Gummer Injured *UPDATED*

(Gummer from the BCHL website)

UPDATE: Gummer ended up playing on Friday night so looks like it really wasn't anything too major thankfully.

Just a quick note, I didn't have Adam Gummer listed on my scratches last night. Trail has too many injuries so there wasn't room for him on the usual list and I left him off on the website as well. Gummer is out for a week or two with an upper body injury. This isn't a season ender like what happened to CJ Legassic and Marco Raimondo, but it's another of a long list of injuries the Smokies have had to deal with lately. I think I'm going to get me a lucky rabbit's foot or something...

See you at the rink tonight! Trail hosting Vernon at 7:30pm. After last night's very well played but blown game, lets see if the Smokies can build on it.

Trail at Westside Game Day

Stealing a feature that Ryan's been using over at the Vees blog, I decided to break down the Smokies/Warriors season series before tonight's 7 o'clock game. The results have thus far been in Westside's favour.

Sept 13: Westside 4 at Trail 2
Oct 25: Trail 3 at Westside 5
Nov 22: Westside 4 at Trail 6
Nov 23: Westside 3 at Trail 2
Dec 14: Trail 4 at Westside 5

The Warriors have a 4-1 record against Trail and have outscored the Smokies 21-17 in those games. That's only a four goal difference in what really hasn't been a lopsided series despite Westside earning 8 of the 10 points available. The teams play a similar hardworking style that leans on depth and heart more so than one or two lines of skill. Now was we look at the top scorers I'll note that one of those top scorers (Chad Gehon) actually put up all his points in the season series as a member of the Smokies. He's now a Warrior so that skews things a little bit on this list.

TOP SCORERS

1. F Ron Kelly (WES) 3-5-8
2. D Cory Pritz (WES) 3-4-7
3. F Kyle Singleton (WES) 3-3-6
3. F Chad Gehon (TRA/WES) 2-4-6
5. F Ryan Bulach (TRA) 1-4-5
5. D Brad Pumton (WES) 1-4-5
7. D Brandon Clark (TRA) 2-2-4
7. F Paul Mailey (TRA) 2-2-4
7. F JF Boisvert (TRA) 2-2-4
7. D Danny DeKeyser (TRA) 2-2-4
7. F Travis St. Denis (TRA) 2-2-4
7. D Justin Schultz (WES) 2-2-4
7. F Alex Grieve (WES) 2-2-4
7. D Patrick Raley (TRA) 0-4-4
7. D Garrett Watson (WES) 0-4-4

Fifteen players scored four or more points in the five games between the two teams. These are teams that depend on their scoring depth. Westside has the top four scorers in the season series thus far, but one of them earned those points while playing for Trail. Gehon has two points in three games for Westside so far.

GOALTENDERS

1. Devon Murtagh (WES) 2-0, 2.50GAA, 89.8%
2. Marco Raimondo (TRA) 1-2, 3.82GAA, 88.17%
3. Paul Barclay (TRA) 0-2, 3.90GAA, 89.04%
4. Kevin Jebson (WES) 1-1, 5.08GAA, 80.00%

I didn't include Garrett Beckwith (now of the KIJHL's Nelson Leafs) in these statitics. However, for some reason the Warriors have had a lot more success against Trail with their back-up in goal. Jebson got lit up in Trail while Murtagh has played two strong games against the Smoke Eaters. I wouldn't be surprised to see the rookie get the start tonight. Although the line-up I have appears to give Jebson the nod. If Trail has a strong game against him tonight they could perhaps get into his head a little bit.

LINE UP

Here are the lines I have in my package. These are certainly subject to change...

TRAIL

Boisvert-St. Denis-Corcoran
Sandor-Bulach-Mailey
Nugent-Loyst-Brown
Zmurchyk-Jacklin-Martin

Koshey-Strukoff
DeKeyser-Clark
Reardon-Raley

Barclay
Ross

Scratches: Legassic, Raimondo, Porterfield (all injured)

WESTSIDE

Gagne-Bailey-Mihalek
Watson-Kelly-Krause
Singleton-Downing-Gould
Gehon-Gidaro-Reid

Woznikoski-Quinn
Prtiz-Ellis
Schultz-Miller

Jebson
Murtagh

Scratches: Plumton (injured)

BROADCAST

You can hear the game with AM Ford Trail Smoke Eaters Hockey on Mountain FM at 104.1 in Trail, 99.3 in Castlegar, 103.5 in Nelson and 96.7 in Grand Forks. It is also available on BCHL PPV with the Westside broadcast and in the BCHL Fanzone with both home and road feeds. The pre-game show starts at 6:45pm with the puck drop just after 7.

