Thank Goodness That’s Over. (and the rest of the division!)
The Victoria Grizzlies are finally back from their Interior road trip. They lost three in regulation and one in overtime against what was, at the time, the best four teams in the Interior Conference.
Salmon Arm, Penticton, Trail and Vernon were also well over 20 games above .500 collectively.
When you factor in a 6-5 loss to Surrey before the trip it’s been five games without a win. For fans in Victoria I don’t think now is the time to panic; this team is too good to go into a prolonged slump.
There are two positives that fans can take away and those are: Despite struggling on the road they were still only one point out of first when they returned from the weekend. And further to that, the team directly above them, the Nanaimo Clippers, still has that same trip to come – and I don’t know that anyone in the league is going to pick up a lot of points on that swing.
For the Grizzlies, the furthest they will go the rest of the season is to Powell River.
As for Nanaimo, they have six wins in a row and took over first place from the Grizzlies. They’ve been steadily improving and are mowing their way through the Island Division lately. The Clippers are 3-0 against the Bulldogs and 3-0-0-1 against the Capitals.
Victoria has given them trouble though, beating them twice in three tries. That four game series that starts on November 21st should be a good indicator of who holds the power in the division. After a home and home series with the Clippers, that ended without a win, Cowichan is still in third place. Scott Robinson has brought in Chad Hohmann and Spencer Edwards from the WHL to help the forwards, and the Caps have just acquired the rights to Major Junior defenseman Chris Van Duynhoven. So it will be a much different look as these players get more comfortable.
Even though goalie Kiefer Smiley has been moved to Quesnel, Scott Robinson told me that it is a loan situation and Smiley will be back in Cowichan at some point. The difficult pill to swallow for the Capitals right now is that they have 24 games – almost half of the schedule – to play against Victoria and Nanaimo. I mentioned the record against the Clippers and they’re 0-2 versus the Grizzlies.
Rawlings numbers are solid this year and the forwards with the likes Walrod, Zaires and Spencer are dynamic but the defense just hasn’t gelled yet. That being said I’ve just had the pleasure of watching Zack Currie two nights in a row and he is one of the best there is.
In Alberni Valley, the team has not continued the growth they showed at the end of last season. The returning players seem to have hit a plateau and the new recruits haven’t hit their stride. I know they’ve been making some changes there and hopefully the results will follow. They are almost one third of the way through the season with only two wins and a playoff spot is a huge question mark right now.
Bulldog fans need something to cheer about, whether it’s back to back wins or maybe a big night offensively for a player or two. For the time being the best story in Port Alberni is James Kerr heading to the World Junior A Challenge. We know that he and the rest the BC players on Team Canada West will represent the BCHL very well.
Success for Team West in that tournament is something all island fans can cheer for together. and that kind of solidarity doesn’t happen very often!
Dan Marshall, the radio voice of the Nanaimo Clippers, will be blogging the BCHL's Island Division during the 2008/09 season. Check back often for Dan's insights and the latest news from Vancouver Island.
