By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
Marek Hrbas stood in a hallway at Interior Savings Centre on Thursday afternoon, the Kamloops Blazers’ practice having just ended.
His eyes looked skyward but it was apparent that he wasn’t seeing anything.
“I still can’t believe that,” he said in a quiet voice.
The loss of three countrymen in Wednesday’s plane crash in Russia still was fresh enough in the young Czech defenceman’s mind that it was causing him pain.
“I knew Jan Marek,” Hrbas said. “I worked out with him.”
Marek, 31, was a forward on the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl team that was wiped out in a crash on the banks of the Volga River near Yaroslavl, 240 kilometres northeast of Moscow.
The crash also claimed the lives of Czech defenceman Karel Rachunek, 32, and forward Josef Vasicek, who was five days away from his 30th birthday.
Vasicek played on the Czech team at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver; Marek and Rachunek were on the Czech team that won the 2010 world championship.
In other words, these players were national heroes.
Hundreds of people showed up in Prague’s Old Town Square last night to honour the victims. Many wore national team jerseys, carried Czech flags and lit candles around an impromptu monument formed by two hockey sticks. They chanted the names of the three Czech victims and signed condolence books for them.
“They won gold medals. It’s huge . . . it’s a huge deal over there,” Hrbas said. “It’s so sad. The news is talking about it all day every day.”
Hrbas, who is from Plzen, said he and Marek employed the same agent, which is how they ended up working out together in Prague.
“He was a very good guy. He was a lot of fun,” Hrbas recalled. “A lot of smiles . . . great guy. I still can’t believe that.”
But, as Hrbas knows, life goes on, so he and the Blazers will face the Kelowna Rockets tonight, 7 o’clock, at Interior Savings Centre in a WHL exhibition game and again Saturday at Prospera Place in the Little Apple.
The Blazers are 1-1, having beaten the visiting Victoria Royals 4-2 and then lost 6-3 to the host Vancouver Giants. The Rockets are 2-0, having won twice at home, 4-3 in overtime over the Giants and 7-2 over the Royals.
With some NHL teams opening rookie camps this weekend, both Kamloops and Kelowna are likely to be down in numbers.
The Blazers will be without defencemen Josh Caron (Minnesota Wild) and Austin Madaisky (Columbus Blue Jackets), as well as forwards Jordan DePape (Winnipeg Jets), Chase Schaber and Colin Smith (Edmonton Oilers), Dylan Willick (Minnesota) and Brendan Ranford (Philadelphia Flyers).
Right-winger J.T. Barnett doesn’t leave to join the New Jersey Devils until Tuesday, so will be available for weekend duty.
The Rockets, meanwhile, also have eight players going to NHL camps — goaltender Adam Brown (Edmonton Oilers), defencemen Tyson Barrie (Colorado Avalanche) and Colton Jobke (Minnesota), and forwards Jessey Astles (Pittsburgh Penguins), Brett Bulmer (Minnesota), Mitchell Callahan and Zach Franko (Detroit Red Wings), and Shane McColgan (New York Rangers).
Hrbas, 18, was acquired by the Blazers from the Edmonton Oil Kings in June. Kamloops is hoping his prowess with the puck will help it spend less time in its zone this season. It also is hoped that he can spark the power play.
“I like to play on the power play,” he said. “I just love it.”
He also is loving it in Kamloops.
“I like it a lot, more than in Edmonton,” he said, channelling his inner Chris Pronger. Then, with a chuckle, Hrbas added: “It was too cold for me there. I like this weather.”
With Caron and Madaisky gone, and with Landon Cross nursing a sore hip, Hrbas knows he will play a lot this weekend. And that doesn’t bother him.
“It’s not that bad,” he said. “I’m just looking forward to the game (tonight). I like lots of ice time.”
