Big Day for LEAF NATION!!!!!!!!!

Today the Toronto Maple Leafs aquired Dion Phanuef,Fredrik Sjostrom, and Keith Aulie from the Calgary Flames for Matt Stajan,Ian White,Jamal Mayers and Niklas Hagman.

I think that is alot to give up BUT THE LEAFS HAVE DION PHANEUF!!!!!!!

In another deal with the Anahiem Ducks they traded for J.S Giguire and gave up Vesa Toskala and Jason Blake.

Blades get even in weekend series with Broncos.

I only listened to the 3rd period of the game because I have a life yes it is true haha. The bridge city bunch took a 3-1 lead,and ended up winning the game by a count of 7-4. Charles Inglis added a short handed empty netter. Hopefully he can continue at this pace.

Things became heated at the end of the game with Darian Dzuirzynski being assesed a 10 minute misconduct for trying to convince a Bronco to drop the gloves but he wanted no part of Dzuirzynski.

The Blades earned 3 out of 4 points this weekend and that is KEY when battling with the Wheat Kings in the east division.

The Blades take on the Prince Albert Raiders on Wednesday next week and play Friday in Regina against the Pats.



EDIT: The game in PA will be on Shaw TV wooo hooo lol.

Blades Fall Short.

I read in the sports section of today's paper that the Blades have decided to make Curt Gogol have surgery to fix his hand/arm. So there is a possibility that if the Blades go on some sort of a playoff run Gogol could be back then. Now the injured list for the Blades is: Zahn,Hamilton and Gogol.

Please NO MORE injuries to this team because if that happens they will be up the creek. The Blades did play Swift Current tonight in front of a crowd of just over 4,000.

I am gonna try and keep it short. The Blades played a decent hockey game but most of the Swift Current goals were off of bad passes that were intercepted by the Broncos and deposited into the net past Steven Stanford.

Surprisingly Darian Dzuirzynski was not throwing his body around as much as in previous games. The Blades still played physical against the Broncos though.

All of the Blades recent games have been close one goal games and this game was the same. I thought it was a very evenly matched game.

I think that the Blades are doing the some of the things that they need to in order to win but they need to capitalize on their chances.

Duncan Siemens is sure taking advantage of his playing time he even was involved in a tussle & boy oh boy does he like to get rough!!!!!!!!

The Broncos battled hard to tie the game and outworked the Blades in the extra period scoring with about 2 and a half minutes left in the Overtime. Plain and simple they wanted it more. They got it too.

Final 4-3 for the Broncos and these two teams will meet again Saturday in Swift Current.

The next time the Blades play at Credit Union Centre is on Febuary 6th which I think is a Saturday. The Blades will make stops in Pa and Regina before then.

The Blades did earn a single point so now the Blades have 73 points on the season.

Game Day VS Broncos.

Tonight the Bridge city bunch will play the Swift Current Broncos in a home and home series this weekend ( and a team that I have yet to see since the trade deadline) So I am glad that I will be able to see Stepan Novotny and the rest of the Broncos.

The Blades defeated the Moose Jaw Warriors a game which was shown on Rogers Sportsnet. It was a perfect time to break the winless slump!!!!!

If the Blades can continue to come out of the gate like this they should be able to maintain the lead in the standings.

Look for another solid effort tonight but I am sure the Broncos will not be a push over either.

Blades Hold off Warriors

The Blades jumped out to a 3-0 lead and there were fights in this game too (something we have not really seen much of lately) I only saw periods and at the end of the 2nd it was 3-1.

The Warriors did manage to tie the game up and force overtime,but the Blades solved that by putting a shot past the Warriors netminder.

The final score was 4-3 in favor of the Blades,so they snapped their winless streak and will take on the Swift Current Broncos on Friday at the CUC.

Blades Host Warriors On Rogers Sportsnet.

Tonight the struggling Blades will faceoff against the Moose Jaw Warriors. The Blades have lost their last 3 games and are seeing their east division lead slip away. I am still unsure if I should go to the game or stay home and watch it? Also keeping in mind that I have an indoor soccer game at 9 pm. I think I will go to the game and watch 2 periods hopefully.

