NWJHL Finals Game 3 - Kings @ Navs in Peace River - March 20th

Well, as anyone that's been following this blog knows... I have been badly absent here since Jan 31st. February was not easy, but never would I ever have expected March would be worse! Two good days - my birthday on the 4th, and the Kings game the night after I won the 50/50 for $117... so it wasn't too bad. Besides that my month has been hell... besides every game with the Kings. Absolutely love working with this team and being a part of the organization!

March for me... well there was serious hacking of all computers & cell phone, mass problems with original cell phone including virus laden pics sabotaged by hacker potentially making me lose all pics not Tweeted or FB'd, since Jan 1st - and it appears that the virus laden pic fried/permanently damaged my first 4GB SD card. Massive bills thanks to getting desktop computer reformatted, mass data overages on my phone (100MB is squat! Haha! But how am I to know better when I haven't had a active cell for 5-6 years u til Dec 14th - I have 1GB now though), getting behind on phone bills, other bills .. then I get badly sick... worse head & sinus cold of my whole life! There was some other issues, but between Saturday night & Tuesday afternoon I was deathly ill and could barely even get out of bed or get up off anything. I'm definitely not 100% since, but a lot better than that extent.

So yeah...got a 2nd working SD card Friday, so was able to take pics for Saturday's Game 2 of the N-dub Finals in GP, but due to illness haven't made it on this blog, on EP much, nor to update stats on the AJ or N-dub... badly behind but I plan to get things up as soon as possible when available... which well... could be soon...

I now have 5 jobs officially... EP (since 08), Grande Prairie Storm (since Aug 31st), blog here (since Dec 4),                                                     Grande Prairie JDA Kings (since Jan 27th) and the Grande Prairie Athletics (unofficially since their last home playoff game at the Coke Centre vs Spirit River - I was confirmed to do game stats help with them for 13/14 and for the heck of it I did game tweets that night... haha!). But unfortunately/thankfully (as my life has been hellish... it frees up my times bit) the Storm were knocked out weeks ago in Sherwood Park in the first round  and I believe the A's were knocked out of the NPHL division finals days earlier in Spirit River on Tuesday of the same week.

For now though... here's some pics from the trip and the game. I'll add notes later, but just wanna get a new post up. I plan to post from Game 2 in GP also. I didn't have a working SD card on Game 1 in GP, so no pics from the festivities and pregame we had that night to open the league finals.

Long belated 1st full NWJHL update

N-dub update:

This, like anything and everything else I do on EP since the start of the season not AJHL related, has been massive delayed due to well... the AJHL, daily stats updating of the league (or as close to it as possible), and my ever evolving work with the Storm - becoming a huge part of my life since the creation of this blog. But, for the simpler reasons that - this is my local Jr B league and I do have past, present and will have future ties to this league, and that I may likely be working within the league in some capacity in the future; it only makes sense for me to take on daily updates for the N-dub, as I refer to it, along with the AJHL updating/work. So here goes - I am hoping to get a basic post done insanely fast, before I head to bowling alley in 37+ minutes... but it's doubtful I will complete it by then - but as usual... expect me to give it my all to pull it off!

Due to an insanely slow library wireless signal combined with my ancient laptop running at complete crap speed before I had to head to the bowling alley, I only managed to list off the changes for Beaverlodge & Dawson Creek.

I've decided now, that as it's 3:34am already now, I am only going to list off changes below on this post since my last NWJHL update 'ages ago'. So basically this is going to be part one, or a preliminary update that I will likely hyperlink player profiles in later for and likely re-mention all involved below on a complete post/N-dub update to be done tomorrow.

