Christmas Wish List

Hey Wild fans!

It's time for the obligatory Christmas wish list edition of "The 5-Hole"!

In this installment we'll look at a list of things to ask "The Big Guy" for, when he thuds down the chimney this weekend (at least in my house it's a thud, old house...skinny chimney!). Plus we'll ask a very special question about what to reciprocate in return for his jolly bounty.

First however, let's quickly recap where the Wild are at in their season heading into Christmas week.

After 31 games on the 2010-2011 regular season, Wenatchee has a record of 18-11-2 for a total of 38 points and are third in the Western Division standings.

The team just finished off a three-game sweep of the Dawson Creek Rage in British Columbia, and are thus undefeated under new head coach John Becanic who was hired only one week ago today.

A new head coach would have no doubt been right near the top of the Wild's Christmas wish list for Hockey Claus (or Santa if you prefer, whichever you believe will subject you to being taxed less by the IRS on your 2010 returns...don't think they wouldn't do it if they could!), but alas it appears that gift was tidily delivered a few weeks early.

So, here is the rest of the that wish list for both the club in general terms, as well as specific members of the team and staff. Hope we don't forget anyone because due to cutbacks in all yule tide references to labor, we are no longer allowed to make a list and check it twice! That would surely result in overtime which isn't in the budget.

So, here goes in just one take!

~ A full house (or at least almost full) at Town Toyota Center for the rest of the games this season! (that one is actually on all of you) ~

~ A quick recovery for Shawn Pauly, Evan Schmidbauer and Anthony Martinez ~

~ A goal for Bradley Shumway, Geoff Ferguson and Jordan Allan, since they are the only players on the team who have played in more than a dozen games and have yet to register one - my advice would be to sit next to Patrick Kinkopf as often as possible(btw...goalies don't count in this wish...they stop goals, not score them:-)

~ At least one point for Max McHugh in the game on December 31st vs. Fresno, as this would give him the new club record for longest streak of consecutive games with at least one point...oh yeah, and a whole bunch more points the rest of the season too ~

~ A variety pack of top corners for Eliot Grauer to shoot at ~

~ Some expensive hair gel for Michael DiPuma (always one of the best dos in the room!...oh, and a few goals in the next series to catch up with Eliot) ~

~ A Cookie Monster doll for DJ Vandercook - "C" is for "Cookie" and "Captain"! ~

~ The expanded Blu-Ray version of the movie "Top Gun" for Ben Carey (mandatory stocking stuffer for all of our boys headed to the Air Force Academy) ~

~ Something really big for Tyler Hope - he is our only player from Texas after all...oh yeah, and some driving lessons for when it snows too! ~

~ You know those inflatable clown punching bag things that you used to play with as a kid? Yeah, the ones that you'd hit real hard and they'd just keep bouncing right back up so you could knock them out again? Yeah, one of those for Zach Frye complete with a high end patch kit! ~

~ A really small tube of toothpaste for CJ Sjogren (it's a TSA story, apparently they make things bigger in Scandanavia?) ~

~ A special one-on-one film making class from Martin Scorsese for Chris Rumble (and brunch, Martin loves to have brunch) ~

~ A Stanley Cup for the Colorado Avalanche for Matt Cope, Blake Saylor and Kyle Huson ~

~ A day at the beach complete with new surfboards for Brennan Parker and Zachary Wallace (hey, they are both from Southern California...oh, and plenty of sunblock for Brennan please!) ~

~ A player with his head down for John Mejia to annihilate (your welcome John:-) ~

~ Patrick Kinkopf and Tyler Narsing each get to go to the same snowy weather driving classes as Tyler Hope ~

~ Brandon Jaeger and Nick Kulmanovsky each get 3-man shootout featuring the NHL players they would most love to stop from scoring, and a couple of super balls...goalies can't stop chasing super balls! ~

~ We need lots of yams for Cheri Dudek, and an unlimited season pass for spray tanning ~

~ A nifty wine charm that is also a cell phone, GPS, PDA, language translator, alarm clock and beeps when you can't find your car keys for Jan Cetto ~

~ Andrew Carroll and Dusty Gill need a contract from EA Sports to design the first ever version of the NAHL video game (remember who's voice to use for the cheesy and redundant play-by-play elements!) ~

~ I think Mark Schoneberger needs a day at the spa, and Jeremy Anders gets the world's biggest fruit cake ~

~ For Public Address Announcer Ernie Rodriguez, a Mr. Microphone! So he can be heard just as loudly at home as when he is in the building ~

