Meaning that its Monday, and I'm on holidays!
- A bit of a surprise, but the Blackfalds Wranglers won the Western National Junior B Championships last night. The Heritage League champs beat the host Sherwood Park Crusaders 2-1 in the gold medal game for the Keystone Cup. Wolverine fans would remember Blackfalds as the team they smoked 9-4 in the provincials. The same game, where Jordan Panasiuk made a HUGE save off of sniper Kyle Maas in a breakaway at the start of the 3rd period, which would have made it 4-3. Instead, the Wolverines scored 4 goals in 1:49 to make it 8-2. I texted Shawn Gervais to give him the news last night. His reply: "Wow, we were that close."
- Watched a few hours of the playoffs last night. I didn't get a chance to see the Raffi Torres hit until late last night on Sportscenter. Its too bad that he will likely get suspended for at least 5 games. His first game back from suspension, and now he hits Seabrook. I may be using a slight bias on this since the Canucks are my team. But here is my view. Seabrook had a severe case of A.D.D. on the play. He wouldn't take his eyes off the puck as he followed it around the boards. Torres fully expected him to put his head up and ram him into next week. I'm a total supporter of eliminating head shots in the game, but now we are taking the "big hits" out of the game. And a D man like Brent Seabrook should know better than to hang his head to the ice in a vulnerable position behind the net. Should Torres be suspended? Ya, for maybe a game. But again, wrong hit and wrong time. If that was a knee on knee hit, he gets 1 game or maybe 2. But a head shot in THIS day and age? He is toast. Too bad.
- Elias Lachance's funeral has been officially announced. It will be Thursday at 1pm at the McKenzie center in Drayton Valley. The family has requested for no more food to be dropped off at their house. I chatted with the Kennedy family yesterday, and the basement is full of food. The Wolverines will be arriving at the funeral in the team bus. Still can't believe it.
I will be in Saskatoon until Wednesday, then driving back to spend the weekend back in Whitecourt.
