Photo credit: RocketFAN
Notes, one quote and anecdotes
Things that make me go hmm…
Oct 8, 2024 | 7:00 AM
- How valuable is Andrew Cristall to the Kelowna Rockets’ success? Over the last three seasons, the 19-year-old has missed 26 regular season games. Over that stretch, the team is a combined 6-19-1-0.
- I asked Kris Mallette about his team’s slow start. His answer hit the bullseye. “To be rated early in the season, we hadn’t proven anything,” he said bluntly. “We didn’t do anything to deserve that [top 10 mention in CHL rankings], and we have some good players on paper, but they just got here and the ones that are here are very good players who need to gel as a group, play as a team and build some consistency.”
- With a 0 and 5 start, before eventually beating the Tri-City Americans 2-1, everyone asked what was wrong with the Kelowna Rockets. The same question has to be asked in Medicine Hat, where the Tigers were projected to be a power this season after making a big trade with the Prince Albert Raiders to land Ryder Ritchie. The second-round pick of the Minnesota Wild has 0+0=0 in four games with his new team. Riding shotgun with projected first-round pick Gavin McKenna, the sophomore forward hasn’t scored a goal this season despite collecting seven assists. Those two will figure it out, eventually, and the Tigers will start to roar.
- Speaking of the Tigers, Marcus Pacheco is in his 19-year-old season with the team. A third-round pick of the Kelowna Rockets in 2020, the Edmonton product has played in just two of the Tigers’ five regular season games.
- This season is a tough one for 20-year-old’s who can’t secure one of three overage spots on a team’s roster. It is hard to trade them in 2024-2025, with many being released or being forced to play at lower levels. The Prince George Cougars had no takers on Keaton Dowhaniuk, a defenseman who played 228 WHL games and was the Cougars’ first-round pick in the 2019 draft. The Sherwood, Alberta product is now playing with the Vernon Vipers in the BCHL. The Saskatoon Blades also had no takers on 20-year-old goalie Austin Elliot. Elliot was in net last season when the Rockets went into Saskatoon and shocked the Blades with an improbable 5-4 win.
- The Spokane Chiefs are doing their best to keep the atmosphere at home games in party mode, even when smaller crowds are cheering on the home team. The Chiefs are using black curtains this season to cover the upper deck, in an effort to keep everyone seated lower to the ice and eliminating fans from spreading out across Veterans Memorial Arena. The curtains the Chiefs are using seem higher quality than what I’ve witnessed in large venues, where they look makeshift, and don’t conceal the upper deck. Let’s just say the Chiefs usage of the curtains make the entire arena more aesthetically pleasing to the naked eye.
- The Western Conference is loaded with solid 16-year-old players this season, and we’ve had to chance to see three d-man who are going to be a handful in years to come. Prince George’s Carson Carels is fun to watch. Playing a top four role, the Cougars first round pick – 16th overall – in 2023 is the real deal. Everett’s Brek Liske is going to play in the shadows of 15-year-old exceptional status defender Landon DuPont, but he too is a smart player. Not as flashy as Carls, Liske is also a 2008 born d-man who was taken 10th overall in the 2023 draft. Victoria’s Keaton Verhoeff may be the most impressive, considering his size. At 6’4, Verhoeff is composed with the puck and has leadership qualities seeping out his pores. With six points in six games, Verhoeff was the Royals first pick – 4th overall – in 2023.
- I don’t want to be a prude, but I hate to see alcohol advertising behind a WHL player while he is being interviewed. It is the wrong messaging in junior hockey. I understand that teams don’t want to turn away advertising dollars, but those ads can be placed so much better than behind a teenager who legally can’t drink.
- It is a small sample size, but the best team I’ve seen this young season is the Everett Silvertips. They work the hardest of any of the six teams I’ve witnessed. Will does indeed beat skill.
- Name the two teams in the Western Conference yet to open the scoring this season? Kelowna is one while the other is Vancouver. They meet November 22nd at Prospera Place. The only other team without an opening goal is the Lethbridge Hurricanes.
- Only two teams in the Western Hockey League have not scored a first period goal this season. Kelowna is one while the other is the Tri-City Americans. Spokane leads the league with 12.
- The Rockets are starting the season playing 10 of its opening 16 games against US Division based team’s.
- A great crowd in Tri-City Saturday night for the Americans home-opener. With 4,136 fans on hand, the Rockets earned a 2-1 win. It is third time the Rockets have been the opposition for the Americans home opener. They were the opponent in 2008 and again in 2009 with Tyson Barrie scoring in both of those games. Barrie signed a one-year contract with the Calgary Flames after impressing during a free-agent tryout. If the Americans had their way, you’d think the Spokane Chiefs would be the preferred opponent to ring in a new season.
- It was nice to see Ismail Abougouche, when the 17-year-old made a stop by my broadcast booth location during the first intermission of Saturday’s game. Wearing #71 for the Tri-City Americans, Abougouche was the Rockets 12th round selection in the 2021 WHL Prospects Draft. Injured, the hope is ‘Izzy’ will be ready to play when the Rockets meet the Americans again at Toyota Center on October 19th.
- It’s a first! No, I am not speaking about the Kelowna Rockets goalies getting painted masks, but a hotel change in Tri-City for the first time in my 25 years with the organization. The Red Lion Kennewick Columbia Center was a landing ground for the team dating back to the years when Chuck Kobasew, Jesse Ferguson and Bart Rushmer were players. Being gentle, the Red Lion hasn’t changed much with the times. In reading recent Google reviews of the accommodation, I am surprised we didn’t find a different hotel sooner. A few years ago, after a playoff loss to the Americans, I chose to stay the night, but elected for a newer hotel that was literally 200 steps from Toyota Center. The move was a good one.
- A quick shout-out to WHL officiating. Ok, buckle up referee haters. What I’ve noticed in the first six games is the officials allowing for some pushing and shoving after the whistle. It hasn’t gotten out of hand, but two games last weekend had a few scrums after the play, and penalties were only handed out if the players carried on with the antics for an extended period of time. I love when officials get a feel for the game, and manage or make adjustments. Emotion is part of the game, and sometimes over-officiating takes that element out of it. I am giving rave reviews to Mike Campbell, Brad Lebus and Brandon and Corey Koop specifically. Well done gentleman.
- It was a new broadcast location in Tri-City Saturday night. For the first time – ever – I was situated amongst the fans as opposed to a more secure media booth above the ice surface. This season, the Americans radio broadcast team has taken over where the road announcers used to sit, and we (visiting radio broadcasters) are now situated where the home broadcaster would call games. For my money, the new location is going to be one of my favourites with its close proximity to the action and the fact it is right at centre ice.
- The NHL regular season begins this week and two former Kelowna Rockets reach major milestones. Luke Schenn is four shy of 1,000 games played, while Tyler Myers is five games from hitting the century mark.
- At 1447 words, it is time to close the barn door for this week. One last note though. I’ve been watching Amazon Prime’s ‘FACEOFF: Inside the NHL’. While it gives fans unprecedented access behind the scenes of star players, including Edmonton’s Connor McDavid, I find it too revealing when the Oilers captain starts openly crying in the dressing room after a game seven loss to Florida in the Stanley Cup final. I get the emotion, and I love that McDavid wants to win more than anyone, but I don’t need to see him openly weep to know how driven he is to hold Lord Stanley above his head. I find these documentaries give opposition fans more fodder for ridicule, when pilling on, not sympathizing is commonplace in society.
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