Monday notes

Two big bits of news this afternoon...

First, Rogers Sportsnet has announced their schedule of CHL games that they'll carry this winter. You can find the complete schedule here but the short of it is that there's only 5 WHL games on the list of 18 regular season games they're going to cover from now through the end of the season.

Of course they will add some playoff games and also cover the entire Memorial Cup as always, but only five WHL games - and only one of those is being covered nationally, the rest are all Sportsnet West regional games - is really giving short shrift to the juniors. Just once it would be nice to see a major network take a real interest in the CHL.

The WHL games they're showing are:

Jan 11: Prince George at Vancouver
Feb 16: Medicine Hat at Saskatoon
Feb 23: Kootenay at Red Deer
Feb 28: Calgary at Edmonton
Mar 13: Red Deer at Calgary

Only the March 13 game is on the national network and shown coast-to-coast.

The other bit of news is a huge one for USA hockey fans, as USA Hockey announced today that four players currently in the pros have been released to play for USA at the World Juniors. They are forwards Kyle Palmieri, Jeremy Morin, and Jerry D'Amigo (who I somehow missed on my list of eligible players in the pros from last week), and defenceman Nick Leddy. So far, only defenceman Cam Fowler has not been released to the USA squad and since he's one of the leading ice-time getters on the Anaheim Ducks, it's pretty unlikely that he's going to be released anyway.

Certainly a big boost for Team USA as they look to defend their gold medal from last year.

USA Hockey will announce the full roster of players invited to their tryout camp tomorrow morning.