The Spengler Roster

The one hockey tournament that I look forward to every year when it comes to watching hockey on TV is the Spengler Cup played in Davos, Switzerland. Would I love to attend this tournament some year? Absolutely, but I also like not spending $10,000 on vacations. In saying that, the Spengler Cup is a fun tournament where players that teams seem to have forgotten pop back up thanks to their selection to the Team Canada roster. This year, however, there appears to be less surprises thanks to who was selected to go to Davos by Team Canada management.

The 26-player roster was named today, and it shocked me that 13 players currently skating in the American Hockey League were named to the team. Usually, there are a handful of guys who come over from the AHL to help make up Canada's roster, but a full 50% of the roster this season is from the North American developmental league. Will that give Canada any sort of advantage? We'll find out starting on December 26, but let's take a look at who is going to Switzerland as part of their holiday plans this year.

Team Canada

Forwards

Name	Team	G	A	GP	League
Daniel Carr	Lugano	6	16	29	NLA
Philip-Michaël Devos	Ajoie	15	7	30	NLA
Tanner Fritz	Rapperswil-Jona	0	0	0	NLA
Logan Shaw	Toronto	4	14	25	AHL
Manix Landry	Ambri-Piotta	8	8	31	NLA
Curtis McKenzie	Texas	6	8	26	AHL
Joseph Carroll	Wichita	8	6	17	ECHL
Jonathan Hazen	Ajoie	4	7	19	NLA
Charles Hudon	Ontario	11	11	24	AHL
Phillippe Maillet	Ambri-Piotta	6	10	22	NLA
Brett Seney	Rockford	4	13	26	AHL
Brandon Coe	San Jose	1	5	15	AHL
Josh Jooris	Geneve-Servette	4	5	28	NLA
Sam Gagner	Free Agent	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a

This might be one of the least offensively-gifted Spengler Cup teams that Canada has sent to Davos in a while. Just two players have double-digit totals in goals while players like Daniel Audette, Derek Grant, and Michael Joly were all left off the roster. Perhaps Canada was looking for more speed as they went with younger AHL players, but the players from Switzerland all have miles on their skates. I'm not exactly sure what Canada was aiming for in their build of this forward group, but they may have win with defence this year.

Defencemen

Name	Team	G	A	GP	League
Thomas Gregoire	Kloten	6	11	32	NLA
Layton Ahac	Abbotsford	0	0	4	AHL
Kodie Curran	Ambri-Piotta	1	4	23	NLA
Noel Hoefenmayer	Laval	1	7	13	AHL
Colton White	Utica	1	7	20	AHL
Madison Bowey	Cleveland	0	4	22	AHL
Jonathan Aspirot	Calgary	2	13	25	AHL
Matt Irwin	Free Agent	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Mac Hollowell	WBS Penguins	0	16	22	AHL

Again, the complete lack of offence shown by this group has me puzzled as to what Team Canada was doing when asking players if they want to play in Davos. Bringing seven defenders with AHL experience who have five goals between them doesn't scream "offence from the blue line". This group will need to defend well if they're going to challenge for a spot in the final.

Goaltenders

Name	Team	Record	GAA	Sv%	League
Dylan Ferguson	Iowa	3-4-0	3.30	.900	AHL
Colten Ellis	Springfield	8-5-2	2.80	.916	AHL
Antoine Bibeau	KooKoo Kuovola	6-10-7	2.67	.902	Liiga

Team Canada is putting a lot of faith in three AHL-level goaltenders, two of which are backup netminders for their teams. Bibeau has played in big games before, but his best years between the pipes came before the pandemic. Ellis may win the starting job just by being the best goalie Canada has on its roster, but he's going to need help to get Canada to the final. Ferguson is a fine goaltender as well, but he needs to make more saves than what he's shown in Iowa.

Things won't be easy on Boxing Day as Canada has a showdown with HC Davos in their first game, and Davos has all sorts of talent playing for them. Adam Tambellini is tied for sixth-place in Swiss league scoring, they have Filip Zadina and Julius Honka skating for them, big Klas Dahlbeck and known pest Brenden Lemieux will likely be on the ice, and they have to get through netminder Sandro Aeschlimann who sports a 1.99 GAA and a .931 save percentage.

Depending on Canada's result in that game, they will play Germany's Straubing Tigers on Friday or Saturday, but Straubing won't be a pushover either as they were in the Champions' League playoff bracket, they boast former Flyers forward Taylor Leier and former Jets forward JC Lipon, Philip Samuelsson, Nelson Nogier, and Justin Braun control their blue line, and Zane McIntyre is their starting netminder. Straubing has a ton of experience and skill, so Canada will be in for another test regardless of a win or less against Davos.