JUST NOTES: Blazers trainer Colin Robinson said the medical staff had cleared DePape to join the Winnipeg Jets. DePape has been bothered by a hip flexor. “The doctor says he’s good to go,” Robinson said, “and we’re not going to hold him back.” . . . Kamloops G Cam Lanigan was felled late in practice yesterday when he took a high, hard one off the collarbone. If the coaching staff sticks to its rotation, Lanigan and Taran Kozun will be the goaltenders tonight. . . . Two young Kelowna defencemen — Jesse Lees and Madison Bowey — have been getting rave reviews. Lees, from Calgary, was the ninth pick in the 2010 bantam draft. He will turn 16 on Wednesday. Bowey, from Winnipeg, was the 23rd selection in 2010. . . . D Brendon Nash, who spent last season with the AHL’s Hamilton Bulldogs and got into two games with the NHL’s Montreal Canadiens, skated with the Blazers yesterday.
— With a file from The Associated Press
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
gdrinnan.blogspot.com
Taking Note on Twitter
Showing posts with label Brendon Nash. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brendon Nash. Show all posts
Monday, September 27, 2010
Souto fights for playing time with Blazers
By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
The WHL game was into its last minute Saturday night at Interior Savings Centre, the Kamloops Blazers were losing 5-2, and Chase Souto didn’t know who it was who had just slashed him.
“No, I didn’t. I dropped my gloves and went ‘oh-oh!’ ” the Kamloops Blazers’ freshman right winger said after Monday’s practice at Interior Savings Centre.
The whacker turned out to be Chilliwack defenceman Zach Habscheid, whom the Bruins list at 6-foot-4 and 205 pounds. (Yes, he is the son of Marc Habscheid, the Bruins’ general manager and head coach.)
The 5-foot-10, 165-pound Souto, who won’t turn 16 until Oct. 8, poked Habscheid, 18, with one right hand and then reloaded and drilled him with a straight right to the jaw. Habscheid went down as though he was a heavy bag and the chain holding it up had been cut.
Habscheid likely woke up Sunday with a headache. Souto was left with a sore thumb.
Souto, a fifth-round pick in the 2009 bantam draft, is from Yorba Linda, Calif. He arrived in the Blazers’ camp prepared to do anything to stay, and now that he is on the roster he wants to continue with that approach.
At his size, it’s not like he’s a scrapper, but he is scrappy.
“We weren’t allowed to fight in my league but I did a couple of times,” he said, when asked about his ring record last season.
So what happened Saturday?
“They were having guys kind of run us all game and they were beating us in our own barn,” Souto explained. “I just wanted to send a message for Saturday when we play them again.”
The Blazers open a two-game swing Friday in Everett against the Silvertips. Whether Souto plays in that game has yet to be decided, but you can bet he will be in the Kamloops lineup for the rematch with the Bruins on Saturday in Chilliwack.
“I like to be a high-energy player . . . to get the boys going and stuff like that,” Souto said. “I thought I played pretty well. You can always be better but I didn’t think I did that bad.”
Souto had been a healthy scratch Friday, missing the Blazers’ season-opening 5-2 victory over the visiting Prince George Cougars.
“He competes and has a passion for the game,” Kamloops head coach Guy Charron said of Souto.. “Now he needs to learn the game.”
Souto said he found Saturday’s game to be “really fast-paced and lots of fun.”
“There were,” he added, “a lot of big boys out there, too.”
But Souto, like so many Davids before him, found out that, indeed, the bigger they are, the harder they fall.
———
The Blazers had three players miss practice yesterday.
D Josh Caron (broken collarbone) won’t need surgery but will be out for up to two months.
Caron, 19, was injured during the second period of Saturday’s game, but wasn’t aware of the seriousness of the injury and tried to play in the third. He left after one shift, doubled over in pain, following a light bump in the neutral zone.
“He’s in pain,” Charron said. “They don’t immobilize it. The problem is the muscles around it. But once it heals, it heals well. He’s young and the bones knit together really well.”
D Corey Fienhage, who arrived back from the Buffalo Sabres on Sunday night, was sore from blocking a shot during the NHL team’s camp so was given the day off.
Charron also indicated that he is prepared to cut the team’s pro campers some slack for a day to two.
“When they come back,” Charron said, “emotionally, they’re drained. We only had four defencemen for practice but (I decided) maybe a day off would be better value.”
All Charron asked was that Fienhage “watch practice and realize what we’re trying to do.”