I'm also pretty sure this is the first full update of the league I have done since this blog was started - so this is the first NWJHL post of any kind here (besides notes of Samuel Lauzon being an AP wih the AJHL's Whitecourt Wolverines, and Landon Hall being affiliated now with Fairview Flyers - also from the Wolverines).
- - - - -

Beaverlodge:
*Add in F #18 Layne McLean moves (2 games since last update)
*Add in F #18 (was #9) Mark Isherwood games up (7 games since last update)
*F #26 Darion Fay (was # 23)
*F #26 Kolter Bliss missing - need lookup final stats and mark hidden
*F #18 Tyler Dueck missing - need lookup final stats and mark hidden
*D #9 Laird Layne Baird missing - need to lookup final stats and mark hidden
*#-less D Victor Lapierre now #14 since my last N-dub update
*F #14 Jayde Lafferty missing - need to lookup final stats and mark hidden
*F #10 James Emmett missing - need to lookup final stats and mark hidden
*D #5 Levi Ferguson missing - need to lookup final stats and mark hidden
*G #39 Emile Kappo missing - need to lookup final stats and mark hidden
*G #31 Travis Kappo missing - need to lookup final stats and mark hidden
*F #21 Coltin Cardinal - new with 4GP 1G
*F #10 Spenser Baldock - new with 2GP 1G
*F #15 Cody Anderson - new with 1GP
*G #39 Dylan Quinn - new with 10GP 3.49GAA .913%
*F #20 Parker Sharp was also added to the team as of a Dec 19th game, but due to his AJHL callup with the Storm, I had him and his moves & stats already listed on the Blades

Dawson Creek:
*F #5 Chevy Brown now on reserve. No new games since last league update
*F #14 Nicko Miller now on reserve. 1 new GP since last update
*D #2 Junior Apsassin now on reserve. No new GP
*G #30 Ryan Wilson now on reserve. No new G stats
*G #30 Michael Chute - new, with 3GP 2.23GAA .914%
*G #30 Kaden Bouchard - now with #30 from #-less, with all new 4GP 5.73GAA .824%
*G #31 Justin Samra - new with 4GP 7.28GAA .827%
*F #21 Brett Norman new with 7GP 6G 3A 8PIM
*D #0 Kody McManus new with 4GP 2G 2PIM
*F #0 Charles Dagoustin new with 1GP

Fairview:
*D #0 Aiden Watchorn new with 1GP, on reserve as AP
*#-less C Dolan Bjornson a new reserve/AP
*#-less D Trevor Greschner a new reserve/AP
*#-less D Mattias Jacobsson new reserve/AP
*#-less C Kaven Kover a new reserve/AP
*#-less G Douglas Landry a new reserve/AP
*D #22 Drake Cunningham missing - need to lookup final stats and mark hidden
*F #93 Brandon Bogdanek missing - need to lookup final stats and mark hidden
*F #9 Levi Cartwright missing - need to lookup final stats and mark hidden
*F #8 Chase Helgesen missing - need to lookup final stats and mark hidden
*D #4 Derek Holubowich missing - need to lookup final stats and mark hidden
*F #17 Jason Lazarko now on active (from reserve) and 6GP 17PIM since last league update
*D #44 Jesse Stymiest missing - need to lookup final stats and mark hidden
*D #10 Dalton Raven missing - need to lookup final stats and mark hidden
*D #27 Brendan Cunningham missing - need to lookup final stats and mark hidden
*#-less D Landon Hall added to roster. Originally listed with 1GP but was removed from game sheet
*F #56 Jamie Rapson missing - need to lookup final stats (if he had any, as was at 0 everything last update) and mark hidden
*LW #10 Jean-Marco St. Pierre new with 5GP 10G 8A 10PIM
*C #86 Marc-Etienne Giguere new with 5GP 3G 10A 4PIM
*F #27 Steven Kover new with 10GP 6G 5A 2PIM
*RW #8 Jamie Hemstock new with 8GP 4G 2A 2PIM
*LW #93 Logan Putio new with 8GP 1G 2A 6PIM
*D #44 Bryton Wagner new with 6GP 1A 19PIM

