Coach ! What were you thinking?

It’s the players that are often blamed for losses.

But two odd moves by Western Conference coaches on the weekend have you scratching your head.

On Friday night the Kamloops Blazers are facing the Chilliwack Bruins.

While the Bruins are battling with Kelowna for the final playoff spot in the BC division, the Blazers enter the weekend in a dog-fight with Vancouver for first place in the division.

What goes Blazers Head Coach Dean Clark do in such a big game for both teams?

He starts 15 year-old James Preistner who gets shelled for 6 goals in the Bruins 6-5 overtime win.

The move baffles me considering points are paramount at this time of the year, and in my opinion first place is extremely huge, especially for the Blazers, who if they finish 2nd and play 3rd place Prince George in the opening round, are setting themselves up for a first round upset.

The overtime loss, has the Blazers reeling.

Not only are they now 6 points back of the Giants for first, but the team has lost 6 in a row.

Why Dean Clark didn't start veteran goaltender Dustin Butler in an important game like this is beyond me.

The move appears to have cost the Blazers the regular season division title.

It looks like the Blazers miss team captain Reid Jorgenson as much as the Rockets are feeling the ill effects without Chris Ray.
Jorgenson is out of the lineup after having surgery on his elbow after an infected cut got out of control.
Jorgenson has 39 goals until he went under the knife.

So as you scratch your head over Dean Clark’s decision to start a 15 year-old rookie, who up until that game had absolutely no W.H.L experience, Everett’s Kevin Constantine was doing one better.

Saturday night in Seattle, Constantine is off to his old antics by pulling his goaltender twice in a 4-1 loss.

What doesn’t make sense was Constantine pulls his goaltender for the extra attacker with his team down 2-0 with about 10 minutes left in the game.

The T-Birds subsequently score to make it 3-0 before the Tips get a power play goal just minutes later to make it 3-1.
Had the Tips not surrendered the empty netter, it would have been a one goal game, not a two goal game because of the crazy move by the coach.

Constantine would pull the goaltender again with time ticking down, and again the T-Birds would score into the empty net to make the score 4-1.

It’s not often you see a team score two empty net goals in one game.

League disciplinarian Richard Doerksen was busy on the weekend handing out suspensions.

He threw a two game suspension at Red Deer’s leading scorer Martin Hanzal for a gross misconduct against Medicine Hat last week.

The Prince George Cougars may not have d-man Chris Vanduynhoven in the lineup this weekend against the Rockets.
Doerksen has yet to hand out a suspension for Vanduynhoven’s checking from behind major he received Saturday against Kamloops.

15 year-old Evander Kane left his mark with the Vancouver Giants Sunday night in a game against Kamloops.
The league suspended him for one game for a kneeing incident.

Funny thing is Kane has played the maximum 5 games for the Giants this season as an under-age player, meaning his suspension may have to be carried over to next season when he becomes a full-time member of the Giants as a 16-year old.

And how does this work?

The Everett Silvertips play the Prince George Cougars tonight.
The game will feature essentially 2 games in one, as the 3rd period of a suspended game October 28th will be played before a regular 60 minute match between the two teams will proceed.

Earlier this season a game between these two teams was suspended after two periods because of unsafe ice at Prince George's CN Centre.

What is in question is what the Tips do with forward Dan Gendur.

At the time of the suspended game, Gendur wasn’t a part of Tips, but played with the Cougars.

Does that mean he plays that one period as a Cougar before changing sides and slips on his Tips uniform?

Or does he not play at all in the remainder of that game, before appearing in the second game?

Odd circumstances too say the least.