Photo credit: Steve Dunsmoor
Welcome to November!
Things that make me go hmm…
Nov 1, 2024 | 7:00 AM
- Jake Pilon’s 17-save effort last week against the visiting Moose Jaw Warriors was the lowest total number of shots a Kelowna Rockets goalie has faced in earning a shutout since Jari Kykkanen made 15 stops in a 5-0 win over the Victoria Royals on March 2, 2022.
- Pilon has started five of the last seven games. It is great to ride a goalie who is playing well. What isn’t great is having a 20-year-old starter sitting on the bench watching from the sidelines. With teams allowed only three overage players, the Rockets are essentially playing an overage short when Pilon is in goal.
- The decision on who starts in goal for the Kelowna Rockets is collaborative. We asked head coach Kris Mallette about it. “I am the coach. I lean heavily on [Goalie Coach] Eli Wilson. We work closely together. He sees them [goalies], and talks to them a lot more than I do on a personnel level. Jake [Pilon] has come in and won some hockey games for us. Has he been spectacular? Nope. Has he been good? Yep. Pucks are hitting him. Players are sacrificing. I put my trust in Eli. He is our goalie coach, and he and I ultimately make that decision (on who starts) and I trust him.”
- The shutout last Friday night against the Warriors marked the first time the team was able to keep Moose Jaw off the board at home since a game on February 14, 2015, when Jake Morrissey made 28 saves in a 6-0 victory.
- It is a work in progress. The Kelowna Rockets discipline is improving. Last season the team was shorthanded 262 times, which was 52 minor penalties better than the year prior, when the team was sent to the box 314 times. “You want to take the hard penalty,” Mallette said last week. “If it’s protecting a player, or a body contact penalty, but the hooking and holding, the tripping and the high sticks need to be controlled. We are trying to be more cognizant of trusting each other on the ice, so if we are getting beat, trusting your teammates are there to pick you up so you don’t need to reach with a stick.”
- This one surprised me. While Caden Price is among the league leaders in points (2+15=17) by a defensemen, his shot total is considerably lower than many of his counterparts. Price has fired 31 pucks on net, which would rank him 11th (among d-men) across the WHL. The league leader is Landon DuPont of the Everett Silvertips and Brayden Crampton of the Spokane Chiefs, who both have 50 shots on net. How about this. Ex-Rockets blueliner John Babcock has more shots on goal than Price, with 40 through 13 games with the Regina Pats. I sure didn’t see that coming.
- Emerging from the shadows. Caden Price takes centre stage. That should be the headline if the 19 year-old can make the Canadian world junior team. TSN’s Craig Button thinks Price can make it, revealing a roster – today – on the players he believes will represent our country at Christmas. Tij Iginla is also on it, but Andrew Cristall isn’t. Hockey Canada will have the final say in December.
- Sportico has released its value of the top teams in the NHL, and all of them have increased significantly from a year ago. The Toronto Maple Leafs top the list at 3.66 billion. The New York Rangers and Montreal Canadiens round out the top-three. Do you remember a few years ago when the value of junior teams in the WHL and OHL were released? To refresh your memory, the Calgary Hitmen were ranked as the most valuable in the WHL at over 68 million. The Kelowna Rockets were valued at 7.37 million, which was good for 8th among the 22 franchises. The study, at the time, was conducted by Kevin Mongeon, a professor of sport management at Brock University. If NHL franchises have risen in value in the last year, you would think junior hockey clubs have seen an uptick too.
- The month of November features a chance for Kelowna hockey fans to see exceptional player Landon DuPont up close. The Everett Silvertips pay a visit to Prospera Place on November 24th. If you’ve been living under a rock, DuPont, who is just 15 years-old, is the 9th player in the CHL to be granted exceptional player status. Connor McDavid and Connor Bedard are just two other examples.
- We clearly didn’t dissect the 2024-2025 Kelowna Rockets schedule when it came out in the late summer. After Friday’s impressive win over the visiting Moose Jaw Warrior, the team has ten days off. Ya, 10 days without a game before playing next Tuesday in Spokane. When the team plays its sixth straight road game against an American based team, it will begin a stretch of playing 18 games in 43 nights before departing for the Christmas break.
- Just over two weeks ago, Minnesota Wild netminder Filip Gustavsson scored a ‘goalie goal’ when he fired a puck into a wide-open net against the St. Louis Blues. It marked the 15th goalie goal in league history. Ron Hextall was the first NHL goalie to actually shoot a puck the length of the ice into an empty net. In the WHL, nine goalies have scored a goal, with Tacoma Rockets Jeff Calvert accomplishing the feat during the 1992-93 season. In 29 seasons in Kelowna, no goalie has been able to do it. It was often suggested that Roman Basran (2017-2021), who loved to play the puck, would be the first to do it at Prospera Place, but sadly that opportunity never came in 120 appearances.
- The Moose Jaw Warriors are now 0 and 3 on a five game BC Division road trip. With losses in Kelowna, Kamloops, and Prince George, the team makes its way to Victoria tonight and Vancouver Saturday to face two of the toughest teams in the division. Winless in eight, and possibly ten if things don’t go well this weekend, look for the defending WHL champions to take a long look at moving some of its top-end talent to restock the shelves. The Warriors have the fewest wins (3) of any team in the WHL right now.
- A site visit is always a good thing. That is exactly what the CHL 2026 Memorial Cup Selection Committee did at Prospera Place on Thursday, with some touring the facility by foot, while others viewed the amenities either by Zoom/Skype. The tour of the arena included a local contingent that featured Shea Weber and Josh Gorges, two key players when the city last hosted the Memorial Cup in 2004.
- Is anyone surprised the Everett Silvertips lead the entire WHL in points with 24? I knew the day I saw them beat Portland 8-2 on home ice in the second game of the season, and then a night later peppering the Rockets with 53 shots in a 6-3 victory, that they were indeed a power. Only the doubters thought newly hired head coach Steve Hamilton would screw things up, but that never materialized.
- Mikael Backlund celebrated his 1000th NHL game Wednesday night with the Calgary Flames being thumped by the Utah Hockey Club. Backlund is the third Kelowna Rockets alumni this season to celebrate the achievement, following in the footsteps Luke Schenn and Tyler Myers. Also reaching the milestone are ex-Rockets Scott Hannan, Shea Weber and Jamie Benn.
- Tij Iginla has nine goals in nine games this season. A year ago, scoring 47 times, the now 18 year-old also found the back of the net nine times in his opening nine games. Iginla was held without a shot on goal just once last season. It came against the Prince George Cougars.
- At 1291 words, it is time to close the barn doors shut for another week. One more thing. With a quiet hockey schedule, it gave me an opportunity to put up my Christmas lights on my house. Too soon, or wise decision?
Ya, I too thought Everett looked very solid this year. Surprised at Moosejaws slow start tho ??
Thinking if we get a few bounces our way, our boys can hang with anyone !! 🙂
Yager and Unger are two intriguing players that would improve contending teams significantly.