A Week in Review (October 12th to 18th, 2019)

Record this week: 1-3-0
Game 6:
Calgary Chinook 2 Capeside Loons 4
Chinook Can’t Stop Laine in 4-2 Loss to Loons

CAPESIDE - The Chinook managed to win four of their first five games this season, but their lack of finish with the man advantage came back to bite them today in a 4-2 loss to the Capeside Loons. After cutting a two-goal deficit in half with an early goal in the third period from Ryan O’Reilly, Loons’s forward Travis Zajac spoiled the comeback by scoring a power play goal in the middle of the third period. The Chinook failed to convert, and the Loons - more specifically Patrik Laine - provided three assists for the Loons today.

"You can tell they've been playing together for a long time now," said Chinook defenseman John Carlson. "They're gelling really well. They complement each other. Patrik Laine is one of the best players at both sides of the ice. They're deadly with the power play. They move the puck well and know where the other person is. They made some nice plays. Laine made us pay today."

It was a good test for the Chinook, perhaps their toughest all season, as the Capeside Loons (like the Chinook) came in with a 4-1-0 mark. Despite the loss, the Chinook showed good fight throughout the game and stayed true to their game plan despite falling behind by two goals.

Game 7:
Calgary Chinook 3 Dartmouth Lakers 5
Chinook losing skid continues in Dartmouth

DARTMOUTH - After Monday’s 5-3 thumping from the Dartmouth Lakers, the Chinook
are now winless in 2 games. "We just could not hold on to the lead.” said Ryan O’Reilly.
Chinook limp home from road trip after loss in Dartmouth. “We didn’t play hard
enough,” seethed Chinook head coach Eugene Yip after Monday’s shellacking. “Until
we start to play hard, and play hard for 60 minutes, it’s going to be up in the air all night
long or you’re going to get blown out. We’ve got to develop a little bit of a work ethic
here. “We’re disappointed the way we’ve played. We haven’t played hard enough. We’re well
aware we haven’t played hard enough and we haven’t played hard enough on a
consistent basis.” The Calgary Chinook was leading 3-2 after the first period. It was all Dartmouth Lakers from then on. Andreas Athanasiou scored his 2nd of the season to tie the game at 3.

In the third period, it was Nurse who scored the game winning goal and Athanasiou scored his second goal of the night to seal the deal for the Lakers.  Lakers’ goaltender Jack Campbell was great making 37 saves. “If you make mistakes against a team like that, they’re going to punish you. And that’s
what they did,” Letang said. “We have moments where we’re really good, but we haven’t really found our game for 60 minutes yet.”

Game 8:
Dartmouth Lakers 0 Calgary Chinook 7
Panarin’s 4 goals powers Chinook in win against Lakers

CALGARY - - Aretemi Panarin scored three goals in 5:55 in the first period for his first
hat trick of the season, and Carey Price made 24 saves for the Calgary Chinook in a 7-0
win against the Dartmouth Lakers in front of a sellout crowd of 19,289 at Scotiabank
Saddledome on Wednesday.

"Of course, I didn't expect this before the game," Panarin said."Obviously, nice to
score. After (the third goal) the feeling kind of felt unreal. It's kind of hard to explain. I
was really happy after the first goal, and then the second goal, and all of a sudden the
third goal, I was like, "What's going on?"

Cam Talbot was replaced by Jack Campbell after allowing four goals on twelve shots for
Dartsmouth, Campbell made 30 saves. "I can't worry about what's going on in front of me," Talbot said. "I've got to find a way to make a save and I couldn't do that. The game before, we set the bar, for sure, with a big win at home (5-3 against the same team) and needed it. The roles were reversed today, and I didn't give our team the goaltending we needed."

Panarin scored his fourth goal of the night in the third period to make it 7-0.
"It's great. Panarin and Price led the way today," Gaudreau said. "He got off to a [heck]
of a start, and you could see the jump he had early. Just the touch around the net he
had was tremendous; all three went five-hole. It was great to see his contributions
today."
Game 9:
Calgary Chinook 2 Seattle Reign 3
Chinook missed opportunity in humbling 3-2 loss to the Reign
SEATTLE - The Chinooks' could not build on the 7-0 win from last game, marred by
missed opportunities and lack of production in power play.

