It was just last week when the SJHL drilled Mike Rooney, the general manager 
and head coach of the Melville Millionaires, and five players with a total of 35 games in suspensions for something that happened off-ice on Sept. 24. Rooney also was fined $1,500. . . . On Sunday, the SJHL announced that the Millionaires had appealed the suspensions and, as a result, Rooney’s suspension and fine were made to disappear. . . . As for the players, F Braden Larochelle’s suspension was left at five games, while the other four — G Alexis Giroux, D Aiden Robson, F Nicolas Samson and F Charles Thomas-Larochelle — had their sentences reduced to three games apiece. . . . The league didn’t offer an explanation for the changes. . . .
The Millionaires were to have played the host Weyburn Red Wings on Sept. 24, but the game was postponed due to a positive test in the Melville organization. Subsequently, the Millionaires also had two other games postponed. They finally played their first regular-season game on Sunday, dropping a 4-2 decision to the Klippers in Kindersley. That was the first of three games in as many days for the Millionaires, who have 10:30 a.m. dates today and Tuesday at the SJHL’s three-day Showcase in Warman.
If you are an MLB fan of a certain age, take a moment or two to think about this note from Elias Sports Bureau: “No pitcher in the American League will hit 200 innings this season and there are currently only 13 qualifiers for the AL ERA title. There has never been a full season in which a league did not have a 200-inning pitcher.” . . . RHP Ferguson Jenkins, a hall of famer who also is Canadian, threw more than 200 innings in 12 seasons, topping 300 in five of those. Yes, those days are long gone.
Deadspin has more than 884,000 Twitter followers. That means every single one of them will have had the above tweet on their timeline on Sunday, and if they clicked on it they will have read a piece in which writer Sam Fels referred to the “trading post of Prince Albert.” . . . Yes, there are consequences to decisions like the one that was made when the Raiders chose to unveil their alternate uniforms for this WHL season. Those uniforms, as Ron Robison, the WHL commissioner, admitted in a statement on Saturday night featured a design that “is insensitive and offensive.” . . . This really is a horrid look for the WHL, especially when you consider that the Seattle Thunderbirds dismissed two players in March because of racial taunting and bullying involving a teammate. And, although it wasn’t the WHL, let’s not forget what went on last week in the Ukrainian Hockey League. . . . It would seem that hockey still has a lot of work ahead of it when it comes to this kind of thing.
Meanwhile, there were two Sunday games in the WHL . . .
The Lethbridge Hurricanes scored the game’s last four goals, the first two by F Yegor Klavdiev, and beat the host Calgary Hitmen, 4-1. . . . G Bryan Thomson stopped 40 shots for Lethbridge. . . . The Hurricanes had beaten the Hitmen, 9-2, in Lethbridge on Friday. . . .
In Spokane, D Ronan Seeley scored at 2:17 of OT to give the Everett Silvertips a 4-3 victory over the Chiefs. . . . If you’re on Twitter and aren’t following Geoffrey Brandow, you should start because he posts after every WHL game, just like this one right here . . .
Just thinking out loud here, but whoever assigns officials for the WHL missed the boat by not having Alex Clarke, the league’s first female linesperson, working the Saturday afternoon game that had the Prince Albert Raiders playing the Pats in Regina. That game was televised nationally by CBC, so the exposure would have been wonderful, assuming that she had been available, of course.
The BCHL made a few schedule-related announcements on Sunday as they 
work to get teams into Washington to play the Wenatchee Wild. Because of the pandemic, the Wild didn’t play against BCHL teams last season. But the plan is for it to play a complete schedule this season. . . . From the league’s news release: “With the land border closed for Canadians traveling south to the U.S., the league has introduced a plan that will see visiting teams fly into Washington State and return back across the land border. Players and staff traveling across the border will follow all COVID-19 guidelines, including providing a negative test before crossing into the U.S. and before returning to Canada.” . . . The complete news release is right here.
If you are interested in being a living kidney donor, more information is available here:
Living Kidney Donor Program
St. Paul’s Hospital
6A Providence Building
1081 Burrard Street
Vancouver, BC V6Z 1Y6
Tel: 604-806-9027
Toll free: 1-877-922-9822
Fax: 604-806-9873
Email: donornurse@providencehealth.bc.ca
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Vancouver General Hospital Living Donor Program – Kidney
Gordon and Leslie Diamond Health Care Centre
Level 5, 2775 Laurel Street
Vancouver, BC V5Z 1M9
604-875-5182 or 1-855-875-5182
kidneydonornurse@vch.ca
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Or, for more information, visit right here.
JUST NOTES: Steve Kerr, the head coach of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors, told reporters on Sunday that Canadian forward Andrew Wiggins now has been vaccinated so will be able to play in all games this season. As recently as Monday, Wiggins wasn’t vaccinated and saying that he “would stick to my beliefs.” . . . F Jake Guentzel of the Pittsburgh Penguins has tested positive and now is following the NHL’s COVID-19 protocols. . . . The Edmonton Oilers revealed on Sunday that F Josh Archibald, who has chosen not to be vaccinated, actually had COVID-19 at some point during the summer and now is out indefinitely with myocarditis, a heart condition that that sometimes accompanies the virus. G Alex Stalock of the Oilers is expected to miss the entire season because of myocarditis that showed up in tests at the end of the 2020-21 season.
TAKING NOTE 