CdnSailor
11-01-2011, 11:13 AM
31 Oct 11 by By Cleve Dheensaw, Times Colonist
What’s a guy got to do to gain a little respect around here?
How do you score six goals in two games, as Victoria Royals forward Kevin Sundher did against the Seattle Thunderbirds over the weekend, and finish with seven goals and nine points in four games and still get overlooked for the Western Hockey League player of the week award?
Well, by having another guy score four goals and eight points in three games, which Cody Beach of the Moose Jaw Warriors did in picking up the weekly WHL honour.
It could have gone either way. But Beach did have Moose Jaw’s 3-0 record on the week in his favour over Sundher and the Royals going 2-1-1.
But this weekly award is arbitrary to begin with, and doesn’t reward those whose otherwise valuable roles aren’t reflected in scoring statistics. A stay-at-home blueliner, for instance, has no chance of being noticed for the award by simply playing strong in his own zone. Nor does an energy player for turning the emotional tide in games.
Scoring parade: Sundher’s elusive quickness and cunning stick skills have him leading the WHL with 32 points in 17 games. That’s one better than Emerson Etem of the Medicine Hat Tigers and Mark Stone of the Brandon Wheat Kings, although each has played two less games than Sundher.
Welcome back: The going just got tougher in the B.C. Division for the Royals with the Kelowna Rockets receiving 19-year-old Brett Bulmer back after playing nine games in the NHL with the Minnesota Wild. The six-foot-three forward had three assists and a plus-one rating with the Wild, who selected him in the second round of the 2010 draft.
Once a player plays his 10th game in the NHL, he can’t be returned to junior hockey. No player, of course, wishes to be returned to junior. But such moves do answer the prayers of WHL coaches and general managers.
“Obviously, this couldn’t come at a better time for us, with the injury situation we have here,” said Kelowna GM Bruce Hamilton, in a release.
“[Bulmer] will be a great big boost to the dressing room and on the ice.”
He had 18 goals, 49 points and 109 penalty minutes in 57 games last year for the Rockets.
Hands across sports: A trio of Canadian national team players from the recent 2011 rugby World Cup in New Zealand — the now-beardless Adam Kleeberger, Scott Franklin and former Junior ‘B’ hockey player and Canadian rugby captain Pat Riordan — dropped the puck for the ceremonial opening face-off Friday at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre before the Royals game against Seattle.
Royalty at home: The Royals continue their seven-game homestand this coming Friday and Saturday against the Vancouver Giants. It will be the first chance for Island fans to see the shifty Giants forward Brendan Gallagher, the overachieving fifth-round draft pick who had not yet been returned from the Montreal Canadiens when the Giants last played here on Sept. 24.
The homestand continues next Tuesday against the Edmonton Oil Kings and head coach Derek Laxdal, who knows the Memorial Centre well from clashing with the Salmon Kings during his five ECHL seasons as head coach of the Idaho Steelheads.
Closing out the homestand will be a visit Nov. 12-13 from the Red Deer Rebels, minus the guaranteed attendance coup that No. 1 draft pick Ryan Nugent-Hopkins would have brought to the occasion had the Edmonton Oilers not kept him in the NHL. Guess that prayer went unanswered in Red Deer. Not to mention in the Royals’ marketing department.
Read more: http://www.timescolonist.com/sports/Sundher+tear+enough+player+week+award/5635682/story.html#ixzz1cTUjR8eh
What’s a guy got to do to gain a little respect around here?
How do you score six goals in two games, as Victoria Royals forward Kevin Sundher did against the Seattle Thunderbirds over the weekend, and finish with seven goals and nine points in four games and still get overlooked for the Western Hockey League player of the week award?
Well, by having another guy score four goals and eight points in three games, which Cody Beach of the Moose Jaw Warriors did in picking up the weekly WHL honour.
It could have gone either way. But Beach did have Moose Jaw’s 3-0 record on the week in his favour over Sundher and the Royals going 2-1-1.
But this weekly award is arbitrary to begin with, and doesn’t reward those whose otherwise valuable roles aren’t reflected in scoring statistics. A stay-at-home blueliner, for instance, has no chance of being noticed for the award by simply playing strong in his own zone. Nor does an energy player for turning the emotional tide in games.
Scoring parade: Sundher’s elusive quickness and cunning stick skills have him leading the WHL with 32 points in 17 games. That’s one better than Emerson Etem of the Medicine Hat Tigers and Mark Stone of the Brandon Wheat Kings, although each has played two less games than Sundher.
Welcome back: The going just got tougher in the B.C. Division for the Royals with the Kelowna Rockets receiving 19-year-old Brett Bulmer back after playing nine games in the NHL with the Minnesota Wild. The six-foot-three forward had three assists and a plus-one rating with the Wild, who selected him in the second round of the 2010 draft.
Once a player plays his 10th game in the NHL, he can’t be returned to junior hockey. No player, of course, wishes to be returned to junior. But such moves do answer the prayers of WHL coaches and general managers.
“Obviously, this couldn’t come at a better time for us, with the injury situation we have here,” said Kelowna GM Bruce Hamilton, in a release.
“[Bulmer] will be a great big boost to the dressing room and on the ice.”
He had 18 goals, 49 points and 109 penalty minutes in 57 games last year for the Rockets.
Hands across sports: A trio of Canadian national team players from the recent 2011 rugby World Cup in New Zealand — the now-beardless Adam Kleeberger, Scott Franklin and former Junior ‘B’ hockey player and Canadian rugby captain Pat Riordan — dropped the puck for the ceremonial opening face-off Friday at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre before the Royals game against Seattle.
Royalty at home: The Royals continue their seven-game homestand this coming Friday and Saturday against the Vancouver Giants. It will be the first chance for Island fans to see the shifty Giants forward Brendan Gallagher, the overachieving fifth-round draft pick who had not yet been returned from the Montreal Canadiens when the Giants last played here on Sept. 24.
The homestand continues next Tuesday against the Edmonton Oil Kings and head coach Derek Laxdal, who knows the Memorial Centre well from clashing with the Salmon Kings during his five ECHL seasons as head coach of the Idaho Steelheads.
Closing out the homestand will be a visit Nov. 12-13 from the Red Deer Rebels, minus the guaranteed attendance coup that No. 1 draft pick Ryan Nugent-Hopkins would have brought to the occasion had the Edmonton Oilers not kept him in the NHL. Guess that prayer went unanswered in Red Deer. Not to mention in the Royals’ marketing department.
Read more: http://www.timescolonist.com/sports/Sundher+tear+enough+player+week+award/5635682/story.html#ixzz1cTUjR8eh