Things That Make Me Go Hmm...

• Congratulations to Rockets defenseman Luke Schenn for being named to the training camp roster for the Canadian World Junior team. Schenn will be one of 37 players fighting for a spot on this years squad, following in the footsteps of several Rockets who have attended the camp, and have made the team. Chuck Kobasew, Josh Gorges, Shea Weber and Blake Comeau have all worn Canadian colours, and Schenn hopes to join that group. Main camp opens Monday in Calgary, giving me the general feeling that he will play Friday as the Rockets open an Eastern Conference road swing in Lethbridge. I would be surprised though if he played in Sunday's game in Regina against the Pats, before quickly being shuttled off to Calgary for training camp. That said, and after some research, Shea Weber played against Portland on December 11th, 2004 before attending Team Canada's training camp the next day in Winnipeg.
• The loss of Schenn on this road trip is obviously not good news, but like in previous years the Rockets Eastern Conference road trip couldn't come at a better time. While the Rockets lose a player, so do the opposition in most cases. The Hurricanes will likely play Zach Boychuk in Friday game, but when the Pats and Rockets meet on Sunday, head coach Curtis Hunt and captain Logan Pyett won't be there. Hunt is an assistant coach for Canada while Pyett will try to earn a spot on the d-core.The Rockets also visit Moose Jaw where Riley Holzapfel likely won't play for the Warriors. On the teams final game before Christmas in Saskatoon the Blades could be potentially without Colton Gillies, who was named to Canada training camp roster as well. Throw in some European born players that may be taken away from their WHL teams for the tournament, and the Rockets have little excuses playing against teams that are as bad off as they are with the loss of top end player.
• Can WHL broadcasters get fined for abusing WHL officials? The reason I say this - tongue firmly in cheek - is after listening to a portion of the Edmonton Oil Kings-Saskatoon Blades game Saturday night. A series of fights broke out in the 2nd period which had Oil Kings play-by-play caller A.J Jakubec and his color analyst giving it to the officials. No I am not trying to get these two guys into trouble (trust me A.J), but they were obviously not impressed in the least bit with referee's Reagan Vetter and Adam Byblow. Emotions were high on the ice and in the broadcast booth. It's worth a listen on the WHL webcast. My good buddy A.J calls games with passion, and no better example of that during the game Saturday night.
• I spoke earlier on this blog about a conversation David and I had with Portland goaltender Kurtis Mucha. Often times opposition media have a better chance to ask the hard questions to a player, especially when a team is struggling. No, our purpose was not to make Mucha cry - which he didn't - but we did fire some questions his way which were not of the soft ball variety: http://www.am1150.ca/player/player?mediapath=&type=mp3&fi=files%2Fam1150%2Fsrimedia%2FKurtis%20Mucha.MP3&nid=631447&
• Home ice likely wasn't an advantage for the Chilliwack Bruins Sunday night in a 3-1 win over the Rockets. A hand full of fans showed up for the game, as the snow and rain ripped through the area. While the fans didn't make much noise, the horn sure did when the Bruins scored. Here is Oscar Moller's goal on the power play which gave the Bruins a 3-0 lead: http://www.am1150.ca/player/player?mediapath=&type=mp3&fi=files%2Fam1150%2Fsrimedia%2FMoller%20Goal.MP3&nid=631449&