A big Hitmen comeback, and other notes

Kenton Helgeson (centre) battles with Troy Murray in front of the Kootenay net during Calgary’s 6-4 come-from-behind win Saturday. Photo from Hitmenhockey.com

Last week was another busy one in the junior hockey world. On top of a pair of road games for the Calgary Hitmen, Hockey Canada released their rosters for the upcoming U-17 Challenge, the Hitmen made a minor trade, and then the Hitmen came home to face off against the Kootenay Ice in a wild one.

Let’s start with the U-17 rosters. Gone are the five Canadian teams of the old days. Canada will now send three squads, each filled with players from all over the country. This seems to be a wise move, as it’ll get players out of their comfort zones a little more, and provide stronger Canadian squads at the tourney.

Two Hitmen players, defenceman Jake Bean and forward Beck Malenstyn, were named to the squads, which for now can act as a very early watch list for the 2016 NHL Draft.

But let’s bring 2015 back into focus. The Hitmen have had a rocky start to the season, which is to be expected with such a disrupted camp, a new coach, and key graduations. And after their loss in Lethbridge last week, the back-to-back games in Edmonton and against the Ice were a bit of a worry for some fans.

The boys acquitted themselves well though, with a pair of wins–a 2-1 nailbiter in Edmonton and 6-4 comeback at home. Although he has held off the scoresheet, Terrell Draude turned in one of the most impressive performances of his young career. During the home opener, Draude looked lost most of the game. But he was better in Calgary’s second home game, piled up four points in their third, and started looking like the player everyone hopes a kid with Draude’s size can be in the win over Kootenay.

In just two weeks, his skating is better, and his decision making is a complete 180 from where it was in the opener. He finally looks comfortable out there. He may still be a little under the radar, but if he plays for the rest of the season the way he did Saturday night, he could climb into the top 100 picks.

From the Kootenay side, get to know the name Cale Fleury. He’s not eligible until the 2017 Draft, which is crazy to be thinking about already. But he’s already getting first-unit power play work from the blue line, finished the night with two assists, and was out there late in the game when Kootenay was pressing to tie.

Among drafted players, Hitmen forward Greg Chase is in the mix for a spot on this year’s World Junior team. He’s a vastly-improved player from the player we saw last season. His puck control really stands out now. He’s listed at 6′ (which is believable), but has shown the reach of a player two or three inches taller. His shot’s improved, he still passes too much, and his defensive game is still very strong. There’s a lot for the Hockey Canada brass to love.

There’s also the part where he was benched for most of the third period after a sequence in which he took a too-long shift, nearly scored on his own goal because of a careless turn in his own end, then took his frustration out of a Kootenay player after the whistle, leading to a penalty against Pavel Karnaukhov who came to his aid. He had the best seat in the house to see Calgary’s four third-period goals. This stuff is part of his game, but he’ll need to show he can tone it down if he wants to make the WJC squad. Hockey Canada won’t want to bring a guy who may find himself stapled to the bench like this.

Up next for the good guys: familiar foes. Former head coach Dave Lowry and his Victoria Royals are in town Friday night. Sunday afternoon, the Hitmen host pre-season East Division favourites (and my favourite rival) Brandon. In non-Hitmen news, we’ll learn whether Red Deer or Vancouver will host the 2016 Memorial Cup. Either city is fine by me. Red Deer is home to Canada’s best donuts at the Donut Mill, and Vancouver is Vancouver.

Hockey Canada’s lesson

By now, if you follow the World Juniors, you’ve seen Brent Sutter’s quote above. You’ve probably read or heard echoed sentiments and counter-arguments. To me, he starts on a high note. His belief that winning and losing are too important at grassroots levels is bang on. In fact, I’d argue it goes even further up the chain from grassroots to major midget to major junior and into the pro leagues.

But it sure rings hollow when Sutter starts to lament a lack of skill in Canadian players. Sutter, in concert with Hockey Canada’s leadership, decided against holding a 40-player camp with a full tryout process. Sutter, along with Hockey Canada, decided the highly-skilled Darnell Nurse was too risky a player to bring. Same for Max Domi. And Hunter Shinkaruk.

