Telus Cup Preview with Rykr Cole

Just six teams remain in the quest for the biggest prize in Canadian midget hockey.  The Okanagan Rockets, Halifax McDonald’s, Prince Albert Mintos, Toronto Young Nationals, Grenadiers de Chateauguay and host Moose Jaw Generals will all clash next week to raise the Telus Cup as Canada’s National Midget Champions.

One Regina Pats prospect knew he would be participating in this tournament when the season got going and hopes a year of work will soon pay off.  2012 3^rd Round Bantam Draft pick and signed prospect Rykr Cole is a member of the hosting Generals.  Cole and his teammates are the most rested of the squads after bowing out of the SMAAAHL playoffs in their first round matchup with the Regina Pat Canadians.

“(The layoff) has been real good.  Lots of rest and just having some time off has been good,” said Cole just days away from the tournament opener.  “I think in the past two weeks we’ve been having a lot of hard practices and just getting back up to game tempo.  I think that’s what we needed with having the Telus Cup in (a few) days now.”

When the Generals open the tournament on Monday, April 21^st, it will be the first time the hosts have seen true game action in 45 days since their playoffs came to an end March 7^th in Regina.  Cole registered two points (1G, 1A) in four playoff games this year after finishing second on the Generals during the season with 45 points (23G, 22A) in 41 games.

Photo: Keith Hershmiller/Regina Pats

Long, Long Distance Phone Call with Morgan Klimchuk

Admittedly, getting a hold of Pats Forward Morgan Klimchuk after Team Canada's U18 team took care of Sweden 7-5 in Piestany, Slovakia ran into a couple hitches.  Mainly because of my lack of understanding when it comes to phoning different countries.  It's not exactly something I do on a regular basis, though I'm guessing it will happen a little more often in the future.  When I finally figured out what I was doing wrong, I had a good chat with Morgan.  The audio of that conversation is available in its entirety at ReginaPats.com.


Canada picked up its second win at the annual Ivan Hlinka Tournament with the victory over Sweden.  It was also the game Klimchuk picked up his first goal of the tournament.  On his first shift of the game no less. "The hard work payed off for me, I was going to the net and managed to put one home," says Klimchuk, "I'm just trying to do whatever I can to contribute and today that was by scoring a goal."

Klimchuk's early goal actually put the Canadians up two-nothing before the game was two minutes old.  Possible number one overall pick, Nathan MacKinnon, led off the scoring only 32 seconds into the contest.  Klimchuk hasn't exactly been in the conversation for being the top pick at next summer's NHL draft, but he's among the prospects getting a good look for the first round.  This week's tournament gives him a chance to play alongside many of those highly touted prospects.

Klimchuk Makes U18 Team

Good news for Pats forward Morgan Klimchuk on Monday as he got through the final round of cuts to make Hockey Canada's National Summer Under-18 team.

Klimchuk grabbed a spot on the 22-man roster in a camp of 40 of the top players around the country.  Team Canada heads to Slovakia and the Czech Republic for the Memorial of Ivan Hlinka Tournament coming up August 13th and running through August 18th.

It has been a good month for Klimchuk as he was mentioned on the Central Scouting Service's "A-List" at the beginning of July, labeling him as a player to watch for the upcoming NHL Draft.  A strong summer is always key for a draft eligible player and heading to the Ivan Hlinka tournament will give Klimchuk a chance to build momentum heading into Pats Training Camp at the end of August and into the pre-season.

Expectations are high for the Calgary native after he totaled 36 points (18G, 18A) in his first full WHL campaign.  Along with Chandler Stephenson, Klimchuk will have to handle a lot more offensive responsibility and pressure, not to mention high draft expectations through the year.

The Ivan Hlinka Tournament represents a great opportunity for Klimchuk to start off what could be a very special year for the Pats forward.  It will be great to see him don the Maple Leaf in search of a Gold Medal.

For more on Morgan Klimchuk joining team Canada's Summer U18 team, check out ReginaPats.com.

-D

Junior A Supplement Extended Two Years

Hockey Canada held its AGM this past week/weekend.  The big news items coming from the meetings are the extension of the Junior-A Supplement and the Vernon Vipers will host the 2014 RBC Cup.

Here's the summary of the weekend in release form (the important stuff is in the second half):

Junior-A Supplement Pilot Project Coming to a Close

When the Junior-A Supplement was announced before the 2010-11 season, it was met with a certain... "resistance" from fans, coaches and players.  While fans weren't happy with the rules limiting the number of fights a player could participate in before being suspended and other rule adjustments, it could have been more severe.

The Supplement was part of an experiment where five Junior-A leagues (SJHL, AJHL, BCHL, MJHL and the Maritime Junior Hockey League) to investigate the effectiveness of limiting fights in the fashion that the Supplement entailed versus the 'vanilla version' of Rule 6.7.  That's the rule limiting players to one fight per game.  When they drop the mitts, players are assessed a game misconduct.  First period?  Gone.  Second Period? Gone.  Third period, yeah, you've got it now... Gone.  In the Supplement Leagues, a player needs to fight a second time before getting the boot.  This isn't anything unfamiliar.  The SJHL featured the one-fight rule close to ten years ago (so I'm told), before going to a two-fight system.  The difference when the SJHL had the one-and-done rule is there was no real accumulation.  Players could fight pretty much as often as they wanted.

The two year pilot project of the Junior-A Supplement is in its final stages with reports and data being handed over to Hockey Canada in the next few weeks.  From there, Hockey Canada will use this research to decide how everything will shake down.  At least in theory.  From recent comments, it seems as though Hockey Canada already knows what's going to happen.