Board Play Returns!

So, after a hiatus of almost a year, which I spent writing elsewhere, Board Play has returned! Just in time for a new NHL season too! Well, actually, just short of training camp. The dry period for the NHL is objectively short, but it feels frustratingly long when you're stuck in the midst of it. What I wouldn't give for some NHL hockey, or even some decent hockey news right now.

Just a refresher on what we're all about, or what I'm all about, here at board play. This is a hockey blog first and foremost, with a focus on the Winnipeg Jets and Colorado Avalanche. That said, because I am extremely knowledgeable (read: opinionated) this blog will also cover various goings on in the hockey world at large. That includes junior hockey, which I follow very closely, with a focus on draft-eligible prospects.

It's a bit of a dead zone for hockey right now, sadly. All is not completely quiet on the hockey front, however. The Penticton rookie tournament is fast approaching (though I wish it would approach, well, faster) and training camps will follow. Training camps are where some of the most fascinating battles of the year are waged, and this year will be no different. Both my favourite teams have open roster spots in their top 9 forwards for which youngsters and veterans alike will compete, with Winnipeg having the slightly more intriguing battles of the two.

Junior hockey isn't far off either, with the start of the season now about three weeks away and many exhibition schedules having already started. The Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament recently wrapped up with Canada winning it's eighth straight gold. This tournament is a complete reversal of the U18 World Championships in spring, as Canada tends to send its best players (since none of them are in the midst of playoff runs) while the Americans do not. That's a shame. It would be nice to see the best of the USNTDP (United States National Team Development Program) send their best against ours.

Just a brief, re-introductory post this week ladies and gents. When the NHL gets started and hockey is in full swing once again, I'll have more material for this blog than I know what to do with. Until then, keep those skates sharp!

Captain Fight!

Another classic between the Winnipeg Jets and Colorado Avalanche last night, this one decided 4-3 in a shootout after one of the best overtimes I've seen all year. In fact, that particular bit of 4 on 4 hockey, fast paced and open with chances at both ends, was the best argument you can make against the existence of the shootout (of which I am actually a fan). But that's a story for another day. I think a big rivalry is shaping up between my two favourite teams. Last time they played, it was a 6-2 drubbing the Jets laid on the Avs, but that was the exception, as most games between the two teams have been overtime events or one goal regulation nail-biters. The Avs and Jets made an excellent case to play a stadium series game against each other too.

At one point last night, the teams two captains, Gabe Landeskog and Andrew Ladd, went toe to toe in a passionate captain versus captain fight. Not a person in the rink or on either bench was sitting down, and it was one of the most dramatic, emotion-fuelled moments of what was a very dramatic, emotion-fuelled evening. It symbolizes the emerging rivalry between the two teams, and the fight was one of the big moments of the game.

And some people want to take that out of hockey.

I'm not going to make a logical defence of fighting here and now. I could, and there are logical, well thought out points on both sides, but for the moment I'm interested in the emotional response. I loved it! Hockey is a fast paced, emotional game, and sometimes those emotions boil over. When they do, the result can be an epic, rivalry-enducing fight like the one between Ladd and Landeskog. Some real hate is brewing between these two teams, and while some nasty incidents come from good rivalries, so do some of the best hockey games you'll ever see. Fighting is both an outpouring and a symbolism of those rivalries, and I love it. I love the emotion that comes with it.

Some people will say, "Well, other sports don't have fighting, why should hockey?" To which I would ask, why do we want hockey to be like other sports? Basketball lacks any appeal for me largely because points are too easy to come by, soccer sickens me with the diving antics (and also bores me), baseball is slower than molasses and capital-B Boring, and football has all the pace of car chase in which both drivers are blind and also dead. Fighting is one more thing that makes our already great sport unique. Please, keep it in the game. I don't want hockey to be like other sports, and neither should anyone else. We're better than that.

