Welcome to the Feb. 6, 2018 edition of BCHL Today, a (near) daily look at what鈥檚 going on around the league and the junior A world.
The obvious place to start today is the news that John Grisdale is stepping down as BCHL commissioner at the end of this season.
The league released that news yesterday afternoon.
Grisdale has been the BCHL boss for 14 years, since 2003, and the league is in a pretty good place.
The best nugget from the press release was this one;
For 2017-18, there are already 120 players in the BCHL committed to NCAA Div. I hockey, more than all the other Canadian Junior A leagues combined. By the end of this season, the BCHL should top its record set in the 2016-17 season of 151 college-committed players.
I鈥檝e talked before about the strength of the BCHL. Top players from other leagues come west and regress against better competition. Rosters for best-on-best tournaments like the World Junior A Challenge and CJHL Top Prospects Game weigh heavily in favour of the BCHL.
On the business side, under Grisdale鈥檚 watch a weak franchise in Quesnel became one of the BCHL鈥檚 flagship teams in Chilliwack and no one would argue that the addition of the Wenatchee Wild hasn鈥檛 been a huge success. There are still trouble spots around the league, franchises that spin their wheels on the ice and struggle at the gate, but the big picture looks pretty good.
If the idea is to leave something in better shape than it was when you found it, then Grisdale鈥檚 tenure has been a good one.
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Yesterday鈥檚 column featured a story about Cam Stevenson, the midget rep goaltender who was pressed into action for the Powell River Kings after starter Mitch Adamyk got injured.
Stevenson stopped 21 of 22 pucks in a 4-1 win over Powell River.
If he never sees another minute of BCHL action, he鈥檒l be able to point to a 1.36 goals-against average and .955 save percentage.
His story got even better Monday as he earned honourable mention status as the BCHL鈥檚 Player of the Week. The award went to Wenatchee鈥檚 AJ Vanderbeck, who collected six goals and two assists in three home-ice wins for the Wild.
The future Ohio State Buckeye had two goals in a 5-2 win over Powell River. He picked up a goal and an assist in a 7-3 whomping of Coquitlam and had a four-point night (three goals and one assist) in a 7-2 dismantling of the Langley Rivermen.
Vanderbeck is 10th in league scoring with 32 goals and 54 points in 41 games. On a points-per-game basis, the Colorado native averages 1.32, which ranks fifth among the top 10 BCHL scorers behind Victoria鈥檚 Alex Newhook (1.48), Wenatchee鈥檚 Jasper Weatherby (1.48), Trail鈥檚 Kale Howarth (1.46) and Trail鈥檚 Ross Armour (1.35).
Back to the POW. In addition to Stevenson, other honourable mentions are Prince George鈥檚 Ben Poisson, Wenatchee鈥檚 Cooper Zech and Murphy Stratton, Nanaimo鈥檚 Josh Bourne, Trail鈥檚 Tyler Ghirardosi and Penticton鈥檚 Michael Campoli.
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A rare Tuesday-nighter has the Surrey Eagles visiting the West Kelowna Warriors at Royal LePage Place tonight.
The Warriors have lost two in a row, falling to the Merritt Centennials (6-3) and Salmon Arm Silverbacks (5-4) last weekend.
Since the Christmas break, WK has five wins and nine losses.
Standings wise they don鈥檛 have a ton to play for. They鈥檝e already clinched a playoff spot, and it鈥檚 basically a matter of whether they鈥檒l be the fifth or sixth in the Interior division. They鈥檙e fifth right now, one point up on the sixth-place Salmon Arm Silverbacks.
Technically, the Merritt Centennials could still catch them, but they鈥檇 have to erase a seven-point deficit to do so.
The Eagles should feel more urgency to win as they try to hold on to the second seed in the Mainland division. That would give them home-ice in the first round, but they have two teams nipping at their heels. The Langley Rivermen are just one point back (Surrey has one game in hand) and Chilliwack is five back with two games in hand.
The real trick in the Mainland is to avoid finishing fourth. Not only do you have to face the division鈥檚 top seed, but this year that means traveling to and from Prince George.
Chilliwack, who currently holds that spot, would much prefer 60 minutes to Langley or Surrey over hours and hours on a bus to PG.
Like West Kelowna, Surrey鈥檚 been an average team since Christmas, running out a record of 6-5-0-2.
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The league has handed out two suspensions.
Nanaimo鈥檚 Jordan Derymenjian is out for games four receiving a major penalty for a blow to the head and Trail鈥檚 Ryan Murphy has been slapped with a two-game ban for a check from behind delivered during last Friday鈥檚 crazy 8-1 home-ice win over Langley.
After handing out six penalties through the first 40 minutes, referees Dustin Minty and Carson Mintram had their hands full in the third period as the Rivermen and Smoke Eaters went nuts.
Murphy answered for his hit on the ice, dropping the mitts with Langley鈥檚 Trevor St. Jean. Both were booted from the game but the fireworks continued. Langley鈥檚 Sean Gulka and Trail鈥檚 Daine Dubois were assessed double roughing minors at 10:39. Langley鈥檚 Colin Bernard fought Trail鈥檚 Levi Glasman at 13:41, and somehow Gulka picked up a misconduct in that fracas.
Langley鈥檚 Jordan Dawson and Nicholas both picked up two minutes for cross-checking at 14:40, and Dawson received a misconduct.
Langley鈥檚 Jake Livingstone fought Trail鈥檚 Mack Byers at 15:37.
Langley鈥檚 Spencer Berry and Trail鈥檚 Tyler Ghirardosi picked up double roughing minors at 16:34 and Langley鈥檚 Eric Butte was flagged for slashing at 18:25.
I鈥檓 told the Rivermen had five men on their bench at the end of the game.
Thankfully, these games are increasingly rare, but they still exist, and they鈥檙e an embarrassment to the players, coaches and the league.
Side note: Two referees with mint in their last names working the same game? What are the odds?
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On the topic of fighting, I admit to buying, watching and loving Don Cherry Rock 鈥楨m Sock鈥� Em videos when I was a teenager. I idolized guys like Bob Probert, Chris Nilan, Gino Odjick and Donald Brashear, larger-than-life gladiators who represented the ultimate in toughness.
But over the last decade my views on this have changed dramatically.
The Salmon Arm Silverbacks have a post on their Facebook page today, highlighting a fight between their own Demetri Kambeitz and Penticton鈥檚 Kenny Johnson. It鈥檚 a really good throwback scrap where they鈥檙e really chucking鈥� em, both guys giving as good as they鈥檙e getting, and you can bet the crowd at the Shaw Centre was into it.
But I watch things like this now and I feel a bit nauseous, especially at the end when the video shifts to slow motion and you see their heads snapping back as they receive punches. With what we now know about head trauma, isn鈥檛 it time for this to stop?
There鈥檚 enough potential for brain scrambling in the game itself without adding more, and for what?
Side note: What point is there to pounding your first into a moulded plastic helmet? Does this not seem like the dumbest thing?
Eric Welsh is the sports editor at the Chilliwack Progress and has been covering junior A hockey in B.C. and Alberta since 2003.
Email eric.welsh@theprogress.com
