Kelowna falls to Windsor in Memorial Cup Final

I know this is old news and one may ask why it is only being posted now? Well the answer to that is my computer broke down and is in the shop getting fixed. About the game. This is the first time in a while that a team who lost the first 2 games of the tournament fought back and won the Memorial cup. Everyone knew that the Spitfires would have more than enough motivation to try and win it all. They had that motivation all season long and yes I am talking about former Spitfires captain Mickey Renaud who collapsed suddenly in his home. The Spitfires hounoured him by hanging his jersey in the locker room and on the bench at the Memorial Cup. Windsor was congradulated at the Wings/Blackhawks game 5 in Detroit. Kelowna was also welcomed home even though they did not win the big game. Kelowna fans were still proud of their team.

As I mentioned in my last update that I took in the Saturday on ice portion of the spring camp. I liked very much what I saw. There will be some rookies looking to battle and grab a spot on the team,so those line combos that I made for next season you can probably forget about those.

I am VERY excited for the start of the season!!!!!! The next important event that I can think of is the NHL draft on June 26th and 27th (and I think that it would be safe to say that Lorne Molleken will be in attendance) and CHL Import Draft which happens on my 21st birthday June 30th.

Again the Blades can still pick a player but they can only use this player if overage euro Milan Kytnar does not sign with the Oilers and if Kytnar still wants to play for the Blades and not retun home. I hope he does return and plays for the Blades next season.

Kelowna VS Windsor in the Mem Cup Championship game..... & Blades Spring Camp

While Kelowna had a layoff until Sunday's Championship game Windsor and Drummondville played for their hockey lives in hopes of facing the Rockets in the final game of the tournament. The Windsor Spitfires won that game and will face off against the WHL Champion Kelowna Rockets. OHL VS WHL for the Memorial Cup on Sunday!!!!!!

In other news that is closer to home the Blades will be having their on ice portions of the Spring Camp to take a look at the team's 15,16 and 17 year olds, 32 players in total and it all gets started with the first on ice session at 10:30 Saturday morning going until 12 noon. I will be there to take it all in. Sunday the on ice session runs from 10:30 AM until 11:30 AM. If my work schedule permits I may be able to see Sunday's session.

Former Blades and where they are now......

This information I found on the Saskatoon Blades website. Some of these names I do recognize and I some I do not because they are before my time.

http://www.saskatoonblades.com/News/Blades_News/627/

Wade Belak	Nashville Predators Florida Panthers	NHL NHL
Martin Erat	Nashville Predators	NHL
Garnet Exelby	Atlanta Thrashers	NHL
Colton Gillies	Minnesota Wild	NHL
Mike Green	Washington Capitals	NHL
Darcy Hordichuk	Vancouver Canucks	NHL
Steve MacIntyre	Edmonton Oilers	NHL
Warren Peters	Calgary Flames Quad City Flames	NHL AHL
Aaron Rome	Columbus Blue Jackets Syracuse Crunch	NHL AHL
Cory Sarich	Calgary Flames	NHL
Devin Setoguchi	San Jose Sharks	NHL
Brent Sopel	Chicago Blackhawks	NHL
Rhett Warrener	Calgary Flames	NHL
Joe Barnes	Hartford Wolf Pack Charlotte Checker	AHL ECHL
Garett Bembridge	Iowa Chops Idaho Steelheads	AHL ECHL
Brad Cole	Quad City Flames	AHL
Dane Crowley	Houston Aeros Phoenix Roadrunners	AHL ECHL
Derek Couture	Binghamton Senators Elmira Jackels	AHL ECHL
Brent Henley	Norfolk Admirals Augusta Lynx Mississippi Sea Wolves	AHL ECHL ECHL
Adam Huxley	Springfield Falcons Stockton Thunder	AHL ECHL
Denny Johnston	Manchester Monarchs Ontario Reign	AHL ECHL
Anton Khudobin	Houston Aeros Florida Everblades	AHL ECHL
Garrett Klotz	Philadelphia Phantoms	AHL
Wacey Rabbit	Providence Bruins	AHL
David Schulz	Lake Erie Monsters Johnstown Chiefs	AHL ECHL
Craig Valette	Houston Aeros Syracuse Crunch Stockton Thunder	AHL AHL ECHL
Mark Wotton	Bridgeport Sound Tigers	AHL
Scotty Balan	Bakersfield Condors	ECHL
Ryan Menei	Mississippi Sea Wolves Asiago HC	ECHL Italy (Serie A)
Mike Reich	Florida Everblades	ECHL
Jason Duda	Wichita Thunder	CHL
Jason Goulet	Rapid City Rush Basingstoke Bison	CHL United Kingdom (EIHL)
Brett Jaeger	Texas Brahmas	CHL
Scott Reid	Rocky Mountain Rage	CHL
Jake Riddle	Tulsa Oilers Hull Stingrays	CHL United Kingdom (EIHL)
Ryan Tobler	Colorado Eagles	CHL
Kevin Armstrong	Muskegon Lumberjacks	IHL
Jared Dumba	Flint Generals	IHL
Steven Later	Muskegon Lumberjacks	IHL
Justin Keller	Knoxville Ice Bears Fayetteville FireAntz	SPHL SPHL
Ryan Senft	Richmond Renegades	SPHL
Ondrej Fiala	Moscow Spartak	Russia (KHL)
Michael Garnett	HC MVD	Russia (KHL)
Kirby Law	Nizhnekamsk Neftekhimik Fribourg-Gotteron	Russia (KHL) Switzerland (Suiss-A)
Marcus Paulsson	Farjestads BK	Sweden (SEL)
Bjorn Svensson	Timra IK	Sweden (SEL)

