Blatent. Unnecessary. Intentional. Stupid. Idiotic. Dumb. All of these words are appropriate when describing the very obvious, very intended check to Vincent Trocheck's head that Brendan Lemieux threw in the second game of the Finland showcase. There was no doubt that a suspension was coming the moment Lemieux threw the hit, leaving the only question as how long would said suspension be. A large portion of the Jets' fans on social media wanted to see the punishment be harsh to ensure that Lemieux wouldn't find his way back into the lineup, so it was all up to the Department of Player Safety to swing the hammer of justice.
Let's review this hit that Lemieux threw on Trocheck.
I'm still speechless at that. Lemieux didn't even try to line up Trocheck's body. He legitimately went for his head no matter how many times you watch the video. There is no room for "I tried..." in this situation. Lemieux targeted Trocheck's head as the only point of contact, meaning his intention was entirely clear from the moment he zeroed in on Trocheck.
What was the Department of Player Safety's response?
Two games? That's it?
As a result, Lemieux will forfeit $9023.30 as a result of the suspension, but the two games he'll sit and watch seems hardly appropriate when one considers the phrasing used by the Department of Player Safety. The video stated,
"It is important to note that the head is the main point of contact on this hit and that the head contact on this hit was avoidable," the department said. "If Lemieux wants to deliver this check, he must take an angle of approach that hits through Trocheck's shoulder and core rather than picking his head and making it the main point of contact."
If the head was the target and the hit was avoidable, I'd be inclined to throw the book at Lemieux. However, thanks to the Collective Bargaining Agreement, two games seems to be the maximum suspension they could serve based on the fact that Lemieux has no prior history of a fine or a suspension.
Here's where things should pivot dramatically. The Winnipeg Jets should exile Lemieux to the furthest place from the NHL they can find. Not the AHL, not the ECHL, but some place where any future of an NHL job is seriously in doubt. His dad played over in China, so maybe the Jets assign Lemieux to the China Sharks for a little conditioning?
Whatever the decision on Lemieux is, he may have cost himself an NHL career. There's no way a coach will trust him on the ice if he goes and does stupid things like the hit on Trocheck, and that five-minute major was the break the Panthers needed to take control of the game in Helsinki. Coaches don't forget those kinds of things, so Lemieux is going to have to light up the AHL and look like the second coming of Gordie Howe if he hopes to rebuild any sort of trust with the coaches and fans.
Claude Lemieux is a liability at this point in his career. The Jets would be wise to divest themselves of this problem as soon as they can. Bury him in the minors. Trade him for a bag of used sock tape. Whatever the decision is, just make sure he's not wearing a Jets logo ever again.
Canada West in on a conference bye this week, so there won't be any recaps or highlights to post of goals or saves. Instead, The Rundown will take a look at a pile of things that you may not know about some of the athletes that are playing or have played at the Canada West women's hockey level. This will be a mostly informative post as I take a look at a handful of stories, so buckle up as we get you edu-ma-cated on this week's edition of The Rundown!!
Where Is She From? - Regina
If you haven't been keeping up with recent international player trends in Canada West, it seems there are a pile of international players in the conference this year. We'll start in Regina where they're representing the Czech Republic with Martina Maskova being joined by Adela Juzkova this season. Maskova is in her second season of play with Regina coming out of the town of Teplice (Te-PLEET-say) after being born in Usti nad Labem (Oo-STEE-nad-lab-em) while Juzkova made the leap from her hometown of Dobrichovice (Doe-BREEK-hove-its-say). If the cities of Teplice and Usti sounds familiar, former NHLer Robert Lang is from Teplice while Milan Hejduk and Michal Neuvirth hail from Usti.
In any case, Maskova scored a goal and added four helpers in her rookie season last year, but she has showed great potential. She has speed and hands, but needs to play a slightly more physical game in the offensive zone if she wants to score at the international level for the Czech Republic. In eight games this season, she has already scored and is an effective checking forward with her speed, and I suspect that head coach Sarah Hodges has bigger plans in shutting down some of the Canada West stars in coming years. Internationally, Maskova has recorded just one goal at three Women's World Junior Championships, but helped the squad capture bronze at the 2014 tournament in Budapest, Hungary.