This team could either surprise a lot of people - myself included - or disappoint a number of fans, but it will be up to Gerard Gallant, Dave Hakstol, and Mike Kelly to get them playing as a team that looks more like a polished squad than a group of guys thrown together a week before the tournament starts. If nothing else, though, I want to see Canada work their tails off in out-hustling their opposition. Canadian teams that do that often win at this tournament, so it will have to be sixty-minute efforts every game.

The Spengler Cup tournament starts on Boxing Day. Are you ready?

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

The Hockey Show - Episode 639

The Hockey Show, Canada's only campus-produced radio show that strictly talks hockey, is back tonight with a fantastic guest who has literally played hockey everywhere. Ok, that might be a stretch, but he's certainly been on the ice in more places than the average hockey player in this country and he documented this in recently-released book. If you're looking for a last-minute holiday gift, our guest's book would be an excellent choice as it really takes a good look at how important hockey is to the communities in Canada!

Who is this guest? Teebz and Jason are proud, honoured, privileged, humbled, and pleased to welcome author Ronnie Shuker to the show tonight as they discuss Ronnie's book, The Country and the Game: 30,000 Miles of Hockey Stories published by Sutherland House, as he drove across the country, speaking with many people along the way about the importance that hockey plays in those communities. We'll chat with him about a few of those communities while touching on some of the difficulties the game faces in smaller communities as we get to know Ronnie! If you missed the review for The Country and the Game, you can read HBIC's review here!

If you live outside Winnipeg and want to listen, we have options! The new UMFM website's online 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. It's a solid app.

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 with Ronnie Shuker, author of The Country and the Game: 30,000 Miles of Hockey Stories, about his travels, the communities he visited, the state of the game, being a Maple Leafs fan, and much more exclusively on 101.5 UMFM and on the UMFM.com web stream!

PODCAST: December 19, 2024: Episode 639

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Banned In Canada

Say what you want about enforcers in the NHL, but the days where there was a legitimate heavyweight rumbler on a roster are long gone. While these guys were heroes to their fans, we know the toll it took on a lot of them thanks to science today that the NHL continues to deny. One of the guys who suffered before his tragic ending was Bob Probert who stood among the toughest hombres to ever wear skates and throw knuckles. For a time, though, he wasn't allowed to cross the border into Canada thanks to his repeated run-ins with the law, and that story made headlines on December 18, 1991 as Probert was left in Detroit by the Red Wings again while they travelled across Canada on a road trip!

The story, written by Corky Meinecke of Knight-Ridder Newspapers, was published in the Winnipeg Free Press on this day 33 years ago.

Of course, I'm not here to defend Probert's legal problems as he is responsible for the consequences of his actions. The fact that he was banned from crossing the border into Canada is one of those consequences, and he was finding ways to deal with the periods of time his teammates were playing hockey and he wasn't. However, it sounds like he was doing all he could in finding ways to join them on their treks through the Great White North.

As Probert told Meinecke, "I just don't understand why I ca't get a trial permit, why I just can't play a game and come right back. They could even escort me there and back. They keep telling me, 'We're getting closer.' But it's been three years."

In fact, as Meinecke wrote, it was three years and seven days from that point where the two spoke as the last game he had played in Canada came on December 10, 1988 in Toronto against the Maple Leafs. The Red Wings clobbered the Maple Leafs by an 8-2 score, and Bob Probert scored the opening goal of the game unassisted for his second marker of the season. It should be noted that Probert got five for fighting and two for instigating a fight with Toronto's Brian Curran at 9:39 of the second period, and he was given a ten-minute misconduct at 9:35 of the third period for attempting to injure a Leafs player. In short, it was a good day at the office for Probert.

For nearly four complete years, Probert was banned from playing in Canada as part of that ban saw him suspended by the NHL on March 4, 1989 before being reinstated by the league on March 9, 1990. He also spent three months in a correctional facility in Rochester, Minnesota and another three months in a rehabilitation center near Detroit. Those periods of time stemmed from his arrest in March 1989 where he attempted to smuggle cocaine into the United States in his underwear at the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel.

On December 7, 1992, his fortunes changed as Probert's waiver request was granted by the US Immigration and Naturalization Service.

