Pats G Damien Ketlo will miss up to 10 days with a shoulder injury suffered in a Friday night fight with G Cam Lanigan of the Edmonton Oil Kings.
Yes, Ketlo initiated the scrap, which makes one wonder whether Lanigan will offer up a re-match.
Ketlo will miss at least a couple of games, meaning Dawson Guhle will get to carry the mail.
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F Brad Ross of the Portland Winterhawks is the WHL player of the week. He had six points, five of them goals, and an assist in four games last week. . . . Deven Dubyk of the Medicine Hat Tigers is the WHL’s nominee as CHL goaltender of the week. He was 2-0-0-0 with a 1.00 GAA and a .971 save percentage in 2-1 and 4-1 victories over the Red Deer Rebels.
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The Red Deer Rebels have reassigned F Mark McCoy, 16, a fifth-round pick in the WHL’s 2009 bantam draft. Greg Meachem of the Red Deer Advocate reports that McCoy will play for the AJHL’s Spruce Grove Saints or the midget AAA Southside Athletic Club. He was with SSAC last season. . . . McCoy scored a goal in the Rebels’ home-opening 8-1 victory over Edmonton Oil Kings. But the Rebels’ coaching staff was concerned as to whether it would be able to get McCoy, as a 16-year-old, into the WHL-mandated 40 games.
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The ECHL’s Reading Royals have signed F Derek Hulak (Regina, Saskatoon, 2005-10). Hulak, who played out his WHL eligibility last season, was the Blades’ captain. He had 84 points, including 31 goals, in 72 games last season. He started out this season in the rookie camp of the NHL’s Phoenix Coyotes.
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CapGeek.com reports that F Nino Niederreiter’s three-year contract with the New York Islanders could be worth a maximum of US$8.475 million. . . . It carries an AHL salary of $67,500 for each of three seasons, with the NHL salary at $900,000 per season. There are $1.925 million in bonuses each season, while the $270,000 signing bonus is payable in three annual installments. . . . The Islanders selected Niederrieter, who played last season with the Portland Winterhawks, with the fifth pick of the 2010 NHL draft.
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By comparison, F Ryan Johansen, the fourth overall pick who was returned by the Columbus Blue Jackets to the Winterhawks last week, signed a three-year deal with a maximum value of US$6.195 million. . . . Johansen’s contract. like Niederreiter’s, calls for AHL salaries of $67,500, with a $900,000 annual salary in the NHL. The difference is in bonuses -- Johansen’s has $1.075 million in bonus clauses each season.
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The ECHL’s Las Vegas Wranglers have received three former WHLers on assignment from the AHL’s San Antonio Rampage. F Tyler Mosienko (Kelowna, 2000-05), F Ned Lukacevic (Vancouver, Spokane, Swift Current, 2001-06) and F Justin Bernhardt (Regina, Kelowna, Prince Albert, 2003-09) are were reassigned on Monday. . . . Mosienko, who played in Las Vegas from 2006-09, played last season with the Nuremberg Thomas Sabo Ice Tigers in Germany. . . . Lukacevic played 61 games with the Wranglers last season, while Bernhardt played in 29 games there.

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

Mondays With Murray

The Major League Baseball playoffs open this week. Unfortunately, Vin Scully, the voice of the Los Angeles Dodgers, won’t be involved. But he will be back for the 2011 season. . . . If you’re a young broadcaster and have never listened to Scully, shame on you! He is The Master!
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JULY 8, 1983, SPORTS
Copyright 1983/THE TIMES MIRROR COMPANY

JIM MURRAY

Scully Handles a Mike Like Ruth Did a Bat

      It took baseball in its wisdom 10 years to turn Babe Ruth, the most perfect hitting machine of all time, from a pitcher into a slugger.
   It took football seasons to figure out Marcus Allen wasn't a blocking back and to hand him the football.
   And it took network television forever to get the message that Vin Scully should do major league baseball and stop fooling around.
   It wasn't that Scully was inept at other sports. It was just that he was miscast. It was like Errol Flynn playing a faithful old sidekick. Scully could do golf and do it well. Rembrandt could probably paint soup cans or barn doors, if it came to that. Hemingway could probably write the weather. Horowitz could probably play the ocarina. But what a waste!
   Nobody understands baseball the way Vin Scully does. He knows it for the laid-back, relatively relaxed sport it is. Scully is the world's best at filling the dull times by spinning anecdotes of the 100-year lore of the game. He can make you forget you're watching a 13-3 game, as we were Wednesday night at Chicago, and take you with him to a time and place where you are suddenly watching Babe Ruth steal home. He is like a marvelous raconteur who can make you forget you're in a dungeon. He can make baseball seem like Camelot and not Jersey City.
   He knows baseball fans are ancestor worshipers, like the British aristocracy, and he can invest a game with allusions to its gaudy past that give meaning to the present. We suddenly see knights in shining armor out there carrying on a glorious tradition instead of two rival factions of businessmen trying to land the order.
   Football requires screaming. "They're on the five and it's second down and goal to go!" "They're on the three and it's third down and there's 29 seconds left to play!" Baseball requires humor, deft drama, a sprinkling of candor, mix well and serve over steaming hot tradition.
   Scully knows the sport as few do. He learned it at the knee of Branch Rickey at the time he was most impressionable, a young, ambitious, career-oriented student out of Fordham. Scully will tell you why a batter should try to hit to right with a man on first and none out. ("The first baseman has to stay on the bag to keep the runner close. The second baseman has to cheat a step toward second in the event of a steal or a double play. There's a hole there you could dock ships.")
   But finally, the pairing of Scully with Joe Garagiola was an inspired piece of casting, not quite like Burns and Allen or the Sunshine Boys but a matchup quite as important to baseball as Ruth and Gehrig or Tinker and Evers and Chance.
   I originally thought that was a lot of ego for one stage, or one microphone, but the two have locked into place like tongue in groove, or in this case, tongue in cheek.
   Garagiola is the locker-room wit, the jokester from the team bus. Scully brings out the best in him, and he brings out the best in Scully. When the ballgame starts with the pitcher throwing two baseballs out of the infield and the third baseman following suit in the bottom half of the first, Garagiola pronounced it "a real Halloween inning" and later suggested that the ritual disclaimer, "This game is the property of major league baseball," be waived since presumably nobody in the big leagues wanted to claim this game.
   Later, when Scully noted that a certain pitcher had "retired 53 of 58 batters who faced him," Garagiola wondered, "Why wouldn't you try to sign those five guys?"
   When a pitcher built along the general lines of King Kong took the mound, Garagiola observed, "He's an 8 on a seismograph. His birthday is Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday." Later, Joe said of a pitcher with a roundhouse, hanging curve, "He throws an American Legion curveball."
   Later, when Scully said that a bearded infielder "looks as if he fell off a box of cough drops," Garagiola noted: "If he shaves, he only weighs 91 pounds." When a pitcher wearing more gold chains than a wine clerk appeared, Scully noted that "he looks as if he just came from Westminster Abbey."
   It was all good clean fun. They brought out the best in each other. No one noticed the game was boring. Because it wasn't in the broadcast booth. That's one of the things that made this game great all along.

