The Rundown - All-Star Selections

I hope things are going well for everyone who enjoys visiting rinks to watch Canada West women's hockey. With everyone writing exams over the next few weeks, the conference is on break and will return on January 9 and 10 for more action after the holidays. In saying that, we can take a look at a few things that need some addressing and examination since we have a few moments. Let's settle into the Stats 101 material that I've prepared along with identifying 24 players who have stood out in the first half of the season on The Rundown!

Each year, I choose two teams based on first-half performances. Each team is represented with at least one player, and there is always at least one rookie named to each squad. Six forwards, three defenders, and two netminders make up the teams so that there would be three lines of 3-on-3 hockey at this Canada West All-Star Extravaganza played by my chosen teams. This would be a fun hockey exhibition!

I want to be clear once more: these choices mean nothing outside of the teams being made up of players who I believe are having strong seasons up to this point. The players that are chosen won't necessarily be the top scorers, but they will be the players who stood out on each of the teams in this writer's view. In saying that, though, let's look at who I chose for the Canada West All-Star Extravaganza!

• Grace Elliott (UBC) - leads the conference in goals and scoring.
• Annalise Wong (UBC) - leads the conference in assists.
• Kyra MacDonald (TWU) - leads TWU in goals, tied for scoring.
• Holly Magnus (ALB) - second in assists; tied for Pandas' lead.
• Abby Soyko (ALB) - tied for lead in Pandas' scoring.
• Sydney Jack (MAC) - leads MacEwan in goals and scoring.
• Sadie Isfeld (TWU) - top scorer for rookie defenders.**
• Presleigh Giesbrecht (TWU) - Spartans' top-scoring defender.
• Jaylyn Morris (UBC) - leads all defenders in scoring.
• Mya Lucifora (UBC) - top GAA, .954 sv%, 8 wins, 4 shutouts.
• Taya Currie (MAC) - second-most shots, 2.40 GAA and .925 sv%.

People are going to look at this team and be outraged by some of the players who aren't on the list. Admittedly, I had a very hard time leaving Chloe Reid (TWU), Elise Hugens (UBC), and Vanessa Schaefer (UBC) off this list, but they got bumped due to numbers. Hugens might surprise the most, but Lucifora has better numbers and has played more minutes so she deserves a little of the spotlight in helping UBC to the top spot on the meaningless national rankings.

Currie got the bump as the second netminder simply because she's giving the Griffins the goaltending they need to compete. A few more goals in opposition nets, and the Griffins might be in the playoff race in West Division. The rest of the explanations are shown above, but the goal light would nearly be a strobe light behind the opposition net with the scoring on this roster while having solid netminding.

• Peppi Virtanen (SAS) - leads all rookies in scoring.**
• Sydney Benko (MRU) - leads MRU in goals and points.
• Sydney Mercier (CAL) - leads the Dinos in goals and scoring.
• Pippy Pritchard (REG) - leads Regina in assists and scoring.
• Jerzey Watteyne (MRU) - second on MRU in goals and scoring.
• Aimee Patrick (MAN) - leads the Bisons in scoring.
• Alex Spence (CAL) - top defender scorer for Calgary.
• Kendra Zuchotzki (SAS) - Huskies' top-scoring defender.
• Summer Fomradas (MRU) - leads MRU defenders in scoring.
• Amelia Awad (CAL) - top sv%, 8 wins, 1.11 GAA for the Dinos.
• Scout Anderson (MRU) - 1.28 GAA, .933 sv%, won nine games.

Selecting the East Division team was slightly easier, but I struggled leaving Allee Gerrard (MRU), Clara Juca (SAS), and Evelyn Lawrence (CAL) off this team when it came to roster spots. There's no doubt that this East team has less points collectively than the West team, but there's a lot of hustle and drive on this roster. Defensively, Fomradas, Spence, and Zuchotzki are among the best defenders at both ends of the ice, and I suspect they'd be invaluable on this team.

Building on the solid defence are the two goalies who have helped their teams to the top of the division as Amelia Awad and Scout Anderson have been excellent in their respective creases. Awad has played less often than she had in the early part of the season, but her and Anderson just keep turning in results when they're between the pipes. All-Star Games usually wreak havoc on goalies, but these two should do fine as this squad can score and defend their goalies!

Honour Roll

Since there were no games this week, the Honour Roll thought it had the week off. However, there are still incredible players doing incredible things as the Saskatchewan Huskies women's hockey team dropped by Canada Blood Services to donate some blood and plasma in order to help people and save lives in their community when it comes to this necessary fluid! I counted a dozen Huskies who made the trip to their local Canada Blood Services office to donate blood, and this kind of effort doesn't go unnoticed here on The Rundown because of how vitally important this kind of effort is.

Besides saving lives in their community, the Huskies may actually benefit from this activity more than you think. Research has shown that donating blood is linked to lower blood pressure, a lower risk for heart attacks, and a lower risk of strokes since since it lowers the viscosity of the blood by removing the total amount of hemoglobin in your body. Donating blood can save up to three lives, but the volunteering and team effort shown by the Huskies also has greater positive health outcomes including a lower risk for depression and greater happiness forged through those group outing bonds.

We know athletes can consume food like no one's business as well, but the snack that one receives to help replace the donated blood totals about 500 calories - virtually the same amount that's removed in the donation! By that count, the cookies and juice are a zero-calorie option for these athletes! How cool is that?

All jokes aside, this is an excellent effort from the Huskies, and I'm proud of the group who went down to Canada Blood Services and gave life to someone else. Hockey teams need their communities to help them be successful, so there has to be some reciprocal giving on their end. The Huskies are doing that with the blood donations, and that's how the entire Huskies team makes the Honour Roll this week!

A Telling Stat

This is your annual reminder that scoring first usually leads to good results. We've seen 78 games played between the nine Canada West teams to date, and the annual trend of scoring first continues like it always does. None finished in a 1-0 shootout final, so every game was counted with six teams playing 18 games and three playng 16 games. Due to this, no team can score first more than 18 times, but one team did hit the scoresheet first on 17 occasions - the most we've ever seen since I started tracking this. And yes, that number matters.

I'll do more breakdown below, but here's each team's first goal stats.

SCORING FIRST IN CANADA WEST

School	Record	1st	2nd	3rd	OT	Score 1st	Pts %
UBC	16-1-1-0	10	7	0	0	16-0-1-0	1.000
Mount Royal	9-3-5-1	8	4	1	0	8-1-4-0	.923
Calgary	10-4-1-3	10	1	1	0	10-0-1-1	.958
Alberta	7-6-0-5	4	2	0	0	5-0-0-1	.917
Saskatchewan	5-6-3-2	6	3	0	1	5-1-3-1	.850
Trinity Western	3-9-5-1	6	2	0	0	3-2-3-0	.750
Regina	3-8-2-3	5	1	1	0	3-0-2-2	.857
Manitoba	2-8-2-4	2	0	0	0	1-1-0-0	.500
MacEwan	2-12-2-2	2	0	0	1	0-1-2-0	.667

It's ridiculous to think that the only game in which UBC didn't score first, or at all in that one game's case, is the only one they have lost. In every other game this season, they have led and never ended up on the wrong side of the score. The only time they came close was a shootout win over Manitoba, but they won that game to take the full two points in that contest. Obviously, there isn't near enough data to determine how they play when trailing, so it might be a good idea for teams to score first and prevent UBC from playing with the lead.

The same rule may apply to the Calgary Dinos who have lost all six games where they haven't scored first, recording just two of 12 points in those games. The Dinos are scoring first by committee as well as all of Brooklyn Anderson, Sydney Mercier, April Klarenbach, and Hannah Reagh have two first goals apiece. The bigger number that everyone should notice is both UBC and Calgary have double-digit regulation wins, and they have the most first-period first goals.

