Mid August Musings

• I can't believe Kelowna Rockets training camp is visible in my rear view mirror.  Rookie camp opens late next week with close to 160 new faces trying to impress the scouting staff at the Capital News Centre. It will be interesting to see Nick Merkley at camp and watch how he measures up. Merkley was the Rockets first round pick from this summers WHL Bantam Draft and could see a game or two with the big club. The Rockets make two stops in Calgary this season, Merkley's hometown, so the underage 15 year-old may be able to put on that Rockets sweater for a brief period of time. The majority of his year will be spent playing midget hockey.

• All the talk these days is about the NHL lockout.  Some suggest the entire season could be lost while others believe the two sides will come to an agreement before the September 15th deadline. Right now I am siding with the players, who appear to be bending over in order for the season to start on time. If the NHL season does get delayed it will be no skin off my teeth. Once the WHL season starts, I am in my own bubble where the Rockets are my focal point and my energy goes towards following the team and putting my blinders on to what is happening elsewhere. Sure, I will watch a highlite or two but the reality is I won't sit down and watch an entire NHL game during the week when the Rockets aren't in action. I don't know if it's because I am not much of a fan or my family deserves my attention when I am not calling 72 games a season? I rather invest in my two boys while they want to spend time with their dad, not my favourite NHL team.

• If we see a delay in the start of the NHL season, this is great news in the Rockets bid to land Zemgus Girgensons.  Girgensons was the Buffalo Sabres first round pick, but he was also selected by the Rockets in the CHL Import Draft.  Girgensons can either play with the Sabres or the teams American Hockey League affiliate. If the NHL doesn't play, Sabre players that have two way contracts will suit up for the AHL team which means Girgensons may have no other choice but to play in the Western Hockey League. How good would he make those around him? Like European forward Timmy Bozon in Kamloops, Girgensons would be an impact player.

• I thought it was neat this week that Kelowna Rockets head coach Ryan Huska was at the Okanagan Sun's football practice. Huska met with Sun head coach Gavin Lake as the two shared ideas. Hockey and football are distinctly different games but communicating with younger players remains the same. It is nice to see the two organizations have a good working relationship and both can benefit and learn from one other.       

• I had a chance this week to watch the Prospera Place work crews put the ice in. You really don't appreciate the care and technique that goes into it until you see it first hand. From a concrete floor to a nice white sheet of ice with logo's takes just three days. If you are unsure of how the entire process works, check out the Prospera Place website where video was taken on what it takes to get the job done. Amazing.          

• An NHL lockout would leave many broadcasters twiddling their thumbs wondering what to do. Many end up staying at their off-season summer homes watching major junior hockey. A type 'A' personality, which most media guys are considered, won't be sitting around and lounging in their homes. They are like crazed, caged animals. They want to be apart of the action. I am glad to know that when the season starts, the puck will officially drop September 21st. I can't imagine a delay in the WHL season. If that happened it would mean more time in the AM 1150 news room. No one, my co-workers included, would want to see that happen. I am sure six months of having me on a regular basis in the office is enough for my colleagues to handle.

Cutter. What a captain...what a coach.

Goodbye Cutter!

