Contest winners and merch

I'm far to indecisive I was so impressed with everyone's posters, so the winners are as follows:

• Most humorous and/or ironic: Mikaela's "I Believe in Riley McIntosh"
• Best use of pattern: Amanda's
• Best use of pot reference: Spokant's
• Most information conveyed: Wangler's Drozd poster
• Best in show goes of course, to MommaBaum.*
  

Loser: sister. for not even trying. Like Wayne Gretzky said, "you miss 100% of the shots you never take."

I will get your autographed player photos to you as soon as I can :)

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HUGE props to the amazing design team here at IMWGG... who have come up with some great ideas for player shirts. All are available on my Zazzle site (link here or click on hammer hockey player on the right).


It's a bit spendier because it's got printing on both sides, but it's still pretty rad.


I love this one. Also a little more because of the white on dark.


Brilliant.

*and not just because Adam Hughesman said so.

Wow.

Eight goals against one of the best teams in the WHL. I had to keep checking to see if it was real life.

THIRTEEN DIFFERENT AMERICANS HAD POINTS LAST NIGHT.

That, my friends, is scoring by committee. Wait till Sergei's back too.

Asuchak, Prokop, Lazo, Moser, Castro, Sutherland, Feser, Reddick, Macek, Messier, McIntosh, Hughesman, and of course Brendan Shinnimin.

I thought it was one of Brock Sutherland's best games ever. Neal Prokop as well, he continues to impress. Same with that Drydn Dow. I could just go through the roster and say how impressed I am with virtually every one of them.

The win puts AMS at the top of the Western Conference and tied for second with Calgary in the WHL. Shinny is 2nd in scoring (5th in goals), and Owsley remains in 1st with the most wins in the WHL.

I BELIEVE IN JIM HILLER

And do we really need to talk about Drew Owsley or his awesomeness just a given at this point? Seriously, I peed a little with a couple of those lightning quick, grab-outta-the-air glove saves. Sister and I were in too much disbelief to remember to hold up our "I Believe in Drew Owsley" sign.

To those on ye olde board of messages, who think this team isn't big enough, tough enough, and want to trade away future pieces, I hope you saw the work of Asuchak, Prokop, Castro, Sutherland, Messier, and even McIntosh last night. Yes, I'm aware the Giants, despite their name, aren't the biggest team like Portland or Brandon (those guys were big), but I am not of the belief the AMS are too small or not physical enough to compete this season (and go deep into playoffs).

With Brandon willing to pay high to acquire pieces to make them better for the Memorial Cup, I believe the price will be too high if Bob did decide another piece was needed for this team. Again, I personally think there's a great combination of speed, skill, size, and grit dispersed throughout the current lineup to be competitive. And depth, 4 lines that can score. Defense that can block shots and score goals.

Game Day, Contest, and some random bits

First, from Drinnan:

F Ryan Kinasewich (Medicine Hat, Tri-City, 1998-2004) of the Utah Grizzlies is the ECHL’s Reebok player of the month for October. He led the ECHL with nine goals, three of them game-winners, in five games. He totalled 14 points in those five games. He had three or more points in four of the games. . . . In 229 ECHL games over six seasons, he has 307 points. That includes 269 points in 187 games with Utah. He also became Utah’s all-time leading scorer when he notched his 112th goal on Oct. 24. . . . And he is nine points shy of Chris Taylor’s franchise record for career points (278).

Utah is in Boise facing the Steelheads tomorrow night. Sister and I were gonna go but damn, money is tight. Sucks. We try to get over to Boise at least once a year, it's good hockey, fun to watch another level play.

The Central league’s Amarillo Gorillas have signed F Jason Beeman (Tri-City, 2001-06). Beeman, 24, played for the China Sharks of the Asian league last season.

I LOL'd at the team name in the same sentence with Jason Beeman.

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The boys are finally back at Toyota Center to face off against Vancouver Giants. Seems like it's been forever since there's been a home game. Tidbits from the Herald:

"They are clearly one of the most successful franchises in the league," said Tri-City coach Jim Hiller. "You want to measure up to them. If you can compete with them, it gives you confidence."

The Americans won the first meeting between the teams 5-3 on Oct. 17 at Pacific Coliseum, but they had to rally from two goals down before taking control of the game in the third period.

"We have to play better than that," Hiller said. "I think we have to go harder to the net and draw penalties. We are fast to the net, but sometimes we get too cutesie."

"There are no easy games. We were bound to lose sometime," Hiller said. "Sometimes you win and not play as well as you should. Chilliwack outworked us. We've changed that."

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Tonight's game is the deadline for the "I BELIEVE" contest. I had two more delivered to my inbox this morning:


This one from Mikaela who gets mad points for surprising the hell out of me :)


This one from Wangler, it translates to "I Believe in Sergei Drozd". It shows the progression of all the teams he's played for. I am rather impressed. I also really dig the Belarussian team's logo.

So if I still haven't seen your entry for the contest, email me or find me at the game so I can have a look!

