Don’t look now Prince George Fans; the most followed hockey teams have winning records!
The Prince George Cougars are 11-9, the P.G. Spruce Kings are in first place with a 12-8-0-2 record and the Vancouver Canucks sit 12-5. This is a far cry from last season where the Cougars and Canucks missed the playoffs and the Spruce Kings lost again in the first round of the post-season. This is notable, but remember; it’s mid-November. If this optimism remains in March, then fans can start to revel in their jubilation.
Two other Prince George based hockey teams, while not as high profile, are dominating the competition. The 13-2-1 Major Midget Cariboo Cougars are in first place and the P.G. Female Midget Northern Cougars also lead their league at 16-2.
Baffling numbers: Through 20 games there’s a few Prince George Cougars stats that are eye-popping. The Cougars are 7-0 in games decided by two goals or less. That’s the good news. The bad news, all nine losses have been by three goals or more. The Cats sit 11-0 when allowing three goals or less. In addition, the Cougars have opened the scoring in a whopping 85 per cent of their games, yet are just 10-7 while tallying the first goal. Moreover, not often is a team two games above .500 when allowing 22 more goals than they have scored (59 for and 81 against) but the Cougars are in that boat. However, we will need a much larger sampling before being able to give a valid report card.
Head of the Class: There are always good teams, but this season the Kelowna Rockets are the
crème de la crème. Nothing short of a championship should be considered a successful season for the 18-1-1 Rockets, who play at CN Centre against the Cougars tonight (Friday) and Saturday. The Brandon Wheat Kings are the top team in the Eastern Conference (16-3-1), yet when they played in Kelowna, the Rockets won 6-1. Maybe those two lopsided losses the Cougars suffered at the hands of the Rockets at the start of the season, 7-2 and 8-2, don’t look as bad now as they did then.
Put away that Whistle: The consensus weak spot for the Rockets at the start of the season was in net but Jackson Whistle has answered the critics. Sure Whistle may be playing behind a superb defence but he gets credit for a league-leading 2.12 Goals-Against-Average in addition to a solid .925 Save Percentage. The 19-year-old Whistle, who is from Kelowna, was the WHL Goaltender of the Month for September/October with a 12-1-1 record, including three shutouts.
West is best: The WHL Western Conference is considerably stronger than the East. The 10 teams in the West have 29 more wins than regulation losses while the 12 Eastern teams have just seven more victories than regulation losses. All the records, of course, look better than they actually are because of the point earned for overtime and shootout losses.
Easier Road: It appears easier to make the playoffs in the West since just two teams miss compared to four teams that don’t qualify in the East; but hold on, this may not be the case. The bottom four or five teams in the East are arguably the worst in the league. In fact, half of the Eastern teams do not have a winning record compared to just 20 per cent of the Western teams.
Looking Back: Last season, the 8th place team in the West (Tri-City Americans) finished with 68 points in 72 games. The two previous years, Everett was 8th with just 57 points in 2012-13 and 54 points in 2011-12. It is safe to assume an 8th place team will need a minimum 70 points. In the balanced Western Conference, just four points separate 4th from 9th.
The choice is ours: Politics are a game within a game. Voting is one of the most important acts of citizenship we perform. Municipal elections are now every four years rather than three making it even more critical to exercise one’s vote. Whether you support Don Zurowski or Lyn Hall, or neither, the political process works best if one casts a ballot for Mayor, Council and School Board. Yes, Saturday is our day to be heard. Why not take advantage and be loud and proud?
From the Quote Rack:
Taima the Angur hawk, the Seahawk mascot, flew into the crowd on Sunday and even landed on one fan’s head. Fortunately, Taima wasn’t called for a personal fowl.
The world’s No. 1 badminton player, Lee Chong Wei, has failed a drug test. Officials became suspicious when one of his birdies turned out to be a carrier pigeon.
Contributor Bill Littlejohn of South Lake Tahoe, California
Lee Chong Wei, the world’s top-ranked badminton player, failed a doping test. Badminton? Who knew, the most honest sport might turn out to be pro wrestling.
Apparently Oakland Raiders owner Mark Davis is considering moving the team to San Antonio. Responded the Spurs, “There goes the neighborhood.”
Contributor Janice Hough of Palo Alto, California www.leftcoastsportsbabe.com
The Oakland Raiders are 0-9, but head coach Tony Sparano says it’s not too late to save the season. With a couple of wins, they could cross over to the CFL East and make the playoffs.
Steelers fans are blaming Justin Bieber for jinxing their team after he visited their dressing room before they lost to the lowly Jets. Actually it was because he messed Big Ben up by showing him the art of throwing eggs.
Comedy writer TC Chong of Vancouver (http://alwaysfunny.com/)
ESPN claims about 30 per cent of the Indiana Hoosiers basketball team are out with legal problems. On the bright side, their NBA draft status shot way up.
Becci Ellis, a British mother of two, is the world’s fastest woman on two tires after reaching 425 km/h on a Suzuki motorbike. Her kids call her meals on wheels.
Comedy writer RJ Currie www.Sportsdeke.com
And in case you missed it:
The 2-7 New York Knicks have lost six straight games with their new offense. Man, I haven’t seen such bad triangle playing since Tracey Partridge.
Comedy writer Marc Ragovin
Hartley Miller is the sports director and morning news anchor for 94.3 the Goat. His column appears Fridays on hqprincegeorge.com. Send along a quote, note, or anecdote to [email protected]
Follow him on twitter: @Hartley_Miller