Monday notes

OK, who thought the Oil Kings would be 2-0 after their first two games? And against a consistently strong organization like the Ice, to boot? It's early days yet and I'm still sure when the curtain falls on the season in March that the Oil Kings will be on the outside looking in, but it is certainly an impressive start. Could the home opener have had any more of a thrilling finish than that, with the winning goal coming with 1.4 seconds left? Not a classic game overall but certainly a finish that Edmonton fans will remember and hopefully come back for more. Beats the hell out of, say, getting pasted by 4 or 5 goals like what happened to a couple other teams in their home openers on the weekend.

The two losses also makes me reconsider what the Ice may want to do with their overage situation. I had them keeping DaSilva, Greenan, and Bauer before, but with the team surrendering 10 goals in two games to an expansion team, they might want to consider keeping Kurceba instead of Bauer for another veteran presence on the blueline. Bauer was a scratch both nights so maybe that's the plan anyway. I'm not sure why they bothered dressing Luke Wiens in the Saturday game when it's obvious to almost all observers that he won't earn an overage spot - and his penalty in that game resulted in the 4th (and winning) Edmonton goal on the powerplay that night.

One last note about Edmonton though - those are some seriously ugly uniforms. Who thought those shades of red and blue looked good together? And with that ugly yellow logo? Not quite as bad as the Hitmen starburst logo and pink-trimmed uniforms from 95-96 but still, ugh. Glad I don't have to watch that 36 times this year.

Some fans are talking up the Wheat Kings after their 5-1 and 6-1 whippings of the Blades on the weekend. I guess I don't see why two lopsided wins over a team with maybe the worst defence in the league is really all that unusual. If things don't improve on Saskatoon's blueline, there will be a lot more nights like those. Also note that Blades goalie Garrett Zemlak sports a GAA of 13.93 today. Ouch!

Good start to the season for the Americans - 3-0 on opening weekend. For one day at least, that gives them sole possession of first overall in the league. The Hitmen could join them at 3-0 with a win over Kootenay tonight in a rare Monday WHL game. The Ams get more good news too with the return of Colton Yellow Horn from the Tampa Bay Lightning system. The move gives the Ams four very good overagers now, which forces a trade before October 11, but that's not a bad thing when you consider that whoever they trade will fetch a nice return.

And speaking of the Hitmen, they could be better than they played in the two wins over the rebuilding Rebels. Getting Ryan White and Alex Plante back from NHL camps will be a help (I understand White is coming back today but Plante is still hurt) but even the players that are there now can play better than they did on Friday in particular. And why is Karl Alzner getting into fights? Somebody needs to wake up to the realization that the guys who are your meal tickets shouldn't be fighting.

And still with Red Deer, they may have gotten J.D. Watt back from the Flames but they probably shouldn't hold their breath about Brett Sutter. Sutter has been very impressive in Flames camp and is getting a very long look - to the point where his name has actually been mentioned once or twice as a guy who might be in contention for one of the few open forward spots on the NHL club this year. Given that, it's hard to imagine him being returned to junior instead of being sent to the AHL if he doesn't make the NHL roster. If he's really that close to being ready for the NHL, he's far better off playing in the AHL this year than junior.

Everett starting the year 0-2 must be a surprise to some people. I know it was for me. They did not have Zach Hamill for the first game and didn't have Peter Mueller for either game, although they better get used to that one. But they did have Leland Irving for both games and his numbers quite frankly suck. 5.09 GAA and .833 SV% for a first round NHL pick is just brutal regardless of how the team played in front of you. I don't care if a guy faced nothing but point-blank one-timers all night, anyone with those credentials should have better than an 83.3% success rate at stopping them. He needs to be a lot better. As for the rest of the team, getting Dane Crowley back from Tampa Bay Lightning camp yesterday should help the defence.

Here's a factoid though: when was the last time the Silvertips were two games under .500? Not since November 5, 2003 - almost four years. They were 5-7-3 on that date and have never been more than a game under .500 since. In fact, in four years the worst the team has ever been is 4 games under .500, which is what they were after an 0-4-1 start that same year.