2015-16: 20 game mark

Mike Johnston always said something along the lines of  "You know what kind of team you have after 20 games...." - around here we take what MJ says pretty seriously.

Its unclear what this Winterhawks team is to this point, which is 18 games in as of this writing.  This is a team that has started slow for as long as I've been watching them - last season they were 8-11-3 at this point last season.  In fact, they didn't reach .500 until (American) Thanksgiving - yet they tied Everett in wins while attempting to win the US Division.

I wrote about their slow start in 2013-14: a season where they lost Game 7 of the WHL Final.

This team sits at 8-9 currently.  They've scored 5 goals in 2 of those losses.  On two occasions they won the game despite only putting up 2 goals.  Adin Hill has recorded 3 shutouts on the young season, but they were shut out once by Prince Albert.

They've shown flashes of brilliance, and can't get out of their own way at times.  Kelowna has been a "measuring stick" game over the last few years - this year is no exception.  Taking a 3-2 lead mid-3rd period is a sign of good things to come.  Turning that lead into a 5-3 deficit over an 8 minute span is a problem.  Jumping out to a 3-0 lead after 20 minutes the next night: sure seems like the proper adjustments were made.  However, back to back periods of giving up 4 goals spoiled that promising start.

Entering the Kelowna weekend Hill's GAA was right at 2.00, for a .500 team.  A junior team giving up 2 goals a game should be clipping along at .750 - or better.  This is a team that's scored 5 goals in 8 games so far - pretty much half the games they've played so far.

It might be easy as they're just inconsistent so far.  All junior teams are, right?


The "eye test" is that their struggles are as simple as a handful defensive breakdowns at the wrong time, which I don't have a good way to quantify or break down here.

One issue I have that is demonstrable is Paul Bittner.  I've been really high on him since he was a 15 - especially when he potted those 4 consecutive game winning goals during tournament time.  He ended up with 12 goals in 45 games that season - which projects out to 19 goals in a full 72 game season.  Pretty damn good for a 16 with limited ice time.

Currently Paul is sitting on 4 goals - a 17 goal pace for a full season.  That's just not good enough for a guy that Portland fans are counting on to deliver.  Of course, he lost both of his linemates.  There's a whole new set of expectations.  He'll improve.

The flip side is Team Captain Dominic Turgeon.  I'd heard some folks expressing they felt that Turgeon has a 40 goal season in his sights - which is pretty much the rate he's been shooting so far.  Can he maintain this pace?

Guys like Shoenborn & Iverson are about where a lot of us thought they'd be.  I feel there's a higher level both guys can get to, and if this team wants to do some damage they will both have to.

If they can marry the periods where they play lights out defense with the instances where they demonstrate all that firepower - then they're back in business.  They've shown the ability to play both ends of the ice at an elite level - but not game in & game out yet.

Gregg Drinnan says the season starts at Christmas.  The Los Angles Kings model - take the regular season off & get hot in the playoffs - could be applicable in a conference where only 2 teams miss the playoffs, but most Portland fans would rather they just got their shit together.

 Annie Fowler, of the Tri-City Herald is kind enough to put together a WHL Best of the West poll each year, and hot off the presses its here:

2015 Best of the West

For fun, here's the last one, with some background on how this is put together.  Its a lot of work, and we are lucky that she puts it together for us.

Brendan Leipsic 5 min major spear: you be the judge

In game 5 of the Portland / Kelowna series, Leipsic was given a major penalty for spearing.

Lets look at rule 62:

Rule 62: Spearing

62.1
Spearing - Spearing shall mean stabbing an opponent with the point
of the stick blade, whether contact is made or not.

62.2
Double-minor Penalty - A double-minor penalty
will be imposed on a
player or goalkeeper who spears an opponent and does not make
contact.

62.3
Major Penalty - A major penalty shall be imposed on a player or
goalkeeper who spears an opponent (see 62.5).

62.4
Match Penalty - A match penalty shall be imposed on a player or
goalkeeper who injures an opponent as a result of a spear.

62.5 Game Misconduct Penalty - Whenever a major penalty is assessed
for spearing, a game misconduct penalty must also be imposed.

They don't take spearing lightly, nor should they.  If you swing & miss, its a double minor.  Any spear that actually contacts another player and its an automatic major.  Again, I'm fine with this, but it should go without saying that not all spears are created equal.

In the above video clip of the incident, I left it long with Kelowna's audio feed to illustrate a point: that no one knew that this major had occurred until the penalties went up on the scoreclock.  I'm right there with them - I watched the replay not seeing the spear until I was looking for it.  I'm not sure how the league will look at this, but my rose-garden colored glasses don't think its a big deal.  We shall see.

