The 5 Hole

Zebras

2011-02-04T14:57:00.000-08:00

Hey Wild fans!

In this edition of "The 5-Hole" we'll be discussing one of those commonly voiced yet rarely editorialized subjects in the game...the officiating!

Throughout this season it seems there's been more consternation than ever before about the officiating.

The officials in the NAHL are up-and-comers, hard at work trying to climb the ladder of levels in an effort to arrive at the next one above the Junior-A plateau, learning right along with the players and coaches during each and every game.

In my book, a good official is a consistent one. They might have a propensity for letting a lot of potential infractions go uncalled or they might be cut from the "ticky-tack" mould and heavily scrutinize just about everything during a game.

I don't really mind it either way, as long as they are consistent about it.

I will admit that when there is an apparent lack of knowledge about some of the basic or even advanced portions of the rulebook, it does frustrate me just a tad. But again, at this level the officials are still skating with their training wheels on.

One thing that isn't common but does show up from time to time is what I like to call a "fruit striper".

Why this ridiculous sounding name you ask?

Well, do any of you remember chewing something as a kid called "Fruit Stripe" gum?

This stuff tasted atrocious and was made by our friends at the Beech-Nut company (no I did not get paid for calling them "friends").

The wrapper featured a cartoon zebra who's stripes weren't of the usual black and white variety, but rather a colorful mixture of many colors (presumably of those represented on the sticks of gum) so as to stand out from the rest of the herd.

This mythical creature from the land of high-powered advertising directed at children is an all too real life form in the sport of hockey and can leave a similarly putrefying taste in your mouth by game’s end.

So to further answer the question of what this creation is all about, we’ll need to explore part of what makes a real zebra tick.

In the wild, zebras wear their stripes in order to blend in to their surroundings and avoid being captured by would-be predators.

Just the same in the sport of hockey, the natural intention is that the officials coalesce into the game's backdrop in order to unbiasedly interpret the play and enforce the rules when necessary.

Of course, just like in nature, every once in a while a lone zebra strays from the herd in an effort to showcase how much better his markings look than all of the other animals on the prairie. There’s your "fruit striper" all right!

These pompous defectors who would risk the overall safety of their own kind in order to showcase their selfish flamboyance generally fall victim to the law of the jungle out in the wilderness by getting chomped down by a hungry lion or gnashed on by a smiling crocodile.

Unfortunately in the game of hockey, the men clad in these stripes are in fact, the law of the jungle. So the adjudicators that stray do not fall prey to the fearsome beasts that they might face in the natural world, although they may have to endure a snarling rabble of fans and steady stream of venom spewed forth by the players and coaches.

Ultimately however, there will be no separating this fortunately rare and artificially banded anomaly from having an impact on the outcome of the contest.

This metaphorical example linked to a disappointing product from my childhood is just one in a litany of many that are possible to present that revolve around how poor officiating can leave a negative impression on the sport and it's many games played.

But alas, I don't really wish to make the focus of our entire time chatting about the refs to be all bad.

In fact, I must say that I believe it takes a very special type of devotee to the sport in order to perform one of it's most thankless tasks.

The job at hand every game is an undoubtedly ungratifying one by weight of the external factors involved to be certain.

Just about every whistle blown for any reason, along with every whistle that could have been sounded by one individual perception or another, will surely draw the ire of almost every single person in the building, and even those watching or listening to the game half-a-world away.

That in itself has got to be a tough fate to realize before even getting dressed for work.

Besides the abuse the officials subject themselves to during each and every contest, they also go vastly under-appreciated for a number of other duties that all those surrounding the game seem to take for granted.

Firstly is their ability to consistently have a positive influence on the game by communicating a mantra of balance to the players who are involved.

If you sit close enough to the action or have ever been in some way involved in an actual hockey game yourself, then you know how much talking is always going on throughout the entirety of play.

The officials have as big a role in this nuance as anyone else does, and the best ones use this banter, along with their body language and occasional interventions to enforce the rules to set a stabilizing equilibrium for the entire game.