~ Pat Norlin and Rich Haney each get weekend passes to the Coors Light Mystery Mansion ~

~ Now, I know Associate Coach Chris Clark wants a Stanley Cup for the San Jose Sharks, but unfortunately we have already bestowed that honor to the Av's (plus Santa can't stand the Sharks either), so instead we'll get Clarkie in on the 3-man shootout with Brandon and Nick, and we'll toss in a month maid service to clean his apartment and straighten goalie sticks ~

~ Pepe Sandoval needs every season of the Smurfs on DVD, and a day off! Same goes for Rod Collins and Bill and Carla Stewart (the day off I mean, not the Smurfs box set) ~

~ And of course for all of the above and for all of you loyal fans out there...A ROBERTSON CUP CHAMPIONSHIP IN 2011! ~

Well, that's it! I hope everyone likes what they are getting this year. Remember that all wish list items are subject to availability and to the natural progression of future events within our dimension.

Oh! I almost forgot! My bonus question for you all is "what would you leave for Hockey Claus" on Christmas Eve as a thank you for all the great gifts?

My short list of thoughts is below. Please share yours with me on this and your list of wishes for the Wenatchee Wild this holiday season.

Merry Christmas!

THINGS TO LEAVE FOR "HOCKEY CLAUS"

~ An assortment of hockey pucks (if you don't have real pucks just have your favorite relative who doesn't know their way around the kitchen make cookies or biscuits, they'll turn out the same - blackened and hard as a rock!) ~

~ A water bottle full of Gatorade (the red or green stuff please, it is Christmas you know:-)

~ That old lucky mouth guard you've been meaning to throw out (we don't want Hockey Claus to break his teeth on your pucks, uh, I mean cookies!)

Chris Hansen is the play-by-play voice of the Wenatchee Wild and can be heard on gamedays with Pat Norlin and Rich Haney at AM 560 KPQ on radio in North Central Washington and online at FastHockey.com…his web site blog, “The 5-Hole”, will be updated at least once a week here at WenatcheeWild.com

The 5-Hole

Hey Wild fans!

Yup! After an inexplicable hiadis of two weeks from the blog, I have returned with a brief (yeah, sure!) yet hopefully poignant installment.

In this edition we'll welcome the new head coach of your Wenatchee Wild and usher in a new era in the team's history along the way.

First, let's all say hello to John Becanic, the new head coach of your Wenatchee Wild.

Becanic brings with him nearly two decades of junior hockey coaching experience, with almost half of that time served in the NAHL with the Pittsburgh Forge (where he guided the team to a league championship) and as one of the founding members of the reigning champion Bismarck Bobcats where he not only coached but was also general manager.

He has also logged time in the Ontario Hockey League and in recent years in the Western Hockey League, including as an assistant with the Vancouver Giants where he departed from to come to Wenatchee.

Becanic takes over a very talented bunch that has seemed to underachieve in certain areas this season and his biggest challenge will be to serve as mechanic (which is exactly how his name is pronounced in case you were wondering) to a vehicle that has been through one rough ride after another (o.k., time to officially start the automotive metaphors...oh no!).

It would really seem as though Becanic's work will involve the psyche of his new team first and foremost before there is a lot of heavy concentration on the structuring of X's, O's, Q's, Z's, 7's and all of those other letters you can never seem to find a use for when playing Scrabble with your elderly relatives.

Thinking of what the team has gone through in the first half of their season, it's quite hard to appreciate from an empathetic viewpoint just exactly how tough the last three months have been. We forget that all of these young warriors on the ice have yet to draw their final card at blackjack (meaning to turn 21) and that having a solid core of mentoring is of tremendous importance to each of them individually and to all of them collectively as a team.

Thus far this season the guys have seen one head coach and one assistant coach dismissed and had their team captain bolt for a different league (we do wish you all the best Eric :-). So perhaps the gut-busting roller coaster results the club has posted on the ice are a direct result of all the discontinuity off the ice?

I look for Becanic to step in and have an immediate impact as admiral of this high powered fleet in helping to realign them through the turbulent seas that have emerged this season and eventually lead them to calmer waters. Pin a medal on the fleet's captain DJ Vandercook as well, who had a goal and an assist and played with a feisty edge in Becanic's debut behind the bench on Wednesday in Dawson Creek, British Columbia, where the Wild prevailed 5-to-2 in game number one of a three game series. Congratulations to Becanic on winning his first game as head coach.

