2012-13 WHL Season Thread (Hitmen, Rebels, Canes, Tigers, et al)

[Drake]

That didn't take long. Jacob Doty drops the gloves and kicks Curtis Valcourt asses 15 seconds in. Then he has words with the Josh Nicholls as he heads to the box.

[Drake]

That makes it 12 straight playoffs losses for the Blades, 8 straight to the Tigers in the playoffs. They now have 51 days off before their first game of the Memorial Cup.

[Matty81]

Originally Posted by Red John

Kelowna loses in OT for the third straight game. Man that team can't buy a break. Hoping they at least win tomorrow, in order to go see one more home game.

Kamloops loses a tight one in Victoria, still lead series 2-1 and should be ok.

Saskatoon...yikes. Good for the Tigers.

Congrats to the Hitmen on a 3-1 series lead. That said don't rule out the Broncos, they've been in every game and if they escape game 5 things could get interesting.

Here's to a Blazers - Hitmen WHL final. Would be tremendous.

Looks like you got your wish - long weekend spring hockey game... still down 3-1 but win or lose can't go wrong!

[Red John]

Originally Posted by Matty81

Looks like you got your wish - long weekend spring hockey game... still down 3-1 but win or lose can't go wrong!

They were far too superior to Seattle to get swept, wouldn't be surprised if they came all the way back but they certainly can't afford to make any more mistakes or not get bounces their way.

On to Saturday.

[Dion]

The Blades have to to wait 51 days before the Memorial Cup starts.

[Hatter]

Congrats to the Tigers! They do to the Blades what Kooteny usually does to them...

[moon]

Great to see Blades out in first round but sucks Med Hat had to win for them to be out.

With the teams left in East hopefully the West wins the WHL this year.

[GrrlGoalie33]

The Hitmen ended the Broncos playoffs tonight 3-1, taking the series in 5!

Their next round is against the Red Deer Rebels, and it sounds like games 1&2 are April 4&5 in Calgary.

Jake Virtanen is sure going to be a fun player for us to watch for the next 3-4 years!

[Yoho]

Originally Posted by Frankster

The Hitmen ended the Broncos playoffs tonight 3-1, taking the series in 5!

Their next round is against the Red Deer Rebels, and it sounds like games 1&2 are April 4&5 in Calgary.

Jake Virtanen is sure going to be a fun player for us to watch for the next 3-4 years!

I'm going on the 5th can't wait..Playoffs in Calgary!

[Red John]

Blazers and Winterhawks both win their series in game 6 tonight.

That leaves only one series left, Kelowna vs Seattle where the Rockets are halfway to becoming the 2nd team in WHL history to erase a 3-0 series deficit. Game six goes tomorrow in Kent. All kinds of injuries for the Rockets but they are battling through it.

Tyson Baillie has really stepped up his game. Keep an eye on him for this years draft.

Can't wait for the second round. Awesome to see the Blades and Royals out in particular. Some great matchups coming up next round.

[Matty81]

Originally Posted by Red John

Blazers and Winterhawks both win their series in game 6 tonight.

That leaves only one series left, Kelowna vs Seattle where the Rockets are halfway to becoming the 2nd team in WHL history to erase a 3-0 series deficit. Game six goes tomorrow in Kent. All kinds of injuries for the Rockets but they are battling through it.

Tyson Baillie has really stepped up his game. Keep an eye on him for this years draft.

Can't wait for the second round. Awesome to see the Blades and Royals out in particular. Some great matchups coming up next round.

The Rockets have lost another couple regulars in games 3 and 4 but credit to them for making it to game 6. If they could somehow find a way to win and make it a one game showdown that would be great. I think with six starters out crawling back to game 7 would be impressive.

Baillie isn't draft eligible until next year, he's a 2014. I think he's going to rack up a ton of points next year and get 2nd/3rd round attention, him and Stadel look like getting drafted next year and Chartier could be a high pick the year after, hopefully some other decent kids for 2015 arrive on the scene this summer. Bowey, Lees and Wheaton should all get picked this year, probably in that order but Wheaton might go before Lees depending. I love the edge to Baillie's game for a kid that young who's not the biggest guy.

[Red John]

Originally Posted by Matty81

The Rockets have lost another couple regulars in games 3 and 4 but credit to them for making it to game 6. If they could somehow find a way to win and make it a one game showdown that would be great. I think with six starters out crawling back to game 7 would be impressive.

Baillie isn't draft eligible until next year, he's a 2014. I think he's going to rack up a ton of points next year and get 2nd/3rd round attention, him and Stadel look like getting drafted next year and Chartier could be a high pick the year after, hopefully some other decent kids for 2015 arrive on the scene this summer. Bowey, Lees and Wheaton should all get picked this year, probably in that order but Wheaton might go before Lees depending. I love the edge to Baillie's game for a kid that young who's not the biggest guy.

My bad on Baillie, knew he was already 17 and miscalculated. In that case, he'll actually be a 1st rounder in 2014 and is probably the best WHL eligible prospect for 2014 besides Sam Reinhart. He's found another notch in the playoffs so far.

Bowey could be a late 1st round pick this year or early 2nd. He's looked good lately. Still likes to try those end to end rushes too often.

Lees is highly underrated. He's quietly efficient and projects to be a great No. 4 d-man in the NHL. Would pick him in the 2nd round no problem.

Wheaton is tough to get a read on, huge frame but a bit raw. Bet he's a mid-round pick.

[Matty81]

Bowey really impressed me in game 5, played with a physical element that I didn't think he had.

Baillie is a great player, probably one of the most surprising rockets this year with Chartier. Since Christmas he's been really emerged as a catalyst and has even started hitting and fighting a bit which surprised me for a kid his age and size. I think if he's 6'2 he's a first rounder no problem, and he may still be if he racks up crazy points but he's small and he's not an elite skater. If he takes a step forward and one of Sissons or Bell come back the Rockets will be elite next year, win or lose against Seattle.

[Matty81]

Crazy game tonight. Rockets have 30 shots and it's not even halfway through the 2nd.... and the game is tied 3-3. Despite dominating the game their goalie Jordan Cooke let in the first three Seattle shots in a row and they have no advantage.

Hope they can keep up the pressure up and we get to enjoy a game 7 tomorrow here.

[Red John]

Bell scores in OT! Guy has a NHL shot

On the verge of history...game 7 goes tomorrow. Finally beat Glover on the 59th shot.

[Flickered Flame]

Rockets complete the comeback, win game 7, 3-2 in OT.

[Matty81]

Just home from it... what a game, the atmosphere was as good as when they won the WHL title at home a few years ago and the game almost felt scripted it was so dramatic. T-birds scored with 7 seconds left to tie it and send it to overtime, then Tyson Baillie completes the hattrick on a beauty pass from Madison Bowey (who I'm starting to hope the Flames look at with pick #30) to win it.

They had 4 defensemen left - 7 starters out with injury, played a forward back there for a couple shifts so they got a breather once in a while and dressed a local 15 year old kid who sat on the bench and I think didn't play a shift as insurance in case someone else got injured. Another 15 year old, Merkley's younger brother, dressed as well. He did play and actually looked real dangerous on his couple shifts.

Anyway Kamloops is probably going to pulverize them with 7 starters out and 5 kids who are 15 or 16 years old in the lineup but after that comeback the season was a success in my mind

[Red John]

What an evening. Will post more in the morning after calming down

Managed to get on Shaw TV after, going behind Peter Loubardias and yelling "some kind of game" and he turned around mid sentence and stopped and said "yes that was SOME KIND OF GAME!"

Awesome

[Red John]

Some more thoughts as promised:

-History has been made! What an incredible gutsy effort - coming back from 0-3 down to win is impressive enough, to do it with 4 defensemen and basically a missing forward line (including the team MVP) is something else entirely.

-As mentioned earlier series could have gone either way with 5 of the 7 games needing OT...but it felt all along that the Rockets would pull it out, it was just meant to be even after the tying goal with 7 seconds left.

-Kelowna really struggled to adjust their game to the playoffs - goals are MUCH harder to come by in the postseason and a young Rockets team struggled to understand that, their patented cross-ice passes and easy slot feeds weren't available and by the time they figured this out, it was very nearly too late losing the first three.

-Players in particular who struggled and need to be much better are Zach Franko, Ryan Olsen and Myles Bell. Kelowna scored a TON of goals this season but did it without a de facto star up front; the problem with a scoring by committee approach is that different players need to be chipping in all the time and this didn't happen against Seattle....however...

-......the Rockets are fortunate that of all people it's 16-year old Tyson Baillie who picked this team up on his back and won them this series. Incredible - scouts are noticing. Kelowna has always struggled to develop NHL forwards and its ironic that the highest drafted may end up being Baillie, who was only a third round bantam pick and really has been off everyones radar until recently.

-Building was incredibly loud last night, it felt like a Finals game and really all that was missing was a trophy presentation after. For a building that's known to be pretty quiet, that was nice to see.

-It's really too bad the Rockets didn't trade for some depth for the playoffs - yes this was supposed to be a rebuilding year but when you win 52 games you expect to go deep in the playoffs and need depth for injuries. Instead the Rockets have 4 defensemen heading into a series against the Kamloops Blazers and it will probably be their undoing.

-Will be very interesting to see how the series with the Blazers progresses - they are a polar opposite team to the T-birds and we'll see if this ends up favouring the Rockets or not - it certainly won't be as physical but can Kelowna afford to run and gun with Kamloops? Be curious to see what strategies Huska employs

-There are only two outcomes after this kind of emotional win: either the Rockets will roll to the Memorial Cup on the back of this win, or they will have absolutely nothing left in the tank to give and bow out feebly to Kamloops (who is a darn good team this year and have a healthy team besides Bozon). Smart money says to bet on the latter, but the Rockets have proven you can't count them out!

-How good might Kelowna be next year and after? They don't lose any significant 20s, and probably won't lose anyone to the NHL either. Bowey, Lees and Wheaton will get drafted and return even better next year. They'll probably get Myles Bell back as a 20, and will have two starting calibre goalies (Cooke and Whistle, who will also get drafted). They can decide what to do with Franko as a 20 next year if they want him, and still have room to add one or two more impact 20s from other teams depending if they trade Cooke. Not to mention having Baillie and Rourke Chartier in their draft years, and a full year of highly touted Nick Merkley. This team is just on the beginning of their upswing and this could be looked back on as a dominant era for them depending on their playoff success.

[moon]

I may have missed something but wasn't that series supposed to be a walk in the park for Kelowna?

Werent the bottom play-offs team in the West as bad as the non-play-off teams in the East?