Those guys were left home over the holidays in favour of players with safer games, players with “intangibles” and “character.” Nurse, who was thought unable to play a team game sat at home watching Jonathan Drouin go one-on-five nearly every shift.

Despite numerous errors in the way this team was assembled and coached, Canada had an opportunity to play for a medal thanks to the skill this team had.

But there are two potential silver linings to come from this.

One: here’s hoping Hockey Canada will stop turning to Sutter every time they need a win. In this age group, and over the course of seven games, coaching matters. Good coaches stop Drouin’s one-man-gang approach. A good coach keeps the McDavid-Reinhart-Horvat line together. A good coach makes the simple adjustment to offensive zone faceoff alignments to have a defenseman lined up closer to the centre when the centres are winning draws so cleanly the puck ends up back in the Canadian end.

Two: Hockey Canada got a really good view of what happens when you try to build the right team with the right guys in the right roles instead of sending the 25 best players. With any luck, Steve Yzerman and co. took notice and tomorrow’s Olympic team roster announcement will reflect what we should all have learned over the holidays.

Prospects everywhere

Disclaimer: Talkin’ prospects and talkin’ the Draft don’t actually count as talkin’ NHL. Thus, today’s post doesn’t circumvent my Idiots Hockey League blackout. On to the prospects.

I gotta tell you folks, I had such a great time watching the World Junior Championship. From start to finish, the event was well-run (save for one major ATM snafu on the second or third day), the games were anywhere from “well, live hockey is better than another night on the sofa trying to avoid syndicated episodes of Two and a Half Men” to “OMG I STILL CAN’T BREATHE AND THAT GAME WAS THREE DAYS AGO!” And today, the draft rankings are out, so I can go through and pick out some of the guys on the draft board you should be excited to see your team draft.

The top 10 North American skaters are only going to get one paragraph, because TSN has two guys that update draft rankings now, and you’re going to hear a lot about these 10 kids over the next six months. Here’s what you need to know: Nail Yakupov is number one. Some folks may try to convince you this is another Patrick Kane/James van Riemsdyk/Kyle Turris debate draft, it’s not. Yakupov is the guy. He’s not as complete a player a Mikhail Grigorenko [Steve’s note: for some reason, my brain refuses to realize this is Mikhail Grigorenko, and not former Detroit prospect Andrei, and I accidentally had the wrong first name here in the original post. Sorry, fixed.] (2) is, but you can find complete players in the third round (Brad Marchand and Cal Clutterbuck from 2006 are good examples), you don’t need to take them first overall when a more dynamic option is available. Yakupov is electrifying. Grigorenko is not. He’s the complete package, but he’s not going to sell tickets the way Yakupov will. Five WHL defensemen make the top 10. Nice work, Dub. All four of the OHL and QMJHL players are imports. That speaks volumes to the kind of talent Ontario and Quebec are developing right now. Time to step it up again, eastern Canada (more on this later in the week).

Two names that jump out at me from outside the top 10 are Codi Ceci (16) and Phillip Di Giuseppe (28). You’ve seen those names in this space. At different points during Team Canada’s WJC Selection Camp, I thought both of those guys were good enough to be part of the team. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a team jump on one or both of these guys early. Lots to like in both of them, although they’re both going to need some time before they make the jump.

Tanner Pearson (22) was pretty good for Canada at the WJC, but if your team drafts him in the first round, go look up Danny Syvret and see just how well that’s worked out. I think Pearson can be a good player, but I wouldn’t be excited to draft him in the first round.

Zemgus Girgensons (12) is a name they’ll have fits with on draft day, and this crafty Latvian may give your team fits for a long time. He’s not pro-ready for a while still, but the WJC was a good measuring stick for him and he played very well. I assume whichever team drafts him, they’ll bring him over to the CHL next season, and you should be excited if he’s playing in your local CHL rink. Very talented player with lots of room to grow and put it all together.