We also need to say thanks to Wenatchee Wild general manager Rod Collins, who's already massive buffet line of responsibilities expanded to add three kinds of egg rolls and a build-your-own waffle bar when he assumed the interim head coaching duties last month.

Think about it...Mr. Collins suddenly went from directing 20 young men to guiding 47! All of that being in addition to his duties for the front office. Rod had to feel like a high school teacher in the New York City school system, who was also the principal too!

Collins went 2-and-1 in the interim role, including the 3-2 exhibition victory over the WSHL's Idaho Steelheads.

Kudos must also be given to team founders Craig Patrick and Bill Stewart (who is also team president) for their efforts over the past few weeks. Patrick's exploits as an assistant coach for the "Miracle On Ice" U.S. Olympic hockey team of 1980 and an NHL head coach and general manager are well known, while Stewart's storied career is largely under-appreciated or publicized.

Both provided an extraordinary amount of experience and leadership during their search for a new head coach that also included Collins. I have to admit it was quite overwhelming, from the press perch at least, to see the man who coached Sidney Crosby at Shattuck St. Mary's standing next to the man who drafted him for the Pittsburgh Penguins at the 2005 entry draft behind the Wenatchee Wild's bench during December 10th's exhibition contest with the Idaho Steelheads.

The Patrick/Stewart tandem went 1-and-1 during it's head coaching time for Wenatchee (in addition to making Jean-Luc Picard a very happy guy to boot!).

Lastly, we cannot forget the enormous contributions of associate coach Chris Clark (or "Clarkie" to those close to the team) and the ever present, but rarely talked about Pepe Sandoval.

Clark has taken on a tremendous amount of additional responsibility and work in assuming the associate position after being unexpectedly elevated to that role just four games into the season. He had even more additional duties when the Wild's former head coach was dismissed. Clark is now the only coach from the inaugural season's original three that still remains with the team.

Meanwhile, Sandoval has also been a big contributor since the first season for the Wild. In 2008 he began as a volunteer who helped with the team's training regiments, sharpened skates, assisted in managing the club's equipment and even made the coffee on game nights (a feat for which we consistently and jokingly dubbed him "Juan Valdez"!).

Last season Sandoval assumed an official position with the Wild doing all of the affore mentioned chores and more, plus this season has carried on that same job with the NAHL squad in addition to becoming the assistant coach of the newly created U18 team.

I see all of these men on a regular basis and am employed directly by a couple of them. It's always a pleasure to see them all at the rink when at home and around the hotel lobby and in various other places when the team is on the road. I look forward to establishing that same comfortable repoire with Coach Becanic as we welcome him to the Wenatchee Wild family.

Hockey is really a family like no other. Sure, we drop a lot of names and in the case of the Wild, are so fortunate to have a collective of owners and coaches who have such recognizable connections.

But just like any other family, no matter who is in involved or how famous they or the people they know are, each one of them bonds together through thick and thin and works as hard as they can for the betterment of the team.

Now that the team has a new head coach and the stabilizing impact that goes along with that hiring, I believe they will get better...both on and off the ice.

When you next show up at Town Toyota Center on New Year's Eve when Wenatchee battles Fresno, please show your very warmest welcome to John Becanic, your new head coach of the Wenatchee Wild!

In closing, let me again apologize for my absence from the blog. It seems that writer's block is a lot more common in my family's bloodline than is verbalizer's block! Actually, it has been a very hectic holiday season for yours truly and I have found it difficult to set aside the necessary time to continue the blog on a consistent basis with the same quality I expect to deliver every time out.

I promise we'll get at least one installment per week to you all from now on. Look for it early in the week on Mondays or Tuesdays.

Thanks as always for spending the time it takes to read "The 5-Hole". Please feel free to share your thoughts about this week's edition with me.

Chris Hansen is the play-by-play voice of the Wenatchee Wild and can be heard on gamedays with Pat Norlin and Rich Haney at AM 560 KPQ on radio in North Central Washington and online at FastHockey.com…his web site blog, “The 5-Hole”, will be updated at least once a week here at WenatcheeWild.com

HOW SWEET IT IS!

 
Hey Wild fans! In this edition of "The 5-Hole" we'll be discussing the old adage that "winning isn't everything".

First of all, let me apologize for the eight day absence from the blog. After stuffing my face with all of those Thanksgiving treats and the leftovers that remained of them, and staying up all night waiting for Black Friday Claus to arrive down the chimneys of gargantuan box stores all over my quaint little town, I could barely manage to raise my plumped limbs to even try and mash the keypad on my laptop or even hope to keep my swollen and tryptophan laced eyelids open long enough to hammer out a blog that would not so obviously give away my state of inebriation brought on by turkey and cranberry sauce swilled with the scent of freshly made credit card plastic and traces of mint from the toothpaste of wide smiling industrialists beaming green with holiday glee.

