Tag: Michael Chan

B.C.’s wildfire season gets even more tragic . . . Oil Kings adjust scouting staff . . . Thunderbirds fill out coaching crew

Fire1
Thursday, 2:30 p.m. Looking east down the South Thompson River Valley, with smoke from the White Rock Lake moving to the northeast.
Fire2
Thursday, 4:30 p.m. This was the same view as the above photo, just taken two hours later.

A wild fire that is not too far north of us exploded on Thursday and devoured the community of Monte Lake, which is located about 50 km southeast of Kamloops.

I took the second of the above photos on Thursday afternoon at 4:30 p.m. It apparently was about 30 minutes later when the fire — known as the White Rock Lake fire — burned the townsite of Monte Lake. That was confirmed at about 8 p.m., by Sheldon Jordan, the director-general of wildlife enforcement for Environment Canada.

If you have never driven through a lot of the rural areas in the southern Interior of B.C., there are many homes — belonging to ranchers, farmers and others — scattered throughout a lot of the forested areas. So chances are that there will have been more structures devoured by this fire than the ones at Monte Lake.

And the end of our fire season isn’t anywhere in sight.

Rain

The Edmonton Oil Kings made a handful of moves with their scouting Edmontondepartment on Thursday. They promoted three veteran scouts — Jamie Novakoski, Nels Eckland and Del Reid — from area scouts to travelling scouts. . . . Novakoski, from Saskatoon, has been with the Oil Kings since they joined the league. He has done two stints as an area scout (2007-13, 2017-21) and also worked as director of scouting (2013-17). He also has scouted for the Kamloops Blazers (1995-2007). . . . From Calgary, Eckland also is an Oil Kings original. He was a long-time coach, including a stint (1994-98) as an assistant coach with the Kootenay Ice, before getting involved in the scouting side of the game. . . . Novakoski and Eckland have been contributors to a pair of WHL championships (2012, 2014) and a Memorial Cup title (2014) in Edmonton. . . . Reid, who is from Edmonton, has been a WHL scout for 31 years. He joined the Oil Kings prior to 2014-15 after working with the Regina Pats for seven years. He also spent 18 years with Kamloops, winning four WHL titles and three Memorial Cups with the Blazers. . . .

Kirt Hill, the Oil Kings’ president of hockey operations and general manager, explained that these moves, and the hiring of Michael Chan as director of scouting, were made necessary by the fact that the WHL will have two drafts during the upcoming season. . . . Chan, 29, spent the previous season as the video coach for the AHL’s Toronto Marlies. Prior to that, he was the Oil Kings’ video coach and hockey operations co-ordinator for three seasons. . . .

These guys don’t get near enough credit for what they do, so here, from the Oil Kings’ news release, is their entire scouting staff:

Director of scouting — Michael Chan

Travelling scouts — Nels Eckland, Jamie Novakoski, Del Reid.

Alberta area scouts — Jason Stewart, Jory Stuparyk, Keith Wilson.

B.C. area scouts — Mike Grant, George Musselwhite, Bruce Taylor, Danny Todosychuk.

Saskatchewan area scouts — Shawn Stieb, Scott Thomas.

Saskatchewan and U.S. area scout — Murray Brookbank.

Manitoba area scout — Scott Coates.

The Seattle Thunderbirds have added Matt Marquardt to their staff as an Seattleassistant coach, and Brad Guzda has signed on as the new goaltender coach. As well, Jared Crooks has been promoted to assistant general manager. . . . Marquardt, 34, is from North Bay, Ont. He was a player-assistant coach with the EIHL’s Dundee Stars for two seasons (2018-20). Marquardt fills the vacancy created when Castan Sommer left the organization in June after four seasons there. He since has joined Holy Cross U as an assistant coach. . . . Guzda, 48, is from Banff. From the Thunderbirds’ news release: “Guzda played eight seasons of professional hockey and now works with young goalies in Nashville. He has worked with goaltenders at the Hockey Lab for over nine years and is currently the headmaster at Triple V Prep.” . . . Guzda takes over from Ian Gordon, who had been the goaltending coach for eight seasons. Gordon now is with the Red Deer Rebels as director of goaltending/goalie coach. . . . For the past three seasons, Crooks as been Seattle’s skills development and video coach, “as well as host family co-ordinator, player education adviser and travel and logistics director.” . . . The Thunderbirds’ coaching staff also includes head coach Matt O’Dette and assistant Kyle Hagel.