RW Jordan DePape (shoulder) was held out strictly as a precautionary measure. He is expected to be back on skates today or Wednesday and is scheduled to play in both weekend games.
“It’s a muscle thing and he would only aggravate it by practising,” Charron said.
JUST NOTES: The Blazers next play at home on Oct. 6 when the Spokane Chiefs are in town. . . . D Brandon Underwood was back practising after missing the Blazers’ first two games with a concussion incurred Sept. 18. . . . Charron said that, depending on how practice goes this week, he plans on starting G Jon Groenheyde on Friday in Everett, with G Jeff Bosch to make his Blazers debut Saturday in Chilliwack. Bosch was acquired from the Moose Jaw Warriors on Sept. 17 but has been slowed by a sprained ankle. . . . The Blazers made scoring changes to two Friday goals. The first goal, originally credited to Dylan Willick, has been credited to Linden Saip, with assists to Colin Smith and DePape. As well, Austin Madaisky has been given an assist on Brendan Ranford’s goal, the Blazers’ fourth of the game. . . . Former Blazers captain Jared Aulin was released from his tryout with the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers on Monday. He has been offered a tryout with Edmonton’s AHL affiliate, the Oklahoma City Barons. . . . D Brendon Nash of Kamloops, who had a goal and an assist for the Montreal Canadiens in an NHL exhibition game on Sunday night, has been assigned to the AHL’s Hamilton Bulldogs.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
gdrinnan.blogspot.com
Taking Note on Twitter
Daily News Sports Editor
The WHL game was into its last minute Saturday night at Interior Savings Centre, the Kamloops Blazers were losing 5-2, and Chase Souto didn’t know who it was who had just slashed him.
“No, I didn’t. I dropped my gloves and went ‘oh-oh!’ ” the Kamloops Blazers’ freshman right winger said after Monday’s practice at Interior Savings Centre.
The whacker turned out to be Chilliwack defenceman Zach Habscheid, whom the Bruins list at 6-foot-4 and 205 pounds. (Yes, he is the son of Marc Habscheid, the Bruins’ general manager and head coach.)
The 5-foot-10, 165-pound Souto, who won’t turn 16 until Oct. 8, poked Habscheid, 18, with one right hand and then reloaded and drilled him with a straight right to the jaw. Habscheid went down as though he was a heavy bag and the chain holding it up had been cut.
Habscheid likely woke up Sunday with a headache. Souto was left with a sore thumb.
Souto, a fifth-round pick in the 2009 bantam draft, is from Yorba Linda, Calif. He arrived in the Blazers’ camp prepared to do anything to stay, and now that he is on the roster he wants to continue with that approach.
At his size, it’s not like he’s a scrapper, but he is scrappy.
“We weren’t allowed to fight in my league but I did a couple of times,” he said, when asked about his ring record last season.
So what happened Saturday?
“They were having guys kind of run us all game and they were beating us in our own barn,” Souto explained. “I just wanted to send a message for Saturday when we play them again.”
The Blazers open a two-game swing Friday in Everett against the Silvertips. Whether Souto plays in that game has yet to be decided, but you can bet he will be in the Kamloops lineup for the rematch with the Bruins on Saturday in Chilliwack.
“I like to be a high-energy player . . . to get the boys going and stuff like that,” Souto said. “I thought I played pretty well. You can always be better but I didn’t think I did that bad.”
Souto had been a healthy scratch Friday, missing the Blazers’ season-opening 5-2 victory over the visiting Prince George Cougars.
“He competes and has a passion for the game,” Kamloops head coach Guy Charron said of Souto.. “Now he needs to learn the game.”
Souto said he found Saturday’s game to be “really fast-paced and lots of fun.”
“There were,” he added, “a lot of big boys out there, too.”
But Souto, like so many Davids before him, found out that, indeed, the bigger they are, the harder they fall.
———
The Blazers had three players miss practice yesterday.
D Josh Caron (broken collarbone) won’t need surgery but will be out for up to two months.
Caron, 19, was injured during the second period of Saturday’s game, but wasn’t aware of the seriousness of the injury and tried to play in the third. He left after one shift, doubled over in pain, following a light bump in the neutral zone.
