One To Watch: Ottawa Senators

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This one was easy. Not that the Senators pool of prospects is shallow, not at all in fact, but for me there is one guy that is beginning a huge chapter in his career this year that I can't overlook. 

No, it's not any of the OHL picks in recent years although I'm not going to criticize anyone who has taken a shine to Cody Ceci, Shane Prince, Stefan Noesen or Matt Puempel. All are solid prospects in their own right.

Swedes Mika Zibanejad and Robin Lehner? Worthy but also neither are the guy I am thinking of. It's not the Love Expert, Louie Caporusso, or Frenchman Stephane Da Costa either. 

My pick as one to watch for the Senators is a former King. 

Wheat Kings on Royal Roll

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The Brandon Wheat Kings have gone through quite a few changes on and off the ice in the last year. They dealt franchise forward Brayden Schenn at last year's deadline, and this off season watched Kelly McCrimmon step down as Head Coach and hire Cory Clouston to coach the club. But the Wheaties haven't missed a beat early in the season as heading into Thursday nights action they sat a point out of first place in the East Division.

Hands of Stone

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Up to this point the term 'Hands of Stone' has always been used in a negative way to describe a player who just can't produce offensively even when goals are gift wrapped for him. That saying might be due for an update because after notching 8-points in Canada's two Red/White games, Brandon's Mark Stone (OTT) is proving that there's absolutely nothing wrong with his hands.

Wheat Kings cruising despite ugly ending to game

The Brandon Wheat Kings took the Regina Pats to the woodshed Friday night, in a 10-2 pounding that was filled with fights. 3 broke out in the final minute and a half. Oilers prospect Toni Rajala notched a hattrick and chipped in with 2 assists giving him 55 points in 50 games, and 16 multi point games this season. The win gives Brandon a 2 point cushion on Calgary and Saskatoon and improves the Memorial Cup hosts to 12-0-1 in their past 13.

The game might prove costly though as Wheat King Mark Stone needed help off the ice after a scrap with Regina's Colton Teubert. This from Luber's Lounge on the incident.

It was an ugly end to the game as Stone was goaded into fighting by Teubert, who followed the winger around the ice despite his team being on a 5-on-3 penalty-kill and was going to be assessed slashing and elbowing penalties before the fight happened.

"Very disappointed and just totally unnecessary and certainly wish that it hadn't have happened...it's just a fight we didn't need," said Brandon GM/Coach Kelly McCrimmon, "We were, I thought, doing the right thing. We had a 5-on-3 power-play late in a 10-2 game and we could have put our big boys out and jammed it down their throat and tried to make it 11-2 or 12-2 but we did what we thought was the right thing and the right way to play the game by putting out the guys that don't get that opportunity as much. I think what happened was very, very disappointing...I can't sugar-coat it, I can't say it any simpler than that, I thought it was really unnecessary."

Somehow, Teubert managed to escape an instigator penalty on the play and what would have been an automatic game misconduct.

The incident so irked the Wheat Kings that Brandon co-captain Brayden Schenn, a teammate of Teubert's on the Canadian Junior Team and a prospect with the same NHL organization (Los Angeles) came across the ice while Teubert was being escorted to the Regina dressing room to give the defenceman his opinion of what transpired.

Earlier this week Guy and I spoke with the voice of the Wheat Kings Bruce Luebke to find out what's going right for Brandon and you can hear that conversation here.

(photo courtesy Brandon Wheat Kings)