Game Day @ Spokane

Man, last night against Kamloops was a great game!  LOL j/k, the first period was great, then the Blazers suffocated (to use Westie's description) the Ams the rest of the game.

“We are certainly disappointed for Eric, but that is a separate issue,” Tri-City coach Jim Hiller said. “We didn’t play the way we needed to against one of the top teams in the league. We played at half speed and they were at full speed.” (Herald)

Not that the boys need me to say it, they know, but they've got to put forth a better effort tonight against Spokane. Hiller's right, they have to play better, the loss of Coms can't be an excuse.
Speaking of:

“We sat down and talked about it and decided this would the best course of action,” Comrie said of the conversation with his parents Bill and Roxanne. “I have to move forward and next year I will be 100 percent. It’s really hard to leave. We’ve really become a family. This is the closest team I have ever been on.”

While Americans general manager Bob Tory knows this is the best course of action for Comrie and the team, it still was a hard conversation to have.

“This is a devastating blow to our team,” Tory said, “but we will get through this. We have to look after the athlete first and the team second. We have to do the right thing by him. We can’t feel sorry for ourselves. I feel worse for Eric. It’s his draft year. He’s learning the ups and downs of sports at a young age.”

Comrie, in his second season with the Americans, was 20-14-1-2 in 37 games.

He has a 2.62 goals-against average, a .915 save percentage, and two shutouts.

Comrie was the No. 2-ranked draft-eligible goaltender in North America in Central Scouting’s midseason rankings — tops in the Western Hockey League.

He also was the only goaltender listed in the top 30 of NHL draft-eligible players, according to NHL.com.

Though he will miss the remainder of the season, Comrie does not believe this setback will affect his draft status this summer.

“The scouts have seen me play,” he said. “By the draft I should be healthy.” (Herald)

Because the trade deadline has passed, there's serious limitations on what course of action the team can take now. Alan Caldwell, owner of the great WHL blog Small Thoughts at Large said on the message board*:

My understanding is that after the roster deadline (January 10), teams are restricted to using only the 25 player roster they declare that day, plus the five players on their list whom they declare as "affiliate" players - who are eligible for temporary recalls as well as for joining the team full-time when their midget/junior A seasons are over.

Most teams make at least one of their affiliate players a goaltender so that they have one for situations like this. I suspect that's the situation with Troy Trombley. And since the Ams probably didn't declare any other goaltenders as affiliates, they are basically stuck with Lee-Knight and Trombley now.

Now if one of those two gets hurt....then they would probably need to ask the league to make an exception and allow them to use somebody else's affiliate goaltender on an emergency basis. There have been a few examples of this in the past, one team loaning a goaltender to another. (If you've been an Ams fan a long time, you might remember them borrowing Jason Labarbera from Portland for a couple games once).

The NHL is back today. I'm still mad at them, both sides, but I realized that hey, maybe I have missed the NHL a bit. Yes, I've had hockey, hockey didn't go anywhere, the NHL did, but there's just something about seeing elite players playing at an elite level. Plus, Drayson Bowman is currently on the Hurricanes roster and I will watch every second of him that I can.

Boys are in Spokane tonight, come on in to the liveblog. I don't know about you, but I haven't had a cocktail in several weeks and I think I'm due. Click "read more" to join in.

*yes, I read the message boards, I can't tell you why, it's a whole lot of garbage, but a few good items sprinkled in by people who do know hockey and can have reasonable questions/discussions. I do NOT comment on the message boards, hell, I don't even have a login. I did years ago, but who knows what it was. I have this space to write what I think, I don't need to go to message boards for that. I think there are people who think I post on the boards, I do not. Just wanted to make that clear, though why I feel I need to clarify that, I don't know.