It's finally game day!!

Turns out blog posts don't write themselves.  Christmas break for the boys is over so it's mostly over for me, back at it.  Perhaps the Herald is still on vacation?  Or that Pomeroy story is a REALLY big deal.

The boys are back on the ice tonight against the Kelowna Rockets who already have a post-break game under their belt.  Mind you they lost that game (against the Chiefs), but it will have gotten their legs back.  I hope the Ams have had some good solid practices so they aren't too rusty.  This isn't good:

Looks like Connor will be out for awhile which sucks.  A lot.  Friend of the blog, Aeris, who goes to practices every so often reports that Malte (at least yesterday) was playing in Connor's spot on the line with Hughey and Shinny.  That's hot. 

Speaking of friends of the blog, I got an email the other day pointing out this article on Buzzing the Net.  In it:

Most believe the likes of the Portland Winterhawks, Edmonton Oil Kings, and Moose Jaw Warriors have much greater odds than the Medicine Hat Tigers for representing the Dub at the Memorial Cup. However, with the Tigers having arguably the strongest one-two scoring punch in the league (Etem and Hunter Shinkaruk), not to mention one of the top goaltenders in Tyler Bunz, one can't rule them out as a realistic contender.  (BTN)

"Most believe"??  Who are these "most" that you speak of??  Portland fans?  People like the stellar folks at Buzzing the Net who only (apparently) look at the number of drafted players a team has?  The rest of the "most" of us pay attention to other things--like wins.

• Tri-City Americans Games played: 34  Record: 27-7 Win %: .794 1st place in the entire league.
• Portland Winterhawks Games played:  36  Record: 22-11-2-1 Win %: .653 tied for 6th in the league.

Now look, obviously as a fan of a team in the US Division I hate other US Division teams.  But what I hate more is Buzzing the Net's obliviousness.  I'm not trying to take anything away from Portland, they are indeed a good team, no question.  Maybe Friesen's "most believe" comment is referring to pre-season predictions when of course the Americans were written off.  Go ahead, write them off, they'll just keep winning, and will do so with only two NHL drafted players.  In the the meantime, I'll keep calling out Buzzing the Net on their shit.

Eric Comrie and Team Canada got the win against Sweden last night in the preliminary game in the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge.  The tournament officially begins tonight.

Reminder:  trade deadline is January 10.

Hope we have a good crowd in the building tonight to make some noise for the boys!