You must know already that there are many games that could get way out of hand which don't because of this factor! (even though you fans love it when there is a ten car pileup during a game ;-)

Another aspect to an officials repertoire that goes largely without thought is their physical ability and skill at keeping up with the play.

It's often been said by many sports junkies that basketball officials are the best athletes among those who police our favorite pastimes. I heartily disagree with that conclusion myself, believing instead that hockey officials should crown the list without a doubt.

Think about it. They can all skate at very high levels, and do so without a pause for breath during long intervals, and always while remaining ever-vigilant, with a watchful eye to all of the game's activities.

The officials also have to be tough as well. They are in the line of fire at all times, and we have seen many absorb the pain of a booming slapshot, get clipped with a stick in the face or even get barreled over by a hulking defenseman in full pads and gear.

Oh, and I’m certain they have all had to gut out being repeatedly spit upon by tirading coaches and players. Remember too, that they also have to break up a brawl at least every-so-often!

However, the biggest item that I feel goes completely unappreciated by many in the game, especially the fans, is the sheer love of the sport that so many officials possess.

Contrary to what most assume, many officials have no desire to interfere with the game at all. Quite the opposite actually. The officials get the best seat in the house to soak up the very essence of the sport even though they have a job to do, and most have no desire to cause a tremor in the beauty of it’s fluidity.

Coaches love to think the game, to strategize and win. Players love to showcase their physical abilities and to compete. Fans love to eat hot dogs and consume copious amounts of their favorite beverages while they are entertained.

All of those folks love the game in their own way. But each and every one of the officials who I have ever known or been around has a passion for the game in an incredibly deep and profound way.

It's as though there is an ardor for hockey's very constructs in the most fundamental of ways, in addition to any and all of the strobes of minutia that twinkle within that universe.

Going too far in saying all of this, am I? Consider this question then; "would you want to be a hockey official?" And if so, for what reason? Is it for one of purity and the desire to keep the sport's balance in check? Or is it because you think you'd look real good strutting around the ice in those multi-colored stripes?

Yes, it's true I'm afraid. There are bad calls, and even bad officials I suppose, and there always will be. That's just the nature of this beast...the human!

In an age of high-tech gizmos that are ever-replacing the factions of humanity's theoretical shortcomings, there simply is no substitute for people. Even when they make mistakes. After all, it's part of a game that was invented, played, coached, watched and enjoyed by people.

So the next time you come out to a game at Town Toyota Center and you don't like something the officials have called. Let them know. In your loudest and most obnoxious voice they hope. Don't worry, they're used to it. They expect it. The game’s very existence depends on it.

And while your at it, just stop and think to yourself how much fun it would be to bark your emotional ravings at a robot instead of those unacknowledged humans in zebra's clothing. Yes, even the one’s who look like our old vile tasting pal from Fruit Stripe Gum {:o)

2011-01-12T08:52:00.001-08:00

Hey Wild fans!

In this edition of "The 5-Hole" we'll sound off about...sounding off!

First let me say that I hope all of you had a great Christmas and New Years.

Speaking of New Years, I must confess that I had originally planned to chuck the ever-predictable "resolution" blog at you all for our latest installment.

But alas, I am once again several weeks tardy in finally working up a fresh blog for the web site, thus it seems that by default there is no way such a topic would suffice. We're simply too far into 2011 now to be thinking about what we might do differently this year than in the ones previous.

Besides, I've always wondered about the timing of the whole "New Years resolution" thing anyway. I mean, I fully understand the concept of starting over with a reset of 365 days to work with (366 every four years).

But seriously, doesn't it seem as if everyone is just too dang hung over from an entire month (or "season") of shopping, trimming, baking and/or cooking/roasting (as in chestnuts for the latter...we hope!), decorating, caroling, charging, paying off and charging again, wrapping, unwrapping, returning, flying, driving, riding the rails, and drinking all of that egg nog to really make any coherent sense out of a commitment of any serious variety to ones own self or to anyone or anything else for that matter?

No!