Finally, it took 28 games this season for a team to rally and win a game in regulation after surrendering the first goal. MacEwan earned a 2-1 win over Trinity Western for their first win of the season on a late Sydney Jack goal, but there have been just six regulation losses in 78 games to date for the team that scores first, totaling 51-6-16-5 on the season so far. If you're doing the math, that's an .859 winning percentage and an .891 points percentage. That's incredible.

As I say every December on this blog, scoring first in Canada West matters. When it comes to this season, scoring first is almost is an unfair advantage so it would be wise to do it more often than not.

Players By The Numbers

If you're wondering which player has been the catalyst for the wins shown above, one player stands alone this season and her name shouldn't surprise you since she's been all over The Rundown.

Grace Elliott leads the way with six first-goals this season in helping her team to the best Canada West record. Behind her is teammate Jaylyn Morris who, as a defender, has four first-goals to her name as she's really shown a knack for getting pucks to the net. From there, there's a list of six players with three first-goals that includes:

• Kyla McDonald (TWU)
• Sydney Benko (MRU)
• Tessa Stewart (REG)
• Mia Bierd (UBC)
• Allee Gerrard (MRU)
• Peppi Virtanen (SAS)

There are also a pile of players who have two first-goals scored this season, but I'm only posting the top-three spots on the list. Wanna add your name to the list? Score the first goal of the game.

Ontario Math?

Before we even break into the standings, let's establish how points are determined in this conference. I took a look at their operations manual, and this is the statement made in Section 3.4.2: "For all regular season games, teams will be awarded 3 points for a regulation victory, 2 points for an overtime/shootout victory, and 1 point for an overtime/shootout loss." Hold onto this information because the OUA website might be inventing its own math.

There are three teams who are having big seasons in the OUA at first glance, so we need to take a deeper look. The Queen's Golden Gaels are out in front with an impressive 13-2 record, but things get a little more complex when one considers that they might be 5-2-8-0 this season (W-L-ETW-ETL)? Toronto is 8-7, but how do they have an 8-1-0-6 record, and the Ottawa Gee-Gees are 8-6, but actually hold a 7-2-1-4 record? The math just isn't mathing in the details here.

Adding to the madness is that Queen's, who leads the division, should have 31 points as per OUA Rule 3.4.2, but the standings show Queen's with 33 points as shown below. It's like the OTW don't even count!

The West Division sees Guelph out in front with an 11-4 record that actually shows the Gryphons as having three overtime losses and three shootout losses. Not surprisingly, this causes all sorts of math problems with an 11-4 team because how do they have more extra-time losses than actual losses on their record? Hint: they don't.

With my explanation above fitting the narrative, let's rewrite the records properly as Queen's is officially 7-2-6-0, Toronto is 8-4-0-3, and Ottawa is 7-4-1-2. In the West, Guelph is 9-1-2-3, Laurier is 9-2-2-1, and Waterloo is 6-6-3-1. Now we're comparing apples to apples.

Honestly, this is easily the most confusing standings board I've ever read for any sport anywhere. What the heck is going on in Ontario?

La Belle Province

Quebec's RSEQ is much more straight-forward in its standings. You don't need an advanced math degree or training in cryptography to understand the records accumulated by each team. Concordia holds an 8-1-4-0 record with their only loss coming on November 2 to the Bishop's Gaiters who, coincidentally, are the defending National Champion and second-place in the RSEQ with an 5-2-3-3 record. Montreal sits in third-place with a 3-6-2-2 record, and McGill finds itself in fourth-place out of four teams with an 0-7-1-5 record.

Les mathématiques sont très facile ici, Ontario. Take note.

The Maritimers

There may be a dogfight when it comes to who will grab the top seed in the AUS Playoffs as both StFX and UNB sit with identical 12-4-0-0 records. Those two teams are 1-1 against each other right now, but the X-Women have outscored the Reds 6-3 in those two games. As it stands, StFX holds the tie-breaker, but they'll meet on January 17 and February 6 in games that may determine who wins the conference.

Not to be forgotten are the 10-5-2 UPEI Panthers, the 7-3-6 Dalhousie Tigers, and the 9-6-1 St. Thomas Tommies, but those teams will need a big push in the second half of the season if they are going to dethrone one or both for one of the top-two seeds in the AUS. And this might be a bigger concern for all due to the next bit of news.

The Dumbest Alignment

In reading the U SPORTS Operations Manual for the 2026 National Championship, I came across a rather interesting tidbit of news of which I'm not sure many know. Allow me to inform everyone that the participating teams for the 2026 Championship will be as follows:

• AUS Champion
• OUA Champion
• RSEQ Champion
• CW Champion
• Host (Waterloo)
• OUA Finalist
• RSEQ Finalist
• CW Finalist

Does it seem like someone is missing? If you're asking where the AUS Finalist is, I had the same question. Apparently, this format now follows the men's format when played in Ontario which, if you're asking me, is the dumbest idea that U SPORTS has had in some time considering there are four conferences, two finalists in each conference, and a host team. The men don't have an RSEQ conference, allowing for three Ontario teams to go to Nationals every year because that extra spot is balanced out by the host team.

With Waterloo hosting, U SPORTS seemingly changed the format to allow the OUA champion and finalist into the tournament by eliminating an entire berth for the AUS finalist. How is that fair for the AUS when compared to a four-team conference like the RSEQ? Why does the AUS get one less berth than Canada West despite having one less team? Who would even agree to this tournament format?

If U SPORTS is trying to kill university women's hockey programs, this is a good way to do it. Every player wants a shot at playing for the championship, but giving preferential treatment to the Ontario teams makes it a lot harder to call this event a "national championship".

The Last Word

It's December 14. We're ten days from Christmas Eve and Hannukah starts tonight, but exams will continue through to the end of next week for most student-athletes. My hope is that everything goes well, the studying pays off, and exams are a cinch for those writing them. For everyone else, be merry, be kind, look out for one another, and enjoy the festive season. The World Junior Championship and the Spengler Cup start soon, and then it's back to competing for the Canada West banner! It's truly the most wonderful time of the year!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

A Little Laurent History

If you mention Laurent Brossoit's name in Winnipeg, there are a lot of people who will tell you they wish he was still here. It's not a shot at Eric Comrie nor is it anyone saying that they want an upgrade in between the pipes, but it's a genuine appreciation for what Brossoit did while he was a member of the Jets. He often found wins for the Jets despite sitting for long spells while Connor Hellebuyck did his thing, but every time someone spoke of his contributions to the team it came with how good of a teammate he was. Fans appreciated his winning ways as much as they did his giving ways as he was always willing to sign a puck or jersey if asked.

After leaivng due to salary cap reasons, he injured his knee last season with Chicago and has been working his way back to the Blackhawks' roster as he gets stronger and healthier, but we know that all injured players usually need a conditioning stint to brush up on their timing and fundamentals. That led to Brossoit being assigned to the AHL's Rockford IceHogs last week where the Blackhawks were hoping he'd find his game again and be NHL-ready quickly.

In three games thus far, Brossoit is working hard on his game as he has a 2-1-0 record, a 3.39 GAA, and a .900 save percentage so he's not quite ready for NHL action, but he's not far off from that point either when compared to the other Rockford netminders. However, Rockford might be reluctant to let him go back to Chicago after he had himself a solid game on the scoresheet last night.