Tanner Richard (58) was Switzerland’s best forward at the WJC. He’d make a nice late-round selection, but he’s going to have to do just a little more with his game if he wants to go pro.

The lone Calgary Hitmen checking in for the North American skaters is Jaynen Rissling, a towering defender coming in at 165. Riss had a very promising future when he first came to the Hitmen (this is his third season with the team), and his game has started to really progress through the middle third of this season after kind of stagnating last. He can’t much skate, and at 165 among North American skaters, is something of a long shot to get the call on draft day. If his second half is as strong as his November and December were, it stands to reason he’ll be able to improve his ranking some.

Among European skaters, there’s lots to like. Two WJC gold medalists top the list: Filip Forsberg (no relation to Peter) and Sebastien Collberg are one and two. Forsberg wasn’t quite as noticeable to me during the WJC as Collberg was. It seemed any time the Swedes had a big play developing, Collberg was part of it. He played on a line with Mika Zibanejad for most of the tournament, and was able to stand out. Collberg should be a top-10 pick, and if I were a GM, I’d be ecstatic to get him in the latter half of the first round.

Nikita Gusev (18) comes with some of the same warning signs as Syvret and Pearson above. Gusev has incredible passing and I did spend most of the tournament in disbelief that he’d not yet been drafted. He was perfect for the Russian’s system, though there’s no guarantees that translates to the pro game.

Spots 35-37 are taken up by Swiss WJCers. Christoph Bertschy, Joel Vermin and Dean Kukan all made names for themselves in different ways. Bertschy was the third man on the line with Richard and Vermin. They were the best Swiss line and all took turns scoring in bunches. The things I said about Richard also apply to these two guys. Kukan on the other hand, could be the next Mark Streit. If I could grab him in the third or fourth round, and let him develop as a slick puck-moving, power play-quarterbacking defenseman, I’d be very happy. He won’t be a Henrik Zetterberg-level late-round sleeper, but there’s a role for him in the league and he can fill it with a little work.

Richard Mraz (67) had a knack for the big play for the Slovaks. He played with Tomas Jurco most of the tournament though, so I’m not sure how much was Mraz and how much was Jurco. Either way, he’s a guy worth keeping an eye on. I’m surprised to see Roberts Lipsbergs all the way down at 84. He’s a dynamic player with great offensive potential. He may be allergic to his own blue line, but that’s a niche some guys can fill. Nikita Jevpalovs (86) was another Latvian I liked, and he often played with Lipsbergs. That said, even I wouldn’t use a draft pick on Jevpalovs. He’s a sign-him-later kind of prospect.

For the goaltenders, there’s only a couple of note. Both Russian WJC goalies are eligible. Andrey Makarov is the eighth-rated North American goalie and Andrei Vasilevski is, obviously, the top-rated European goalie. Calgary Hitmen goalie Chris Driedger is 12th among North American goalies. Driedger looked like the savior for the Hitmen coming into this season, and played well in his first few starts after returning from injury. But inconsistency has plagued him and he’s lost the starting gig to Brandon Glover. Don’t expect many goalies to fly off the board in the first round of this draft. Someone will jump (perhaps foolishly) at Vasilevski too early, ditto for Makarov, based on their WJC performances.

All told, we’re still six months away from the draft, and a lot can change between now and then. In the interim, keep an eye out for the CHL Home Hardware Top Prospects Game (you may know it casually as the Team Cherry vs Team Orr game) on Feb 1, I think, on Sportsnet for sure. You’ll see some of these guys there and you can get a look at hockey’s future greats.

Then come back in June and stomp all over my mock draft.

Final Team Canada roster guess

I have to say, that was a fun game. I’m just in from the final game of Team Canada’s selection camp, against a team of CIS All-Stars.