"Sufficient time has passed and Probert has demonstrated since his drug conviction that he has been properly rehabilitated," INS District Director James Montgomery said in a statement. "Over the last several years, since his conviction, he has not had any criminal misconduct. He has cooperated fully with the United States Department of Probation. He has cooperated fully with us and has made numerous speeches in the community in regard to speaking out against drugs and alcohol."

In a weird twist of fate, Probert's first game back in Canada would come in Toronto against the Maple Leafs on December 9, 1992. He was hardly a factor as Toronto scored five power-play goals en route to a 5-3 victory, but Probert did what he was known for as he scrapped with Wendel Clark at 2:32 of the third period before picking up a roughing penlaty at 10:18, a kneeing penalty at 19:17, and a second fighting major for that kneeing infraction after squaring off with Clark once more. 14 minutes in penalties in his return sounds like a very Bob Probert-like effort back in early December 1992.

Of course, we lost Bob Probert after he died of a heart attack on July 5, 2010. On September 25, 2010, Probert's family made the courageous decision to donate his brain to science as part of Boston University's Sports Legacy Institute where the effects of concussions and other sports-related head injuries are studied. It was found that Probert had been suffering from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a condition that the NHL has repeatedly denied any responsibility for and any link to the suffering some of their most feared warriors are facing.

For four years, though, teams in Canada could breathe a little easier knowing the Red Wings were visiting without one of the most feared players in the NHL on their roster. It's a shame that we lost him so prematurely after he worked his tail off being one of the most entertaining players of his time.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

A Career Unpredictable

It isn't often that a former Canada West player is moved at the ECHL level, but the Cincinnati Cyclones were busy today as they made a number of moves including one that brought a former Canada West player into their team. The Cyclones dealt defender Matt Murphy to the Tahoe Knight Monsters in exchange for forward Chris Dodero and former Spartans defenceman Elijah Vilio! Vilio will get his gear together and head northeast as he joins his sixth ECHL club since 2021, and I'm sure he hopes that he can remain there for next few months and beyond. After spending four seasons with Trinity Western, Vilio's professional hockey career has largely been nomadic based on how long he has spent in ECHL cities, so perhaps this move will be a more permanent one that his previous stops were.

While the pandemic took a chance for Vilio to play in Canada West, he was a big part of the Spartans while they played in the BCIHL. In 66 games in that league, Vilio scored 20 goals and 56 points over three seasons while winning two BCIHL championships, so he was a solid contributor for Trinity Western while wearing their colours. It looked like Vilio was going to take a big step in his professional career in 2021 as the pandemic subsided when he signed a deal with Kazakhstan's Barys Nur-Sultan, but it appears that he never actually suited up for the KHL franchise despite the contract signing.

That led to Vilio signing with the Atlanta Gladiators on October 6, 2021 where played 50 games, scoring nine goals and 23 points. However, that run with Atlanta would come to an end on March 7, 2022 when the Gladiators traded Vilio to the Rapid City Rush to complete a November trade that sent Kam Kielly's rights to the Gladiators in exchange for future considerations. Vilio would play six games for the Rush where he had a goal and an assist, but he was on the move again on March 31 when the Norfolk Admirals acquired Vilio and forward Brett Van Os from Rapid City for defenseman Kyle Rhodes. In eight games with the Admirals to finish the 2021-22 season, Vilio had three goals and two assists.

On June 30, 2022, the Norfolk Admirals announced that they had re-signed Elijah Vilio as it seemed like the defenceman may have found himself some permanence in his hockey career. Vilio would find out that there is no such thing, though, as his one goal and three assists in 27 games was enough for the Savannah Ghost Pirates to acquire Vilio on December 29, 2022. His season would be cut short, however, when he suffered a lower-body injury in February, limiting him to 28 games where he scored twice and added three helpers.

The good news is that Savannah wanted Elijah Vilio back for the 2023-24 season as they put him on their protected list on June 11, 2023 and they announced that Vilio had re-signed with the club on August 22, 2023. At the time of the signing, Vilio said, "It was an easy decision for me. I love the team, coaching staff, and the city. I have been training hard this off-season with the goal of winning a championship. I can not wait to be back in Savannah."

Vilio had a great start to the season as he had a goal and five assists in ten games, but something wasn't working for him in Georgia as the EIHL's Dundee Stars announced on Christmas Day in 2023 that they had added Vilio to their blue line!

Stars head coach Marc LeFebvre seemed excited with the addition, stating, "He has great offensive instincts but it also creates more internal competition that we need and with injuries and suspensions, we need those extra bodies around as well He is going to improve our team overall and the biggest aspect for us is being able to transport the puck up ice quicker, so he will definitely help us with that."

