Tuesday notes

Everett has one less defenceman today after the team sent 17 year old Eddie Friesen home yesterday for disciplinary reasons. The fact that Friesen got sent home while Karamnov and Mistelbacher have been reinstated probably means that either Friesen's transgression was more serious, or it wasn't Friesen's first offence. Or you could be cynical and say that he was expendable to the team while the other two weren't. Either way, credit to the team for having the moxie to make these tough decisions. It's a message to the rest of the team that team rules have to be followed. Friesen, meanwhile, can go play Jr A at home for the rest of the year and hope he matures enough that he'll get another chance at the WHL next year.

Is Tommy Tartaglione about to unseat Real Cyr as the permanent #1 in Prince George? Tartaglione shut out the Giants last night, and a look at the two's numbers would indicate that Tartaglione is playing far better to Cyr this year: 2.94 vs 4.64 GAA, .910 vs .861 SV%. About the only place Cyr is better is in the wins-losses department.....but with numbers like those, it's not necessarily Tartaglione's fault that he isn't winning.

After first calling out his goaltenders, then the entire team, Saskatoon coach/GM Lorne Molleken has run out of players to blame for the team's poor play lately. So, who to single out now? The coaches!

The Hitmen finally named their captain and alternates yesterday. Karl Alzner is the captain, with the alternates being veteran forwards Ryan White, Carson McMillan, and Brett Sonne.

From Andy Kemper's blog: in their last four visits to Portland, the Spokane Chiefs are 4-0 and have outscored the Winter Hawks 33-8. Wow. Talk about putting the boots to a rival while they're down. I am honestly surprised how bad Portland is this year - really they are not any better than they were last year and they may actually be worse. Last year they had 37 points in 72 games, with 146 GF and 316 GA. With the pace they are on this year, they will finish with an amazingly bad 19 points, and only 130 GF with 288 GA. That's a slight improvement on defence but a few less goals scored and a lot less points. For the record, the WHL mark for fewest points in a 72 game season is owned by the 89-90 Victoria Cougars, who recorded only 12 points that year. I don't think anyone would suggest that Portland is as bad as those truly horrible Cougars teams were, but 19 points is 19 points and the league is a lot more watered-down now than it was in 89-90 when there were just 14 teams. I didn't think Portland was going to make the playoffs this year but I thought they would come close and at least be competitive.....and they aren't. At this rate they could be mathematically eliminated by the trade deadline.

UPDATE: Vancouver is down a player now after defenceman/forward Nolan Toigo has quit the team and maybe hockey altogether. More on Steve Ewen's blog. Sounds like Toigo just didn't have his heart in it anymore. He is the nephew of Giants owner Ron Toigo.