Nonetheless, if you've made a resolution or two for the coming weeks and months ahead, I wish you all the best with it ;-)

So, rather than taking a head first plunge into that unchlorinated county pool, we will instead be delving into a completely different subject that was strangely inspired just the same by the celebration of New Years.

It was actually my reference to broadcast cohorts Pat Norlin and Rich Haney as "party favors" when on air during the pre-game warm for the December 31st contest with Fresno that gave me the idea for us to chat about "sounding off"!

Now, I'm sure that when you were all younger (or maybe even to this day for some of you), you probably had some raging parties for various occasions like a birthday for example?

And I'm certain that at some point along the way, someone introduced you to one of the world's favorite and timeless accoutrements for any big bash...the noise maker!

Most of them that I can remember seeing from my youth looked quite strange. So bizarre in some instances, that it was almost as if you had stumbled across something you really weren't supposed to see or have in your hands at all.

Some of these carnivalesque curiosities looked like old cans of sardines with rounded corners and a little plastic handle that, when cranked, sprang the internal coggery to life with a tinnish yet inexplicably festive clunk.

Another entertaining implementation of shrieking shindiggery is the paper blowout or paper horn. Come on, we've all seen them, and we've all used one like a relentlessly annoying snake to repeatedly lash at someone's face while it wails in rhetorical agony to further the victimized revelers pain.

Of course there are many more, and you can rack your brain to think of as many as you like when it comes to partying.

But, my big question for Wild fans is "in what way do you prefer making noise when at Town Toyota Center for a hockey game?"

Do you use any of the aforementioned devices to try and rattle the opposition and root on the home boys?

Or do you have a special toy that's even more maddening and vociferous? I know that I have seen someone in the crowd with a big long trumpet looking thing that it blue in color and appears to made out of Nerf!? I call it the "Muppet trumpet".

The air horn is a very popular distraction for any venue these days and has become a mainstay for those fans looking to call as much attention to themselves as possible.

Thundersticks are a more recent advent for the purpose of echoing chaos throughout a sports arena. You can exercise a free set of these for yourself if you attend the game on Friday, November 14th.

And then there's the cowbell...oh yes...the dreaded cowbell! That seemingly innocent and quaint little charm used by our farming forefathers to help keep an audible account of their wandering livestock that has been so devilishly upgraded by shameless 21st century promoters to give away in heavy volumes as a novelty and thereby create the most infuriating and frenzied cacophony known to all of human kind when resonated in unison.

I must admit, after being in the radio and television biz for over a decade now, it takes some kind of ruckus to distract my veteran focus from the task at hand. But the cowbell, at least when vitalized in quantities of more than a few hundred, absolutely drives me to the very brink of total insanity!

Even the cushy and padded headset that I sport when working which completely covers and protects both of my ears cannot offer sufficient protection from the torturous clamoring of all those cowbells!!

Well, now that you know what the canker of my sportscasting career is, have you been able to figure out what your favorite discord is to create when taking in a game at TTC?

OK, I get it, maybe you're a pureist? You don't need some fancy horn to toot or bell to jangle in order to disturb the peace. All you need to conjure up some bedlam is your big bad voice! Right?

Yup, I'd have to say, that's got to be the number one choice among most fans to vocalize their general feelings about the game.

Much of this manifests in the form of yelling or hollering, and it can be either positive encouragement for the home boys or as vicious ranting at the opposition and the officials. Especially the officials!

This verbalization might be a slew of clear and precise statements or take the form of slobbery and nonsensical gabble. In the latter you are apt to also detect any of the following; hissing, spitting, crowing, face making, tongue jabbing, raspberries, cooing, heckling, jeering, whistling sounds, a variety of hand gestures and of course booing.

There's nothing quite like a few thousand folks all looping their lips in harmony and making that unmistakable resonance of discontent...BOOOOO! Hah, love it ;-)

Whatever the case may be, I hope you will all be out to see the three games coming up at Town Toyota Center this week when your Wild battle the Kenai River Brown Bears.

And when you do arrive at the rink, I sincerely anticipate that you will all feel unencumbered enough to make as much noise in whatever way you choose to cheer on the Wild and give the Bears some heck!