Juzkova, on the other hand, has been playing all sorts of hockey for her country. She was a member of the 2018 Czech inline team that won a silver medal at the 2018 Inline Hockey World Championship - yes, that's the same one where Jetta Rackleff won a gold medal! She was part of the Czech team that won the gold medal at U20 Ball Hockey World Cup that saw them go undefeated. She was part of the Czech Republic squad at the U18 Women's World Championship as well. At home, she played in the Czech women's league for HC Slavia Praha, the same team that Maskova played with before going to Regina. And now Juzkova will suit up with the Regina Cougars as well.
Juzkova brings some solid speed and tenacity to the lineup. As I was witness to in the preseason, she likes to go to the net and she's not afraid to shoot. Maskova may have more speed than Juzkova, but the latter will still win footraces if given the opportunity to skate. Juzkova has scored one goal this season, but I'm liking the rookie's character and abilities when it comes to playing a more North American game and I see her doing well as she settles into Canadian university life.
If Sarah Hodges has a pipeline into Czech hockey, she may unearth some solid talent from the European country as the Czech national team looks to improve at every level.
Where Is She From? - Edmonton
If the name "Alex Gowie" doesn't sound very foreign, it's partly because it's not. While Gowie was born in Durban, Republic of South Africa, she actually grew up in Vernon, BC where she discovered hockey and ultimately suited up for the prestigious Okanagan Hockey Academy. From there, Gowie was recruited by the Calgary Dinos and began her U SPORTS career in 2011-12.
You might be looking at those years and be thinking, "How is this young lady a part of the Alberta Pandas? And why is Teebz writing about a Canadian?" Well, there's a story to that.
Gowie was part of the CIS champion Calgary Dinos team as a rookie in 2011-12 when the team featured the likes of Hayley Wickenheiser and Iya Gavrilova, but it was in 2013-14 when rookie Kitti Trencsényi joined the team from Budapest and planted the seed in Gowie's mind to give Hungary some thought. Gowie told Women's Hockey Life,
"I didn't really know what I wanted to do with my degree, I just wanted a change," Gowie said. "One of the girls that played on the team was from Hungary [Kitti Trencsényi] and it was her first year on the team. She was going to leave after and she encouraged me to go over [to Europe] and so I went over there and played in Hungary."
Originally signed for one year with KMH Budapest, Gowie was invited to the Hungarian national team's training camps and was encouraged to return to KMH Budapest for a second year and a chance to obtain Hungarian citizenship. While Gowie moved on to a new team and country after two years in Budapest, she eventually became a Hungarian citizen and officially joined the national team program.
Alex Gowie, born in South Africa and raised on Canada's west coast, is officially a Hungarian citizen!
After spending two seasons with KMH Budapest, Gowie moved onto HC Spisska Nová Ves in Slovakia in 2016 before joining the EV Bozen Eagles in Italy for the 2017-18 season. With two years of eligibility left on her U SPORTS transcript, Gowie made the jump back to North America where she enrolled at the University of Alberta pursuing an Arts degree. In a rather cool piece, Gowie sat down and explained her jersey number in honour of the four fallen players from the Humboldt Broncos team that called St. Albert, Alberta home.
Where Is She From? - Vancouver
While they may all be Canadian, there are four women who got to do something fairly special in May this year when the Thunderbirds sent four players to the Chinese development camp who have Chinese heritage. Shiayli Toni, Emily Costales, Jenna Fletcher, and Tiffany Chiu spent a week at the camp for the Shenzhen-based Chinese Development Team as China prepares for the 2022 Winter Olympics. While there are no guarantees on any of these players making the Olympic team in 2022, the potential for one or all is certainly there based on the play of the four players over the last few Canada West seasons.
As China looks to add some additional North American-trained players to its emerging roster that includes Jessica Wong, Rose Alleva, Kimberly Newell, and Leah Lum among others, adding the four T-Birds isn't a bad idea at all. In two seasons, Emily Costales has nine goals and seven assists, but she's very good at reading the play. Tiffany Chiu is a rock-solid defender who takes care of business in her own zone. Jenna Fletcher has a goal and three assists thus far in her career, but she's an effective checking forward who certainly can make defenders pay with her speed. Shiayli Toni has six goals and 14 assists in her four-year career thus far, but she always seems to be around the puck and is a solid two-way forward.