Vilio's addition worked out well for the Stars as he played in 30 games with Dundee, scoring one goal and 14 points. Dundee finished as the seventh-seeded team for the EIHL playoffs, and they were quickly eliminated by the Cardiff Devils by 4-2 and 3-2 scores for an aggregate of 7-4. Vilio played in both games, but recorded no points in the playoffs. Nevertheless, his first taste of international hockey went fairly well with a solid finish to the 2023-24 season.

Vilio would be back in North America to start this season, though, as he signed with the expansion Tahoe Knight Monsters on August 27, 2024. Again, Vilio got off to a good start with his new team as he posted four helpers in 15 games with the Knight Monsters while playing solid defence, but that led to the move I spoke about off the top of this article as Vilio and Dodero were flipped to the Cincinnati Cyclones for Murphy. Vilio moves from a 15-6-1-1 Tahoe team to the ECHL basement with the 3-15-3 Cyclones.

The good news is that the 27 year-old defender has looked solid while with Tahoe this season. He was playing on the third pairing there, but he was showing some good poise and defensive zone awareness in helping Tahoe get off to their great start. His move to Cincinnati will obviously come with challenges as they haven't defended well all season, but Vilio's steady play could make the Cyclones harder to score on for opposition forwards. He won't be in the running for any ECHL awards, but Vilio has the potential to make Cincinnati better.

For a guy who was a reliable piece of Trinity Western's blue line for a number of years, his professional career has seen him bounce around the map for a few seasons. While I'm not saying that a three-win Cincinnati is the place that any player wants to be, the combination of Vilio's game and Cincinnati's need for a few good defenders could make this stay with the Cyclones longer than any of his other tours of duty in the ECHL.

Of course, Cincinnati could look to improve its team by trading good players for two or three other players. Vilio could be included in that scenario as well just like we've seen before, so he may want to keep his bags packed for now. Cincinnati is in Kalamazoo this weekend where Vilio could potentially make his debut for the Cyclones, but he'll get his first experience on Cincinnati ice on December 27 after the holiday break. My hope is that Vilio plays his best hockey with Cincinnati for the remainder of the season so that he doesn't need to file another change-of-address card unless he gets a good free agent offer in the summer.

Elijah Vilio has a home in Cincinnati, but will it be permanent? As of right now, the only thing permanent in Vilio's career is unpredictablilty.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Get Ahead And Stay Ahead

If there's one truth that seems to hold true in each and every season of Canada West women's hockey, it's the concept of scoring first in any and all games. As we know, Canada West has a reputation among the other conferences where it's believed that the teams play stingy defence and overly physical hockey. Some may believe that to be true, but the defence part may have some legs as we look at the statistics through the first half of the 2024-25 season where teams score first. As I do every year, I'll post the statistics that may amaze you when it comes to scoring that all-important first goal based on the first half of the season.

In total, there were 74 games played in Canada West women's hockey before the break with no team playing more than 18 games and no team playing less than 16 games. That means there were 74 first goals scoring at some point as none finished in a 1-0 shootout victory, and that means that no team can have more than 18 first goals to its name. In fact, the most first goals scored by any team was 12 while the least first tallies totalled three with an average of 8.2 first goals.

The statistics are overwhelming when one considers that teams who scored first ended up with a first-half record of 48-7-7-12 or, since extra-time wins count the same as regulation wins, a 55-7-12 record. Of 148 possible points, teams that scored first grabbed 112 of those points, resulting in a points percentage of 82.4%! While every game is a 50/50 possibility of a win or loss, imagine knowing that scoring first gives a team an 82% chance of recording at least one point. There isn't one coach in Canada West who wouldn't take that offer!

Further to this, scoring first also gives that team a 74.3% chance of winning the game in regulation time or extra time, and a 64.8% chance of winning in regulation time simply by lighting the lamp first. Say what you want about teams that score the most in any game, but scoring first improves your odds of winning from 50% to 74% simply by getting a number on the scoreboard first. You can't argue with those kinds of statistics, and I doubt any Canada West coach isn't looking for that kind of advantage when it comes to winning.

Before we get to the team statistics, it shouldn't be surprising that 71.6% of first goals were scored in the first period for a total of 53. The second period saw 15 first goals scored as 20.2% were scored in the middle frame, the third period saw just four first goals scored for 5.4% of the total, and overtime saw two first goals scored as 2.7% were scored in extra time with the score tied at zeroes.