Kyle Conner’s two quick goals gave Seattle the victory, Johnny Hockey scored a minute
after, but it was too late for the Chinook to make a comeback.
"Missed opportunity," Chinook coach Eugene Yip said. "They seemed to play with a lot
of urgency tonight. They didn't allow us to get the space. As a result, we didn't seem to
win as many races as we did last game. Some of that is on us."
"Yeah, we need to do better. We can't play like that," Giordano said. "We can control the
mistakes that are made."
Despite being handed six power-play opportunities, Calgary's lone power-play goal
came 14:30 into the second period when Letang capitalized on an interference penalty
called on Reign’ Jakob Chychrun.
Price was far busier this game. He managed to stop 33 shots but didn't get much help
from a defense that allowed the Reign to pile up a 36-27 advantage in shots.
"They were the better team," Price said. "You got to play like you have a chance to win.
You've got to simplify things and they were just hard on us so we couldn't get any room
and were off our game."

State of the Loons : '19 Prospects (part 1 #6-10)

Over the summer we in the front office took a look at our first year in the CCHL and the one area we are committed to improving is our farm system. Once we relocated from Ottawa, we made a flurry of moves that lowered our payroll and improved our prospect pool. But then things went a little crazy and we started winning and all of our plans went out the window. We started to believe that we had a chance at a championship and before we knew it we were back to a high payroll with a weak farm system.

Since the Falcons brought us back down to earth we have made some moves in order to balance ourselves back out. We were able to acquire a top ten pick in the past draft and landed another player with a high upside that can hopefully help us out in the near future. So let's take a look at the top 10 Loon's prospects.

#10

Zach Senyshyn RW

Around the league there is still a lot of doubters about Zach, but not here in our offices. We have see Zach make steady improvements to his game over the past two seasons and really believe that he will be a solid contributor to the Loons. When we drafted Zach we were thrilled by his skating and his offensive game. Over the past few seasons, he has been put in the bottom 6 with the Chicks in order for him to work more on his defense and his physical play. We hope that this will allow Zach to be a more complete player when he competes for a spot on next year's team. We expect to see Zach on our 3rd line.


#9

Egor Afanasyev RW

Egor was drafted in the 3rd round of the '19 CCHL draft. As a rule we tend to try and avoid Russian players due to many players deciding to return to the KHL. However, Egor established himself by thriving in the USHL and had too much talent to pass on in the 3rd round. Egor possesses an incredible shot and great hands. His skating was a question mark at one time but he has made steady improvement according to our scouts and put on some highlight-esque moves during rookie camp. We hope to see Egor in Capeside for the 2022-23 season. He projects to be a power forward on our second line while seeing time on the power play unit. 25-30 goals is what we hope for out of him when he gets here.


#8

John Beecher C

John was a player that was heavily over shadowed on the US national team by Hughes and Turcotte. But our scouting staff loves him and snagged him in the 2nd round of the '19 draft. John is a fantastic 2 way center with great wheels. John is heading to play for the Wolverines in the NCAA where we want him to step out of the shadow of Jack Hughes and play on a top line. We project John to be our future 3rd line center and penalty killing specialist. Unfortunately, John will be behind Captain Dubois and our # 3 prospect - but nothing is set in stone and a lot can change during the next few years. We hope to see John in Capeside by the 2023-24 season.


#7

Bode Wilde D

All Bode has done since being drafted is prove his haters wrong. He destroyed the OHL last year by averaging more then a point per game as a defenseman, and just a couple days ago he was promoted to the AHL. Bode's offensive skills were never in doubt but now we will see if he has improved the play in his own zone. The increase in competition should definitely shine some light on that. We expect Bode to be a full time contributor by the 2021-22 season.


#6

Rasmus Kupari C

Rasmus makes the jump from Finland to the AHL this year, and in a limited sample size has a goal and an assist in 4 games. Rasmus has shown the ability to be a excellent play maker with great hockey instincts. Last year we saw Rasmus really shine for team Finland. With the promotion of Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Rasmus was asked to taken on a much larger role as the first line center and thrived. Rasmus showed that he is already focused on being a solid three zone center. If all goes well for Rasmus in the AHL we expect for him to see some time in Capeside next year. Our hopes for him are to be battle with Beecher for the 3rd line center spot.

Up next our top 5....

A Weekly Look at the 2019-20 Sudbury Miners: Volume 2

CANADIAN PRESS (Sudbury, ON):

Miners Weekly Record: 3 wins, 1 loss, 0 OT loss.
Miners League Standing: 5 wins, 3 losses, 0 OT Loss = 8 points total. Currently, sitting in 4th place in the
Canosa Conference, 8th overall in the CCHL.
Miners Special Teams: Power Play – 23.1% (8th); Penalty Kill – 80.4% (12th)
Miners Scoring Leader: Center Nicklas Backstrom (4G – 4A = 8 pts; 45th Overall in the CCHL)

After a slow start to the first week of the CCHL season, the Sudbury Miners responded with a
week that saw them collect 6 out of a possible 8 points, and vault them into 4th place in the Canosa
Conference. “We got back to playing the way we know we can. We have a lot of new guys this year but we just needed a few games to adjust. We hope this is just the start of something special. We like our team and we think we can make some noise this year”, stated Miner's defenseman Aaron Ekblad.
But, that was not the biggest news to hit the Nickel City this past week.

