I'm just getting ready for bed and gearing up for the morning show tomorrow. A few quick notes to hammer through, though.
- Swan Hills native Leland Irving and the Abbotsford Heat missed the playoffs. The west division's 5th seed crossed over to take the 4th spot in the north division, thus, sending Leland's career year into an early exit. They finished the season with 86 points. The Oilers farm team, the Oklahoma City Oil Barons squeaked in with 91. And now, they will get even better since they get their entire roster back with the NHL season in the books (LOL)......Leland finished the year with a league best 8 shutouts, a 2.30 GAA, a .913 save percentage, was 30-24-2 on a team that was 38-32-10.
- The Keystone Cup for the Western National Junior B Championships begins on Thursday in Sherwood Park. The Blackfalds Wranglers are the Alberta reps. This will be their first visit to the dance since moving from Lacombe. The Lacombe Wranglers won the provincials in 2007, but did not pick up a medal in westerns. The hosts are the Knights. The Saskatchewan team is the Pilot Butte Storm from the Prairie Junior Hockey League. From Manitoba, its the Arborg Ice Dawgs from the Keystone Junior League. The Peninsula Panthers from the Vancouver Island Junior League will be the reps. Revelstoke from the KIJHL won last year, and the past 2 reps have been from the PIJHL. The Thunder Bay Northern Hawks will make the trip again, for the 3rd straight year. The first time 3 years ago, they made it as the hosts. The tournament runs from Thursday to Sunday in Sherwood Park. Sherwood Park were the last Alberta winners in 2008. Saskatchewan has won the most Keystone cups at 10, with Alberta 2nd at 8.
- The NHL draft lottery was tonight, and the Devils were the surprising winners jumping up to 4th, which guaranteed the Oilers the top pick. The lowest they could have fallen down was to 2nd spot. Do they keep the pick? Do they trade? Take Nugent-Hopkins, Larssen or Landeskog? In my opinion, you take Larssen. A good, strong, puck moving defenseman. And if you take Nuge, then I wouldn't be surprised if they make a trade. I have not been quiet about this. They need to move Hemsky. He is awful and injury proned. A good compliment player on a very good team, but a joke of a guy to build a team around. His muffin soft shoulders have crumbled with injuries. A lot of NHL teams would pay a good price to get a Hemsky, including the very naive Toronto Maple Laughs. But, then again, what assets do you get in return? Kessel? No thanks. But I wouldn't be surprised if the Oil use Nuge as trade bait, if they do take him.
- Playoffs officially begin tomorrow night. I will run through my predictions when I get home from work tomorrow. We did our draft at work on Monday, and if you haven't got into one, here is a great suggestion. You still have time. Grab 7 other friends. This only works with 8 guys. No more, and no less:
Put the names into a hat. Draw 1-8. Get a piece of paper. Write 1 to 16 down along the columns. Each guy picks a team. Whoever picks 1st, also picks 16th. 2nd, will pick 15th. And so on. Until each guy has 2 teams. Put money into the pot, if you choose. And voila. A poor man's hockey pool.
- Oh, and I finished 4th in my hockey draft out of 9 guys. Only 6 points back of 3rd. Not too bad. I had 5 injuries in the last week, and managed to hold off the pack. Ryan Callahan, Anze Kopitar, Rick Nash, Paul Stastny and JM Liles all got injured within the stretch of 10 days, and it was past our roster movement deadline. #fail. Thank God for Corey Perry and Alex Tanguay who kept me alive.
That's it for now. Oh, I should say I drew 8th and 9th in the team draft and came out with Tampa and Buffalo. Not that bad. However, I may kick myself at this. Anaheim went 10th. I had a crack at them, and passed. Yeah, what was I thinking. I don't know. I'm banking on Ryan Miller getting extremely hot over the next few weeks (fingers crossed.)
Comments? dave@xm105.com