The team who jumped out in front in the first period most often was the Mount Royal Cougars as they lit the lamp nine times in the opening frame. The Alberta Pandas hold the second period's lead with four first goals scored in the middle period. The Regina Cougars have two of the four third period first goals, and Alberta and Saskatchewan each have a first goal in overtime.

So how did your team do? I'll post the teams below in order of points percentage from highest to lowest along with each team's record after scoring first. Let's look at these first-goal standings.

• UBC: 11-0-0 = 1.000
• Trinity Western: 6-0-0 = 1.000
• Manitoba: 7-0-1 = 0.938
• Alberta: 9-1-1 = 0.864
• Mount Royal: 9-1-2 = 0.833
• Calgary: 6-1-1 = 0.813
• Regina: 5-0-4 = 0.778
• Saskatchewan: 2-2-2 = 0.500
• MacEwan: 0-2-1 = 0.167

As you can see above, both British Columbia-based teams are perfect when scoring first, and UBC simply does it a lot more than Trinity Western. That being said, both teams hold perfect records when hitting the scoreboard first so teams should be aware of this when beginning series with these two teams. Further to this, Trinity Western is 3-9-0 when they don't score first, so getting ahead of the Spartans is a good tactic when playing them.

Manitoba has only dropped one point of a possible 16 when they score first, so it's fairly clear that the 9-6-1 Bisons play better with a lead than when they're playing catch-up. It should also be concerning that the Bisons don't rally very well one they're behind as 15 of 19 points they've accumulated on the season have come when they score first. Going 2-6-0 after giving up the first goal doesn't bode well if they fall behind in the playoffs. They'll need to be better in that area.

Alberta and Mount Royal, like UBC, score first a lot and win a lot, so it's pretty clear that they get ahead and stay ahead once they do. Alberta stumbled somewhat in October with a 3-1-1 record only to bounce back with a 6-0-0 November while Mount Royal jumped out to a 6-0-0 start in October only to fall back to earth in November with a 3-1-2 month. With a month between games, which version of these two teams will we get in January and February?

Calgary was doing a good job of getting out in front and staying in front in October when they were 4-0-1, but they stopped scoring first in November and ended the month with a 2-1-0 record. Calgary seems to play better when they score first as 13 of their 14 points came in games where they notched the first goal. What should be concerning is that Calgary falls behind and stay behind to the tune of an 0-7-1 record when scored against first. Clearly, the Dinos have some work to do in the catch-up part of the game.

Regina hasn't lost a game in regulation time when scoring the first goal, but they haven't exactly closed out games with authority when they light the lamp first either. Regina, like Manitoba and Calgary, needs to score first to have a shot at wins and points as they hold a 3-4-0 record when they don't score first. Closing out games when they do score first would also help immensely.

Saskatchewan didn't pick up their first two wins of the season until Novemebr 29 and 30 when they visited MacEwan, but they did score first in both games. As such, they won both games. The Huskies struggle scoring goals in general with just 18 to date, but six of those have been first goals. It's just that they don't add many more after that to support that first goal. The Huskies need to find goal scorers to not only score first goals, but second, third, and fourth goals as they've scored more than one goal in just three games this season.

MacEwan's woes in scoring first are part of a bigger problem. They simply don't score enough in any situation as they only have 12 goals in 16 games of which three were first goals, they only have five power-play goals (yet still rank above Calgary), they have three players leading the team with two goals apiece, and have been shutout seven times in 16 games. To date, both their wins came via shootout, and their three extra time losses saw them score one goal over those three games. Forget scoring first for the Griffins because they just need to score anytime a lot more.

So what does it all mean?

Well, it seems pretty elementary in saying that the seven Canada West teams who are jockeying for playoff positions all do well when they score first. Scoring first pushes a chance to win the game to nearly 75% while scoring first gives that team who hit the scoreboard first a 65% chance of winning in regulation. Those numbers can't be argued based on what the results were in the first half of the season, and it proves once again that scoring first in Canada West matters in the big picture. Get ahead and stay ahead, right?

I'll track this through the second half of the season and into the playoffs so we get a full picture of what getting the lead and playing with the lead looks like for the nine teams, but I suspect that 80% mark to be pretty near what we see as a points percentage at the season's end. The 74.3% mark will likely also be close to the final winning percentage as well, but we'll see what kind of surprises the second half has in store.

What is evident after this examination is that scoring first gives most Canada West teams a better-than-good chance at earning points.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!