Cody Mapes is the new general manager and head coach of the SJHL’s Weyburn Red Wings. He had been an assistant coach with the Red Wings since 2019-20. Mapes replaces Rich Pilon. The Red Wings announced Tuesday that Pilon wouldn’t be back, but didn’t provide any further information. In fact, team president Brent Stephenson suggested that the situation may end up in court.

Putty

So . . . pro golfer Bryson DeChambeau tested positive, missed the Tokyo Olympics, lost 10 pounds while ill, and now is dealing with allergies that weren’t there before all of this started. . . . And, still, he refuses to get vaccinated, saying that he would “rather give (the vaccine) to people who need it.” . . . He added: “I tried to take all the necessary precautions to not get contracted. I don’t know where I got it, how I got it, I was just home in Dallas and it was in the air.”

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CBC News — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the federal government is considering mandatory vaccines for federal public service employees, as well as for federally regulated industries.

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Gavin Newsom, California’s governor — California will now require workers in healthcare settings to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by September 30th.

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The New York Times — Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey had a blunt rebuke for anti-vaccination demonstrators. “You’ve lost your minds,” Murphy said. “You are the ultimate knuckleheads. And because of what you are saying and standing for, people are losing their life.”

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The New York Times — CNN fired three employees who violated its Covid safety protocols by going to the office unvaccinated, the company said Thursday. It’s one of the first known examples of a major U.S. corporation terminating workers for ignoring a workplace vaccine mandate.

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BNO Newsroom — Hawaii reports 655 new coronavirus cases, the biggest one-day increase on record.

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Katie Rogers, The New York Times: “The Biden administration is developing plans to require all foreign travelers to the United States to be vaccinated against Covid-19, with limited exceptions, according to an administration official with knowledge of the developing policy. . . . The plan, first reported by Reuters, will be part of a new system to be put in place after the current restrictions on travel into the country are lifted, but officials have yet to determine when that might be done. . . . President Biden has been under pressure for months to ease restrictions on people wishing to travel to the United States, particularly as other countries, including England, Scotland and Canada, relax their own measures. . . . But White House officials have said in recent days that there is no plan to lift current restrictions anytime soon, in light of the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant.”

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Kyle Griffin, MSNBC — “Microsoft, which employs roughly 100,000 people in the United States, says it will require proof of vaccination for all employees, vendors, and guests to gain access to its offices.”

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Rob DeMello, KHONnews — “Department of Education announces that fall prep sports in Hawaii will be delayed until late Sept. and all athletes, athletic staff, volunteers will need to be fully vaccinated to participate.”

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KATU News — Starting at the end of September, healthcare workers in Oregon will need to submit to weekly COVID-19 testing or show proof of vaccination.

Mattress

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: The Red Deer Rebels have named Shaun Sutter as associate general manager. Sutter, 41, has been with the Rebels since 2011 when he signed on as senior scout. He was promoted to assistant GM and director of player personnel in 2013. Sutter’s father, Brian, is a former WHL/NHL player and coach. . . . Gordie Dwyer is the new head coach of the QMJHL’s Saint John Sea Dogs. He replaces Greg Gilbert, who is out after one season but will be staying in the organization in an as-yet undefined role. Dwyer, 43, coached the QMJHL’s Shawinigan Cataractes in 2019-20. In 2020-21, he was an assistant coach with the Canadian team that won gold at the IIHF U-18 World championship.

Drunk

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Sask. gov’t provides some relief to WHL, SJHL teams . . . Teams expect to get money in Feb. . . . Savoie scores twice in USHL debut

One day after the Saskatchewan Hockey Association informed its membership via letter that there likely won’t be games played in that jurisdiction before the end of March, the provincial government handed over $4 million to the province’s major junior and junior A franchises.

The announcement came as the province, according the Postmedia, “reported 382 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, the second highest one-day total, to cap a week in which Saskatchewan became the leader in per capita active cases in Canada.”