Edmonton Oil Spills

So the Avs decided to make me a liar, looking back at my last post. Just when it seems they had turned a corner, they blow both games on a two game back to back, the second in truly spectacular fashion tonight to the Winnipeg Jets. The Jets got their first ever hat trick at the MTS Centre, courtesy Brian Little, and if the playoffs started today, they'd be in. The Avs, obviously would not. People ask me what's the difference between this year and last and I'm tired of writing the same excuses: the goaltending is worse, they aren't moving their feet, pucks just aren't going in etc. I could make flashcards at this point. The fact is, the effort level doesn't seem to be there. Nothing upsets a fan more than that. That's one thing I've never been able to say of the Jets. Win or lose, they never had long stretches like the Avs have been having where effort is a four letter word. Oh well. Maybe this was just what the Avs needed to wake them up, or maybe it's just a function of the astounding number of injuries. Either way, it was fun to watch from a Jets fans point of view.

Once again I attended this game with my good friend Kyle, and while we were driving back from the game we started talking about the Edmonton Oilers, who right now are the best solace Avs fans have from their misery (at least we aren't Edmonton). What went wrong there? Other teams that were as bad or worse have gotten better. Look at who's on the right side of the NHL standings right now. Yeah, there's a lot of the usual suspects, but there's also teams like Nashville, Montreal, Tampa Bay, Calgary (that one hurts, doesn't it Oilers fans) and the New York Islanders who were as bad as Edmonton for stretches (recent stretches, though in Montreal's case it's easy to forget that). Now look where they are. But in Edmonton, as the great Yahtzee Croshaw would say, something f***ed up or more to the point EVERYTHING f***ed up.

The Islanders this year are a case study in everything the Oilers were and everything they could one day be. The Islanders have been abysmally bad for years, but suddenly turned a corner this year. They have a solid core of forwards, and this isn't just John Tavares' scoring roadshow anymore. They have a supporting cast of players with size and skill like Brock Nelson and Kyle Okposo, players with flash and dash like Michael Grabner and Frans Nielsen, and players with poise and patience like Ryan Strome. They have grit in the form of Cal Clutterbuck and Matt Martin, and added solid defensive presences in Johnny Boychuk and Nick Leddy (both Stanley Cup winners) and good goaltending in the form of Jaroslav Halak and Chad Johnson. The Isles have finally built a winner, and what's more, many of their future stars like Ryan Pulock and Michael Dal Colle still haven't cracked the lineup (though Pulock has recently been recalled and has likely overtaken Griffen Reinhart as the team's top defensive prospect). Good as they are, the Isles could get better still.

As for Calgary, they've drafted well recently, quietly acquiring good pieces in trades, and are getting extraordinary years from several of their best defensemen. They're tough to play against, fast, physical, and have two solid goaltenders. In Sean Monahan and Johnny Gaudreau, they have the future of their offense, to go along with the present in Jiri Hudler. They're also getting the most out of players like Josh Jooris, Lance Bouma and Michael Ferland, later picks and pickups who are contributing solid minutes at both ends and are tough to play against. They have slowly but surely built up a competitive young team.

But what about Edmonton? It's not like they didn't try to build a more defensively solid team. In recent years they've added Nikita Nikitin, Mark Fayne and Andrew Ference, all of whom were known as defensively solid players before coming to Edmonton. Up front they've added defensively responsible pieces like Benoit Pouliot and Boyd Gordon. They've completely overhauled their goaltending, picking up Ben Scrivens and Viktor Fasth, both of whom looked like, if not all star starters, competent 40-45 game goalies. Yet the goals keep going in.

They have explosive, fast, skilled young forwards like Taylor Hall and Jordan Eberle. They have players with excellent vision like Ryan Nugent Hopkins. They have a future power centre in Leon Draisaitl. They have talented wingers like Nail Yakupov and David Perron and Teddy Purcell to supplement a promising young core. Yet the goals keep staying out.

They have toughness from guys like Luke Gazdic, one of the games better heavyweight fighters, and they have other players like Ference and Matt Hendricks who are tough to play against. Even their star players, Hall in particular, are willing to throw their weight around. Yet they get continually out hit and outmuscled.

So what's the answer? Is it bad drafting? You could make a case for that. How much different might the team be had they drafted Jacob Trouba or Ryan Murray or even Hampus Lindholm instead of Nail Yakupov? What about all the later picks they made that never panned out? What if, instead of picking up another small yet skilled forward in Ryan Nugent Hopkins, they added one with some real snarl in Gabriel Landeskog? It's not like Landeskog can't score. In fact, he's been just as good if not better with the puck than Nugent Hopkins.