Just remember to be the great and classy fans that I know you are by staying in control of those awe inspiring vernaculars at all times, especially when addressing our visitors from Soldotna and those fellows wearing the stripes.

Oh, and on the note of air horns, you might want to find out if these are a go inside the arena. I'm actually not certain myself, but I know that in some stadiums they have been banished!

Just promise me you won't all show up with your cowbells on ;-)

See you at the rink!

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

Christmas Wish List

2010-12-20T17:25:00.001-08:00

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

2010-12-17T15:28:00.000-08:00

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!

2010-12-02T16:53:00.000-08:00

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

"Wild" Game or Just Plain Turkey?

2010-11-23T16:12:00.001-08:00

Hey Wild fans!

In this installlent of "The 5-Hole" we'll be celebrating the spirit of Thanksgiving with a list of things to be grateful for about your Wenatchee Wild.

First off, we all know the not so great news of recent. That being Wenatchee has now equaled a franchise record by going winless in their last five games. The skid comes off a recently finished road trip to Alaska on which the Wild went 1-3-2, including two one-goal losses in regulation and one in overtime, plus a shootout loss.

During the five game streak of bleak, Wenatchee's penalty kill allowed 10 goals on 24 opposition chances (58.4%) and the club was swept for the first time in their history by both the Alaska Avalanche and Kenai River Brown Bears, who as I write this blog, are each part of a four-way tie for first place in the Western Division standings with Wenatchee and Fairbanks.

OK, now we're up to d, ate and can turn to the purposeful cheer that was to be the original intent of this offering.

Even though there doesn't seem to be much to celebrate right now, I think this week of Thanksgiving would be an opportune occasion for us all to take a moment and show our appreciation for a whole litany of items connected to the Wenatchee Wild.

So, here's my list...hopefully it will inspire you to think of (or look up) a few more of your own!

I. The Wild are still in first place in the Western Division (at least until Wednesday night when Alaska plays in Fresno)

II. Wenatchee has the third best home winning percentage in the league at .700 (not counting the Showcase Tournament)

III. The Wild are 7-1 against expansion teams this season

IV. Wenatchee's next series is on home ice at Town Toyota Center this Friday & Saturday, November 26th & 27th

V. The Wild will play the Chicago Hitmen, who are an expansion team and have the third worst record in the league (6-16-2)

VI. Chicago has the third worst road winning percentage in the league at .200 (not counting the Showcase Tournament)

VII. Wenatchee has the #1 ranked powerplay in the NAHL at 23.0%

VIII. Chicago has the #25 ranked (that's next to last) penalty kill in the NAHL at 75.2%

IX. The Wild have two players on their roster who are from Chicago, Illinois (Michael DiPuma & John Mejia), which gives us a mental edge, right?

X. The Chicago Hitmen have no players on their roster who are from Wenatchee, Washington (phew!)

XI. Wenatchee is 2-0 all time in their first game following Thanksgiving

XII. The Wild are 62-13-5 in 80 regular season games after Thanksgiving all time

XIII. There are still 34 games left in the 2010-2011 regular season and all of them are after Thanksgiving

XIV. Wenatchee has a squad of tremendously talented players who have far from reached their potential as a team

XV. Top to bottom the Wild are, without a doubt, the premiere organization in the NAHL

XVI. You are all a part of the greatest fan base in the league

XVII. We have Junior hockey in North Central Washington! What in the world did we do for eight months of the year before 2008-2009?

XVIII. When Chicago visits the Wolf's Den and the Wild score 6 goals or more, those in attendance not only get free pizza but also free

pie! (don't get too excited, it's the same thing twice;-)

XIX. The Wild's logo doesn't have feathers. Current non-expansion franchises of the NAHL who have feature a bird as their team

mascot are 1-6 all time in their first game after Thanksgiving (seems only fitting I know, and yes, I had to look that one up!)

XX. With all due respect, we aren't the Port Huron Fighting Falcons, and not just because they are named after a bird this close to

Thanksgiving! (hang in there Falcon fans :-)

Happy Thanksgiving from me and all of us at the Wenatchee Wild!