Reprinted with permission by the Los Angeles Times.

Jim Murray Memorial Foundation | P.O. Box 995 | La Quinta | CA | 92247

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

Sunday . . .

Roy MacGregor of The Globe and Mail offered up an interesting perspective on Hockey Night in Canada over the weekend. That piece is right here.
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The WHL has hit D Kendall McFaull with one of those TBD suspensions. He was hit with a match penalty for biting during a 6-2 loss to the Hitmen in Calgary on Saturday night.
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I had forgotten about the recently retired Darcy Tucker’s stint at acting on Little Mosque on the Prairie. Ralph Hass, whose voice you may know, provided this reminder. Check it out, and also figure out from where you might know Ralph’s voice.
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SUNDAY’S HIGHLIGHTS:
LETHBRIDGE 2 at PORTLAND 6: F Sven Bartschi scored his first two goals of the season for the Winterhawks (3-1-0-1). He also had an assist. . . . The Hurricanes wrapped up their season-opening five-game road trip at 2-2-0-1. . . . F Ty Rattie drew three assists, while F Ryan Johansen and D Tyler Aronson each had two. . . . Lethbridge F Austin Fyten tied the game 2-2 at 13:48 of the second period. . . . D Troy Rutkowski gave the home side the lead 59 seconds later and F Riley Boychuk struck on the PP just 1:02 after that. . . . Portland, which went in 3-for-20 on the PP, was 2-for-7 with the man advantage. . . . Portland F Brendan Leipsic scored his second WHL goal on a second-period penalty shot. . . . Lethbridge was 0-for-7 on the PP. . . . Portland G Keith Hamilton ran his record to 2-1-0-1 with a 30-save effort. . . . G Brandon Anderson stopped 33 shots for Lethbridge. . . . Attendance was 3,815.
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MOOSE JAW 2 at EDMONTON 3: The Oil Kings (3-2-0-0), who opened the season with two losses, won their third straight game. . . . The Warriors (1-4-0-0) scored the game’s first and last goals. . . . Edmonton F Jordan Hickmott scored his third goal of the season, shorthanded, and added an assist. . . . D Marek Hrbas scored a PP goal at 10:57 of the second period to give the Oil Kings a 3-1 lead. . . . Moose Jaw F Spencer Edwards scored on a penalty shot at 6:14 of the third. . . . The Warriors have lost three straight. . . . Edmonton G Cam Lanigan stopped 23 shots. . . . Moose Jaw G Thomas Heemskerk turned aside 39 shots. . . . The Warriors were 0-for-7 on the PP; the Oil Kings were 1-for-5. . . . Attendance was 2,586.
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BRANDON 3 at SASKATOON 4: F Josh Nicholls broke a 3-3 tie at 18:36 of the third period as the Blades (4-1-0-0) got a measure of revenge for a 7-0 loss in Brandon on Friday. . . . The Wheat Kings (4-2-0-0) scored the game’s first two goals — F Mark Stone, at 11:14 of the first period, and F Jason Swyripa, at 19:25 — but the Blades got the next three, all in the second period. That included a shorthanded score by F Marek Viedensky, his fourth goal this season. . . . Viedensky also had an assist, giving him eight points in five games. . . . Brandon G Paul Ciarelli tied it 3-3 at 10:34 of the third. . . . Saskatoon G Steven Stanford made 26 saves. He now is 4-0-0-0. . . . Brandon G Ty Rimmer turned aside 29 shots. . . . Attendance was 3,004.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
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Taking Note on Twitter

