The Western Hockey League is ¾ of the way through their
2012/2013 regular season schedule. Throughout this particular campaign, the
league has been mirrored in controversy (see the Portland Winterhawks
recruiting violation post from about two months ago) ,poor attendance in
markets like Regina and the ever prospering Prince George among others, but
through thick and thin it has been another quality year in terms of the on ice
product. Entailed in this post will be a few thoughts I have picked up
throughout the season.
Ryan McGill, if not the favourite, has to be on a short list
of about two to three for the WHL’s coach of the year. The head coach of the
Kootenay Ice has done a remarkable job turning around this team from it’s
dismal start to being on the cusp of a playoff position. At one point from late
October to mid November, the Ice found
themselves clinging to a seven game skid. To make matters worse, shortly before
Christmas, respected captain and Rockglen, Saskatchewan native Drew Czerwonka
decided to leave the pastures of Cranbrook to explore educational
opportunities. The post Czerwonka era has been one of puzzlement. Sam Reinhart
has now started to show the ability that most scouts knew he had which has made
him a top candidate for the first overall pick in the 2014 National Hockey
League draft and has taken complete reigns of the hockey team and led them to
circumstance where NO team will want to draw the Ice in the first round if they
so happen to make the dance. The Ice play a stifling brand of defence led by
overager Joey Leach and Mackenzie Skapski has finally debuted himself as a
capable goalie In this league.
Will the real Kamloops Blazers please stand up? This team,
solely based on performance can be labelled as team of multiple personalities.
Which team from the Loops will we see next? The team that in September and
October that literally every time they touched the puck it found the back of
the net, or the team in November and December that appeared to be more along
the lines of a middle of the pack Western conference contender? There are some theories to why they have had
such a rollercoaster year. At the time of their skid, they had just lost
forward J.C Lipon to a World Junior Hockey Championship assignment and it’s
possible that the chemistry that was formed between the aforementioned Lipon
and Colorado Avalanche prospect Colin Smith was thrown out the window. When J.C
came back, for whatever reason the swagger was gone and all of a sudden this
team looked very ordinary which is surprising because they made a couple of
nice pre deadline pickups. Those pickups were defenceman Joel Edmundson from
the Moose Jaw Warriors and Kale Kessy from the Medicine Hat Tigers. The pre-cursor to all of this is that the
Blazers have recently started to “Blaze” the competition once again and
ironically enough in the last two weeks or so Lipon and Smith have once again
started to run haywire. The interesting thing to observe will be if Kamloops
can truly compete with Western Conference powerhouses Kelowna and Portland.
So earlier this year there were some unprofounded rumours
that if the Saskatoon Blades continued to play inconsistently that they would
lose the rights as the host team in the upcoming Memorial cup. As evidenced by
no future substantiating reports, all of this chatter was, as the great Sheldon
Cooper would say were” largely hokum”. The Blades no doubt have some holes that
will probably prevent them from being serious players when it comes time to
battling in the Western playoffs, but by no means is it not possible from
them to get scorching hot in May and win
the whole damn thing. The one perplexing thing about the Blades plan of attack
at the trade deadline was their inability to land that marquee player that most
host teams are able to secure. You look at the acquisitions that GM Lorne Molleken
was able to lock-down and aside from maybe former Brandon Wheat King Michael
Ferland, who I would label a ‘B’ prospect, they didn’t get anything that would
blow your socks off. Evaluation of assets for the Blades has also been an issue
as giving up first round picks for perennial third line players such as Collin
Valcourt and Nathan Burns were questionable overpayments. In Valcourt’s
personal instance, is someone who’s career high in goals is 16 first round pick
worthy? Don’t completely rule out the Blades, but in all honesty I think the
Houston Astros have a better chance winning the 2013 World Series than Toon Town
does of winning the Western Hockey League.
The way the Portland Winterhawks have been rolling, specifically
seventeen year old Nicholas Petan, he is most certainly in Most Valuable player
discussion, looking to become the first seventeen to win the award since Joe
Sakic was awarded co MVP in 1986-1987. To join Sakic in that class would be
quite the achievement for the draft eligible Petan who going into this season wasn’t
even Portland’s most talked about prospect…..who I am kidding, he still isn’t
but he’s having a great year and has been Portland’s most effective sniper
through and through. Though it would be a great story for the young Petan to be
recognized for such a prestigious honour but he actually isn’t my prediction
for the award. My pick belongs to Swift Current Bronco Adam Lowry. The son of
former NHL’er and current Victoria Royal head coach Dave Lowry has been the
heart and soul of Speedy Creek and for a team that I wasn’t sold on going into
this campaign, he has worn the superman cape and carried this team on his back.
It’ll be interesting to see what decision making process the voters take on
this because by no means will Lowry end up with the most points but the award
in it’s definition is given to the player that is most valuable to his team.
Lowry doesn’t have the supporting cast of a Ty Rattie, Brendan Leipsic, Seth Jones
and Tyler Wotherspoon like Petan does, and because of this he’s been solely instrumental
in helping the Bronco’s become the feel good story of this season. In my
pre-season projections, I had the Broncos anywhere from 9th-12th
in the east, but now they are in position to take over top spot over the
slumping Prince Albert Raiders in the eastern division. So just to confirm this
for you readers, even though my praise for Petan was obvious in the opening of
this paragraph, I’m speculating barring anything crazy that Petan will be named
a finalist eventually bowing down to big #17 from SC.
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