Each of the five WHL organizations based in Saskatchewan will see $600,000; SJHLthe 12-team SJHL, which includes one team (Flin Flon Bombers) in Manitoba, gets $1 million.

Yes, the Bombers will get their share.

“All the teams in our league have had a decline in finances and revenue,” Bill Chow, the SJHL president, told Postmedia. “We decided that would be the best way — not help one, but help everybody.”

While the SJHL’s teams all are community-owned, three of the WHL’s Saskatchewan teams — the Moose Jaw Warriors, Prince Albert Raiders and Swift Current Broncos — are owned by community shareholders, with the other two — the Regina Pats and Saskatoon Blades — having private owners.

Community-owned teams are obligated to hold annual general meetings open WHL2to shareholders. The Warriors, Raiders and Broncos did just that before 2020 ended, and announced combined losses of more than $1.5 million for a 2019-20 season that was halted prematurely by COVID-19.

The Pats are owned by five local businessmen — Anthony Marquart, the president of Royalty Developments Ltd.; Todd Lumbard, the president of Speers Funeral and Cremation Services; Gavin Semple, the chairman of the Brandt Group of Companies; Shaun Semple, the president of the Brandt Group of Companies; and Jason Drummond, the managing director of York Plains Investment Corp., and the found and president of DGC Investments.

The Blades are owned by Mike Priestner, the CEO of Go Auto. His son, Colin, is the Blades’ president and general manager.

Jeremy Harrison, Saskatchewan’s minister of trade and export development, said in a news release that junior hockey is “a critical part of the cultural fabric and local economies across the province.”

Harrison told Postmedia that the government has been working with the junior hockey people “on this particular question probably for a month and a half now. I think it’s fair to say that the initial request was of a quantum that was significantly larger. But we worked with the leagues to come to a place where a contribution would be sufficient for those teams to survive and for the league to be viable going forward.”

Chow called the money “a small Band-Aid on a big cut.”

“But,” he said, “it will definitely stop some of the bleeding.”

The money is expected to be in the hands of the five WHL teams and the SJHL sometime in February, and it’s not believed that it will have any strings attached.

So . . . with Saskatchewan having taken the plunge, will other western provinces be far behind?

The wheels, as Steve Ewen of Postmedia reported Friday, already are in motion. Ewen writes right here about how the WHL and BCHL, who under normal conditions would never sit down for coffee together, have teamed up in an attempt to land some financial relief from the B.C. government.

Veteran Portland journalist Kerry Eggers, who now writes at his own website PortlandAlternate(kerryeggers.com), posted a lengthy piece on the Winterhawks on Friday. While most of the story dealt with the franchise’s new ownership and the potential new season, the story also included some interesting items.

“It has already been announced that the Memorial Cup will not be held this year,” Egger writes, adding that Mike Johnston, the team’s vice-president, GM and head coach, “says the matter of league playoffs has yet to be determined.

“It remains a discussion point,” Johnston told Eggers in reference to WHL playoffs. “Even if things go quite smoothly, I’d anticipate that each division declares a champion. I just don’t know (about playoffs). The goal is to play hockey in June.”

While I wasn’t aware that the 2021 Memorial Cup had been cancelled, it only makes sense. The OHL and WHL haven’t yet played any games, while the QMJHL is waiting to restart after having teams play a handful of games in fits and starts before shutting down late in November.

Eggers also informed us that “the new owners, incidentally, are moving toward securing Memorial Coliseum as the permanent site for home games. Most of the home contests will be staged there this year.”

Keep in mind, too, that if a WHL season gets started, the Winterhawks go in as the defending regular-season champions.

Eggers’ piece is right here.

Willie

F Matt Savoie of the WHL’s Winnipeg Ice played his first game with the USHL’s Dubuque Fighting Saints on Friday night, scoring two goals and adding an assist in a 7-4 victory over the visiting Waterloo Black Hawks. That was the most goals the Fighting Saints (6-13-0) have scored in a game this season. . . . Savoie, 17, is one of a number of WHL players who have joined USHL teams over the past few days.