Fort St. John:
*F #14 Chris Sperling missing - need to lookup final stats and mark hidden
*F #17 Kyle Leonard missing - need to lookup final stats and mark hidden
*D #6 Brent Loewen missing - need to lookup final stats and mark hidden
*F #20 Chris Vance missing - need to lookup final stats and mark hidden
*F #22 Cole Calliou may be healthy now but still marked as out indefinitely with thigh injury. 3GP 4PIM since last update
*G #30 Ty Gullickson missing - need to lookup final stats and mark hidden
*F #6 Owen Barker new with 8GP 3G 3A 42PIM
*AP F #23 Ricky Bateman new with 2GP 1A
*AP F #5 Tanner Moulton new with 1GP
*AP F #14 Thomas Webster new with 1GP
*G #30 Daimon Derouin new with 2GP 1.99GAA .939%

Grande Prairie:
*Link in signing of Wammer (Corey Wamsteeker) & Mac Putio moving on to Bay Area Seals (WSHL) from Grande Prairie Kings (Dec 27th? article)
*F #62 Cody Anderson now on reserve with same stats as last update
*F Adam Hodge now #81 since last update
*F Connor Tetlock now #14 since last update
*G #0 Talon Walton new with 0GP - GAA - %
*G #1 Sky Buller new with 8GP 2.15GAA .932%

North Peace:
*F #6 Kyle Barr now on reserve. 10GP 4G 4A 2PIM since last update.
*F #27 Kyle Noskey missing - need to lookup final stats and mark hidden
*D #3 Christoph Lemire-Rondeau new with 3GP 1G 1A
*AP F #25 Drayton Brennan new with 3GP
*AP F #6 Darren Brochu new with 1GP
*AP F #28 Ian Dickson new with 1GP
*AP F #27 Ethan Kalugin new with 1GP 2PIM

Sexsmith:
*D/F #20 Jared Barendregt now on reserve with 7GP 1G 2A 20PIM of new stats
*D #71 Nathan Lenting now on reserve with 1GP new stats
*F #18 Brody Mcafee now on reserve with no new stats
*F #7 Justin Davidson now on reserve, still injured, no new stats
*D #10 Joey Moretto now on reserve with 0 [new] stats
*F #27 Lucas Gow listed with 1-2 week upper body injury as of Nov 23rd. 8GP 1A 20PIM new stats.
*D #44 Zac Ewing listed as out with shattered elbow as of Jan 1 2012 (???), yet played Nov 9th 2012 & Jan 6th 2013. 1GP 12PIM since last update
*AP F #7 Sawyer Warkentin now active (from reserve) with 4GP 5A. 3GP 4A since last update.
*D #28 Tyler Palmer was originally listed with a game of stats before Xmas break then it was removed. Through contact with Tyler since he went back to Edmonton & joined Grant McEwan University (CCAA), he definitely did play in game for Vipers, so therefore I have kept the record of it on EP.
*F #71 Kolby Collins missing - need to lookup final stats (if any, as was at 0) and mark hidden
*D #6 Patrick Croome missing - need to lookup final stats (if any, as was at 0) and mark hidden
*F #12 Kraig Deley missing - need to lookup final stats (if any, as was at 0) and mark hidden
*D #41 Trevor Frankie missing - need to lookup final stats (if any, as was at 0) and mark hidden
*D #47 Cody Goodswimmer missing - need to lookup final stats (if any, as was at 0) and mark hidden
*F #44 Luke Heiken missing - need to lookup final stats (if any, as was at 0) and mark hidden
*F #21 Kurt Konopelka missing - need to lookup final stats (if any, as was at 0) and mark hidden
*D #20 Raymond Konstaple missing - need to lookup final stats (if any, as was at 0) and mark hidden
*F #11 Jimmy Nicholson missing - need to lookup final stats (if any, as was at 0) and mark hidden
*D #3 Landon Phoenix missing - need to lookup final stats (if any, as was at 0) and mark hidden
*F #2 Nathan Pickett missing - need to lookup final stats (if any, as was at 0) and mark hidden
*D #24 Justin Zaychuk missing - need to lookup final stats (if any, as was at 0) and mark hidden
*G #1 Nigel Heath missing - need to lookup final stats and mark hidden
*G #1 Matteo Santorelli new with 5GP 7.00GAA .815%
*F #29 Ryan Wilson new with 9GP 1G 1A 8PIM
*AP F #41 Wyatt Hommy new with 2GP
*AP F #0 Kris McQuaig new with 2GP
*AP ? #0 Ryan Nellis new with 2GP
*D #4 Blair Whiteway new with 1GP