Drafting is an issue, but it's not the only one. The chemistry isn't there the way it should be, and Edmonton seems to be a bit of a black hole. Free agents who go there seem to whither, much like they did in Toronto for years, and perhaps still do. But Toronto (and I'm no Leafs fan, trust me) is farther along in their development than Edmonton. Toronto has seen the playoffs recently (albeit briefly) and seems like they can contend to once again. The Oilers, as of this moment, have no such hope.

Is it the coach? I doubt it. The Oilers have been bad through too many coaches. Coaches have passed like the seasons in Edmonton, and the problems are the same. The players? Maybe, but the supporting cast is drastically different from years past, and no matter how desperate they get, the Oilers won't trade Taylor Hall, nor should they. Eberle might be available, but would trading him or Yakupov fix the problem? Who knows?

How about management? They're faced with a situation where making a trade would be foolish (as they are dealing from a position of extreme weakness) but it may be impossible not to (as they are in a position of extreme need). They've turned over this roster admirably in a relatively short time; very few pieces are the same from the Oilers team of three or even two years ago. Yet the results are the same. Kevin Lowe? He neither plays the games nor chooses the players, yet he's the only constant through all the losing. But is firing him really going to improve the on ice product?

In the end, I don't know the answer. All I know is, Edmonton is turning into a place where careers big and small go to die. I really hope Edmonton doesn't win the draft lottery. I've said it before, I'll say it again. I won't wish a black hole like the Oilers organization on a young talent, especially a generational talent like Connor McDavid or Jack Eichel. Noah Hannifin or Oliver Kylington may be just what the doctor ordered, but for once I'd like to see Edmonton improve without being handed a top draft pick. The last thing I want is to watch one of those guys, McDavid especially, toil away his prime years in futility the way Taylor Hall is doing.      

Hockey thoughts at the end of November

-So NHL officiating seems worse than usual this year. I understand that's like a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay saying, "Gee, the waterboarding seems less pleasant than usual just lately" but I feel it's true. Whatever discipline process the NHL has for its refs isn't working. It might be time to look at a coaches challenge on calls. The refs and linesmen are missing too much and it's affecting the game. Enough is enough. Every year we're left talking about bad reffing, and every year I wonder why nothing is done about it. The NHL watches the same games I do, don't they? Time to start taking power away from the refs.

-It's like the Avs know when I'm about to blog. "Uh, oh," they must be saying, "that weirdo in Winnipeg is blogging about us again, better pull out a win tonight." They walloped the Dallas Stars last night, and even outshot them (I know right?) by a wide margin. Seriously though, last night didn't have the ring of an anomaly the way the other big wins of the year have, mainly because the Avs have  been winning more lately. It's not much, but it's a step forward. The big guns are all firing, though perhaps less so than they should be. Duchene and MacKinnon finally seem to be kicking into high gear. So can the Avs dig themselves out of the hole they sunk into during October and most of November? Only time will tell.

-Whatever else happens to the Avs, however the season ends, it's been a banner year for Tyson Barrie.  He has eighteen points through just 24 games, unreal numbers for a defenseman, leaving him tied for fifth among scoring by defensemen. I knew watching him as a junior player for Canada at the WJC that he was going to be something special, but this surpasses even those expectations. Barrie is the ultimate power play defenseman. He can rush it himself, he can play set up man or trigger man, he can distribute the puck with intelligence, and he can get his shot through traffic. He's on the small side, but the physical side of the game doesn't seem to bother him any. You don't see him get out muscled often either. He's a more complete version of former Av John-Michael Liles, with possibly an even higher offensive upside.

-Speaking of defensive scorers, guess who sits number one and two in that category. If you guessed Mark Giordano and TJ Brodie, in that order, congratulations, way to keep an eye on things. If you guessed that at the start of the year... no you didn't. Even fans of the Flames have been shocked by the surprise team of the Western Conference, battling it out with the New York Islanders for surprise team of the NHL.

-On the other end of the Alberta surprise spectrum, the Oilers have surprised me in all the wrong ways. Call me naive but I really think they have to turn a corner one of these days, don't they? At this rate, all the promising young players the Oilers fans are so excited about will be on the verge of retirement before they turn that corner. Goaltending is an issue, but so is... everything else. I really hope they don't finish last. I don't wish that sinkhole of an organization on a prospect like Connor McDavid or Jack Eichel. Buffalo, if it's not too much to ask, could you maybe start losing games again?