Get stuffed on Thursday, and we'll hope you all help to stuff the Town Toyota Center this weekend for the two-game series with the Chicago Hitmen.

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

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

Well, Isn't That Special?

2010-11-19T17:21:00.001-08:00

Hey Wild fans! In this installment of "The 5-Hole" we'll be looking through the electron microscope at the 22 game's worth of special teams for this season's Wenatchee Wild.

As I write this, the Wild are still in the state of Alaska and getting ready to play the final two games of their six scheduled there against the Kenai River Brown Bears, who will trail Wenatchee by only 2 points in the race for first place in the Western Division standings when the puck drops for game one of the series on Friday, November 19th.

Wenatchee is also on a three game losing skid at the moment, having dropped the second game of two with the Fairbanks Ice Dogs on November 13th and being swept by the Alaska Avalanche in a pair of games on November 16th and 17th, which became the first time the Av's have ever swept the Wild in their history, and only the sixth time in 31 games head-to-head Alaska had ever won in regulation time over Wenatchee!

The rut also marks the first time all season that the Wild have dropped three games in a row, and only the fourth time in club history that they have lost three or more consecutive games (the longest losing streak in the team record books is five, and occurred within the first seven games during their inaugural season in 2008...let's hope they don't tie or break that one any time soon;-).

One of the biggest statistical reasons Wenatchee has had both success and failure during the 2010-2011 season to date is special teams. It's a large part of the game and, if you observe very closely, tends to typically represent a conspectus of all those "little things" we talk about so often in allocated specimens of two minutes or less (and sometimes four minutes or less and yes, even five minutes or less).

Since we've already hammered home a bit of the ugly that's been going on of late, let's begin with some of the "happy" surrounding the club's special teams numbers.

The Wild currently have the second best powerplay in the NAHL at 21.9% (30-for-137), and prior to November 17th's game against Alaska, they had laid claim to the league's number one ranking in that category for over a month.

Exactly 40% of Wenatchee's 75 team goals on the season have come with the man advanatge, and 48% are on special teams in general, when you toss in the Wild's half-dozen shorthanded markers. Those six shorties also place the team second in the league on that leaderboard for the season (the Motor City Metal Jackets are tops on the powerplay at 22.7% and have 7 shorties to lead the league in both categories).

Wenatchee has registered at least one powerplay goal in 12 of their 13 wins on the season and have two or more man advantage goals in six of those games (including a team record six against Fresno on October 16th). They have also posted five game winning powerplay goals on the season, plus two game winning shorthanded redlighters as well.

Over 63% of the Wild's powerplay goals have been scored at home, where they are humming along at a 28.7% clip for the season (19-for-66).

Individually, Wenatchee's Michael DiPuma is in the top five in the league among powerplay goal scorers with six and defensemen Chris Rumble and Zach Frye are in the top ten of the league's powerplay assist leaders with nine a piece. Rumble is also third in the entire league in overall powerplay points with 13, which is tops among defensemen in that category to boot.

And on the shorthanded front, Eliot Grauer and Evan Schmidbauer are among nine players in the league who have tallied two goals with their team down a man, which ties them both for number one in the league in that stat. As a team the Wild are also one of only three teams in the league that have not yielded a shorthanded goal this season (Motor City and Kenai River are the other two).

So all of that is great! Right? Well, there's also an unsightly underbelly to this dissection that we must also analyize before we turn in our final report from the hockey laboratory.

Wenatchee's penalty kill is 17th in the NAHL at 82.7% (115-for-139) and they are the eighth most penalized team in the league, averaging 6.31 times shorthanded per game (Port Huron is worst in the league in case you were curious at 8.76 average times shorthanded per game!).

The Wild have racked up the fourth most penalty minutes in the league as a team this season with 614 in 22 games (albeit that's a far cry from Corpus Christi's league leading 913 in 21 games!) and of the 57 goals against they have allowed as a team this season, 42.1% of them have been scored on the powerplay.

