What's Left To Play For?

(NOTE - The latest episode of 'Southside Dodge Rebels This Week' is now online)

Even with their main goal of earning a WHL playoff spot no longer possible, there are still a few things on the line for the Red Deer Rebels this week.

If they somehow manage to win their remaining three games starting tonight in Medicine Hat, they would salvage a .500 record for the season. They enter tonight 30-33-1-5 on the season.

But I'm going to have a closer eye on the team scoring race... which is still very much a race in the final week of the regular season.

John Persson currently leads the way with 56 points (23 goals, 33 assists) in 67 games played. He is just two points ahead of Mathew Dumba who sits with 54 points (20 goals, 34 assists) in 66 games.

By no means are the totals overwhelming. But it could make for a interesting bit of team history.

No defenceman has ever led the Rebels in scoring through an entire regular season despite some rather impressive performances...

- Darren Van Impe (1993-94) had 20 goals and 64 assists for 84 points in 58 games (that translates to 104 points over 72 games). Craig Reichert led the team with 119 points.

- Ross Lupaschuk (2000-01) had 28 goals (team record for d-men) and 37 assists for 65 points in 65 games. Justin Mapletoft led the Rebels and the WHL with 120 points.

- Dion Phaneuf's best total was 56 points in his final season with the Rebels in 2004-05. Roman Wick led that team with 70 points.

You can draw your own conclusions as to what it would mean to have the Rebels team scoring leader possibly finish with under 60 points. (Brandon Sutter led the team with 49 points in the much maligned 18 win 07-08 season) But should Dumba finish as the team leader it would still be an impressive feat.

For his part, Dumba told me he doesn't think that he will end up winning the team scoring race...

"I think Johnny's got that. He's a great player, and he's a forward. I think he's gonna rack up more points than I will in the last few games here. I'm not too concerned about it."

We'll see what happens.

The Rebels visit the Medicine Hat Tigers tonight at 7pm. Cam Moon has the pregame show on 106.7 The Drive starting at 6:50pm.

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Oilers fans... help me out if you could.

You continue to show an incredible amount of patience despite the fact your team continues to pile up the losses one after another.

I get the fact that the Oilers are a young team with some impressive talent and plenty of potential. But how long should it take before progress is made when it comes to actually winning some games.

The coach has finally lost his patience (for what it's worth) and the Edmonton media is quickly losing it's patience (for what it's worth) but yet the fans for the most part have remained patient while waiting for results to come around at some point.

Perhaps it's the promise of yet another elite prospect soon coming in the form of another high draft pick. The Oilers appear to be a lock to finish 29th overall meaning they'll likely pick 2nd overall this June in Pittsburgh. Heck, if they win the draft lottery they could pick 1st for the third straight year. Nail Yakupov would create quite a log jam of talent in the Oilers forward ranks. Wouldn't do much for their sagging defence or leaky goaltending though.

For the record... my NHL allegiances do lie with Calgary. But also for the record... I've long desired for them to start a rebuild of their own. Sven Baertschi creates good reason for excitement... but the Flames could use a few more like him.