Okanagan-Shuswap Division Finally Gets Serious
It's a good thing that Armstrong has been accepted into the KIJHL for next year. Their presence and participation should help make sense of the post-season.
For the most part, the first round of Okanangan-Shuswap Division has been a marathon of nonsense. An 8 game-double-round-robin to eliminate one team almost sounds like it was something dreamed up by the the BC Teachers Federation in fast forward. And playing 8 games in 10 or 11 days is a grueling exercise for players, coaches, fans and officials.
Rant #1
For teams like the Kamloops Storm, who have a wealth of AP players, this first round offered a valuable rest for their top players after they knew that they were into the next round. That amounted to 3 totally meaningless games. Perhaps the losers in all this though, are the fans. Without taking away from the effort of the players that did play those games, the paying fans got to watch an enhanced major midget team, without a lot of warning. I don't blame the teams that used their AP players to take advantage of this situation however one has to ask that whether fielding replacement players for half the line-up for 3 games puts the term "playoffs" on to the comic page rather than the sports page.
Rant #2
In addition, the amount of games played also taxed the quality of officiating that we saw. I know that it is a developmental league however, if I was an owner, which is my business, I would be extremely vocal about the quality of officials used in the games. When you have "boys", as young or younger than the players playing, holding the balance of power in a game, you know that their is going to be trouble. It is unfair to the official, unfair to the players and again, unfair to the fans to see a kid out there 3 miles over his head try to manage a game. Let's hope there is a lesson learned here. People don't pay money to watch a referee become the centre of attention in the game because they lack experience. That's what minor hockey is for.
Now, the playoffs begin.
The Kamloops Storm have dominated the Princeton Posse all season. Princeton is known for its physical, almost intimidating play against other teams with success but it hasn't really seemed to work against the Storm. I might say though, the one game that we saw Princeton in Kamloops during the last round, the Posse decided to play hockey rather than WWE. It was almost refreshing. However, I believe that their fate will be the same. Now that the Kamloops vets are now well rested, I think the Posse will be blown out of the playoffs. At best, this series will go 5 games.
The Sicamous Eagles - Chase Chiefs series should be more interesting. The teams are evenly matched and should go 6 or 7 games. Sicamous certainly had the upper hand in the first round, winning both games however if Chase goaltender, Riley Wall can perform at the level that he is capable, he could steal the series for the Chiefs. But somehow, I'm not sure that this will happen. At this point in time, I would have to guess that Sicamous will prevail in 7.
In the Kootenay Conference, look for the Nelson Leafs to emerge to play the Fernie Ghostriders in the final. Nelson was far and away the best team in the league throughout the regular season and Fernie has the playoff experience to move on. I can't make a more detailed prediction than that as I really haven't seen enough of the teams in that conference to know what makes each team click.
See you tonight and tomorrow night at the Mac Park Sports Centre in Kamloops for the showdown with the Posse. If you can't make it, pick us up on the internet for the game and play-by-play yours truly.
(note: the opinions expressed above are strictly the views of this writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Kamloops Storm Hockey Team)
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hi dave
ReplyDeletethis round robin was definately way out there.
reason being though was amount of teams on this side and the other side. i think they needed to make the amount of games played close for the three divisions. next year will be better i think.
as a fan i still enjoyed watching the a/ps. gives a good look to next year. i think there a few good players ready to go.
officiating for the last few has definately sucked. dex rassmussen has a lot to learn yet.
mr. power struggle.
round two,
chiefs goalie is riley wall. without him, chase is nowhere. i pick sicamous in six.
posse can bring whatever they want. they arent contenders. kamloops in five and if i was cocky i'd pick storm in four.
kamfan
hi dave
ReplyDeleteone more interesting note
anthony collins and the flames. exit first round
darren mann and the delta team. exit first round
brandon long and the kodiaks. game seven tonight.
Lets hope that the internet feed is working tonight. It hard to get to the game from LA. All the best to the Storm and to you Dave.
ReplyDeleteDominic in LA
I was at the game friday nite and sat nite and enjoyed watching good playoff hockey until close to the end of the game sat nite when things went bad both on and off the ice.I was sitting right down the row where those young men were sitting in the beer section who were obviously already intoxicated and should never have been served and they started to harras the princeton goalie as well as the players right from the moment they sat down.They were swearing with little minor hockey kids around and security did NOTHING even after a couple of fans complained about it.the beer gardens just continued to serve them beer.when the storm scored the second goal 2 of the guys hung over the back of the princeton bench and yelled obsenties to the players,Security still did nothing until there was backlash from the bench and fans got involved once again with little kids witnessing this fiasco.It never would have went this far if security had been doing their job.These boys were also not escorted out the building they were actually back up in the liquor area about to be served another beer.The Kamloops storm association in charge of the area should be cautious those kind of incidents could cause you to lose your liqour licence and your security people should perhaps have more training on whats involved with security.
ReplyDeleteI have passed your comments on to the Storm management. If the security people were negligent then perhaps there should be a review of their responsibilities. I did not see the initial incidents that caused the ruckus but when fans approach and physically harass a bench there should be consequences for those fans. My feeling is that it should not be tolerated.
ReplyDelete