-Buffalo has been on a tear recently. They were on a short win streak, halted by the Winnipeg Jets, and then swept top-ranked Montreal on back to back games over the weekend. Hands up who saw that coming. Put your hand down, Gerald, you're so full of crap!

What is a Fourth Line?

My friend Kyle and I went to watch a game today between the Winnipeg Jets and the St. Louis Blues. He's one of the rare people I can have a really good conversation about hockey with, and since we haven't seen each other as much since school started it was great to just sit down next to the guy and enjoy what was overall a pretty good game. One thing in the game that both of us talked about was the presence and play of one Chris Thorburn. Thorburn has been ineffective in the extreme since he was re-signed to a three year deal this past offseason (which still baffles me). He can't win a fight, he can't make plays, he's an ineffective hitter... well, I could go on. His bad play, and my conversation with Kyle about it, was the catalyst for a thought on what a fourth line should do in the NHL.

In today's NHL, with the salary cap, the number of teams, the need for team toughness, and the need for penalty killers and heart and soul players, it's not practical or even possible to run four scoring lines. Teams are considered deep and talented if they can run three. A fourth line is there to not be a liability, first and foremost. A coach should be comfortable putting his fourth line out and not worrying about them constantly. A fourth line should feature players who can hit, work the puck down low, and generally play a rough and tumble game, finishing their checks at every opportunity and, in so doing, wearing down the other team's defensemen. If they score every now and then, that's a bonus. Their centreman is often the team's best face-off man and a top penalty killer. All of them are skilled in the art of agitating.

 The Jets opponent tonight,  the St. Louis Blues, provide an excellent example. Winnipegger Ryan Reaves is the muscle, tough as nails, willing to both hit and fight and adept at either, but no liability with the puck either. Steve Ott is all an agitator should be. He too finishes all his checks, he has decent skill, a surprising amount of leadership (he's been a captain before) and more offensive touch than most fourth liners. The same can be said of Max Lapierre, though I hate to admit it. Between the three of them they embody all a fourth line should be, and shame the Jets trio of Chris Thorburn, Matt Halischuk and Jim Slater.

The prototypical example, one of my favourite fourth lines of all time, came from the Boston Bruins. Enforcer Shawn Thornton, tough yet effective Gregory Campbell who once broke his leg to block a shot in the playoffs, and face-off man and top penalty killer Dan Paille. All three were tough hitters, each was skilled with the puck, and each of them possessed a motor that wouldn't quit. The Bruins won a cup with that fourth line and might've won another but for a prodigiously talented Chicago Blackhawks team.

Which brings me to the Jets fourth line. Where's the toughness? Thorburn? He loses most of his fights, and has barely fought this season. Where's the speed? Nowhere, though Slater at least plays up tempo. Puck skill? None to be found, again except for Slater, and Slater comes with the problem of being oft injured. Indeed if I was designing a fourth line Slater is the only member of the current line I would keep, not least because he kills penalties with the best of them.

What really annoys me about the fourth line is that better players for it exist within the Jets own locker room. Anthony Peluso is twice the enforcer Thorburn is, and frankly twice the player. TJ Galiardi agitates as well as anyone, and has good foot speed and a willingness to launch himself into other players fearlessly. He's also a solid penalty killer. His presence in the lineup would help give some of the Jets skilled players a rest on the PK.

So why does Paul Maurice keep the fourth line as it is? Your guess is as good as mine. It could be an order from the top. It could be he values what Thorburn brings to the locker room. Then too, Thorburn is close friends with much-maligned forward Evander Kane. Could that have something to do with his overlong stint in the lineup?

I've met Chris Thorburn. I like the man personally. He's extremely friendly and humble, and willing to make time for fans. It warms the heart the way he interacts with the rabid fan base here in Winnipeg. When Thorburn scored this goal https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8W01mXbYFQ
I've never cheered so loud in my life. I want the guy to do well, I really do. I'm cheering for him. But it's just not working, and the sad part is he's not the only fourth liner I can say that of. In the NHL, and especially in the tough western conference, you need four lines to compete.

The Jets have done a good job getting rid of some of the dead weight from the Atlanta days. To take the next step, they need a fourth line that isn't going to be a liability every time out.

Now For Something Completely Different!

