On both this blog and the Weekly Harvest podcast, I mentioned teams can be just one three-game losing streak away from dropping six or seven places in the standings in this year’s Eastern Conference. It’s a good thing the Wheat Kings narrowly avoided such a skid on their only three-in-three road trip of the year.
A decisive, impressive 5-1 win over the Edmonton Oil Kings on Sunday evening was a great stop-gap on a two-game losing streak, and a happy ending for a road trip that had been, to say the least, frustrating for the Wheat Kings to that point. The loss in Medicine Hat saw them trade chances (something they knew they shouldn’t do with the Tigers) but almost get away with it. The loss in Red Deer saw a much better defensive effort, but one controversial goal against (more on that in a moment) and one last-second breakdown erased all the good they had done.
The games were, in many ways, a microcosm of the standings themselves. The margin for error in both theatres right now is razor thin. A 5-1 game like the Wheat Kings had on Sunday seems far less likely right now than the close games they played the two nights prior, and those close games are the ones that really test a team, the kind they need to learn to win to have success in the playoffs.
We’re over a third of the way into the season and there seems to be hardly any clarity on how much of the playoff picture will shake out. The second half is shaping up to be a mad dash to the finish, and it’s both exhausting and exciting.
- Let’s get that controversial goal out of the way early. If you missed it against the Red Deer Rebels, what was ruled the game-tying goal couldn’t actually be seen to cross the goal line. The in-arena feed showed both an ice-level camera and an overhead angle, and neither one showed the puck crossing the line following an attempted wrap-around. In fact, due to the positioning of Ethan Eskit’s pad and blocker, and the players swarming around the front of the net, the puck could barely be seen at all. According to Marty Murray, the referee who went to the Wheat Kings’ bench to explain the decision said there was another camera angle available to the goal judge that wasn’t shown in-arena that proved the puck had crossed the line. I have a professional gripe with this as a broadcaster, a little bit of an “old man yells at cloud” response, as I’m describing things to my audience who, on the radio, can’t see for themselves. If there’s an angle that shows this, I would like to see it so I don’t spend the entire review telling my listeners that the puck doesn’t ever seem to cross the line only to look foolish when the verdict is rendered based on a camera angle I can’t see. But this is a minor quibble compared to the Wheat Kings eventually losing at least one point in the standings based on the camera angle they were never shown either. After the game was over, the Wheat Kings sent a message to the league requesting to see that camera angle, wanting to see the definitive proof that had been so incontrovertible that it had overturned a call on the ice (the referee at the time had never signaled a goal, and really, how could he have?). We’ll keep you up to date as best we can on whatever reply the Wheat Kings get to that inquiry, while understanding some conversations between the team and the league will stay between the team and the league.
- Following that goal against, and on the very last game of a three-in-three you could’ve forgiven the Wheat Kings for being a little deflated. It was refreshing to see the opposite response from them against an on-the-rise Edmonton Oil Kings squad. They limited the Oil Kings to just 24 shots on goal, and the young guns drove the bus long enough for the veterans to take over in the third period. It was a critical win in the standings too. The win keeps the Wheat Kings two points ahead of Edmonton with two games in hand. But then again, every game against a conference opponent is going to be critical in the standings from now on. More on that in a moment, but first…
- The win over Edmonton was the sort of game that could be a turning point in the season for Brady Turko. The Wheat Kings have been waiting for him to not only break out offensively but to start putting up the kind of points he put up on this road trip. Both his goals against the Oil Kings were goal scorer’s goals, no question. He made his own breakout pass on the first goal and sniped it home off the rush to finish the chance he created, then one-timed home a feed from Jaxon Jacobson (and what a shot that one was, holy smokes) to make it 3-0 in the second period. Even his assists against Medicine Hat, both primaries, showed a degree of confidence with the puck that’s been building for a while. Anyone who saw him play AAA last season knows the puck skills are there, and anyone who watches the WHL regularly knows there’s an inevitable adjustment period for a young player no matter how skilled they are. Is Brady out the other side of that adjustment? Look out if so. He’s got eight points in his last seven games and his chemistry with Jacobson was on full display on this road trip.