Let’s start with the good news. First, we got to see Tyler Fiddler playing for CIS All-Stars. In true Fiddler fashion, he threw one of the first big hits of the game, then left the game after getting hit in the face with a puck. Fiddler was a great Calgary Hitmen and it’s always nice to see former Hitmen after they’ve moved on.

More good news, the players that had the night off should be able to rest easy knowing they’ve probably made the team. On defense, Brandon Gormley, Dougie Hamilton and Ryan Murray all had the night off. Up front, Brandan Gallagher, Freddie Hamilton, Mark Scheifele, Jaden Schwartz, Devante Smith-Pelly and Mark Stone had the night off. Joining them in the press box were Jonathan Huberdeau and Quinton Howden, out with injuries but expected to have roster spots if they’re healthy. That leaves four spots on the blue line and up to 13 forward spots.

Tuesday morning we got word of the first cuts. I was very surprised to see Mark McNeill and Mathew Dumba among the first cuts. Another player in I included in my first draft of the team, Michael Ferland, also didn’t make the cut. Among the other cuts, Jerome Gauthier-Leduc, Brenden Kichton and Zack Phillips didn’t make much of an impression on me at Sunday’s practices. Max Reinhart played well during Sunday’s practice but ultimately didn’t do enough to stand out from the rest of the squad.

Wednesday morning we’ll get the final roster. Based on tonight’s game, I’ve got a dramatically shuffled lineup, so let’s get to it.

Assuming Huberdeau and Howden won’t be able to play, let’s go with a top line of Gallagher, Scheifele and Smith-Pelly. Nothing shocking there. Based on his play tonight, it may be hard to leave Michael Bournival off this team. He has a lethal release and good instincts. As there are some worries this team won’t have quite enough offense, let’s put him on the second line between Schwartz and Stone.

Coach Hay challenged Brett Connolly to be better, and tonight Connolly responded. It’s hard to imagine he’ll be left off the team, and I think he’d fit in nicely on a line with Brett Bulmer, whose physical play left quite and impact on tonight’s game, and centred by Hamilton. I’m taking the fourth line right out of tonight’s game and slotting in Tanner Pearson, Boone Jenner and Tyler Toffoli as the energy line. Pearson and Jenner disrupted the game with their physical play, and the line combined for three goals in the physical game.

I’d give the 13th forward spot to Phillip Di Giuseppe, who’s impressed since this selection camp started. He’s earned a spot on this team, though it’s possible there’s no real role for him to fill.

The cuts include Brad Ross and Phillip Danault, who played great tonight. Christian Thomas stood out on the top line with Di Giuseppe on the opposite wing, although Ryan Strome in the middle didn’t play quite as well as his linemates did. Lastly, Ty Rattie also just didn’t seem to have quite enough going his way to make this club.

On defense, I always thought the defense corps would be Canada’s greatest strength at this tournament, but as I’m picking the final lineup, I’m having a hard time cutting forwards while I’m having a hard time finding seven defensemen. Let’s pair Gormley and Hamilton, and give Murray a strong partner in Alex Petrovic, who was a real stand-out tonight. Petrovic plays a fairly conservative game but he picked his spots well tonight, and really made a name for himself in this game. For the third pair, Nathan Beaulieu and Cody Ceci played together, and they played very well together. Beaulieu was good at Sunday’s practice but was outstanding in the game tonight. Ceci was similarly impressive, and both are the kind of player that can really put the power in power play. I’d be shocked if there’s no room on the final team for both guys.

I can’t figure out the seventh spot. I have Ryan Murphy penciled in as another power play option right now. Certainly, the team was expecting Jamie Oleksiak to make an impression at camp. He did a lot of really good things in this game, but I often found he was out of position or simply not making the best possible play. Mark Pysyk, a guy I considered a lock Monday morning, didn’t do much to stand out tonight, nor did Scott Harrington. Joe Morrow played well, and although I spent all day hoping to see him unleash his slapshot, the opportunity never arose. It could go any which way between Murphy, Oleksiak and Morrow. For now, Murphy’s my pick.

