Brian Liesse
Insight

Daily Dose of the Dub: Foote’s Rockets win in his debut

Written by Brandon Rivers on

Rockets make it official

-The Kelowna Rockets announced on Tuesday that they had hired Adam Foote to be their head coach after letting Jason Smith go the day before.

Foote, a former two-time Stanley Cup champion is coaching his son Nolan this year. Foote and the Rockets are hoping to rebound from a 4-10 start to the year.

Spokane goes with two co-captains

-The Spokane Chiefs made a somewhat rare choice in captain for 2018-19, by having the returning Jaret Anderson-Dolan join Ty Smith as co-captains this year.

Both Smith and Anderson-Dolan have spent their entire WHL careers with the Chiefs and will be the driving forces behind the team this year.

Seattle gets eight games on local TV

-The Seattle Thunderbirds will again be playing games on JoeTV in the Seattle area. The channel, which is available throughout the Seattle market will air eight games between the Seattle Thunderbirds and their rival, the Portland Winterhawks.

Three stars of the night:

  1. Brett Leason – The leading scorer in the WHL added two more goals and now has 30 points in 14 games. Leason and his Prince Albert Raiders took down the visiting Everett Silvertips 3-0.
  2. Alexander Alexeyev – The Red Deer Rebels defenseman scored two more goals as his team edged the Calgary Hitmen 3-1.
  3. Ian Scott – The Raiders goalie notched his second shutout this year, stopping all 24 shots from the Everett Silvertips.

Honorable mentions:

–Carl Tetachuk stopped 34-of-35 shots in his first WHL start for the Lethbridge Hurricanes, a 2-1 win over the Brandon Wheat Kings… Wil Kushniryk scored in his first game for the Kelowna Rockets and Brett Clayton scored and had a fight as the Americans beat the Prince George Cougars 5-1… Kaedan Korczak had two assists and Adam Foote won his coaching debut with the Kelowna Rockets 3-2 over the visiting Swift Current Broncos.

Weekly report musings:

Brandon: Schael Higson is out week-to-week with a lower body injury. The overage defenseman has 12 points in eight games this year.

Edmonton: Forward Logan Moon was announced as being reassigned to Grande Prairie of the AJHL. The 2000-born winger did not play in any regular season games.

Kelowna: 1998-born forward Ryan Bowen cleared waivers.

Medicine Hat: Defenseman Joel Craven and forward Baxter Anderson are both out for over a week with upper body injuries.

Moose Jaw: Josh Brook was both returned from illness and out day-to-day with an illness. Forward Kale Clouston is out week-to-week with an upper body ailment.

Prince Albert: Import defenseman Sergei Sapego has joined forward Kody McDonald as being out. Sapego is listed as out week-to-week with an illness while McDonald is still listed as out indefinitely with a lower body injury. With Max Martin still having two games remaining on his suspension and Sapego and Lane Kirk out of the lineup, the Raiders could be pretty lean on the blue line over the next couple of games.

Prince George: Matej Toman is listed as out “TBD” with an up[per body injury.

Seattle: 2000-born forward Dillon Hamaliuk is out day-to-day with an upper body injury that he seemingly suffered after taking a high hit from Tri-City’s Riley Bruce.

Vancouver: James Malm joins a very crowded injury list. He is out day-to-day with an upper body injury he suffered against Portland Saturday night.

Victoria: They also have a long list of injured players. Last week it was just defenseman Ralph Jarratt. This week, forwards Logan Doust (week-to-week), Dante Hannoun (two-to-three weeks) and Phillip Schultz (week-to-week) and goalie Griffen Outhouse (day-to-day) were listed as being out as well. Without Jarratt, Hannoun and Outhouse, the entire overage group for the Royals could be missing time.