Hartley Miller's Slap Shots: October 27th Edition

By Hartley Miller

 Halloween is next week, but I’m not waiting until Tuesday to hand out my trick or treats.

There are no bad apples in this lot, are there?

Promotional gimmick: The Prince George Cougars and Spruce Kings both moved their starting times up this season from 7:30 to 7:00 pm. Perhaps, revenue can increase if games begin sharply at 7:11pm. The Chicago White Sox started this trend when they sold the sponsorship to the Seven-Eleven Convenience Store chain.  Imagine this picture at the CN Centre and Coliseum- a hot dog, a bag of taco chips, and a Slurpee all for seven dollars and eleven cents, gas not included!

 Average start:  The PG Spruce Kings five game win streak, which came to an end with a 3-0 loss to Westside, was a tad misleading. All five of the victories were against teams below them in the standings. After 16 games, the Spruce Kings are 8-5-0-3 which earns them a “C” grade.  However, in a Royal Bank Cup season the (pardon the bun) “measuring stick” is their record against the top three teams in each Conference. So, keeping that in mind, PG has lost to Penticton, Salmon Arm in overtime (where they blew a 5-1 lead), and a win and an overtime loss to Trail. The Kings haven’t played the powers of the Coastal Conference (Victoria, Nanaimo and Cowichan).  Hence, a quarter of the way into the season, the early verdict is inconclusive at best.

Numbers Don’t Lie: It’s far too early to assess the Prince George Cougars. However, here are some of the facts that stick out. Their record is 4-7-0-2 and already 17 points behind Vancouver  (but don’t worry they are ahead of Chilliwack). The Cougars, winless in their last four, have a whopping 29 goals for (barely over two a game) and 45 against (3 ½ per game). Not one of their “hired guns” is in the WHL top 30 of scoring.

In the plus-minus department, Eric “I promise to show leadership” Hunter, Nick “trying to get over his case of the Blues” Drazenovic and Eli “maybe Seattle wasn’t so bad after all” Grossman are tied in the cellar, with a minus six rating. The team leader is rookie defenceman Lance Redden, at plus two.

Other stats to “claw on” include: Devin “the one year wonder” Setoguchi has scored one goal in seven games. Let’s not forget about Patrick “don’t these imports always work out” Vrana who has no points in 12 games.  But, to be fair, they have been banged up. It’s nice to know Dan Gendur, Chris Vanduynhoven, Jesse Dudas and another of those European Electrifying Elites, Vladimir Mihalik, will be the team’s answer.

Great Scott?: Former PG Cougars goalie Scott Bowles made 39 saves, and was named the second star in his first game with the OHL’s Owen Sound Attack, a 5-2 road victory over the London Knights. It was the Knights first regulation time loss, in 10 games. However, the next night, Bowles stopped just 32 of 38 shots as the Attack lost 6-3 to Ex-Cougar, Curtis Cooper, and the Saginaw Spirit. In his home opener Wednesday, Bowles blocked 28 of 31 shots in a 4-2 loss to the Guelph Storm with the last goal into an empty net. By Scott, this one will be monitored closely.

A Day to remember: Fight promoter, Wayne Sponagle, is planning to hold an amateur boxing card in memory of one of his former Spruce Capital fighters, Brad Lazar. Lazar lost his battle with cancer last year. Expect about a dozen bouts, with the three Prince George Boxing Clubs represented. Sponagle will hand out the Brad Lazar Memorial Award to the boxer who shows the most heart, most desire and most determination. The card, at the PG Roll-A-Dome, is scheduled for, (appropriately enough) November 11^th.

From the quote rack:

“Apparently, Terrell Owens is already preparing his complaint that the bombs weren’t thrown
his way.”

Jeff Funnekotter of Calgary, in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix, on a reported threat of dirty bombs
being aimed at several NFL stadiums.

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"Former Northern Colorado back-up punter Mitchell Cozad had been charged with attempted murder in the stabbing of starter Rafael Mendoza. Apparently, the DA felt that Mitchell was going for the Coffin Corner."

Contributor Bill Littlejohn of South Lake Tahoe, California 

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"In the Orange Bowl stands were 700 kids, attending as guests of a program called Join-a-Team, Not-a-Gang. Saturday night’s lesson? Maybe you can join both at the same time."

Mike Lopresti, in USA Today, on the brawl during a college football game between Miami and
Florida International, after which several Miami players received one-game suspensions.

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“I didn’t try to get into the head of Ken Hitchcock. It’s an empty place.”

Philadelphia Flyers net minder Robert Esche, on what he thought on one of the last goaltending decisions made by the team’s head coach, just before he was fired.

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British soccer’s top five divisions recorded their lowest average since 1996 last year — just 1.15 per game. No, not goals scored. Hooligans arrested.

Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times 

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And in case you missed it:

From Pete Thomas, in the Los Angeles Times: "A study in England reveals that women know more than men do about soccer. It might not be the same case here (in the U.S.) with our national pastime. For example, a good friend of mine once turned to her husband during a World Series game and asked, ’How come all the umpires are named Al?’ "

And how was your week?

Hartley Miller is the sports director for radio stations 94X and the Wolf@97fm. He also writes for the
PG Free Press. Send along a quote, note or anecdote to hmiller@94xfm.com

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