Can't Hardly Wait

So as the season gets ever closer I'm finding it difficult to get back into the swing of writing about hockey more often. So to catch up this is a small update of everything that's happened over the past week or so.

The Chiefs went 1-2 in their first preseason weekend, beating Seattle while losing to Tri-City and Portland. Most notable player in those three games was Matt Marantz who had two goals and one assist and is playing like an absolute maniac. I like this trend: a player who was not drafted in the bantam draft ends up getting listed by the Chiefs and plays with a chip on his shoulder. Considering Tokarski, Blackwater, and Koper all fall into this category this story seems to have a happy ending. Someone needs to start up the Matt Marantz bandwagon quick (I have already committed myself to starting up the Dominik Uher bandwagon).

The Chiefs have also slimmed their roster down to 31 players. I was surprised that both Brenden Edie and Cole Hamblin were sent down. Hamblin had a good fall camp performance and looks like he'll be a solid defensemen. Edie was stellar in net from what I saw and I thought he had a decent shot at becoming the Chiefs #2 goalie. Other than that no real shockers. One thing this does tell me is that the Chiefs have a lot of good young talent on this team. It's one of the reasons I am very optimistic and excited for this season. With the players we lost in the offseason I was a little worried about how good the Chiefs would be, but the solid play by the newbies made that worry short lived.

Some of the players are away at NHL camps: Mitch Wahl (Calgary) Jared Cowen (Ottawa), Levko Koper (Atlanta), Tyler Johnson (Minnesota), and probably the coolest one of all is James Reid, who is attending Vancouver's camp. Glad to see the NHL has noticed his talent. He has some enormous skates to fill, but I think he's up for it. Number one goalie here for sure.

I also noticed the Chiefs (as well as everyone else in the WHL) has gone to the new Reebok edge jerseys. Nothing too exciting. They look almost identical. My jerseys are in good shape still so I can get at least another year out of them. I started to freak when I saw the price online but I think that's through river city sports, and they inflate their prices something fierce. I mean, really, $75 for a hooded sweatshirt? The new jerseys should be cheaper at the team store.

The Chiefs continue their preseason Thursday down in Tri at their Tournament. Then the regular season starts up next week.

This is gonna be good!