OffThePost.org

The only one holding these guys back is me. I've been to 5 games this year, and the second place in the Eastern Conference Blades only have gotten a single point out of my visits... against the lowly Portland Winterhawks.

So my observations of the Blades this year are very suspect, I'd gather. Anyways, there isn't a lot of high end talent on the Blades... there are four players drafted by NHL teams: D Jyeri Niemi (Islanders), W Milan Kyntar (Oilers), D Tiegan Zahn (Blackhawks), and G Braden Holtby (Capitals). Holtby is the best of the group by far, although Zahn is turning into a pretty tough blueliner who dishes out the biggest hits on a consistent basis. Niemi is having a poor season... good for him that he's already been drafted and has another year to turn it around to earn a contract. Holtby has already been inked by the Caps, but hopefully due to their somewhat clogged pipeline of prospects they'll send him back to junior next year as a 20 year old (Varlamov & Neuvirth split time in the minors for them and probably should get one more year before either gets promoted full time). Kyntar doesn't stand out very much at all. You'll see Kyntar and Niemi's at the WJC's this holiday season, Kyntar for Slovakia and Niemi for Finland.

The Blades have a couple of young kids that should be fairly high draft picks in the next two years... D Stefan Elliot should be a first rounder this year. He's a high flying d-man in the Mike Green mold, without the big hits though. He apparently refers to himself as the "Franchise", or some overzealous fanboy called him that once and now his teammates mock him maybe. My roommate yelled the nickname out in derision during a bad loss and some kid two rows above us misheard it as "French Fries" and so now we call him that instead. He's an almost PPG blueliner at 17, so he's having much more success than Green did in the W. F Burke Gallimore could also be a high pick... he has 15 goals so far this year (his first full year). LW Curtis Hamilton could be a fairly high 2010 pick... he's a late '91 birthday that is in his second year with the team. Scored 16 last year and has 7 so far this year, he definitely could be a decent scorer. The Blades also have a Sutter who will likely get picked in 2010 for no other reason (Brody Sutter - Duane's boy), and are carrying two 16 year olds that could be good ones in Charles Inglis and Josh Nicholls.

My favourites generally have funny names... Captain Derek Hulak (I always yell "HU-Lack!" very loudly), winger Walker Wintoneak (I have claimed that I will name a future son Winotneak in his honour), and blueliner Ryan Funk (he brings it). As per usual, I tend to be the loudest guy in the quietest building in the league. It'll be embarassing when Regina is way louder for next year's WJC's when they won't even get games with Canada in it. If it is, let me assure you... those people don't come to Blades games.

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Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb

I take it Lorne still has them in the rebuilding phase?

Actually, is Molleken still in charge?

Still Lorne in charge. They're in first place in the Sask/Brandon division, so the rebuilding is just starting to show results after consecutive terrible seasons. They just happen to lose when I show my mug at the arena and upset the cone of silence known as SaskPlace by cheering.

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Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb

I should add... Gillies was Mollekon's first draft pick, and he should still be in Saskatoon as a 19 year old in his final year, so the team is entirely made up of Mollekon's boys now. If the team had a bad draft year it'd be his fault now. So far, so good.

One bad draft year in junior can be very debilatating. I think Setoguchi's class, he was the only one that was anything worthwhile, and the team suffered badly because of it.

_________________
Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb

I must say... this Blades team kicks ass! They're the best road team in WHL history if they can hold things up, having only lost 3 regulation games on the road all year. They recently beat Edmonton 7-2 and Red Deer 8-1 in their rinks, with the Red Deer win clinching a playoff spot. Unfortunately, despite their dominance, Brandon keeps lurking around only 6 points back for the division title.

The weekly writer's poll of team rankings in the WHL has had Saskatoon consistently ahead of defending Memorial Cup champs Tri-City for 3rd overall behind the deep pockets of Vancouver and Calgary.

It's a team with a lot of depth... only one guy is at or above a PPG pace (20 year old captain Derek Hulak) but check out their insane +/- stats:

http://whl.ca/stats/statdisplay.php?typ ... gleSeason=

In case you're wondering, the players that are NHL draft picks are the following:

W Milan Kyntar (Edmonton)
D Jyri Niemi (Islanders)
D Tiegan Zahn (Chicago)
G Braden Holtby (Washington)

While the following are 2009 draft eligible:

D Stefan Elliot (1st round proj.)
RW Burke Gallimore
G Adam Morrison (doubtful he'll get picked, but he could be their #1 next year if Holtby goes pro - Holtby is signed by the Caps already and will be 20 next year; someone might take a late round flyer on him as a result of the opportunity he'll get)

and two guys who were passed over in 2008 might get some love this year due to huge improvements:

C Travis Toomey
C Gaelan Patterson

2010 should be a bumper year for Blades forwards, but generally speaking the Blades are becoming a bit of a D factory. Zahn and Niemi both have solid pro potential (good size, strength, decent skating, Niemi has a huge shot while Zahn is pretty tough), and Elliott looks like the kind of D every team is craving nowadays. They've also had their first round pick from last year, Duncan Siemens, play a couple games and he looks very strong for a 15 year old.

_________________
Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb

The Blades/Wheat Kings battle for the WHL's East Division heated up big time this past week, thanks to some bizarro scheduling: The two teams play each other 3 times in a row, twice this past weekend in Brandon. The Blades came from behind thanks to Holtby's superior goaltending to win on Friday 4-3 (depite being outshot by a 2:1 ratio), and then absolutely demolished the Wheaties on Saturday 8-1.