“He’s in pain,” Charron said. “They don’t immobilize it. The problem is the muscles around it. But once it heals, it heals well. He’s young and the bones knit together really well.”
D Corey Fienhage, who arrived back from the Buffalo Sabres on Sunday night, was sore from blocking a shot during the NHL team’s camp so was given the day off.
Charron also indicated that he is prepared to cut the team’s pro campers some slack for a day to two.
“When they come back,” Charron said, “emotionally, they’re drained. We only had four defencemen for practice but (I decided) maybe a day off would be better value.”
All Charron asked was that Fienhage “watch practice and realize what we’re trying to do.”
RW Jordan DePape (shoulder) was held out strictly as a precautionary measure. He is expected to be back on skates today or Wednesday and is scheduled to play in both weekend games.
“It’s a muscle thing and he would only aggravate it by practising,” Charron said.
JUST NOTES: The Blazers next play at home on Oct. 6 when the Spokane Chiefs are in town. . . . D Brandon Underwood was back practising after missing the Blazers’ first two games with a concussion incurred Sept. 18. . . . Charron said that, depending on how practice goes this week, he plans on starting G Jon Groenheyde on Friday in Everett, with G Jeff Bosch to make his Blazers debut Saturday in Chilliwack. Bosch was acquired from the Moose Jaw Warriors on Sept. 17 but has been slowed by a sprained ankle. . . . The Blazers made scoring changes to two Friday goals. The first goal, originally credited to Dylan Willick, has been credited to Linden Saip, with assists to Colin Smith and DePape. As well, Austin Madaisky has been given an assist on Brendan Ranford’s goal, the Blazers’ fourth of the game. . . . Former Blazers captain Jared Aulin was released from his tryout with the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers on Monday. He has been offered a tryout with Edmonton’s AHL affiliate, the Oklahoma City Barons. . . . D Brendon Nash of Kamloops, who had a goal and an assist for the Montreal Canadiens in an NHL exhibition game on Sunday night, has been assigned to the AHL’s Hamilton Bulldogs.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
gdrinnan.blogspot.com
Taking Note on Twitter
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Keeping Score
It must be spring break in Alberta. How else do you explain all the hockey fans in Phoenix these days? . . . Headline in the Buffalo News after a late-season game: Sabres are lemons in front of Lalime. . . . After his one-punch kayo of Pittsburgh Penguins forward Matt Cooke last week, it is doubtful that Atlanta Thrashers forward Evander Kane will ever have to pay for another meal while in the company of NHL players. . . . Defenceman Brendon Nash of Kamloops wrapped up his college hockey career with the Cornell Big Red by being named a Reebok Division I All-American. Nash, a second-teamer last season as a junior, was named to the ECAC Hockey first all-star team. Nash, who graduates next month with a degree in applied economics and management, signed with the NHL’s Montreal Canadiens when his season ended and now is with the AHL’s Hamilton Bulldogs. . . . Hamilton is taking on the Manitoba Moose in a first-round playoff series. . . .
After a TMZ report that Tiger Woods paid Rachel Uchitel (aka Mistress No. 1) a cool US$10 million to keep quiet, Ian Hamilton of the Regina Leader-Post noted: “In golf terms, Uchitel now has a lot of green to work with.” . . . After Italy’s Matteo Manassero, 16, became the youngest player in Masters history, Greg Connors of the Buffalo News wrote: “That means there are only two golfers in the field whose families check to see they’re in bed by 11: Matteo and Tiger.” . . . What’s this? Tiger was heard cursing during the Masters? And you thought Billy Payne and his good ol’ boys could change the stripes on a tiger. . . . John Garrity, at SI.com: “The Phil people are delirious. The Tiger people are devastated. The good guy, a green jacket draped comfortably over his open-collared polo, addresses an adoring crowd at sunset. The bad boy, who was last seen walking past the clubhouse in his no-longer-bulletproof red victory shirt, heads for home (wherever that is) to the yawns of a surfeited tabloid press.”