If you want to see some potential Olympians, UBC features four players who could suit up for Team China in the 2022 Olympics in Beijing! While we've seen other Olympians play in Canada West - Hayley Wickenheiser and Venla Hovi, most notably - these four women might be some of the bedrock upon which future Chinese Olympic teams build their foundation.
Speaking of foundations, another emerging nation on the world's stage might want to build around another of UBC's talented forwards. Mathea Fischer, the Oslo, Norwegian native, has been putting up impressive numbers since her arrival at the school four years ago. In her career thus far, Fischer has tallied 19 goals and 37 assists. She led UBC in scoring last season, and her six points this season is tied for the lead as well. She has incredible vision and creativity on the ice, and she's becoming the go-to offensive player for head coach Graham Thomas.
Fischer is a star on a Norwegian team that needs someone to carry the torch, and her development in U SPORTS and Canada West has been undeniable.
That Old Barn
With Rutherford Arena in Saskatoon officially gone and replaced by Merlis Belsher Place, there was some discussion in the pressbox a week ago about which barn is the oldest rink in Canada West now. I decided to do a little digging, so let's take a look at some of the arenas and their date of opening and if refurbishments have been done.
UBC's Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Arena opened in October 1963, but was part of a major refurbishment in 2008.
Flames Community Arena is home to the Mount Royal Cougars in Calgary, and it appears to have opened in September 1986. There have been ongoing upgrades and renovations thanks to the arena being run by a non-profit board of governors.
The Lethbridge Pronghorns play at Nicholas Sheran Arena which was opened in 1986. In 2011, a major renovation was completed by the city of Lethbridge on the arena and facilities.
The Alberta Pandas, in their historic building known as Clare Drake Arena, saw the facility open in 1959. There have been some upgrades and renovations done, but it appears that the University of Alberta is looking at going modern sooner than later.
Saskatchewan's Merlis Belsher Place opened this year, replacing the 88 year-old Rutherford Rink. They should be good for a while, methinks.
The Co-operaters Centre in Regina plays host to the Cougars. The multi-rink complex was opened in December 2009. Like their neighbours to the north, the Cougars should be good for a while.
The Bisons play at Wayne Fleming Arena inside the Max Bell Centre. The entire centre, including the rink, opened in 1981 for use.
If the above information is to be believed, it seems Alberta will be the next team with a new rink to call home. Manitoba will probably need to start exploring the idea of making major renovations at some point while UBC will likely need to start making decisions with respect to the age of their facility. The rest of the rinks seem to be pretty well-maintained from what I've seen, so let's hope that the facilities for these teams continue to help them find wins on home ice!
Moving On
Here are the standings once more with the updated schedule for next weekend's games.
CWUAA WOMEN'S HOCKEY
School
Record
Points
GF
GA
Streak
Next
Alberta
5-2-1-0
17
19
7
W2
@ REG
Manitoba
5-2-1-0
17
20
11
W4
vs LET
Saskatchewan
4-2-2-0
16
11
7
W1
vs UBC
British Columbia
4-2-1-1
15
18
10
L2
@ SAS
Regina
4-3-0-1
13
18
18
L1
vs ALB
Lethbridge
3-4-0-1
10
12
12
W2
@ MAN
Mount Royal
2-5-0-1
7
10
23
L2
@ CAL
Calgary
0-7-0-1
1
4
24
L8
vs MRU
The Last Word
There are four weeks of hockey remaining before the December break on the Canada West schedule. The following are the schedules for each team.
ALBERTA: @ Regina, vs Lethbridge, @ Calgary, vs Saskatchewan.
MANITOBA: vs Lethbridge, @ UBC, vs Saskatchewan, @ Calgary.
SASKATCHEWAN: vs UBC, vs Mount Royal, @ Manitoba, @ Alberta.
UBC: @ Saskatchewan, vs Manitoba, @ Regina, @ Lethbridge.
