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| CHARLES INGLIS |
Inglis, 19, was sent home by the Cougars on Saturday.
“Broke team rules,” Cougars general manager Dallas Thompson wrote in a text message to me Sunday afternoon. “Sent home to await a trade.”
“Team and league rules,” noted Cougars head coach Dean Clark. “Doesn’t get it.”
The latest transgression occurred in Kamloops, following a 5-4 loss to the Blazers on Friday night. On Saturday, Inglis was on a plane out of Kelowna.
And that’s too bad.
Inglis is a young man from Winnipeg who has personality and talent. He also carries with him enough baggage to get him to the planet Saturn and back.
Inglis leaves the Cougars with 16 points in 16 games. And, for what it’s worth, he is plus-6 on a team that struggles to score and has allowed 27 more goals than it has scored.
The Cougars got Inglis from the Saskatoon Blades — yes, he wore out his welcome there, too — and he put up 60 points, including 32 goals, in 69 games last season.
He also has been to a pair of NHL camps, both as free agents. He was with the Phoenix Coyotes prior to 2010-11 and the San Jose Sharks prior to this season.
Having chatted with Inglis on occasion — he was in the press box in Kamloops serving a 10-game WHL suspension at one point this season — I can tell you that he’s personable, talkative, intelligent and aware.
He also can play the game. Every time I have seen him, there have been three or four shifts when he has shown that he could be one of the WHL’s top three or four forwards. Consistency, however, has been a problem.
But until he shows a proclivity to play and live within the rules, it won’t matter.
With Inglis in the lineup, the Cougars lost 5-4 in Kamloops on Friday night. Without him, the Cougars beat the Rockets 3-2 in Kelowna on Saturday.
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JUST NOTES: Interesting that the AHL’s San Antonio Rampage put together a forward line Saturday night that comprised Michal Repik, Wacey Rabbit and James Wright, all of whom played for the Vancouver Giants when they won the 2007 Memorial Cup. On Saturday, the game’s first goal was Repik from Rabbit and Wright, and the Rampage, playing at home, went on to a 2-1 victory over the Oklahoma City Barons. . . . Wright was playing his first game with the Rampage after being traded by the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning dealt him to the Florida Panthers on Friday night. . . . There are three ex-Giants on the Oklahoma City roster — F Gilbert Brule, F Tristan Grant and F Milan Kytnar. . . .
F Byron Froese (Everett, Red Deer, 2008-11) is back with the AHL’s Rockford IceHogs. He started the season there, went pointless in 11 games, and was assigned to the ECHL’s Toledo Walleye. He had a goal and an assist in three games with the Walleye and was moved back to Rockford by the parent Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday. . . .
F Tyler Giebel, who scored a goal Saturday in his debut with the Red Deer Rebels, has chosen to return to the SJHL’s Yorkton Terriers. Giebel had played eight games this season with the Everett Silvertips before being released. . . . You may have seen the wedding photos out of Portland on Saturday night. You also may have read where I wondered what might have happened had the Winterhawks been shut out in that particular game. I heard from a fan who heard an interview in which someone indicated that had Portland not scored in the first two periods, the wedding would have taken place in the second intermission.
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In Calgary, F Curtis Valk scored twice as the Medicine Hat Tigers beat the Hitmen, 2-1. . . . F Calder Brooks, a 17-year-old freshman from Emerald Park, Sask., scored the Teddy Bear goal. . . . Valk has eight goals. . . . Tigers F Emerson Etem drew two assists and now has 58 points, three shy of F Mark Stone of the Brandon Wheat Kings, who leads the WHL scoring race. . . . Etem now has 203 career points, including 110 goals, in 168 regular-season games. . . . Medicine Hat had lost three in a row. . . . Tigers G Tyler Bunz stopped 37 shots. . . . According to Kristen Odland of the Calgary Herald: “The announced 25,303 bears collected on Sunday was the second-most in franchise history, behind the world record amount (26,919) set back in 2007 . . . Since 2003, the Hitmen have collected 186,613 bears for charities.”
