Friday notes

So the Team Canada Olympic orientation camp scrimmage sold out the Saddledome in Calgary last night....over 19,000 people paid $40 to $80 a ticket to watch a non-contact scrimmage on a gorgeous summer evening in August. Only in Canada.....but it does raise the question of why the NHL is so insistent on wasting its time in some markets where they probably couldn't draw 19,000 people to game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals.

One other NHL note, former NHL head coach Jacques Demers was named to the Canadian Senate yesterday by Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Now, I like Jacques Demers, he is a very nice man and was a pretty good coach back in his day....but a few years back he revealed that he was illiterate - unable to read or write much more than his name. How is he supposed to read through and understand legislation which may be hundreds of pages of complicated language which even reasonably well-educated people may have difficulty comprehending? Oh, right, it's the Canadian Senate....aka the "Jobless Thanks". Never mind.

The WHL exhibition season kicked off last night in Prince Albert, with the Saskatoon Blades posting a 5-1 victory over the host Raiders. Sean Aschim scored for the Raiders, while the Blades got two goals from Brent Benson and singles from Tyler Matheson, Duncan Siemans and Charles Inglis. Jacob Edwards and Eric Williams split the time in the Raider net, while Chris Sharkey and Tyler Oswald did the same in the Blades net.

And the Prince George Cougars will kick off their training camp today....other teams are playing exhibition games already and some others still haven't started camps. Wacky.

Some WHL news from around the league's camps now.....first, an interesting rumour in the Prince Albert paper today. Tigers forward Travis Dunstall, who is at home awaiting a trade, says he would play for the Raiders. And whaddya know, the Raiders have former first round bantam pick Cole Penner awaiting a trade as well....and Penner is a Medicine Hat minor hockey product. There would probably have to be some other pieces in the deal too, but there just might be something to be had here.

Still in Medicine Hat, some older rookies know this is probably their last chance at a WHL career. Of additional note in that article is the revelation that defenceman Bo Montgomery has decided once again to call it quits on his WHL career. It's really too bad, because Montgomery actually looked pretty good last year with the Tigers.

In Kelowna, several rookie defencemen are looking to earn a spot on the defending champs. And in Everett, Corey Tyrell hopes to get the opportunity he feels he never got in Prince George. Still with Prince George too, some local players hope to make an impression at Cats camp, including a potential overage policeman.

In Regina, Brayden Metz hopes to resurrect his WHL career where it almost began. And in Red Deer, the battle for backup goalie duties comes down to two players, one old, one young, with a half-season's WHL experience each. Red Deer is also down to 7 defencemen as well (there's 8 d-men left in camp but one is a 15 year old), so it looks like they're done with the cuts at that position too. So really, only forwards are left to battle for positions there.