REGINA: vs Alberta, @ Calgary, vs UBC, @ Mount Royal.
LETHBRIDGE: @ Manitoba, @ Alberta, @ Mount Royal, vs UBC.
MOUNT ROYAL: @ Calgary, @ Saskatchewan, vs Lethbridge, vs Regina.
CALGARY: vs Mount Royal, vs Regina, vs Alberta, vs Manitoba.
If you were asking me who had the most difficult schedule to close out the first-half of the season, Lethbridge is on the road three weeks in a row against the top-two teams in Canada West followed by a Mount Royal team looking for a playoff spot before returning home to take on UBC. Saskatchewan's schedule isn't any easier with games in Manitoba and Alberta to finish their schedule after hosting UBC and Mount Royal.
I'll be honest in that I don't envy any team in Canada West because of how good this conference is when it comes to hockey, but if there's one team who needs to really take advantage of a great schedule to finish the first-half, it's Calgary. A home-and-home with Mount Royal might be the push they need to get off this losing streak before hosting Regina, Alberta, and Manitoba. I'll say this here and now - if Calgary doesn't win three of these eight games in regulation, their season may officially be over before the Christmas break.
It should be a solid November of hockey, so get down to one of the rinks listed above and catch all the hockey action you can! If the women are on the road, the men are at home so there should be no excuse not to catch a U SPORTS hockey game! See you at the rink!
I have to admit that one of the advantages of having a blog is that, on occasion, I discover things or players long before anyone else jumps on the bandwagon. Thanks to following the career of Brandon Reid through Aalborg, Denmark and now in Krefeld, Germany, I have been exposed to a number of players with incredible talent that I likely would have never heard of had it not been for Brandon's journey to various locations in European leagues. One of these players I've had the privilege of discovering hit the highlight reels with his goal scored last night. To say this goal was a beauty would be a serious understatement. Ladies and gentlemen, the player pictured above is Greger Hanson of the Krefeld Pinguine, and he dazzled everyone last night with his talents.
Back on August 12, I wrote about Greger Hanson after he scored a goal against Kölner Haie in preseason DEL action. I wrote,
"Swedish-born Greger Hanson is an absolutely fascinating case of player moves. He spent four years at Northern Michigan University in the NCAA from 2007-11 before embarking on a professional hockey career that has seen him play for 15 teams in five leagues over the last seven seasons. In 2013-14, Hanson played in the Central Hockey League with both the Wichita Thunder and Allen Americans along with a four-game stint in the ECHL with the Greenville Road Warriors. In 2014-15, he suited up for both the Cincinnati Cyclones and the Americans in the ECHL after the ECHL absorbed the CHL teams before jumping to the AHL to play with the Oklahoma City Barons and the Worcester Sharks. 2015-16 saw him back in Allen before call-ups to the AHL's San Jose Barracuda and Utica Comets. 2016-17 had Hanson mostly in Allen, but he had cups of coffee with four AHL teams in the San Diego Gulls, the Chicago Wolves, the Binghamton Senators, and the Charlotte Checkers. Last season saw Hanson start in Utah with the Grizzlies before a brief stint with the San Diego Gulls before finally packing his bags, flying to Krefeld, and ending the season with the Pinguine. Have bags, will travel? It seems to be a nomadic life for Greger Hanson over the last few years."
He won a Kelly Cup in the ECHL with the Allen Americans, so it's not like he hasn't contributed on any of those stops. He works hard, he has speed to burn, and he is a useful, checking forward when given the opportunity. It just seems he hasn't found a permanent home where he can show off his hockey talents. That is, until this season.
Friday night, with Krefeld and Dusseldorf tied at 2-2 in overtime, Greger Hanson went off and scored an incredible goal that one rarely sees from a journeyman player. Watch and be marveled by the Swede. Wowzers! That was making something out of what looked like nothing in a big way as Hanson nets the overtime winner off the spin move in tight on the defender! Bernhard Ebner, the Dusseldorf defender, is actually one of their strongest players, so for a guy like Hanson who came into this game with a total of zero goals in 13 contests and pull off that move and finish with the overtime winner is pretty special.