In Brandon, G Matt Hewitt stopped 33 shots to lead the Regina Pats to a 2-0 victory over the Wheat Kings. . . . It was Hewitt’s first career WHL shutout. He is a 19-year-old sophomore from New Westminster, B.C. This was his 57th WHL appearance, all with Regina. . . . The shutout was the first this season suffered by Brandon, the WHL’s highest-scoring team. . . . The Pats had lost nine straight games in Brandon, dating back to Dec. 27, 2008. . . . The game featured in an intriguing second-period scrap between Regina F Dominik Volek and Brandon F Alessio Bertaggia. Volek, 17, is from the Czech Republic; Bertaggia, 17, is from Switzerland. It was the first fight for each player. . . . Volek scored the game’s first goal, his seventh, at 9:27 of the first. . . . Regina F Jordan Weal got his 14th late in the second. . . . The Pats have won two straight. . . . Brandon F Mark Stone, who leads the WHL scoring race, was held pointless for the third time this season. . . . Regina D Brandon Underwood left in the second period after blocking a shot, but head coach Pat Conacher told Greg Harder of the Regina Leader-Post that the veteran should be fine. . . .
In Swift Current, F Adam Lowry broke a 1-1 tie at 9:59 of the third period as the Broncos held on to beat the Kootenay Ice, 2-1. . . . Swift Current G Jon Groenheyde stopped 32 shots. . . . The Ice finished up a nine-game road trip 6-3-0. with three straight losses. . . . Ice F Sam Reinhart had an assist to extend his points streak to nine games. . . . Each of the players who scored — Graham Black also scored for the Broncos, with Jesse Ismond counting for the Ice — now has 11 goals. . . . 
In Edmonton, the Oil Kings struck for five PP goals as they whipped the Saskatoon Blades, 8-3. . . . The Oil Kings, who scored six second-period goals, scored three PP goals after Saskatoon F Jake Trask was tossed with a major for checking to the head of Edmonton D Griffin Reinhart. . . . When Trask left late in the second period, the Oil Kings had a 4-2 lead. . . . F Michael St. Croix had two goals and two assists for Edmonton, with F T.J. Foster and F Tyler Maxwell each picking up a goal and two assists. . . . St. Croix has 19 points, including 10 goals, in his last seven games. . . . Edmonton has won six in a row. . . . Saskatoon was without F Josh Nicholls, a 20-goal man. He was injured Saturday in a 6-3 loss to the Hurricanes in Lethbridge. . . .
In Lethbridge, G Liam Liston stopped 38 shots to help the Hurricanes to a 1-0 victory over the Spokane Chiefs. . . . Liston, who came over from the Brandon Wheat Kings in a trade earlier this season, posted his first shutout this season and the second of his career. . . . F Cam Braes scored the game’s only goal, on a PP, at 12:02 of the third period. He has 14 goals. . . . The Hurricanes have won four in a row. . . . The game featured three penalty shots. Neither F Mitch Holmberg nor F Mike Aviani was able to beat Liston. At the other end, Lethbridge F Jamal Watson couldn’t score on G Mac Engel, who finished with 17 saves. . . . The Chiefs went 2-2-1 on a five-game dip into the Central Division. . . .
In Prince Albert, the Raiders scored three PP goals for a 3-0 lead and went on to beat the Moose Jaw Warriors, 3-1. . . . The Raiders were 3-for-9 on the PP as the Warriors took 61 of the 98 penalty minutes handed out by referee Trent Knorr. . . . F Mark McNeill had two assists for the Raiders, who got a goal and an assist from F Mike Winther. . . . Moose Jaw G Spencer Tremblay, in a rare start, stopped 46 shots. . . . The Warriors wre without D Dallas Ehrhardt (ill) for a second straight game.———
John Branch has written a three-part series on the life, career and death of Derek Boogaard for The New York Times. The second part is right here, and it is heavy, heavy stuff.
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