Lastly, in goal, it’s going to be the Mark Visentin show. I liked Tyler Bunz earlier in the week, and think he still has a good chance. But Scott Wedgewood was by far the best of the four goalies tonight and I assume he has the edge.

We’ll see how close I came in a couple of hours when the final cuts are announced. All of these young men played well and should be proud of their efforts. This team is looking great, even before the team is official.

Gallagher – Sheifele – Smith-Pelly
Schwartz – Bournival – Stone
Bulmer – F. Hamilton – Connolly
Pearson – Jenner – Toffoli
Di Giuseppe

Gormley – D. Hamilton
Murray – Petrovic
Beaulieu – Ceci
Murphy

Visentin
Wedgewood

Junior hockey bonanza

OK folks. It’s almost time. Team Canada’s selection camp for the upcoming World Junior Championships started yesterday morning and I was able to attend the morning practices, though not the game in the evening. Still, since those two practices are going to be used, in part, to determine who makes this team and who heads back to their CHL clubs (foreshadowing right here), I feel confident making some observations (and small predictions) based on those practices.

If I were building the team today, it would shake out as follows.

In goal, I can’t deny Mark Visentin a second chance. That said, while his redemption story would be wonderful, I need a backup I believe in to ensure Canada gets the job done if Visentin falters. Tyler Bunz is my pick. When it comes to goalies, sometimes the guy you’re familiar with is the better pick, over guys with great practices or great technical skills. I’ve seen Bunz play, I’ve seen him in the playoffs (nearly stealing a series for Medicine Hat against a juggernaut Calgary Hitmen team in 2010). He’s been my pick since he was named to the selection camp roster. One other note about Bunz, he knows Rexall Place and Scotiabank Saddledome. They’re older buildings that have funny boards and funny shadows. He’s got the most experience in these rinks of the four goalies in camp.

My group of defensemen is based largely on Sunday’s practices, and leaves out some guys that are probably going to make the team based on their pedigree. The pairings would be Nathan Beaulieu and Mark Pysyk, Ryans Murray and Murphy, and Joe Morrow with Dougie Hamilton. My seventh defenseman is a toss-up between Mathew Dumba and Cody Ceci. At this moment, the nod goes to Ceci, even though Dumba probably has a better all-around game.

Beaulieu and Pysyk are the rocks. If I had to pick one player as a lock to make this team, I’d pick Pysyk. He does so many things well and is a very good leader. He probably has the best all-around game of all the defensemen in camp. The Ryans are the Ryans. We’ve been hearing about them since last year’s selection camp when they were both very late cuts. Murphy is built-in protection in case Murray gets a little too out-there trying to create, and Murray has the kind of offensive instincts you need your defensemen to have if you want to create a lethal transition game. Morrow and Hamilton are the big guys. Hamilton’s the big body to lean on guys and Morrow is the big shot. I could feel the sound of the thud against the boards whenever Morrow shot a puck wide during practice yesterday. While I typed this paragraph, I reconsidered and flipped back to Dumba over Ceci.

Two notable exceptions are Brandon Gormley and Jamie Oleksiak. Gormley was considered a lock for last year’s team before injury kept him out of camp, and Oleksiak is the 6’7″ giant that gained a lot of attention when he declared he’d try out for Canada instead of the US team. I fully expect at least one of these two guys to make the team. They’re both too good to be left home, but they just didn’t seem to have very much jump Sunday morning.

Up front, I’ve been trying to scribble together some potential line combinations, and I’m just not really sure how it’ll all shake out. I think Mark Scheifele, Quinton Howden, Devante Smith-Pelly, Ryan Strome, Jaden Schwartz, Brett Connolly, and Jonathan Huberdeau (if he’s healthy) will all make this team, leaving six open spots.

