A (Slightly Belated) Look Back

Obviously, 2008 came to a close last week, and the CHL posted its Top 10 Storylines of the year on Dec. 31. Here they are:

10.)Pushing it to the Limit
Both conference finals went to seven games marking the first time for this occurrence since 1994. In the South, Arizona defeated the Laredo Bucks in seven games with the finale being a 6-1 Arizona win in Laredo. The Northern Conference Finals saw the Colorado Eagles pushed to the max by the Texas Brahmas with the Eagles winning the series with a classic game seven (3-2 COL victory).
9.)The Jewel of Tulsa
The Tulsa Oilers changed venue in 2008 opening the BOK Center in Tulsa on October 25th. Unfortunately for the home team, the Oilers lost to their in-state rivals, Oklahoma City. The new digs for the Oilers is one of the finest facilities in North America featuring all state-of-the-art features and more than 17,000 seats. On opening night, the Oilers welcomed one of the largest crowds in CHL history when 16,982 fans witnessed the coronation.
8.)Welcome Back
The Corpus Christi IceRays had quite an up-and-down 2008 with a moment of pause for their fans during the off-season when the team ceased operations and appeared to be on ice for the 2008-09 season. Refusing to let this happen, local businessman Tim Lange came to the rescue buying the team and getting them ready to skate under the leadership of Pat Dunn. The team dropped the name Rayz and brought back the club’s original name, the IceRays, while ushering in new colors and new logo. Rookie head coach Sylvain Cloutier led the team to a memorable performance in front of the new-old fans during the team’s opener when they pounded Tulsa 12-3 on October 18th.
7.)Running of the Bulls
The Texas Brahmas have been one of the top teams in the CHL during 2008. The team entered January with a 14-12-1 having not caught stride under rookie head coach Dan Wildfong but that changed quickly as they went 26-10-1 during the second half of the season qualifying for the playoffs and eventually making it all the way to game seven of the Northern Conference Finals. This season, the Brahmas are 17-9-3 giving them a 43-19-4 record during 2008. Only Colorado with 92 points and Bossier-Shreveport with 91 points are ahead of Texas’ 90 point year.
6.)Bes in Show
The heart and soul of the Laredo Bucks, Jeff Bes, had another outstanding season scoring 46 goals with 60 assists en route to his second CHL Most Valuable Player Award. He did it in every way for the Southeast Division winners and Southern Conference runner-ups finishing the year as the league leader with a +40 plus/minus rating. This season, he is again among the league leaders ranking third in the CHL with 44 points (10-34=44) and again has the Bucks primed for their sixth consecutive Southeast Division crown.
5.)Urqu-Ing the Opposition
On February 20th, the Arizona Sundogs NHL affiliate (Phoenix) made a trade acquiring forward Cory Urquhart from the Montreal organization. No one could have predicted the impact this move would have as the former second round selection of the Canadiens re-wrote the CHL record book during the month he played in the regular season and during the Sundogs playoff run to the President’s Cup. Combining the end of the regular season and the beginning of the playoffs, Urquhart scored goals in a CHL record 18 straight games (27 goals over that stretch). He finished the playoffs with 17 goals tying him for the most in a single playoff season and his eight power play goals were the most ever scored by an individual during the playoffs.
4.)What a Rush!
The CHL welcomed the expansion Rapid City Rush for the 2008-09 season and after a 14-game road trip to start the season while their new hone venue was being completed, the team finally showed their colors to a sold out home crowd at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center Arena with a shutout victory over Colorado on November 29th. The Rush have themselves positioned for a potential playoff run in their first season led by head coach Joe Ferras and the community has jumped on board with three sellouts in the first 10 home games. Chris Lipsett scored the first goal in team history on October 17th in Colorado and the first win for the Rush came on October 24th in Corpus Christi.
3.)‘The Moustache’ Sets Coaching Records
In his 14th season as the coach of the Blazers, Sauter had a bittersweet 2008. On the good side, he won his 1,200th game on January 19th and followed that up on February 23rd by winning his 500th game with the Blazers. He is the most tenured coach in North American professional hockey and trails just the Utah Jazz’s Jerry Sloan and the Atlanta Braves Bobby Cox as the most tenured coaches in all of North American pro sports. The bad from 2008 was the results of the 2007-08 season. The Blazers went 28-30-6 (second fewest wins in Sauter’s history with OKC) but this season they have turned it around leading the Northeast Division and sitting as one of the top teams in the Northern Conference.
2.) The Commish
After serving as the league’s top guy during the 2007-08 season titled the Senior Vice President of Operations, Duane Lewis was officially named the CHL’s Commissioner in June. The former minor pro player with Amarillo and New Mexico had been a part of the CHL/WPHL front office for more than decade and under Lewis’ watch during an ‘eventful’ first year at the helm he has dealt with a full plate and looks ahead to two expansion teams in major markets coming in 2009.
1.) It Just Got Hotter
The Arizona Sundogs were the story in 2008 winning the Ray Miron President’s Cup Championship in impressive fashion by sweeping the Colorado Eagles in the finals. It was the first sweep in the finals in a decade. The ‘Dogs, in just their second season as a franchise, became the third expansion team to win the Championship in their second season joining Laredo and Colorado. The ‘sequel’ has proven to be more difficult than Arizona might have thought. The Sundogs are just 13-17-1 this season and fighting for a playoff spot and an opportunity to repeat as champs.

