So, it’s just about one month before most CHL teams, will be starting their training camps; and my boys are no exception, as they will be getting started on the 25th of August. Along with the normal activities that will go on during this camp for both invitees, draft picks, rookies and vets to get ready for the season the boys in green and grey will also be preparing for their annual Labor Day tournament that they host every year. For a hockey junkie it’s like being let loose on a buffet when you’ve been drinking Slim Fast for four months. It is three full days of games, made up of nine games, with the WHL’s US division teams and usually one from the BC division like last year with Dion Phaneuf’s baby brother and his Prince George Cougars; however this year, we get a treat. Since all of the BC teams had better things to do other commitments, Coach Craig Hartsburg put in a phone call to his old team, aka the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds of the Ontario Hockey League. It’s the very first time that the Tips have played anyone outside of the WHL, my seat is two rows behind the bench; and I am very excited about this.

Also making me pretty damn excited is that in the past 36 hours, our GM Doug Soetart has pulled off two deals that make me want to know if maybe he’s been taking lessons from Ray Shero or Kenny Holland. Yesterday, the Tips traded for Landon Ferraro and today, they signed former Minnesota Golden Gopher Josh Birkholz. Both of these deals are, to me anyway, complete surprises; but I think they’re going to make our team a bit tougher and a bit stronger if they can live up to the hype especially Mr. Ferraro.

Landon, aka Baby Parm, is the son of former NHL center Ray Ferraro and the stepson of USA gold medalist and Hockey Hall of Fame electee member Cammi Granato. He was drafted and had previously been part of the Red Deer Rebels as well as being chosen by the Detroit Red Wings last summer. I actually got to see him play both up in Alberta when he was a rookie and two years ago here in Everett; and the boys can score. I just hope he has worked on his fighting skills… he got his clocked cleaned by former Silvertip and current baby Blackhawk Kyle Beach when he was here last. We got Landon in exchange for center Byron Froese, who is also a baby Blackhawk chosen in last year’s draft; and I’ll miss Byron. He’s a good kid and a great player too.

Mr. Birkholz, on the other hand, is a complete unknown to me. He was also drafted last year as a third-round pick by the Florida Panthers; but played last year in Minnesota. When I saw the announcement that he was committing to play here this season, my first thought was “Buh!? Who is this guy?” Well, it appears that the Tips had his junior rights; but as an American kid who was planning to go to college, he decided to play in the USHL instead as a 17 year old before moving over to the Gophers’ program last season. We’ll see what happens with this kid as part of the reason for him leaving UM after one year is for team rules violations; but the Tips brass seem confident that this isn’t going to be an issue. So I guess that I’ll have to trust them since they don’t give a monkey what my opinion is; I’m just a season ticket holder. ;)

And before I forget, the next two weeks we will have two members of our team spending some time with Team USA. California boy Tyler Maxwell will be spending some time at National Junior Evaluation Camp and I hope he makes it this year. We need more WHL wearing Stars and Stripes. Also with USA Hockey is our Associate Head Coach Jay Varady, who after winning a gold medal this last year as video coach for the U-20 team, will be the assistant coach for the 2010 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament. Good luck to them!

Anyway… that’s what’s happening in Hooterville this week. I am not sure if I’m going to be able to wait four weeks to smell that ice again; but I guess I have to.

Photos: Landon Ferraro by Goddess Amy, and Josh Birholz from Bruce Bennett/Getty Images.

The Canadian Hockey League crowned its champion on Sunday and the trophy doesn’t have to go very far. Bob Boughner and his Windsor Spitfires successfully defended their Memorial Cup championship with a 9-1 thrashing of the host Brandon Wheat Kings.

It was a really good tournament with Windsor going undefeated in four games, which included an OT tilt with Calgary. Calgary and Brandon both won twice; but poor Moncton went home with an 0-fer for the tournament. Oh well, at least they’ll have a shiny new QMJHL banner for their barn in the fall.

Also repeating is rumored No. 1 draft pick Taylor Hall as the MVP of the tournament. Master Hall is not only the first player to repeat as the most valuable player; but he scored nine points with five goals and four assists including three of those points in the championship game.

Speaking of the draft, the next thing on the junior hockey docket is the NHL Draft Combine that is being held this week in Toronto. The combine, which will run May 24-29, is an opportunity for teams to meet and interview prospects, which are the top 100 available in the world, as well as see them tested in an off-ice setting. And my boys have an attendee there: Goalie Kent Simpson who is ranked 83 on the list from NHL.com.

After the combine, we look to June and the draft, which will be in Los Angeles at the Staples Center; and I’m hoping I can somehow get there to see it. It’s so much fun to be there with a whole building of friends, families and fans to see these young men be chosen for a chance to play the greatest game in the world in the greatest league in the world.

So that is your update from the world of junior hockey … stay tuned for more.

Here are the awards from the Memorial Cup tournament:

2010 MasterCard Memorial Cup Awards:
Stafford Smythe Memorial Trophy (Most Valuable Player) – Taylor Hall, Windsor Spitfires
Ed Chynoweth Trophy (Top Scorer) – Taylor Hall, Windsor Spitfires
George Parsons Trophy (Most Sportsmanlike Player) – Toni Rajala, Brandon Wheat Kings
Hap Emms Memorial Trophy (Outstanding Goaltender) – Martin Jones, Calgary Hitmen

2010 MasterCard Memorial Cup All-Stars:
Goaltender – Martin Jones, Calgary Hitmen
Defence – Travis Hamonic, Brandon Wheat Kings
Defence – Cam Fowler, Windsor Spitfires
Forward – Taylor Hall, Windsor Spitfires
Forward – Jimmy Bubnick, Calgary Hitmen
Forward – Matt Calvert, Brandon Wheat Kings

Photo: The Memorial Cup winning team by Getty Images via daylife.com.