Their final meeting of the year is tonight here in S'toon and it'll be my last Blades regular season game of the year that I will be attending. After this... it's all playoffs. There are six games remaining for the Blades, and their magic number for the team's first division title since 1994 is exactly that... 6. 6 points won by Saskatoon or lost by Brandon. So if Saskatoon wins in regulation tonight, that number is down to 2 (Saskatoon wins 2 points, Bradnon loses two points).

Braden Holtby is also 4 wins shy of the Blades' all time record. Earlier this year, he got the team record for career shutouts. He could still be back in junior next year as a 20 year old, and considering Washington is having trouble finding playing time for Michal Neuvirth, and have Theodore signed for one more year (though Johnson is a UFA and Machesny is a RFA). I'd love to have him back for a fourth year.

_________________
Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb

Woo! Division Champs, baby! About damn time, too... if they had gone two more year without a win, they would have players on their team that had not been alive for a single division championship. Out of the wildnerness we go!

And you're going down, Lethbridge! You idiots... there are no hurricanes in southern Alberta! How are we supposed to be scared of you when you're clearly very dense?

_________________
Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb

By contrast, I can't even count the number of merchant ships in Prince Albert which get attacked by pirates.

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Two ex-Blades signed with NHL clubs this past weekend:

- Milan Kyntar signed his 3 year entry level deal with the Oilers
- Ryan Keller signed a 1 year, 2 way deal with the Sens

Keller was a very good Blade, a small, quick local boy who was amongst the league's best scorers. He didn't have much pro prospects but has carved out a bit of a career in Finland. Hopefully he plays well in the AHL, then gets traded to Chicago or Minnesota and sticks in the NHL. Maybe San Jose can trade for both him and Wacey Rabbit and put together an awesome line with Devin Setoguchi.

Kyntar was rather "bleh" in his year here. Good on the PP, but I didn't see a lot of talent that would help him move forward as a pro. We'll see.

_________________
Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb

http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/csl.php?tid=1005

This team kicks ass. Going to try and go to the game on Saturday against PA.

I will send many a letter to Bob Gainey recommending that he sign this guy as a free agent after the Blades win the Memorial Cup:

http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdis ... ncode=TRUE

As a bonus, he's from the one city in Manitoba I quite like.

_________________
Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb

You're only saying that because it's in Saskatchewan too.

Hey, that helps. But everyone I know from there is pretty much insane and awesome. Which is only a few people, but still. They are also the only Manitoba city to have a team in the SJHL.

_________________
Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb

So the Blades are on an insane streak... they've gotten 23 out of a possible 24 points to put themselves clearly in 1st in the WHL ahead of Tri-City (who are 5 points back with 2 games in hand).

19-3-3. Man... I remember the season when they were like 3-19-3 at this point.

_________________
Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb

Bizarre rumours floating around about a domino effect of Winnipeg supposedly getting a NHL team.

They're completely bogus, right from the top. The first is that the Atlanta Thrashers are being sold and moved to Winnipeg. This is pure fancy on the part of Winnipeggers, and quite frankly, makes no sense whatsoever. As has been said millions of times, why would the Spirit Group sell off hockey, which helps book the arena they also own for 41 nights a year plus potential playoff revenue?

The second part about this is that the Manitoba Moose would then be essentially traded for the Blades. I don't get this logic at all, but some Winnipegger took a hit off his crack pipe, saw God, and then told them this I guess.

So I just had to explain to some of my company's executive that the Blades aren't moving, and the rumour is ridiculous.

_________________
Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb

I heard about this on CanucksCorner of all places, also from a Winnipeger.

2-0 series lead over the Red Deer Rebels. Rebels' forward Josh Cowen tried to concuss Blades' G Steven Stanford with 52 seconds left in a 4-0 game, after the Rebels had been shut out in consecutive games. Next shift, Mollekon sent out his big boys and a good old fashioned line brawl occured. I don't think the Blades lost any of those fights, either.

Cowen was protected by the refs after his act of cowardly douchebaggery. If a player does that, they have to let the players on ice beat the shit out of him. It was ridiculously blatant, too.

Mollekon got kicked out of the game for that. Here come the suspensions! Wouldn't be the WHL playoffs without 'em!

_________________
Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb

You're all suspended! Every last stinking one of you!

Justin Cowen, a forward with zero goals in his last 18 games who the coach claimed was just "driving the net, looking for a rebound" when he skated full stride and layed a shoulder on Blades G (and CHL G of the Week) Steven Stanford, gets 4 games for his cheapshot.

Blades F Randy McNaught gets five games for instigating a fight in the final minute of play. He's a repeat offender in this regard, so it was more severe. His fellow line brawl mates, F Darian Dyurzynski, D Sena Acaolatse and D Duncan Siemens each get 3 games.

And last, but not least, Blades Head Coach Lorne Mollkeon gets four games for sending out the goon squad.

And Rebels Head Coach Jesse Wallin (yes, that Jesse Wallin) doesn't get a thing. Fuck that noise.

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Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb

SWEEP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

_________________
Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb

Two big wins by the Blades in Brandon and the series is tied... guaranteeing another home game on Monday (Game 6). Right on. Game 5 goes tonight in Brandon.

Blades have their full team back, no more suspensions. Unless the league is a bitch and suspends Jyri Niemi for fighting with tape on his finger (he got a match penalty in Game 4). They don't supsend for that kind of shit unless he keeps doing it, so I expect the full team to be playing again.

_________________
Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb

http://www.puckworlds.com/2010/10/8/173 ... l-a-debate

The process of me turning Puck Worlds into the world's most visible Saskatoon Blades fanboy page has begun.

_________________
Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb