JUNE 29th

It was a big weekend off the ice for the Alberta Junior Hockey League as 6 AJHL players were selected in the NHL Entry Draft.

The highlight was Camrose Kodiaks Defenceman Dylan Olsen being chosen in the first round, 28th overall, by the Chicago Blackhawks.

A pair of former Spruce Grove Saints were drafted with defenceman Kevin Connauton becoming a Canuck 83rd overall and goalie Kieren Millan going to Colorado with the 124th selection.

Connauton is currently a member of the University of Western Michigan and was a teammate of Lucas Isley's before Isley's return to Bonnyville in January.

Kris Foucault (foo-co) left the Canmore Eagles at the trade deadline to join the WHL's Calgary Hitmen and will now head to Minnesota's rookie camp as the Wild used thier 103rd overall pick on him.

And two current Okotoks Oilers went in the 5th round. Corban Knight 135th to Florida and Derek Rodwell 144th to New Jersey.

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So Olsen doesn't go to the Flames but there's nothing wrong with the Blackhawks and how about getting Scotty Bowman to call your name at the NHL draft. I wouldn't care that he needed a yellow sticky note to remember what name to say. Scotty freakin' Bowman stepped up to the podium and asked you to join his team... Yes Sir.

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Millan was spectacular in games 1 and 2 against Bonnyville in the first round of the 2006-07 playoffs. The Saints went up 2-0 in the best of 5 and while packing up the broadcast equipment I told the boys in the booth at the Grant Fuhr arena I would be seeing them again on Friday (would be game 5). That turned out to be one of my few accurate predictions and nothing felt better than walking back into the booth at the GFA. Too bad the Pontiacs couldn't pull it out in the end.

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In that Spruce Grove series Justin Fontaine was held off the scoresheet in games 1 and 2 before adding 8 points in the next three games. Fontaine is back in Bonnyville for the summer, after another successful season at the University of Minnesota-Duluth and is playing shortstop for the Dirty Mitts in the mixed modified slowpitch league. Also on the Dirty Mitts is Philadelphia Flyer forward Jon Kalinski. They aren't in first place in slowpitch but they would make one heck of a hockey team.

Kalinski is actually going to miss the year end slowpitch tournament because of a camp with the Flyers. I would like to see him call up Paul Holmgren and try and tell him he can't make it because he has ball commitments.

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Sitemeter tells me there are a regular number of readers from Lethbridge. I want to know who you are because I know you aren't any of my friends who live there and my parents are in Germany right now so ... who are you? Cam Creighton's family?

Anyways I do have some friends living in Lethbridge and one of them just opened the Marble Slab Creamery on University Drive. I would appreciate it if you went to check it out as I know I will be next time I can make it back down South.

JUNE 26TH

It's draft night tonight and friend of the Blog Dustin Nielson is in Montreal.

I caught up with him this afternoon. If he survives the night I will try and get a hold of him tomorrow once we know where Olsen and Knight are going and if anyone else from our league will have their name called.

JUNE 25TH

From GM/Head Coach of the Bonnyville Jr. A Pontiacs Chad Mercier:

The RJ Lalonde Arena, a building we all have spent countless hours enjoying, is in need of new boards and upgrades. The Centennial Centre has a grant available however more funds are needed to complete this project. As a former Bonnyville Minor Hockey Player I am calling out to all former Bonnyville Minor Hockey, Jr. B, Jr. A and Senior players to come together with individual donations for this cause. The Bonnyville Jr. A's have agreed to provide all administration costs and game night recognition costs for this fund raising effort. The real winners will be all the Future Minor Hockey players and youth that will use this facility for years to come. This will improve the condition and safety of all players involved. All funds raised will e going towards these upgrades. All contributing Alumni will receive their name on a plaque that will be located in the RJ Lalonde Arena and will also be honored at a Bonnyville Jr. A Pontiac game as guests of the Pontiacs this winter. Here is our chance as former players that have been through the Bonnyville Hockey system, a system that has given us so much, to give back a little.

-Chad Mercier "Bonnyville Minor Hokcey 1981-1991"

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Chad came on the morning show this week to talk about the fund raising and I also asked him how the team was looking heading into next year.

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Kudos to old friend Dave Tymo for keeping tabs on Dylan Olsen while hosting the morning show in Camrose on Cam FM. Tymo spoke with Kodiaks coach Boris Rybalka this week and Rybalka passed along the news that Olsen had spoken with 29 of the 30 NHL teams with San Jose being the only team he hasn't spoken with.

Good luck tomorrow night Dylan. Have fun with it.

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Had a chance to listen to a pair of American sports talk show hosts discuss the Hall of Fame Class of '09. Good on them for talking hockey but they described Brian Leetch as a great defenceman (true), pretty much the reason the Rangers were able to break their Cup drought (he had some help but sure, true), possibly the best American born defenceman of all time (possibly), and maybe the best defenceman ever to play the game (not even close).

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Also had a chance to catch an interview with one of my favorites, Cassie Campbell. Campbell was actually my first "big" interview when she joined me between periods on a St. F.X. broadcast during the CIS finals in Regina. I was so nervous I forgot her name when throwing to commercial break before the interview. Thankfully she didn't have the headset on yet and I was able to remember it during the break and wrote it down so I wouldn't mess it up during the interview. I now write down everyones name when they come up to the booth for an intermission interview regardless of who they are.

In her interview this week Campbell was asked about her current job with Hockey Night in Canada. She says she's getting more comfortable with it and is even doing some of her interviews live now. She says her first "big" interview was with Craig MacTavish and while recording it she went blank and couldn't remember his name. I know how she feels.

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Cold Lake Minor Hockey is looking for coaches for next year. Check out clmh.com for more info as their deadlines are coming up fast.

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With the creation of the 2009/10 season stats on whatever stats software package it is that the league uses the Bonnyville Pontiacs are back atop the North Division standings!!!

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Randy Johnson has the greatest nickname in all of sports "The Big Unit" but young Oakland Athletics pitcher Josh Outman has the best actual name. He's a pitcher named Outman... how great is that?

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Howard Cosell had some great thoughts on 'Jockocracy'.

June 17th

It’s just over 2 months until veterans report for training camp… oh fitness testing, what a great day that is!

While the NHL season wrapped up less than a week ago there is already a question on HockeyTalk about when the AJHL schedule comes out. Despite the fact the CFL exhibition season kicks off tonight with the Riders in Edmonton there are still those of us who can’t wait for hockey training camps to start.

Camp brings a sense of hope and anticipation to every team as well as a number of story lines that play themselves out as the season approaches. I will be curious to see which veterans worked hardest in the summer, can someone show a Matthew Register esq. year over year improvement and become a dominating force? For that matter how much better can Matthew Register get? How will Marc-Antoine Juneau look after off season knee surgery? Who will end up with a letter on their jersey?

While it’s good to catch up with the vets camp is even better because of the rookie battles. Some come in with a little experience after having a cup of coffee in Bonnyville because of the injury problems with the Pontiacs last season. Kevin Carthy was named Best defensive forward in the AMHL last year playing for the Knights of Columbus out of Edmonton and I’d be interested in having Carthy line up on one goal line and Devon Kalinski line up on the other and then watch them collide at centre. Carthy will join fellow KofC teammates Blake Leask, Dante Burrelli and possibly Derek Hutton at Camp. Leask is a slick, puck moving defenseman who got into 4 games last year with the Pontiacs while Hutton was scoreless in one appearance. Burrelli did not play in Bonnyville last year but had 11 goals (7 on the Powerplay) and 7 assists with KofC. Also repping Edmonton and showing up at camp will be goaltender Zach Weissbach.

Speaking of players who spent some time in Bonnyville last year Steven Jean, who played with Lloydminster (not that we hold that agaisnt him) in the AMHL and dressed for seven Pontiacs games, will be up here for camp come August.

As always there will be a contingent from Saskatchewan showing up at camp which includes a couple-three players I will be interested in checking out. ’91 forward Jake Towriss is listed at 5’9 and 160 lbs and had 38 points in 42 games with the Saskatoon Contacts. Towriss added 3 goals and 5 assissts in 10 playoff games and football fans will recognize the name as his father Brian Towriss is the head coach of the CISpowerhouse University of Saskatchewan Huskies. His battles in the SMAAAHL will continue in camp as he faces off against Saskatoon cross-town rival Eric Peterson who had 32 points in 34 games with the Blazers and the word is Peterson can “outright fly”. I’m also interested in seeing Dillon Curry of the Swift Current Legionaires. Curry put up 32 points in 43 games with a S.C. team that didn’t make the playoffs last year.

This is just a sampling of what I'll be looking for once camp commences during the second half of August but maybe the best part of camp will be seeing the players I don’t know anything about. What kind of local flavour will last years RAMHL champion Northeast Panthers be able to provide? What other surprises do Chad and Ryan have up their sleeves in regards to recruits? How much of Tyler Henry’s hair will have grown back?