Jay Mariotti, at FanHouse: “We thank the gods for intervening and back-burnering our long National (Enquirer) nightmare, replacing it with a historic sequence of golf shots from a man who deserves your love. Enough with Tiger Woods, his potty mouth and his revealing return to earth, a third-round wobble accompanied by bursts of needless profanity that violated his proper-decorum oath and confirmed he’s still a fraud.” . . .
Greg Cote of the Miami Herald didn’t have a good weekend. “Sad news,” he reported. “Heat Dancers were eliminated by the Charlotte Lady Cats in the semifinals in their bid for a fifth NBA dance-team championship. Analysts said the Miami women excelled in gyration and augmentation but disappointed on the pelvic thrust.” . . . Janice Hough, the Left Coast Sports Babe, wonders: “Which black leader now has a bigger mess to try to clean up in Washington — Barack Obama or Donovan McNabb?” . . . When the Chicago White Sox staged their home opener last week, they had four Chicago Blackhawks skaters — American Patrick Kane and Canadians Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook and Jonathan Toews — on hand to throw out ceremonial first pitches. Later, the Chicago Sun-Times asked who fared the best, with Seabrook replying: “It’s rough throwing a ball when you have a gold medal around your neck.” . . .
One would hope that Fred Pittendreigh and the KIJHL executives feel at least some embarrassment for the manner in which they stiffed the fine folks of Chase. According to league president Bill Ohlhausen, Pittendreigh told the KIJHL sometime prior to Nov. 1 that he intended to move the Chiefs. That means the league and its governors sat on the news for months, while the Chase fans purchased tickets, billeted players and bought advertising. . . . As one KIJHL exec told me this week: “It’s an absolute travesty the way everything happened. It just stinks and reeks of under-the-carpet stuff that I have never seen before. It’s a Mickey Mouse league when things like that are allowed to happen. You’ve got the people of Chase sitting there wondering, ‘What just happened?’ It’s an absolute joke.” . . . Yes, it is. . . . After USA Today reported that the highest payrolls in Major League Baseball belong to the New York Yankees (US$206.3 million), Boston Red Sox ($162.4 million) and Chicago Cubs ($146.6 million), Reggie Hayes of the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel noted: “Spending obviously works. All three of those teams have won championships in the last 102 years.” . . .
Let’s be honest here. Loose change only serves to wear holes in your pockets or get lost in the bottom of your purse. So what a great idea to have people placed throughout our city who want only to relieve you of that loose change. They’re in parking lots, they’re standing outside of stores, they’re on various medians. Hey, is this a great city, or what? . . . Non-premium seats for Chicago Cubs’ games at Wrigley Field now carry an average price tag of US$52.56, the most expensive in Major League Baseball. . . . The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette headlined the story: Cubs win! . . . The Vancouver Sun went with: One is born each minute, and they have Cubs tickets. . . .
Mark Recchi, who owns a chunk of the Kamloops Blazers, is the Boston Bruins’ nominee for the Masterton Trophy, the NHL award that honours the player who “best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey.” Recchi, 42, is wrapping up his 21st season as an NHL player. Don’t be surprised if he hangs around for yet another season. . . . Look for former Blazers goaltender Justin Leclerc to end up going to McGill U in Montreal. Folks from McGill were in attendance at two 1-0 overtime games as Leclerc’s Saints were swept from the MJHL final by the Dauphin Kings. Leclerc is in Montreal this weekend. . . . The fine for talking on a cellphone while driving is $167. Don’t you wish the RCMP would allow you to write tickets and keep, say, 50 per cent of the proceeds?
Gregg Drinnan is sports editor of The Daily News. Email him at gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca, or visit his blog at gdrinnan.blogspot.com. Keeping Score appears Saturdays.
After a TMZ report that Tiger Woods paid Rachel Uchitel (aka Mistress No. 1) a cool US$10 million to keep quiet, Ian Hamilton of the Regina Leader-Post noted: “In golf terms, Uchitel now has a lot of green to work with.” . . . After Italy’s Matteo Manassero, 16, became the youngest player in Masters history, Greg Connors of the Buffalo News wrote: “That means there are only two golfers in the field whose families check to see they’re in bed by 11: Matteo and Tiger.” . . . What’s this? Tiger was heard cursing during the Masters? And you thought Billy Payne and his good ol’ boys could change the stripes on a tiger. . . . John Garrity, at SI.com: “The Phil people are delirious. The Tiger people are devastated. The good guy, a green jacket draped comfortably over his open-collared polo, addresses an adoring crowd at sunset. The bad boy, who was last seen walking past the clubhouse in his no-longer-bulletproof red victory shirt, heads for home (wherever that is) to the yawns of a surfeited tabloid press.”
