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PWHL Draft Recap: Torrent add goalscoring and controversy to their roster

The PWHL Draft concluded yesterday, with a bunch of depleted lineups changing hopefully for the better with the additions of fresh new talent from all across the globe. 2nd Overall Pick: Abbey Murphy – F Hometown: Evergreen Park, Illinois Dimensions: 5’5 Position: Forward Previous Team: University of Minnesota Draft Year Stats: NCAA Stats: 66 points (40 goals, 26 assists) in 31 games International Stats: 7 points (2 goals, 5 assists) in 7 games Oh boy. Off to a roaring start with this one. In any other year, this would be a slam dunk positive for the Torrent; Murphy was hailed throughout the last couple of years as the next big thing; an absolute scoring juggernaut at the college level that was pretty obviously the best player in the world not currently playing in the top women’s league. Her comparable pros are her teammates at the Olympics. Given how much of the Torrent’s roster got ransacked in the aggressive push for expansion, this kind of player would be exactly what the doctor ordered; a score-from-anywhere, ferocious, hard-headed fighter of a forward who can turn any shift exciting. This is the easiest pick any team could make in their position. Sure, she’s a bit of a firecracker on the ice, but that’s the kind of player that fans will come to love very quickly when it’s not happening to their team. …And then she decided to do the worst possible thing anyone can do; go on social media, and let her Opinions Be Known. Namely being apparently a fan of our current President, in spite of All Of That, and actively defending the US mens’ team that hit a land speed record in sewering goodwill that had built up over the course of the tournament. And I’m sure you’re saying “So what? An Athlete in a rich sport that’s a conservative? Who on earth cares?”, and it’s not necessarily an unreasonable response. We as sports fans (and especially hockey fans) are sort of used to that. It’s sort of part of becoming one; getting disappointed by bad opinions coming from our sports heroes or them doing something unfathomably dumb. Here’s the thing; the PWHL’s general audience? Does not like that. They are here because the women’s game specifically caters to them and their wants/needs from Sport and they may not have come into this from the perspective of the eternally jaded sports aficionado. There are much longer and much more potent memories in this side of the game than that of the men’s, usually because of learned experience and a clear need to keep a lot of the more unpleasant sides of the sporting world out for fear of that unsavory experience coming back with real personal consequences. To bring her to Seattle of all towns? With their fanbase as it stands? Right after being the Grand Marshals of Seattle Pride? That’s hoping you can let hockey’s insular culture cushion her from backlash. That’s trying to Hockey Man your way out of this. I don’t think you can hockey man your way out of this. Let me say this: I’m sure she’ll be decent in this league. She’s going to make a lot of enemies with her style of play, and I’m sure she’s aware of it, and actively welcomes it. But I hope she’s ready, because while she will have friends in this city…she’s gonna have a much more lukewarm response than I think she’s ready for. Welcome to the Torrent. Hope you’re braced for impact. 14th Overall: Sydney Morrow – D Hometown: Darien, Connecticut Dimensions: 5’7 Position: Defense Previous Team: University of Minnesota Draft Year Stats: 38 points (8 goals, 30 assists) in 39 games This was a great year for defense in the women’s game; Caroline Harvey will unfortunately be a very close and noteworthy problem for the Torrent, but much of the draft’s first two rounds was comprised of blueliners that will help shore up the next wave of teams. Morrow, was one such player. Morrow found her game in her sophomore season in the NCAA, going from about 8 points in 33 games at Ohio State to over a point per game after transferring to Colgate University, and getting to show some real impressive work with the Golden Gophers once she ended up there; putting up 30 points in 42 games and 38 points in 39 games this year. Morrow’s pedigree is exactly the kind of thing a scout wants to see; Shattuck St. Mary’s; the prep school that seemingly engineers hockey players above all else, from a hockey family, solid work in her brief time as a member of the USA U-18 team, and of course her quick rise into being a major contributor at the college hockey level on the back-end; not an easy feat in the women’s hockey game. Welcome to the Torrent, Sydney! 26th Overall: Emerson Jarvis – F Hometown: Mundare, Alberta Dimensions: 5’4 Position: Forward Previous Team: Quinnipiac University Draft Year Stats: 38 points (17 goals, 21 assists) in 41 games Jarvis comes to us from the ECAC; a conference which this year was a three-headed monster comprised of Yale, Princeton, and my grandfather’s alma mater; Quinnipiac. Quinnipiac ended up 7th in the women’s college hockey poll to end the season, and Jarvis was a big part of that success; ending up 2nd on the team in scoring. Jarvis’ main calling card is her speed; which will avail her well on a team that seems to be going all in on relentless skating. And again, a much needed addition to the team given how depleted they are. A forechecking waterbug of a forward is exactly what the doctor ordered for this team that needs to generate excitement now that the roster is almost totally unfamiliar. Welcome to the Torrent, Emerson! 