Slave Lake:
*C #8 Justin Loroff now on reserve, with 9GP 2G 5A 28PIM in new stats
*D #16 Jordan Loroff still on reserve but with 4GP 3A 6PIM in new stats
*F #4 Ethan Ball now on reserve with 11GP 1G 5A 4PIM of new stats
*LW #20 Colby Welygen now on reserve with 7GP 1G 1A 2PIM of new stats
*D #18 Chad Olansky now on reserve with no new stats
*D #0 Lionel Letendre new on reserve with 9GP 1G 1A 6PIM
*D #2 Mike Loroff now on reserve with no new stats
*G #35 Rhiley Laderoute now on reserve with 7 new games of stats
*F #7 Drew Deschover now active, with 13GP 3G 10PIM of new stats
*F #14 James Green now active, with 9GP 1A 16PIM of new stats
*G #30 Ty Yellowknee now active, with 3 GP of new stats
*D #44 Ryan Coutts new with 4GP 1A 6PIM of new stats
*RW #77 Anthony Nahmko new with 12GP and 18PIM of new stats
*RW #51 Austin Kuhn new with 2GP new stats
 - - - - -

And that is that... 1st/preliminary post, is done for now. More after I get a well needed, well deserved long rest!

The Travis Wellman trade to Abitibi that never actually happened

What an outright mess this has become... i am seemingly unable to use caps or contracted words or secondary functions while blogging from my new cell, so bear with me. even enter wont work on this now... haha     anyways though...

I'm right now almost starting to feel like an EP public relations expert, after trying to sort all of this out... haha!

So, this all started around the 10th when Bonnyville C #16 Travis Wellman showed up on the Abitibi Eskimos trade section on the current version of the NOJHL transactions link that's only been around since the start of the season when they switched their stats site to NGIN. Anyways, our/EP's NOJHL updater added the move onto EP as soon as he came across it, and which I later posted on my blog here. I didn't take a screenshot of it (heck - it's a league transaction link, it should be 100% accurate, right? Well, not this time unfortunately...) but I did copy exactly what was listed there that may as well be a screenshot, as it copied the exact text style, background colour, and a hyperlink to that earlier blog post. I ended up also posting about it on the AJHL forum, commenting about how it seemed the Pontiacs didn't inform Wellman about being traded, as it turned out a Manitoba Jr B coach I know on Twitter, had asked him about it and Wellman didn't know about it until this coach saw the trade - I believe off my blog. I definitely meant no disrespect to the Pontiacs - I was basically commenting about how it seemed strange Wellman wasn't notified prior to being traded. I got a couple tweets from Robb Hunter (Pontiacs play-by-play) last night but didn't find out the whole story until a few hours ago (around 7:30pm) ... but as it turns out from those latest tweets of Robb's (then) - the trade never did actually happen.

So, as soon as I saw those from Robb, I kind of wondered what in the heck happened. Checked over on the NOJHL transactions link and sure enough, Wellman being acquired by Abitibi, has been removed from Abitibi's transaction history for this season. Like... what in the heck??? I have absolutely no idea where in the heck the updater of that league link got the 'trade' from. But yeah, I totally stand behind our NOJHL updater - he posted what he saw at the time, and I copied exactly what I saw that backed/backs up what he posted, but was later removed from the NOJHL transaction link. So basically with that, I have proof of the 'transfer' (even though it didn't happen) and proof of the NOJHL screwup, and have 'Inside Information' of the 'transfer back' (Robb's tweets to me, of the back transfer than never did happen). Frig!

I'm just about 100% certain, for some point of time the other day though, that Wellman was de-listed/taken off the AJHL Pontiacs stats/roster when I updated the team... but at the same time, it would not surprise me one bit if the whole 'supposed transfer' had the updater kind of wondering if it really did happen as well, briefly.