I’d pencil in Huberdeau, Scheifele and Smith-Pelly as the 1A line. I like Strome centring the 1B line with Schwartz on his left. On the right side of the second line, I’ve grown to like Phillip Di Giuseppe. Di Guiseppe is a 2012-eligible player who brought a ton to Sunday’s second practice. He has good speed, good instincts, and seems like the kind of player who could have a break-out tournament. For good measure, he opened the scoring in Sunday’s Red and White game and later added an assist. Last year Schwartz was a relative unknown from the NCAA ranks and worked out just fine. It’s not a stretch to think Di Guiseppe could follow his lead.

Mark McNeill had a little chemistry with Connolly and I think he’d be a solid centre for a third line with Howden on the left side. Phillip Danault may be the best faceoff man at camp and I’d expect the team will find a spot for him. I would slot him in as the extra forward, and use him for critical faceoffs. Michael Ferland and Mark Stone are the kinds of players Canada traditionally uses in checking roles, as is Freddie Hamilton (who is also very strong on faceoffs), and I think I’d call that my fourth line and be ready for Boxing Day.

Of course, like the defense corps, the forwards will also have notable cuts. Brett Bulmer started the season in Minnesota, Michael Bournival is a highly-touted prospect. Brendan Gallagher nearly broke camp with Montreal. Max Reinhart is a player with a low national profile, but everyone in the Western League knows who he is (ditto for Rattie). If Connolly or Huberdeau prove too hurt to play, any of these players could step in.

Even if I’m close with the nine defensemen and 18 forwards I’ve listed as sort-of best bets, I don’t envy the coaching staff for having to come up with the final seven and 13. There’s a lot of talent at this camp, and while there’s been some hand-wringing about a perceived lack of depth among the Canadian forwards, Canada will still be very strong up the middle, and should have better depth on the wings and blue lines than most of the other teams in the tournament can offer.

TL;DR

Huberdeau – Scheifele –  Smith-Pelly
Schwartz – Strome – Di Giuseppe
Howden – McNeill – Connolly
Ferland – F. Hamilton – Stone

Beaulieu – Pysyk
Murray – Murphy
Morrow – D. Hamilton
Dumba

Visentin
Bunz

Busy Friday purge

A buncha thoughts on a busy busy Friday.

Let’s start with the NBA. This Chris Paul thing has the potential to get even more messy than it already is. Here’s the thing. The NBA, as does every other league, has to approve of all trades. Obviously, the timing of the veto–coming after news of the trade spread and whispers of other teams demanding the veto, and the leaked email from Cleveland’s owner Dan Gilbert–is very bad. In his email, Gilbert does have a point that the 29 owners of the New Orleans Hornets should have a say in such a trade. Yes, the Hornets’ GM should be able to negotiate trades with autonomy, but it still affects payroll, and every other GM in the league would need their owner’s approval to make this deal. So yeah, Gilbert has a point.

But he destroys his own credibility with his line about “25 Washington Generals” and when he talks about lost revenue-sharing dollars (which his team would more than likely be on the receiving end of). That makes the whole thing self-serving and frankly, idiotic…

The World Junior Championship is nearly upon us. Canada’s selection camp opens this weekend, and I’ll be lucky enough to get a little preview tonight, as Mark McNeill’s Prince Albert Raiders are visiting the Calgary Hitmen. The biggest news is two NHL teams have loaned WJC-eligible players to the Canadian squad. Tampa let Brett Connolly go, and Anaheim let Devante Smith-Pelly go. They’ll both be in camp. There’s always some worry the team will naturally tend to defer to the guys on load from the NHL when they join the team, but with Connolly and DSP having to go through the selection camp just like any other players, the deference seems less likely. The Florida Panthers didn’t loan Eric Gudbranson to the squad, but Canada has a very deep defense corps at the selection camp and Gudbranson won’t be as sorely-missed as Connolly and DSP will be greatly-welcomed…

As I wrote earlier today, I’m none too pleased with Montreal’s trade today. I joked on Twitter the Habs should go and get Bryan McCabe to reunite Toronto’s 2004 defense pair. The more I think about it, the more McCabe makes more sense than Kaberle does. McCabe at least shoots the puck, which would help Montreal’s power play. Kaberle doesn’t help anything.

