Rookie-laden Hitmen no match for high-powered Warriors lineup
GM Chynoweth facing trade deadline decisions as team’s playoff hopes fade
If anyone was at the Saddledome on Friday night looking to draw conclusions about the Calgary Hitmen, they came to the wrong place.
The Moose Jaw Warriors aren’t the type of team you beat when you can’t put your best team on the ice.
On Friday, the Hitmen (12-21-51) were far from their best.
The biggest cheer of the night from the crowd came when the Canadian world juniors were shown accepting their gold medals in Buffalo, while an almost-impossibly young Hitmen team laboured to a 5-3 loss to the No. 2-ranked team in the Canadian Hockey League.
The Hitmen’s best player, Jake Bean, was on the ice in upstate New York, celebrating winning gold. Dropping two points to the Warriors matters in the standings, of course, but whether the Calgary club opts to trade their star defenceman in the coming days will have a much greater impact on their future.
From a practical standpoint, it’s becoming increasingly obvious that Bean should be moved.
The 19-year-old Calgarian will likely get a call-up from the Carolina Hurricanes next season, and there’s surely a WHL contender out there who wouldn’t mind giving up an asset or two to use Bean as a rental for their push toward the Memorial Cup.
The Warriors (32-6-1-2) appear to be the team to beat in the WHL this season, and they showed why on Friday night.
The Hitmen were able to hang tough in the early going, but it took less than 10 minutes for the Warriors to get on the board when Jayden Halbgewachs finished off a near short-handed breakaway goal.
Only eight minutes later, the visitors doubled their lead when Tanner Jeannot scored his first of two on the night, and by the end of the second period, Dmitri Zaitsev had made it 4-0 for the Warriors.
Riley Stotts put the Hitmen on the board in the third period with two goals, and Layne Toder added another to pull them within two goals late, but there was never really any threat of the Hitmen mounting a comeback, something Vince Loschiavo made sure of by potting a pretty top-corner shot midway through the period.
A loss is a loss, and the Hitmen weren’t happy with Friday’s result, but it would be hard to make a case that this was a game the Calgarians should have won.
The Hitmen were dressing nine rookies against the Warriors, in- cluding three affiliate players. For Luke Prokop, the Hitmen have been required to get special permission because he’s gone well over his five-game limit.
Injuries have also taken their toll on the Hitmen, and it’s hard to know just how good they might be if their entire lineup was available.
The sad truth, though, is that it’s not.
The Hitmen are 13 points back of the Regina Pats for the third and final Eastern Conference wild-card spot, and while the seven-point gap that separates themselves from the Lethbridge Hurricanes — who are in the last playoff spot in the Central Division — isn’t impossible to overcome, it will be a stretch even if they get healthy.
For now, that makes Hitmen GM Jeff Chynoweth’s off-ice decision making between now and Jan. 10 more important than anything that happened in a Friday night loss to the best team in the WHL.