Wednesday stuff

Firstoff today, Gregg Drinnan has an awesome piece on Ed Chynoweth in the Kamloops paper today and on his blog. If you haven't read it already, you owe it to yourself to click that link and go read it, especially if maybe you're slightly fuzzy on just what big Ed did for the WHL.

I love Gregg's last line: Ed Chynoweth also is survived by a hockey league. How very true, because even though Ed didn't found or "father" the league, he certainly raised it. Without his leadership over the years, we might not have a WHL today.....or we might have one that looks a lot worse than what we have today.

Moving on.....last night's games saw the Americans knot the Western conference series 2-2, while the Eastern conference series saw the Hurricanes eliminate the Hitmen in game three. Not an official elimination of course, but nobody comes back from down 3-0 after looking as bad in the first three games as the Hitmen have. I can believe a team might win four straight if they only lost three close ones to start the series, but this series has not been close. Don't rule out the Hurricanes finishing off a sweep tonight.

It really looks like Hitmen GM Kelly Kisio's decision not to acquire a goaltender at the trade deadline is biting him in the ass right now. Both his goaltenders have collectively shit the bed this series and can't even make routine saves now.....combine that with the stellar play of Juha Metsola at the other end and goaltending is really deciding this series.

Personally, I'll be surprised if Dan Spence ever plays for the Hitmen again. He wasn't a sure thing to be in their overage trio next year anyway and I don't know how you can keep a goalie as an overage now after repeatedly having to pull him in the playoffs the year before.

Bantam draft is only 8 days away....I have a quick list of some of the top prospects that I'm getting ready to post. Look for it later today.

The Canadian U-18 team, with its 7 WHLers, goes for gold this morning against Russia at the World U-18 championships in Kazan, Russia. The game starts at 9am MDT and will be shown live on TSN. It may (don't know for sure) also be streamed live on TSN.ca if you want to watch the game that way.....or you can follow it live at the IIHF website. UPDATE: Canada walloped Russia 8-0 to win the gold....good day for the 'dub kids, with four of the eight goals coming from WHL products. Jordan Eberle with two, and Brayden Schenn and Brandon McMillan added singles.

Earlier this morning, USA won the bronze by beating Sweden 6-3.

At the Telus Cup, the Winnipeg Thrashers won again to improve to 2-0 at the tournament, giving them sole possession of first place already after playing just two of the five round-robin games. Meanwhile, the Calgary Buffaloes tied Sudbury to sit in a three-way tie for fourth place. The Buffaloes really have to win some games now if they want to qualify for the playoffs. Today the Buffaloes play the Atlantic rep, the Cole Harbour McCains, while the Thrashers play the host Ottawa Valley Titans. Link to the Telus Cup is here. And if you want to watch the Telus Cup games live, they are being streamed at www.telushockeycanada.com. If anyone actually watches a game there, let me know if it's any good.....