You might have an eyebrow raised at that line, so here's the video!
At 18:56 of the third period last night against the Milwaukee Admirals, Brossoit stopped the dump-in by the Admirals behind the net and took his shot at the cage vacated by Admirals netminder Matthew Murray, burying the fifth Rockford goal to help the IceHogs to a 5-3 win! He also made 33 stops in the victory for a great night!

Laurent Brossoit becomes the 25th goaltender in American Hockey League history to be credited with a goal, and he is now the third Rockford IceHogs goaltender to score a goal in team history behind Collin Delia and Jaxson Stauber! With that goal now in the record books, let's add Broissoit to the list below!

• Darcy Wakaluk, Rochester – Dec. 5, 1987 at Utica
• Paul Cohen, Springfield – Mar. 28, 1992 vs. Rochester
• Robb Stauber, Rochester – Oct. 9, 1995 at Prince Edward Island
• Christian Bronsard, Syracuse – Oct. 30, 1999 at Rochester
• Jean-Francois Labbe, Hartford – Feb. 5, 2000 at Quebec
• Chris Mason, Milwaukee – Oct. 15, 2001 at Utah
• Antero Niittymaki, Philadelphia – Apr. 11, 2004 at Hershey*
• Seamus Kotyk, Milwaukee – Apr. 17, 2005 at San Antonio
• Drew MacIntyre, Manitoba – Feb. 20, 2008 at Chicago*
• Chris Holt, Binghamton – Mar. 19, 2010 vs. Rochester
• Reto Berra, Lake Erie – Jan. 16, 2015 at Chicago
• Jonas Gustavsson, Bakersfield – Mar. 24, 2017 vs. San Diego
• Alex Nedeljkovic, Charlotte – Mar. 10, 2018 vs. Hartford
• Tristan Jarry, W-B/Scranton – Nov. 14, 2018 at Springfield
• Maxime Lagace, Chicago - May 25, 2019 at San Diego**
• Collin Delia, Rockford - Dec. 17, 2021 at Texas
• Lukas Dostal, San Diego - Mar. 2, 2022 at Colorado
• Jesper Wallstedt, Iowa - Nov. 12, 2022 at Chicago
• Pyotr Kochetkov, Chicago - Feb. 3, 2023 vs. Manitoba
• Strauss Mann, Laval - Oct. 18, 2023 vs. Rochester
• Alex Nedeljkovic, W-B/Scranton – Nov. 17, 2023 at Providence
• Jaxson Stauber, Rockford - Feb. 16, 2024 vs. Chicago
• Louis Domingue, Hartford - April 12, 2024 vs. Springfield
• Laurent Brossoit, Rockford - December 12, 2025 vs. Milwaukee
NOTE: asterisked goals are OT goals. Double-asterisked goal is a playoff goal.

It's pretty impressive that Rockford now has three goals by goalies and none against. Milwaukee had two goals to their credit and none against before Brossoit's goal tonight, so Rockford now stands as the only team with multiple goals by goalies with none scored against them. That's the second goalie goal this season following Xavier Wendt's tally last week for Tri-City, so we'll see how many more will be scored or recorded this season by the armoured net protectors!

Congratulations to Laurent Brossoit on his first professional goal tonight! Maybe he'll give it a shot in an NHL game one day?

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

V̅DCCI On A Big Day

I found this Stuart Skinner facial expression funny and appropriate today for a number of reasons. I'll get to the reason for the title in a second, but the biggest reason was because the man making the facial expression was traded in what was being described as a "blockbuster" trade by pundits hours before an actual blockbuster trade happened. Perhaps we should stop throwing around hyperbole? At this point, everyone is asking why this trade was made, but I think we need to look deeper than the key pieces of the deal. There's one player involved who could be the lynchpin for a better season for another player and his new team if he's played correctly.

Yes, Quinn Hughes is now part of the Minnesota Wild after the Vancouver Canucks opted not to wait to see if the trade offers would get any better, but that's not the trade I want to look at today despite how intriguing that may be. Instead, I'm curious about the earlier trade that happened between the Edmonton Oilers and the Pittsburgh Penguins where goaltender Stuart Skinner, defenceman Brett Kulak, and a 2029 second-round pick were traded in exchange for goaltender Tristan Jarry and mostly-AHL forward Sam Poulin.

It might come as a surprise to most that the Penguins would trade Jarry at this point in the season when it seems he's having his best campaign in some time, but Jarry has never been a poor performer in the regular season behind the Penguins' lineup. Just once in the last seven seasons has he finished a season with a record below .500, so he's been good enough to help the Penguins fight for a playoff spot. That goal hasn't always been reached, but Jarry gave the Penguins middle-of-the-pack goaltending whenever he was in the crease.

The catch, for me, was that the Penguins still have the remainder of this season and two more seasons where they were paying Tristan Jarry $5.375 million annually for a goaltender who hasn't won a Stanley Cup playoff game since 2021. That should be concerning to anyone who wants to see Sidney Crosby hoist the Stanley Cup one more time before he retires, but Jarry has never been known to steal games at any point either. He's had some good games in his career, but I can't recall anyone saying a team got "goalied" by Jarry.

Between inconsistent play and injuries, a lot of people struggled with the how Kyle Dubas paid Jarry more than $5 million per season when he was re-signed in 2023. At 28, he hadn't really shown a knack for winning big games, but, again, he was good enough to help the Penguins reach their goal of competing for a Stanley Cup. Not lost on anyone is the fact that this season, with Jarry now 30 years-old, was looking like another opportunity for the Penguins to take a shot.

If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, perhaps Kyle Dubas finally stumbled upon that reality when Edmonton Oilers GM Stan Bowman reached out last week about Jarry's availability. With the Oilers having cap space issues already, they needed to open some space, so flipping Stuart Skinner back to Pittsburgh was something that had to be done no matter who wanted to keep him. The other piece, however, is the player that intrigues me the most for what he might be able to do beside a player like Kris Letang or Erik Karlsson based on his history.

Karlsson is having his best season in years on both sides of the puck, and part of that reason is due to his defensive partner in Parker Wotherspoon. Every advanced statistical measure has Karlsson excelling with Wotherspoon beside him, handling the load of the defensive responsibilities while Karlsson pushes the play. That's not to say that Karlsson isn't having a strong defensive season, but it allows Karlsson to do what he does best more often in pushing the offence from the blue line. The end result is Karlsson is thriving again.

Kris Letang, meanwhile, has logged most of his ice time with Ryan Shea who, at times, looks out of place beside Letang. Their advanced metrics - Corsi-For percentage and Shots-For percentage - are both below 50% despite their expected-goals being above 50%. While the Penguins are finishing their offensive plays with Letang and Shea together, this seems unsustainable if Letang and Shea are deployed against better defensive opposition or with players who are less offensively-inclined. Something has to change on this pairing.

That's where Brett Kulak's acquisition is, on paper, the most important piece of this trade. You can see in the 2024 analysis done by The Oil Rig that Kulak was invaluable to the Oilers regardless of which side of the ice he played. Kulak made his defensive partner better - specifically Darnell Nurse - when played away from the likes of McDavid and Draisaitl. Kulak can play both sides of the ice, and he appears to be a more experienced version of Parker Wotherspoon.

Kulak, this season, had been paired mostly with Ty Emberson where he hasn't seen the same advanced statistical success, but there's a significant difference between Emberson's play and Nurse's play. That's where acquiring Kulak might benefit Letang and the Penguins if head coach Dan Muse decided to pair the playoff-tested Kulak with the free-wheeling Kris Letang. The proof may be in the 181 games playing beside oft-described "defensive liability" Evan Bouchard where Kulak and Bouchard had a CF% of 56.81 and an xG% of 55.45 while just having 35 offensive zone starts. They were good together.