- Speaking of Jacobson, he was named the WHL’s rookie of the week with six points in three games over the longest road trip of his young career to date. It’s the second time he’s been named rookie of the week, and it’s unlikely to be the last the way he’s been playing. His two goals against Medicine Hat were both off quick releases and his assists against Edmonton, three of them to be exact, were all primaries. This is a young player who has every tool in his offensive toolkit ready to use at all times. He’s clicking along at a point-per-game now despite not yet being 16 years old, and he’s tied for third in rookie scoring while every player ahead of him has played more games. It’ll take a lot to unseat Landon DuPont as the favorite for rookie of the year, but Jacobson has perhaps the best chance at it of anyone. The scary part? Young players have a tendency to take off in the second half. If this is what the first half has looked like for the young man, what is he going to do in the second?
- The Wheat Kings will need both Jacobson and Turko (and for that matter everyone else) to step up in the next few weeks because later on in December they’re going to be a bit shorthanded. Dominik Petr, Adam Belusko, and Carson Bjarnason have all been invited to their respective nations’ camps for the World Junior Championship! Belusko is one of 12 defensemen at Slovakia’s camp, so he’s going to be in a dog fight for a roster spot, but he’s represented Slovakia internationally (and served as a captain with them) before so he’s definitely in the mix. As for Petr, his path is a little clearer but still not easy (15 forwards are at camp for Team Czechia). As he has been firing at a point per game himself lately (something many of his junior contemporaries on the camp roster haven’t managed yet), and as he plays a very responsible two-way game and is frequently a penalty killing fixture, his chances are pretty good if you ask me.
- Bjarnason, meanwhile, is one of just four goalies on the Canadian camp roster and has comfortably the best stats of any of them going in, and showed the best of any of them at the World Junior Summer Showcase. At this point, it’s safe to say the Wheat Kings are preparing not to have him for an extended period of time around Christmas. But Bjarnason won’t be going to Canada’s camp with the idea of merely being present. Bjarnason’s sights have to be set on the starter’s job, and a lot of pundits seem to think it’s there for him to take. He’s got the natural size and athleticism to be a big game goalie, and as a drafted player he’s had experience against NHL-calibre shooters. The Wheat Kings will miss him (it will be the first time they’ve been without him since opening weekend and he’s been their rock through the rash of injuries they’ve suffered) but they’ll be proud to add another name to the wall of World Junior players inside Westoba Place.
I could repeat myself ad nauseum about the tightness of the Eastern Conference right now. With Prince Albert suddenly going on a tear (they’re 8-2-1 in their last 11) they’ve clogged up the standings even tighter. Now, the gap between second place in the conference and ninth place is just six points. Compare that to the West, where the gap is literally twice as big, and you start to get a sense of why every coach I speak to can’t help but smile and shake their head when looking at the standings board.
In that kind of environment, almost every single team could fool themselves into thinking they’re contenders. I must give a stick tap to the Lethbridge Hurricanes for the blockbuster they pulled off in landing Brayden Yager and Jackson Unger from Moose Jaw, but they’re now the third team in the central division (Calgary and Medicine Hat being the others) to make some big swings this year. As respected play-by-play voice of the Kamloops Blazers Jon Keen pointed out, one of those teams, mathematically, won’t get out of the second round. Actually, if the playoffs began today, one of them wouldn’t make it out of the first round; Calgary and Lethbridge would be first round opponents.
Rather than end on that, however, I want to leave you, the reader, with another stick tap. The feedback I’ve gotten on this blog has been most encouraging, and the dialogue it’s led to has been respectful and a good indicator of where Wheat Kings’ faithful sit in their thinking. The biggest takeaway I’ve gotten from the back and forth with some of the fans is they really do believe in this group (the Wheat Kings are third in the conference by points percentage) and they want to see them take another step, possibly propelled forward by a big acquisition or two. The Wheat Kings have built up the draft capital, and fans want to see them go big game hunting. We’re coming to the time of year where that gets more and more likely, and that is just one more thing to add to the already burgeoning pile of entertainment this season has provided.