In the team's nine losses, the Wild have allowed a powerplay goal in seven of them and have scored a powerplay goal in only two. Even worse, 66.7% of the game winning goals scored by their opposition this season have been while Wenatchee is shorthanded.

And when we plunge the statistical scalpel even deeper into this penalty box frog we discover this rather disturbing affliction; in 14 games this season, subsequent to when the Wild have taken a two goal advantage over an opponent, they have been tagged for 82 minor penalties for a total of 164 minutes shorthanded and have allowed 16 powerplay goals, including two game winning tallies on two occasions when their opposition registered three consecutive powerplay markers to come from behind and prevail. Yikes!

Wenatchee also appears to be letting their man advantage Bunsen burner cool down of recent times too! In their first 11 games of the season the Wild went 28.9% (20-for-69) on the powerplay, but in their last 11 contests they are only 14.7% (10-for-68). In their last five games they are a mere 2-for-26 (7.6%) with the man advantage, including 1-for-19 (5.2%) on the current road trip and are 0 for their last 15 chances (..."Mr. Blutoski, that's 0.0%!").

So what's our final analogy?

That timing isn't everything, but it appears to have the most to do with special teams. At least for this season's Wenatchee Wild squad through 22 games anyway.

It goes without saying that if you are only going to be so opportunistic as to score one powerplay goal in a dozen chances, you'd hope that it would be with half a minute to go in regulation time to win the game. Yes?

Just the same, if you are going to sit in the box an average of more than six times per contest, it had better be after the rout is on in your favor. You savvy?

Given the season numbers and their struggles on the current road trip and last five games, it's obvious that the Wild are shooting themselves in the collective foot time and time again this season, while managing to dodge some other trajectiles that would further deepen the wounds of this club if not for their own enormous ability as a team...especially on special teams!

Which brings us back around once again to all of those "little things". Things like skating, being hard to and on the puck in all zones of the ice, taking the body and blocking shots. These as it turns out are not "little" components to the game at all. Instead they are in fact, the fundamental cornerstones for every successful hockey team and will not only defy any stat line you can dig up about a flashy powerplay, but also magnify the efforts of such a hard working squad when they are up or down a man.

Just play hard Wenatchee! And let the laws that govern hockey's chaotic science of special teams sort out themselves.

No testing was done on any animals during the manufacturing of, or scientific studies related to this blog...

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

Dirty Hockey

2010-11-15T12:10:00.003-08:00

Hey Wild Fans!

In this installment of "The 5-Hole" I thought we'd discuss the virtues of playing "dirty" hockey, and then segue into a few words about imports (don't worry, I'll explain in case you're already confused :-).

Currently the Wild are in the state of Alaska on a six game road trip that will see them play a pair of games against each of their Western Division rivals who are based in Seward's Folly.

Wenatchee's first two-gamer is now in the books, and their most recent contest as I write this blog was a 3-to-1 loss to the Fairbanks Ice Dogs on Saturday, November 13th (which for you real stat fanatics, was the first time the Wild had ever lost when playing on the 13th day of any month! - previously 3-0-0), which saw the team drop the backend of that series.

The problem in that game for the Wild seemed to be team speed and the continuing spell that Ice Dog goaltender Joe Phillipi has cast over Wenatchee. Fairbanks outskated the Wild in every zone on the ice and really sparkled in creating transition all evening long, while Phillipi improved to 4-0-0 with a GAA of 1.25 and a save percentage of .962 in his last four starts against Wenatchee going back to game two at last season's Robertson Cup Tournament.

Wenatchee had their chances, but unlike the first game of that series when the Wild won 2-to-1, they failed to get much traffic around the net and didn't linger in those "dirty" areas down low in the offensive zone to create opportunities.

Conversely, it was Wenatchee's ability to play "dirty" in the first game of that series against Fairbanks that most helped them en route to victory. In my opinion, that was the Wild's guttiest effort of the season and in the purest hockey terms, their most beautiful win of 2010-2011 as well.

No, it wasn't a glamorous victory filled with breakaway goals or lots of dazzling offensive plays. No one scored a hat trick or received a long pass to light the lamp while shorthanded, nor did anyone net a puck on a wraparound or crazily bounce one in from a hundred feet away.