What's that you say? Hire a secretary to take dictation? Nope. I gave that a try, however it seems that the only shorthand any human being knows these days is more of a short finger than anything else. I glared in awe as over a dozen applicants punched rapid jabs at their cell phones using both of their thumbs with striking proficiency as I spoke in an entranced state of narration, eager to see my words in printed form.

But it just didn't get the job done. For example, that long and profound rant that was my opening paragraph in this blog would have, to each of my applicants, translated as simply "sry-  Thxgiv - shpg + ><:> = %*)". No. That will certainly never do. How would I recreate the joy I take in looking up all of these rarely used and engorged words of the former English language in my dusty thesaurus and then, like a game show dream involving Vanna White and a game of Tetris, figure out how to assemble them all in cohesive sentences of semi-comprehensible, yet impressive looking information.

So, now that you know the reason behind this tardy posting and now that I have gotten a few personal feelings and pent up words off my chest, we can get on to the subject of this installment.

No, there won't be any flashy or depressing statistics that look like the endless chalk strewn equations on an Ivy League physics professor's blackboard. We won't go into explicit detail regarding the on or off ice life of any particular player. Nor will we share any illusive morsels of post-Thanksgiving goings on surrounding the locker room or other clandestine spaces of Town Toyota Center.

Instead, aside from my written tirade to open the blog, we'll be analyzing one very simple statement; "winning isn't everything".

True enough to be sure. Winning isn't in fact, everything! Within the context of a Junior A hockey club, a few other somethings (but not everythings either) would be equally poignant to take stock in like opportunity, experience, outreach and dream chasing.

The Wenatchee Wild have offered everyone in the community and beyond, both within and outside of the hockey world, something very special to take tremendous pride in.

For the players, it's a grand opportunity to showcase their natural talents and years of hard work in front of thousands of loyal and loving fanfare, while at the same time enriching their lives forever through the many unique experiences this chance offers them. And because the efforts of the team within the community are so vast, the players also learn just how far their actions both on and off the ice can go towards reaching others and having a positive impact. They also get to chase the dream of playing college or even professional hockey one day in the future.

The devoted fan's perspective is one similar to that of the players in many ways. For they are there with every stride to cheer the team on while getting the chance to witness their exploits, have some fun and garner some new experiences in the process. The fan base also benefits from the outreach of the team and it's players and are as a big a part of the pursuit of the players dreams as anyone else. Heck, they live the dream themselves in many ways when taking part in the festivities of a home hockey game.

As someone who works for the organization, I can easily attest to how much the opportunities I have been offered by the Wild have meant to me, and I am certain that goes for every member of the team's staff and the thousands of volunteers that have stepped up to offer their assistance over the past two-and-a-half years as well.

We all get the chance to experience so many things that would otherwise no doubt go undone and to be a part of the effort to reach out and make a difference. And yes, there are a select few of us who are still in the course of chasing down a dream or two while getting the thrill out of living one all at the same time.

Well, now we all should know that winning isn't everything, and that I acknowledge that each of you already embodies that belief. How do I know this? After the team lost five in a row over 3,500 of you showed up and Town Toyota Center to cheer on the boys just the same. And after that 3,500-plus saw the club lose for a club record sixth straight game, just as many of you turned out once again the next night to make Junior hockey in the Wenatchee Valley what it always is...remarkable!

The Wild did win that second game of last weekend's referenced series by the final of 7-to-4. Ben Carey scored the team's second hat trick of the season and newcomers John Mejia and Nick Kulmanovsky made a difference, with Nick winning his first start in net and Mejia steamrolling his 235 pound body into several members of the opposition Chicago Hitmen, all to the resounding delight of the once again near capacity crowd.

So, winning as we've now learned isn't everything...but it sure was sweet to win!!

Please share your thoughts with me on this installment of "The 5-Hole"!

Chris Hansen's email is senatorlynx@yahoo.com

Chris Hansen is the play-by-play voice of the Wenatchee Wild and can be heard on gamedays with Pat Norlin and Rich Haney at AM 560 KPQ on radio in North Central Washington and online at FastHockey.com…his web site blog, “The 5-Hole”, will be updated regularly every few days here at WenatcheeWild.com