38th Overall: Grace Elliott – F Hometown: Cloverdale, British Columbia Dimensions: 6’2 Position: Forward Previous Team: University of British Columbia Draft Year Stats: 37 points (24 goals, 13 assists) in 28 games They apparently grow them big out in coastal BC, because good gravy; 6’2? Elliott comes from the USports system; Canada’s version of the NCAA. Her team; the Thunderbirds, had a phenominal season out in the Canadian West; winning all but two of their games against an admittedly small and fairly weak division. But! You have to play the games you are presented with, and UBC finished their year with a 5th place finish in the entirety of USports; beating Ottawa and Waterloo, and might’ve been able to get away with a 4th or even 3rd place finish had Montreal not beaten them in OT. Grace Elliott was far and away the straw stirring the drink for UBC: being their leading scorer by a preposterous 15 goal margin, tied for 2nd-most assists with 13, and by far UBC’s best women’s hockey player. No, I’m not kidding. She leads the all-time list for the school. She also had the most penalty minutes at 44, but I can only imagine it is because doing even basic plays with a stick at her height meant she was prone to just catching players while standing upright. With that in mind, she is extremely used to taking control of just about any and all shifts she finds herself in using her stick skill and of course, her size to her advantage. Her skating isn’t up to the comical level of speed as her cohorts, but I imagine her place in this lineup is getting to the dirty areas and actually daring the smaller players around her to move her while she takes care of business in tight with decent passing skill and shooting. She is a project, but one you could mold into a truly special player if given time and space to develop. Welcome to the Torrent, Grace! 50th overall: Grace Gilkyson – D Hometown: Calgary, Alberta Dimensions: 5’7 Position: Defense Previous Team: Yale University Draft Year Stats: 27 points (9 goals, 18 assists) in 36 games. Welcome back to the ECAC! I hope you enjoyed your quick jaunt to Canada, it’s back to getting Very Connecticut up in here. Your New-Haven Style pizza is already in the oven. Do not resist. Gilkyson comes from the Yale Bulldogs, and made a name for herself as a strong puckmover and dangerous third-fourth opportunity shooter for their squad; being second on the team in goalscoring among defenders with 9 goals. She and the Bulldogs enjoyed a tremendously strong campaign in 2025-26, finishing the year 26-10-0 and having a great showing in the ECAC tournament…before running into Emerson Jarvis and the Quinnipiac Bobcats. Won’t make that mistake again! Another player for whom good skating and mobility is a theme. I sense the Torrent want to build themselves in a specific image. Either way, welcome to the Torrent, Grace! 62nd Overall: Gabriella Durante – G Hometown: Calgary, Alberta Dimensions: 5’11 Position: Goalie Previous Team: Real Torino Draft Year Stats: 27 points (9 goals, 18 assists) in 36 games. EEEEEY OOOOOOH WE GOTTA EYE-TALIAN GOALIE OVER HERE Durante grew up in Canada but moved to Italy in order to become an Italian National Teamer in time to play for the Winter Olympics. Italy was shockingly solid at the Milan Olympics, and was one of the few goalies to try and actually test Team USA in any capacity during their meeting. Italy still lost, of course, but she absolutely played like she wanted to be in the history books; finishing with a .908 SV% in tournament play and a 1-3-0 record. She also played in the Division 1A World Championships for Italy, with a .911 SV% and a 3-2-0 record, where the team won Bronze. Meanwhile her club team; Real Torino, which has the most comical case of stolen logo I’ve seen in a good long while and has the unmitigated gall to try and explain it to their audience, benefited from her play quite a bit; finishing with a .947 SV% through 4 games with a 3-1-0 record. Given that Torino plays in a very small league in Europe with only six squads and 14 games between them before the playoffs, that’s not a bad record at all! It does however highlight that she will be coming in on the strength of her international play, which I think will translate beautifully if her work against the USA is any indication. Welcome to the Torrent, Gabriella! And there you have it! Where the Torrent got their roster absolutely sand-blasted by expansion, they seem to have re-thought their team in the simple maxim of Speed Kills. Skating speed, skating mobility, skating explosiveness, these outside of maybe one player is a major theme in their game. Will this translate? I think there’s a good chance it does, especially if their new coach Christine Bumstead is willing to embrace that identity and let the players go wild. On the other hand, you are now going to have to get ready for a lot of fan backlash regarding miss Murphy. That’s probably something the team and the league in general isn’t super-prepared for if the continued Britta-Curl booing is any indication. Only so much of that you can ignore before it becomes a longer term issue. In general it feels like a draft with a clear purpose, and obvious upgrades towards that purpose…but a real question of whether or not the team has it’s hand on the pulse of what’s going on around it. We’ll see what the rest of their offseason looks like, because there’s still plenty to be done, even if they’ve managed to lock down Mikayla Grant-Metis, Emily Brown, Aneta Tejralová, and Theresa Schafzahl. We’ll keep you updated on how that goes as the offseason moves on!