I'll be very intrigued to see how Muse employs Kulak in Pittsburgh, so highlighting this trade as a goalie-for-goalie swap, while factual, might hide the underlying acquisition that Dubas sought. If the blue line gets better with a defence-first defender, the goaltending should improve as well. The opposite can be said in Edmonton where we'll have to watch to see if Emberson's number start to fall without Kulak beside him. If they do, Jarry may not be the answer after all.

I don't do a lot of advanced statistical analysis on this blog because I'm not all that convinced that stats are the be-all and end-all in hockey. I do like to watch trends, though, so asking the questions as to why Brett Kulak was included in this deal was one that required a little more digging. After all, good defensive players are harder to identify because there aren't many statistics that support what they do, but Kulak's comparisons with respect to who he plays beside tell a story that says Brett Kulak makes true offensive defenders better.

As for the title of the article, you may need to brush up on your Roman numerals because today is article #6701 - V̅DCCI in ancient Rome - on this blog. It's a big day whenever I pass by a new checkpoint, and it makes me laugh that I've had 6700 thoughts about hockey that I've published here. That's a baffling number to me.

Where does this ride stop? I have no idea, but post #6800 is not even on the horizon. Let's just take it one day at a time for now.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

The Hockey Show - Episode 690

The Hockey Show, Canada's only campus-produced radio show that strictly talks hockey, is back tonight with an emptier studio as just our hosts will descend upon the UMFM offices for the show. There will be some good hockey talk as they have a pile of stuff to go over from the last four weeks of shows where guests appeared, so it will be more of a rapid fire show tonight as our hosts try to get everyone caught up on all the news locally, nationally, and internationally that may have been missed! It will feel like a sprint for 60 minutes, so make sure you're ready tonight for The Hockey Show at 5:30pm CT!

Tonight, Teebz and Jason are gonna move like Steve Rogers as we cover as many stories as we can. We'll take care to have meaningful discussions, but lingering chatter may not be an option tonight. Among the many topics tonight will be Teebz's visit to the Team Manitoba Sledge Hockey practice, Ryan Kesler's legal troubles, the St. Louis Blues signing an alleged predator, Carla MacLeod being in the biggest fight of her life, a special goal scored in Indianapolis at the end of November, the Olympics have an apparent arena problem, the IIHF imposes an Olympic-sized rule, and much more as we go through as many important and relevant hockey stories that need further discussion. It's going to be a fast-paced show with some hard discussions once again tonight on The Hockey Show at 5:30pm CT on one of 101.5 FM, Channel 718 on MTS TV, or via UMFM.com!

If you live outside Winnipeg and want to listen, we have options! The UMFM website's streaming player works well if you want to listen online. We also recommend Radio Garden if you need an easy-to-use online stream. If you're more of an app person, we recommend you use the TuneIn app found on the App Store or Google Play Store.

If you have questions, you can email all show queries and comments to hockeyshow@umfm.com! Tweet me anytime with questions you may have by hitting me up at @TeebzHBIC on Twitter! I'm here to listen to you, so make your voice heard! And because both Teebz and Jason are on the butterfly app where things are less noisy, you can find Teebz here and Jason here on Bluesky!

Tonight, Teebz and Jason chat about fun on sleds, morally-corrupt individuals, cheering on Carla, a big moment in Indy, smaller-than-planned arenas, new rules, and much more exclusively on 101.5 UMFM and on the UMFM.com web stream!

PODCAST: December 11, 2025: Episode 690

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

This Sport Is A Complete Joke

In no way am I as talented as Richard Riehle in any way, shape, or form due to his portrayal of character Tom Smykowski in the 1999 film Office Space, but I feel like Tom Smykowski right now, though, as I read through the news reports that Dillon Dube, recently acquitted of sexual assault, has signed a PTO contract with the Springfield Thunderbirds under the direction of the St. Louis Blues. Let's drop the facade of the NHL having any moral standing of any kind because the Blues are the latest team to abandon any moral virtue in exchange for a another player of mediocre talent on their depth chart.

With Dube signing the deal today, all five men who were accused of sexual assault and gave testimony that they were involved in the questionable activities in the hotel room in London in 2018 now have professional hockey jobs once again. Two of the players are playing in Europe while three are playing under the watch of NHL teams, so spare me with your holier-than-thou rhetoric about how these men's lives will be affected by the allegations. None of them "suffered".

The image to the right shows the statement that the Blues put out today about the signing of Dube, and let me drop the most obvious comment I can make: if you need to publicly justify signing a player, you're already on the wrong side of history. No one is debating whether they were acquitted of the crimes they were alleged to have committed, but the testimonies given inside the London, Ontario courtroom and the information that has been released since the conclusion of the trial, specifically in Rick Westhead's book We Breed Lions, now has me seriously questioning why I follow this sport. Today's signing furthers that.

As stated multiple times on this blog, an acquittal does not mean not guilty. It is the accurate term of describing the failure of the prosecution to remove all shadow of a doubt that a crime had been committed. In no way does it prove innocence. Again, the testimonies given inside the London courtroom and the information that has been released since the trial ended make it very clear that up to ten men were in a hotel room with one intoxicated woman, and the five accused men all participated in sexual acts with the victim whose consent to allow those acts still seems very much in doubt.

One week ago, it was the AHL's Chicago Wolves who were trying to put out a fire after the NHL's Carolina Hurricanes signed Cal Foote to a deal and assigned him to the Wolves. Wolves' general manager Wendell Young was quick to tell Front Office Sports that the decision to sign Foote was not a Chicago Wolves decision, but they have to live with those consequences now. For those who may not be aware, the relationship between the Wolves and Hurricanes is frosty at the best of times, but Young went into full deflection mode when it came to the heat this signing was going to bring and we already know that the Hurricanes were kicking tires on two of the other acquitted players.

The Vegas Golden Knights put out a statement when they signed one of the acquitted players as well, including the line, "We remain committed to the core values that have defined our organization from its inception and expect that our players will continue to meet these standards moving forward". I'd like to see what those core values include because if the text messages between the players that Rick Westhead included in We Breed Lions are true (and there's zero evidence to suggest they are false), the Golden Knights' core values seem to ignore abhorrent behaviour prior to joining the team.

Three teams put out statements about three players who have yet to acknowledge their roles in the alleged sexual assaults and have, to date, not shown any effort or attempt to be better educated and better informed about how their actions have long-lasting effects on victims. The Blues, with Dube on their payroll, now employ an alleged rapist, a player who shares private images of others without their consent (Mailloux), and, two weeks ago, had an alleged domestic abuser whose partner dropped the charges before any trial could be had(Lucic). Two of those players, prior to landing with the Blues, have acknowledged the harms they have caused and have invested their time into being better people which continues today.

Not one of the players who were involved in the alleged 2018 sexual assault have acknowledged that they caused harm, not one of them has sought more information and education, and none of the teams that have signed the players have forced them to seek that help or made it a condition of their contractual employment. In saying that, my question to those teams, players, and general managers is simple:

WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!

I can hear some of you saying, "But, Teebz, what about second chances?" which would be valid argument to make if any of these five men had earned a second chance by putting in the work to be better people. Until that happens, you don't qualify for a second chance just because the prosecution in London failed in its argument. As I've made clear, the testimonies and the evidence in that trial that was both allowed and disallowed for legal reasons showed that these five men were in the hotel room, committed acts to which the victim doesn't remember consenting nor acknowledges she would consent, and walked away because the prosecution failed in proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. They did no work. They earned nothing.

