News & Features

Maxim Balmochnykh – Left Wing; Grade: B (Cincy)
Balmochnykh was off to a good start in the AHL only to see it come to a crashing halt when he was suspended for a slash to Louisville Panther Curtis Doell. The suspension lasted eight games and killed Balmo’s momentum. Once, he came back, he was rusty and just as he started to get going again, he goes down with both hand and shoulder injuries. When he has been on the lineup, he usually plays well but the suspension put everything on hold and now the injury will continue to slow his development. He has five points in ten games with 31 penalty minutes, mainly stemming from the Doell slash.

Ladislav Kohn – Center & Right Wing; Grade: A (Anaheim)
Kohn has turned into a steal for the Ducks, adding much needed energy to a team that too often lacks it. He isnt scoring as much as they had hoped but he is doing the little things. He has played tenaciously and has shown he doesnt mind battling in the corners. He also filled in admirably on the Ducks’ top line, filling in for Teemu Selanne after an injury. The injury bug has now hit Kohn and he missed a couple weeks of action but he has proven his worth early in the season and should have no problem sticking for the whole season.

Gregg Naumenko – Goalie; Grade: A+ (Cincy) Read more »

The Kings are suddenly full of quality young defenseman. At the top of that list right now may be Joe Rullier. Rullier is having a tremendous season in the QMJHL with Rimouski. Joe has 2 goals, 22 assists and 112 PIM’s in 32 games. He also is 10th in the league in plus-minus with a +19. Rullier has great size (6’4) and is turning into the top young defenseman in the system. While Richard Seeley (Lowell- AHL) and Jason Crain (Ohio State University) have not had spectacular seasons, their promise is still encouraging. Combine those with Kaberle, Berg and Karalahti and their are some solid blueliners waiting.

Justin Papineau is having another solid season. Papineau continues to be the most promising forward in the Kings’ system. He has 21 goals(which ranks him 5th in the league) and 15 assists in 26 games while posting a +8. While Papineau is excelling like the Kings expected, perhaps teammate Kevin Baker is playing even better than the organization hoped. Baker has 14 goals, 13 assists and is a +4 while racking up 39 PIM’s. Baker leads the team and is second in the league with 4 game winning goals and has been solid. Both of these players need to grow physically, but they are incredibly skilled and are playing well. Another Belleville Bull, goaltender Corey Campbell has 12 wins, but has 8 losses and a 3.44 GAA. Campbell has struggled with inconsistency but is still 4th in the league with wins.
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After a disappointing four games to one defeat to the Calgary Hitmen in the last years Western Hockey League Final, the Blazers went to work to
re-tool a hockey club laden with nineteen year old players. Lost to the club this season through graduation or a jump to pro hockey were Kyle Calder
(Chicago), Mike Brown (Vancouver), Stephen Gainey (Dallas), Kenric Exner (St.Louis), Jordon Flodell (released, briefly in ECHL, now with Lethbridge
Hurricanes of WHL), David Haun (unknown), Ty Jones (Chicago), Robin Regehr (Calgary), Kyle Kos (Tampa Bay), Ajay Baines(ECHL), Donnie
Kinney (ECHL), and Chris St. Croix (Calgary). Eleven of the twelve players were vital cogs in the Blazers run to the League Final and if the Blazers
were to even be competitve this year would need to be replaced in one way or another. With a strong draft record most pundits knew the Blazers
would bring in some talented youngsters from the ’98 draft, get more production from some of last years role players and make a trade or two to
achieve this. So far so good! The Blazers have iced a line up that most agree is one of the fastest teams seen in a while. As a group this team was built
to play a high tempo, tenacious forechecking game and for the most part it has been a success. Even when losing the Blazers are more often than not
out chancing and outshooting their opponents.

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The Kootenay Ice saw themselves move up to the number nine position in the
CHL Top Ten list last week after defeating both the Calgary Hitmen and the Seattle Thunderbirds
and tying the Portland Winterhawks in the last three games of their six-game road trip. The Ice play three games before the next list will be issued. This week sees the Ice match up against the Lethbridge Hurricanes before they meet up with the Red Deer Rebels for a home and home series.

Steve McCarthy will leave this Sunday (December 12th) for Kitchener to compete for a position on the Canadian World Junior Team roster. Jaroslav Svoboda has already been named to the Czech Republic National Junior Team and left earlier this week. Steve and Jaro are the first two Kootenay Ice players to be named or chosen to play in this tournament. Coming from someone who watches this tournament over the holidays every year, it will be great to finally watch a couple of your own play the game.

