Friday notes

Good article in the Everett paper this morning, with some of the Silvertips players sharing their memories of Jordan Mistelbacher. The article also says the Silvertips are looking into the feasibility of having some of their players attend Mistelbacher's funeral, which is on Monday in Winnipeg.

The Tips play at home on Sunday night and then again on Wednesday night, so I guess it is do-able. The players would have to catch an early flight to Winnipeg on Monday morning. Very early, considering Winnipeg is two hours ahead of Everett time-wise and it's probably a 2.5 to 3 hour flight. And that's if they can even get a flight....how many direct Seattle-to-Winnipeg flights are there in a day anyway? None? So they might have to drive to Vancouver first to get the flight. We'll see.

The big Giants-Hitmen tilt goes tonight in Calgary, live on Shaw TV. From what I understand, the lower bowl in Calgary is completely sold and the upper bowl is mostly full as well. By game time there might only be seats available in the third deck....so this could be very close to an 18,000+ sellout.

Last night the Hitmen lost another point to the Giants as the Giants beat Edmonton while the Hitmen lost in OT in Cranbrook. So currently the race for #1 overall has Calgary ahead by four points, but Vancouver has FIVE games in hand. Since Vancouver has only lost three games in regulation all year, it seems pretty safe to say they're going to get some points from those games in hand, so they are realistically probably in the #1 spot right now.

One last note, it wasn't too much past this time last year (first week of February, I believe?) that Portland was being mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. There won't be any such early eliminations this year; the closest team to being mathematically eliminated right now is Moose Jaw, who will be eliminated with any combination of 20 Warrior losses or Raider wins. That's a long ways off yet. But what is very close (as in, likely next week sometime) is Vancouver clinching a playoff spot. Any combination of 5 Giants wins and Portland losses plus 4 Giants wins and Chilliwack losses will clinch a spot for the Giants.