Some people have been decrying the epidemic of cross-checking that has been evident in the NHL for some time now. It’s really in the spotlight now because the Toronto Maple Leafs complained after Montreal Canadiens D Shea Webber gave F Auston Matthews the business on Wednesday night. . . . Ken Campbell of The Hockey News, who has long been a critic of the NHL for its mostly turning a blind eye to the foul, has more right here.

The Dallas Stars, who have had 17 players test positive since Dec. 30, now have had their first four regular-season games postponed. After bumping their first three games earlier in the week, the NHL on Friday postponed their Jan. 19 game against the host Tampa Bay Lightning. . . . The Stars now are scheduled to play their first game on Jan. 22 against the visiting Nashville Predators. . . . As you can see by the above tweet, the NHL has done some rescheduling, all of which has added a couple of days to the regular season — barring further changes, and that’s hardly a sure thing, the last games now will be played on May 10 as opposed to May 8.

THE COVID-19 CHRONICLES . . .

CBC News: Health officials warn that not enough is being done to limit the spread of COVID-19. They say the daily case count could rise from about 7,900 to 13,000, and that as many as 100,000 people could contract the virus over the next 10 days.

CBC News: Manitoba announces 5 more deaths and 191 new cases of COVID-19. In the past week, the number of new daily cases has ranged from a high of 261 to a low of 89; the 7-day average is 170.

CBC News: Saskatchewan is reporting 386 new cases of COVID-19 and 4 new deaths. 210 people are in hospital, the most since the pandemic began, including 35 people in intensive care. There are 4,010 known active cases in the province.

CBC News: Alberta is reporting 785 new cases of COVID-19 and 13 new deaths. 796 people are in hospital, including 124 in ICU. Alberta currently has 12,189 active cases of the illness. Provincial labs completed 13,575 tests Thursday with a positivity rate of 5.5 per cent. So far 1,402 Albertans have died of COVID-19. On Thursday, there were 796 people in hospital with the illness, 10 fewer people than Wednesday.

Janet Brown, CKNW Vancouver — Friday’s B.C. Covid numbers: 349 people in hospital (-13), 68 ICU (-6), 509 new cases (60,117), 9 more deaths (1047).

CBC News: Ontario has a record 100 deaths from COVID-19, but officials say that includes 46 earlier deaths. There are 2,998 new cases, with 800 in Toronto, 618 in Peel and 250 in York. Almost 76,500 people were tested.

CBC News: Quebec is reporting 1,918 new cases of COVID 19. The province is also reporting 62 new deaths, 9 of which occurred in the past 24 hours. 1,496 people are in hospital, including 231 in ICU.

CBC News: New Brunswick continues to experience a COVID-19 surge with 25 new cases. That’s the 4th highest day since the pandemic began; all have occurred since January 5.

CBC News: The Northwest Territories has reported its first case of COVID-19 “with no known source and no travel history.”

CBC News: The number of global deaths related to COVID-19 has passed the 2-million mark. Johns Hopkins University says the death toll has now reached 2,000,905.

The New York Times: It took over nine months for the world to pass one million virus deaths in September, a moment the UN secretary-general called “mind-numbing” and “an agonizing milestone.” In just a little over three months, the virus claimed another one million lives.

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Karl-Anthony Towns of the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves revealed on Friday that he has tested positive for COVID-19. He already has lost his mother and six other family members to the virus . . .

The U of Montana and Montana State announced Friday that their football teams won’t take part in the Big Sky Conference’s spring championship season. The conference has said it will operate a six-game season from Feb. 27 to April 10. . . .

The U of Vermont men’s hockey team has paused activities after a positive test. . . . The team’s series at Merrimack that had been scheduled for this weekend was postponed. . . .

If you are watching NHL games, the following tweet may be of interest to you . . .

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

——

Or, for more information, visit right here.

JUST NOTES: Two WHL teams have lost their video coaches to pro teams. . . . Michael Chan, who had been the Edmonton Oil Kings’ video coach, has signed on with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies as their video coach. Chan, 29, had been with the Oil Kings for five seasons, the last three as video coach and hockey operations co-ordinator. . . . Meanwhile, Adam Purner, who spent five season with the Portland Winterhawks, is joining the AHL’s Binghamton Devils. He also had been the Winterhawks’ manager of group events.

Aussie

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