So long for now, but I know we will talk again.
Kelowna Rockets assistant coach Ryan Cuthbert surprised many, me included, this week when he announced he is leaving the team for personal reasons.
Cuthbert spent five seasons as an assistant coach with the WHL franchise after his pro hockey career ended prematurely by a series of concussions.
My connection to Cuthbert goes back to our days growing up in Swift Current, Saskatchewan. We were born in the same city and it was neat to see him make the Kelowna Rockets roster at the tender age of 16 while I was in the broadcast booth calling games for the hometown Swift Current Broncos. I remember interviewing Cuthbert and fellow southwest, Saskatchewan resident Vaughn Watson who happened to be a goaltender with the Rockets at the time Cuthbert was cutting his teeth as a raw rookie. We did a quick interview prior to the game at what was then the Civic Centre. Watson was like a prairie mouse and wouldn't say but three words for every question he was asked while Cuthbert was a reporters delight as his long, thought out answers made the interview flow with ease.
Cuthbert was well spoken off the ice and it translated into tenacious play on it. Never overly big, Cuthbert's heart and determination caught the eye of all who watched him play and he slowly became a fan favourite for a franchise that would eventually make him captain.
I have tremendous memories of his red beard and almost blood-shot eyes raising the WHL championship trophy over his head when the Rockets won the league title in Red Deer back in 2003. That mental picture of Cuthbert can now be found in a painted mural outside of the Rockets dressing room. That great moment will never be erased.
I also remember the tears he shed when I interviewed him outside the dressing room at the Memorial Cup in Quebec City when he, Kiel McLeod and Jesse Schultz realized that their playing days in Kelowna were over. I felt his pain that day and had a hard time asking him questions following his last game wearing Kelowna colours. All I really wanted to do was give him a hug to somehow ease the pain.
This time as Cuthbert leaves the Rockets organization, unlike 2003, his head is held high as he is excited about what the future holds. Am I sad to see him leave the Rockets organization like I did when he was a player back in 2003? No question. But this time a hug isn't required. A good old fashioned, solid southwest Saskatchewan handshake will do the trick for an individual who is as great a person as he was a player.

My interview with 'Rod the Bod'

Here is the conversation I had with Rod Brind'Amour at Friday's BC Hockey Hall of Fame Induction ceremony in Penticton.

Scott Niedermayer Interview

It isn't often that you meet an athlete, or an ex-athlete and come away so impressed. My talk with Scott Niedermayer Friday night at the BC Hockey Hall of Fame banquet in Penticton was one of those times.
Take a listen.

Rockets Alumni Golf Tourney is a HUGE success

• What a great day! The Kelowna Rockets Alumni Golf Tournament met, if not exceeded, every ones expectations. Hosted at the Harvest Golf and Country Club, 165 golfers had a great day of weather, laughs and raised money for Kelowna General Hospital. What makes this tournament the success it is are the current and former players that show up year after year. The presence of  big names like Shea Weber, Josh Gorges and Duncan Keith can't be overstated. Hockey fans want to come out and rub shoulders with these players that enjoy huge success at the NHL level. Unfortunately Luke Schenn and Tyler Myers couldn't make it, but having the 'big three' gives this tournament the 'cred' it deserves.
• Why is this tournament such a success year after year? She won't say it, but Anny Hamilton (Gavin Hamilton's wife) puts in countless hours making the golf tournament and the alumni hockey game on Sunday the spectacle it has grown to be. Anny is more of a behind the scenes person and frankly doesn't like to receive the credit for how this event has prospered over the years. But make no mistake, without her tireless work this 'Alumni Weekend' doesn't even come close to being the envy it has now become across the entire Western Hockey League.
• As the emcee for the event, I heard nothing but positive feedback from the participates on how well the tournament is ran. Everyone loves the course, the weather, and the banquet under the big white tent make for a spectacular day. It doesn't hurt when alumnus Nolan Yonkman steps up to the mic and entertains the crowd while he does his best impression of an auctioneer. Yonkman pulls it off with ease and gets top dollar for the merchandise that is auctioned off.
• By the way, all the proceeds from the Alumni Weekend go towards the Pediatric Ward at Kelowna General Hospital. This was year three of a commitment to raise 200 thousand dollars. Heading into this weekend, 105 thousand had already been raised before the first golf ball was even struck. Impressive.To me, the funds raised over such a short period of time really tells the story of how good of an event this has become. 
• As is always the case when I emcee an event, Rockets GM Bruce Hamilton takes a couple of swipes at me that always provide a chuckle from the crowd. I like to use the line, 'Bruce and I have a love and hate relationship. I love him and he hates me'. Truth be told, I really appreciate the man who treats me so well behind the scenes. Do we have our disagreements? Sure. Is he a fan of this blog? Nope. But Bruce had some nice things to say about me at the banquet after throwing a few darts my way at the expense of a few laughs. Those are from the heart and I appreciate him sharing them publicly.
• He finds it uncomfortable, and frankly I don't blame him. Shea Weber doesn't like to talk about his new contract and frankly I think he wishes it would all go away. But as a media person it is tough not to ask him a few questions about it considering he will be the highest paid player in the NHL this season. What I enjoyed most about my time with Weber on Thursday was just sitting in his golf cart, shooting the breeze while he was eating his sandwich. To me, those are the valuable times and relationships that are built with these elite alumni players that go on to great things at the NHL level. 
• Josh Gorges is still my favourite alumni interview. He is so well spoken. The Montreal Canadiens d-man has started up the NHL Players Association 'Goals and Dreams' - Helping kids play hockey program with Kelowna Minor Hockey. This program allows kids that want to play the game, but don't have the financial means to do so. There is no better spokesman for the program locally that Gorges.  
• The picture above is 20 year-old Spencer Main signing a few jerseys at the golf tournament. I am pleased to say that Main has been cleared and is ready to play after missing the majority of last season with a concussion. Main tells me he has been symptom free for three months and has never felt better.  
• Myles Bell is slowly starting to become one of my favourite current Rockets. I just love his personality. And can he hit a golf ball! If you thought his slap shot was hard, you should witness his drive off the tee box. Impressive.
• The best interview of the day likely was my conversation with James McEwan. The 25 year-old told me he is retiring. The fact that McEwan walks away from the game with a tremendous attitude makes me feel good about his long term plan for success in the new ventures that lay in front of him. McEwan seems like he's focused and truly is looking forward to the next stage of his life. He will always be remembered as a heart and soul player who excited the Kelowna crowd with his toe-to-toe tilts with Vancouver Giants spark plug Garet Hunt. 
• I had a good talk with Brett Bulmer. The now 20 year-old looks focused on showing many it wasn't a fluke that he made the Minnesota Wilds opening day roster last October.  Bulmer just attended the Wild's Prospects camp and was the most in shape athlete there. It says a lot about Bulmer and his training habits. It also says a lot about Shane Pizzey at Pinnacle Elite Athlete. Getting the right guidance can go a long way in helping an athlete achieve extra ordinary results.   This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it      
• It looks like Dylan Hood will chase his dream of playing pro hockey. After one year at the University of Calgary, Hood is leaving the U of C and will try his luck in the ECHL this season.
• Don't forget the Alumni Game goes Sunday at the CNC at 5 o'clock. Doors open at 4.

