It’s been a quiet week for the Silvertips, so lets take a quick look around the rest of the U.S. Division, where there’s been more action.
It’s particularly more important to pay attention to divisional opponents this season, thanks to the change in playoff procedures (scroll to the bottom of the page for the explanation). Instead of ranking teams in the entire conference, the top three teams in the division go into a pod along with one wild card team from the conference. So while it’s not exactly the same as it was when the first round of the playoffs was strictly divisional, it’s close, and divisional standings once again take precedence over conference standings.
Anyway, onto the loop …
– Let’s start in Seattle, where T-birds overage defenseman Evan Wardley was handed a seven-game suspension for a checking-to-the-head major penalty against Portland’s Nicolas Petan last weekend (check out the above video, sans commentary, to have a look at the hit yourself). Let’s just say that this hit was viewed somewhat differently by the fans of the two teams. The seven games were identical to the seven-game suspension given to Portland’s Brendan Leipsic for an illegal hit on Seattle’s Keegan Kolesar last season. I’ve tried to find comments to the media from either side about the incident, but have not found anything to link to.
Regardless of the arguments, this situation leaves Seattle short on defense in the short term, as No. 1 D-man Shea Theodore remains in Anaheim recovering from an elbow injury picked up during training camp with the NHL’s Anaheim Ducks — the T-birds made an emergency trade for Medicine Hat blueliner Scott Allan to help fill the void. Wardley will miss one game against Everett, the Oct. 25 meeting at Xfinity Arena.
– Now onto Portland where the Winterhawks, reeling from winning just once in their first 10 games, have tried to address the issue by trading for overage goaltender Bolton Pouliot from Kamloops. Portland, the four-time defending Western Conference champion and divisional favorite this season, has a 19-year-goaltender who’s an NHL draft pick in Brendan Burke. But Burke has shaky numbers (1-4-0-2, 4.35 goals against average, .865 save percentage), and trading for an overager 10 games into the season doesn’t exactly serve as a vote of confidence. This is the second straight season Portland started the season with Burke as the No. 1, only to trade for an overager (last season it was Corbin Boes from Lethbridge, who ended up splitting time with Burke). What’s odd about this trade is that Kamloops apparently didn’t receive anything in return. I haven’t seen a trade like that since I stared covering the league in 2003.
– Finally to Spokane, where Chiefs players were chastised by their own general manager, Tim Speltz, for their actions during the national anthem prior to last Friday’s home game against Seattle. Spokane’s scratches allegedly made inappropriate comments during the anthem. Speltz took to the local airwaves to apologize and announce that all of Spokane’s players would take part in service within the military community to gain perspective on the importance of honoring the anthem. Team captain Jason Fram then read an apology to the crowd prior to Wednesday’s home game against the T-birds.
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