So yeah, there's the full logical explanation of this mess - I'm very tempted (and for a good, granted reason!) to email the NOJHL and 'nicely give them a piece of my mind' for the mess their erroneous transfer started... but for the time being, to heck with it! I'll take the fall for this for the time being... I can handle it! At the same time... I've spent/wasted more than enough time on this tonight and need to get to other stuff, badly, already! Robb's being great about all this, which is definitely appreciated. I still have to get back to his last round of tweets to me replying to what I sent him while at the arena, but thought I'd get this fully finished before I got to those.

- - - -

Speaking of the reason I was typing on my cell in the first place... was at the Grande Prairie [JDA] Kings (NWJHL - Jr B) game tonight against the visiting North Peace Navigators of Peace River (by the way, the game sheet LIES about at least one thing - there were real people in the stands! Haha!)... I was trying to sort out the above mess prior to leaving and during the entire game, along with sending texts to a friend in Fort St. John in between as well. Saw all the main plays though, in between looking down and back up for the game, repeatedly... haha! What a game that was... Kings led most of the game (at least it felt that way, but from looking at the game sheet it appears they only really led first half of the game), but went down 6-4 after the 2nd (with nearly a full out line brawl at the end of the period... haha!). North Peace then went up 7-5, before the Kings scored 2 to tie it and take it to OT, which led to the shootout victory 8-7. Definitely got our money worth tonight!

Conversation about Quebec players in AJHL/Alberta

Just thought I'd copy in a conversation I'm having with an AJHL forum member about Quebec hockey players in the AJHL/Alberta, based on what's been going on with the Whitecourt Wolverines season:

What is the deal with this Jr A (and even the B, prior) franchise on picking up players from Quebec? Like I can understand why not more dub players - other local teams have their rights and don't want to part with them, probably the same case with Ontario and I've noticed the same almost always in the Maritimes (notable exception - Patrick Earle (http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=100327) coming from the MHL to play with the North Peace Navigators up here in the NWJHL, but heck... look closely, even HE IS FROM QUEBEC... haha!)... but why so much activity from Quebec? Seems like a pattern the last few seasons that Quebec players just keep showing up, almost by the masses, in the AJ - and I rarely ever notice the opposite happen (though haven't been updating the LHJAAAQ for a few seasons). Is it the players, that see the league as an inferior Jr A system, and want out? I'm pretty sure, by following the CJHL Top 20 a lot in the last few years, they haven't even had a very highly ranked team for years!

Like look at it right now (http://www.cjhlhockey.com/news/news_det ... newsID=509):

The CJHL Weekly Top 20 as of Monday, December 3rd
1. (1) Brooks Bandits (AJHL)
2. (2) Truro Bearcats (MHL)
3. (4) Minnesota Wilderness (SIJHL)
4. (5) Trenton Golden Hawks (OJHL)
5. (3) Flin Flon Bombers (SJHL) 
6. (6) OCN Blizzard (MJHL)
7. (7) Soo Thunderbirds (NOJHL)
8. (8) Grande Prairie Storm (AJHL)
9. (11) Summerside Western Capitals (MHL)
10. (10) Buffalo Jr. Sabres (OJHL) 
11. (9) Chilliwack Chiefs (BCHL)
12. (16) Yorkton Terriers (SJHL)
13. (15) Yarmouth Jr. 'A' Mariners (MHL) 
14. (13) Penticton Vees (BCHL)
15. (12) Victoria Grizzlies (BCHL)
16. (NR) Dauphin Kings (MJHL)
17. (HM) St. Michael's Buzzers (OJHL) 
18. (19) Smiths Falls Bears (CCHL)
19. (20) Saint Jerome Pantheres (LHJAAAQ)
20. (NR) College Francais Longeueil (LHJAAAQ) 

Honourable Mention goes to the Surrey Eagles (BCHL), Spruce Grove Saints (AJHL), Notre Dame Hounds (SJHL), North Bay Trappers (NOJHL), Nepean Raiders (CCHL)

Out of the 10 Jr A leagues, all they can manage is #19 & 20??? Like heck, even the tiny SIJHL has a top 10! I'm pretty sure, without checking, that last week they only had one listed and no HM at all. 

I do have an opinion I share, once in a while ;)