Ingram Discusses Injuries

Just heading on to the bus for tonight's game in Westside. Here is the Smokies coach and GM discussing the season ending injuries to Marco Raimondo and CJ Legassic.

Coach Jim Ingram

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Raimondo and Legassic's Seasons Over *UPDATED*

(Marco Raimondo and CJ Legassic - Photo from the BCHL website)

Scroll down the blog to vote in our latest poll on the new Trail third jersey...

Some awful news today for the Trail Smoke Eaters. Marco Raimondo and CJ Legassic are both out for the remainder of the season. Raimondo sustained his second concussion of the season in practice this week while Legassic re-injured his knee. The full extent and long term implications of both injuries are still unclear. However, this does unfortunately end the BCHL career of the twenty year old Raimondo. Hopefully he is able to resume his career in college next season.

Raimondo finishes his BCHL career with 21 wins in 49 games, a 3.31 goals against average and a 90.02 save percentage. His 90.64 save percentage last season with Cowichan Valley was good enough to place him top five in the league. However, Raimondo had an inconsistent season with the Smoke Eaters that was interrupted by a broken jaw and concussion he sustained in the fall. The initial injury derailed what had been a very effective tandem of Barclay and Raimondo early in the season. Unfortunately, they both never got healthy together again for an extended period of time. I truly believe the very athletic Raimondo had the potential to be among the best if not the best goaltender in the league.

The job now falls again to Paul Barclay whose own season has been somewhat derailed by nagging injuries. He thrived when taking over the starting role on his own after Raimondo went down earlier in the season. Barclay will now get the opportunity to be "the man" in Trail. It's a role he's been after since he first attended Smokies camp in 06-07. It's time for him to show that he can lead a team as a #1 goaltender. He has all the skills and the mental make up necessary to do it. Barclay has made some big steps forward this season. His save percentage is basically a full point higher than it was last year. He has also been the starter for an extended period of success and stole some games against great teams. Now lets see if he's healthy enough and consistent enough to get that job done.

The Smokies will now have to rotate between their available affiliate goaltenders as back-ups for Barclay. Word is that Barclay is feeling as good as he has in ages after his start on Saturday and some hard work during practice. The Smokies can't afford to lose him again.

The APs Trail has available between the pipes are local major midget Alex Ross, Peter Alexander from Nelson in the KIJHL, Jason Greenwell from Fernie in the KIJHL and Riley Wall from Chase in the KIJHL. Greenwell is the only netminder of the four who has started a game in the BCHL this season. He allowed four goals in a 5-4 Trail overtime victory in Quesnel. Greenwell also had an extended stay with the Smokies in the fall when Raimondo went down with a broken jaw. Alexander played a little over a period in relief of Raimondo a few weeks ago in Penticton. Ross has backed up one Trail goaltender or another several times, but he's yet to see any action this season.

Both Wall and Greenwell have save percentages over 91% in Junior B this season. However, they are both starters for teams in the playoff hunt. Alexander has had a solid season in a tandem with Westside AP Garrett Beckwith for the league leading Leafs, but Beckwith has outperformed him statistically since being cut by the Warriors so Peter might be more available than the other two.

Ross will be with the Smokies tomorrow night in Westside and Alexander will likely fill that role on Friday night at home against Vernon.

What would happen if Paul Barclay were injured again? That's a subject Jim Ingram didn't even want to discuss or think about when I talked to him today. I'm sure there must be some kind of flexibility in the league's usual carding rules in the case of goaltender injuries. Unlike with skaters you can't just role with a shorthanded roster and hope for the best. I just don't know what that flexibility might be and frankly I hope for Trail's sake that we don't have to find out.

As for Legassic, he had been playing better and better as the season progressed. I thought his initial injury might have slowed all the progress he was making at the time, but he came back right on top of his game. This is a player who is very skilled at getting under the other team's skin. He's also a young man with speed and great hands. As he ages and matures physically he should be able to add more of scoring dimension with the team next season. As it is, he wraps up his rookie season with 3 goals, 6 assists and 51 penalty minutes in 36 games. I look forward to watching him take another leap forward next season. It's a shame he won't be able to help the Smokies come playoff time, because he's exactly the kind of guy you want on your roster in the post-season. He's also a pretty good colour commentator so I'm hoping I might be able to lure him back to the booth for a game or two.