Weber wants to win - now.

Shea Weber is a very rich man. 
The Kelowna Rockets alumnus got a whole lot richer this week when he signed an offer sheet with the Philadelphia Flyers (14 years) at 110 million dollars.
This comes on the heels of an arbitrator awarding the Sicamous resident 7.5 million dollars last summer after the Nashville Predators forced their captain into a very uncomfortable situation.
The fact that Weber signed an offer sheet with the Flyers, that the Predators can match, isn't a surprise.
It was a slap on his face by the organization when they sent the NHL All-Star to arbitration and the team had egg on their face when Weber was given the largest arbitration award in league history.
Weber's signing with Philadelphia is a clear sign that he wants out of Nashville and is tired of the rebuilding process in 'The Music City'.
With Ryan Suter's departure to Minnesota, it is clear that Weber wants to win a Stanley Cup, and the best way of doing that is by leaving the Predators and playing with a Flyers team that is young but talented.
Will the Predators match the Flyers offer keeping Weber in Nashville long term?
As Weber's agent said earlier this week, you don't sign an offer sheet if you are not interested in playing for that organization.
Weber's heart is no longer in Nashville. He won't say it but agent Jarrett Bousquet has spelled it out.
As competitive as they come, the former Kelowna Rockets defenceman wants to win hockey's ultimate prize. By signing long term in Nashville, his chances of accomplishing that goal diminish greatly.    

Ex-BC Lions DE Brent Johnson in Kelowna

The cyclists have arrived in Kelowna for the second annual RBC Granfondo.

Close to 700 riders will participate in the 122 kilometre course.

One of the riders this year is former BC Lion defensive end Brent Johnson.

Johnson admits being 6 foot 2 and weighing 265 pounds makes it hard to be on a bike for a long period of time.

