Prospect Info: Memorial Cup

[Behind Enemy Lines]

The Tournament of Champions is on in Kamloops. The WHL is trying to flip the switch on a massive championship drought with Seattle Thunderbirds and Kamloops Blazers delivering a two-fer run. Quebec Remparts and an underdog Peterborough Petes deliver the competition.


Top Players Watch: 2023 Memorial Cup Preview: Five players to watch closely on each team

Schedule: Memorial Cup

Day 1 Highlights (Up ohh): May 26 — Quebec 8-3 Kamloops - CHL

Blazers had a strong opening period but Remparts played a strong, structured game that they broke open in the second period.

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[Behind Enemy Lines]

Game day preview: Petes vs. Thunderbirds — May 27 | Canadian Hockey League

The Seattle Thunderbirds and Peterborough Petes get their 2023 Memorial Cup presented by Kia campaigns underway this afternoon from Kamloops. Both teams sat idle Friday night as they saw Quebec defeat the host Blazers 8-3 at the Sandman Centre. Tonight will mark Seattle’s third appearance at the...

chl.ca

Whoot! WHL Champs Seattle Thunderbirds take down the Petes.

Kyle Crnkovic nets three, Seattle Thunderbirds beat Peterborough Petes at Memorial Cup | TSN

The Seattle Thunderbirds, no stranger to winning crucial games at the Sandman Centre this season, won another one big one Saturday by defeating the Peterborough Petes 6-3 in the Memorial Cup opener for both teams.

www.tsn.ca

 

[CycloneSweep]

Kamloops spank the Pete’s 10-2.
OHL must be awful this year if they are getting destroyed this hard.

 

[Ritchie Valens]

What's with these blowout games so far...the winning teams through the first 3 round-robin games are averaging 8 goals for and the losing team is averaging just under 3.

 

[Behind Enemy Lines]

A WHL blowout ... been a longggggg time in Memorial Cup play: Memorial Cup: Kamloops 10, Peterborough 2

Petes were a heavy underdog within the OHL and appears their roll has ended with the Champions tournament.

 

[Behind Enemy Lines]

Not a lot of interest so I'll stop posting updates.

Will say that last night's Remparts v Thunderbird's game was excellent. Quebec City played a flawless defending game keeping a high skill Seattle team outside with little interior pressure. Actually reminded me of the Golden Showers v Oilers series with a similar contrast in styles. I do expect these two teams to meet again on Sunday. The Thunderbirds can play and win against the Q champions. I think they played a B game for them. But will have to be much better at getting their shots through on net, crash the net HARD, and break through strong, connected neutral zone and own zone disciplined defending.

 

[McDoused]

I was not expecting Quebec to run away with this thing. I think I need to give the Q more credit.

 

[Fixed to Ruin]

I was not expecting Quebec to run away with this thing. I think I need to give the Q more credit.

Historically speaking the Remparts goaltending usually fails them at the most critical times.

 

[bellagiobob]

 

[Lacaar]

I was not expecting Quebec to run away with this thing. I think I need to give the Q more credit.

I was a bit surprised in their loss to the Pete's. I wonder if it's a gamesmanship loss. It's just a wierd tournament and that loss actually helped them I think. Forces more games and fatigue from the field.

 

[joestevens29]

NJ fans must be drooling a bit seeing that. Seems to be what their team is lacking up front.

 

[Behind Enemy Lines]

NJ fans must be drooling a bit seeing that. Seems to be what their team is lacking up front.

That was a huge moment in last night's game. Kamloops was dominating the Petes again and got some traction from this big hit and beat down. Will say this was more about Kamloops losing that game than the Petes winning. Trainwreck bad d-zone decisions squandered a 3 goal.

 

[chaser17]

Reid Schaefer looked terrible all tourney, glad Kenny sold high on him to get Ekholm.

 

[Lacaar]

I didn't watch but I am shocked how poor Seattle did in the Final. That was a shit kicking.

I thought this was the best Whl team we'd sent in a long time.

And yah the stats line didn't look good for Shaefer as it looked like he took a few dumb penalties. Would have made a good Oiler

 

[Behind Enemy Lines]

This looked like the year for WHL to break its longgggg Memorial Cup. Seattle won the Dub with relatively short series and Kamloops looked liked a solid host team. Unfortunately WHL is proving out as the weak little sister of the CHL.

Remparts with a textbook, structured defensive game that absolutely stifled Seattle across two head-to-head games. Seattle obliged with a largely perimeter game featuring over passing and little drive to get to the net. Shocked by how in-effective Seattle's top line was all tournament - essentially zero production. Guenther and Lambert were invisible and Shaefer only notable for bad penalties. Compounding that was a tournament worst 9% power play ... a full 10% lower than the next team and whopping 26% lower than tournament leader.

Blazers unfortunately bowed out to an OHL underdog representative Pets team giving away a 3 goal lead with brutal, shoddy defensive zone giveaways. Sad to see the WHL bottom out for so long in this Champions tournament.

 

[chaser17]

This looked like the year for WHL to break its longgggg Memorial Cup. Seattle won the Dub with relatively short series and Kamloops looked liked a solid host team. Unfortunately WHL is proving out as the weak little sister of the CHL.

Remparts with a textbook, structured defensive game that absolutely stifled Seattle across two head-to-head games. Seattle obliged with a largely perimeter game featuring over passing and little drive to get to the net. Shocked by how in-effective Seattle's top line was all tournament - essentially zero production. Guenther and Lambert were invisible and Shaefer only notable for bad penalties. Compounding that was a tournament worst 9% power play ... a full 10% lower than the next team and whopping 26% lower than tournament leader.

Blazers unfortunately bowed out to an OHL underdog representative Pets team giving away a 3 goal lead with brutal, shoddy defensive zone giveaways. Sad to see the WHL bottom out for so long in this Champions tournament.

Mem cup is a great tourney but I generally don't put too much stock into it. As one WHL exec once said to me years ago. "The memorial cup is a complete crapshoot, anything can happen and anyone can win with the round robin and single game elimination format."

 

[Behind Enemy Lines]

Mem cup is a great tourney but I generally don't put too much stock into it. As one WHL exec once said to me years ago. "The memorial cup is a complete crapshoot, anything can happen and anyone can win with the round robin and single game elimination format."

It's the tournament of champions. Winning matters unless you aren't doing it. For the Dub to have 1 championship this past decade and 3 total going back to 2007 is a problem. To not win out the crapshoot more frequently defies the odds of a 4 team tournament including every 3 years having 50% of teams competing.

The league has a lot of variables that are a bit more unique in terms of travel, #of teams and such. However it still should have a better accounting for itself imo in the Mem Cup. I've watched the league for five decades. Disappointing especially this year when both Dub participants rolled out Q league type dealing to stack their rosters.