10 WHL Things, Volume XXVI

By Glen Erickson

1) Scotty Munro Trophy – The Everett Silvertips sit atop the Western Hockey League standings with 81 points through 53 games. It looks like they may already have at least one hand on the Scotty Munro Trophy, awarded to the team that finishes first in the overall standings during the regular season. For those not in-the-know, Munro was one of the WHL’s original founders. The ‘Tips have an 11-point lead ahead of both the Victoria Royals and Medicine Hat Tigers, who have also played 53 games each. Consider this scenario. If either the Royals or Tigers earn 24 points during its last 15 games, they will finish the campaign with 94 points. That means Everett would have to win seven of its final 15 games to earn the 14 points required to clinch the title. As much as I think both Victoria and Medicine Hat are capable of going on a late season tear, I just don’t see the Silvertips folding its tent and losing more than half of it remaining games. In fairness, winning the regular season championship is a tremendous accomplishment, but it’s not the trophy most teams really cherish. WHL teams would certainly prefer to hoist the Ed Chynoweth Cup at the end of the post-season, which also earns them a trip to the Memorial Cup tournament. The last team to win both the Munro and Chynoweth trophies was the 2018-2019 Prince Albert Raiders.

2) Hot Hand – When I opined last week about the Vancouver Giants chances in the WHL post season, the team was mired in a run of rather inconsistent performances through late January and early February. Indeed, the Giants have compiled a 5-4-1 record over its last 10 contests. But perhaps Vancouver summoned up a statement-win at the Langley Events Centre this past weekend, 6-2 over the league-leading Silvertips. Might this serve to buoy the Giants fortunes as we head into the regular season stretch run? No doubt the Giants remembered Everett’s previous visit to Langley back on November 29, when the hosts absorbed an ugly 7-1 thrashing. Goaltender Burke Hood was outstanding in the win, blocking 37 of 39 Silvertips shots. But it was team captain Madzen Leslie’s night, as he chipped in with five points, including his 50^th career goal. That tally cements the Lloydminster-native as the all-time career goal scoring leader among Giants defencemen. Leslie, 19, is eligible to play in the league next season as an overager. To date, Leslie has played 263 regular season games. Vancouver has 17 games remaining, 10 of which are on the road in some tough western conference locales.

3) Famine to Feast – What could have turned into a real lousy three-game road trip for the Prince Albert Raiders through southern Alberta last week, certainly ended on a high note. Prior to embarking on the road trip, the Raiders had won eight of its previous nine contests. Call it a gauntlet of sorts, as the Raiders dropped the first two games in Lethbridge (3-1) and Calgary (6-1). Indeed, the two Central Division powers had their way with Prince Albert and that led to a tough task for the Raiders as the third and final game was slated for Medicine Hat. Well, credit the scrappy Raiders, who hung in there to topple the eastern conference-leading Tigers, 5-4 in overtime at Co-Op Place. The win prevented a three-game losing streak and enabled Prince Albert to remain atop the East Division standings with the Saskatoon Blades, tied with 60 points. It doesn’t get any easier for Prince Albert this week, as the Tigers invade the Art Hauser Center Wednesday, the Raiders entertain Swift Current and Calgary on the weekend. The Raiders are 7-2-0-1 in its last ten.

4) From The Booth – Nice to hear Jeff Hollick on the play-by-play call last week for the third period between the host Calgary Hitmen and the Prince Albert Raiders, a contest the Hitmen won, 3-1. No word on Brad “Sweet Victory” Curle’s brief hiatus after calling the first two periods, but he was back in the saddle for Calgary’s overtime win against Edmonton on Friday. Hollick, a colleague of mine with DUBNetwork for a few years, handles colour on Hitmen broadcasts and is no stranger behind the mic. He was the long-time play-by-play voice of the Kootenay Ice when the team was in Cranbrook. I enjoy the Curle/Hollick tandem, perhaps the top, veteran pairing in the WHL and I frequently tune into their broadcasts. Back in the day, I really enjoyed the Vancouver Giants broadcasts featuring Dan O’Connor and Bill Wilms, too. There are a many amusing stories from broadcasters about colour analysts having to come in from the bullpen, one particular tale in Spokane that related in part to the rather inconvenient location of restroom facilities in the building. I’ll have to keep you in suspense on that one. Suffice to say there can be some adventures!

5) Wheels On The Bus – Speaking of Spokane, if you can do some spadework online, you should be able to find the neat little video of the new “wrap” around the Spokane Chiefs team bus. It’s a beauty! Kudos to the Chiefs ownership group for pulling the trigger on this. I like that when WHL teams travel across western Canada and the northwest United States, their respective modes of transportation become portable billboards. Well, this is the case for most teams. The Chiefs logo has always been among the tops in the WHL, IMO, and I like how the nifty new look loudly promotes the city of Spokane as well. It’s a great look and the “2X Memorial Cup Champions” messaging is a really nice touch. The Chiefs play seven more games on the road, including three north of the border. WHL fans in Kamloops and Victoria can get a closeup look at the new digs!