I just want to take this opportunity to wish both Marco and CJ a speedy recovery. They are two of the biggest characters on the team and both quality individuals that the Smokies are really going to miss on the ice. Hopefully they'll stick around at least until the banquet later this month.

Just when it seemed like the roster was getting healthy...

On a positive note, Brandon Clark and Ryan Bulach will be back in the line-up for this week. Clark returns after about a month on the sidelines. He is the emotional leader of the young defensemen and is sorely missed in special teams situations. Bulach's ridiculous suspension is finally over and not a moment too soon. I've talked at length before about how important both Bulach and Clark are to the team on and off the ice. We're talking about the leading scorer up front and the PP QB who both have knacks for game winning goals. A forward who wins something like 75% of his face offs and a defensive rock with a physical edge. Their additions should be a big boost to a Trail team that uncharacteristically lacked energy on the weekend.

I'll have more on this turn of events later tonight. You can hear an interview with Coach Jim Ingram on Mountain FM's Overtime after 6pm.

NOTES: There's a poll on the BCHL website on top rookies. You can show your support for Trail's JF Boisvert who right now is polling second behind Matt Bodie of the Powell River Kings.

Speaking of polls, you all voted overwhelmingly for Prince George as your favourite first round opponent for the Smokies. There isn't much chance of that happening. Those who voted didn't leave much room between Westside or Penticton. I think that's reasonable as both have their advantages and disadvantages as opponents for the Smokies. One thing is clear, Trail can beat both teams at Cominco Arena. However, if they can't figure out how to win on the road a 2-0 deficit is very hard to overcome in a five game series! Lets see how the Smokies do in Westside tomorrow. Tune in to AM Ford Trail Smoke Eaters Hockey on Mountain FM!

Third Jersey Poll

(Travis St. Denis sets up Paul Mailey in Trail's new third jerseys - Photo Randy Emery)

I'm using a new poll interface that Ryan Pinder has been using at his Vees blog. I like it better than what blogger offers. It allows me to archive the polls without leaving them on the side forever and ever. If you want to look back at old polls now you can just click on the polls tag and you bring them all up.

Now to today's poll. The Trail Smoke Eaters had new digs on Saturday night against Prince George. It's a college style third jersey developped this year as something completely different than the usual Smokies look. So what do you think?

Bohmer Resigns, Quesnel Goons?

So we now have the first coaching change in the BCHL this season. According to the Quesnel website Coach and GM Tom Bohmer stepped down on Monday night. Bohmer was 7 games short of completing his third season with the Mills. I had a chance to chat with a member of the Quesnel board on Mountain FM's Overtime tonight.

Geoff Ruffle, Director/Media Relations for the Quesnel Millionaires

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There's a separate interview with Ruffle at Brian's Making Cents Blog. He actually did his interview first, but I hadn't noticed until I conducted mine. We bloggers are on top of things!

Bohmer wasn't able to get Quesnel into the playoffs during his three year run with the team. This will be the sixth consecutive season for the Mills without a post-season birth. Clearly things didn't go as planned. However, I think it's important to note that there was some progress for the hockey club during his time there. Here's the breakdown of his run...

06-07: 8-47-0-5, 149 GF, 305 GA
07-08: 19-36-0-5, 175 GF, 254 GA
08-09: 15-35-0-3, 142 GF, 235 GA

From his first to his second season Bohmer more than doubled his team's win total (increased it by 11), cut the goal differential in half (-156 to -79), and built a team that was a whole lot tougher to play against.

So what happened this season? Why didn't the Millionaires take another leap forward? Things actually started pretty well for Quesnel. They went 4-5-0-1 in September including back to back wins over Salmon Arm and an 11-4 blow out of Trail. In that month they scored 32 goals and gave up 33.

So what happened? Two games into October star goaltender and Quesnel's MVP Jeff Malcom went down with a serious long term injury. The Mills went on to lose 8 out of the first 10 games the played without him. Obviously Bohmer failed to provide an adequate back up or solution to the goaltending situation at that time, but any team is going to take a hit when they lose their MVP. That may sound like an excuse, but where would Quesnel be at this point if they had Malcom for the whole season? They are 18 points behind Prince George now. How much closer would they be? Remembering also that the confidence and will to win obviously took a massive hit after the injury. Remembering also that Quesnel traded their best forwards at the trade deadline and have not been as competitive since that time. I think it's reasonable to suggest they'd be within reach of a playoff spot at this point if Malcom had been healthy for the whole season.