This is news to me that Marek Viedensky was drafted by the San Jose Sharks, I saw that in the Hockey News magazine that I bought today. I guuess I need to step it up in the research department haha.

I think all Blades fans are hoping for a better result tonight.

The Blades need wins to stay atop.

Where Did They Go??? Blades go 0-2 this weekend.

Everyone was probably hoping for 2 things in this game..... Better officiating and a Blades win. They did get one of those.

The Blades could have won this game but again they faced a team that is hot.

The Blades scored 2 goals and the Wheaties scored 5 enough said. The Blades pulled their goalie late in the game for the 2nd straight game and did not tie either of the games.

Randy McNaught dropped the gloves...yes he did with Jordan Hale another big boy. This was an entertaining fight and a really close one.

The Hardest Working Player of the game was Walker Wintoneak and the Hit of the Game was thrown by the Captain Derek Hulak.

On a side not PA defeated the Kootenay Ice snapping their 14 game winning streak.

The bridge city bunch has two home games next week I think they fall on a wednesday and friday. Hope for better results next week.

Oh wow I almost forgot to mention.....I didnt want to say this but it did happen unfortunatly Curtis Hamilton broke his collarbone in last nights game against the Ice but in a different spot!!!!! ahhhhhhhh You have to feel for him because he missed out on the Top Prospects Game and now he returns for 1 game and it is broken again. SO he most likely misses the rest of the season. All this because of what I think is a STUPID SERIES Canada VS Russia (only because of this exact situation) A player becomes injured and ok so I am bitter..... Deal with it.

Ok so I am really dissappointed that Curtis Hamilton is injured again and did not have a real chance to show scouts what he can do....sure there are most likely scouts at every game that the Blades play but IMO to miss the Top Prospects Game is HUGE!!!!!!!

I do not know where this will put him in the rankings ect ect.

Blades Come back attempt ICED!!!!!!!!!!

The Blades were hoping to melt the streak of 13 that Kootenay was riding,they could have done it but to be honest the officiating was not really in the Blades favor tonight. There were many examples of that and even Lorne Molleken was hot under his collar.

There are bound to be games like this one and (hopefully only in a blue moon) The Blades looked as if they could of snapped the winning streak of their opponent but a penalty shot was awarded to Kootenay and this call was the turning point in the game.

It was awesome to see Curtis Hamilton out there doing his thing again.

These two teams have quite a thing for one another now because it almost looked like a Blades/Raiders game (in terms of how heated and intense the game was)

I was not too pleased with Todd Mathews the Ice goaltender going after what looked like every Blade player who went into his area during the game. This game was really up tempo and I am very surprised that the gloves stayed ON and no fights happened.

At one point during the intermission or time-out both goalies looked as if they wanted at one another,I think they even tried to get a piece of each other as they where so close together.

The Ice did extend their winning streak to 14 games with this 5-4 victory of the bridge city bunch.

Duncan Seimens stepped up BIG TIME and had a huge game. I thought Adam Morrison could have played better,but Stanford can not and should not be forced to play all of the games.

The 505/50 jackpot was an impressive $5,000. Sadly I did not win. (hopefully one of these games) haha.

I hope Jeremy Boyer plays tomorrow night,as he was scratched for this game.

Do not worry the Blades are still in 1st place and Kootenay is on a hot streak.

Tomorrow night the Brandon Wheat Kings will entertain the host Blades.

Curtis Hamilton Returns to Blades' Line-up.

After sitting out the Top Prospects Game which was played in Windsor and coming back later than expected because of a slower healing process. He is ready and will play this weekend.

I am excited to see what this does to an already impressive group of players.


More thoughts after the Blades take on the Kootenay Ice tonight.

Blades Back At It...Double Header At Home This Weekend!!!!!!!!!

After a 4 day break from the blog there is some things to talk about now... The Blades have signed 2 players each to Standard WHL Player Agreements and these players are forwards: Lukas Sutter and Levi Bews. From what I understood was that Lukas Sutter was in limbo and did not know if he was going to commit to the Blades or play somewhere else,but the good news is: He should be in a Blades uniform in the future!!!!