Kraken add Patrik Allvin as Assistant GM, add Pascal Vincent as Assistant Coach

The plot for both Lane Lambert and Jason Botterill thickens today, as the Kraken have added to their front office with the additions of names both slightly known and slightly unknown. Alison Lukan broke the story: The #SeaKraken announce Patrik Allvin as their new Assistant General Manager and Pascal Vincent as an assistant coach → t.co/ihmtYGt0UF— Alison Lukan (@alisonl.bsky.social) 2026-06-11T16:36:54.899Z Patrik Allvin is a swedish-born former player who was the previous GM of the Vancouver Canucks from 2022 to 2027; principally tasked with the unenviable problem of Elias Pettersson being good, stopping being good as hard as humanly possible, and then trying desperately to pull him back to being good while the team around him showed serious holes from day one. Combine that with the Quinn Hughes and JT Miller fiascoes and it paints a picture of a GM who was maybe promoted from scout to GM a little too fast; Allvin’s draft record has been decent, but acquisitions around the constraints put in front of him were just a little bit too much. Though it’s difficult to truly say that Allvin was 100% the problem when he’s had famously stable and normal owner Francesco Aquilini and Jim Rutherford breathing down his neck, it’s probably in everybody’s best interest that he’s in a support role for the time being. Vincent meanwhile, has had a similar story; Pascal Vincent is usually credited for his work as a coach coming into rough teams and getting them back into form over time; having done so with the Winnipeg Jets AHL affiliate and was the unlucky soul who had to pick up the pieces after the Columbus Blue Jackets fired Mike Babcock before he even coached a game. After that brief and not exactly fruitful stint, he went back to the American Hockey League, and quickly turned Montreal’s affiliate, the Laval Rocket, into a surprise juggernaut; winning the AHL equivalent of the president’s trophy and an appearance at the AHL Eastern Conference Finals. While he wasn’t necessarily able to pull that off this year (they got beat in the first round), it would not be a stretch to say that he was a major part of allowing the Rocket to be good as they were through the last two years, which arguably makes him one of that program’s better minor league coaches in the past couple of decades. He took a team that was regularly out of the playoff picture in the AHL, settling around 10th to 12th in conference, and made them a Top 5 team in extremely short order. Per EyesOnThePrize‘s AHL .gif guru Scott Matla, he is a man who will be sorely missed. Even if his teams have a predilection towards penalty minutes. I mean, if you have Arber Xhekaj, you kind of have to, right? As for my personal opinion, I am…cautiously optimistic! The Kraken have issues, that’s for sure, but nothing even close to the scream-yourself-awake nightmares the Canucks had and will continue to have even with the Swedes the fans like in charge. Did Allvin contribute to some of that? Sure! But he no longer needs to make those calls. He can just focus on the prospect pool and maybe some scouting responsibilities, which were always his strengths anyways. He’s also critically not got Franky and a man who remembers when Nebuchadnezzar was in power yelling at him! That may improve his ability to manage! Meanwhile, Vincent was given maybe some of the worst circumstances imaginable in his single shot at coaching in the NHL, and at just about every other stop he’s been at he’s been a shockingly strong coach! It helps that, of course, he is not going to be in charge of running everything. The parts of Lane Lambert’s game I think he can help the best is stuff that Lane would absolutely be willing to delegate anyway, like the offense. It also appears that the new meta for coaches is being extremely bald, so unfortunately I am very out of the running. Welcome Patrik and Pascal to The Deep!