It’s that time of the year again where the pitter-patter of hearts that belong to junior hockey players and fans go into overdrive as the Memorial Cup tournament begins. The Memorial Cup is the Canadian Hockey League’s version of the Stanley Cup and is not too far behind Lord Stanley’s bowl in the respect it garners in the hockey world.

It began in 1919 when it was donated by the Ontario Hockey Association to be awarded to the junior champion of Canada. The name Memorial Cup was to honor the fallen Canadian hockey players who had been killed in World War I, and there were several who were Canadian stars that had given their lives in service to His Majesty’s Forces. From its inception until 1971, the Memorial Cup was open to all Junior A teams in the country and was awarded following a series of league, provincial and regional playoffs. In 1972 it changed to a three-league tournament with the champions of the WHL, OHL and the QMJHL; and finally in 1983, the CHL included the host team to make it a four-team round-robin event.

The first American team to win it was the Portland Winterhawks in 1983, which was also the first year that the Hawks hosted it as well. That was a really great team that included Mike Vernon, Cam Neely, the Sutter twins and one of my personal favorites, “Chicken Parm: (aka Ray Ferraro). Quite a few NHL players have competed for the Memorial Cup over the years; and there have been a number of guys that have gone on to win the big bowl too like Scott Niedermayer, Brad Luckowich and Ray Whitney.

This year, the tournament is being hosted in Brandon, Manitoba by the hometown team, the Brandon Wheat Kings of the Western Hockey League. The Wheaties beat out both the Kelowna Rockets and my own Everett Silvertips for the honor of being the hosts after promising a whole bunch of money to upgrade their barn. Whatever … we have a nice new beautiful place that’s already hosted Skate America and an NHL exhibition game. It’s too bad, too, because since my boys were out after the first round, it would have been nice to see them playing again especially on such a grand stage. Besides Brandon there are the Calgary Hitmen from the Dub, the defending champions from Windsor called the Spitfires, who are from the OHL; and the Moncton Wildcats who are the Quebec League champs but play in New Brunswick.

It should be a good tournament and even though I think that Windsor has a really good chance to repeat; I won’t be surprised if they don’t. Only three teams have repeated in the last 30 years: Dougie Gilmour and Dale Hawerchuk were part of the Cornwall Royals in 1980 and 1981, the 1987 and 1988 Medicine Hat Tigers, who had my beloved Trevor Linden on board; and the Kamloops Blazers in 1994 and 1995, with Shane Doan, Jarome Iginla and (Goddess Kaatiya fave) Darcy Tucker.

If you would like to see this tournament and don’t live in Canada; never fear … it is being shown on the NHL network. Yay! It begins tomorrow afternoon and the final game is next weekend. Here’s the schedule:

Friday, 5/14: Windsor vs. Brandon, 5p PDT/8p EDT
Saturday, 5/15: Calgary vs. Moncton, 12p PDT/3p EDT
Sunday, 5/16: Brandon vs. Moncton, 12p PDT/3p EDT
Monday, 5/17: Calgary vs. Windsor, 5 pm/8p EDT
Tuesday, 5/18: Moncton vs. Windsor, 5 pm/8p EDT
Wednesday, 5/19: Brandon vs. Calgary, 5 pm/8p EDT
Thursday, 5/20: Tiebreaker (if necessary), 5 pm/8p EDT
Friday, 5/21: Semifinal, 5 pm/8p EDT
Sunday, 5:23: Championship final, 12 pm/3p EDT

Photo: The Memorial Cup from The Hockey Hall of Fame website.

Good afternoon campers!  You don’t know me but my name is Amy and I am a new member of the Hockey Goddesses. The lovely Goddess Kaatiya invited me several months ago to join this lovely group of ladies; and finally now that the dust has settled from the holidays and my real life, I thought I’d come by to  say hello.

I am very happy to be coming to you from the lovely town of Hooterville which is out here in the beautiful Pacific Northwest; and I have been a hockey fan just about all of my life. It was started not only by a hockey loving mother; but being so close to the Canadian border, we were blessed with being able to have the CBC on our television every Saturday.

These days, I am not only a huge fan of the NHL; but a lot of my time and some of my money goes to one of the newest teams of the Western Hockey League aka the Everett Silvertips. I’ve only been a fan for about five of the seven years that the team has been around; but it’s something that I love so much. It’s been fun to watch these players come in to the league as boys and grow into young men, especially when you get to know them off the ice. The Tips are part of the five team US Division that also includes the Portland Winterhawks, Seattle Thunderbirds, TriCity Americans and the Spokane Chiefs; and their division is one of four that are a part of the WHL, which itself is under the umbrella of the Canadian Hockey League along with the Ontario Hockey League and la LHJMQ or the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.

So, that’s a little about me; and hopefully in the next few weeks and months I can give you not only this fan’s view of the Tips but also the WHL and other junior hockey goodies. And thanks again to the lovely Goddesses for bringing me on board. Hopefully Kaatiya and Sasha make it back from Russia with lots of tales of the KHL and not too much frostbite!

Oh, and the Tips go for win #11 in a row in Portland tonight…Good luck boys and GO TIPS!