Gorges Needs Sleep/Schenn is the Sure Thing

Josh Gorges is back in the Okanagan, likely a little sooner for the summer than he had expected.
The Crapital News...I mean the Capital News had an article featuring the former Rocket on Friday.
The picture of Gorges in the article was terrible.
For those of you who don't get the paper, he was sitting at the East end of Prospera Place and looked like he is about to collapse.
I hope he was coming off an all-nighter with some of his hockey buddies, because the skinny, white faced looking Gorges looked like a 22 year-old who needed a bed. It looked like he hadn't slept in days. I hope that's the case?

Let's just say the long NHL season has taken it's physical and mental toll.
It was a tough season for Gorges, who was acquired by the Montreal Canadiens from San Jose at the NHL trade deadline.
Gorges saw limited action and missed the 'Habs' final 6 games - as a healthy scratch.
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Luke Schenn has been nothing short of tremendous for Canada at the Under 18 World Championships in Finland.
Schenn has again proven he is a world class player, and when he plays with elite talent around him he tends to show his true colors.

This tournament must be alot of fun for the Rockets #1 pick from the 2004 WHL bantam draft because he is allowed to play his game. He isn't expected to do too much but play a solid two way game which features solid defensive play by initiating contact, and chipping in with an odd goal or an assist along the way.

This season with the Rockets he was required to do far too much, played far to many minutes, and may have taken a step backwards from what we saw in his rookie campaign.

What amazes me is the Rockets got Schenn with the last pick - 20th overall in 2004.
Medicine Hat could have picked him with the 19th overall pick, but they elected to go with Jordie Deagle, a forward who is now playing with the Prince George Cougars.

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The Rockets are well represented at the Under 18 Hockey Championships.
While Schenn, Head Coach Jeff Truitt and Athletic Therapist Jeff Thornburn are over there waving Team Canada colors, Rockets GM Bruce Hamilton is over there scouting.
Hamilton is hoping to have two players from that tournament wearing Kelowna Rockets jerseys with the Canadian Hockey League European draft just around the corner.

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I will admit I am not an Anaheim Duck fan, but in a sense I am cheering for them a bit in the Stanley Cup playoffs for one reason.

Travis Moen.

The former Rocket had 13 minutes of ice time in a 2-1 win over Minnesota Sunday, and has a legitimate shot at wearing a Stanley Cup ring.

Moen has been used as much by Head Coach Randy Carlyle
in the post season as he did during the regular season.
Moen won't dazzle you with great moves and tremendous speed, but he'll give you an honest effort and his grit and determination makes him a valuable asset on a very skilled Ducks team.

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The role of the designated tough guy - I just don't get it.
When the game is on the line, what player won't you see on the ice?
It's the physical force or the heavyweight who is suppose to change the complexion of a game with a solid fight, yet he's sitting in the stands when the playoffs roll around.

If you look at the Wild/Ducks series, who is a health scratch?
Derek Boogaard.
Yet during the regular season he is out there picking scraps with anyone he can get his hands on, yet Jacques Lemaire won't put the lug into the lineup in the post season because the games are far to important.
Sure Boogaard can bash the head in of any opponent he chooses, and can be declared the toughest fighter in today's NHL but it's pretty sad that he is so one dimensional that he can't contribute to the team in any other way.

When Stephan Sunderman played with the Rockets a couple of years back, he was in a similar situation.
Sunderman would get the rare shift, and would drop his gloves and try to contribute in anyway he could, but when the playoffs came along Sunderman was on the sidelines because he simply wasn't good enough to play and would be more of a hindrance than a help.

That's what I like about James McEwan.
He can fight with the best of them, yet can contribute in other ways that make him worthy of a spot when the playoffs roll around.
Despite what many people say, McEwan is anything but a one dimensional player.

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My vote for playoffs MVP?

Devin Setoguchi.

The Cougars forward is just getting better as the playoffs roll along, and is a shoe-in to get a roster spot with the San Jose Sharks next season.

The Cougars gave up essentially two-first round picks to get him but if it brings that franchise into a face-to-face confrontation with the Vancouver Giants in the Western Conference final, the move back in October to grab him from Saskatoon before Vancouver did may be the best deal Cougars GM Dallas Thompson has ever made.

Of course he won't be considered unless the Cougars win the whole darn thing!

It would be pretty cool to see Setoguchi against Wacey Rabbit if the Cougars and Giants collide.
Two former Blades now with two different team, just one series away from a birth in the W.H.L final.
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You have to hand it to the Hitmen for advancing to the East final against the Hat.
Eliminating the Wheat Kings in 6 games came as a shock to many.

Game 6 was played in Calgary, a place that sucks when it comes to doing radio play-by-play.
Maybe it's just me, but you are a million miles away from the ice, and while the crowds usually aren't that bad, you really get no feel for the game up there in the rafters.
In the NHL, radio broadcasters have the use of ice-mic's which gives you the sound of skates, sticks and pucks hitting the glass while in the WHL you can only dream of such a luxury.

I'll always remember my first visit to the Saddledome with the Broncos in 1995.
It wasn't the game that I recall but the need to urinate.
But being a rookie broadcaster I made the fatal mistake of not locating the closest washroom before going on the air.
I remember having a huge coke cup with me up in the broadcast booth and after demolishing that thing I was ready to burst.
I was so tempted......oh so tempted to let it fly right there in that big - deep cup!!!
But for the record I gingerly made my way out of the broadcast booth during the intermission and located a washroom on the other side of the ice.
It was not until 3 years later that I found out that a washroom does infact reside on my side of the ice which takes less than 30 seconds to reach.

And while we are talking bladder control, or a lack thereof, I have to hand it to some Rockets fans that saved me from disaster at the 2005 Memorial Cup in London.
Beautiful building - far to few washrooms.
During an intermission I am dying - I think it was in the ot loss to London in the round-robin - and I make a run for the washroom.
The lineup on the guys side is insane, yet the women's side is pretty much clear.
Thanks to Reagan (a Rockets fan) and some of her intoxicated friends (ok they were just happy and slurred their speech alot) they blocked off the door of the women's washroom so I could quickly get in there and do my business.
It's that type of teamwork that makes me speak so highly of Reagan and today's Rockets fans!
If you think all this talk about full bladders is a new low for this blog, it may be, but that topic of conversation also appears in a blog of Daryl Reaugh, the color analyst for the Dallas Stars.