HUGE NEWS and game day at Brandon

Rumors are true.  THE TEAM IS PICKING UP NEAL PROKOP IN BRANDON TODAY.  brb, scaring the neighbors with my shrieks of joy.

ok, I'm back.  He's rejoining the team, but he's still on injured reserve.  He's way ahead of schedule as far as healing and physical therapy, but is still a good 6 weeks or more away from playing in any games.

but still..  NEAL PROKOP IS COMING BACK TO TRI-CITIES!!!!!!

as long as he's still on IR, the team can carry 3 other 20-year-olds, so either Mike Brown or Pechurskiy don't have to go anywhere yet.  I mean, one of them will, by Thursday, but not both just because Neal is back.

Speaking of Alex and the OA situation, I got my hopes up last night when Gregg Drinnan tweeted that Regina traded one of their imports.  That gave them an import AND a 20-year-old spot--and they need a goaltender.  But then:

1. Early on Friday, the Regina Pats traded F Killian Hutt, 19, to the Swift Current Broncos for a sixth-round pick in the 2013 bantam draft.
2. Following a 4-2 loss to the visiting Red Deer Rebels on Friday night, the Brandon Wheat Kings announced they had acquired F Hampus Gustafsson, a 19-year-old Swede, from Regina for a 2011 sixth-round bantam draft pick. He had 37 points in 68 games with the Pats, including four points in seven games this season.
3. Following a 6-4 loss to the visiting Tri-City Americans, the Pats sent that sixth-round picked in the 2013 draft, the one that had been acquired for Hutt, back to the Broncos. In exchange, Regina gets Slovakian F Juraj Roznik, 18. He had two assists in six games with the Broncos this season.  (Taking Note)

Well, dammit.  They really need a goalie, how could they not pick up Pechurskiy??!?!?

Speaking of crazy, Spokane outshot Portland 48-19 last night and still lost  (Oregon Live).  Gotta feel bad for them, 48 shots on goal.  Oh wait, I don't feel bad for them.  Awesome.

There's still talk about Shinnimin--and there will be until the league makes a decision, and even then, I'm sure the talk will continue.  Whatever the WHL decides some will think it's too harsh, some will think it's not enough punishment.  I was talking about it with Sasky last night and I believe he deserves what he gets.  Will it suck if the league decides to make an example out of him and give him 20 games?  Yes.  But if it makes the game safer for ALL players in the future by doing so, I'm all for it.  Gotta just stop and think for a sec, what would we want if the hit had been by Nicholls on Shinnimin--we'd be calling for his head.  It has to go both ways.

Last night was a good game, the boys did the work they needed to in order to get it done.  I don't care that Regina is in last place, even last place teams make you earn a win (see Seattle Thunderbirds) and the Ams did, lead by Jordan Messier.  Also great to see Feser get on the scoring sheet.

"It's only one game early in the season, so you have to be careful" about reading too much into the win, Hiller said. "This is a tough road trip. We'll take this one, and tomorrow night (in Brandon), we'll see what happens."

"It was nothing magical," Hiller said. "I thought we were a little more determined. We tried to get to some rebounds. We were attacking, playing a little more north-south rather than east-west. Jordan had a strong game, a real power-forward game."

"That helped (having Drydn Dow back), no question," Hiller said of the 18-year-old's presence. "We were able to spread minutes around and keep people fresher."  (Examiner)

Like Sister mentioned last night, they haven't lost a game with Dow in the lineup.  Something to think about.

I like that behbeh Messier and McPhee got some playing time, and certainly made it count--McPhee's first WHL goal!  Great to see hard work from Jordan Messier and Feser, both rewarded for it too.  Now we just need Brooks Macek to find his groove.  Or any groove.

Alright, early game tonight, pre-game show on the air at 5:15 which means we'll be liveblogging then.  Last night's LB was fantastic, let's have that kind of gathering again, eh?  No trolls, people bringing the funny, and of course the win didn't hurt either :)  You know the routine, click on the "Read More" to get to the livebloggidy goodness.