Blazers lose ugly one in Chilliwack

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
The Kamloops Blazers and Chilliwack Bruins will meet six more times this season, but not until Jan. 7.
Perhaps feelings may have cooled by then.
The Blazers took it on the chin, 6-1, in Chilliwack in a Saturday night game during which they took 99 of 143 penalty minutes and lost forwards Jordan DePape and Chase Souto to injury.
The loss, their third in a row, dropped the Blazers’ record to 1-3-0-0. They return home to face the Spokane Chiefs on Wednesday. Game time at Interior Savings Centre is 7 p.m.
The game in Chilliwack, scheduled to begin at 7 p.m., was more than an hour late in starting. The WHL office said an “ice maintenance accident” caused the delay.
And it took almost three hours to complete the game between two teams that obviously don’t like each other. Referees Jeff Ingram and Colby Smith handed out 42 penalties, with 26 of those going to the Blazers.
The Blazers were without defenceman Linden Saip, who has been suspended — length to be determined — by the WHL for an unpenalized hit on Silvertips forward Clayton Cumiskey in Everett on Friday night. Referee Pat Smith chose not to penalize Saip; however, Cumiskey didn’t return and the Silvertips requested supplemental discipline.
The Blazers on Sunday were preparing videos as they pondered whether to ask for supplemental discipline against three Chilliwack players. Kamloops general manager Craig Bonner said he “will be reviewing” the situation today.
Kamloops head coach Guy Charron said two of the hits were from behind — defenceman Tyler Stahl on DePape and forward Blair Wentworth on Souto. In another instance, the Blazers maintain that forward Brendan Persley left his feet and led with an elbow as he hit defenceman Brady Gaudet.
DePape left the game in the second period with a shoulder injury. He will be reassessed today and is questionable for Wednesday’s game. Souto has a concussion, so will be out for a week or longer. Gaudet wasn’t injured.
After the hits on DePape and Souto, centre Colin Smith and defenceman Bronson Maschmeyer instigated retaliatory fights.
“We had two instigators called but it was teammates wanting to look after their teammates after a bad hit,” Charron said. “And who ends up in the penalty box? It’s the guy that jumped in to help his teammate. The guy who made the hit gets nothing.
“The system is screwed up. The fight is still a very big part of entertaining in our game. The hit from behind is what you want to eliminate.”
The Bruins scratched defenceman Zach Habscheid, apparently for precautionary reasons. Souto had decked him with a straight right during a fight late in the Bruins’ 5-2 victory in Kamloops on Sept. 25. So perhaps it was no surprise Saturday when Wentworth and Souto fought at 3:21 of the first period.
Charron, however, wouldn’t say the two scraps were related.
“I’m not going to speculate on it,” he said. “I don’t have proof of anything.”
The Bruins ended up going 5-for-15 on the power play; the Blazers were 0-for-8.
The Blazers, who have had problems with discipline in recent seasons, now have 149 penalty minutes in four games. Only the Vancouver Giants (169) have more and they have played two more games than have the Blazers.
Kamloops was coming off a 4-2 loss in Everett on Friday, a game Charron said was “one of our better performances on the road.”
The big problem, he said, is “we can’t score right now.”
“That’s the bottom line,” he continued. In Everett, he added, “we had 17 chances; they had nine. And we lose the game 4-2.”
In Chilliwack, Charron said, “it was all power play. We played the whole third period shorthanded.”
Ryan Howse scored twice for the Bruins (2-1-0-0), giving him seven goals in three games, while Roman Horak also scored twice. Defenceman Brandon Manning and Persley also scored. Dalibor Bortnak scored for the Blazers, ruining Lucas Gore’s shutout bid at 16:44 of the third period.
Gore stopped 30 shots, five fewer than Jeff Bosch of the Blazers. Bosch, 20, was making his Kamloops debut. He was acquired from the Moose Jaw Warriors on Sept. 17 but an ankle injury slowed him down.
“It was a tough situation for him; we were shorthanded the whole game,” Charron said. “I have no qualms about his performance.”
JUST NOTES: The Blazers scratched D Josh Caron (collarbone), Saip (WHL suspension), F Bernhard Keil and F Lyndon Martell. . . . D Corey Fienhage, D Bronson Maschmeyer, Bortnak, Keil, D Austin Madaisky and C Chase Schaber spent Sunday on Vancouver’s east side taking part in Project EDGE (Educate, Develop, Goals, Excel). The players, along with Bonner, got a taste of life on the east side and will visit numerous schools over the next few months to make presentations based on making good choices and having positive goals.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
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Taking Note on Twitter

Acolatse on the move

The Saskatoon Blades have dealt F Sena Acolatse, 20, to the Prince George Cougars for a third-round pick in the 2011 bantam draft. He is in his fifth WHL season. The Blades acquired him from the Seattle Thunderbirds last season.
Acolatse, 5-foot-11 and 207 pounds, is versatile and can also play defence. He had 35 last season. In 256 career games, he has 152 points and 373 penalty minutes.
The deal gets the Blades down to three 20-year-olds -- G Steven Stanford, D Teigan Zahn and F Marek Viedensky.
(The Blades put F Jeremy Boyer, 20, on waivers last week. He now is with the SJHL’s Humboldt Broncos. Thanks to the anonymous poster who pointed out that Boyer had four points for the Broncos on Saturday.)
The Cougars, meanwhile, now have four 20-year-olds -- Acolatse, G Morgan Clark, F James Dobrowolski and F Parker Stanfield. The Cougars, like all teams, have until Oct. 14 to get down to three.
Acolatse is expected to practice with the Cougars on Monday and make his debut Wednesday in Cranbrook against the Kootenay Ice.
This was the second deal between these teams in the last while. Earlier, the Blades dealt F Charles Inglis, 18, to the Cougars for a second-round pick in the 2011 bantam draft.

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
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Taking Note on Twitter

Saturday . . .