Oh Sergei...

DROZD CONTINUES TO REWRITE WJAC RECORD BOOK

When he arrived in Camrose, Alta., for the 2008 World Junior A Challenge, Siarhei Drozd was a relatively unknown commodity, a good player on a Belarus team many expected to finish near the bottom of the pack.

By the time he finishes his second WJAC tour of duty this week in Summerside, the tournament record book may well by a tribute to the Minsk native.

Drozd made a splash in his first game, scoring twice on the power play as Belarus pulled off what is likely the biggest upset in tournament history, beating the two-time defending gold medalists from Canada West in a shootout.

He finished the 2008 tournament as the leading goal scorer, potting seven – breaking the previous single-year record of six. The seven goals also made him the tournament’s all-time leading goal scorer – no other player had scored more than six, let alone in one year.

Drozd’s WJAC résumé includes:
• Most goals, all-time – 10
• Most power play goals, all-time – 7
• Most hat tricks, all-time – 2
• Most goals, one year – 7
• Most power play goals, one year – 5
• Most points, one game – 5 (shared)
• Most power play goals, one game – 3
• Most goals, one period – 3 (shared)
• Most power play goals, one period – 3
• Most points, one period – 3 (shared)
• Fastest goals from the start of a period – 0:13
• Fastest three goals, one player – 3:46
• Fastest three power play goals, one player – 3:46

Many of Drozd’s single-game records came in last year’s quarter-final victory over Germany, when he single-handedly led Belarus to the semifinals for the first time, scoring three times early in the third period to turn a 4-3 Belarussian lead into a 7-3 advantage.

He also added a pair of assists for good measure in the victory, joining Canada West’s Tyler McNeely (2006) and the United States’ Barry Almeida (2007) as the only players to rack up five points in a single game.

So what’s next? Drozd enters the quarter-finals with 12 career points (10g, 2a), just four shy of the all-time record held by Canada West’s Casey Pierro-Zabotel, who won a pair of gold medals in 2006 and 2007. And it wouldn’t surprise anyone in attendance at Molson Canadian Arena at CUP this week to see him claim that record as well.

Drozd’s performance in Camrose did more than just earn him a number of spots in the WJAC record book; he was selected 67th overall in the 2009 Canadian Hockey League Import Draft by the WHL’s Prince George Cougars, who then traded his rights to the Tri-City Americans.

He has flourished with the Americans thus far, putting up 10 points (3g, 7a) in 13 games while adapting to the North American game full time.

Before he gets back to the WHL grind, though, Drozd has two more WJAC performances to put on, beginning with a quarter-final showdown with Canada West.
As the only team with two regulation losses, the Belarussians will enter the playoff match-up as decided underdogs.

But as he showed one year ago, against the same team, Drozd enjoys that position just fine.

Yes, I totally just cut and pasted that whole thing from the Hockey Canada site. Don't care.

The boys getting respect in Calgary too :)

Spokant pointed me (and others) to this article yesterday in the comments, from the Calgary Sun:

Oh say, can you see ...

Americans proving to be dawn's early light of the WHL campaign

By SCOTT FISHER

Most WHL teams have reached the quarter-pole of the season.

And, without question, the red-hot Tri-City Americans are the talk of the league.

It's not that the Americans, who posted a 101-point campaign last season, were expected to flounder.

But few were predicting a league-best 13-3 start to the season.

Head coach Jim Hiller said there were a number of openings in training camp after the club said good-bye to three key graduates.

Taylor Procyshen, Jason Reese and Mitch Fadden piled up a combined 238 points last season.

"We lost three 20-year-olds who played a lot of minutes last season," Hiller said. "We thought we had some guys who were capable of filling those minutes."

One player who's made the most of his increased ice time is 18-year-old centre Brenden Shinnimin.

The Winnipeg product leads the team with a dozen goals and 28 points through 16 games.

"He's one of the guys who we thought would be capable of stepping up," Hiller said of Shinnimin, who had 25 points in 64 tilts last season.

"We knew he'd be good, but he has been great to start the season. There was some opportunities created by (losing the overagers).

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"Yeah, (the fans) have been spoiled -- no question" Hiller said. "There was a question as to who would replace Carey. Then it was, 'Who's going to replace Chet?'

"Both of our guys have answered that question."

Drew Owsley has posted a 12-3 record and is among the league leaders with a 2.42 goals-against average and a .916 save percentage.

Prior to last night's game in Kamloops, backup Brett Martyniuk had yet to surrender a goal in 69 minutes of work.

No Doubt About It

ok, that title didn't work. I wanted to have it be "No DOWbt about it" but that's ridiculous. The point is, I wanted to give Drydn Dow some mad props for his sick game last night. Yes, he'll get waffles when I get home and can get to pictures to put his lovely face there :)

First TWO WHL goals! This kid is good. Srsly. I have been impressed with him from the start and now he's adding in some offense? Shut the front door! I love it!

