ROYALS LOOK TO GET ON TRACK

Happy New Year and I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday season. It’s been a while since I’ve been down at the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre. Although the last WHL on Shaw broadcast was on December 16 in Saskatoon, I’ve been filling quite a bit of time at CHEK-TV, which has been great. But I have missed the rink and actually leave Thursday for Lethbridge and the first 2012 edition of the WHL on Shaw, when the Hurricanes face the Medicine Hat Tigers Friday night.

The Royals are coming off a wild 9-4 loss to the Calgary Hitmen Tuesday. Logan Nelson picked up the second hat-trick in as many games for the Royals, after Jamie Crooks pulled it off in Portland on Friday. Zane Jones had a goal and an assist and was plus-1, giving the 17-year-old three goals and four points in the last two games and he’s +3. Kevin Sundher kept his scoring streak alive with an assist on Nelson’s hat-trick goal, which puts Sundher on a 10-game point streak. Sundher’s streak is tied with Brendan Shinnimin of the Tri-City Americans for longest current streak in the league. Shinnimin has 11 goals and 23 points in that stretch and Sundher has 13 assists and 17 points over his streak. Brandon Wheat Kings forward Mark Stone still holds the longest streak of the season of 18 games, which were the first 18 of the season for him.

But once again, keeping the puck out of the net kept the Royals from ending their losing streak, which has hit seven games. Since the start of November, Victoria has won just four of 23 games and has been out-scored 125-77. That’s an average of 5.4 goals allowed since November 4. In only four of the 23 games, the Royals have allowed three or fewer goals in a game, in either regulation or overtime. They won three of those and lost the other in a shoot-out, which gave Seattle a 4-3 win on December 10. The Royals are averaging over three goals a game over that span, but it just hasn’t been enough most nights.

I watched an interview Head Coach Marc Habscheid did with Paul Haysem of CHEK Sports and one thing really stood out to me. Marc talked about the fact that, yes, the Royals are a young team, but you just can’t be a young team. They have to show improvement. The team is working hard at doing that, but a bounce here and a breakdown there has just added up after the team started the season 10-7-0-1. The team did some battle drills at the end of practice today which got quite spirited. Steven Hodges took a stick to the face, but was okay, and both goaltenders got bumped and not just small taps, either. It was very quiet on the ice after practice and you can’t help but feel bad for these guys because the passion to win is there, just the W’s have been tough to come by.
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The Royals will get 16-year-old defenceman Keegan Kanzig back in the line-up Friday for their tilt against the Kelowna Rockets. Kanzig has been with Team Pacific in Windsor, ON, for the World Under-17 Challenge, which started in late December. Kanzig had two penalty minutes in five games played and Pacific finished fifth overall. The tournament ends tonight with the US to face Russia in the gold medal game.
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Just wanted to make a quick comment on the Canada/Russia semi-final game last night in Calgary. Even in a loss, how can we not be proud of those young men? I was thinking of how that may have gone down as one of the worst Canadian losses in World Junior history when it was 6-1 early in the third period. How Canada seems to pull off the impossible at this tournament is simply amazing. Not only that, Canada really deserved a lot better last night. They out-shot Russia 56-24, but for the first 50 minutes, it was like Canada had to work so hard just to get one goal, while the Russian squad seemed to get rewarded just for hitting the Canadian blue-line. Canada had a few goal posts and remember the slam dunk Jonathan Huberdeau had in the first period at the lip of the goal crease that somehow didn’t go in. Ryan Murray, a potential top-5 pick in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft of the Everett Silvertips, couldn’t have had worse luck around his own goal. The first three Russian goals went off him in some way before going in the net. On Russia’s fifth goal, the puck went through his skates on a pass from behind the goal that he went to block. Great player who had a tough night, not for his play but for the lousy puck-luck he had. It was one of those nights, but they almost pulled off a miracle.

Keep in mind, while this is the first time since 2001 that Canada has not been in the gold medal game, Canada has won a World Junior medal at every tournament since 1999. Finland, who seem to always be in the bronze medal game, hasn’t won a medal since 2006.

Forward Brett Connolly was in my opinion Canada’s top forward last night. He could have had four or five goals on the evening and really lived up the leadership role that I’m sure was expected from him as one of the four returning players. It’s been great for me to see Brett do so well this year, with a goal in each of Canada’s five games played. I got to know him while working for the Prince George Cougars before moving to Victoria and in his interview with TSN’s Farhan Lalji after the game, he showed how much he cares about winning, but was very composed given the circumstance. Brandon’s Mark Stone and Vancouver’s Brendan Gallagher have been terrific and the latter of those two had a great game last night as well. Best of luck to those players Thursday against Finland.
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Less than a week to go before the WHL trade deadline, which is on Tuesday, January 10. Four moves have been made and I really like the trade the Kamloops Blazers put-together with the Prince Albert Raiders in acquiring 20-year-old Brandon Herrod. The 20-year-old from Meadow Lake, SK, is a tough player who can make a significant contribution in the offensive zone, with 19 goals and 37 points in 41 games this season. Herrod scored in his first game with the Blazers on New Year’s Day against the Cougars. Probably the most interesting move so far is the deal swung between the Raiders and Spokane Chiefs on December 28. The Raiders, 12 points out of a playoff spot, got Chiefs’ leading scorer Anthony Bardaro. So the 11th place team in the Eastern Conference gets the top scorer from the fifth place team in the Western Conference. Don’t see that happen very often. However, Bardaro is a guy that will likely be back as a 20-year-old next season that can lead a Raiders team that got younger in the deal with the Blazers by getting 17-year-old forward Logan McVeigh, a second round bantam pick in 2009. The Raiders also got 18-year-old goalie Luke Lee-Knight and a fifth-round pick, while the Chiefs received 18-year-old goalie Eric Williams, who had been the Raiders’ number-1 goalie this season. Todd Fiddler, an 18-year-old forward, also went to Spokane. Fiddler had 23 goals in his rookie season last year, but has only five this season. Hopefully a fresh start can get him going.

Now, what are the Royals going to do? General Manager and Head Coach Marc Habscheid may have a decision to make on Kevin Sundher. Now that Sundher has a contract with the Buffalo Sabres, his chances of playing next season in the WHL as a 20-year-old now seem out the window. He’s among the top 5 in scoring in the WHL and could certainly make the same impact for a team that a player like Tyler Maxwell has made with the Edmonton Oil Kings after he was traded there by Everett. Last year, the price for a high-end player was through the roof for players like Cody Eakin, who went from Swift Current to Kootenay. Brayden Schenn brought the Brandon Wheat Kings a huge haul of future players when he was dealt to the Saskatoon Blades. Will the price tag be as high this season? We’ll find out in the next week.

The Royals will likely be going for youth in a deal, but perhaps an established young defenceman will be part of the asking price from Victoria in the ’93 or ’94 birth year range. This is one of the most exciting times of the WHL season and there’s already been some movement. Can’t wait to see what’s in store before the 2:00pm Pacific Time trade deadline next Tuesday.