THE MacBETH REPORT:
F Jan Fadrny (Brandon, Kelowna, 1998-2001) signed a four-week contract with Dresdner Eislöwen (Germany 2.Bundesliga). He had 28 goals and 35 assists in 25 games for Halle (Germany Regionalliga) last season.
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The NHL’s Ottawa Senators have returned D Jared Cowen, 19, to the Spokane Chiefs. Cowen was the ninth overall pick in the NHL’s 2009 draft. . . . Because he is 19, Cowen either has to play with the Senators or the Chiefs. . . . "We thought about it long and hard and Jared, overall, played pretty well in camp," Senators general manager Bryan Murray told Rob Brodie of OttawaSenators.com. "We’re trying to do what’s right for him and, eventually, us. I just felt going back to junior, playing 25-30 minutes a game and getting a chance to develop his puck skills a little more would probably serve him best. I think he has a chance to play on the world junior team as well and this will be real good for him. It was just a matter of saying yes or no. It was that close. We thought long and hard about keeping him. But I think in this situation, it probably is the right thing for him." . . . The Chiefs meet the Bruins in Chilliwack on Tuesday and then play the Blazers in Kamloops on Wednesday.
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Joey Frazer, the WHL’s newest assistant coach, is just 20 years of age. And he went from player to coach in a matter of a couple of days, but that doesn't mean he has left his billet. Neate Sager of Yahoo! Sports has more right here.
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The WHL handed out $1,000 in fines after the visiting Edmonton Oil Kings and Regina Pats staged a line brawl late in the second period of a Friday night game. Each team was fined $250 for being involved in the “multiple fight” situation and another $250 because their goaltenders became involved in a fight. . . . Also from Friday night: Kamloops Blazers D Linden Saip was suspended -- the length to be determined -- under supplemental discipline for a hit on F Clayton Cumiskey of the host Everett Silvertips. Referee Pat Smith didn’t penalize Saip on the play.
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SATURDAY’S HIGHLIGHTS:
MOOSE JAW 2 at CALGARY 6: The Hitmen scored three times on the PP as they broke a 2-2 tie with four goals, three of them in the third period. . . . Calgary (1-2-0-0) was 3-for-6 on the PP; Moose Jaw (2-2-0-0) was 0-for-3. . . . F Cody Beach gave Calgary a 3-2 lead at 6:37 of the second period. . . . Calgary had a 30-18 edge in shots. . . . Beach, D Matt MacKenzie and F Jimmy Bubnick each had a goal and an assist for Calgary, while F Chase Clayton had two assists. . . . Moose Jaw D Kendall McFaull was hit with a match penalty for biting at 13:05 of the third period. The penalty came during an altercation with Calgary F Kris Foucault, who was penalized for goaltender interference. . . . Attendance was 7,338
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REGINA 2 at SASKATOON 6: F Marek Viedensky led the Blades (3-1-0-0) with a goal and two assists. . . . Saskatoon was at home one night after dropping a 7-0 decision in Brandon. . . . Regina fell to 1-4-0-0. . . . F Curtis Hamilton and F Braeden Johnson each had a goal and an assist for Saskatoon, while F Josh Nicholls had two assists. . . . Saskatoon G Steven Stanford stopped 29 shots, two more than Regina’s Dawson Guhle. . . . Regina G Damien Ketlo didn’t make the trip to Saskatoon. He suffered a shoulder injury during a fight with Edmonton G Cam Lanigan on Friday in Regina. The Pats had Matt Hewitt backing up Guhle. . . . Regina was 0-for-6 on the PP; the Blades were 1-for-3. . . . F Sena Acolatse of sat out for the Blades, who have four 20-year-olds in camp. . . . Attendance was 3,894.
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BRANDON 1 at PRINCE ALBERT 3: The Raiders unleashed a 47-shot attack as they handed the Wheat Kings (4-1-0-0) their first loss of the young season. . . . The game was a few minutes late starting after Brandon experienced some mechanical problems with its bus on the way to the game. . . . After a scoreless first period, F Sebastian Svendsen scored two second-period goals for the Raiders (2-3-0-0). . . . Brandon got to within one on F Wheaton King’s goal at 12:56 of the third period. . . . But F Brandon Herrod, who drew assists on both Svendsen goals, scored into an empty net to wrap it up. Svendsen assisted on that goal. . . . Herrod has five goals in five games. . . . Brandon G Corbin Boes, a 17-year-old from Saskatoon, made 44 saves in his first WHL start. . . . Prince Albert G Jamie Tucker turned aside 28 shots. . . . Brandon was 0-for-6 on the PP; P.A. was 0-for-5. . . . Brandon’s penalty killers now are 22-for-22 this season. . . . Attendance was 2,306.
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MEDICINE HAT 4 at RED DEER 1: F Cole Grbavac led the Tigers (2-1-0-0) with two assists. . . . He had four assists in 49 games last season. . . . The Tigers scored two first-period goals, gave up one in the second, and added two more in the third. . . . Medicine Hat F Emerson Etem scored his first of the season, opening the scoring on the PP. . . . The Tigers were 1-for-6 on the PP; the Rebels (3-2-0-0) were 1-for-8. . . . Tigers G Deven Dubyk, making his second start in as many nights, stopped 36 shots. He beat visiting Red Deer 2-1 on Friday night. . . . Red Deer G Darcy Kuemper stopped 19 shots. . . . Attendance was 4,522.
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LETHBRIDGE 1 at EVERETT 2: G Kent Simpson stopped 26 shots as the Silvertips (4-0-0-0) won their fourth straight game. . . . The Silvertips are halfway through an eight-game season-opening homestand. . . . The Hurricanes (2-1-0-1) conclude a five-game season-opening road trip on Sunday against the Winterhawks in Portland. . . . Everett F Landon Ferraro opened the scoring at 7:15 of the first period. . . . F Tyler Maxwell upped that to 2-0 at 6:08 of the second. . . . Ferraro has three goals; Maxwell has five. Maxwell has goals in four straight games. . . . F Kellan Tochkin had two assists for the Silvertips. . . . F Max Ross got Lethbridge to within one at 4:02 of the third. . . . Lethbridge G Dylan Tait stopped 23 shots. . . . The teams combined for 140 minutes in penalties, with 73 of those going to the Hurricanes. . . . Attendance was 5,113.
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VANCOUVER 3 at PRINCE GEORGE 1: The Cougars scored first but that was it as the Giants completed a sweep of the weekend doubleheader. . . . Vancouver (3-3-0-0) had won 5-3 on Friday night. . . . F Nick Buonassisi gave the Cougars (1-3-0-0) a 1-0 lead on the PP at 1:17 of the second period. . . . The Giants tied it on F Dalton Sward’s goal at 2:33 of the third period. . . . Vancouver F Matt MacKay got the winner at 8:20. . . . F Marek Tvrdon added insurance at 10:01. . . . Giants G Mark Segal stopped 22 shots, while Prince George’s James Priestner turned aside 26. . . . The Giants were 0-for-4 on the PP; the home side was 1-for-3. . . . Attendance was 1,960.
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SEATTLE 3 at PORTLAND 2 (SO): G Calvin Pickard stopped 44 shots through overtime and stymied three shooters in the circus as the Thunderbirds (3-2-0-0) won on the road. . . . In the shootout, Portland F Ty Rattie shot wide, F Brad Ross found a Pickard pad, and F Ryan Johansen was stopped on a deke attempt. . . . Portland G Keith Hamilton turned aside 31 shots. . . . Portland G Mac Carruth, who has yet to play in the regular season because of injury, backed up Hamilton. . . . Seattle F Marcel Noebels, his club’s second shooter, had the only goal of the shootout. He also had a shootout goal Friday in a 3-2 victory over the visiting Lethbridge Hurricanes. . . . The Winterhawks are 2-1-0-1. . . . Johansen, the fourth-overall pick in the 2010 NHL draft, was returned to the Winterhawks by the Columbus Blue Jackets earlier in the day. He arrived at the arena about an hour before the game and picked up an assist. . . . Portland led 2-1 after the first period. . . . Seattle tied it on F Mitch Elliot’s goal at 15:38 of the second period. . . . Seattle was 0-for-2 on the PP; Portland was 0-for-5. . . . Attendance was 7,775. . . . The New York Islanders trimmed six players from their roster late Saturday, but Portland F Nino Niederreiter wasn’t one of them.
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TRI-CITY 5 at SPOKANE 6 (OT): F Mitch Holmberg scored two goals, including the winner at 3:32 of overtime, as the Chiefs (1-2-0-0) won their home-opener. . . . Holmberg, a 17-year-old sophomore, had four goals in 52 games last season. . . . He also had an assist in this one. . . . The victory was the 432nd of Don Nachbaur’s WHL head-coaching career, but his first with Spokane. . . . The Chiefs led 3-1 in the first period and 4-3 after the second. . . . F Patrick Holland’s shorthanded goal at 19:41 of the second got Tri-City to within 4-3. . . . Americans F Adam Hughesman scored two early third-period goals to give his side the lead. He has five goals this season. . . . Spokane F Blake Gal, who had two goals, tied it on the PP at 19:00. . . . Gal scored with G James Reid on the bench for the extra attacker. . . . F Brendan Shinnimin had three assists for Tri-City and D Tyler Schmidt had two. . . . The Americans were 2-for-5 on the PP; the Chiefs were 2-for-4. . . . The Americans went into the game at 4-0-0-0 and were trying to tie a franchise record for best start to a season. . . . Attendance was 8,686.
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KAMLOOPS 1 at CHILLIWACK 6: The game was to have started at 7 p.m.; it began at 8:12 due to some problems with the ice. . . . And it took 2:42 to complete. . . . Yes, there were penalties, and a near line brawl. . . . In the end, the Blazers took 99 of 143 penalty minutes. . . . All told, referees Jeff Ingram and Colby Smith handed out 42 penalties, 26 of them to Kamloops. . . . The Bruins were 5-for-15 on the PP; the Blazers were 0-for-8. . . . The Blazers (1-3-0-0) lost two forwards to injury in the second period. F Jordan DePape left after a hit from D Tyler Stahl; F Chase Souto was taken to hospital for precautionary reasons after taking a hit from F Blair Wentworth. . . . Souto and Wentworth had fought 3:21 into the game. . . . The Bruins were without D Zach Habscheid, who was held out for precautionary reasons after being knocked down by a hard right from Souto during a third-period fight a week earlier. . . . DePape and Souto both were on the team bus as it made its way back to Kamloops. . . . The Bruins (2-1-0-0) hadn’t played since winning 5-2 in Kamloops on Sept. 25. . . . Bruins F Ryan Howse opened the scoring with his sixth goal in three games. He later would add another one. . . . Chilliwack F Roman Horak, who had a goal and three assists in Kamloops, scored twice and set up another. . . . D Brandon Manning, in his first game since returning from the camp of the New York Rangers, had a goal and two assists, and F Robin Soudek had two assists. . . . Chilliwack G Lucas Gore, who is from Kamloops, stopped 30 shots. He lost the shutout when D Bronson Maschmeyer scored at 16:44 of the third period. . . . G Jeff Bosch made his Kamloops debut with 35 saves. Acquired from Moose Jaw on Sept. 17, Bosch had been nursing an ankle injury. . . . Attendance was 3,927.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
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Taking Note on Twitter