In his mailbag column today, TSN’s Darren Dreger says Columbus turned down a trade offer from Carolina of Kaberle and a second-round pick for disgruntled former first-round pick Derick Brassard. When even Columbus knows enough to turn down a player, you know Montreal made a bad trade…

Elsewhere in Dreger’s mailbag, he suggests the NHL’s labour situation may not be as peaceful as it appears. He suggests the owners may try to shift the revenue split from 57-43 for the players to something closer to 50-50. I’ve always assumed this agreement was working well for owners, and I never imagined they’d do something so stupid and greedy. Maybe you’ll want to call a local CHL team about a deposit on season tickets for the 2012-13 season so you’re guaranteed you can watch hockey…

The biggest news today, even before most of the Eastern time zone was awake, was the announcement Bell and Rogers joined forced to buy a majority stake in MLSE. It’s fair to assume the on-ice impact would be minimal, but if you’re CBC, you should be worried. Bell and Rogers own TSN and Sportsnet. I can’t imagine they’ll want to give CBC the 20 or so Saturday night Leafs games Hockey Night in Canada has now (though there’s opportunity for CBC and HNIC to really spin this in a positive way). This sale gives Bell and Rogers the opportunity to give TSN and Sportsnet exclusive broadcast rights (and media access) for the Toronto Raptors (and by extension, the NBA) and Toronto FC (and by extension, MLS). Either way, this sale will have a very interesting impact on sports coverage by mainstream Canadian media outlets…

Going back to NHL realignment for one more thought. There’s been quite a bit of chatter about it being unfair that different percentages of teams from each of the new conferences make the playoffs. It’s a very slight advantage for the teams in the seven-team conferences. One thing I hadn’t thought of when I wrote about it, and I haven’t seen the league address, is how the draft rankings will work. At the time, I wrote it would be unfair for teams with dramatically-different schedules to battle for the same playoff spots, so it stands to reason it would also be unfair for the draft order to be determined using the same unbalanced schedules.

My proposal: Take the 14 non-playoff teams and use only their points earned in non-conference games to determine the lottery odds. This actually gives a slight edge at the draft to the teams in eight-team conferences: as they’ll play two fewer non-conference games than the teams in seven-team conferences do, they’ll have fewer chances to accumulate points that count for the lottery standings…

Hitmen update, Oct 26

So much for that three-game winning streak.

The Calgary Hitmen have dropped a pair now, after Sunday’s tough loss to Kootenay and Tuesday’s 7-1 loss to Portland. Let’s have a peek at some of the highs and lows from both games.

Sunday the boy decided to add a degree of difficulty, choosing to play listless, uninspired hockey right up until the point the Ice scored to make it 3-0. Then the Hitmen turned it on. They controlled the play from that point on, but you’re not going to score many comeback wins against Kootenay’s Nathan Lieuwen. Sunday was no exception, as the Ice scored an empty netter to rack up a 4-2 win.

Although he’s certainly no favourite in our seats, Trevor Cheek was one of Calgary’s best forwards Sunday.

I enjoyed seeing Greg Chase and Chase Clayton play on a line together. These two guys have a lot of upside, and while they have small roles now, they’ll be counted on big time starting next season. It’s good to see them learning on the fly. Coach Williamson seems to ride his veterans and he seems to abhor giving excess ice time to young guys, so it’s really good to see this from him.

The Hitmen didn’t play well enough to win this game, there’s no other reason they lost. So when I get to this next bit, I want to be sure you understand I’m not laying any blame on them but it needs to be said: the officials in Sunday’s game were terrible.

The diving call against Gogolev early was one of the worst calls I’ve seen in a long time. Do I think Gogo embellished the contact? Yes. But he had control of the puck, was facing the boards, and was cross-checked blatantly across the 10 on his back. It was the easiest cross-checking penalty to get right and the officials blew it. Later they couldn’t figure out how to sort of non-offsetting penalties and fighting majors and misconducts. But that’s only my minor beef.