Let me take that last point and make it clearer: the prosecution failing to do its job does not exonerate these five men, it does not make them innocent, nor does it give them a free pass to continue life as if this was some minor inconvenience. These men showed a distinct lack of leadership and empathy, a wide variety of poor decision-making skills, an effort to cover up their actions and silence the victim, and did nothing when it came to accountability outside of blaming the victim and did nothing to educate themselves about how their actions have far-reaching effects. Do all of those combinbed actions warrant a second chance at playing NHL hockey? If you're nodding yes, you're officially part of the problem. End of story.

These teams, this game, and society as a whole does not get better with these men in it if they're not willing to accept accountability and learn about how they can be better people. This isn't about hockey, but about breaking the culture that hockey instills into these young men where it removes accountability and imposes false confidences because they're constantly being told they're untouchable. Hockey is just a background detail when it comes to ensuring these men are becoming better people. You don't get second chances if you haven't shown you changed. That's how life works.

But not in the NHL where morals and being good corporate citizens means nothing. Winning is everything and winning drives profits, so morality and being good community partners flies right out the window. Men with the weakest of moral integrity are welcomed with open arms and celebrated as though they're some sort of saviour for franchises who are willing to sacrifice decency for a potential win.

And don't come at me with accusations that I sit on some pedestal while raining moral judgments down on everyone else. I'm just as flawed and broken as anyone else, but I and the people around me hold me accountable when it comes to making decisions that affect others because society teaches us and requires us to have that ability. If I do something wrong, I don't cover it up and try to silence people who were affected. I have been taught and the lesson has been learned that accountability and bettering one's self means more to society in today's day and age than the original moral outrage. Doing that work is how second chances are earned and given.

But not in the NHL where second chances are given if you can prove you have an above-average slapshot or can do a butterfly in the crease. You don't even have to feel remorse that a woman's life was completely altered by your actions or your friends' actions while you stood there and watched and cheered them on. All you need to do is prove that you can score a few goals, save a few pucks, and help a team win hockey games, and someone - maybe Kelly McCrimmon or Doug Armstrong or Eric Tulsky - will give you a second chance without questioning any moral repugnance you may have shown.

This sport is a complete joke, and I'm really starting to tire of it.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Far Away From Ten

The announcement was made on November 26, but I've been holding off on saying anything simply due to there being a lack of details on what's going to happen and when it will happen. However, the news is true: Simon Fraser University is rejoining U SPORTS and Canada West after spending the last fifteen years competing in the Division II level of the NCAA. There's a lot to be excited about when it comes to this news as the school will now review its options while reorganizing its athletics department to be better positioned for U SPORTS competition, but this site focuses on hockey-related matters so we need to dig into SFU's hockey programs to get a better sense of how this expansion will affect the Canada West conference.

The first thing to note is there is neither a men's nor women's hockey team currently supported by the Simon Fraser University Athletics Department. They do have both non-conference and BCIHL men's teams that compete, and it seems they operate independently outside of both U SPORTS and the NCAA. Don't let their non-affiliation with any league fool you - this Red Leafs men's team is pretty good.

The non-conference team does play against a number of NCAA teams throughout the season, and they currently sit with a 4-7-2 record this season with a shootout win and a shootout loss against UBC and a loss to Trinity Western. All those games were decided by a single goal, so it seems they can hang with two Canada West teams including the top-ranked team in the nation. We'll see if that continues.

In September, head coach Mark Coletta told sponsors and supporters, "We have a chance to have men's and women's hockey at the [NCAA] level. That's the goal, that's the vision. We need to make things bigger and better."

Coletta's not going to get that opportunity with SFU's decision at the end of November, but he certainly can't be ignorant of the marked improvement of the teams just down the highway from him. If he thinks that the Red Leafs had a chance in the NCAA to win a National Championship, the same result can be won in Canada. I can't say that all of the players currently on his roster will remain as part of the team, but the truth is that the conference gets immediately stronger if the Red Leafs can compete with both UBC and Trinity Western.

Here's the catch - there's no guarantee that men's hockey is added as a varsity sport at Simon Fraser University. The university's statement on the transition back to Canada West explicitly stated, "The university has no intention of adding additional varsity sports," meaning that men's and women's hockey aren't even on the radar at this point. In short, the immediate impact on Canada West men's and women's hockey is zero as neither conference will add a tenth team.

It should be noted, however, that SFU Provost and Vice-President Academic Dilson Rassier, who oversees the athletics and recreation deparrtment at SFU, told Postmedia in January, "We'll evaluate each specific case. If there is a way to have hockey — or any other sport — that is financially sustainable, self-sustaining and with new incomes for the university, we will consider it."

Before we jump down that rabbit hole, let's put all the cards on the table. Rassier said they'll evaluate each case moving forward based on financial requirements, and we know hockey is one of the most expensive sports for any Canada West school. Hockey, as he made clear, has to be financially sustainable for the university to even consider adding the sport to its varsity sports roster, so we might be years away from having hockey apply for varsity status based on how Red Leafs hockey moves forward at this point.

Secondly, if they add a men's team, they'll need to add a women's team unless they plan on offsetting the women's team with another men's sport. With the growth of women's hockey and the success of both Canada West teams in BC along with that new PWHL entity they have out in Vancouver, excluding women's hockey would be the most short-sighted thing SFU could do. As it stands right now, there is no Red Leafs women's team in existence, so they'd have to get that program off the ground in short order while being financially sustainable as well. There are infinite challenges in that plan.

With Simon Fraser University already facing a cash crunch like most other universities across the country, it doesn't appear that a men's or women's hockey team will be ready to play in Canada West as an SFU varsity sport in the near future. We already know that Canada West went to a divisional format as a cost-cutting measure for some schools, but the nine schools playing hockey aren't seeing massive savings in that plan. Adding a school who is already financially stretched thin to a conference that requires the most travel resulting in the highest costs for hockey programs might just be a non-starter.

I'm not saying that we'll never see the Red Leafs find their way into Canada West hockey. There were times where no one would have guessed Mount Royal University or Grant MacEwan University would be part of the conference, and there were likely many who never believed that Lethbridge nor Brandon would ever leave. Obviously, things can, have, and will continue to change in Canada West hockey as time marches forward, but the foreseeable future does not have Simon Fraser University involved simply due to the fact that they don't have varsity hockey teams nor has plans to add them.

While having ten-team hockey conferences in Canada West would be ideal - three BC teams out west, three teams in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, and Alberta's four teams splitting the difference - the reality is that we're as far away from ten teams as we were before SFU made the decision to rejoin Canada West and U SPORTS. We may eventually get there one day, but having SFU back in the Canada West conference does nothing for the hockey picture as it stands.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

That Was Quick

I originally wrote the title of Saturday's article about Steve Oleksy as a joke because I couldn't see any way that Oleksy was trying to come back to hockey after walking away in 2023. As you can see to the left, that comeback ended two days and two games after signing a deal with the Icemen as Jacksonville released Oleksy on Sunday before heading to Atlanta for the third game in three days against the Gladiators. And with that, it's back to family life for Steve, it seems.

After Jacksonville got thumped on Friday in a game where Oleksy recorded a high-sticking minor penalty, he was back on the ice Saturday as the Icemen recorded a 4-3 win over Atlanta. Oleksy did nothing of note in the game despite skating as a forward, and he was the only player on the Jacksonville roster not to record a shot. I'm not here to say that the game may be faster than the 39 year-old Oleksy can handle, but he may have been out of his element.

I'll give Oleksy some credit, though, because I'm not sure there are many guys in their late-thirties who can jump into professional hockey after spending three years off the ice. This is the same issue that the Winnipeg Jets are seeing with their reclamation project in Jonathan Toews, and it's not going well by all measures. Full marks to Steve Oleksy for giving it one last shot, though, but being released yesterday should spell the end of his professional hockey career.

