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Wheat Kings Win WHL Championship
The Brandon Wheat Kings downed the Seattle Thunderbirds, 8-4, on Friday night to win the Western Hockey League championship, four games to one. The big star of the night was Jayce Hawryluk (Florida Panthers prospect), who figured in five of the eight Wheaties goals with a hat trick and two assists.
Seattle actually led, 4-3, in the latter part of the second period and the game was tied at 4-4 entering the third period. In the final stanza, the Wheat Kings pulled away with four unanswered goals (the final two were empty net goals).
At 14:18 of the first period, Flyers 2015 first-round pick Ivan Provorov assisted on a Macoy Erkamps power play goal that gave Brandon a 2-1 lead that they took to intermission. At even strength, Provorov was plus-four for the night. For the playoffs, he had 13 points (three goals, 10 assists) in 21 games and was plus-22 with 14 penalty minutes.
The Wheat Kings will advance to the 2016 Memorial Cup in Red Deer, Alberta, to play for the CHL championship. The other teams in the tournament are the host Red Deer Rebels (automatic bid), the London Knights (OHL champions) and the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies (QMJHL champions). Flyers defense prospect Philippe Myers is a top-pairing defenseman on the Huskies.
The round-robin preliminary round schedule at the Enmax Centrium is as follows:
Fri May 20: London vs. Red Deer (8:00 p.m. EDT)
Sat May 21: Brandon vs. Rouyn-Noranda (7:00 p.m. EDT)
Sun May 22: Rouyn-Noranda vs. Red Deer (7:00 p.m. EDT)
Mon May 23: Brandon vs. London (8:00 p.m. EDT)
Tue May 24: Rouyn-Noranda vs. London (8:00 p.m. EDT)
Wed May 25: Brandon vs. Red Deer (8:00 p.m. EDT)
The playoff round begins on successive evenings on May 26 and 27, followed by the championship game.
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MEDVEDEV CASE DISAPPOINTING
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported on Friday that the criminal charges against Flyers defenseman Evgeny Medvedev stemming from his arrest in Lower Moreland, PA in the wee hours of April 26 are more involved than initially reported. Citing court documents, the newspaper reported that in addition to allegedly having a blood alcohol level of .16 percent and driving without headlights and disregarding traffic lanes, the 33-year-old is charged with five counts of possession of a controlled substance along with drug paraphernalia. Additionally, Medvedev was driving without a license.
A preliminary court hearing is set for June 15.
Obviously, the incident is both disappointing and embarrassing if proven to be true. It seems likely that the misdemeanor charges will be plea bargained down.
Medvedev came across as pretty level-headed in dressing room interactions, but you don't really get to know a person in such a narrow and superficial context. There seemed to be a pretty reckless lapse of judgment involved in this instance.
Fortunately no one got hurt, including Medvedev himself.
Medvedev, an impending unrestricted free agent, was unlikely to be re-signed by the Flyers even before the incident. If he had intentions of playing more than one season in the NHL rather than returning to the KHL, the incident does nothing to help his chances.
To put it bluntly (no pun intended), the market demand for a defenseman who will be 34 years old before training camp and is coming off a very uneven season for which he was paid $3 million and was a healthy scratch in 37 regular season games and every playoff game was probably not going to be too hot even before the incident. Medvedev actually did play quite well at times, especially with the puck on his stick, but he was very inconsistent.
Although he speaks limited English, Medvedev was quite likable in passing interactions. He almost always smiled and said hello to everyone, even when scratched. He always tried his best to communicate in English and, for more involved communications, carried around a text program that translates texts back and forth from Russian to English.
I recall one game this season in which Medvedev was scratched (I don't recall offhand which game it was, but there was a question mark going in as to whether he'd be playing) and was leaving the ice after taking extra skating at the morning skate. He was nevertheless in a happy mood. Medvedev smiled and even stopped to amiably made small talk in English with reporters as we exited head coach Dave Hakstol's media availability.
I remember catching the eye of a couple other writers. We were all thinking the same thing. We had never seen a scratched player -- especially one who was a 50-50 shot to get into the lineup that night and who was unaccustomed in his previous career to being anything less than an every-game player -- quite so jolly after a morning skate.
Momentarily, a couple of us wondered if perhaps he'd just been informed by a coach he was playing after all that night. He wasn't.
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QUICK HITS: MAY 14
1) Congratulations to Flyers Hall of Fame right winger Reggie Leach. On July 7, "the Riverton Rifle" will be honored with the Order of Manitoba. The award criteria are "excellence and achievement in any field that benefits the well being of Manitoba and its residents." In addition to his hockey accomplishments, Leach has earned great acclaim after his career for his work in First Nation communities, especially with at-risk youngsters.
2) May 14, 2016 is the 29th anniversary of Game 6 of the 1987 Wales Conference final and the sixth anniversary of Game 7 of 2010 Eastern Conference Semifinals.
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