Sorry if the italicizing makes that obnoxious to read, but I want it to be clear that I did not write any of it.

I actually hadn't even noticed those until today; I usually don't visit the Web site terribly frequently because most of the stories posted on there get sent to me via e-mail anyway. But it's funny that the storylines mention Cory Urquhart, because I had randomly thought of him yesterday and wondered what he's been up to this season.

My very minimal Blackberry research led me to discover that he's currently playing for the Stockton Thunder of the East Coast Hockey League after starting the season with the American Hockey League's Springfield Falcons.

I had forgotten he was a second-round pick (40th overall) in the 2003 (NHL) entry draft, which is fairly rare in this league (and possibly why he's no longer in it). Sundogs netminder Joel Gistedt, Mississippi RiverKings center Jeff Nelson and Corpus Christi IceRays forward Mark Tobin were also second-rounders, but that's all I can think of off the top of my head.

Further research shows Gistedt was the No. 36 pick in 2007, Nelson was No. 36 in 1991 and Tobin was No. 65 in 2004. Oh, and winger Martin St. Amour, who played with the Sundogs on Dec. 31 and that's it, was the No. 34 pick in 1988.

Jeff Bes and Rick Kozak were third-round picks, in case you're wondering.

Oh, and Urquhart's from Nova Scotia, which is also rare in this league, odd as it may sound. I guess probably because of the size of the province, but it's still a noticeable disparity.

Two of the CHL's top storylines obviously directly involve the Bucks, with Bes and their Southern Conference Finals series being mentioned. The Bucks were also noted in the LMT's top storylines of the year.

The Bucks went 38-20-4 in regular season games played in 2008; they were 19-12-1 to close out the 2007-08 season and 19-8-3 in their first 30 games of the 2008-09 campaign.

In the playoffs, the Bucks were 7-4, sweeping the Odessa Jackalopes before falling in that 7-game conference finals series and making 2008 the first year since 2003 that they did not make the President's Cup Finals.

Back to all that draft pick business, it turns out Tobin went four picks after Alex Goligoski and 34 ahead of Tyler Kennedy, who will play on the Pittsburgh Penguins' top line with Tobin's juniors teammate Sidney Crosby tonight. That draft was, of course, the year that Alexander Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin went one and two in the first round. And one year before...well, yeah.

Odess Jackalopes netminder Alexandre Vincent (No. 114) and former Bucks/current Mississippi RiverKings goaltender Kevin Beech (No. 165) are the only CHL guys I see on the 2005 draft list at first glance.

I'm starting to realize I could spend hours looking at all this stuff, so I think I should stop. I'll post some stuff about tomorrow's game and the weekly awards a bit later.

Yesterday's NHL Scores: Canadiens 6, Panthers 5 (SO); Lightning 4, Thrashers 1; Devils 4, Senators 3 (OT); Blackhawks 5, Flames 2; Ducks 2, Coyotes 0; Wild 2, Avalanche 0; Stars 3, Canucks 2 (SO).