As I wrote on Saturday, Oleksy should settle back into family life with his wife, Brooke, and their twins who are coming up on their first birthdays. That's a big moment for all parents, and Steve Oleksy can be there for the occasion as opposed to being on a bus somewhere, heading for the next ECHL city and another night of eating cheap pizza after skating hard for fifteen minutes. Oleksy played 73 games in the show with three teams - he has nothing left to prove.

He can now work on being the best husband and dad he can possibly be, and I would imagine that will bring him far more satisfaction and riches than one last season in the ECHL at age 39 ever will.

When it comes to the Icemen, Steve Oleksy was there for a good time, not a long time. Getting released yesterday means he can go home and rejoing the team that needs him the most: his family!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

The Rundown - Week 10

Officially, we're ten weeks into the season and all nine teams are going on break for the next month as players, coaches, and staff get set for exams, holidays, and travel as many players will be returning to their homes once exams are completed. This week will also see each team officially cross the halfway wark of the season with six teams having played 18 games and three teams sitting at 16 games played. That means every game on the new calendar is that much more important for playoff positioning. Only the Calgary Dinos started their break early as they had the bye leading into December, so let's check out who did what this week on The Rundown!

FRIDAY: We'll start on the west coast where the two BC teams met in a matinee affair in Langley. The UBC Thunderbirds were aiming to wrap up a playoff spot before flipping the calendar to 2026 while the Trinity Western Spartans were looking to close out their 2025 home schedule with a win over their provincial rivals. There was also a chance for more history on the UBC side, and I'll discuss that below!

Thunderbirds goals: Grace Elliott (16), Hanna Perrier (2), Grace Elliott (17)
Thunderbirds assists: Meadow Carman (2), Vanessa Schaefer (8), Annalise Wong (16), Annalise Wong (17), Jaylyn Morris (9)
Thunderbirds netminder: Elise Hugens (14/16)

Spartans goals: Charlotte Swanton (1), Olivia Leier (1)
Spartans assists: Sadie Isfeld (6), Kyra McDonald (7), Casey Ditner (6)
Spartans netminders: Kate Fawcett (30/33)

Result: 3-2 victory for UBC over Trinity Western.

SATURDAY: Historical moments aside, the fact that UBC clinched a playoff spot already is one of the reasons this divisional format is all kinds of ridiculous. I'm not saying they didn't earn it, but the fact that they played just over half a season and can rest players for the second half of the season if needed is why this divisional mess doesn't work. Nonetheless, good on UBC for taking care of business, but the Spartans were heading to UBC ice to take care of their own business. Which side would enter the break on a winning note?

Spartans goals: none
Spartans assists: none
Spartans netminders: Olivia Davidson (24/27)

Thunderbirds goals: Grace Elliott (17), Hanna Perrier (3), Vanessa Schaefer (5)
Thunderbirds assists: Annalise Wong (18), Audrey Church (2), Jacquelyn Fleming (5), Meadow Carman (3), Grace Elliott (7), Mia Bierd (3)
Thunderbirds netminder: Mya Lucifora (14/14)

Result: 3-0 victory for UBC over Trinity Western.

FRIDAY: We jump to the next interprovincial matchup as the U Prairie Challenge had another chapter added to its history. The Regina Cougars headed north to Saskatoon where the Saskatchewan Huskies waited, and these two squads were wanting to take points off one another to grab a better hold on a playoff spot while pushing their opponents further down the standings in the East Division!

Cougars goals: none
Cougars assists: none
Cougars netminder: Natalie Williamson (27/30)

Huskies goals: Shelby Williamson (2), Kaysah Nurani (2), Kahlen Wisener (4)
Huskies assists: McKenna Bolger (6), Avery Gottselig (3), Paris Oleksyn (3), Kara Mitenko (1), Peppi Virtanen (3), Bronwyn Boucher (3)
Huskies netminders: Clara Juca (20/20)

Result: 3-0 victory for Saskatchewan over Regina.

SATURDAY: The flatland Cats came home after a night where they could not solve the Huskies' defence, so they needed a bigger effort on home ice. The Dogs were looking for another solid performance from their squad as the Huskies looked to close out 2025 with a sweep and put some space between themselves and the Cougars. Game Four of the annual U Prairie Challenge went on Saturday night!

Huskies goals: Paris Oleksyn (2)
Huskies assists: Bronwyn Boucher (4), Jacquelyne Chief (4)
Huskies netminders: Colby Wilson (32/32)

Cougars goals: none
Cougars assists: none
Cougars netminder: Amy Swayze (29/30)

Result: 1-0 victory for Saskatchewan over Regina.

FRIDAY: The third interprovincial set of games this weekend was actually an all-Edmonton affair with the MacEwan Griffins making their way to Clare Drake Arena for Friday's game with the Alberta Pandas. The Pandas had a chance to close out 2025 in second-place in the West Division if they played well and got some help while the Griffins were looking to continue their improved play from the last few weeks to put pressure on the teams above them. Both teams wanted points, but would they find them?

Griffins goals: Kali MacDonald (1)
Griffins assists: Jordan Brown (2), Rian Santos (1)
Griffins netminder: Lindsey Johnson (32/35)

Pandas goals: Natalie Kieser (4), Hailey Carothers (3), Riley Smith (1)
Pandas assists: Sara Kazeil (1), Riley Smith (2), Jadynn Morden (4), Riley Smith (3), Abby Soyko (7), Annie King (2)
Pandas netminder: Mackenzie Dojahn (17/18)

Result: 3-1 victory for Alberta over MacEwan.

SATURDAY: The loss on Friday put the Griffins ten points back of the Pandas with ten games to go, so they needed to start winning games if they hoped to make a run at the playoffs. The Pandas were looking to close out 2025 on a high note with a sweep and second-place in the West Division while putting more pressure on MacEwan. Who was going to go home happy from downtown Edmonton?

Pandas goals: Kate Williams (1)
Pandas assists: Kelly Stanford (2), Ryann Perrett (3)
Pandas shootout scorers: Hailey Carothers
Pandas netminder: Grace Glover (14/15) in 65:00 plus 2/4 in the shootout

Griffins goals: Sydney Jack (3)
Griffins assists: none
Griffins shootout scorers: Marley Howes, Allee Isley
Griffins netminder: Taya Currie (27/28) in 65:00 plus 3/4 in the shootout

Result: 2-1 shootout victory for MacEwan over Alberta.

FRIDAY: It wasn't an interprovincial matchup in the fourth series of the weekend, but it may have felt like one with all the Manitobans on the Mount Royal roster while Manitoba has both Jordan Colliton and Lyndsey Janes behind their bench who were with the Cougars last season. These two teams book-end the East Division, so the Bisons were looking to send the mountain Cats home with their tails between their legs while the Cougars were looking to take a bite out of the Bisons and extend their lead over the rest of the division.

Cougars goals: Jerzey Watteyne (6)
Cougars assists: none
Cougars netminder: Scout Anderson (24/26)

Bisons goals: Julia Bird (5), Jessie Haner (1)
Bisons assists: Sara Harbus (3)
Bisons netminder: Emily Shippam (20/21)

Result: 2-1 victory for Manitoba over Mount Royal.

SATURDAY: After winning their first game this season against a Calgary-based team on Friday night, the Bisons were looking to close out the 2025 calendar with a sweep as they could potentially move out of the East Division basement. The Mount Royal Cougars, though, rarely lose back-to-back games, so a strong finish to their 2025 was going to be needed to bring home the split adn two more points. Who would earn the win and go into the break on a festive note?

