Game Day @ Calgary

The Calgary Hitmen are easily one of the hottest teams right now in the Western Hockey League.

Which means Sunday’s home date with the Tri-City Americans (4 p.m., Scotiabank Saddledome) will be a litmus test.

The Americans (35-11-1-1) have spent the last 15 of 18 weeks as one of the top-ranked junior clubs in the CHL. Heading into Saturday’s action, they were fighting with the Kamloops Blazers for the Western Conference lead and had three of their players in the league’s top-10 scoring.

Patrick Holland, who was drafted by the Calgary Flames but had his rights traded to the Montreal Canadiens, enters today’s game with 20 goals and 47 assists while Adam Hughesman and Brendan Shinnimin have 29 goals apiece.

However, Tri-City will not be underestimating the Calgarians.

Winners of 13 of their last 14 games, the Hitmen own a 30-17-2-1 record and have won five straight including Saturday’s 5-2 decision over the Medicine Hat Tigers. (Calgary Herald)

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When your last name is Messier, hockey is part of your DNA, and your first shoes are a pair of skates.

Brothers Jordan and Marcus Messier, cousins to Hockey Hall of Famer Mark Messier, fit that profile down to the last drop of sweat.

Donning skates at an early age, the Messier brothers were quick studies of the game, often playing up a level and filling the net with plenty of goals.

After years of playing on different teams, the Messiers finally are on the same team -- with the Tri-City Americans. General manager Bob Tory thought if one Messier was good, two could be better.

Now, wearing the same jersey, the brothers are waiting for the day they hear the arena announcer call their names together for contributing on a goal. It could be a goal and an assist, or two assists. Anything would do.

"We've had a lot of chances, but we haven't connected yet," said Marcus, the younger of the two by two years. "When we were younger, Jordan was always better than me, and he was always playing up and scoring lots of goals."

The brothers have heard their names called back-to-back plenty of times by their mom, Lisa, but it was never for scoring -- more along the lines of scolding.

"They are brothers. They can have their moments fighting and teasing each other," Lisa Messier said. "We had some serious stick hockey games in the house, and there are holes in the wall. They are competitive, but they are always there for each other."

From Canmore, Alberta, the Messiers will play near their hometown today when the Americans take on the Calgary Hitmen. Canmore is 65 miles west of Calgary.

The Messiers are the first brothers to be on the Americans' roster at the same time. Tory has drafted, or invited to camp, the younger brothers of other Tri-City players, but none have impressed enough to earn a jersey at the same time as their brothers.

"It's not a case of brothers, but are they good enough to play in the league?" Tory said. "Marcus is here because he is good enough to play at this level. You have to be good enough to get the job done." (Tri-City Herald)

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The NHL All-Star game is today also.  I'm very "meh" about it since IMO it's not really the best of the best of the league.  The NHL has this policy of making sure there's a player from every team, even the horrendous Columbus Blue Jackets.  Also fan voting, while it gets the fans involved and really that's what is all about, skews the whole thing.  Yes, Ottawa has had a great season, but of course there were going to be a lot of Ottawa guys on the team(s) since it's taking place in Canada's capital.  So yeah, I probably won't watch.

BUT.  But I do love the skills challenge.  If you watched it yesterday you saw some silliness and some amazingness.  Like I'm pretty sure Zdeno Chara isn't even human.  One hundred and eight miles an hour slapshot??  Holy hell.

Remember when the Americans had a skills challenge??  It was probably my favorite day of the season.  The boys, who are naturally all competitive, had fun against each other.  Can you imagine watching Brendan Shinnimin in a fastest skater competition?  Who would even be close to his time, maybe B-Dubs?  Willy (well, not while he's injured obviously)?  I'd love to see shot-accuracy--who would it be?  Shinny, maybe Hughesman?  Oooo or even Yuen?

On skills day they'd also bring in the little pee-wee kids to do their skills competition too, those kids had a good time sharing the ice with the Americans.  HAhaha remember when Carey Price won the shot accuracy?  It was a FUN day.  It was fun for the players and the fans.

I suppose since they only auction off the practice jerseys that are worn that there isn't a lot of money raised.  The Muscular Dystrophy Association used to do it.  Now they do the Go Green for MDA in March and auction off all kinds of stuff.  But still.  Even the money raised is less, I'm sure there is some charity in Tri-Cities who would like to be a part of it.  I dunno, maybe that's assuming a lot.

What do you think?

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Sunday and Mountain Time mean a 2:45 start for us around here, bring the funny. No, really. Bring the funny.