June 16th -- nice work Cutter

Former Pontiacs Captain Craig Cuthbert committs to Regina. Release available at ajhl.ca and bonnyvillepontiacs.com

June 15th -- handshakes

Like most people on Friday night I was glued to the T.V. watching game 7. I say most people because I was at a birthday party for this girl on our softball team. Kind of figured the game would be on in the background and that most if not everyone would be watching it. Turns out the game was on but I found myself to be all alone on the couch watching the game while everyone sat outside on the deck. Sure it was a nice night but what is wrong with people? The wife was a little irritated that I was being anti-social but understood it was game 7 and she was fighting a losing battle. Next year I'm faking food poisoning and staying home.

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So by the end of the game I was cheering for Detroit. Not so much rooting for the Wings as I was pulling for overtime. I just didn't want this series to end. I'm not a Red Wings fan and I'm not a Penguins fan. I think Evgeni Malkin, Sidney Crosby, Nick Lidstrom and Henrik Zetterberg are four of the best players in the world but don't feel any particular need to cheer for anyone of them. I felt relatively impartial about the whole thing.

While impartial on the series I do take the handshakes pretty seriously as I do believe they are something that makes our sport so great. Whether it's the Pontiacs, the Panthers, the Mintos or the X-Men I've always described the post series handshakes as one of the best moments in all of sports.

By now most of you probably think I'm going to pile on Sidney here but I wanted to look something up first.

The 2008 Stanley Cup Celebrations the Red Wings celebrated for 2 minutes and 11 seconds before the handshakes began.

Now we get to the 2009 Stanley Cup Celebrations and Kris Draper says "Nick was waiting and waiting and Crosby never came over to shake his hand". Well with the help of YouTube we see that Nick's "waiting and waiting" was 2 minutes and 15 seconds before the handshakes began. A whopping 4 seconds longer. That's a pretty long time there Kris. If only Nick knew Tai Chai he could have put Crosby in some sort of head lock during those four seconds.

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Sorry about the lack of blogging lately. It's been pretty quiet around Pontiacs camp and I've been spending my prime blogging time in the morning reading the fantastic NHL entry draft team by team reports the guys over at the Pipeline show are doing. Check them out over on the right. Those guys do great work.

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Stanley Cup and Star Wars. It doesn't get better than this.

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I've got a meeting with Chad Mercier this morning so I'll get some sort of report as to what the team has been up to and pass it along.

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Happy Birthday former Pontiacs forward Adam Wright.

June 2nd -- 60 games

Blame the Olympics for all of it!!

The AJHL has reduced their number of regular season games from 62 to 60 for a number of reasons, one of which is the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

There have been rumblings at the board level for a couple of years there are too many games being played in the AJHL with a number of prime weekend dates being taken up with Showcase weekend, All Star game, World Jr. A Challenge, CJHL prospects game and now with the league trying to avoid conflicts of their games with the Team Canada games at the 2010 Olympics it seemed like the right time to reduce the overall number of games being played.

Teams will gain from the reduced costs on the hockey operation side of things and the games that will be taken away will, for most teams, be low revenue generating weekday contests.

The two games from the schedule which will be lost are the extra home and away game which was played against a traditional divisional rival. For instance, the Bonnyville Pontiacs will now only play Lloydminster 6 times a year instead of 8 making the early season contests for the Challenge Cut all that more interesting, not that the coaching staff of either team cares about the trophy as much as the two points on the line.

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There had also been talk of a midseason game played against the BCHL which would take the place of each leagues all star game. While there was discussion there was disagreement as to whether this should be played with all star teams or with top prospect teams. The game would also have taken place very close to the start of the Olympics and there is worry having any event in BC close to the Olympics will make it tough to find sponsorship as attention will be elsewhere. Expect talk of this type of matchup to continue and I would be shocked if something wasn't in place for the 2010-11 season. In the mean time Fort Mac gets the all star game.

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In case I don't get to the blogging tomorrow for some reason happy birthday voice of the Storm Jeff Hensen. Jeff also gets congrats on another child. Way to go bud.

June 1st -- Post Summer Meetings

Pontiacs Coach and GM Chad Mercier was at the AJHL Summer Meetings over the weekend and had this to say.

His talk of training camp actually made my day better this morning.

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Why isn't there a TV network out there showing the AHL finals? Or are they and I'm just completely missing it?

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A pair of AJHLer's have been added to Hockey Canada's 2010 WJHC summer evaluation camp roster.

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Voice of the Bobcats John Spigott had a great piece in the Meridian Booster last week about the summer happenings in Lloyd.

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The judged name Marry (or something) on 'So you think you can dance' is by far the most annoying judge on ANY of the reality shows. It's bad but I find myself wishing physical harm upon her.

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Fred Rinne's take on the Fran Gow highering in Drayton can be found here.

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Lucas Isley's cousin Ty Carey won a RAMHL championship last year with the NE Panthers and here's to hoping his hockey season next year goes better than his performance on the ball diamond last night. ;)