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

Concussions force Adolph to retire

It is a tough decision for any major junior hockey player to make, but Kelowna Rockets forward Max Adolph is retiring.


Adolph is ending his career after suffering six concussions in three short years.

"At the time it didn't seem like the best decision, but now going to school and looking back at it, I think it was the better decision rather than risk more injuries and turning into a vegetable."

The 20 year says his family, specifically his father, was sympathetic in making the decision.

"I think he was the real reason I made the decision just because he has seen so much of it with his players and other players. He wants the best for me. Even if I want to make a comeback I could play for his team. He was always about my health, not about hockey right".

Max's father Dave is the head coach of the University of Saskatchewan Huskies.

Adolph played in just 97 regular season games and missed the entire 2011-2012 season with a concussion.

09 WHL Championship series brings back such good memories

The Vancouver Province recently asked veteran broadcaster Dan Russell (Sportstalk is heard weekdays from 9 until midnight on AM 1150) to name the top five Western Hockey League finals ever.
Russell sided with the Medicine Hat Tigers win over the Vancouver Giants in 2007, with game seven decided in double overtime.  
Russell could be right.
Personally, the best league championship series I ever witnessed was the 2009 final between the Kelowna Rockets and Calgary Hitmen.
Why?
The Rockets were the clear underdogs despite the likes of future NHL'ers Jamie Benn, Mikael Backlund and Tyler Myers in their line up. The Hitmen were loaded with talent that season and were hyped all year as the team to beat after racking up 59 wins and 122 points.
The Hitmen scored 63 more goals than the Rockets that season and had 12 more wins. To top it off, the Hitmen cruised through the playoffs with series sweeps over Edmonton, Lethbridge and Brandon on their way to the league final.
The Rockets road wasn't as smooth. After a four game sweep over Kamloops in round one, the team lost the first two games against the Tri City Americans before winning four in a row to advance to the Western Conference Final.
In the conference finals the Rockets were forced to six games against a Vancouver Giants team that was every bit as good on paper. Of the six games played in that series, four were decided by a single goal.
After a heart attack special against the Giants to clinch the series on home ice, it was off to the WHL final against the dreaded Hitmen.
Before a crowd of just over 12 thousand fans at the Saddledome in game one, Jamie Benn would score twice, once into an empty net in the two goal win. 
The big surprise came in game two when Mikael Backlund scored twice in a 5-2 victory. To everyone's surprise, the mighty Hitmen were down two games to none, having suffered their first two losses of the playoffs - both coming on home ice.  Game three, before a capacity crowd at Prospera Place of  6 thousand 329, designated tough guy Ryley Grantham, acquired at the trade deadline for Moose Jaw, would score the game winner in a 2-0 shutout win. Mark Guggenberger made 21 saves as the Rockets took a commanding three games to none lead in the series.  The series was over. Or was it?
The Hitmen were loaded with talent and character, and with their backs clearly against the wall, the regular season champions won game four 6-2 before scoring another six goals in a game five 6-1 win only a night later in Calgary.
Oh-oh. The Rockets were now the team in trouble as the Hitmen clearly had the momentum. The only saving grace was game six would be played in Kelowna, a place where the Rockets had lost only twice in the 2009 post season.     
Game six saw the Hitmen open the scoring with a shorthanded goal before the Rockets retaliated with back-to-back second period goals to take a 2-1 lead after 40 minutes. With 6 thousand 383 fans on the edge of their seats, the Hitmen would get a power play goal from Joel Broda in the third period to set the stage for overtime. 
Gulp!
In overtime, with nervous tension in the air, Hitmen defenceman Alex Plante was penalized for hooking.  With the Rockets on the power play and a face-off inside the Calgary zone,  the puck would go to the half wall where Mikael Backlund would quickly pass the puck to teammate Jamie Benn, who was situated in the right corner. Without hesitation, Benn fired the puck in front to an awaiting Tyson Barrie, who snapped it past startled Hitmen goaltender Martin Jones.
Game over.
Series over.
The Kelowna Rockets were WHL champions and celebrated their first league title on home ice.  The teams other two titles were won on the road in Red Deer (2003) and Brandon (2005).  
What a game.
What a team.
What a series.