6) Scoring Race – If Andrew Cristall continues to score according to form this season, the WHL will have its first 100-point scorer this weekend. With 95 points through 40 games, that’s a scoring clip of 2.38 points per outing. The Chiefs play three times this week. Do the math…Gavin McKenna could join Cristall in the 100-point club if he has a big week. The Tigers play three times as well and McKenna needs eight points. His point-per-game average is 2.09, but Medicine Hat has the Regina Pats on its dance card Saturday night. The Tigers have hung a 10-spot on the Pats in each of the team’s last two meetings…Last season, Jagger Firkus of the Moose Jaw Warriors won the scoring race and captured the Bob Clarke Trophy with 126 points. Cristall finished with 111, while McKenna had 97. A total of 10 players finished with 100 points or more.

7) A Speed Bump – A surprising turn of events in Medicine Hat on the weekend amid so much chest-pounding in the Gas City after the Tigers successful road trip through the U.S. Division. The Tigers collected 11 of a possible 12 points on what is always a challenging roady. But upon its return to Medicine Hat, the eastern conference leaders dropped two straight at Co-Op Place, 5-3 to the Swift Current Broncos after an uncharacteristic third-period collapse, followed the next night by the loss to Prince Albert in extra time. In fairness, the injury bug played a minor role, as elite WHL rearguard Bryce Pickford was unavailable for both games and is likely out another week or so. Then, overage forward Oasiz Wiesblatt, with ten seconds to play in the tilt against the Broncos, took an unnecessary charging major and game misconduct. The Tigers captain sat out the contest against Prince Albert, said to be a one-game suspension levied by the league office. The only other time Wiesblatt has been suspended, it was a one-gamer for a cross-checking infraction against the Winnipeg ICE back in April of 2022. Medicine Hat looks to get off the mat this week after three straight losses when it travels to cold and blustery northern Saskatchewan for games in Saskatoon and Prince Albert.

8) Attendance Musings – Only 10 of 22 teams are averaging over 4,000 fans per home game this season. Of course, the buildings in Prince Albert and Swift Current do not have capacity to hit the 4,000 mark. Surprisingly to me, Kelowna Rockets fans are among those 10 teams, despite rather a porous regular season so far. And the fans have certainly answered the bell in Prince George of late, a market that experienced some extremely lean years at the ticket wicket. Of the teams averaging below 4,000 per outing, the head-scratchers have to be Lethbridge, Medicine Hat and Victoria. Each team plays in a terrific facility and each organization has gone out of its way this season to demonstrate to their respective fanbases that they are indeed “all-in”. Yet, it doesn’t seem the masses in these cities are willing to get off their wallets. At some point if I get really bored, I’ll do the math and figure out each team’s percentage of capacity for home games. That’s a calculation that would illustrate how many seats go unoccupied on average for each team’s home games. But, that probably wouldn’t be entirely fair to the teams playing in NHL-sized buildings. The bottom line is ticket sales are pretty important to the, er, bottom line.

9) Odd ‘N Ends – Don’t forget the W.N.I.T.D. (Wednesday Night In The Dub) telecast between the Medicine Hat Tigers and host Prince Albert Raiders. Nick Nielsen is pretty much always on his game, an entertaining young play-by-play man. He’ll be joined in the booth at the Art Hauser Centre by long-time analyst Martin Ring … Some numbers for you to ruminate over. The Tri City Americans sit in fourth place in the U.S Division and seventh overall in the western conference standings with a record of 25-21-4-1. That includes a run of 12 consecutive wins between October 12 and November 11. Prior to the winning streak, the Amerks were 1-3-1 … A total of 37 shutouts have been posted league-wide so far this season. The most saves made by a netminder earning a clean sheet? Burke Hood of the Vancouver Giants with 44 stops on January 4 in a 7-0 drubbing of the Kelowna Rockets … Carter Bear of the Everett Silvertips and Logan Wormald of the Lethbridge Hurricanes share the league lead with nine game-winning goals apiece … When the WHL, and indeed leagues all over the globe, decided to embrace loser-points by adding regular season overtime and shootouts, “specialists”, so to speak, are regularly summoned to participate in the penalty shot crapshoot. So far this season, Braeden Cootes and Matej Pekar of the Seattle Thunderbirds lead the league with three shootout goals apiece. A total of 17 players have scored two each … Hunter St. Martin of the Medicine Hat Tigers leads the league with six shorthanded goals … With point #10 just around the corner for your reading pleasure, let’s acknowledge Tyler McKenzie of the Everett Silvertips, who leads the league with four empty net goals.

10) Ovechkin vs. Gretzky – Okay, it’s not WHL stuff, but it sure is newsworthy these days. For the clown car dwellers who choose to rip on Alex Ovechkin for his bushel of empty net tallies while pursuing the all-time National Hockey League goal scoring record, maybe just ponder this professional hockey reality. Why has Ovechkin been put on the ice so frequently over the years to help his team protect the lead late in a game? I’ll wager it’s because the powers-that-be consider him a complete enough player to handle the responsibility. Anyway, the numbers posted by these two legends are quite similar. Gretzky played 20 seasons, 1487 games and tallied 894 times. Add another 122 goals in 208 playoff games. Ovechkin is playing in his 19^th season, so the numbers change every time out. Through February 8, 2025, Ovechkin has scored 879 goals in 1465 games. In 151 post-season encounters, Ovie has tallied 72 times. Even if and or when the Great 8 strikes for goal #895 to overtake the Great One for regular season goals scored, he will still have to pot another 49 markers to match Gretzky’s combined total. Regardless, maybe we should all just admit it has really been fun to watch.