Happy Thanksgiving!Hopefully you've all had a great Thanksgiving long weekend. I know I have. The Lethbridge Hurricanes split their first two home games of the season this weekend with a 4-1 win against Prince George and a l6-3 oss to the Kootenay ICE. The Hurricanes sit with a 3-3-0-1 record as they move into a week which will see the hockey team play two more at home this coming weekend with games against Regina Friday and Saskatoon Saturday. After that, it's back on the road again for three games in four nights in Saskatchewan next week.
All-in-all, I think pretty much a .500 record to start the season is a fairly good start for this team. The Canes' have been consistent to this point and when you put their record right now up against most of the other teams in the WHL through the first seven games or so, they're right in the mix with everyone else. Lethbridge has taken a lot of penalties up to this point. They sit tied with Vancouver for the second-highest penalty minute total in the Western Hockey League with 201 so far. Only the Kamloops Blazers have taken more.
For the Hurricanes, the most urgent need I think is offence. With Austin Fyten going down with a foot injury this weekend that will likely keep him out of the line-up for the next four weeks, that could very well force the Hurricanes into making a deal to acquire another forward. Having Fyten sitting in the stands in a big loss for this Lethbridge team. He's had a great start to the season with six goals and two assists in just five games played. As I said a few days ago it's also a chance for a few other players to make their mark in his absence. With that said, the Hurricanes will turn their attention and preparations for this coming weekends games.
Our Thanksgiving edition of Hurricanes This Week airs tonight at 6:oo pm (MDT) on 94.1, CJOC. Fred and I will be joined by CTV's Darrell Romuld to discuss the first seven games of the season for the Hurricanes. We also hope to have a quick chat with Canes' forward Cam Braes. We'll also head to Regina in our final segment of the program and speak with Dan Plaster, the new radio voice of the Pats to set up this Friday's game between the Canes' and Pats at the ENMAX Centre.
Thanks,
Pat
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so fyten is hurt wonder who will step up and pick up the slack this will show the depth or maybe preston will not be so patient and try and pick up somebody to help.. we have to win division games
ReplyDeleteT.J.
What now concerns me is the price that Preston will now have to pay for another scoring forward. With all the other GM's aware of the long term injury to Fyten (Canes leading goal scorer)you would have to think that the price of acquiring a scoring forward just went up.
ReplyDeleteI would hope that Preston will be able to grab an 18yr old forward that can and has scored, in order that he has the player for more than one season. Those draft picks from Everett may come in handy now!
RJS
I would trade a few of our list players and maybe offer up sutter to see if we can get a 18 yr old we have alot of 94s see if anyone is interested in any of our 94s
ReplyDeleteK.J.
Is it just me or is Preston getting into a reactive cycle that is hurting the team. We wait to get help up front this year and now teams know we are desperate for scoring help with Fyten's injury. Last season he sat on Sbisa for way, waaay too long when Luca had no interest in being here and his value was sky high. There was demand for him but Rich had to wait and wait for a better offer to come in. Guess what? Injury made him take a poor trade for the best D man in the league. Rich is a "hockey guy" and should have known that Luca was going to get hurt given his schedule. He may have played the craziest schedule last year of all time. It may be a while until we see another player go NHL to WHL to world juniors to olympics to WHL. Rich has got to be a little more proactive and make some moves that bring in players to help this team now if he wants to live up to his promise of making the playoffs. The attendance at the Kootnay game shows that he needs to do something to get fans excited and interested. What is the selling point right now? Good goaltending and 2 each game? Not going to do it in a City like Lethbridge. Come on Rich, make something happen here.
ReplyDeleteSKU
SKU, why be negative and only mention those trades? Sure they didnt give the Canes the best returns. But look at the others... Preston got a 1st AND 2nd round pick for Ashton, Orfino, and a 3rd rounder... then he earns the Canes a 2nd round pick again for Mestery of all players! Fyten was a 2nd rounder in his bantam draft, so thats almost saying that Preston traded those 3 guys for 3 future top line players... pretty good I must say!
ReplyDeleteGood luck this weekend Canes, I hope I didnt just jinx you against the Pats!
Last year Sbisa had 18 points between Anaheim, Lethbridge and Portland. Johnston had 19 points between Lethbridge and Portland and Beglund had 26 points between the two. Seeing that Sbisa wasn't coming back, was injured and away at various tournaments and Johnston is one of the Canes top d-men this year while is Berglund 2nd on the team in points so far I can hardly say that was a "poor trade".
ReplyDeleteGood points, Anonymous. It's hard to argue when the numbers are laid out for you like that.
ReplyDelete-cc