The last time I went to a play was a couple of years ago at the behest (insistence) of my grandparents. It was a musical at Celebrations Dinner Theatre, called My Big Fat Winnipeg Wedding. For those of you not exactly in tune with pop culture, that's a blatant rip off, er, reference, to My Big Fat Greek Wedding. I do not like musicals. I did not care for My Big Fat Greek Wedding all that much either. So the two in combination were not good to me. On the other hand they served steak, so that was a plus. Last night I attended a play which, while decidedly lacking in steak, was also decidedly lacking in music, so that ought to have evened out.

WAIT A MINUTE, WHERE'S THE HOCKEY?

Pipe down, voices in my head, we'll come back to that next week. This week, plays.

I attended a play last night put on by Theatre Projects Manitoba. They performed Michael Healey's Proud, which was ostensibly a satire based on an alternate universe in which Stephen Harper's Conservative Party achieved not only a majority but a truly spectacular majority in which the NDP lost all the seats in Quebec. As much as I would have enjoyed that in real life, it was interesting to see Healey's take on things.

Of course this play turned out to be less a satire than a romantic comedy. Stop me if this sounds familiar: guy meets girl, guy is extremely busy and career driven where girl is far more relaxed and also overtly sexual, the two hate each other at first but grow to like, maybe even love each other and the busy career guy learns that, in the immortal words of Family Guy, casual sex can solve all of his problems. If that sounds familiar it's because it's the plot of every romantic comedy ever written. Including this one. So it loses some points for predictability and originality.

Where I thought it gained those points back was the thin veil of satire in which this rom-com was clad. The lambasting of Stephen Harper is surprisingly, bordering on frighteningly, accurate (and this is a right-winger saying this) and the actor playing him, Ross McMillan, did a stellar job. He has Harper's mannerisms, from his speech patterns to his method of standing, to his seeming social awkwardness (how much of that is a spectacle on Harper's part is up for debate) down to a science. He could convincingly masquerade as Harper himself fairly well. The female lead, played by Daria Puttaert, is named Jisbella, and once I got over how hilarious that was I noticed that she was just about the most overtly sexual character I had ever seen. Then I un-got over how funny her name was upon thinking that. Her name was about as subtle as her character which was about as subtle as a nuclear weapon. And you know what? It works! The portrayal of Harper is so blatantly, delightfully bland that this polar opposite Jisbella (I now suspect the author gave her this name on the condition of a lost bet) contrasts him nicely.

Whatever the faults with the writing (I could not escape the feeling that one of Matthew McConaughey or Ben Stiller was going to walk on stage to win the girls heart at any minute) there were none with the acting. Both the leads and the support characters, ably played by Kevin Gable and Eric Blais, play their roles to perfection, not one line is bobbled or delivered flatly, and even the bland character of Harper (who is so obviously satirical that naming him Hephen Starper would have been more subtle, but I didn't go there for subtle) comes off as deep and motivated. There are some cheap laughs to be had here, and one terrific monologue by McMillan in which he runs down all the things about which he does not care.

Compared to other plays... well it's been a while so, as I said earlier, no steak but no singing either. A solid draw.

Seriously though, it was performed with more feel than most other plays I've seen and I found myself enjoying it in parts. I wasn't spending the whole time poking holes in the plot, which was all too easy to do at some other plays I attended.

The inevitable question period at the end was as I expected: not a ton of new information. One interesting thing that arose from it was the McMillan's fascination with Harper. He even said that since Harper himself is an act when he addresses the media, Harper is playing a role; if Harper can act as his persona, there's no reason McMillan can't do the same, or such was his thinking. What disappointed me somewhat was that the writer of the play didn't attend, but the he couldn't possibly attend every talkback so I hardly begrudge him that. The most interesting part of this play was the underlying satire, and it would've been interesting to hear the writer's take on things, since it was from his mind that this satire arose. I would also wonder whether he intended to have the relationship between Harper and Jisbella (still can't write that with a straight face) overpower the satire, because, if there was one failing in the play, it was this.

The Two Best Games of the Year So Far?

