Nhl Help Unlikely In Seattle
You can put to rest one of the juicy rumors floating around the WHL.
The NHL San Jose Sharks were said to be willing to send center Patrick Marleau back to the Seattle Thunderbirds when San Jose’s season ends.
That would seriously affect the balance of power in the Western Hockey League West. After a year in the National Hockey League, Marleau - a junior hockey superstar last year - might be unstoppable in the WHL playoffs.
But that’s not an issue, Seattle GM Russ Farwell said Friday when the T-Birds played here.
“I don’t think there’s any chance whatsoever of him being put back in junior hockey,” Farwell said. “If they send him back, they leave in his mind the question is he a junior hockey player or an NHL player? They kept him at 18 thinking they wanted to speed his development.
“They aren’t going to fool around with the mindset that they expect him to soon be leaving their team.”
Farwell addressed another point, that of sought-after defenseman Cory Sarich, whom the T-Birds obtained at the trade deadline. Word around the WHL is that before Farwell ran out of time at the deadline he intended to move Sarich on for a pack of future considerations.
“Since we didn’t do the deal until 5 minutes before the cutoff there wasn’t much chance to be moving him anywhere else,” Farwell said. “No, we wanted to change our team. We were awful. I thought we changed it as dramatically as we could, without trading away our future.
“That’s basically what happened. We had six possibles (trades) going in that morning (Jan. 23) and we hit on all but one. We had nothing to lose. We were playing very poorly.”
Looking ahead
The Chiefs will again forfeit the right to open their first-round playoff series at home.
The Arena will be occupied by the Shrine Circus from March 18-22, which could force a replay of a year ago, when the Chiefs beat the Kelowna Rockets in six games.
If the season ended today, the Chiefs and Kelowna would be paired in a best-of-seven opening round. If general managers follow the plan they adopted last year, Spokane would play in Kelowna Friday night, March 20, and Saturday night, March 21. They’d be in the Arena for the next three games, starting Wednesday night, March 25.
Game 6 last year was back in Kelowna on Monday night, which this year is March 23. A seventh game would be played in Spokane, if necessary.
GMs meet next Monday in Calgary to approve playoff dates.
It’s also possible that Spokane and Seattle would meet in the first round. In any case, the highest remaining survivor sits out the second round while the remaining two first-round winners play a brief best-of-five semifinal round.
Shock Talk
When Trent Whitfield gave the Chiefs another early lead Saturday night, skating through the Regina Pats’ defense, bouncing off hits on his way through the slot and beating goaltender Ryan Hoople with a quick wrist shot 55 seconds into the game, Regina coach Parry Shockey noticed the picks that shook Whitfield free.
When Whitfield scored again, on almost a carbon copy of his first goal, Shockey went off on referee Kevin Acheson. The former Chiefs assistant coach eventually picked up a bench minor for unsportsmanlike conduct.
“When Derek Schutz set the pick at the top … it’s interference,” Shockey said. “That’s what upset me to start with. And then he (Acheson) gives us goaltender interference when our guy is pushed in.”
Shockey - one of the most mild-mannered people in sports off the ice - worked on Acheson most of the night., Shockey’s club split with the Chiefs this year, winning in Regina 4-1 and losing in Spokane 4-3.
, DataTimes