Make no mistake in that no one is suggesting that Greger Hanson suddenly flipped a switch and will go on a crazy scoring streak until the end of the season. That's simply not going to happen. But one can take a little comfort in knowing that a kid who works hard at both ends of the ice was rewarded by The Hockey Gods for working as hard as he has this season. Atta boy, Greger!
As it stands, Krefeld sits with a 5-5-5-2 (W-L-OTW-OTL) record which has them in sixth-place right now. For a team that finished 11-25-6-10 last season, it seems that Brandon Reid has the Pinguine clipping along at a much better pace than where they were one season ago. Efforts like Hanson's on last night's goal are a large reason why the Pinguine are doing better, and the hard work that Hanson puts in at both ends of the ice is a trademark of a Brandon Reid-coached team.
I try to choose books for Teebz's Book Club that interest me. Normally, this means avoiding topics and stories that involve the Toronto Maple Leafs, but I do like biographies that examine the careers of great men. Today's entry in Teebz's Book Club looks back at the career of one of the greatest Leafs in history, and his life thus far is pretty interesting. Teebz's Book Club is proud to review Killer: My Life in Hockey, written by Doug Gilmour and Dan Robson, and published by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. I will admit that I never had an appreciation for Doug Gilmnour's career prior to cracking Killer open, but learning about Gilmour's life, his career, and his accomplishments was admittedly more interesting than I would have ever thought mainly because I always associated him with the Maple Leafs. In the end, his time with the Blues, Flames, Devils, Sabres, and Canadiens turned out to be rather fascinating!
From the HarperCollins website, "Doug Gilmour was born and raised in Kingston, Ontario. Over his twenty seasons in the NHL, he played for the St. Louis Blues, Calgary Flames, Toronto Maple Leafs, New Jersey Devils, Chicago Blackhawks, Buffalo Sabres and Montreal Canadiens before returning to the Leafs to retire in the blue and white in 2003. He won the Memorial Cup with the Cornwall Royals and the Stanley Cup with the Calgary Flames, was an NHL all-star and still holds a number of junior hockey and Toronto Maple Leaf records. Gilmour became the coach of his hometown's junior hockey franchise, the Kingston Frontenacs, in 2008 and is now the team's general manager. He lives in Kingston."
Also from the HarperCollins website, "Dan Robson is a senior writer at Sportsnet. He is the author of the bestseller Quinn: The Life of a Hockey Legend and co-author of the bestsellers The Crazy Game: How I Survived in the Crease and Beyond with Clint Malarchuk, Change Up: How to Make the Great Game of Baseball Even Better with Buck Martinez, and Killer: My Life in Hockey with Doug Gilmour. He lives in Toronto. As a child he was given a print of Johnny Bower, signed to 'Danny' that has hung on his wall ever since."
Killer starts at the beginning with a young Doug Gilmour ripping around the rink during an intermission when his father, Don, coached the all-star bantam team in Kingston. Without giving too much away, "Little Gilly", as he was called then, was an undersized-but-tenacious kid when it came to hockey, and his father always was giving him advice. There were some good lessons that Don passed onto Doug in those talks, and Gilmour relates a number of these stories about his dad throughout the book.
I was very interested in learning about Doug's junior career and how one of the highest-scoring players in the OHL in his draft year somehow fell to the seventh-round of the NHL Entry Draft. He played with some amazing players during his junior days in Cornwall, but he also explained how Cornwall's fortunes changed once they moved from the QMJHL to the OHL. In any case, his fantastic junior career led St. Louis to choose him in the seventh-round of the 1982 NHL Entry Draft, and his dream of playing in the NHL was nearly complete!
It's very interesting to see how Doug's home life followed his NHL path as well. From his first marriage and his daughter, Maddison, being born in St. Louis to being traded to Calgary to being traded to Toronto, Doug has done his best to seemingly keep his family close no matter where he was playing. Even while playing for New Jersey, Buffalo, and Montreal, there were chances for him to go to other NHL cities where he could win more accolades, but Doug always seemed to put his family first when it came to where he'd continue his career. I found that very interesting considering that one often thinks of NHL players as being driven in their pursuit of the Stanley Cup above all else.