I liked what I saw from both Lukas Sutter and Levi Bews in the spring camp in 2009. I am glad that they are secured for now..... I say that because the Blades traded away Stefan Burzan and a 3rd for Jeremy Boyer. I think the Blades will be done trading away top round prospects for at least a year because I think this year they might be thinking "Go For It All" because as of post trade deadline they have nine 19 year old players but 8 if you minus Zahn who is obviously done for the season.


A team with that many players who would be OA's for next season is probably wanting to see what kind of damage they can do in the post season.

So If the bridge city bunch can stay healthy,I think it should be a fairly lengthy play off run (or at least I hope.) Knock on wood........

This weekend the Blades take on the winners of 13 straight: the RED HOT Kootenay Ice on Friday (who just recently out battled the Swift Current Broncos and stole a game on the road by a 8-6 final score.) On Saturday the Brandon Wheat Kings pay another visit to the CUC.

Blades Tripped up by Tigers.

The game tonight was another close game and I mean REALLY CLOSE. The Tigers drew first blood,happily there was no other blood except maybe some bad blood or just competitivness haha.

Stanford is the hot goalie right now and the Blades are playing him until he needs a rest or cools down.

The two teams picked up the physicality in this game and that was good to see.

Sena Acolatse dropped the mitts with Cole Grbavac and Acolatse did land some punches but I thought he did not convincingly beat his opponent: Draw is the verdict. Grbvac received a 10 minute misconduct for no tie down ( or according to a Tigers blog called Tiger Turf) a penalty for pulling his arm out of his jersey.

While we are on the subject of fighting..... Curt Gogol yes we know he likes to fight and yes the Blades have many fighters but the 2 newest fighters can play defence and that is a position that the Blades may be thin on. Gogol hurt his hand in the game the other night and was a scratch tonight..... My question is why is McNaught not fighting as frequently as he used too? I think that it really showed on the defensive end and the inexperience that the younger guys unfortunately have and an example of this was when the puck was in the Blades zone and a forward (maybe 2) was in the corner battling and then Dalton Thrower started to go into the corner and someone from the bench yelled for him to get out of the corner and get back in front of the net. They are good players but they need more experience and that will come with age, practice and positive influence.


The Blades at times had trouble controlling the speed and quick play of the Tigers and this is what hurt them in overtime.

Darian Dzuirznski was a hitting machine tonight as well as a point producer as he scored 1 goal for the Blades and was awarded the hit of the game and Walker Wintoneak(who scored a shorthanded goal) was named the hardest working player of the game.

The Tigers ended the game less than 30 seconds into the extra period when the Blades coughed up the puck and the Tigers took advantage and scored to ice the game. 3-2 was the score.

The attendance (Which I think was the highest of the season) was 5,936.

The 50/50 jackpot was a whopping 8 Thousand and some..... No I did not win either.

Hopefully it was a Blades fan who won the pot haha but there were a fair number of Tiger faithful in the CUC tonight.

One can also throw into picture that the Blades played 4 games in 5 nights.....BUT that is not an excuse at all.

The Blades receive a 6 day break from game action as they do not play again until Friday the 22nd against Kootenay Ice (who are on a tear as of late) and Saturday against the what I will say LOADED Brandon Wheat Kings.

Blades Solve Broncos. Date with the Tigers Saturday.

The first game without Teigan Zahn was tonight. As you may already know he suffered a broken leg in the last game. According to the paper he did have surgery to have screws and a plate put in his leg.

I would say it would be wise to call up an older defencemen in the system,but I am not sure what the rules say about that.


Ok onto the game. It sounded as if it was a very close checking game.


The Blades did manage to squeeze out a win when Charles Inglis scored a shorthanded goal to give the Blades a 4-3 lead.


The Blades record is now 32-9-1-3. The Blades will travel back to Saskatoon and prepare to face the Medicine Hat Tigers on Saturday night.

Blades Be-Little Hitmen....Gogol and co. look GREAT!!!!!!!!

I was excited that I was able to see all 3 of the new players in action tonight and they all looked really good.