Eskimos are big eaters, but no match for Cowboys

Forward Alexei Kovalev of the Ottawa Senators dropped the gloves and went with defenceman Francois Beauchemin of the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday night. So what was that all about, Kovy? “I just tried to use my head to hurt him,” he said. . . . The last time Kovalev fought? It was in March 2006 when he scrapped with Toronto’s Darcy Tucker. . . . Tucker, who played on the three Kamloops Blazers’ Memorial Cup winners (1992, 1994, 1995), has announced his retirement after 14 NHL seasons. He will work at becoming a certified agent and will join Carlos Sosa, his long-time Auburn, Wash.-based agent, in forming Turning Point Sports Management. . . . How many of the quarterbacks on the B.C. Lions’ roster right now will be in Kamloops when training camp opens in June? . . . And will Wally Buono still be the CFL team’s head coach? . . .
Mike Lupica, in the New York Daily News: “I’ve changed my mind: It’s actually MORE likely that you’re going to understand Inception than the FedEx playoffs in golf. And Fringe. And throw in the sport of cricket, too.” . . . When and why, as a country, did we become this obsessed with NHL exhibition games? Surely, it can’t be healthy for us. . . . Kelly Olynyk, the South Kamloops basketballer who now is a sophomore at Gonzaga, is preparing for his stage debut. He’ll be in the cast of Romeo and Juliet when it opens Oct. 22. . . . By the way, the Zags hold Midnight Madness on Oct. 15. . . . Steve Simmons, in the Toronto Sun: “The New York Rangers missed an opportunity (when) they placed defenceman Wade Redden on waivers. They should have done the same for the retired but still working general manager, Glen Sather.” . . .
I’m thinking you’re pumped about watching the Ryder Cup on NBC-TV today. After all, the Peacock Network will have 10 hours of coverage — 5 a.m. through 3 p.m., Pacific time. Except that none of that coverage will be live. Seriously. . . . Hey, don’t shoot the messenger. . . . The good news is that Johnny Miller is there for NBC. . . . By the way, ESPN aired its coverage live yesterday, running through 10 a.m. . . . When the U.S. Ryder Cup team was making travel arrangements, three caddies, including Steve Williams, got bumped from the charter for space reasons. To which Bud Shaw of the Cleveland Plain Dealer wrote: “Unfortunately for golf galleries scolded by Williams or having cameras tossed into a nearby lake by him, Williams was bumped off the flight before it left the ground.” . . .
New York Jets receiver Braylon Edwards was arrested and charged with DUI last week. The New York Post story about the arrest included this line: “Edwards tried to catch a cab, but he dropped it.” . . . Vancouver comedian Torben Rolfsen covered that arrest with this: “If it’s anything like the rest of his career, the charges will be dropped.’’ . . . Are we going to be hearing and reading about Roberto Luongo’s groin all winter? When he surrendered the ‘C’, the Province had him on both covers and five or six inside pages. It’s hard to imagine how graphic the coverage a groin injury might get. . . .
Is Elly May Clampett really 77 years of age? . . . Here’s Montana Tech football coach Bob Green, in conversation with the Montana Standard, a newspaper in Butte: “Marriage and football are the same. There’s no ugly wins and there’s no beautiful losses. In marriage, there’s no ugly bride and no beautiful ex-wives. Nobody’s going to tell you your bride is ugly or your ex-wife is beautiful.” . . . I eagerly await the Oct. 12 release of Djibouti, Elmore Leonard’s newest piece of work. You should know, too, that Leonard will celebrate his 85th birthday on Oct. 11. . . . Former Kamloops Blazers captain Jared Aulin was released from a tryout with the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers this week. He was offered a tryout with the Oilers’ AHL affiliate, the Oklahoma City Barons, but seems more likely to try the European route. . . .
Jeff Schultz, in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “HBO’s Bryant Gumbel thinks the NCAA should put the (Florida) Gators on probation for all of their arrests, reasoning: ‘I’m no legal expert, not by a long shot, but I do believe that driving drunk, robbing a convenience store, and hitting your girlfriend are all worse offenses than dealing with an agent.’ I think I suddenly like Bryant Gumbel.” . . . The Atlanta Thrashers have said they will play Dustin Byfuglien as a defenceman this season. What do you think of that, Jeremy Roenick? “That might be the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard in my life,” Roenick said on his weekly Sirius-XM radio show. “Dustin Byfuglien as a defenceman. I would love to play against Dustin Byfuglien as a defenceman. I would turn him inside out, left, right and centre every single time.” . . . Alberto Contador, the Tour de France winner, has tested positive and blamed it on the beef. Sheesh, why didn’t Ben Johnson think of that? . . . Gotta wonder if Contador’s dog ate his homework before or after it ate the meat? . . .
Before playing against the Toronto Argonauts in Moncton on Sunday, the Edmonton Eskimos dined out at a lobster establishment in North Rustico, P.E.I. Before they were done, Terry Jones of the Edmonton Sun reports, they had demolished 148 pounds of lobster and 254 pounds of mussels. . . . The tab, by the way, was $4,477. . . . And if you think that’s a good chunk of change, what about the Dallas Cowboys? The entire team went out to dinner on rookie receiver Dez Bryant the other night and he ended up on the hook for US$54,896. Seriously. . . . You’re right. Those idiots can’t relate to the rest of us. . . . 
Jim Caple, over at ESPN.com: “Nice promo from the friendly folks at BP, who gave us the oil disaster in the Gulf this year. Cubs fans recently received a scorecard with an attached BP gift card worth $5 to $10. But the Cubs had to win the game for the cards to be worth anything. Naturally, the Cubs lost 13-0, so fans left the game with a worthless card that will provide a nice addition to a landfill and also serve as a nice little reminder from BP that their team isn’t any good.” . . . That could only happen to Cubs’ fans. Right? . . . Some folks got together the other night and roasted longtime basketball coach Bobby Knight. Here’s how emcee Jay Bilas opened the proceedings: “Coach Knight has requested that none of the roasters bring up his past behavioural issues or his considerable use of profanity, so thank you everybody for coming, and good night.”

