I had a chance to
spend some time at the rink yesterday to catch up with a few of the
Rebels following their three game Saskatchewan road trip… and to
film another episode of Southside Dodge Rebels This Week (yup,
shameless plug).
In looking back a trip on which they earned
three of a possible six points, the Rebels (as they should) are
taking the “good, but not good enough” approach.
“In
Swift Current, we had a rough game, didn’t do our best,” noted
Captain Turner Elson. “We need our work ethic all the time, every
sixty minute game, and we didn’t do that for the whole
trip.”
It
looks like the Minnesota Wild will have their 2012 first round draft
pick attending their training camp.
Red Deer Rebels Owner /
President / GM / Head Coach Brent Sutter fully expects to lose the
services of Mathew Dumba for a few days while he skates with the
teams that selected him 7th overall last June.
“Matty will
be leaving for sure,” Sutter confirmed before Monday’s practice
at the Enmax Centrium. “There’s a good possibility Matty could be
leaving before the weekend games [Friday at Saskatoon, Saturday at
Prince Albert]. He’ll be gone for a few days and then he’ll be
back again.”
Finally…
I’ve made it back to the blogosphere that I’ve missed so dearly
over these past few weeks.
Taking on the duties of News
Director has had me running all over the place. I’ve tried on a
few occasions to make time to write a new blog but haven’t been
able to do so until now. Heck, even doing this write up is gonna
take me the better part of two days, and not just because I’m a tad
slow. I’ll admit that I’m a bit late in sharing my thoughts on
some things, but what better time to get caught up than at the midway
point of the season (or just past it, I suppose, as the Rebels have
played 37 of their 72 regular season games).
When Brent Sutter announced that he was stepping back behind the Rebels bench, he also announced that he was bringing another veteran coach with him.
Jeff Truitt brings to Red Deer a long and impressive hockey resume... [ via whl.ca]... Assistant Coach with the Lethbridge Hurricanes
1993-96... Head Coach of the Camrose Kodiaks of the AJHL 1997-2000... Kelowna
Rockets Assistant Coach 2000-03 and Associate Coach in their Memorial Cup winning season of 2003-04... Rockets Head Coach from 2004-2007. The Rockets won the Ed Chynoweth Cup
as WHL Champions in 2003 and 2005.... Assistant Coach with
Springfield in the AHL in 2007-08, and then became
the team’s Head Coach in 2008-09. He was an Assistant Coach with San
Antonio of the AHL in 2010-11, and held the same role with Texas (AHL)
in 2011-12. Additionally, Truitt was the Moose Jaw Warriors Director of
Hockey Operations in 2009-10.
Truitt has experience with Hockey Canada; in 2004 he was an
Assistant Coach with the Canadian National Junior Team, where they won a
silver medal. Truitt was also an Assistant Coach with the Canadian
National Under-18 Team at the 2007 World Under-18 Championship.
I had a chance to speak with Truitt following his first practice with the Rebels on Thursday afternoon...
"I'm still a Red Deer Rebel, I always will be."
No hard feelings.
It would have been quite easy for Jesse Wallin to ride off quietly and leave us all wondering he was thinking.
Instead, the now former head coach of the Red Deer Rebels invited the local media out for one last chat as his way of saying "thanks" and to share his thoughts on his dismissal.
If you thought the winds of chance had already reached gale force levels with the Red Deer Rebels this season... today's events turned things up a couple more notches.
Gone are Jesse Wallin and Charles Inglis. In comes Jeff Truitt.
The reaction since the news came down at lunch time today has been both large and varied. I'm not much of a gambler, but I'd be quite confident in wagering that today's events set a new Twitter record for use of the #Rebelshockey hashtag.
Here the "coles notes" version of how the Rebels coaching situation has played itself out...
[ Sorry for the long delay between write ups, folks. The news end of my particular gig has been fairly hectic over the last couple of weeks. ]
It was back to basics for the Red Deer Rebels on Monday as they hit the ice for practice at the Red Deer Arena.
The Rebels sauntered home over the weekend after going 2-3 on their five game western road trip which (for the record) covered over 2300 kilometres. The final 700 of those km's were no doubt the most grueling being that they came after a difficult 8-1 loss to the Kelowna Rockets.
With a full week between games [next us is a Saturday night tilt at the Enmax Centrium versus Swift Current] the Rebels finally get a chance to do some real solid prep work for what will be an important stretch of games leading up to the holiday break.