Christine Bumstead Named Head Coach of the Seattle Torrent

The Seattle Torrent named Christine Bumstead as the head coach for the franchise’s second year. Bumstead was an assistant coach during the team’s inaugural season and takes over the role from Steve O’Rourke who was let go on May 22. In their press release, the Torrent’s GM Meghan Turner said, “Christine brings a valuable combination of hockey expertise, leadership presence, and an unwavering commitment to high standards.” Before joining the Torrent, she spent four seasons as an assistant coach with the University of Saskatchewan Huskies while also doing player development work with the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades. She later served as an assistant on gold-medal-winning Team Manitoba’s staff at the 2025 WHL Cup, and led Canada’s national team at the 2024 World Deaf Ice Hockey Championship as both head coach and general manager. As for an NHL connection, Bumstead was invited to join the Florida Panthers as a development camp guest coach in 2024, after that year’s Stanley Cup win, and sat in as an assistant coach for a preseason game. This gig apparently happened because of a hunting trip where she got a chance to discuss hockey philosophy with Paul Maurice during a long car ride. Also in their press release, Bumstead is quoted as saying, “I believe Seattle is the best city in the world for women’s sports. The best is still ahead for Seattle Torrent hockey, and we can’t wait to continue growing.” In this biased reporter’s opinion, she ain’t wrong about Seattle being the best city in the world for women’s sports. We’ll see how the season shapes up as the expansion process unfolds in the coming weeks.

Julia Gosling Signs Two-Year Deal With the Torrent

Julia Gosling rejected a foundational player offer (FPO) to become a key component for the Seattle Torrent next year. She signed a two-year deal and became the first of Seattle’s Phase 3 protections and fourth protected player overall. She will be joined by Alex Carpenter, Hanna Murpy, and Anna Wilgren, all protected in Phase 1. Seattle has two more protection slots to use before the Phase 3 deadline of June 12. Gosling became famous for her 5-point performance for Canada’s Silver Medal win during the Winter Olympics and tied Alex Carpenter for first place in points for the Torrent. Torrent fans must brace themselves for a team that will look very different than the one they knew last season. Detroit will now be home to Hanna Bilka and Cayla Barnes. Corinne Shroeder will now find herself between the pipes in San Jose. Hilary Knight is heading to Las Vegas, though this is a move to join Bilka and Barnes in Detroit in exchange for a first-round draft pick.

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Seattle Torrent Protect Wilgren, Murphy, Carpenter in Expansion Draft

The Torrent have made some interesting choices in the upcoming expansion process by choosing to protect Anna Wilgren, Hannah Murphy, and Alex Carpenter. Not exactly an expansion draft, the PWHL’s Expansion Roster Distribution Process is a six-phase series of very complicated (I would argue unnecessarily complicated) rules to add four new teams to the previously eight-team league, increasing the size by 50%. Because so many of the players are free agents, they couldn’t do a traditional expansion draft process, so we ended up with this. The Torrent signed Alex Carpenter and protected her, which was one of the three protection slots. The players on the roster eligible for protection are Fowards: Jenna Buglioni, Mikyla Grant-Mentis, Hannah Bilka, Alex Carpenter, Lexia Adzija, Danielle Sardachny Defenders: Cayla Barnes, Anna Wilgren Goalies: Corinne Schroeder, Hannah Murphy Everyone else is a free agent, including Hilary Knight. It’s all turmoil these days with expansion. With two more slots to go, the Torrent chose to protect defender Anna Wilgren and goalie Hannah Murphy. “Ha ha, Zaiem,” I can hear you saying now with a tinge of contempt, “you’ve made a mistake. You accidentally typed some other name instead of Hannah Bilka’s! Nice journalism and attention to detail.” If only. Yes that’s right, forward Hannah Bilka was not protected. Now, I don’t know what GM Meghan Turner is thinking here, but one thing that is of concern is that Bilka did not return to the Torrent after sustaining an undisclosed injury en route to winning gold in the Olympics in Milan. Since hockey injuries aren’t required to be disclosed and therefore never ever are, we don’t know what it was (is?). Maybe it’s serious? Maybe they are betting that she won’t get taken by an expansion team because of the injury? Or maybe it’s just an interesting decision. Hannah Murphy is not a surprising pick. She’s 22 years old and she has a lot of upside as a goalie, a position that tends to peak later in age. I also find her impossibly charming, but that was probably not a factor in the decision to keep her (probably). Defender Anna Wilgren was the third protection slot, which was the real surprise. Bilka or Barnes were the ones I was expecting, but Wilgren was a surprise. I have, however, since talked myself into it. Steve O’Rourke, the recently fired Torrent coach, spoke highly of her and I do like her 200 foot game. He talked about how she altered her game to try to make the Olympic team and it messed with her a bit, but as the season went on, she got better and better. Anna Wilgren being protected by the Seattle Torrent is probably the one decision that stands out as a surprise to most.My mind immediately went back to the postgame after her 3-point game vs. Minnesota. O'Rourke is obviously gone, but it shows how the org feels about her. pic.twitter.com/EMlQuiKX2B— Kyle Cushman (@Kyle_Cush) June 3, 2026 And so we march on with this overwrought expansion process. Where were you when we moved from Phase 1 to Phase 2?

