Welcome to the first ‘Thursday Thoughts’ as I take a look around the Western Hockey League and the Canadian Hockey League. All thoughts herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the entire DUBNetwork team.
CHL App
I felt it necessary to touch on this item as the CHL unveiled its app several weeks ago now. The complaints from people around the three leagues were swiftly in opposition to the new app as it rendered the old three league apps useless. What exacerbated the problem was the fact that the new CHL app did not work for most people.
Now the app has had a few updates and does appear to work better for everyone, although some people still use the whl.ca website for their statistics and game scores. The app itself is not very user-friendly, and there really doesn’t seem to be an incentive to use it. The CHL should have been sure that the app worked upon release and maybe should have done some consultation with users and other media outlets before releasing it to the general public.
The last update was made on December 9th for Android users. The app has 10,000+ downloads from the Google Play Store and a rating of just 1.7 stars from 103 reviews. In the Apple Store, where it was also updated on December 9th, the app has just 5 ratings for a score of 1.0. The Apple Store does not publicly provide details of the number of downloads an app has.
Walford incident
Last Saturday, when the Kelowna Rockets were visiting the Saskatoon Blades, there was a situation on the ice late in the third period that reminded me of the recent incident in the NHL with Matt Calvert of the Colorado Avalanche. In that NHL game, Calvert was struck in the head with a puck and went down in the slot area bleeding from his head. Some of the reaction to that incident can be found here.
Scott Walford was clipped with an errant Nolan Foote high stick in the Blades zone and was visibly bleeding on the ice. The Rockets had possession of the puck, and play was allowed to continue by the on-ice officials. With the Blades’ top defenseman down and bleeding from his head, the Rockets scored to tie the game. They then went on to win in a shootout.
What is really interesting about this is that there are two different versions of the highlight package available. The one on the Blades website has the play in its entirety while the version on the WHL website has an entirely different look and sound.
WHL players at the IIHF World Junior Championships
Interestingly, the WHL had sent just eight players to the Team Canada training camp this year before injuries resulted in Connor Zary being added to the roster at the last moment. He was traveling with the Kamloops Blazers through the East Division when he was notified that he was heading to Oakville, Ontario, to join the team at camp.
What makes this extra interesting this year is that the Czech Republic also called nine WHL players to join them for their training camp. There is a real possibility that the Czech team could have more players from the WHL on its roster than the team from Canada.
Of the players at the training camp, I project that just six make the team. Joel Hofer will stick as one of the goaltenders. Both Lethbridge Hurricanes players (Calen Addison and Dylan Cozens) will be on the final roster this year, as will Nolan Foote. Bowen Byram and Ty Smith are the other players I believe will stick with the team for the duration of the tournament. There is an outside chance that Peyton Krebs makes the team. I just don’t know that he has had enough ice time this season to make the star-studded roster. (Editor’s note, Krebs was released just before press time as were Connor Zary and Braden Schneider).
It’s also time for the CHL to consider inviting more players to the training camp. While I understand that that means that some teams will be without some of their top players for a few weeks while the camp is underway, it is an invaluable experience, especially for the 18-year-old players who might not be on the team in that particular year but will be challenging for a spot in the next year.
US prospects draft and Challenge Cup
This is a great initiative for the WHL to take on. The QMJHL already has a US draft and the OHL has a lot of players so close in proximity that it is definitely more of an option for the players there than in other leagues to join the OHL.
What is somewhat disappointing is the fact that there will not be more US-based teams in the tournament and none from the hockey hotbed of Minnesota. Of the 44 players listed as being from the US, seven of them are from the “State of Hockey”. This could be a major oversight by the WHL.
Something more should have been done about the announcement of both of these programs, especially the prospects draft. What it amounted to was two lines buried in a press release about the Challenge Cup with no logos, and no firm dates or information about how, when, or where the lottery or draft will take place.
Medicine Hat Tigers
Following a 5-0 loss to the Everett Silvertips on home ice, the Tigers have gone off. In their last two games, the team has scored 19 goals. This puts them far ahead of the next closest team with 138 goals in 31 games. The Lethbridge Hurricanes have 127. Six times, the team has scored eight or more goals in a game and has hit double digits twice. The Tigers have two games before the holiday break against the Red Deer Rebels and Edmonton Oil Kings, and with the way they are going, there is a good chance they could hit 150 goals by the break.
The team is missing two players (Mads Sogaard and Johnathan Brinkman). Both are at the IIHF Division 1-A World Junior Championships with Denmark.