Jay Mariotti, at FanHouse: “We thank the gods for intervening and back-burnering our long National (Enquirer) nightmare, replacing it with a historic sequence of golf shots from a man who deserves your love. Enough with Tiger Woods, his potty mouth and his revealing return to earth, a third-round wobble accompanied by bursts of needless profanity that violated his proper-decorum oath and confirmed he’s still a fraud.” . . .
Greg Cote of the Miami Herald didn’t have a good weekend. “Sad news,” he reported. “Heat Dancers were eliminated by the Charlotte Lady Cats in the semifinals in their bid for a fifth NBA dance-team championship. Analysts said the Miami women excelled in gyration and augmentation but disappointed on the pelvic thrust.” . . . Janice Hough, the Left Coast Sports Babe, wonders: “Which black leader now has a bigger mess to try to clean up in Washington — Barack Obama or Donovan McNabb?” . . . When the Chicago White Sox staged their home opener last week, they had four Chicago Blackhawks skaters — American Patrick Kane and Canadians Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook and Jonathan Toews — on hand to throw out ceremonial first pitches. Later, the Chicago Sun-Times asked who fared the best, with Seabrook replying: “It’s rough throwing a ball when you have a gold medal around your neck.” . . .
One would hope that Fred Pittendreigh and the KIJHL executives feel at least some embarrassment for the manner in which they stiffed the fine folks of Chase. According to league president Bill Ohlhausen, Pittendreigh told the KIJHL sometime prior to Nov. 1 that he intended to move the Chiefs. That means the league and its governors sat on the news for months, while the Chase fans purchased tickets, billeted players and bought advertising. . . . As one KIJHL exec told me this week: “It’s an absolute travesty the way everything happened. It just stinks and reeks of under-the-carpet stuff that I have never seen before. It’s a Mickey Mouse league when things like that are allowed to happen. You’ve got the people of Chase sitting there wondering, ‘What just happened?’ It’s an absolute joke.” . . . Yes, it is. . . . After USA Today reported that the highest payrolls in Major League Baseball belong to the New York Yankees (US$206.3 million), Boston Red Sox ($162.4 million) and Chicago Cubs ($146.6 million), Reggie Hayes of the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel noted: “Spending obviously works. All three of those teams have won championships in the last 102 years.” . . .
Let’s be honest here. Loose change only serves to wear holes in your pockets or get lost in the bottom of your purse. So what a great idea to have people placed throughout our city who want only to relieve you of that loose change. They’re in parking lots, they’re standing outside of stores, they’re on various medians. Hey, is this a great city, or what? . . . Non-premium seats for Chicago Cubs’ games at Wrigley Field now carry an average price tag of US$52.56, the most expensive in Major League Baseball. . . . The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette headlined the story: Cubs win! . . . The Vancouver Sun went with: One is born each minute, and they have Cubs tickets. . . .
Mark Recchi, who owns a chunk of the Kamloops Blazers, is the Boston Bruins’ nominee for the Masterton Trophy, the NHL award that honours the player who “best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey.” Recchi, 42, is wrapping up his 21st season as an NHL player. Don’t be surprised if he hangs around for yet another season. . . . Look for former Blazers goaltender Justin Leclerc to end up going to McGill U in Montreal. Folks from McGill were in attendance at two 1-0 overtime games as Leclerc’s Saints were swept from the MJHL final by the Dauphin Kings. Leclerc is in Montreal this weekend. . . . The fine for talking on a cellphone while driving is $167. Don’t you wish the RCMP would allow you to write tickets and keep, say, 50 per cent of the proceeds?
Gregg Drinnan is sports editor of The Daily News. Email him at gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca, or visit his blog at gdrinnan.blogspot.com. Keeping Score appears Saturdays.
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