WHL WEEKLY VOLUME 2, number 7 Here it is, another edition of the WHL Weekly Magazine. Small one this week, everybody's got a lot of work this week and the next one. Special thanks to Jason Stumpf for finding some time to do an interview on a very busy week and to Michael Hebert for doing the injuries stats on a very busy schedule. CONTENTS: 1- Overall team stats 2- Player of the week 3- Goaltender of the week 4- Injuries and suspensions stats - Compiled by Michael Hebert and commented by Marc Hebert 5- Weekly trades 6- Trading blocks 7- Interview with GM Brian Howe of the Milton Mustangs - By Jason Stumpf 1- OVERALL TEAM STATS: The teams are ranked primarily by the percentage, and then, in case of a tie, by the number of wins, and finally, in case of another tie, by the difference between the GF and GA. This week, lots of good performances and lots of bad. The Norsemen climb from 20th to 15th, the Vikings from 12th to 7th, and the Krushers from 4th to 1st. HOT NORSEMEN 4-0-1 KRUSHERS 4-0-0 GRUNTS 3-0-2 FREEZE 4-1-0 DOMINATORS 4-1-0 VIKINGS 4-1-0 NOT AGENTS 0-6-0 VOODOO 0-4-1 WOLVES 0-4-1 CLOWNS 1-4-1 BREAKERS 1-3-0 CORINTHS 1-3-1 OVERALL STANDINGS GP W L T GF GA PTS PCT LAST WEEK 1- KRUSHERS 28 18 8 2 128 88 38 .679 4 2- LUNATICS 36 24 12 0 157 124 48 .667 1 3- SPARROWS 36 20 11 5 129 110 45 .625 2 4- FREEZE 37 22 14 1 128 106 45 .608 6 5- DOMINATRS 37 21 13 3 146 119 45 .608 7 6- WARRIORS 37 19 14 4 150 136 42 .568 5 7- VIKINGS 34 17 13 4 124 118 38 .559 12 8- VOODOO 36 19 15 2 132 111 40 .556 3 9- MONARCHS 33 17 14 2 123 129 36 .545 11 10- FURY 37 19 16 2 113 106 40 .541 10 11- QUAKERS 37 17 14 6 133 125 40 .541 9 12- RAPIDS 37 19 17 1 133 134 39 .527 13 13- STEELCATS 37 19 17 1 121 123 39 .527 8 14- GRUNTS 32 13 13 6 110 98 32 .500 18 15- NORSEMEN 36 15 16 5 129 133 35 .486 20 16- HUSKIES 34 15 17 2 110 128 32 .471 17 17- BREAKERS 33 14 17 2 114 128 30 .455 14 18- CORINTHS 37 15 19 3 146 141 33 .446 15 19- MALLRATS 28 11 14 3 106 105 25 .446 16 20- WOLVES 36 13 22 1 117 128 27 .375 19 21- CLOWNS 37 11 22 4 106 143 26 .351 21 22- MUSTANGS 34 10 21 3 101 127 23 .338 23 23- FLAM FISH 34 9 22 3 98 130 21 .309 24 24- AGENTS 37 9 25 3 96 141 21 .338 22 2- PLAYER OF THE WEEK AWARD: I received only 7 team's nominations for the player and tender of the week. It's not getting better, it is getting worse. Come on people, take 5 minutes of your time to tell me who was good on your team and who was not. Some players had tremendous weeks but since nobody told me, their performances went unnoticed. Our player of the week is once again Pat Lafontaine of the Waterloo Lunatics. Last week Lafontaine scored 3 goals, adding 9 assists for a total of 12 points. The runners up are Eric Lindros of the Albany Mallrats and Joe Nieuwendyk of the Kingston Corinthians. GP G A PTS +/- SH PIM PCT Pat Lafontaine LUNATICS 5 3 9 12 0 20 0 15.0 Joe Nieuwendyk CORINTHS 5 2 8 10 -1 22 11 9.1 Eric Lindros MALLRATS 4 3 6 9 3 23 0 13.0 3- GOALTENDER OF THE WEEK AWARD: The goaltender of the week is Ron Hextall of the Struer Norsemen. Last week, Hextall was in his team's net for their 5 games, helping his team to a record of 4-0-1. He kept a GAA of 2.36 and a save percentage of .923. The runner up was Jamie Storr of the Edmonton Vikings. Ron Hextall NORSEMEN 5 305 2.36 4 0 1 12 155 .923 Jamie Storr VIKINGS 5 300 3.00 4 1 0 15 147 .898 4- INJURIES AND SUSPENSIONS STATISTICS: - Compiled by Michael Hebert and commented by Marc Hebert As we can see, some teams have had pretty bad luck so far, while others have been pretty lucky. The Sparrows for exemple, have had injuries to some key players; Pierre Turgeon twice, as well as Scott Lachance, twice too. But it didn't seem to affect their team play a lot, they're still 3rd overall. While my team, the Corinthians, didn't have any injuries, had one two games suspension and is now ranked 18th. I'll leave it to you to make your own conclusions. Team # inj. # susp. total games missed ------------------------------------------------------------------ Vikings 0 0 0 Corinthians 0 1 2 Monarchs 2 0 3 Rapids 1 0 4 Flaming Fish 2 0 5 Dominators 1 0 7 Agents 1 0 12 Voodoo 2 0 12 Clowns 3 0 12 Mallrats 1 1 14 Mustangs 2 0 14 Wolves 2 2 14 Huskies 2 3 14 Krushers 2 1 15 Breakers 3 0 16 Fury 3 0 18 Lunatics 3 0 19 Steelcats 4 0 23 Grunts 4 1 25 Freeze 5 0 26 Norsemen 3 0 27 Quakers 3 2 30 Warriors 4 0 35 Sparrows 6 1 46 5- WEEKLY TRADES: The most important trade was the one that sent Brian Leetch to the Mallrats, and John Leclair to the Lunatics. Defenseman Michal Sykora, an important part of the Mallrats in the last playoffs, was involved in the deal. Then the Lunatics sent him right away to Struer for Garry Galley. Trade #046 November 21, 1996 ---------------------------------------------------------------- To the Corinthians: Mike Donnelly Patrick Lalime Tie Domi To the Grunts: Robert Reichel Olaf Kolzig Peter Ambrosiak Trade #047 November 25, 1996 ---------------------------------------------------------------- To the Mallrats: Brian Leetch Cliff Ronning Todd Elik To the Lunatics: John Leclair Andrei Kovalenko Michal Sykora Trade #048 November 26, 1996 ---------------------------------------------------------------- To the Norsemen: Bill Huard Michal Sykora Darren Van Impe To the Lunatics: Rob Ray Garry Galley Derian Hatcher Trade #049 November 26, 1996 ---------------------------------------------------------------- To the Flaming Fish: Randy Burridge To the Lunatics: Greg Hawgood Trade #050 November 26, 1996 ---------------------------------------------------------------- To the Corinthians: Sergei Gonchar Brendan Witt To the Flaming Fish: Jyrki Lumme David Shaw Trade #051 November 27, 1996 ---------------------------------------------------------------- To the Voodoo: Greg Smyth To the Vikings: Alan May Trade #052 December 1, 1996 ---------------------------------------------------------------- To the Corinthians: Stephane Quintal Petr Nedved Brent Gilchrist To the Wolves: Shawn Chambers Thomas Steen Mike Donnelly 6- TRADING BLOCKS: CORINTHIANS: Patrick Poulin LW Brett Hull RW Patrick Lalime G FLAMING FISH: Craig Duncanson LW GRUNTS: Stu Barnes C Turner Stevenson RW Milos Holan D Olaf Kolzig G NORSEMEN: Ray Sheppard RW SPARROWS: Doug Brown RW Sergei Brylin C Dave Thomlinson LW WARRIORS: Looking for a #1 LW For young guys or picks 7- INTERVIEW WITH BRIAN HOWE, GM OF THE MILTON MUSTANGS - By Jason Stumpf BROTHERS AND SISTER, WELCOM ONCE AGAIN TO THE BROTHER LOVE SHOW. Today we have for you BROTHER BRAIN of the MUSTANGS. First of all, it's BrIAn not BrAIn. I appreciate the typo though! 1. BROTHER BRAIN, your Mustangs are currently struggling, actually that is an understatement. Your team is the 3rd worst in the league and is last in your division. What do you think about your teams problems? Inconsistancy! Plain and simple. I have tried to get these guys playing as a team every night! In the last 8 games I think we've been playing a lot better, I mean we've won 5 of the last 8 games, and scored 5+ goals in 5 of those games. With the addition of Mogilny I think we may be okay. Just need to wake Sakic up, Great player but I think he is asleep this season. 2. As you are most likely out of the playoff picture this year, are you thinking of trying to rebuild for next season or do think that there is still some hope and some heart left within you and your team? Well, 7 of the 12 teams in our division are playing under .500 hockey. We are just at the bottom of the heap. There are about 40 games left and if we can play above .500 hockey from here on, we could still make the playoffs. It's a long shot, but I am not giving up yet. Most of my moves recently have been to bring in younger, faster players for both this season and the next couple. Sakic at 27 was brought in for Messier, who at 35 was a liability for us. Elomo at 19 was acquired for Tancill who is 28 and struggling to keep up. Ask me again in about 20 games, and I'll have a better read on our season's future! :) 3. You just pulled off a blockbuster deal between you and the Corinthians trading young phenom Saku Koivu for Alexander "The Great" Mogilny. Was this a deal to shake the team up or do you feel that Alex can bring a lot to the team? Also, rumor around the league had Koivu possibly going to the Lunatics for the last month or two, but it seemed the two sides could not close the deal after becoming very close on many occations, can you commment on this at all? It was mostly just us filling a hole in our lineup, but I'm sure it will have a huge impact in the dressing room. Perhaps Alex can get these guys fired up! Well, I don't know if many Gm's are aware of this, but Jason is a huge Koivu fan. We had many discussions about Saku. Just couldn't find the perfect fit. After he acquired Renberg, who was a Mustang draft pick when this league was created, I figured great, both are young, both are evenly rated, perhaps we could do a deal. But Jason made a smart move and kept Mikael. Renberg has been firing on all cylinders since that move, and has made Jason look like a genius! :) 4. Miikka Emomo is leading your team in scoring this season. Is this rookies phenominal play something that you have worked with him on, or is it something you saw in him before the draft or is he getting a lot of help by his linemate? We got him in a deal with the Huskies. He was playing well then and has continued his success at this level since arriving here! Couldn't have asked for more. I just hope he keeps it up. 5. Also, Joe Sakic, last year's NHL Conn Smythe Trophy winner is not playing up to par with only 20 points so far in the season. Even though it is early, rumor has it that Sakic's poor play is because he wants to be traded to a contender and does not want to be part of the rebuilding process your team is going through since he did that with Quebec at the beginning of his career, can you comment on this rumor??? Sakic played poorly from the start, the Voodoo moved him for a tougher centre in Trevor Linden. In Bridge City he continued to struggle, and was subsequently moved again. I don't think he wants to keep moving from city to city until he finds a contender. He is only 27 and still has about 6 good years ahead of him. So lets put that rumor to rest. Besides his agent and I are currently talking about extending his contract for another 2 years. I will tell you something that both Darren and Shaun wouldn't tell, and rightly so. But I don't want anyone, especially Joe's teammates, to start questioning his integrity or his commitment to his team. But he has been nursing a groin injury since training camp. Appartently some over-zealous rookie in camp gave him a cheap shot and he has been playing hurt ever since. He usually skips every other team practise to get therapy. But it's a hard injury to shake off. He is improving and should be 100% in about a week or two. 6. What do you see for your team in the future? Wins! All I want to see are wins. Since the beginning of the season I have traded to make my team faster, younger and better shooters. I am hoping that it pays off, and that they can gel before the season gets too old and we are too far behind. If we don't make it this season, you can bet we will be a force next year. We will use this season to become a real TEAM and you all had better watch out next year. Again, thank you for your time BROTHER BRAIN, I wish your team all the best in the future. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Send comments, suggestions, NOMINATIONS... to: MARC HEBERT Official WHL newsman fj491599@er.uqam.ca CAUTION! Involvement in a fantasy hockey league can cause headaches, loss of sleep, and is very addictive. GO READ A BOOK IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BECOME AN IDIOT!