Nope! Instead it was good old fashioned grit and elbow grease that got it done. Blocking shots, winning battles for loose pucks, timely teamwork on special teams and getting muddied in those "dirty" spots on the pond all earned the Wild a big win over their archrivals and served to bolster the collective fortitude of this still developing young team (albeit the follow up performance was lacking in the same moxie!).

Speaking of "dirty" play in antonymic terms, it appears that an undeniably deliberate attempt to cause injury has in fact relegated Wenatchee forward Carl-Johan Sjogren to watch from afar until at least the end of November with a knee problem.

Sjogren was contacted by the lunging leg of Dawson Creek forward Derek Johnston late in the final period of Wenatchee's 8-to-nothing blowout victory over the Rage on November 4th at Town Toyota Center and hasn't played in four games since then. Johnston received a kneeing major and game ejection for his belligerant act and, although he was allowed to skate in the following game, was eventually suspended by the league after their review of his decidedly malicious conduct.

Meanwhile, C.J. has been on crutches to aide in the process of his recovery and has taken an impressively mature high road on the matter. When I asked him on radio if he thought Johnston kneed him with the intent to cause harm, C.J. unassumingly responded "I don't know, if he did mean to do it then that's too bad, there's no place for that in the game".

I've been increasingly delighted when watching the 6'2" 215 pounder from Tumba, Sweden, who recently turned 20 years of age, interact with his teammates and also have thoroughly enjoyed chatting with him myself. He is uncharacteristically mature for his age and, in spite of his inability to speak perfectly fluent English (although he communicates quite while nonetheless) and his frequent curiosity towards some of the unfamiliar customs of daily life here in the United States, C.J. leads by quiet example with every stride he takes both on and off the ice.

C.J. will no doubt be a huge difference maker for the Wild during the back half of the season, and since joining the team on October 1st, has already amassed points in six of his eight games played and is averaging a point per game (1g, 7a for 8pt in 8gm).

Sjogren always reminds me so much of bigger forwards at the NHL level like Russia's Alexei Kovalev and the Slovakian born Marian Hossa. C.J. is Swedish of course and is Wenatchee's third ever import player from outside of North America (not counting Armand Deswardt of course, who was born in South Africa but played all of his hockey in the United States...nice try Wild archivists!). Ironically the Wild's other two imports in team history are both from where Kovalev and Hossa hail from.

Going back to the club's inaugural season, you might remember Russian born forward Andrey Smirnov, who played in Wenatchee's second, third and fourth ever games in team history at the Showcase Tournament in Blaine, Minnesota in 2008. Smirnov had no points in that trio of tilts and didn't make the trip back to Wenatchee, thus ending his very short stint with the team, but still becoming their first ever player from foreign shores to step on the ice for the Wenatchee Wild.

Fans also might recall the name of Slovakian born winger Martin Dubec, who played with the Wild back in 2008 as well. Dubec saw action in only two games for Wenatchee and suffered a seriously broken leg in period three of his second contest. The injury kept Dubec out for the remainder of that season, however he has fully recovered and began the 2010-2011 season with the NAHL's St. Louis Bandits where he put up 1 goal and 4 assists in 10 games before being cut loose by St. Louis last Friday (November 12th).

Might "Dubie" return to Wenatchee and help fill the void left by the now injured Carl-Johan Sjogren? Seems almost too ridiculous to suggest I suppose, and even though C.J. will heal up and rejoin the team soon (we hope!), perhaps the Wild should center their attention strictly on players from North America in the future? We all love those flashy imports, but it seems that the ones arriving to Wenatchee are cursed to require maintenance all too soon after their arrival!

Get well soon C.J.! And all the best to Martin Dubec and Andrey Smirnov, in wherever hockey and life take you both!

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

Welcome to The 5 Hole with Chris Hansen

2010-11-09T12:00:00.000-08:00

Hey Wild fans (and to those who arrived here by mistake or the otherwise morbidly curious)...Welcome to my new blog!