The Miners pulled off a couple of big trades this week, to acquire help now and for the future.
The two deals brought them a top player in Tyler Seguin, along with young defenseman Brandon Carlo and a 1st round pick in 2021. The cost was not cheap to acquire this talent, as the Miners would surrender aging forward Evgeni Malkin, along with top prospects Owen Tippett and K’Andre Miller among others in the two deals. “Both Seguin and Carlo will help us now and in the future. I know some of our fans will not be happy with having to part with a prospect like Tippett but we have drafted the depth to make these types of moves, and you have to give something to get something”, stated General Manager Terry James.

Once Sean Monahan returns from injury, the Miners will boast Seguin, Monahan, Backstrom and
Tierney at the centre ice position. That kind of depth is needed for a long playoff run, which the  Miners are hopeful for.

MINERS PLAYER PROFILE OF THE WEEK: Timo Meier
Meier is one player that the Miners have always had high expectations for since acquiring him in
a trade a couple of years ago. They see him as an important piece this year and beyond. He has CCHL
size and enough skill to play a top-six winger role at the highest level. He is a speedy winger with a very
strong lower base, with good hands who is also adept at passing the puck. If there is a knock on Meier, it
is the fact that he should shoot the puck more and look to pass less.
All-in-all, the hope is that Meier can develop into the kind of versatile player who you can put on a
skill line, and trust to create dangerous chances, or on a shutdown line, and trust to help stop pucks from
going into your net.

MINERS PROSPECT NEED TO KNOW: Spencer Knight

Scouts will argue that using a high draft pick on a goaltender is sketchy at best. The bust rate is
simply too high and the development timeline is simply too long. However, in judging the strength of
Knight as a prospect, he has been an elite goalie for his age group.
He is a phenomenal athlete, plays a mature, refined technical game, and is above average in
playing the puck up the boards. His play seems to step up when the action is toughest, but it is worth
noting that he has never carried a full starter’s workload. Simply put, he has the tools to be a high end
NHL starter, but only time will tell if he can reach it. With Andersen in tow, the Miners will give him plenty of time. Expected CCHL arrival: 2023-24.

Dayton Season Underway!

The Dayton Musicmen opened up their 2019-20 season with four consecutive overtime games. After beating Fort Erie 4-3 to start the year, Dayton then lost to Wisborg 5-4, lost to Gillam 4-3 and then beat Dartmouth 4-3 to finish the streak of overtime contests.

It took five games into the season for the Musicmen to play a game decided in regulation, which came last night with a 2-0 shutout victory over the Niagara Falls Thunder.

Dayton stands as just one of two teams who have yet to be defeated in regulation, Gillam being the other.

The Musicmen sit in a four-way tie for 2nd [place in the Corfield Conference.

Yesterday, the team traded forward Tyler Seguin to the Sudbury Miners for aging Evgeni Malkin and four prospects.

Malkin, 33 and coming off a poor season by his standards will center the second line for the rest of the season where the team hopes to insulate his defensive weaknesses. A pending UFA after this season, Malkin's play on the ice for the Musicmen and in Pittsburgh - his NHL home - will go along way in helping the team decide whether or not to resign him at a hefty price of over $11 million dollars.

"We have a lot of young talent heading to Dayton in the next few years and the progress of those kids, plus who's already under contract in Dayton and our overall financial situation will play a part in the decision process," said GM Bill Corfield.

Also coming to Dayton in the deal is the 10th overall player drafted in the 2017 draft, Owen Tippett, who some feel was the best pure goal scorer to come from that draft class. Also heading to Dayton will be Alex Newhook and Samuel Poulin, both first rounders as well as Filip Hallander, a talented winger who will play in Sweden for at least another year or two.

Calgary Chinook: A Week in Review (October 5th to 11th, 2019)

Record this week: 3-1-0

Game 2: Calgary Chinook 3 Parry Sound Orrsmen 2

Chinook spoil Orrsmen’ home opener

(PARRY SOUND, ON)- Gaudreau put the finishing touches and spoiled the Orrsmen homecoming party. At 11:11 of the second period, Right after the shot by David Pastrnak hit the post, Gaudreau picked up the rebound, went wide, and instead of passing over to Aleksander Barkov, who was parked on the opposite side of Jacob Markstrom’s net, he picked a corner.