Rockets are no longer undefeated....

Well we might as well throw the records out the window for this particular game because Windsor ended up winning the 3 goal contest. With that win it keeps the Spitfires alive for at least one more game. Hopefully this little hit does not phase the Rockets much or at all.

I now have 3 days off to allow me to get caught up and watch more games of the Memorial Cup,so I can think of things to write and keep this thing rolling.

Rockets still undefeated........

Yes the Kelowna Rockets beat the Voligeurs from Drummondville by a score of 6-4, Dallas Stars prospect Jamie Benn had a 5 point night and he almost had 6 points but was denied by the goal post with about 3 seconds left in the game. So now the Rockets are headed for an automatic trip to Sundays final. They do play the winless Windsor Spitfires on Tuesday night and if the Spitfires do not win this game that means that they will not have a chance to play Kelowna in the final. It was good to see a fair amount of Rocket fans at the games in Rimouski.

I hope to attend a Memorial Cup one day and it would be even better if the Blades were playing in it,not particularly as the host but as WHL Champions...the wait drags on haha. Anyways I enjoyed watching this close match-up and the Rockets continue to succeed. One more thing if Tyler Myers is not in the NHL next year I will be surprised but the Rockets would reep the benifits of his return it all matters if Buffalo wants to let him to test out the NHL for a couple games (which probably will happen) Will we see the Rockets still remain undefeated? Well watch the game on Tuesday and find out.

Kelowna looking for 2nd straight win........

I did manage to watch Kelowna's 1st game and I thought that the Rockets controlled the flow of the entire game,the Rockets were just too much for the Oceanic to handle. Now the Rockets will play the Drummondville Voltigeurs who are also 1-0. I am excited that I do not have to work on Monday and guess what that means!!!!!!! I will be able to watch the Rocket's second game but I just have to remember that it starts at 5 PM Saskatchewan time. GO ROCKETS!!!!!

Kelowna's 1st game....

I have this one taped so I can watch it tomorrow at about 8:30 ish after I get home from work. I may want to watch the Drummondville VS Windsor game but I have a feeling that I will miss some maybe all of it. I see that the Rockets won the game 4-1 and once I watch the game I will leave my thoughts until then. It is obviously good to see them win their opening game.

I was in Cole's book store today and right away I rushed to where the sports books were and found two hockey books: The Kid,a book written about Sidney Crosby and his 1st season in the NHL, and the other one is called Travels with Stanley,so I bought them and have not been able to read them yet but I will. They look like good books. If you do not already own these books may I suggest that you go to your local book store and buy these books.

Ok something that is old news:The Calgary Flames AHL Affiliate relocate to Abbotsford BC. I know that plenty of WHL GM's are not too pleased with this because of the supposed agreement that the WHL and AHL have and that is that the WHL will not put a team where the AHL already has a team and vice versa. A good example of this is Winnipeg Manitoba,the AHL has the Moose there but the AHL just put a team in the B.C area that will have conflict with the WHL and fan bases of WHL teams in the area. So what if The WHL was to put a team in say Winnipeg(This probably would not happen because there is a WHL team already in Brandon) but just to give the AHL a taste of their own medicine!!! I mean that is just rediculous because I am sure that there is somewhere else out there that the Flames affiliate could have relocated to a city that will have no issues.

This May long weekend of mine will be spent working,but too all who read this blog have a good long weekend.