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A purely statistical look at all of the Top 21 Panthers prospects. These stats will be updated on a regular basis so that you can keep track on how each prospect is progressing.

1. Denis Shvidki

Position:RW Height:6’0″ Weight:195 Age:19

Year Team GP G A PTS PIM +/-
99-00 Barrie (OHL) 27 16 32 48 27 +19
98-99 Barrie (OHL) 61 35 59 94 8
Russia (WJC) 7 1 4 5 -
97-98 Yaroslavl Jr. (Rus) 15 1 1 2 2
Russia (WJC) 7 0 1 1 6
Russia (EuroJC) 6 2 9 11 31

2. Ivan Novoseltsev

Position:LW Height:6’1″ Weight:183 Age:20

Year Team GP G A PTS PIM +/-
99-00 FLORIDA PANTHERS 11 2 1 3 8 -2
Louisville (AHL) 9 2 5 7 0
98-99 Sarnia (OHL) 63 54 36 90 41
97-98 Sarnia (OHL) 51 23 22 45 41

3. Brad Ference

Position:D Height:6’3″ Weight:196 Age:20

Year Team GP G A PTS PIM
99-00 Louisville (AHL) 29 1 2 3 117 Read more »

A string of injuries, a struggling defense and a tremendous amount of “bad luck” tie the Pens and their affiliates together with inconsistent success. Each of them desperately needs to improve their records if they hope to make it to post season play.

The latest example of bad luck came when goaltender Tom Barrasso was handed a 4 game suspension by the NHL, for carelessly using his stick and breaking the forearm of center Yanic Perreault. Jean-Sebastien Aubin was called up from the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins to fill the void.

Aubin has been rather impressive this season, but is no match for Barrasso in terms of puck-handling skills. When you’re a team who struggles in the defensive zone, it’s nice to have a goalie that can play the puck. On the bright side however, Aubin did prove himself with 5 solid outings prior to being sent down to the American Hockey League.

It’s uncertain whether Aubin or Skudra will put in the most ice time during Barrasso’s absence, but Aubin is by far the favored candidate.

Pittsburgh’s loss, is now also Wilkes-Barre’s loss. They too have been left without a preferred number one. Statistically speaking however, Aubin has struggled in the American Hockey League this season. Prior to December 1st, he was 0-4. Thankfully, hard work did not go unmerited that evening as 27 saves and a team full of determination inevitably led to an overtime victory.
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WHERE WE ARE AT:

The Ice are now 17-8-4-0 after finishing their six-game road trip. This puts the Ice in second place in the Central Division and 3rd overall in the WHL. The first half of the trip saw them go through Prince Albert, Saskatoon and Swift Current. This road trip saw the Ice play the top two ranked teams in the CHL. The Calgary Hitmen are ranked number one and the Swift Current Broncos are ranked number two (at the time this article is written.) The road trip seems to be where the Ice play their best game having only lost 3 of their road games so far this season. The Ice are 9-2-4 on the road. The 3 losses are to Lethbridge (2) and Swift Current. The second half of the road trip saw the Ice match up against the Calgary Hitmen, Seattle Thunderbirds and the Portland Winterhawks.

POWER PLAYS AND PENALTY KILLS:

The difference in play is strongly evident when you look at whether a team is at home or on the road, or if they are leading the game or playing catch up. When you look at the Ice’s power play percentages, you can see that the Ice are evidently stronger on the road than they are at home. The Ice are 5th in the league with their “on the road” power play, but are ranked number 12th for their power play on home ice. Their penalty kill is very similar. On home ice (9th in the league) and on the road (2nd in the league.) You can thank the excellent goaltending by Dan Blackburn for about 2/3 of the penalty killing.

NEWS & NOTES:

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Sometimes in the world of professional sports we get so caught up in the state of the game we forget the underlying facts. As I visit sites on the Internet and listen to a million unemployed GM’s I soon realize that many of them simply have no idea what they are talking about. They talk about the Rangers prospects and obviously the first two to come up are the Rangers crown jewels, 1999 first rounder’s Pavel Brendl and Jamie Lundmark. Perhaps the most disturbing thing is how uninformed they are about the situations of these two very talented but very different players. They assume that they are simply draft day busts by looking at the stats, but the simple truth is that to understand where these kids are coming from you must look far beyond the numbers. Fortunately there are some observers (including the Ranger’s brass amongst others) who have realized this, but for the rest of the pack the answer simply isn’t clear to them.
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