Tuesday thoughts

The league has handed down judgement on Red Deer's J.D. Watt for his hit on Saskatoon's Teigan Zahn, and it's a stiff one by the usual WHL standards: six games. Seems like most WHL "supplemental discipline" suspensions are the 1 or 2 game variety, so the league must not have liked what they saw in this hit at all.

The next question I have about this situation is what is being done about the officials at the game. Watt was not even assessed a penalty on the play, but what he did was bad enough apparently to warrant a six game suspension? There has to be some accountability for why with a two-ref system either neither of them saw this incident, or neither thought it was a penalty. The refs for the game were Adam Byblow and Trevor Hrycuik; Byblow was apparently the back referee on the play (which means he should be watching for infractions away from the puck), which somehow is not surprising to me. Byblow, you may recall, was suspended by the league last November for his poor performance in a game, with the league stating that "the performance of the referee was below the expected standard of officiating in the League". Given how rare it is for a sports league to publicly acknowledge incompetence by their officials, he must have really stunk. Hopefully this latest game draws him some scrutiny as well.

And the last note on this incident goes to all the cynics who join me in wondering whether Watt would have gotten six games if Brent Sutter were still running the league. Err, I mean running the Rebels.

With no games yesterday, it's kind of a slow news day today, so for fun, I took a look back at my season predictions of just a month ago, to see how I'm doing. That's when the fun went out of it. Overall, not too bad but some of the picks are looking like real stinkers now. Ouch!

My picks for the Eastern division, from September 18:
1. Regina
2. Swift Current
3. Moose Jaw
4. Prince Albert
5. Saskatoon
6. Brandon

Current East standings (using winning % to smooth out differences in games played):
1. Swift Current (.750)
2. Brandon (.750)
3. Regina (.636)
4. Moose Jaw (.556)
5. Saskatoon (.438)
6. Prince Albert (.333)

Obviously I grossly overestimated the Wheat Kings' decline due to rebuilding. I should have known better, I under-respected them in their last rebuilding year three years ago too. Nothing else seems too terribly off although I definitely expected the Raiders to be better than .333. I thought for sure they'd have better than the 2nd-worst offence in the league.

My picks for the Central division, from September 19:
1. Calgary
2. Medicine Hat
3. Lethbridge
4. Kootenay
5. Red Deer
6. Edmonton

Current Central standings (using winning % to smooth out differences in games played):
1. Medicine Hat (.773)
2. Calgary (.731)
3. Edmonton (.500)
4. Lethbridge (.450)
5. Red Deer (.409)
6. Kootenay (.292)

Really, really underestimated how much the Ice would struggle. I thought they would have a chance to fight with Medicine Hat and Lethbridge for 2nd-3rd-4th. A team with this many veteran players could not be this bad after finishing 2nd last year, could they? As it is now, they may have to fight to avoid the basement.

My picks for the B.C. division, from September 20:
1. Kamloops
2. Vancouver
3. Chilliwack
4. Kelowna
5. Prince George

Current B.C. standings (using winning % to smooth out differences in games played):
1. Vancouver (.800)
2. Chilliwack (.700)
3. Kamloops (.500)
3. Kelowna (.500)
5. Prince George (.222)

I thought Chilliwack would be improved over last year but no way did I think they'd be at .700 at this point. And Kamloops is a bit off a lot of people's expectations as well.

My picks for the U.S. division, from September 20:
1. Everett
2. Seattle
3. Spokane
4. Tri-City
5. Portland

Current U.S. standings (using winning % to smooth out differences in games played):
1. Seattle (.833)
2. Tri-City (.700)
3. Spokane (.667)
4. Everett (.444)
5. Portland (.111)

Everett is the big surprise here, and not in a good way. So many 3 and 4-year vets on that team too, how can they be having this much trouble? Surely Peter Mueller can't be the only reason....and I picked them first even with the expectation that Mueller would not return. They might be missing Constantine a lot more than I gave him credit for. Tri-City is also doing a fair bit better than I expected, while Portland is a lot worse. I mean, I know I picked Portland for last so right now that one is actually bang-on but I thought they'd be better than .111 this year. Worst offence in the league and 3rd-worst defence. Yikes!