We've seen some nasty spearing incidents in the last week or so:

Different leagues for sure, but many of us remember Lucic with the Giants.  Played hard as well as partied hard.   Dude just cruises up behind a dude, all nonchalant, and sticks him in the balls.  That's a calculated move - about the worst thing you can do on an ice sheet.  He got slapped with a $5,000 fine, no suspension.  (Lucic made 4.5 million this year, BTW).

Suspend Leipsic?  Time will tell.

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We are all just fans of the game

You love hockey.  You are more than a casual fan, or else you wouldn't be reading this.  I'm right there with you:  I'm just a fan like yourself, but I've got a big mouth.  I've been trying to write about my favorite team, as well as how they relate to the rest of the 'Dub.

Jared is also a WHL fan, primarily a Kelowna Rockets fan.  He gives a damn about the game, just like you and me.  That's a beautiful thing.

We've all seen those studies about how some of our worst tendencies come out when we comment online - its often anonymous, and even when our names are attached, we are still somewhat disconnected.  Sometimes the game threads on the WHL's facebook page can go sideways, especially when US Division teams are involved.  We've seen entire posts get deleted when the Americans play the Chiefs, for example.  Again, those posters are fans, like me & you.  

Almost without exception, those threads make the case that the ref for that game is incredibly biased against every team - which has influenced how I look at officiating, being how they cannot possibly give 22 teams the short end of the stick.

Its easy to spout out in the heat of the moment - we all do it.  Our friend Jared has thought about this as well, and his comment above pushes the conversation in a positive direction - a direction about junior hockey.  I love conversations about junior hockey, don't you?

I've been there, too.  I'm not above getting worked up about this game.  I clearly remember my first trip into the Cable Box to see the 'Hawks play the Silvertips.  This is a division rival -  I hate the damn Silvertips - right?  I was wound pretty tight pulling off of I-5 into downtown Everett.  We stopped at that gator themed restaurant that's closed down now.  Well, strangely enough there were 'Tips fans in there having a good time, and I made friends with them.  Turns out, they were fans just like me, only they have that stupid bear on their sweaters.  Seems so obvious, but I had to have a beer with them to realize that.

The next night we saw the 'Hawks play the Thunderbirds in the Key.  It was a sparsely attended game, and we had some rowdy T-birds fans a few rows behind us give us some shit.  Nothing major, just a lot of heckling and some throwing of trash our way.  We moved over a section, and our new neighbors were falling all over themselves to be nice to us:  they had noticed what happened, and wanted us to know not to paint all T-birds fans with that brush.  Those fans are passionate, even if a little out of line.  Its fine - that sort of thing happens sometimes

I learned a lot from those first two WHL road games.  Then again, I might have only learned one thing, and its that we're all just fans of the same game, the same kids, & the same league.  Except Kyle Beach.  No one likes Kyle Beach.

 I don't make it to many road games, but I have been to every barn in the US Division.  Aside from that one minor incident described above, EVERYONE is nice to me.  Other hockey fans are genuinely happy that you came out to watch the game with them - at least that's been my experience.

If you want to see how I behave at a road game, you're in luck.  I happened to sit in front of the camera for Game 4 of the Everett series last year, and in the second period you can see me celebrate the 'Hawks goals.  

The time before that when I was in that barn, we made friends with some locals on the front steps post-game, and walked a few blocks to their keg party.  They rolled out the red carpet for us.  It was fun.

We could go into things like spray painting a church, or calling 911 to report an event in a hockey game,  throwing bananas at black players, or rioting, for example.  Lots of fans can take things too far.

Sometime you should ask me about starting a mini-riot at a USHL game, or wearing road colors to Game 4 of the 2001 NHL Western Conference Finals.  Again, I've been wound tight before, but its important to keep things in perspective.

Seattle V Kelowna: what the hell is going on?

After watching the highlights of game 1 - that just looks like a lot of fun.  Regan Bartel, voice of the Rockets, always has opinions.  Many observers thought that the loss of captain Colton Sissons would hurt them, but this may be a little early for them to struggle - especially after the Rockets won the BC Division.

Thom Beuning is the voice of the Thunderbirds, and he's got opinions as well.  There are several popular Tbirds blogs, like Andrew Eide's and Tyler Hunnex's site.

 As far as I can read from the game 2 highlights - a 1-1 tie after 60 minutes is pretty much a coin flip in junior hockey.  Its a high scoring league, in a game with deflections off of sticks, skates, goal posts, officials, etc etc etc.  I will say that the OT goal looks to be the prettiest of the bunch, which is nice: so many OT goals are just garbage.

Should be interesting how this series shakes out.  The Rockets need to win 4 out of 5, which is about how their regular season went.  Same with the way the Thunderbirds season went, where they only need to win 2 out of 5.  Kelowna won 2.167 games for every game that Seattle won this year, and if they can keep that up they will be fine.  Tuesday night in Kent will tell quite a bit about this series.