Cougars goals: Isa McPhee (1), Jerzey Watteyne (7), Ava Metzger (2), Jori Hansen-Young (1)
Cougars assists: Summer Fomradas (6), Sydney Benko (7), Julia Duke (3)
Cougars netminder: Katherine Holan (26/28)

Bisons goals: Norah Collins (3), Sadie Keller (2)
Bisons assists: Julia Bird (2), Alyssa Rasmuson (4), Claire Moorman (2)
Bisons netminder: Emily Shippam (21/24)

Result: 4-2 victory for Mount Royal over Manitoba.

Don't even ask about divisions. I'm not interested in that setup. It's one conference, nine teams, and we'll see who is best in the west.

CANADA WEST WOMEN'S HOCKEY

School	Record	Points	GF	GA	Streak	Next
UBC	16-1-1-0	34	55	15	W4	JANUARY
Mount Royal	9-3-5-1	29	44	25	W1	JANUARY
Calgary	10-4-1-3	25	39	27	L2	JANUARY
Alberta	7-6-0-5	19	37	42	L1	JANUARY
Saskatchewan	5-6-3-2	18	25	31	W2	JANUARY
Trinity Western	3-9-5-1	17	38	39	L5	JANUARY
Regina	3-8-2-3	13	22	35	L6	JANUARY
Manitoba	2-8-2-4	12	26	44	L1	JANUARY
MacEwan	2-12-2-2	10	16	44	W1	JANUARY

Honour Roll

Each week on The Rundown, I highlight the best performances from the weekend's games. It won't always be the top scorer or the best goalie, but I'll have a reason for who gets picked each week. This week's player was one half of the wall put up in Saskatchewan, but her work this season has been sensational including this weekend where she picked up another clean sheet. This week's Honour Roll candidate is Saskatchewan Huskies goaltender Clara Juca!

Having three capable goalies who are ready to roll at any time always means that ice time is less than what everyone wants. Clara has appeared in six games this season, so her time has been limited when it comes to standing in the crease. That being said, she's making the most of those opportunities when she's between the pipes as she has a 3-1-1 record with a pair of shutouts. To date, she's allowed just seven goals on 142 shots for a .951 save percentage, her only loss came against UBC where she stopped 39 of 40 shots, and she's shutout each of the Cougars teams. That's a solid campaign!

Some will say, "Saskatchewan is a defence-first team, though" to which I say "1.30 GAA and a .951 save percentage in 322 minutes of action". In none of her four starts prior to this weekend did she face less than 25 shots, and she stopped all 20 that Regina threw at this weekend. Saskatchewan does play a defence-first system, but they still need good goaltending to win games. Clara Juca has provided that by backstopping the Huskies to seven of ten points in her starts. That includes helping the Huskies open a five-point gap on Regina for the final playoff spot in the East Division this weekend, and that's how Saskatchewan Huskies netminder Clara Juca made the list!

Yet Another Honour

UBC's Grace Elliott continues her assault on the UBC record books as she blew past both Tatiana Rafter and Chanreet Bassi for first-overall in career points in UBC program history. In fact, she's now at a 120 points and counting after scoring three goals and an assist this weekend. She also blew past a former Regina Cougars forward-turned-head-coach in Brandy West-McMaster who had 117 career points in Canada West as she's now climbing past other stars!

Grace now sits alone in 11th-place all-time in Canada West, three points back of former Bisons forward Addie Miles, and five points back of former Pandas teammates Autumn MacDougall and Alex Poznikoff. At this point, it's not a matter of "if", but "when".

UBC starts January in Calgary against Mount Royal before hosting the Calgary Dinos at UBC, so her current pace should see her pass those three players by the end of the fourth game if everything stays the same. Will it? We'll find out, but Grace will be a top-ten scorer in Canada West history before all is said and done. That's a guarantee.

Congratulations again to Grace Elliott, the top scorer in UBC history!

We're Not Done Yet

For those who have been keeping score at home, the last four UBC games have all featured something that no one has seemed to notice. In each of those games, Grace Elliott has scored the game-winning goal, pushing her total this season to ten game-winners. That's a ridiculous number when you consider UBC has played 18 games, but what's even more impressive is that Grace started the season with 13 game-winners to her name. That's how good she's been!

Why is that important? According to the Canada West record book, Grace Elliott is now the most clutch scorer when the game is on the line as she passed Hayley Wickenheiser's total of 20 game-winners a week ago against Saskatchewan when she scored the lone goal of the game in a 1-0 road win. Adding two more goals made it harder for everyone chasing her, and she still has time to add more!

Let's fire up the congratulations machine again as Grace Elliott is your new Canada West game-winning goal record holder!

You're Still Talking About Her

I am because Grace Elliott is also tied with former Manitoba Bisons forward Meghan Ross with 20 career power-play goals, and she's one back of former Bisons forward Tammy Brade, former Huskies forward Danny Stone, and former Pandas forward Autumn MacDougall. She's also five back of UBC's record holder Tatiana Rafter who finished her career with 25 power-play goals and sits in second-place in Canada West history. Again, we're on the verge of witnessing history!

Elliott also has two shorthanded goals this season, pushing her career total to three. That has her one back of the UBC program record held by Mackenzie Kordic and she currently sits tied in UBC history with former Thunderbirds forward Kaitlin Imai. This is another record that could fall before the season closes. Based on all her stats, I don't think it's a stretch at this point to say she might be the best offensive player in UBC history without any exaggeration or debate.

It's All Made Up

Before the U SPORTS National Rankings graphic comes out on Tuesday, I want to remind everyone that the rankings are meaningless. Last year, the third-ranked team at Nationals beat the eighth-ranked team for the National Championship, the top seed lost in the opening round, and the second-seeded team won the bronze medal over the fifth-seeded 2023 National Champions. The rankings did not matter when it came to who was best prepared for their opponents.

Feel free to celebrate if you made the list, but, with no conferences ever having teams meet regularly throughout the season, the algorithm that builds the Elo ranking system is flawed. Last year's seedings at Nationals thanks to the upsets we saw in the conference playoffs blew up the Elo model entirely. The only thing that was predictable was that everything was unpredictable. And it was.

This is your reminder: the rankings are meaningless. Always.

The Last Word

It's time for the "student" part of student-athlete to shine for all of the athletes playing in Canada West and across Canada as conferences shut down for exams and the holidays. I implore all student-athletes to study hard, seek help for things one doesn't understand fully, and be ready when exam day arrives. Like hockey games, those who do the work before the game starts often will find success.

The Rundown will be back next week with the first-half All-Star selections, and I want to be clear that my selections are based on my limited capacity for viewing games plus any and all statistical analysis I have. Six forwards, four defenders, and two goaltenders from each division will make up the teams with every team having at least one player on the rosters with one rookie from each conference.

By no means should anyone take my selections as anything more than my own opinion which is worth the same amount as the subscription to this blog. In short, they're like U SPORTS rankings: meaningless!

Enjoy the break, study hard, and we'll see you next week!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Don't Call It A Comeback

After I wrote last week about Garret Sparks suiting up with Bloomington as their EBUG for a week, I didn't expect to write a second story about a former NHL player finding work in the ECHL. The man to the left, though, has given me that opportunity as he signed a standard player contract with the ECHL's Jacksonville Icemen yesterday, and the veteran of 73 NHL games appears to have played last night as the Icemen hosted the Atlanta Gladiators. If you don't recognize him from that picture immediately, that's alright because I'm not sure that Steve Oleksy was a household name in any city where he played, but Oleksy is now a member of the Jacksonville Icemen for the time being!