Other awesomeness from the game (in addition to the 8-3 score):

• Hometown kid Spencer Asuchak not only finally got playing time, but had two points, the first of his career! Huzzah!
• Neal Prokop with his first goal as an American (RAWR!)
• Kruise Reddick with another shortie
• AMS with 49 (!) shots on goal
• Shinny keeps racking up goals
• AMS went 4-1 on the road, that's pretty sweet
• Power play is clicking, with the second unit contributing a lot
• Jordan Messier is fantastic, glad to see him contributing, same with Brooks Macek
• Drew Owsley keeps winning games, do you believe?

Speaking of believing in Drew Owsley, remember the contest ends in two days! I wanna see signs!! I hear there's several in the works, I can't wait to see 'em!

READ IT

We need to make a change now, because kids who move away from home to play junior hockey at 16 or 17 are still impressionable. If they don't encounter a good role model, the seeds are sown for a person, who after trying to fit in, thinks it's OK to drink, treat women a certain way and use homosexuality as a punchline.

I recently read a quote in the "Verbatim" section of Time from Julian Bond, chairman of the NAACP, encouraging African-Americans to support gay marriage. He said "black people, of all people, should not oppose equality." But really, shouldn't all of us have learned from the horrible mistakes of our past, not just African-Americans? There's not a single good reason for any of us to continue to support inequality in any shape or form. We'll look back at this time in our history and hang our heads for allowing this prejudice to continue.

This is from a great article from the USA Today written by hockey player Justin Bourne. If you're not reading his stuff, you should be. Not just this piece, but the writing he does at his personal site, The Hockey News, and USA Today. It's generally good hockey stuff, not always controversial articles like this one might be.

Puck Daddy's take on the article.

STOLI'S THE MAN and it's liveblog time

Our Sergei Drozd got himself a hattie and player of the game yesterday in a loss to Canada East at the Junior A tourney. What a stud. Check out the game sheet here, ass pat to Wangler for the heads-up!

The boys, minus Stoli, are in that shithole Kamloops tonight to take on the Blazers. Just kidding about the shithole part*. Here's the rink (from the outside, and in summer):



Part of me wondering if Brett gets another start in net? All I know is Asuchak better get to play, it's his hometown.

I also hope the boys all went over to The Dirty Jersey for some yummy chicken wings. om nom nom nom. Or to the Nando's. Because Nando's is effing delicious. I miss Canada. Not Kamloops so much, but I'd take it just cuz there's Tim Horton's there.



*I'm not kidding. It wouldn't be so bad if a drunken crazy person had not been the one designing the layout of all the streets. The only thing I liked about this place was the amazing chicken wings at The Dirty Jersey. Sorry 'Loops, you're a dud.

speaking of goalies...

Huge thanks to Ms. Conduct over at The 3rd Intermission for sending this link:

Pickard Paces Admirals To First Winning Streak

Published Oct 31 2009, 10:36 PM by Ryan Miller

(Eric Kent contributed to this post -- All photos courtesy of Chris Jerina)

This Chet Pickard guy might be alright after all. Look at the picture -- he doesn't even need his goalie stick!

Pickard rebounded from his awful debut with a solid second start of his pro career, and collected his first professional win -- a 2-1 victory over the Rockford Ice Hogs on Halloween night.

It's official, goalies are bananas.

as if anyone thought differently. In honour of yesterday being Halloween, here's a goalie dancing to "Thriller" srsly. Ass pat to bkblades over at Fallen Leafs.

Ams vs PG, take 2

Blogger, the platform used to run this site, is not working. I am in panic mode. So I'm writing this up in Google Docs and then a certain heroic Sister will cut and paste it into Blogger for me. If it's not working by game time, I don't know if I can join liveblog, I can't open my site either. Needless to say, I'm furious.

• In case you missed it nearly a week ago, former AMS goalie Tyler Weiman has been called up to the Avalanche, but hasn't played. Looks like he'll be returned to AHL soon. Just a step closer for one of the nicest guys who bides his time, plays awesome, and is just waiting for his chance.

• I added Wangler's awesome stats sheet to the links under the picture on the header here on the blog. It's supposed to automatically update when he updates it, so keep checking there to see some interesting numbers. It's good stuff. Ass-pat for sharing Wangler!

• It looks like former American Jason Reese has ended up with the Texas Brahmas of the CHL (Central Hockey League).

• As our dear Wangler mentioned on teh message board, our Stoli has been named captain of the Belorussian team at the Junior A Hockey Championship. That calls for a shot or 5 of vodka!

• The Herald doesn't feel it necessary to put anything about the game last night on their website, but once again, Dan Mulhausen did a bang-up job on the AMS site with the game recap. Oh and what a great picture too :)

• Don't forget about the contest, the deadline is November 6!

• Kudos to Mr. Spokant for saying it, kudos to Sister for making it happen, later today (hopefully?) you'll be able to get your "Messier is Bestier" shirts on my Zazzle site. They'll look like this:

Finally, liveglug: