The Canadian Junior Hockey League (CJHL) announced today its Weekly Top 20 rankings in conjunction with NHL Central Scouting. Last week's rankings and the leagues in which the teams belong to are in parenthesis.
The CJHL Weekly Top 20 as of Monday, November 30th:
1. (1) Vernon Vipers (BCHL)
2. (2) Spruce Grove Saints (AJHL)
3. (4) Dauphin Kings (MJHL)
4. (3) Kingston Voyageurs (OJAHL)
5. (6) Penticton Vees (BCHL)
6. (7) Pembroke Lumber Kings (CJHL)
7. (5) Georgetown Raiders (OJAHL)
8. (8) Oakville Blades (OJAHL)
9. (12) Cornwall Colts (CJHL)
10. (11) Woodstock Slammers (MJAHL)
11. (9) Weyburn Red Wings (SJHL)
12. (14) Grande Prairie Storm (AJHL)
13. (15) Fort McMurray Oil Barons (AJHL)
14. (NR) Flin Flon Bombers (SJHL)
15. (16) Abitibi Eskimos (NOJHL)
16. (18) Fort William North Stars (SIJHL)
17. (10) Camrose Kodiaks (AJHL)
18. (13) Surrey Eagles (BCHL)
19. (19) Burlington Cougars (CCHL)
20. (20) Le College Francais de Longueuil (LHJAAAQ)
Honorable mention goes to the Alberni Valley Bulldogs (BCHL), Westside Warriors (BCHL), Swan Valley Stampeders (MJHL), Soo Thunderbirds (NOJHL), and the Brockville Braves (CJHL).
The rankings are based upon a variety of factors which includes the league in which the teams belong to, their winning percentage, their win-loss record, total points accumulated, their goals-for versus goals-against ratio, amongst other factors.
The CJHL is an amalgamation of ten Junior A hockey leagues from across Canada.
CJHL ANNOUNCES THE TOP 20 WEEKLY RANKINGS
The “Who Is The Best” Blog – Adam Thompson # 28
Before I get started on this extremely biased and potentially controversy article, I’d like to take a moment to thank my parents for everything they have given me in life. Recently I was able to obtain a scholarship to Yale University and it wouldn’t have been possible to do such a thing without their constant help, support and guidance throughout my hockey career and life. Yale is a very prestigious University and therefore it doesn’t come cheap. I am lucky enough to have parents that worked extremely hard in their lives earning a living and instilling good morals and ethics upon my brothers and I. I consider this scholarship a great family achievement and I am happy to share it with them. On that note, I’d also like to thank our coaches, especially Willy, for helping me through the whole process.
Anyhow, our game tonight was unfortunately canceled due to power outages; as I’m sure my fellow blogger Garret Noonan will tell you. Therefore, I have been given a good opportunity to take some time and write another blog article. Thus, the “Who Is The Best” blog is about to be created. For most of these categories, I’m sure I will stir up conflict and arguments, but that’s half the fun. I’m still looking for an equal challenger in NHL10…
THE BEST PING PONG PLAYER –And the acknowledgment goes to… Cole Ikkala. Ikky has managed to climb to the top of the Vernon Vipers “BCS Poll/rankings” for his exceptional ping-pong skills. The top 8 or so players on the team every now and then switch spots, but I think its clear to say that Cole is the best player. Connor and Kellen Jones are close seconds and thirds even though at the moment I retain the 2nd spot on the list and the top contender for the belt. Kak (Bryce Kakoske), Mike (Collins) and Stevie (Weinstein) are also commendable with the paddle.
THE BEST PASSER- This one might be up for great debate, but I’d have to give this award to Stevie Weinstein. If you ever watch Stevie, his head is always up when he is carrying the puck, looking for that good headman pass. I’ve seen some pretty sick passes from Stevie that are almost always tape-to-tape and usually have a lot of zip on them due to his massive Pectoral muscles.
THE BEST SAUCE PASSER- Bryce Kakoske. I think everyone will agree that Kak throws some pretty filthy sauce. Usually Caesar. One of the funniest quotes of the year came from Kak as he threw a lopsided, yucky sauce pass and exclaimed, “That was plum sauce... And I hate plum sauce”.
THE BEST NHL10 GAMER – We haven’t gotten the chance to have a big full team NHL tournament, however I have won the last two 5 man tournaments and maintained the title. My neck hurts a lot these days because the crown is so heavy… Honorable mention goes to Garret Noonan because he held the crown before me.
THE BEST WRIST SHOT- Cory Kane. Kaner has probably the hardest wrist shot that I have ever seen for this age group at least. Most Vipers fans will probably recall Hunter Bishop as having the hardest and most accurate wrister, which is probably true. However, Kaner is the first player I have ever got the chance to skate with that has stuck a puck in the net 5s+ times in warm-ups before games. Makes for a good laugh watching Krauser or the goalies try and hit the puck out.
THE BEST (FASTEST) SKATER- I have to give this one to Jonathan Milhouse or Rob Short. Milly is silky smooth and when he wants to go, he goes. Milly has scored numerous goals this year where he has just flat out burned by defenseman and left them in his dust. On the flip side, Shorty probably has the most back door tap in goals in BCHL history simply because he skates so hard to the net and catches defenseman off guard. A skate off might be in order to get the decision, but until then I have to call it a tie.
THE BEST DRESSED PLAYER- And the honor that has no award goes to…. Patty McGillis. I knew Patty had to potential to be a model when on the first exhibition game of the season, he showed up with white dress shoes on. Boy did he hear it from us! To no ones surprise, he hasn’t worn them since. Nowadays he just wear some flashy crocodile skin dress shoes and a nicely trimmed beard. To say the least, he is always looking good, as most boys from Calgary do.
THE BEST HITTER- The Jones twins have been known to throw a lot of solid body checks, but overall I have to give this honor to your captain, Kevin Kraus. Krauser can throw a pretty mean hip check and believe it or not, they are very difficult to initiate. Regardless, it takes a lot of skill to line these hip checks up and time them right.
THE BEST AT BEING A GOOF (FUNNIEST PLAYER)- Braden Pimm is hands down the smelliest goof of the team. Large emphasis on smelly. Sometimes it’s hard to comprehend the fact that Pimmer 20 years old, however everyone loves the guy. He is almost always up to something but is one of the funniest guys I have ever met. I will always remember the first time I met Pimmer as he told a hilarious story about his adventures on the way back to training camp last year. I distinctively remember Chris Crowell proclaiming how big of a dummy he was and my first impressions did not disappoint.
THE BEST JOKES – Mike Collins is probably my leading candidate for the best humor. For a lot of reasons I can’t fully describe the sniper from Boston’s antics, however he does bring up a lot of funny lines in court and always has a quick, witty reply to personal attacks. Gotta love Mike’s Aunts as well and his accent. Hearing him and Noonan talk about paaarking their carrr always gets a good laugh.
THE BEST FIGHTER- Garret Noonan and Darren Robak have some good dusts in practice (as jokes) however, Krauser has had the best fight this year so I’ve got to give him the nod thus far.
That is basically about as much as I can think up in regards to the Best of the Bests. Hope I didn’t cause any problems. Until next time.
!GO VIPERS!
I would like to thank Garrett Noonan for writing on my blog while he and the team were on the road! He did an awesome job of letting us know what everyone was up to, and giving us an inside scoop of what the players do while they are traveling!
There is still no word on when the Powell River game will be rescheduled, it is going to be hard to find a date that will work for both team…not the easiest team to get to! I know the fans in Power River were looking forward to hosting the Vipers but you can’t control Mother Nature and Powell River can be an incredibly gorgeous place most of the time but there is no such thing as “a little” wind on the coast!!
Outside not playing that game the Vipers went 3-0 on the road…a total of 27 wins and only 1 loss this season! One word...UNBELIEVABLE! This is one on the most amazing teams I have ever seen hit the ice! The season is only going to get harder for the Vipers as well…not only are they the reining National Champions and currently rated number 1 in Canada, they have also won 20 games in a row!! The target on there backs keeps getting bigger and teams keep getting stronger and more focused to beat our team!!
With a team like this to watch I would hope Vernon would realize they have something very special in their own backyard and hockey fan or not everyone should come out to support this team…they are doing more then there part to get Vernon noticed!! In fact with 142 Junior A teams in Canada I can guarantee that all of them are talking about the Vipers!! In fact just in our league people are filling other arenas to get a look at the notorious Vernon Vipers when they are in their town!
Get out to a game and make some noise for this incredible team! The Vipers will host the Prince George Spruce Kings Thursday night and then host the Westside Warriors on Friday night!!
See you at the game!
Sniper
The Canadian Junior Hockey League (CJHL) announced today its Weekly Top 20 rankings in conjunction with NHL Central Scouting. Last week’s rankings and the leagues in which the teams belong to are in parenthesis. 3. (3) Kingston Voyageurs (OJAHL)
4. (6) Dauphin Kings (MJHL)
5. (6) Georgetown Raiders (OJAHL)
6. (5) Penticton Vees (BCHL)
7. (8) Pembroke Lumber Kings (CJHL)
8. (7) Oakville Blades (OJAHL)
9. (9) Weyburn Red Wings (SJHL)
10. (10) Camrose Kodiaks (AJHL)
11. (13) Woodstock Slammers (MJAHL)
12. (12) Cornwall Colts (CJHL)
13. (11) Surrey Eagles (BCHL)
14. (16) Grande Prairie Storm (AJHL)
15. (NR) Fort McMurray Oil Barons (AJHL)
16. (17) Abitibi Eskimos (NOJHL)
17. (14) Newmarket Hurricanes (CCHL
18. (18) Fort William North Stars (SIJHL)
19. (15) Burlington Cougars (CCHL)
20. (20) Le College Francais de Longueuil (LHJAAAQ)
Honorable mention goes to the Nanaimo Clippers (BCHL), Westside Warriors (BCHL), Canmore Eagles (AJHL), Flin Flon Bombers (SJHL) and Truro Bearcats (MJAHL).
The rankings are based upon a variety of factors which includes the league in which the teams belong to, their winning percentage, their win-loss record, total points accumulated, their goals-for versus goals-against ratio, amongst other factors.
The CJHL is an amalgamation of ten Junior A hockey leagues from across Canada. More information on the CJHL can be found by clicking on the league website. www.cjhlhockey.com
Game Days Blogging
The last couple of days I haven’t been able to blog much because to be honest on game days there isn’t much to blog about. On Friday night we played the 11th ranked Surrey Eagles, and the number one team in the coastal conference. Surrey plays on an Olympic sized rink, so it was really fun as a defenseman to jump in the play and have that much room to make plays. The game was a high paced game, with both teams having great scoring chances early. Finally we cashed in on a shorthanded effort by Rob Short and we really didn’t look back after that. We ended up winning the game 6-1. As the score got bigger Surrey got a little more frustrated as a semi brawl ensued in the third period. Although not being on the ice for it, the ref claimed I started it all and I had to serve 2 minutes for roughing. Graeme Gordon played very well in between the pipes for us, he made big saves all night. Although the score did not show, Surrey was a very good hockey team, and anytime we play them we will have our hands full. On Saturday night we got the opportunity to go into the brand new Langley Events Centre and take on the Langley Chiefs. The chiefs came out and tried to get us off our game early. Although having a sloppy first period, we bounced back and won our second game of the road trip 6-2. Langley is a very good team as well, they really frustrated us at times, and stuck too there game plan of finishing there checks and playing tough. The new rink in Langley was really something special. Before the game they played the CBC game of the night on the new big screen at the rink, and it was great. I am not sure if it all done yet, but it was a treat to play there. Today we take on the Burnaby Express, before we get back on the bus and head back for Vernon. I would like to thank you all for reading my blogs, I am sorry for not updating the past few days, as I said earlier there isn’t much we do on gameday’s.
Garrett Noonan
Day 3: Back on the Road
Today was a bit of a boring day for the team. Everyone was pretty upset about the power outage last night in Powell River but there was nothing anybody could do about it. The team woke up at around 6:30 to eat breakfast and get on the road. We packed our bags at the rink knowing there would not be a make up game today. We left the rink at around 7 because we had to make sure we caught the first ferry out of town at 9am. The bus to the ferry was pretty quiet as everybody caught up on some more sleep. Fortunately, we caught the ferry at 9. While all of the guys usually get off the bus that is in the cellar of the ferry. Today was different as most of the guys stayed on the bus and slept some more. Myself included. The ferry was pretty short as it took around 45 minutes. The long part of the trip to Langley was the ride on the in-between ferries. This took around an hour and a half. The team was a little more active on this bus ride as everyone started to talk and wake up a little bit. We got to the ferry and had to wait around 20 minutes for the ferry to come. Everyone talked for a little while then boarded the ferry, as we all went up and got lunch. The food on the ferry was pretty good. As I told you on my first blog of the week the rookies had a scavenger hunt and the loser would have consequences. The “prairie dogs” compiled of the Albertan and Saskatchewan rookies were the losers. So in front of a group of people on the ferry they had to introduce themselves to these random people and shadow box in front of all of them. The harder they worked the shorter they would be up there. Patrick Mcgillis gave 100% and wasn’t up there for too long. On the other hand, Darrin Robak the Red Deer, Albeta native didn’t give it his all and sat down immediately on his own to save the embarrassment. I’m sure he’ll be hearing about that little stunt in court on Monday. After that we got back on the bus and drove through Vancouver and into Langley. As we arrived at two we checked into the hotel and went and settled in. While watching some Wild “N” Out and playing a few pranks on our roommates for a few hours, we got back on the bus and went and dined at East Side Mario’s for dinner. After that a bunch of the guys went to watch a movie at the theater a few minutes down the road. I personally would have liked to go and watch the Westside vs. Langley game but was not able to because it started at 8:30 due to a banquet at there rink. Adam, Cole and I stayed in and watched Adams’s beloved Calgary Flames lose in big fashion to the Chicago Blackhawks. Cole and myself’s fantasy hockey team had a huge night so that brought a grin to our faces, as we regained first place from the coaches team. After that we shut the lights off and got some rest for tomorrow's big matchup vs. the Surrey Eagles.
Garrett Noonan; Day 2: The Power Outage
