I flew back from PEI on Sunday and arrived back in Kindersley around 2:30 in the morning. Then I got up to go to work at 8:30 on Monday to find that the office was closed and no one had told me. A great start to 2011.
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Just as we swing back into action, so do the Klippers tonight when they host the Notre Dame Hounds. The team has been on the ice every day since Saturday and Rockie Zinger said he thinks they've gotten back into their good habits. He also said that the Hounds' strong work ethic means the Klippers can't just ease back into it tonight.
The Hounds are also here Thursday and the Melville Millionaires come to town Saturday.
I asked Rockie about the team's plans leading up to Monday's trade deadline. He more or less said that they aren't actively seeking certain players but will consider anything that makes the team better. He added he doesn't expect anything "earth-shattering" to happen.
He also made it clear that there will be no "reactionary deals" - in other words, trying to keep up with the Joneses if a team like Yorkton or Weyburn swings a trade on deadline day.
“We ask these boys to push themselves to become better every day and we’d be doing a disservice if we didn’t try to make our team better and listen to everything. Are we actively shopping guys? No, but if there’s something that makes sense, that makes the Klippers stronger, we have to look at it.
“We’re fairly happy with what we have. We feel we’ve got depth that can compete with any team throughout the league. We’ve got experience from guys who have played in the playoffs, and we’ve got some youth from guys like Elliot, Kissick and Gerwing who are chomping at the bit. The way we were (winning) before Christmas, I think we were just touching the surface of how excited and how good we can be.”By the way, if you didn't hear over the break, Sean Cahill was named the SJHL's goalie of the month for December. Congrats to Sean on getting the big honour after his first month in the league. He made the big stops and the small ones and was a huge part of the six-game streak.
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"Fire me by Christmas if we aren't in the top three."
Karry Biette is surely regretting those words now after being fired by the Estevan Bruins on Monday.
Fed up with his team's lack of results in recent years, Biette made the comment during an interview with SJHL.ca before the regular season started in September. Estevan was fourth in the south at Christmas - but only a few points out of second - and losing two of three games this past weekend was enough for the B's executive to act.
Bruins assistant Chad Leslie takes over as interim head coach for the rest of the year.
SJHL teams have now fired as many coaches (Wintoneak, Biette) as NHL teams (Gordon, MacLean) this season.
I'd like to get some readers' thoughts on this. Are SJHL teams a little more willing to dump their coaches mid-season after seeing what happened last year with Trent Cassan and the Yorkton Terriers?
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How about Team Canada?
You'd never know the Americans were the heavy favourites at the WJC from watching that game last night. I was only able to see the first period, but that was 20 minutes of pure domination from Canada and it sounds like the rest of the game was no different.
It's yet another reminder that the rosters on paper mean nothing when the puck drops.
Water isn't the only thing flooding over the border at Niagara Falls right now and Canada took full advantage of having the vast majority of the crowd on their side. Can you imagine being an American player in Buffalo and seeing most of the people rooting for the other team?
The Americans had an incredibly fast team, but Canada used its size and physical play to effectively neuter the U.S. breakout. They owned the walls, especially in the offensive zone, and were able to keep sustained pressure on Jack Campbell by winning battles along the boards. And Mark Visentin answered his critics by turning in a very strong performance.
I agree with Bob McKenzie when he says this was one of the most impressive games ever played by Canada at the WJC. They dominated an extremely good team last night.
At this point I want to remind everyone that PEI is proud to call Dave Cameron a native son.
I'll try to post a Canada-Russia preview tomorrow if I have time. Should be a beauty with the way the Russians have played over the last two games.
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