Gregg Drinnan is sports editor of The Daily News. Email him at gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca, follow him at twitter.com/gdrinnan, or visit his blog at gdrinnan.blogspot.com. Keeping Score appears Saturdays.

Friday's roundup . . .

The Brett brothers have owned the Spokane Chiefs for 20 years. John Blanchette of the Spokane Spokesman-Review talks to Bobby Brett about that and more, and it’s right here.
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The Calgary Hitmen have chosen to split the captain’s ‘C’ between D matt MacKenzie and F Tyler Fiddler. . . . At the same time, F Jimmy Bubnick will wear one ‘A’, with D Zak Stebner and D Ben Wilson sharing the other one.
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FRIDAY’S HIGHLIGHTS:
SASKATOON 0 at BRANDON 7: F David Toews scored twice and added an assist for the Wheat Kings (4-0-0-0). . . . Brandon G Liam (Sonny) Liston stopped 23 shots for his first WHL shutout. . . . The Blades (2-1-0-0) were outshot 38-23, including 14-5 in a scoreless first period. . . . The Wheat Kings scored three times in the second period. . . . The teams meet in Saskatoon on Sunday. . . . Brandon F Wheaton King had a goal and two assists. . . . The Wheat Kings were 2-for-10 on the PP — they are 8-for-29 in four games — and scored a shorthanded goal. . . . Saskatoon was 0-for-5 on the PP. . . . Brandon’s penalty killers are 17-for-17 in four games. . . . The last time Brandon opened 4-0? It was 1994. . . . Attendance was 4,226.
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PRINCE ALBERT 5 at SWIFT CURRENT 4: The Raiders (1-3-0-0) built a 4-1 lead and hung on as the Broncos (1-3-0-0) scored three times in 1:44 late in the third period. . . . F Igor Revenko’s first goal of the season, at 1:35 of the third, stood up as the winner. . . .. The Broncos got late goals from F Justin Dowling (15:35), F Stepan Novotny (16:13) and F Brad Hoban (17:19). The first two came via the PP. . . . Novotny has five goals in four games. . . . F Mark McNeill had two goals and a helper for the Raiders, while F Justin Maylan and F Brandon Herrod each had two assists. Herrod went into the game having scored four of his club’s eight goals over three games. . . . F Cody Eakin, in his first game since rejoining the Broncos from the NHL’s Washington Capitals, had two assists. . . . Raiders G Eric Williams, making his first WHL start, stopped 35 shots. . . . The Broncos opened with Mark Friesen, who stopped 15 of 19. Austin Smith came on in relief and stopped seven of eight shots. . . . The Raiders were 2-for-4 on the PP; the Broncos were 2-for-6. . . . Attendance was 2,160.
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EDMONTON 7 at REGINA 3: This one involved a line brawl and battling goaltenders at 19:40 of the second period. . . . Referee Adam Byblow handed out 112 penalty minutes after the incident that included Edmonton G Cam Lanigan and Regina G Damien Ketlo. . . . Here’s Lanigan, talking to Greg Harder of the Regina Leader-Post: “I was just standing there as a bystander. Kets came out to the hash marks at first and shook his gloves. I didn’t do anything. I kind of just nodded it off. Next thing I knew he was coming out at me. It was a fight-or-flight reaction. It kind of just happened. My first fight. I don’t know if I’ll repeat it. It’s not the best situation but I’m glad it went the way it did.” . . . The Oil Kings held a 5-2 lead at the time. . . . Regina (1-3-0-0) led 2-1 just 28 seconds into the second period, but the visitors then scored four goals before the end of the period. That included three in a span of 1:31. . . . Edmonton (2-2-0-0) has won two in a row after opening with two losses. . . . F Cameron Abney had two goals and a helper for Edmonton, with F Travis Ewanyk and F Mike Piluso each getting two assists. . . . Edmonton D Marek Hrbas didn’t get a point but was plus-4. . . . F Killian Hutt had two assists for Regina. . . . Regina D Cody Carlson and F Chandler Stephenson each was minus-4. . . . Edmonton held a 43-22 edge in shots. . . . Attendance was 3,719.
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RED DEER 1 at MEDICINE HAT 2: The Tigers (1-1-0-0) got two first-period power-play goals and hung on for the victory. . . . F Tyler Pitlick, with his first WHL goal at 1:43, and F Ryan Harrison, with his first goal with the Tigers, gave the home side a 2-0 lead before the first period was half over. . . . F Turner Elson got Red Deer’s goal at 13:17 of the second. Yes, it came on the PP. . . . Red Deer lost for the first time in four games. . . . Each team had six PP chances. . . . Tigers G Deven Dubyk stopped 31 shots, while Red Deer’s Darcy Kuemper stopped 15. . . . Red Deer F Andrej Kudrna had one assist, giving him eight points in four games. . . . Attendance was 4,006.
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SPOKANE 3 at KOOTENAY 6: The Ice (2-1-0-0) erased a 3-2 deficit by scoring the game’s last four goals — two in each of the last two periods. . . . F Kevin King scored twice and added an assist for the Ice, while F Elgin Pearce had three assists. . . . Last season, Pearce had seven points, including four assists, in 45 games. . . . Spokane F Blake Gal was minus-5, while F Levko Koper was minus-4. . . . Kootenay G Todd Mathews stopped 24 shots. . . . The Chiefs (0-2-0-0), with a 27-19 edge in shots, got 13 stops from G James Reid. . . . The Ice was 0-for-4 on the PP but got a shorthanded goal from King. . . . The Chiefs were 2-for-5 on the PP. . . . Attendance was 2,454.
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KAMLOOPS 2 at EVERETT 4: This game swung on two shorthanded breakaways. . . . Everett F Landon Ferraro scored on one early in the second period to forge a 1-1 tie. . . . Everett F Josh Birkholz had another one in the third period, with the score tied 2-2. The play ended with referee Pat Smith awarding a penalty shot. Birkholz scored his second goal of the game to give Everett (3-0-0-0) the lead for the first time and it stood up as the winner. . . . Everett is three games into an eight-game season-opening homestand. . . . Kamloops (1-2-0-0) had a 44-20 edge in shots, including 29-8 after two periods. . . . Everett G Kent Simpson stopped 42 shots. . . . Attendance was 5,005.
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VANCOUVER 5 at PRINCE GEORGE 3: The big story here was the attendance — 5,095. . . . F Craig Cunningham scored two goals 57 seconds part in the first period to give the Giants (2-3-0-0) a 2-0 lead. . . . The Cougars (1-2-0-0) got to within one three different times but weren’t able to get the equalizer. . . . Vancouver F Brendan Gallagher ended it with an empty-netter, his fifth goal of the season. Teammate James Henry also scored has five; he got two last night. . . . Henry also was plus-4. . . . F Spencer Asuchak and D Martin Marincin each had a goal and an assist for the Cougars. . . . Prince George G Morgan Clark stopped 22 shots, while Vancouver’s Mark Segal blocked 29. . . . The Cougars were 1-for-12 on the PP; the Giants were 0-for-4. . . . Vancouver took six straight minors in the second and the Cougars had a 5-on-3 advantage on three separate occasions but could only come up with one goal.
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KELOWNA 0 at TRI-CITY 1: G Drew Owsley stopped 34 shots for the shutout and F Adam Hughesman scored the only goal. . . . Hughesman’s third of the season came at 5:05 of the first period. . . . Owsley has six career shutouts. He is 7-0 all-time against the Rockets. . . . Kelowna G Adam Brown turned aside 27 shots. . . . The Americans stayed unbeaten, at 4-0-0-0, while the Rockets slid to 0-3-0-0. . . . The Americans had won 4-3 in Kelowna on Wednesday. . . . The Rockets, who have lost nine straight games in Kennewick, Wash., were 0-for-5 on the PP; the Americans were 0-for-6. . . . Attendance was 3,837. . . . The last time the Americans opened with four straight victories was 2007-08 when they started 5-0-0-0.
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LETHBRIDGE 2 at SEATTLE 3 (SO): F Marcel Noebels got the winner in the shootout. . . . He scored Seattle’s second shootout goal — F Burke Gallimore also scored — while G Calvin Pickard stopped two Lethbridge shooters. . . . After two scoreless periods, Seattle (2-2-0-0) took a 2-0 lead on goals by F Travis Toomey and Noebels. . . . Lethridge (2-0-0-1) tied it with two late goals — F Jacob Berglund, at 17:07, and F Philip Tot, at 18:29. The teams were skating four aside and Lethbridge G Brandon Anderson was off for the extra attacker when Tot scored. . . . Anderson finished with 35 saves through OT, while Pickard stopped 29. . . . Attendance was 3,255.

