Saturday, December 11, 2010

Tweet This

In an age where covering the prospects of the New York Rangers and New York Islanders at times can make one wish someone would have a hockey version of Wikileaks along comes a breath of really fresh air. See in a year where trying to get even simple answers on prospect injuries can get down right silly, the Brandon Wheat Kings did something that may be a first and a last on Friday.

The Wheat Kings took to Twitter on Friday to openly dispute a 2 game suspension given to Wheat King defenseman Ryley Miller. As our friend Gregg Drinnan over at "Taking Note" wrote "The fact that (Brandon GM/coach Kelly) McCrimmon is so outspoken and eager to exercise what he obviously feels is his right to free speech is a breath of fresh air."

Here is the tweet: "WHL slaps BWK defenceman Ryley Miller with a 2-game suspension . . . for what appears on video to be a clean, open-ice hit . . . Check for yourself.”

The Wheat Kings then offered up a second tweet offering up a link to the video of the hit along with what McCrimmon said about the hit . It is going to cost the Wheat Kings some money for doing this but really if you look at the hit then it is really hard not to see their frustration over what really does look like a clean hit.

Still when you can not get even a simple "he has got a XXXXX injury and we think will be out XX days/weeks" from 70% of the teams then boy was this so nice to see. Of course you can bet that there will be some sort of rule about using social media in place next season.

But until then one can dream of seeing John Tortorella using Twitter or Facebook to call out his players or question a call by a ref. Now that would be a sight to see.

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In prospect action it was more a New York Ranger night than it was for the New York Islanders as we can find 3 stars from the Ranger prospects but just 1 for the Islanders. For the Rangers the stars start with Roman Horak (2009 5th) for a 3 assist effort in his Chilliwack Bruin's 4-3 win over Lethbridge. 

If you are a Ranger fan then seeing 4 prospects with 30 points at this point in the year is something to be very happy about. The Ranger report is going to be found right here.

On the Islander side Matt Donovan's assist on Chris Knowlton's goal in the 3rd period tied the game at 3-3 as his 10th ranked Denver Pioneers rallied to come back to defeat the Alaska-Anchorage Sea Wolves 5-3. The Islander story was a quiet one as 3 prospects missed games due to injury and their story is right here.

(Brandon Wheat King logo courtesy of the Wheat Kings, Horak/Chilliwack Bruins)

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