“You just have to make sure you know when to shoot the puck and when to not shoot the puck,” said Gaudreau who finished the night with the game-winning goal “I thought the (Parry Sound) D played that two-on-one pretty well there and gave me the lane. “Thankfully I got the shot off. ”

“Every time I see he wants the puck on his stick, we have a chance to win,” said Chinook head coach Eugene Yip. “That’s who he is and that’s how he plays.”

However, the outcome didn’t always look like a sure bet.

And, at one point in the second period when the Orrsmen stormed back to tie the game at 2 a piece, it looked like the Chinook were going to lose momentum and lose the lead. “We got into turnover problems (in the second) and we were reeling back,” Yip said. “The guys were sharp in the third periods, manage to hold on to the lead.”

Game 3:

Calgary Chinook 5 Portland Owls 2

Calgary Use Strong First Period to Defeat Owls 5-2

(PORTLAND, OR) - The Calgary Chinook scored three first period goals and defeated
the Portland Owls on Monday night, 5-2.

The Calgary Chinook carried a two-game winning streak into tonight and you had the
feeling the Portland Owls could be walking into a buzzsaw. Sure enough, that is exactly how it played out.

They started filling the net early when Jakob Silfverberg, put a rebound by Portland goaltender Jaroslav Halak to give the visitor an early 1-0 lead. Five minutes later, Markus Granlund scored his first goal of the season. A nice move on the Portland goaltender after a great saucer pass by James Neal to make it 2-0.

Nope, they weren’t done yet. Matthew Tkachuk scored his second of the season with almost a minute left in the first period. A wrist shot pass Halak give the Chinook a commanding 3-0 lead.

The back-breaker was delivered by red hot Jakob Silfverberg, who scored his 4th goal in 3 games. Silfverberg came flying down the wing a ripped a shot over the shoulder of Halak to make it 4-0.

The Chinook are winners of three straight with the Seattle Reign coming into town on Wednesday.

Game 4:

Seattle Reign 4 Calgary Chinook 3

Chinook comeback attempt falls short, lose to Seattle Reign 4-3

(CALGARY, AB) - The Calgary Chinook took the loss in their first game of the season
Wednesday night, losing in regulation to the Seattle Reign, 4-3. Calgary trailed 4-2 in
the third period before David Pastrnak scored his second of the season – one short
unfortunately of tying the game.

Seattle went on to score three unanswered goals in the second period from Calle
Jarnkrok, Jordan Oesterle and Jordan Staal – It set the tone for the rest of the game.
Calgary captain Mark Giordano assisted on all three Chinook goals.
Seattle goaltender Jimmy Howard made 41 saves to hold off the Chinook from coming
back.

“The second period isn’t how we’re going to be successful this year, to say it nicely,”
said Pastrnak. “We got completely out-played in the second. And then Chucky steps up
with a big fight, and we start to turn the tide a bit.” The Chinook have the day off Thursday but they will be back in action Friday night to take on the Portland Owls.

Game 5:

Portland Owls 1 Calgary Chinook 4

Two early goals propel Chinook past Owls

(CALGARY, AB) - The Calgary Chinook scored two goals in the first 2 minutes of the game, and as it turned out, that's all they needed in order to defeat the Portland Owls, 4-1.

Artemi Panarin and Johnny Gaudreau scored a minute and eight seconds apart to give the Chinook an early lead that they held onto for the balance of the game, and Carey Price made 21 saves on 22 shots.

Just 25 seconds into the game, Letang curled a pass at the blue line to Panarin, who split the defense and beat Jaroslav Halak five-hole on the first shot of the game to give the Chinook a 1-0 lead.

On the very next minutes, John Carlson fed Johnny for the one-timer, and Gaudreau buried his 2nd goal of the season.

"That's the game," head coach Eugene Yip said. "They had their two worst shifts of the game to start the game, and it benefitted us."

Those two tallies were the fastest two goals to open a game in franchise history. Two away games during Canada Thanksgiving weekend, Sunday vs. the red-hot Capeside Loons and Monday vs. Dartmouth Lakers.