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

Friday . . .

The Medicine Hat Tigers solved their 20-year-old problem on Friday by named F Joey Frazer as an assistant coach. He joins head coach Shaun Clouston and assistant Darren Kruger. Frazer, a 20-year-old from Brainerd, Minn., played two seasons with the Tigers, but got caught up in the numbers game this week. He cleared waivers Friday and is a free agent, but chose to join the Tigers’ coaching staff.
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An emailer responds to the mention here earlier that perhaps the WHL should go to five 20-year-old players, an increase of two from the present maximum.
“For years teams were comprised of a core group from 16 to19, with five others (two Euros and three 20-year-olds). . . . Might not be a bad idea to let clubs make up their five extra players however they want. . . . e.g., two Euros and three 20s, one Euro and four 20s, or no Euros and five 20s.
“Euros are kind of a crap shoot these days anyway and it would be giving some of these older players like Joey Frazer an extra lease on life at little or no cost to the CHL clubs.
“Just a thought.”
And a good one at that. . . .
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F Darcy Tucker (Kamloops, 1991-95) has chosen to end his playing career. He made the announcement Friday. Tucker, 35, played 14 seasons in the NHL and now will partner with veteran player agent Carlos Sosa in Turning Point Sports Management. Tucker’s aim is to become a certified agent. " I have always been a guy who needed something to move on to and I'm both thrilled and excited about this opportunity," Tucker told Darren Dreger of TSN.ca . . . Added Sosa: "He's the guy you want next to you in the foxhole. We've been together a long time and neither of us wanted that to end. Darcy will be our primary indentifier of talent all over." . . . Tucker won three Memorial Cup championships while playing with Kamloops.
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The Saskatoon Blades have given up the CHL rights to F Andrej Stastny, a 19-year-old Slovakian whom they selected in the CHL’s 2010 import draft. The Blades had been unable to get his release from the Slovakian Ice Hockey Federation. And, with the return of F Marek Viedensky from the NHL’s San Jose Sharks, they found themselves with two import players, which is the maximum. The other import in Saskatoon is Czech F Matej Stransky, another 2010 CHL import selection.
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James Poole is the new head coach of the AJHL’s Okotoks Oilers. He has resigned as head coach of the midget AAA Calgary Buffaloes in order to take over as the Oilers’ general manager and head coach. Poolre replaces Garry VanHereweghe, who resigned a couple of weeks ago.
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C Neal Prokop, 20, would like nothing better than to finish is WHL career standing up. Prokop had his 2009-10 season come to a crashing halt when he lost and edge and suffered a badly broken left leg while playing for the Tri-City Americans against the Bruins in Chilliwack. It was Game 3 of a first-round playoff series. He needed surgery and spent some time in Chilliwack General Hospital. He later returned home to Winnipeg and that is where he is now, working on rehabbing the leg. Asked how it’s going, Prokop said: “Not too bad. It’s starting to come.” . . . As for the future, he added: “We’ll see how much better I can get in the next couple months.”
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
gdrinnan.blogspot.com
Taking Note on Twitter

Keeping Score

Here is Keeping Score from Saturday, Sept. 25. . . . Somehow I forgot to post it. . . . Enjoy! . . .