Steven Stanford started for the 2nd straight game. He played a good game tonight stopping 37 of 38 shots. Meanwhile his counterpart Martin Jones faced 29 shots but let in 4 goals.

I am not sure if the goalies are being rotated but I will say this: I think Steven Stanford is making a case to be the #1.


Teigan Zahn left the game and he was in some obvious pain. I am not too sure what his injury may be but it is a good thing that the Blades have some versitile players that can play 2 positions.

The bridge city bunch jumped out to a 3-0 lead but they still had to play well defensivly and I think they did that. Both Curt Gogol and Sena Acolatse found dance partners for this game,and both of them held their own in the fighting department tonight.

I noticed a couple of things about Marek Viedensky.....He also wears #19 and is from Slovakia. Former Blade Milan Kytnar shares these two characteristics with the new Blades Import.


Here is something that you may thought would not happen again: The glass shattering. Well it did exactly that in the 3rd period when a Blade was hit into the corner boards and BAM,glass was everywhere. The delay was about 10 or 15 minutes.


The Hitmen pulled their goalie with about 2 minutes and change left in the 3rd period. Newcomer Sena Acolatse shot the puck into the yawning cage putting the game away and making the final 4-1 for the home team.

The Calgary Hitmen have a couple of young towers on defence both 16 year olds and over 6'2'.

The Hardest Working Player was Travis Toomey who also came away with 2nd star honours,and the hit of the game was thrown by 20 year old defencemen Sam Klassen.

The 3 stars of the game were: 1st star: Steven Stanford,2nd star Travis Toomey and the 3rd star was Tyler Fiddler of the Hitmen.

With this win the Blades increase their lead and improve their record to 31-9-1-3. They also have the 4th fewest goals against in the WHL at 124.


The Blades are ranked at #6 this week in the CHL top 10.

The Blades will visit Swift Current to battle the Broncos on Friday night and then return back to the CUC for a game against Emerson Etem and the rest of the Medicine Hat Tigers.

Blades VS Broncos..... Did I miss a good game??

I was only able to catch parts of the game on the radio,so this will be short. The Blades took a 2 goal lead in the 1st period. That is all I knew of the score when I could listen. It sounds like the new guys are doing well,I will be able to witness in person tonight what they can do.

Both Curt Gogol and Marek Viedensky registered their 1st points as a member of the Blades and for Gogol it was even better I would think. If I remember correctly it was his 100th WHL game and his 2nd WHL goal and 1st point since last season or something like that.

The Blades did hold on to beat the Broncos 3-2.

Which gives them 30 wins on the season. The Blades next game is Wednesday(today) at the CUC against the Calgary Hitmen,who have acquired some talented bodies as well. It should be a good game.

New Look Blades Face Broncos Tonight.

The bridge city bunch will have 3 players that they acquired in trades on Sunday in the line-up tonight. Those players are Sena Acolatse who will wear #11,Marek Viedensky who will wear #19 and Curt Gogol who will wear #16. The Blades will be looking for their 30th win of the season tonight. I could not get out of work so I will have to wait until Wednesday night to see the new guys.

I hope the new players can fit well with the Blades.

Blades add an Import Forward and another Gritty Defencemen. Johnson reassigned.

Today,the Blades have filled their 2nd Import spot by acquiring Marek Viedensky from the P.G Cougars. (I was hoping for Vincour out of Edmonton) in exchange for 15 year old goaltender Tyler Santos and a 3rd round pick in 2010 (the Blades still have a 3 round pick) So it is ok to trade that pick since they still have one in that round.

The Blades also traded for Kelowna Rocket Defencemen Curt Gogol and a conditional pick in 2012. The Blades gave up prospect Colton Sissions and a 3rd round pick.

Now the Blades are continuing to add tough bodies in Gogol & Acolatse to the roster and maybe Viedenski was that goal scorer the Blades were able to get?

Some other deals are not usually announced until after the deadline. So we shall see if anything else happens.

Braden Johnson has been reassogned to the Saskatoon Blazers.

A move that needed to be made with bringing in 2 forwards.

Good trades but I do not think this really puts them over the top. I am going to go see what else happened for trades in the WHL.

The new look Blades will host Swift Current on Tuesday night.