"The flats are great. Going down hill is not a problem. It is the little buck fifty guys that fly by you on any sort of climb, it doesn't matter what the elevation is. I am always pulling a little more weight than most people."    

Johnson retired last season from the Lions after winning the Grey Cup.

Alomar makes his way to Kelowna

It doesn't happen often.

In fact, it has never happened.

Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Roberto Alomar is spending the next three days in the Okanagan.

Alomar is participating in the Toronto Blue Jays Super Camp at Kelowna's Elks Stadium.

What does the 44 year-old think of Okanagan weather?

"It reminds me of Puerto Rico.  It is the same weather. I love the the warm weather.  I grew up in it.  I couldn't enjoy it more." 

Alomar is joined at the camp by Lloyd Moseby and Rance Mulliniks.

The camp concludes Wednesday before moving to Vancouver in one of 14 stops across Canada.

Dilly's Day

Kim Dillabaugh brought the Stanley Cup to Kelowna on Sunday. The LA Kings goaltending coach had the 'Cup' at Prospera Place where over a thousand hockey fans waited in 37 degree heat to get their picture with Hockey's holy grail.

Rockets schedule provides some interesting tidbits

• The Rockets will open the regular season September 21st in Kamloops. The teams home opener is one night later, September 22nd, against the Blazers.
• 11 of the Rockets first 16 games are on the road. 
• Again the Rockets have the luxury of playing back-to-back games in Portland, but this time the lone trip to Oregon is September 28th and 29th. The Hawks are given the same luxury with back-to-back games in Kelowna February 8th and 9th.
• This season the Rockets make just one trip to Tri City, but it is for two games on back-to-back nights. The Rockets are at the Toyota Center November 16th and 17th.  Playing a double header in Tri City is a first. I like it!
• The longest home stand the Rockets enjoy is only four games. Those four games are played over nine nights from November 1st to November 9th. 
• We won't have to wait until the new year to see the Seattle Thunderbirds. The two teams face one another December 1st in Kent.  Last season the Rockets and T-Birds didn't start their four game seasonal series until the second half.
• The Rockets won't be traveling into Saskatchewan or Manitoba this season. The furthest East they will travel is Medicine Hat, Alberta. 
• While the Rockets open the season with a home and home series with Kamloops, they close out the season with a home and home vs. the Vancouver Giants. 
• Shane McColgan and the Saskatoon Blades make their one and only visit of the season on November 24th.
• The longest road trip is five games, with an Alberta road swing in early December. The trip starts in Cranbrook, BC before stops in Lethbridge, Med Hat, Red Deer and Calgary. Those five games are played in six nights.
• The Rockets play Victoria eight times this season, but six times in the final two and half months of the season.  
• If the trade deadline is indeed January 11th, the Rockets are home to the visiting Tri City Americans.      

Rockets need an impact forward from Europe

The Buffalo Sabres hold the key in deciding where 18 year-old forward Zemgus Girgensons plays this season. Will he play with the Kelowna Rockets, the team that holds his CHL rights, or will he indeed play at the University of Vermont? The Rockets used their first round pick in the 2011 CHL Import Draft to take Girgensons, who this past weekend was selected in the first round of the NHL Draft by the Buffalo Sabres. The Sabres have ultimate control of where their coveted prospect plays. Is he better served by developing his game in major junior or will he go the college route, something many United States Hockey players choose?
If the Rockets can land the Latvian born Girgensons, he would become the first impact forward to join the team since the Calgary Flames sent Mikael Backlund to the WHL in 2009 after, the then 19 year-old, participated at the World Junior Hockey Championships. But, Backlund was with the Rockets for a short period of time, not an entire season, in helping them win a Western Hockey League title.
Not since Alex Edler of the Vancouver Canucks, have the Rockets had an explosive 'regular' import player on their roster. In fact, the last European 'regular' forwards to strike fear in opposing goalies while wearing Rockets colours were Tomas Oravec and Jan Fadrny. The two were teammates in 2000 when Fadrny, acquired from Brandon, played in 56 games and registered 77 points. Oravec was 5th in team scoring with 65 points in 65 regular season games that year.        
The Rockets are due to cash in on a significant 'regular' forward from 'over the pond'. Let's hope the 2011 CHL Draft and the selection of Zemgus Girgensons accomplishes that goal.      
   