Here’s syndicated columnist Norman Chad, on the state of baseball on TV: “I used to turn on a baseball game on ESPN and it would tell me the balls, strikes and outs with a little graphic that read simply, ‘Balls 2 Strikes 2 Outs 1,’ but now — because somebody with a college degree and a pocket compass decided that was too confusing — they put up a bunch of little circles, some colored in and some not, and I'm supposed to count the circles that are colored in to figure out how many balls, strikes and outs there are. By the time I have done this correctly, the pitcher has already thrown the next pitch and I have to start all over again.” . . . Isn’t that the truth? Oh, for the days of Curt Gowdy and Tony Kubek. . . . Cam Hutchinson, in the Saskatoon StarPhoenix: “There was a lineup in Saskatoon (last) week for 350 spots in a nursing program. If a person meets the criteria, positions are awarded on first-come, first-served basis. Kind of like how the Maple Leafs pick their roster.” . . .

There are rumblings that the Commonwealth Games, which are scheduled for New Delhi, India, from Oct. 3-14, may end up being cancelled due to any number of logistical problems, not to mention stray dogs defecating in what is supposed to be the athletes’ village. . . . Sheesh, maybe Kamloops, having had its heart broken when it lost out to Prince George for the 2015 Canada Winter Games, could offer to be an alternate host. . . . In Toronto, fans of the Maple Leafs boo their favourites in the first period of their first game. In Montreal, Montreal Canadiens fans unload on goaltender Carey Price in the first period of their opening game. And it’s only the exhibition season. . . . Yikes! . . . With the San Diego Chargers refusing to trade away wide receiver Vincent Jackson, his agent, Neil Schwartz, unloaded on general manager A.J. Smith: “Multiple teams have told me that they can’t get a deal done with A.J. and some of the teams have referred to A.J. as ‘The Lord of No Rings.’ That’s how they characterized him.” . . .

So how big was it in Boston when New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was involved in a car accident the other day? Here’s Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe: “Regional media outlets mobilized with hurricane fury when word broke of the accident involving Brady. Two Boston television stations dispatched helicopters to shoot practice from the sky (thank goodness the Patriots didn’t deploy their anti-aircraft missiles).” . . . That was a couple of days after a wonderful column by Shaughnessy that included this: “The Patriots are the Nixon White House of sports. They see demons everywhere. They bash dissent, deny the obvious, and rely on a silent majority of loyalists (including some credentialed media) to pledge allegiance. The Patriots have a Kremlinesque video camera trained on the assembled media during Bill Belichick’s press conferences.” . . . Congratulations to Jenny John, the queen of Canadian field hockey, on her induction into the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame last week. This hasn’t been the best of months for Jenny, but hopefully this will bring her some joy. . . .

When is the last time you saw a football team — make that any team in any sport — fall apart in the manner in which the B.C. Lions did a week ago? If you have a 12-point lead in the fourth quarter and then turn the ball over five times, well, you’re going to lose, which is exactly what happened. . . . And when this season is over the Lions very well may look at that game as the end, while the Hamilton Tiger-Cats will say that it was their beginning. . . . By the way, if you were watching that game, you saw the officials, on one particular play, make the right call, then overturn it to make the wrong call, all of which led to a Hamilton touchdown. . . . You’re right. It just wasn’t the Lions’ night. . . . The Vancouver Canucks and Calgary Flames split their rosters and played each other in Vancouver and Calgary on Tuesday night. Seriously. Both buildings appeared to be sold out. Do you think the team owners are rubbing their hands in glee as they run to the bank? . . . And if you think there really is competition for spots in NHL training camps, consider that a guy named Marco Rosa was the Canucks’ best forward in Calgary. He was sent to the AHL’s Manitoba Moose on Wednesday. . . .

The McCourts, Jamie and Frank, are going through quite a divorce set-to in Los Angeles. Of course, they also own the Los Angeles Dodgers. . . . Here’s Seattle Times reader Bill Littlejohn, speculating on what will happen should MLB commissioner Bud Selig get involved: “It’s guaranteed to end in a tie.” . . . You know Joe Torre isn’t going to want to go out like this, not after managing the hapless Divorcers, er, Dodgers. So why not go out managing the New York Mets? . . . If you’re interested in soap operas, you should be following the saga involving the potential sale of the NHL’s Dallas Stars. Bill Gallacher, who owns the WHL’s Portland Winterhawks, apparently was interested in buying the team until earlier this week. Tom Gaglardi, the majority owner of your Kamloops Blazers, is said to be still in the chase. And now there is speculation that Tom Hicks, the Stars’ owner who is trying to sell the team, may be working to put together a group to try and buy the team. . . . Yes, only in the NHL. . . .

Terence Moore, over at FanHouse, after Michigan State beat the Fighting Irish with a TD off a fake field goal in OT: “The miraculous play that Michigan State used to beat the Irish in overtime in East Lansing was a fraud . . . no matter how much Big East officials try to clean it up, there was a zero on the play clock before the snap. The play never should have happened.” . . . Scott Ostler, in the San Francisco Chronicle: “Floyd Mayweather Jr. is accused of threatening to kill his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend, after giving her $200 to put under their daughter's pillow for a tooth. Always an awkward combo identity to pull off: Tooth Fairy and Grim Reaper.” . . . Ian Hamilton, in the Regina Leader-Post: “Since Urban Meyer took over as head coach of the University of Florida football program, 27 players have been arrested a combined total of 30 times. Sounds like the cops in Gainesville should be known as crime scene investi-Gators.”

Gregg Drinnan is sports editor of The Daily News. Email him at gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca, visit his blog at gdrinnan.blogspot.com, or follow him at twitter.com/gdrinnan. Keeping Score appears Saturdays.