Monday notes

Couple notes this morning....

First, Moose Jaw got overage forward Brendan Rowinski back from the injury list on the weekend, which means the Warriors now have four overage players on their roster - goaltender Thomas Heemskerk and forwards Rowinski, Dylan Hood, and Spencer Edwards. If I am not mistaken, the rules give the Warriors two weeks to make a decision on which three to keep. So, By November 20th they must either trade or release one of those four. Heemskerk is the #1 goalie there and his backup - Brandon Stone - has 90 minutes of career WHL experience so it seems very unlikely that Heemskerk is going anywhere. The three forwards, it's probably a toss-up....Edwards is the team captain which you would think might protect him a bit, but I guess anything can happen.

The other note, I got an email from a reader about the Hitmen's poor start to the season. After being 4-4 after 8 games, the Hitmen have now lost 9 in a row and are dead-last in the league at 4-13 - a .235 pace. Anyway, I was asked whether I thought they would still make the playoffs; I know I never made any predictions here on the blog but back in training camp I figured the Hitmen would be in 7th-8th-9th by season's end. In other words, scrapping for one of the last playoff spots.

Well, it's now November and regardless of what I might have thought before, it is looking very bad for the team with the WHL's longest streak of consecutive years in the playoffs (the last time the Hitmen missed the postseason was 1996-97). Last season you needed 78 points to make the playoffs in the Eastern conference. If we assume that number is true again this year, then the Hitmen need 70 points in their last 55 games to get into the playoffs. That requires them to play .636 hockey from now through the end of the season in order to make the playoffs. You don't have to be an expert on anything to realize the extreme improbability of a team that is .235 after 17 games - and at their best point were only .500 this season - suddenly playing .636 for 55 games.

As the saying goes, you can't win the title at the start of the season - but you can sure lose it.

I don't think anyone else in the league is in the same boat as Calgary quite yet - nobody else is more than 4 points out of a playoff spot in their conference at the moment anyway.