Three Rockets hear their names called at draft

It was the weight of the world lifted off of their shoulders.
After months and months of being in the spotlight of NHL scouts dissecting their every move, Kelowna Rockets Colton Sissons and Damon Severson can relax.
The two found themselves in Pittsburgh this weekend for the NHL Draft, and in the end, both were selected in the second round by teams that will hopefully make their NHL dreams a reality.
Sissons was taken 50th overall by Nashville while Severson was taken ten picks later by the New Jersey Devils. The Predators struck gold the last time they selected a member of the Rockets organization when they picked Shea Weber in the second round in the 2003 draft.  The Devils don't often look at Western Hockey League players as building blocks, but see Severson as a puck carrying defenceman with a heavy shot. The last time the Devils selected a Rockets player was way back in 1996 when they shook the dice on tough guy Scott Parker.  Parker wasn't offered a contract by the Devils, went back into the draft, where he was nabbed by the Colorado Avalanche in first round in 1998.
While Sissons and Severson were guaranteed to be picked this weekend after taking part in the CHL Top Prospects Game and the NHL Combine, 18 year-old Ryan Olsen was nabbed in the 6th round by the Winnipeg Jets.
Olsen has yet to play a game with the Rockets after being acquired from the Saskatoon Blades in May in the Shane McColgan trade.
While draft day put a smile on the face of Sissons, Severson and Olsen, the same can't be said for Tyrell Goulbourne and Colton Heffley. Neither Rockets forward heard their name called in Pittsburgh and must now hope to earn a tryout with an NHL team or be selected in next years draft in New Jersey.
While nothing is a guarantee, you can bet another Kelowna Rockets player will proudly pull an NHL sweater over his head 12 months from now.
Seventeen year-old defenceman Madison Bowey is projected to be a first round selection next June.    

Losing a broadcast colleague to cancer

Here is a letter that I sent to the Seattle Thunderbirds on the sudden death of T-Birds colour commentator Bruce McDonald.  McDonald died of Leukemia on Tuesday. He was just 41.
I am saddened by the news of Bruce's passing.

My belief is he found great joy slapping on the headset and delivering the game to the listening faithful. It gave him purpose. It gave him meaning. It made him a part of something. That is all anyone wants in life isn't it? To mean something. To count.

For Bruce, despite being confined to a wheelchair, being on the radio gave him a voice and equal footing with everyone once he entered the broadcast booth.
He clearly loved to talk hockey, but specifically about the team he knew, the Seattle Thunderbirds. His eyes often sparkled as he spoke fondly about the players and the organization.

My last conversation with Bruce was on February 14th when both he and broadcast partner Tom Beuning visited my broadcast location at ShoWare Center prior to the puck drop.  Bruce in his wheelchair had a brown bag in his hand.  He handed it to me saying, "Here you go." When I opened it up, much to my surprise, I found a blue winter hat (a toque as I like to call it). His mother Char had made it for me. Bruce's mom promised me she would knit me a hat after I met her earlier in the season. For those that don't know, Bruce's mom is a fixture at T-Birds home games. Char and Bruce would arrive two hours before every T-Birds game and while Bruce was preparing for the broadcast, Char would begin knitting. It was repeated time and time again. The majority of the hats and scarves that Char creates from her skillful hands are given away to those less fortunate.

Char is obviously a special lady who brought up a very special son named Bruce. She was darn proud of him and Bruce spoke the same about his Mom's caring heart.

While Bruce McDonald's life was cut short by cancer, he lived a life that many able bodied people fail to achieve. His voice and smile will be missed. When I make my next stop in Kent, I will be sure to give Char a hug and for a brief moment, sit back in the broadcast booth to remember Bruce McDonald and the happiness he brought to so many lives, including mine.
Sincerely Regan Bartel
Kelowna Rockets Radio