As the play-by-play voice of your Wenatchee Wild and a huge fan of everything connected with the pucks, this will be the new spot on WenatcheeWild.com for me to share my thoughts and insights with all of you about the team, hockey and just life in general, and for you to answer back and sound off your own.

Before we face off on our first ever subject, I feel it important to reveal a bit of my antiquity and let everyone know that "blogging" is, in it's most technical state, a relatively new concept for me.

During the portion of my life when there was no internet (which is a few more years than when there has been;-), this sort of thing would have been more familiar to me as an "editorial" and you would have needed a good friend in the newspaper biz to get the chance to gain an audience with such a forum.

So I consider it a real privilege to be given the opportunity to communicate with this many of you at once, and to so swiftly add such a large measure of much needed tech-savvy credibility to my otherwise hopelessly outdated nature and just plain lameness when it comes to the younger crowd too.

Who knows? Maybe this will actually lead to my purchasing a real cell phone and a way to hopefully text message in cursive.

I thought the most logical topic to start off this whole endeavor would be the current state of the team, with a bit of history to help us gain an accurate perspective, along with some conjecture about where they might be headed.

This is the Wenatchee Wild's third season of existence in the NAHL, and they currently have a record of 12-6-0 in 18 games for a total of 24 out of a possible 36 points. The club has the sixth best winning percentage in the league and are on top of the standings in the Western Division.

Still, despite all of these literal and theoretical positives, there seems to be a growing state of restlessness surrounding the team in many ways.

The expectations are high as always for this franchise that captured the hearts of fans everywhere with their Cinderella run to the Robertson Cup's final day in their inaugural season, and last year set the standard by which every team in the league was measured.

But the message I’d like to resound is “give it time”.

This is a group that is still learning the eccentricities of one another on and away from the ice, and I believe this is much of the reason why we have all seen such a roller coaster of efforts and variety of final scores to this point in the season.

It’s one thing to know that as a player, you are going 110%, but an entirely different feeling to trust that all of your teammates are as well.

Also, in order to start winning in every way, sometimes you have to learn how to lose in a lot of them too and Wenatchee certainly appears to be seasoning themselves to a wealth of different game situations thus far…and that’s a good thing!

Yes, the team has only two wins in their last five games, but in only two of those was the group’s collective effort called into question by the coaching staff. Plus, let’s not forget that the Wild ran into two of the best goaltenders in the entire league in four of those five games and lit one of them up like a Broadway Christmas tree (Andrew Walsh on November 4^th, allowed 4 goals on 40 shots in an 8-0 final).

Just the same, this very goaltender came back to stymie the Wild two nights later with 41 saves on 43 shots on goal while in front of him getting five more goals in support, several of which came courtesy of some poor netminding in the Wenatchee end.

So the lesson in this three-game microcosm of the schedule for this fledgling pack is if you live by the sword (or the goalie stick in this case), you’re going to lose by it sometimes as well.

We’ve seen what this bunch is capable of in 60 minutes of their best hockey, and the results should truly be scaring the daylights out of the other teams in the league who are taking note.

Think of this season’s installment of the Wenatchee Wild on the ice like a fine wine if you will.

Season one’s team was like an off brand cola that was actually better than the giants of the industry…a real surprise!

Last season’s was like an expensive bottle of champagne that someone left open for just a little too long before the party could get started and disappointingly went flat.

The 2010-2011 crop is still in the process of maturing in the barrel, but given time will undoubtedly be tasting more like the fruits of victory than ever before at season’s end. (by the way, this was a difficult analogy for me to pursue, as I’m not a big fan of wine! Sorry Jan ;-)

Before closing, I want to say thank you to all of the Wenatchee Wild fans out there for your continuing support of the team in so many ways.

I hope you enjoyed our first blog time together. I promise they will get better (and shorter!). To be a broadcaster you do need to write a little, but I am much more adept at running my mouth than clamoring the keyboard.

Let me know your thoughts on your 2010-2011 Wenatchee Wild so far and we’ll chat about something new in the next few days. I am anxious to see what you all have to say!

Chris Hansen