Shots from the Point--Tuesday edition **UPDATED**

If you are living under a rock and missed it (good lord, why are you looking here for breaking news), Bob Tory got a new contract extension yesterday.

Top Shelf Entertainment, Inc. ownership group is pleased to announce today that they have granted a four-year extension to the employment contract for Tri-City Americans’ Governor/General Manager Bob Tory, extending through May, 2015.  Financial terms of the extension were not disclosed per team policies.

Tory, the two-time WHL Executive of the Year, is set to begin his 10th season with the Americans and sixth in the role of both Governor and General Manager.  In his nine seasons as Tri-City’s General Manager, he has overseen a club that has gone 333-253-20-11 with 31 ties (0.562 win%), including three U.S. Division Championships, one Western Conference Championship and one Scotty Munro Championship.  The longest-tenured GM in Americans history, Tory has built, developed and traded his way into molding Tri-City into one of the most competitive, exciting young teams in the Western Hockey League.

“Over the past five years of our ownership of this franchise, Bob has been able to bring stability and success to the organization on and off the ice.  Bob’s dedication to the organization and tireless work ethic are to be commended,” said Dennis Loman, Americans’ Alternate Governor and Ownership Partner.  “It is because of these attributes that the ownership group has offered this contract extension.”

“I am pleased and honored to continue my role with this hockey club,” expressed Tory.  “It is a responsibility that I do not take lightly.”

“We have been blessed with some special players and extraordinary staff over my time here,” Tory continued.  “I look forward to continuing our quest for excellence in all of our endeavors, both on and off the ice.” (amshockey.com)

I believe in Bob Tory.

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If you're not reading Gregg Drinnan, you're doing yourself a great disservice.  Not only does he have the most comprehensive coverage of the WHL from a blogging perspective, but he also has other great stories and features.  Yesterday he had a piece on Ryan Cuthbert and the problem with concussions:

He knows his problems “probably” started in junior. But, he adds, “I didn’t have any major problems there.

“When I got them in junior . . . I never got forced into playing when I didn’t need to. It was the ones in pro that started to linger. One would be a week. The next one would be two or three weeks. I got one the year before I retired that was probably three months.

“The last one . . . I kind of shot myself in the foot. Who knows? If I would have taken the time I needed . . .”

In this first two years in the pro game -- 125 games with Charlotte, 25 with the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack -- he says he took “four pretty good shots.”

And then came what he calls “the bad one.”

It was at the start of his third season with Charlotte.

“The bad one . . . I just couldn’t get over it,” he says. “I just couldn’t shake it.”

He goes on to describe the next few months of his life . . .

“It dragged on for months and months. The headaches were real bad. About every four months I would notice a change, maybe the headaches were going away a little more. For a good 18 months probably, I had real bad post-concussion syndrome . . . it would get better but I still had it bad.

“I got headaches all the time. For that 18 months that I struggled with post-concussion syndrome, my headaches were every day all the time for the first while.”

Think about that. A headache. Every day. All the time. Every day. All the time. Twenty-four hours a day . . . 144 hours a week . . . for months. All the time.

“Four months later, I’d be OK,” he said. “Then every couple of days I’d get a bad one. Then every three or four days.”

Cuthbert pauses.

Then he adds: “I don’t deal with headaches any more but there’s other stuff.”

Like what?

“A lot of this stuff I don‘t notice at times but I’ll catch myself after. Short-term memory stuff. Your moods are different. You deal with anxiety sometimes. It just depends . . . every case is different.

“Some of the stuff you don’t see until after. You deal with depression. Obviously, that’s part of giving up hockey and stuff, too, but I think concussions can play a lot of tricks on your mind, too.”

When he finally realized that his playing career was over, Cuthbert didn’t know what he was going to do. All he had known was hockey from a player’s perspective. And now that had been taken away from him.

That is just an excerpt, you can read the whole thing here.  I recommend it.  As a fan who knows these are just kids, and as someone who knows a little about brains (I've had 2 tumors), it scares me to death knowing (or not knowing) the damage that can be done by playing hockey.  Or any other sport.  At the same time, what can be done?  No one wants to see the sport softened or become zero-contact.  Equipment can only do so much before it severely limits the ability to play effectively--it's hard to play hockey in bubble wrap.

There's obviously no easy solution or it would be implemented already.

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Turn any direction around the WHL and you'll find the frustration with the new league and team websites.  I'm no rocket surgeon or web designer, but I do know what gross incompetence looks like.  Alan Caldwell had the following:

I've received a few e-mails about the Great CHL Website Boondoggle, and it seems that perhaps the WHL and its teams are not very much to blame for the situation. It sounds like this is all being driven by Forces From Out East, and the WHL and its teams don't have much blame in the matter, except of course for the fact that they agreed to this CHL-wide project in the first place. I can't imagine that they had no choice in THAT decision.

Sounds like the website design is/was being done by a group in Ontario. Regardless of where they are, they are not competent for this job. If I did this kind of crap at MY job, I could probably start looking for work tomorrow.  (Small Thoughts At Large)

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I've seen a couple times (**cough**messageboard**cough**) people thinking Neal Prokop will be back.  Look, I'm as optimistic as the next guy, but get real.  Healing is minimum 6 months.  Then physical therapy.  It would be at least a year after initial break for full contact (practice) could take place.  So he'd be back for playoffs.  As much as I would love to have Neal back, I don't want to head into playoffs relying on a guy who is recovering from a broken femur.  And that would only be if his recovery went as fast as minimally expected.  It's just not going to happen. 

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To those saying a small goalie can't take a team all the way I've got two words:  Dustin Tokarski.  As much as that name makes me vomit in my mouth a little, all the shit that was talked about him (by me and others) and his size and blah blah blah, he's pretty much proven everyone wrong.  Sure, it's uncommon to see a small goalie make it big time or whatever, but it is possible.  Just throwing that out there.

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Speaking of goalies, the Tennessean has a bit on Chet Pickard looking to crack the Preds roster:

During the summer, Predators goaltending prospect Chet Pickard monitored various websites and television channels to check whether Nashville had signed a backup goalie.

For now, the Predators have decided to keep their backup goaltending competition in-house, giving Pickard a better chance to win the spot behind Pekka Rinne.

"It's exciting when you look at TSN or NHL.com and you see that open spot and they haven't signed anyone," Pickard said. "It shows the organization believes that one of us guys can do it. And that's all you can ask for, is that chance, and when you get the chance, you have to make the best of it."

As the only first-round draft pick of the group, the 6-foot-2, 213-pound Pickard arrives at camp with the highest pedigree of the goaltenders behind Rinne.

"Last year when I first went into Milwaukee, it was a big change for me, pro style compared to junior," Pickard said. "So there was a lot of learning I did last year."

Most importantly, Pickard learned how to manage his body and saw how this affected his on-ice performance.

When he was in the junior leagues, he could slide from post to post and get up and down at a slower rate and still make a save. He found that as a professional, he needed to pick up his speed. During the season, he lost 10 pounds and gained quickness. While his numbers did not show improvement, his coaches saw a difference.

"I think the progression for him started off the ice," Milwaukee Coach Lane Lambert said. "It flowed onto the ice for him because of the composition and his body composition, and the way he made himself leaner and quicker made him better and better on the ice." (The Tennessean)