Blades lose to Hurricanes.

Honestly tonight I could not figure out what was going on. How did this team win 5 out of 6 away from home and then be controlled and run into a hot goaltender on a slightly weaker team?

Things were not going the Blades way this game. Sure they had their good moments when there cycle game was flawless and they controlled the puck well.

The Blades also took bad penalties at times and could not take advantage of the power plays that they had. The Hurricanes went up 3-0 and won the game 3-1.

I am pretty sure we will see Sena Acolatse in the line-up on Tuesday. Jyri Niemi was getting his shot away but he was not able to keep it low for some reason.

It will be interesting to see what happens on Sunday. I do not think the Blades are done trading yet. We will soon know.

Blades Trade Gallimore......

The bridge city bunch have made a trade with the Seattle Thunderbirds ( a team which they recently played)

The Blades acquired Sena Acolatse in exchange for Burke Gallimore.

I am not to sure what to think of this trade just yet.

He has 22pts in 39 games so far,he is a -14 with 35 minutes in penalties. I think his plus minus will improve coming to the Blades now. Welcome Sena and good luck Burke in Seattle!!!!

I hope he is in the line-up tomorrow night!!!!

Blades Back On Home Ice.

Tomorrow will be the 1st Blades home game of 2010. It is against the Lethbridge Hurricanes. After a VERY SUCCESSFUL U.S Division road trip posting a 5-1 record,the Blades will look to continue that success. They have a league leading record of 28-8-1-3. I am excited to watch the Blades again after what was a long break.

The WHL trade deadline is on Sunday in the afternoon and I think that the Blades are trying to make a deal or two and hopefully they do.

It would help the team if they had a game breaker Like Jordan Eberle (FOR EXAMPLE) He will not be traded to the Blades so they will have to look elsewhere. I hope the Blades at least make a couple deals.

Since I have nothing better to do tonight I will probably watch the Vancouver Giants VS Edmonton Oil Kings game on Shaw TV.

Have a good weekend everyone.

More Canada VS USA Pictures. Blades Lose to Ice.

As promised here are more pictures from the gold medal game and bronze medal game as well.

The Blades had a very good road trip only losing 1 game out of 6 on their road trip They lost 8-1 to the Kootenay Ice. They need a break,I think they are a tired group... ANYWAY A JOB WELL DONE!!!!

Saturday is a game against the Lethbridge Hurricanes @ the CUC, we will see how big the crowd is for the game.

HEARTBREAK...Congrats USA..... Sweden Wins Bronze. Blades Beat Spokane....

This game was possibly the best hockey game I have seen live. The game was even pretty much scored goal for goal,no two goal leads until the USA went up 5-3. Canada did not stop when they were down though and once they scored that goal to pull them within one of tying the game it seemed to give Canada the momentum they needed to tie the game. Team USA played a great game and was not shaken by all of the razzing done by the fans.

In my opinion Jake Allen did not play that great,he was decent at best. Team USA is full of talent and unfortunately only one by the name of Jerry Di'Amigo is a Leafs prospect. Nazem Kadri should be solid when ever he makes the jump to the NHL.

Canada lost 6-5 in Overtime.

A silver medal is still ok but I know everyone wanted a 6th straight Gold.

In the Bronze medal game Sweden blew Switzerland out of the water and won in convincing fashion 10-4.

I just checked the score of the Blades/Cheifs game and the Blades won 5-4 which gives them a 5-0 record so they swept the US division!!!!!! Have they even done that before? 1 game to go in Cranbrook before playing a home game at the CUC (a place that was my 2nd home for the past 2 weeks. I am looking forward to my having my regular seat back though.

I took way more pictures than this but here are 4 pictures for now.

Russia VS Finland game & pictures.

There was 3 current WHLer's, 5 current or former WHL'ers on Team Finland(6 if you count Swift Current Bronco property Joni Orto.) I do not think he will ever suit up for the Broncos but you never know.

Only 2 current WHL players actually played though . Toni Rajala & Jyri Niemi.