I know that hockey players occasionally have collections of memorabilia and paraphernalia that they collect over their years of playing the game, but Doug Gilmour has a fairly unique collection that he put together. He writes,
Throughout my short career, I had always collected my sweaters from each team I played for. Well, it turned out that the Blues wouldn't allow us to keep our sweaters. They were team property and would be reused for training camps and other things. They had only one set each of home and away sweaters. Talk about different times! Later, I'd find ways to smuggle my sweaters out of the arena and pretend they were lost. But I wasn't that bold as a rookie. So to this day, the only sweater I don't have from my playing days is that number 18 Blues sweater.
Pretty cool, right? Doug Gilmour has virtually every sweater he's worn in his career stored away somewhere. I knew that guys collected some of the more unique or historic jerseys, but to have nearly every single jersey from his playing days makes Doug Gilmour way cooler in my eyes.
Killer was a great read, and it really moved along nicely. I spent a few evenings flipping through the pages, and it was a very easy read. The stream-of-consciousness style of writing used by Gilmour and Robson is like you're listening to Doug Gilmour tell stories from across a table or in a group setting. I'm fond of this type of writing, and it makes autobiographies so much more personal. Because of the Gilmour's candor and honesty throughout the chapters along with this easy-to-read style, Killer: My Life in Hockey certainly deserves the Teebz's Book Club Seal of Approval!
Killer cna be found at all major bookstores and libraries, and would be suitable for most teenagers and older due to some PG-rated language used by Gilmour in his stories. There isn't a lot of adult language, but some situations described by Gilmour may not be suitable for younger readers. If you're a fan of Gilmour or grew up watching him as a Leaf, Killer would be a great pick to pick up as it tells you so much more about Hall-of-Fame player Doug Gilmour!
The Hockey Show, Canada's only campus-produced radio show that strictly talks hockey, returns tonight with a special guest in terms of someone who rarely gets the spotlight outside of a little fun we have on Bisons women's hockey broadcasts. We're lucky to have him with people's schedules being as busy as they are, and we'll continue to work with some of the higher-profile names we've mentioned in recent weeks to see if we can squeeze a few minutes or an hour out of those schedules. Tonight, though, we have one of the best hockey minds in the game in this writer's view joining Beans and myself on The Hockey Show!
Rob Voth coaches the Bisons defenders, and he's been a part of the coaching staff for as long as I can remember. Rob's had an impact on all his players from Caitlin MacDonald to Caitlin Fyten to Erica Rieder and more. He's a sharp guy when it comes to the game of hockey, so Beans andI will quiz the coach on how he started coaching, how the opportunity with the Bisons came about, what he envisions this current season's Bisons doing in terms of success, how the U SPORTS National Championship was for the coaching staff last season, and much more. The old saying about good coaches having good goaltenders might be true, but every great coach has an incredible team alongside him as well. Rob Voth's influence on the Bisons under both Jon Rempel and Sean Fisher is undeniable, and we'll learn all about Rob's career tonight!
UPDATE: No Beans. He's trapped at work.
You might be wondering where the blurb about the UMFM app has gone. I'm going on record to say you can still use it, but the new UMFM website will fill the needs of our listeners because the new online streaming player is pretty awesome. If you're using an Apple device, the player doesn't seem to like Safari, but we highly recommend you use the TuneIn app found on the App Store. The UMFM app will currently work for you, but there's some work being done to realign it with UMFM's new website, so it may go silent soon. If it does, TuneIn. It's a solid app.
I'm changing up the social media portion as well. I'm losing faith in Facebook, so that option will slowly be allowed to drift off into the horizon. However, the other options still work! Email all show questions and comments to hockeyshow@umfm.com! Tweet me anytime with questions you may have by hitting me up at @TeebzHBIC on Twitter! We're here to listen to you, so make your voice heard!
Tonight, Teebz sits down with University of Manitoba Bisons women's hockey assistant coach Rob Voth to learn about the man, the myth, and the legend that is Rob as we find out about his career, his goals for this season and beyond, and much more only on The Hockey Show found exclusively on 101.5 UMFM, on the UMFM app, on the UMFM.com web stream!
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