Canes' Set to Go as 2nd Half Starts Tonight

Merry Christmas!

Here's hoping you had a great Christmas. It was nice to get a break from the rink and broadcast booth, but after some quality time with family it's time to get back to business. It's a short turn-around for a lot of the teams in WHL, including the Hurricanes as the break comes to end and the games begin again starting tonight in what is the official start of the second half of the season. Lethbridge finished it's first 36 games with a record of 20-14-0-2, putting them in a tie with Brandon for 5th and 6th place in the WHL's Eastern Conference. The Canes' have come a long way in the past month and a half. They enter play tonight having won 7 of their past 10 games.

Lethbridge will be without a few players for a couple of weeks. Zach Boychuk is playing with Team Canada at the World Juniors and doing very well I might add. Hopefully the experience in Ottawa will come back with him to Lethbridge after the tournament is over. Juha Metsola is playing with Team Finland at the same tournament so that means back-up Michael Tadjdeh will be the number one in goal for the next few games until Metsola returns. Rookie Defenceman Alex Therieau is playing with Team Pacific at the under-17's in Port Alberni, BC. So to say the least, the Canes' start the second half a few players short as are a few other teams in the WHL. Again, this is a great opportunity for a few of the younger players to step up and show their stuff.

Tonight, the Canes' host the Kootenay Ice. Lethbridge leads the Ice by one point in the standings, so tonight is another important match-up. This is the 4th of 6 meetings this season between these two teams. The Hurricanes hold the edge 2-1 in the season series. After tonight, the Canes' will host Edmonton tomorrow and Brandon pays a visit Tuesday. Lethbridge will then head on the road next week for 3-games in Saskatchewan to open the 2009 portion of the schedule with games on January 1st in Saskatoon, 2nd in Prince Albert, and the 3rd in Swift Current.

This is also a very busy time of year for WHL General Managers. The annual Mac's Tourament started this week in Calgary, the Under 17's begin next week, and the WHL's trade deadline is just 2 and a half weeks away. Lots of new talent to look at for the future and maybe even some trade talk between the GM's leading up to that January 10th deadline. Will the Canes' make any moves? Well, I suppose we'll have to wait and see. As Hurricanes GM Roy Stasiuk has said in the past, he won't sell the future for a player at the deadline, but like I'm sure with all GM's in this league he'll consider something if it's right for the Hurricanes now and going ahead in the future.

Tonight's game against the Kootenay Ice is a 7 pm start at the Enmax Centre. The pre-game shwo on CJOC at 6:30.