This game was a close game all the way through. The Russians are a good team,this game was up there with the USA VS Sweden game and both were good games!!!!!! Both teams traded goals many times throughout the game. It is too bad that there are few if any Russian players in the WHL....they are good players and would make the WHL a better league,and I am not saying that it is not a great league already but adding Russians to the rest of the import mix would be neat to see.

Ok time for a Blades spotlight in this game.... Jyri Niemi (who is the captain of team Finland) was able to unload his cannon of a shot (maybe not at full speed) but it did beat the Russian goalie.

The Finns were able to beat the Russians and claim 5th place but they went to war to do it. The final score was 4-3.

Here are pictures:

I know the picture on the right is not Finland/Russia related but so cool to see!!!!!!
















On the final day of the 2010 world junior tournement Canada will play USA for Gold and Switzerland will play Sweden for Bronze.


This tournament was a great success in my veiw. I loved every second of it!!!!!!

Canada Still perfect at the World Juniors,Blades still unbeaten as well!!!!!!

Team Canada played Switzerland and this game was alot closer at the start,however Canada did score first.

Canada had a very effective cycle game in the offensive zone and that most likely wore the Swiss team down.

The goalie for Switzerland Benjamin Conz is a VERY good goaltender,he faces alot of shot each night and keeps his team in the game(as much as he can.) I am surprised that he is undrafted.

Nazem Kadri continued to have a battle going all game long with Nino Niederreitter. Speaking of the LEAFS Brian Burke was in the CUC for both games watching Nazem Kadri and Jerry D'Amigo and every time they showed Burke on the jumbotron he was booed. C'mon I know that MANY people HATE the Maple Leafs but at least show some class!!!!!!!! It is not easy being an NHL general manager.

Ok back to the game!!! Canada won the game 6-1. I think that Canada will play USA in the gold medal game.... someone please correct me if I am wrong.

In the second game USA VS Sweden. The game was close until the 3rd period when the Americans put the game out of reach by scoring an empty net goal, defeating the Swedish team by a count of 5-2. In fact the Swedish team held the US in check pretty much most of the game but in the final period it started to slip away for them. Leafs prospect Jerry D'Amigo looked good in this game and was named the player of the game for his team.

The Blades played Tri City in their 2nd last game against the US teams on their trip,Gaelan Patterson scored a hat trick as the Blades went on to beat the Americans (from Tri City ......well Kenniwick Washington, if you want to be 100% correct.) by a score of 6-4. The Blades will play out the remainder of the trip in Spokane on Tuesday and against Kootenay in Cranbrook on Wednesday.

Here are pictures from the 4pm and 8pm games on sunday:

Blades remain perfect on US trip. Austria VS Slovakia Pictures

All 3 of the games have been won by the road team the Blades and by 1 goal every game. The Blades came back to beat the Winterhawks by a score of 6-5 in Overtime.

The Blades play Tri City tomorrow,Spokane on Tuesday and Kootenay on Wednesday.

I attended the Austria/Slovakia. The Austrian team is very small,the only player that is big was a 6'5 forward and Stefan Ulmer of the Spokane Cheifs played alot in this game,Slovakia in the end was too much but Austria held their own and kept the game close.

Canada plays Switzerland at 4pm. I think it will be a sell out and the 50-50 will be big.

2 for 2!!!!!!!! Canada Beats USA,Blades Trim Silvertips

Wow what a game at the CUC tonight!!! The game was even early on with both teams trading goals twice. The USA the outplayed the Canadians scoring 2 more making the score 4-2.

Canada knew that they had work to do so in with 20 minutes left Canada did what they do best: score goals. They scored 2 to tie the game at 4.

Canada did score a 5th goal but it was disallowed. So the two rivals went into overtime then a shoot-out. Every shooter that shot was bang on scoring but Jake Allen made 1 big save and that proved to swing Canada over the top and Brandon Kozun streaked in and scored the winner.

With this win Canada will play sunday @ 4:00.

Here are some pictures that I took:

Tonight the Blades played the Silvertips in Everett Washington and they skated away with a 2-1 victory.... Good to see them play well on the start of this 6 game road trip...hopefully this continues.

Happy new year to all my blog readers.

The Blades will play in Portland against the Winterhawks.

I'M OUT!!!!!!