Dunstall

[scamperdog]

Travis Dunstall has been suspended by the Blazers for a week do to off ice problems, Radio NL say he has been sent home to think about things.
I hope he comes back with a better attitude, he is a good kid and i would hate to see a kid with so much potential crash at such an early age.

[scamperdog]

Dunstall itching for return www.kamloopsnews.ca
by Gregg Drinnan

A contrite Travis Dunstall is back with the Kamloops Blazers and glad to be there.

Dunstall, suspended for one week and sent home Oct. 11 for unspecified disciplinary reasons, returned to the ice Wednesday as the WHL team practised at the Interior Savings Centre.

“It was a long week,” said Dunstall, who rode a Greyhound bus to Edmonton last week while his teammates were heading east for games in Calgary and Red Deer.

The Blazers beat the Hitmen 3-2 on Friday before losing 6-3 to the Rebels on Saturday. Kamloops faces the visiting Saskatoon Blades on Friday, 7 p.m., at The ATM.

“I’m excited to be back,” Dunstall said. “I had a rough week at home. I’m excited to back and hopefully I’ll be able to help the team.”

Dunstall definitely helped his team in his last appearance. He sat out a 2-0 victory over the visiting Chilliwack Bruins on Oct. 7 because of conjunctivitis (pinkeye). But he followed that up with what may have been the best game of his Blazers career in a 5-2 victory over the visiting Swift Current Broncos on Oct. 9. Playing on a line with Juuso Puustinen and Brock Nixon, Dunstall enjoyed the first two-assist game of his WHL career.

“I thought it was one of my better games,” Dunstall said, adding that general manager and head coach Dean Clark “told me he thought it was one of my better games, too.”

But then came the misstep.

“Yes, I am (disappointed in myself),” Dunstall said. “The main reason is that I hurt the team. I didn’t help myself and I think I hurt the team the most.

“I definitely learned from that and I know it isn’t going to happen again.”

Dunstall also knows that in stepping out of line he became the test case for Clark’s new regime.

“We’ve been talking since training camp that this season is going to be different from last season,” Dunstall said. “It was only a matter of time until someone crossed the line, and it was me.

“We’re here for one reason only and that is to win. This was a good wakeup call for all of us, especially me.”

The 16th overall pick in the WHL’s 2004 bantam draft, Dunstall had 11 points, including three goals, in 49 games as a 16-year-old rookie last season. This season, he has five points, four of them assists, in six games.

As for the remainder of the season, starting Friday against the Blades, Dunstall said all he can do is let bygones be bygones.

“I just have to forget about the past and pick things up from the last game,” he said.

JUST NOTES: Blazers G Mike Maniago, who is scheduled to start Friday, tweaked a knee during Monday’s practice and didn’t skate Tuesday. But he was back on the ice yesterday. . . . The Blazers dropped D Garrett Thiessen, 17, from their protected list and his rights have been picked up by his hometown Prince George Cougars. Thiessen, a sixth-round selection by the Blazers in the 2004 bantam draft, was reassigned by the Blazers on Sept. 28 and now is with the BCHL’s Prince George Spruce Kings.

[PGFlyfisher]

My apologies if I am "hijacking" the thread, but when did the Cougars pick up the rights to Thiessen?
I knew he was playing for the Spruce Kings but, I hadn' t heard that the Cougars had picked him up.

[Sput]

My apologies if I am "hijacking" the thread, but when did the Cougars pick up the rights to Thiessen?
I knew he was playing for the Spruce Kings but, I hadn' t heard that the Cougars had picked him up.

The way the defense is playing right now they better call him up.