Instant Karma, Sutter nails slew-footer, exhibition season over+back doing work for the Dogs

Hope you had a great long weekend! It was a busy one for me with my "live on location" duties as Salmon Fest surrounding a Dogs game Saturday night. The weather wasn't great, but the times were!

Lets get down to business. The "(anything but) Super Series" shifts to Canada after our boys won all four games in Russia in fairly dominating fashion. It will be nice to see the Winnipeg hockey fans perform tonight as they are second to none with their noise and enthusiasm. I still remember the last days of the Jets and the '99 World Juniors in The 'Peg. Too bad that the hockey they may see may be a little less than intense. Who knows, maybe the Russians need to get on the road to get together?

Brandon Sutter on Alexei Cherepanov. At one end of the ice, Cherepanov throws a slew-foot on Sutter. At the other end, Cherepanov cuts to the middle with his head down, and Sutter puts him out of the tournament. Ladies and Gents, boys and girls, I give you INSTANT KARMA, INSTANT PAYBACK



I laugh at the penalty that was called on Sutter. Big hits just equal penalties in this day and age. Look up slew-footing in the rule book and find out it's a major penalty. There's a simple reason for that- it's extremely dangerous. The victim most of the time doesn't see you coming, and you instantly throw them to the ice on the back of their brain.

For ANY of the ________ ___________'s (I couldn't think of ANYTHING non offensive there so I'll let you fill the blank yourselves) out there that say for ONE SINGLE SECOND that Sutter's hit wasn't clean (ok CHARGING I will maybe MAYBE give you that) I will please ask you to look at the following video.



Enjoy watching the tournament from the stands Cherepanov. Too bad your slew-foot led to you cutting to the middle with your head down which led to you getting king-kong-ed.

Rant off.
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The Bulldogs prepare for the season opener Friday in Nanaimo after going 1-3 and 1 during exhibition. After going loss-tie-win the Dogs ended with two lopsided losses to Nanaimo and Victoria Saturday and Sunday. I don't have a problem with lopsided losses in exhibition (or the regular season even) as long as they are LEARNING experiences and not recurring experiences. I can't speak of the game Sunday in Victoria as I didn't head down there. What I can say about Saturday at home against Nanaimo is I hope the team learned to not get sucked in to the stupid stuff, and to keep their cool. Also, I hope they learned that the standard of play that is upheld at one moment won't be held up the next, but it might be held up later. Does that make sense? Expect nothing, be ready for what you perceive as bad calls and battle through it. Everyone goes through it. The team that does it best might very well end up higher in the standings than a team that doesn't, and further in the playoffs than a team that doesn't. It's a fact of life in the BCHL. It's a developmental league for the players as it is every one else associated with the league. I was standing with Clippers play-by-play voice Dan Marshall and I remember how dumbfounded I was with some of the things the Dogs got away with the last five minutes of the third. The Dogs sure paid for it in spades in the third with a couple of back to back 5 on 3's against. Bye bye hockey game, as the Clippers capitalized. It was an awful game for a fan to watch, and especially for a coach to watch, especially when coaches are using the games to evaluate talent. I don't know what if anything could be evaluated Saturday. Again, as I said off the top, I hope it was a learning experience.

I'm back doing the "Weekly Preview" and "Weekly Review" feature for the Bulldogs website this season, as I'm putting the finishing touches on the first edition coming out some time this week. A little hard to finish the write up and prep for my broadcasts this weekend as at the moment as I don't have the rosters for the Clippers or the Bulldogs or the Kings. Rest assured, I'm working on it.

For those that haven't read the feature before, it's pretty simple. I look forward at the Dogs "Games of the Week" and get some audio comments for your listening pleasure from a couple of players and a member of the coaching staff. Early the next week, I submit a recap of the games of the week. Then, I "lather, rinse, repeat" for every week of the season. It's just one of my duties throughout the season, but it takes alot of work. I won't let the blog go, but I will have to push the blog down a bit on the priority list.
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Last but not least- I am excited to have former Bulldogs Assistant Coach Rick Schievink in on my morning show tomorrow at 8:10am on 93.3 The Peak FM. The focus of the interview will be yet another BIG NEWS item in the local hockey scene, the emergence of Port Alberni's own Hockey Academy- of which Rick will be the lead instructor. This is great news and make sure to tune in tomorrow to hear more details. If you miss the interview, I will be posting it here on the blog along with running it during a Bulldogs broadcast coming up for those that missed out. Of course I will also get Rick's comments on the Bulldogs and the time he spent with the organization as Assistant Coach from 04-05 through 06-07.

That's it for today. Busy guy here, hi-ho hi-ho.
Hammer