Things that make me go hmm

You can only benefit from playoff hockey, with the intensity, focus, and attention from the fans and media exponentially higher.

So are the stakes.

Lose and go home.

The Kamloops Blazers are good at scoring goals. They have also opened the scoring 43 times this season, the most of any team in the WHL. The Blazers record when they do that: 37-2-2-2. The Rockets are 1-23-1-0 when scoring two or fewer goals.
Where will the Winnipeg Ice relocate to? It is a question I am often asked while traveling through the Western Conference. How about Penticton? The South Okanagan Events Centre is a wonderful facility and is the home of BCHL’s most successful franchise, the Penticton Vees. Let’s say for argument’s sake, relocation was somehow granted and they moved there. It wouldn’t be a slam dunk. Remember, Kelowna Rockets majority owner Bruce Hamilton has first right of refusal if any franchise comes within a certain boundary or radius of an existing team. Every ownership group is afforded that luxury.
It appears the end is near with no fighting in junior hockey. The QMJHL will likely ban it as early as next season. If a player is involved in a fight, he is kicked out of the game and suspended for the game thereafter. That is likely the punishment for the fist-on-fist battle. If the Q is the first of the three to ban it, look for the O and WHL to follow suit.
Who is the last Rockets player to score a goal in the playoffs? Gabriel Szturc scored his second career playoff goal just 10 seconds after Jake Lee found the back of the net in game five against the Seattle Thunderbirds on April 29, 2022.
Fourteen players from this year’s team played in that game five, including Talyn Boyko, who made 40 of 44 saves in that overtime loss.
Slightly sleep deprived during Wednesday’s game, Cougars forward Koehn Ziemmer appeared to get a stick in what would be considered a sensitive area. Struggling to find the right wording to describe the area of the body, I went with, ‘he got hit in the ‘Ephram McNutt’, which is the actual name of Ziemmer’s teammate.
NHL scouts are everywhere. No better example than at the CN Centre watching the Rockets and Cougars. Among those in attendance was Dale Derkatch, who scouts for the Columbus Bluejackets. One of the most phenomenal junior players I’ve ever seen, the now 58-year-old was a star with the Regina Pats. Dale’s son, 15-year-old Dayce, is a third-round bantam prospect pick of the Prince Albert Raiders.
Dale Dekatch’s #16 is retired by the Pats franchise. I assume #98 will soon be hanging in the rafters of the Brandt Centre upon Connor Bedard’s departure.
I was reminiscing with an NHL scout the other day about the good old days when WHL teams used to warm up separately. Some won’t remember the days when each team used the entire length of the ice sheet for warmups. It was all about keeping the peace when fights could erupt from dirty looks and a war of words during warmup when both teams were on the ice.
Goal judges have gone the way of the Dodo Bird in most arenas, but not at Sandman Centre in Kamloops. You still see a human behind the two nets. What their role is remains unclear with the introduction of the video goal judge. The goal judges will be in place during the Memorial Cup in May in Kamloops too, only for aesthetics. The last sighting of a Dodo Bird was in 1662. Now you know.
Today’s hockey equipment is significantly lighter, but is it of poorer quality? When I see a player block a shot with his shin pads, specifically, the grimace of pain on the face of the individual makes me wonder what type of protection they provide. Maybe the Simpson Sear catalog wasn’t so bad?

That’s all I’ve got, plus I am over my 600 word limit.

Talk to you from the Sandman Centre in Kamloops tonight on 104.7 – with the Lizard pre-game show at 6:35 pm.

by Regan Bartel

Things that make me go hmm

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