A Weekly Look at the 2019-20 Sudbury Miners: Volume 1

CANADIAN PRESS (Sudbury, ON):

Miners Weekly Record: 2 wins, 2 losses, 0 OT loss.
Miners League Standing: 2 wins, 2 losses, 0 OT Loss = 4 points total. Currently sitting in 6th place in the Canosa Conference, 13th overall in the CCHL.
Miners Special Teams: Power Play – 22.6% (6th); Penalty Kill – 73.9% (18th)
Miners Scoring Leader: Center Nicklas Backstrom (3G – 2A = 5 pts; 33rd Overall in the CCHL)

The weather is quickly becoming a little more like true hockey weather as the calendar turns to
mid-October. And with it, the CCHL season is now in full swing. And for the Sudbury Miners, they are looking to build on last season’s surprise playoff berth.

The opening week of the CCHL season saw them split their 4 games, with consecutive wins to start the season versus Georgetown and Victoria, before a pair of losses dropped their record back to .500.
“We are still trying to shake off some of that summer rust and figure some things out”, stated
Miners defenseman Aaron Ekblad. “We just need to continue to work our asses off, and the wins will
follow”. 

But the news was not good this week for the Miners, as they learned they will be without top-6
forward Sean Monahan for the next 3 months due to a left leg injury. A loss of a top player like this will challenge the Miners depth and will make things just a lit bit harder in the tough Canosa Conference.

MINERS PLAYER PROFILE OF THE WEEK: Nicklas Backstrom

A cerebral, creative playmaker, Backstrom has had a long career due to his elite imagination
distribution skills. He is very poised in-tight control and has the ability to make long passes or subtle touch passes in traffic. Simply put, he had top-notch vision. If there is one complaint about Backstrom is his underutilized shooting array. He often looks to pass rather than take the shot, but that is only a small complaint, as he has scored over 20 goals in fourth straight seasons. He will be a good, veteran presence to this young Miners club.

MINERS PROSPECT NEED TO KNOW: Kirby Dach

The Miner's first pick of the 2019 draft, Dach is projected to be a true game-breaker down the
middle of the ice. Few centers bring the combination of size, speed, and skill that he provides. He has the ability to make plays in open ice, beat guys one on one or make a pass that can open up defenses. He carries the puck through the neutral zone well and always plays with his head up. He can protect the puck down low and can make passes from anywhere on the ice. He is a very good shooter, too, but make no mistake his game revolves around his passing ability and ability to hold onto the puck. His defensive game is good for a player of his age, as he uses his long reach to strip pucks and on the backcheck can quickly turn the play around with his physical dominance. Expected CCHL arrival: 2020-21.

Dayton Musicmen Season Preview

 AFTER an undeserved playoff appearance last Spring (due to another team's goalie over-usage penalty,) with a second-round exit, Dayton made some changes over the off-season and will enter the 2019-20 CCHL regular season with the goal of earning a playoff berth this season.

 DEPARTURES: Crosby, Carter, Dubnyk, Girardi & Oduya...

ARRIVALS: Seguin, Taylor Hall, Rinne, Hainsey & Polak...

The goal this off-season was to get younger and less expensive. We've dropped $10.3M from our payroll since the end of last season and we've clearly gotten younger upfront while staying about the same on defense and in nets.

CENTERS: Seguin, Kuznetsov, Beagle, McCann, Bellemare, Grimaldi

WINGERS: Hall, Hoffman, Dadonov, Guentzel, Comeau & Sprong

DEFENSEMEN: Niskanen, Hainsey, Polak, Montour, Lovejoy, Gustafsson, McQuaid, Dillon, Benning and Ryan

GOALIES: Rinne, Crawford, Brossoit and Subban

ROOKIES: Batherson, Kahun, Chartier, Lammikko, CJ Smith, Kuhlman, Roy, Lyabushkin, Riikola, Hicketts and Delia

Projected lines: 

1st: Seguin, Hall & Dadonov
2nd: Kuznetsov, Hoffman & Guentzel
3rd: Beagle, Comeau & McCann
4th: McCann/Bellemare, Grimaldi/Sprong

Defensive pairings:

Niskanen/Hainsey
Gustafsson/Polak
Montour/Lovejoy

Goalies:

Rinne/Brossoit

A word from the General Manager-

"We think we have a very competitive team heading into this season and lots of good talent on the way in the next few years. Lots of flexibility in our line combination up front and on the blueline and we have plenty of veteran leadership in nets. If we play our game - we should make the playoffs and do some damage."

Rumour Mill: Corfield put Tyler Seguin on the block a few weeks ago and is taking his time on pulling the trigger on a trade for the stud forward. It's been reported he's narrowed his search for a partner down to about four teams in all. We can expect some talented youth and/or picks to be on their way to Dayton in the next week or so. The question some ask is by moving Seguin, does Dayton move into sell mode and move other big fish off the roster or do they find a replacement 2nd line center, move Kuznetsov up to the top line and see how that works before doing anything drastic?