This is the big one: throughout the game, linesmen got hit by more pucks than the goalies did. I know officiating is the hardest job in sports and I try to avoid being unnecessarily critical– particularly of the referees for penalty/non-penalty calls– but these linesmen were consistently in the way. It’s one thing for an official to get hit once, maybe even twice in a game. But I’d put the count from Sunday’s game closer to eight or nine times. And that’s not including the time a linesman was standing in front of Gogo when Gogo had the puck on the half-wall during a power play set up. Really poor effort by the officials Sunday.

Tuesday night, different story. Tuesday night the Portland Winterhawks came to town. The Hawks are short-staffed since they still have a couple guys in the NHL (like Ryan Johansen, who scored his first NHL goal Tuesday night), and Sven Baertschi was out as well. But no matter. The Hawks are loaded. They’re not currently in the MasterCard CHL Top 10 but you’ve got to figure they’ll get there before long.

The game was close through two periods– 1-0 after the first and 2-0 after the second. But Portland scored two quick goals early in the third (chasing Chris Driedger), then added three more to crush a mini-rally by the Hitmen. At one point, I said to BK the Winterhawks reminded me of the Hawks from The Mighty Ducks. They played with surgical precision and never let the Hitmen break down their system. They talked, and talked. And then talked some more. Especially their goalie Mac Carruth, who I was unfamiliar with before last night.

The list of standout players for Portland last night is a lengthy one. Carruth was excellent, Brad Ross and Jason Trott seemed to be everywhere (Trott scored twice). Derrick Pouliot displayed some of the skill and hockey sense that have him high on most scouts’ boards for the 2012 NHL Entry Draft. But the guy that stood out the most was Ty Rattie. His speed was second-to-none last night. He showed tremendous effort on the fifth Portland goal– making a great effort to keep the puck alive in the offensive zone before working over the Hitmen defense and feeding a perfect pass to Ross for one of the easier goals he’ll score this season. I fully expect to see Rattie wearing a Canadian jersey come Christmastime.

As for the Hitmen, honestly, it was a much better effort than the final score would lead you to believe. They played hard from the opening faceoff but couldn’t capitalize on their scoring chances, and eventually just ran out of gas. They looked worn out at the end of the second period and came back to the bench for the third looking like a team that’d just been whipped all day.

The Hitmen completely lost their composure in the third period, both in the sense they started playing poorly and in the sense the game just dissipated into a series of fights. At the risk of stirring up the debate about fighting’s place in hockey, I just don’t find any joy in watching teenage boys fight. And I’m sure Coach wasn’t too impressed seeing his team come unglued like that, but that’s the difference between a team that’s going to fight for the playoffs (Calgary) and a team that fancies themselves a championship contender (Portland).

The Hitmen host Everett Saturday night before heading out on a six-game road trip. It’ll be nice to see the boys rebound before the big trip.

UPDATE: Practically the minute I posted this, I learned the Hitmen made a trade today. Crazy stuff. Heading out to Moose Jaw are Justin Kirsch (seriously!) and Kenton Miller; coming back are Joey Kornelsen and Collin Bowman and a fourth-round pick in next year’s bantam draft. Kirsch was the WHL’s leading scorer in the pre-season and was expected to carry most of the offensive load for Calgary this season. He’s been slightly underperforming (not quite getting premium ice time, not quite healthy) this season, but certainly should help the Warriors offense. Miller was a new player, picked up on waivers, and I really liked what he brought. He’s been playing on a line with Kirsch and Alex Gogolev the last couple games, offering a little protection for the smaller scorers. I know very little about the guys coming back, but the press release says Kornelsen, a forward, has 37 points in 118 games. He’s 18, so maybe there’s room for more, but let’s just assume he’s going to land in a third-line role. Bowman, a defenseman, had 49 points last season and the Hitmen say they hope he can fill a need for an offensive defenseman– particularly on the power play. Calgary’s been using a five forward set as their top unit for the last few games. This should help.