Oleksy is a 39 year-old hockey player who last suited up for the Orlando Solar Bears in 2022-23 where he skated in four games. He logged 28 games of ice-time the season with Orland before that after playing in sixteen games with the Toledo Walleye. His last NHL games were in 2016-17 with the Pittsburgh Penguins, and he's since logged time in the AHL, Austria, and the ECHL. He hasn't played more than 54 games in any season since the 54 he skated in for the San Diego Gulls in 2017-18. What I'm saying is this isn't a comeback.

I'm not faulting Steve Oleksy in any way for extending his career by a few more games and maybe even a few more months. Transitioning to everyday life for some players takes some time, and finding a place where one can continue playing hockey at a higher level helps to make that change a little easier. Since leaving Lake Superior State University in 2009, Oleksy has played some sort of professional hockey regularly outside of the last few years. He didn't play in 2020-21 as well, but his 73 games of NHL service are complemented by 411 AHL games and 192 ECHL games including last night's contest.

Being a defenceman, I don't expect Oleksy to be Bobby Orr in the ECHL, but he'll add some muscle and experience to the Icemen lineup. He wasn't a factor last night as he recorded a high-sticking penalty just 3:49 into the game, but he was a +1 on the night despite the Gladiators ripping the Icemen by a 7-2 score. Those two teams will meet again at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville at 7pm ET tonight before Jacksonville heads up to Atlanta for a game at 3pm ET on Sunday in the unbalanced home-and-home series.

The Icemen sit with a 9-10-0-0 record after the loss last night, but hold fourth-place in the ECHL South Division. Comparatively, Atlanta is 13-4-0-0 this season, sit in second-place with an eight point advantage on the Icemen, and have two games in-hand on Jacksonville. Needless to say, Jacksonville needs to find a way to take points off Atlanta if they want to have any hope of catching them. Sitting tenth-overall in the conference isn't good for playoffs.

For those that are unaware, Steve Oleksy also played with Team USA at the 2008 and 2009 IIHF Men's InLine Hockey World Championships. Team USA lost the bronze medal game to Germany by an 8-7 score in 2008, but Oleksy finished tied for fourth-best in scoring in the tournament with 11 points. In 2009, he helped USA win a silver medal after falling to Sweden 7-6 in the gold medal game, but Oleksy wasn't among the top scorers at that tournament. It should also be noted that Steve married Brooke Bollea, better known as Brooke Hogan, on June 8, 2022, and is the proud father of twins born in January 2025!

Obviously, Steve's got a lot going on with two young kids and married life eating up a chunk of time, but it appears he still has something left to give when it comes to hockey. There's no guarantee on how long he'll continue to play nor is there any certainty that'll be with team after this weekend, but the newest member of the Jacksonville Icemen looks like he's ready to help the team as much as he can!

Just please don't call it a comeback!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Friday Night At Ice Level

The image to the left is a view I rarely find myself able to see unless I'm watching TimBits hockey. Even then, there's usually an army of parents cheering on their kids from ice level that force me to sit higher up in the stands. I'm not complaining since I don't have a kid on the ice, but the the point is that I rarely get to enjoy a hockey game at any level down at ice level. Being that I was offered a ticket to the Winnipeg Jets game tonight as they battled the Buffalo Sabres, I couldn't say no to seeing a game that close when I normally need binoculars to see any action. So was the experience better?

Thanks to a scheduling snafu for my good friend, Tara, she offered up the tickets to another clsoe friend who, in turn, asked me to use the second ticket. I owe Tara a package of gratitude as I had zero plans for a Friday night other than cleaning up the house, and I know she's a massive hockey fan who would never miss a game unless something very important was on her schedule. I also owe Janie a massive thank-you for offering me the second ticket of the two, and we had a blast watching the Jets pick apart the Buffalo Sabres tonight.

Seeing NHL hockey from Row 1 in an arena is ridiculous for a number of reasons. You literally have to remove a cervical vertebra bone to see anything on the Jumbotron, and the video board almost becomes a secondary fixture when you're sitting that close to the action. I can tell you that all of Logan Stanley, Owen Power, and Tage Thompson all look larger than their listed heights, but it's also incredible to see how all of these players can skate like no one else. When people say that the difference between the NHL and the AHL is skating, you get a brand-new appreciation for that up close. It's effortless!

Like any event, though, it's the people you go with and the people at the event who make the difference, and we were among some good people. The two older gentlemen who sat beside us were fun and respectful despite me wearing a Sabres jersey, the women who sat behind us from communities surrounding Winnipeg were fun and our interactions came with a lot of laughs, and the remaining people in the section were quick to cheer and respectful at all times.

The only negative was that two men were trying to squeeze down the row mid-period when one spilled his adult beverage on another fan. Nothing came of it at that moment outside of a repeated "sorry" apologies and the wetter fan saying "don't worry about it", but the spiller made up for it by buying an adult beverage for the fan who got wet in the third period. Nods and smiles were exchanged, and all was right with the world again. See? Canadians are peacekeepers!

The Sabres' training staff even made one fan's night better. Associate Athletic Trainer Bob Mowry spotted a loose puck after warmups that hadn't been collected, and he scooped it up and found a young lady in the section next to us who had been looking at that puck like she had dropped it down a sewer grate. Mowry pointed at her, flipped the puck over the glass, and the smile from the young fan beamed like she had just won the lottery! Creating moments like that need to be mentioned, and I'm proud of Bob Mowry for helping a girl who was no older than five or six make one of those core childhood memories!

There even was a hockey game played outside of all the stuff happening off the ice, and tonight's game was a collection of all the stuff you hear about in the NHL, but never get to see live... until tonight! Adam Lowry was awarded a penalty shot that Ukka-Pekka Luukkonen stopped, there was a Mark Scheifele goal late in the game called back due to a missed offside call nearly one minute earlier, Cole Koepke scored his first Jets goal on a fantastic move, and the Jets skated to a 4-1 win over the Sabres! Did I need to be sitting in Row 1 to enjoy all of this? No, but it was better in the moment!

I'll say this: had Tara not selflessly handed these tickets over to Janie who invited me, I wouldn't have been sitting in Row 1 where I could reach out and touch the likes of Josh Morrissey and Rasmus Dahlin had the plexiglass not been between us. Seeing plays develop in real time in the nosebleeds is always fun because it looks more like an animation, but seeing them come to life on the ice when it requires skill, agility, hand-eye coordination, communication, and timing gives you a better sense why NHL players are the best at what they do.

Let me be clear: I am not advising anyone to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars to take in an NHL game from the first row in any arena. The normal price of these tickets would fall well outside my budget, meaning I would not be writing this article had it not been for the generosity of two friends I hold close. The message I want everyone to take from this article is that you should see an NHL game from the lower few rows just to gain an appreciation of how good these players are. But it's not worth blowing up your budget.

If I go back to my initial question where I asked if the experience was better, I would say it was different. Like all experiences, there are things to be learned and there will be memories that stand out, but it was still an NHL hockey game where ticket prices, concession prices, parking prices, and merchandise prices make these experiences nearly impossible for the majority of the population. I enjoyed the game and seeing a different perspective of the game than what I normally see from the nosebleed seats, but, as stated, I wouldn't pay the ticket prices that these seats normally cost. I simply cannot.

It was great seeing the Jets win, the people around us were fun, there was a penalty shot and a disallowed goal, and I sat with a good friend and had a great time. If you have the means to take in a game from ice level, I'd recommend it just to see the game up close and how good the players are, but I'll always recommend financial intelligence over spending beyond one's financial means. Choosing between necessities and an NHL game shouldn't even be a question.

I had a good time tonight thanks to two friends presenting an opportunity that I could not pass up. Seeing the Jets and Sabres up close was better than watching it on TV like I would have done, but I also realize the costs of being at ice level as an NHL fan.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!