Chiefs await Tri-City
Back from R&R with news from Chiefs.
(Actually I'm returning to R&R because this vacation was so good I have to do my resting and recuperating upon return).
But I digress. We are back to hockey. Keep reading for some notes, most of which should be in Saturday's paper, serving as an advance for Saturday's game with Tri-Cities.
After playing just nine games in the first 30 days of the Western Hockey League season the Spokane Chiefs play 17 games in the next 36 days, beginning tonight when the rival Tri-City Americans invade the Arena.
The game comes a week after the Chiefs finished a home-and-home split with Kootenay while the Americans played Wednesday and Friday.
The question, coach Hardy Sauter, is that good, bad or indifferent?
“I think the right answer is all three,” the second-year coach said. “It’s been good in the fact we haven’t played a whole bunch of games missing some injured players. It’s bad in the fact that this is Week 6 with basically weekend games and it’s hard to get in a rhythm. And it’s really indifferent as far as comparing yourself to the rest of the league. Everybody has busy stretches in their schedule; ours are just going to be in November and January.”
Despite a 5-3-1 record for 11 points the Chiefs are fourth in the
U.S. Division and seventh in the Western Conference.
“It doesn’t concern me,” Sauter said. “Every once in a while we remind the guys we have games in hand but they’re only good if you win. We tell them, ‘Don’t worry about everybody else, let’s just take care of ourselves.’ By the end of November, when you look at the standings, you’ll get a realistic picture of where you fit. Right now it’s not that important.”
Tri-City took a seven-game winning streak into Friday’s game and
features the league’s leading scorer in Brendan Shinnimin (one of three players
with 23 points) plus the No. 2 power play (18 goals in 59 chances). They also
own a 6-2 win over
“We scored four in our own net, literally, passes off our feet into our net,” Sauter said. “But they’re good. Don’t kid yourself, they’re good. They work extremely hard. Their power play is outstanding. You need to be disciplined, you need to have a good penalty kill and you have to be patient. You have to be willing to win the game 2-1, 3-2. If you expect to win it 6-5, 7-6, you’re probably playing into their hands.
“Right now they have momentum and confidence. Those are two very important things.”
And those are two things the Chiefs, who are 4-1 at home, 1-2-1 on the road, haven’t quite put together.
“Just as we get things cooking we get a week off,” Sauter said. “I think we’re anxious to play a game. Early on we’ll have a little bit of rust but once the game gets going, we’ll be just fine. We need a good start.”
The Chiefs may be fortunate to have a winning record considering they have allowed opponents to score the first goal in seven of nine games.
“We’re addressing it,” Sauter said. “It tells you two things. One, we’re not ready to start games. Two, we have a pretty good team and we can play when we’re all on the same page, ready to go. As a group, we’re trying to improve that. We’re not there yet, although we are improving.”
“We needed two goalies. We were just fortunate
Rookie Chase Martin, 17, got the start in a 4-3 loss at Kootenay
and Tadjdeh, 18, who was 0-2 for
“Both played well,” Sauter said. “Martin was nervous, it was his first WHL start. Tadjdeh played real solid.”
But there won’t be three goalies for long and age won’t be the determining factor.
“We’re lucky that Dennis Sproxton, our goalie coach, is here this week,” Sauter said. “We’ve seen both guys play; now we’re going to see them both practice this week. Hopefully we make a decision … Monday at the latest.
“Quite honestly with a goalie you’re almost looking at you have to keep the best two. If you suffer at that position you’re in big trouble. Ideally you don’t want a 20 and a 19 or two 19’s, but Tadjdedh is 18. We’re looking at 19-18 or 19-17. Either/or is fine for this year.”
With the addition of Tadjdeh and defenseman Corbin Baldwin back from injury the Chiefs sent 2007 first-round pick Michael Betz to Junior A on Thursday. … Injured 20-year olds Ryan Letts and Jared Spurgeon are still three or four weeks from being ready, with Spurgeon probably the closest to returning. … Mitch Wahl is one point from becoming the 21st player to score 200 points as a Chief. In the first 10 years of the franchise 12 players reached that milestone but Wahl, a second-round pick of the Calgary Flames in ’08, would only be the ninth in 15 seasons. Drayson Bowman surpassed 200 last year.