However, he wasn't and Quesnel didn't have the depth to make up for it. Bohmer takes the fall for that, but I truly believe he took some positive steps in a very tough position. They have one of the worst buildings in the league and play in a cold, remote location. This is not exactly the easiest sell for recruiting. How many players refused to play for Quesnel after trades? It's a tough job and Bohmer did do some good things. Trevor Hertz and Jeff Malcom are two examples of some great players who have come out of his program there.

Bohmer resigned for what the Mills say are personal reasons. The resignation comes on the same day that he was suspended indefinitely for all the fights (and the injury to star Denver Manderson) in the Penticton game. Tom Bohmer has been accused by some of gooning it up as a coach. Penticton coach Fred Harbinson ripped him and the Quesnel organization so hard that he got fined for it by the BCHL. So is it true?

I went through the last two months of game action comparing Quesnel with a randomly selected Interior team. My results show that Quesnel at least didn't fight anymore than Westside did. Take a look for yourself:

Quesnel

Dec 5: one misconduct
Dec 6: seven fights, six misconducts
Dec 7: nothing
Dec 10: one fight
Dec 12: nothing
Dec 13: nothing
Dec 19: two fights, one misconduct
Dec 20: two fights, one misconduct
Dec 21: nothing
Jan 2: one misconduct
Jan 3: two fights, one misconduct
Jan 9: one fight
Jan 17: one fight
Jan 18: one misconduct
Jan 23: nothing
Jan 24: nothing
Jan 29: three fights including a one sided fighting major and misconduct
Jan 30: ten fights, nine misconducts
Jan 31: three fights

19 games: 32 fights, 22 misconducts

1.68 fights per game, 1.16 misconducts per game

Westside

Dec 3: nothing
Dec 5: two fights
Dec 9: two fights
Dec 12: three fights, four misconducts
Dec 13: nine fights, five misconducts
Dec 14: three fights, one misconduct
Dec 19: nothing
Jan 2: four fights, two misconducts
Jan 3: one fight, one misconduct
Jan 4: one fight, two misconducts
Jan 9: nothing
Jan 10: two fights
Jan 11: nothing
Jan 16: three fights, one misconduct
Jan 23: one fight
Jan 24: one fight
Jan 29: two fights
Jan 31: one misconduct

18 games: 34 fights, 17 misconducts

1.9 fights per game, 0.94 misconducts per game

So the Warriors actually fight more than Quesnel. Would anyone suggest Westside is a goon squad? I know I certainly wouldn't. To be fair I will note that Quesnel had two "gong show" games (one seven fight game and one ten fight game) while Westside only had one (a nine fight game) of those over the same two months.

Quesnel also ranks 10th in the BCHL in total times shorthanded. That's middle of the pack so they aren't taking a huge number of minor penalties in there.

This isn't a perfect science by any means. However I have to ask, have the Mills been a goon squad, or is this a frustrated group that let their emotions get the best of them after a fall out of playoff contention and a lopsided game in Penticton?

I don't know what Bohmer did or didn't say to his players during that game. All I can do is look at the numbers and try to draw some conclusions from them. Decide for yourselves.

What I do know is that Tom Bohmer was always very friendly and accommodating to me in my dealings with him. A coach is out of work today and his first head coaching gig in the BCHL has ended up as a disappointment. It's a sad day and I wish Bohmer all the best in wherever life takes him next. I also genuinely hope that the next full time coach of the Millionaires can help lead the franchise back to the playoffs. Their long suffering fan base deserves it.

NOTES: Ryan Pinder broke the news that the brawls with Quesnel may lead to the end of Denver Manderson's season. That's horrible news for a Penticton team that appears to have all the skill necessary to take a serious run at Vernon or Salmon Arm. The loss of Manderson is a massive blow to those chances. You can understand why that kind of injury could get tempers flaring over in Penticton. I hope Manderson makes a speedy recovery. He's one of the league's best.

Speaking of injuries, I may have some more bad news to report within the next twenty four hours.

I'm also going to post a poll on the new Smokies third jersey so we can get some idea what you all think of the new and obviously very different look.

Weekend Reaction

I've been very busy with some additional responsibilities at work so I apologize for the lack of updates lately. Here's Brian Youngson from tonight's Mountain FM Overtime show on the frustrating games this past weekend.

Assistant Coach Brian Youngson

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Also of note is that the Trail Smoke Eaters official website is back up and running again so you can start checking it out for regular updates while I slack off a little bit lately. I'll try to get back on track while I get used to some changes in my work. The website has some pictures up from Saturday's game with Trail's new third jerseys. What do you think?