Last night's NHL games brought two of the hardest fought, nastiest, fastest paced games I have seen all season. The season is still young yet, and it feels good to think that the best may be yet to come, but the best so far that I've seen came last night in a  pair of tilts that went to a shootout. The game between the Avalanche and Maple Leafs was fast paced, nasty, and featured great skill from both the skaters and the goaltenders. It featured goals and great plays from all the big names involved, some nasty play, and big saves. We even got to see, thanks to some of the aforementioned nastiness, several minutes of 3 on 3 hockey, which really does make me think the NHL could use more of this (and I'm not saying this just because the Avs dominated it for nearly the entire time). Matt Duchene and Nathan MacKinnon were flying for the Avs, and Phil Kessel had his legs going for the Leafs, and the speedsters went chance for chance in the high-paced, end to end style of hockey that left the coaches with a few extra grey hairs, and the fans with grins on their faces. Every NHL game should be as quick and breathtakingly intense as this game. There was a surprising amount of hate for two teams that see each other only semi-regularly.

Speaking of surprising amounts of hate, that Jets and Penguins game was one of the nastiest in my recent memory for the Jets. For the Penguins, part of some truly epic pieces of nastiness in recent years against the Flyers and Islanders, this was nothing new. This was a different kind of nasty from the old Penguins-Flyers, however. This was a kind of nasty that didn't feature silly, suspendable plays, or injury-inducing incidents. The hits were hard, but clean, and if there was a score that needed settling the players settled it like men, with their fists instead of with their sticks and elbows. The game had four fights (the official game sheet has only three, but that exchange between Jacob Trouba and Zach Sill was a fight, regardless of what the clueless officials thought) and none of them featured a "goon". Everyone who fought was a regular shit-taker for both teams. Anyone would have thought these two teams had a long bitter rivalry. The Jets to a man said they needed to play that harder, nastier game to be successful. Maybe they were right.

The one sour note from the Jets game, aside from the fact that they ultimately lost (a game in which frankly both teams deserved a win), was that we were left to question just what Chris Thorburn's usefulness to the team is. Four fights, and he's not involved in a  single one of them? It's not like the Penguins didn't give him reasons enough. If he's not here to scrap (something at which Anthony Peluso is better anyway) what is he hear to do?

Negativity aside, the games last night were a pleasure to watch. Especially fun to watch was Nate MacKinnon flying out there, dominating the play every time he was on the ice. Best of all, his feet were moving at that eye-blink speed we Avs fans got used to last year. Now he just needs to keep it up.

-Some CHL notes for you: Connor McDavid and the Erie Otters finally lost a game to the Niagara Ice Dogs last night. McDavid was held off the board, incredibly. However, worth noting is the fact that McDavid still has more points than Sidney Crosby had at the same point in his draft year. He's shaping up to be a special player the likes of which we haven't seen since, well Crosby. Some team (I should think Buffalo is the most likely candidate) is going to save their franchise drafting this kid.

-The Brandon Wheat Kings, who now sit 2nd in the WHL with 29 points and only 3 losses all season, continue to roll on. They were missing youngsters Nolan Patrick and Kale Clague during the recent World U17 challenge, but managed to steamroll their competition anyway. Jace Hawryluk and European import Rihards Bukarts are leading the way offensively. The Wheat Kings also have two players, Jesse Gabrielle and Ivan Provorov, who are potential first rounders for this year's entry draft. The Wheat Kings are probably the most feared team in the league right now, excepting the seemingly invincible Kelowna Rockets.

-One final WHL note to leave you off on. The Prince Albert Raiders fired their head coach, Cory Clouston, recently. Rumours abound that he has not been a popular man in any locker room he has stepped foot in (Yahoo sports indicated they had heard the Wheat Kings threw a party when they heard Clouston had been fired two years ago) and he lasted just 15 games into the season in Prince Albert. Yahoo also mentioned a rift between he and certain players, who asked for trades because of issues with him. It will be hard for him to get another job with that reputation hanging over his head. Yahoo also felt, however, that changes weren't done in Prince Albert. The team barely squeaked into the playoffs last year, and that was with German tower of power Leon Draisaitl in the lineup. The thinking is the raiders may trade Jets prospect Josh Morrissey as well. As junior teams often do, they may trade him to a contender if they playoffs don't appear to be a likely possibility. Ditto for the Kootenay Ice and their captain, recently returned Sam Reinhart. Could either of Reinhart or Morrissey find themselves in a Wheat Kings sweater after the trade deadline? It's possible. The Wheat Kings will want to load up for a deep playoff run, and Morrissey or Reinhart could be just the piece they need.