Seattle Torrent Sign Alex Carpenter, Protect Her From Expansion Thieves

The Seattle Torrent re-signed forward Alex Carpenter to a 3-year PWHL Standard Player Agreement on June 2, keeping one of the franchise’s foundational pieces through 2028-29 and committing one of the team’s 3 protection slots under the league’s Expansion Roster Distribution Process (proper noun) ahead of 2026-27. If that sounded like word salad, it’s the entire expansion process is word salad. Carpenter signed as one of Seattle’s foundational players in June 2025 and played all 30 regular-season games of the inaugural season, serving as one of the first alternate captains in team history. The 32-year-old from North Reading, MA, tied Julia Gosling for the team scoring lead with 20 points, led the Torrent with 12 goals, and ranked second with 8 assists. Carpenter came to Seattle after playing 2 seasons with the New York Sirens. She’s the third all-time leading scorer in PWHL history with 63 points (31, 36A) and she has 16 power play assists, the actual most in league history. She’s also an Olympic medalists, having won gold in the 2026 Winter Games, and winning silver in Beijing 2022 and Sochi 2014. (She was left off the She represented the United States at the 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Milan and won her first gold after silver in Beijing 2022 and Sochi 2014. (She was a shocking cut from the 2018 gold medal-winning Pyeongchang team, so Milan was her first Olympic gold). She has 18 Olympic points (11G, 7A), which is fifth all-time in U.S. Olympic women’s history. The PWHL is adding four teams this season, and since so much of the league is not under contract, they can’t do a traditional expansion draft, so they have this byzantine six phase process that is…well, the video does a good job explaining it. But Carpenter is locked into one of the 3 protection slots available to teams during Phase 1. Teams have until today at 2pm to finalize their three protection slots before Phase 2: Expansion Team Foundational Signing Period. (No, seriously, that’s how it’s officially communicated by the PWHL. That is a proper noun.) There’s going to be a lot of turmoil with the league expanding by 50% from 8 teams to 12 teams. In addition to all the roster turnover, the Torrent also fired head coach Steve O’Rourke. These first few years of expansion are real Wild West.

Melinda French Gates Becomes Minority Owner of the Seattle Kraken

Melinda French Gates is becoming a minority owner of the Seattle Kraken, the team’s parent company said Monday, pending approval from the NHL. The size of her stake and the terms were not disclosed. French Gates, 61, the philanthropist and ex-wife of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, is buying into One Roof Sports and Entertainment, the company that owns the Kraken. ESPN’s Emily Kaplan first reported the deal. French Gates is worth about $30 billion, according to Forbes, and the investment is her first ownership stake in a major professional sports team. She joins a group led by majority owner Samantha Holloway that includes minority investors David Wright, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, and producer Jerry Bruckheimer. Holloway became majority owner in December 2024 after the death of her father, David Bonderman, the TPG co-founder whose group, Seattle Hockey Partners, won the expansion franchise. “As a longtime Seattle resident, it means a lot to me to have the chance to make this investment in our city and its future,” French Gates said in a statement. “I’m a big believer in the power of sports, and after many years of cheering on Seattle from the sidelines, I’m excited to have an even deeper connection to the Seattle sports community. Seattle is an engine of innovation in so many ways, and Samantha Holloway’s leadership of the Kraken and Climate Pledge Arena reflects that.” Holloway said in the statement, “Melinda is an impressive business leader, philanthropist and importantly, a Seattle sports fan. We share many of the same values, including a deep commitment to Seattle and a belief in building organizations that create lasting impact.” “It’s just time,” French Gates told ESPN. “What you’re seeing is a generation of women coming into their full power. I’ve walked into tough rooms, and being one of the few is very hard. Once we can create enough that we’re one of many, it just gets easier.” Though originally from Dallas, French Gates has lived in the Seattle area for nearly 40 years. She joined Microsoft in 1987, where she met Bill Gates, and worked on multimedia products before leaving in 1996. She co-chaired the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation from 2000 until 2024 and now runs Pivotal, a Kirkland-based organization she founded in 2015 to support women and young people in the United States and abroad. One Roof Sports and Entertainment, created in March, owns the Kraken and controls Climate Pledge Arena, along with the Kraken Community Iceplex, the rebuilt Memorial Stadium, and the AHL’s Coachella Valley Firebirds. The group is pursuing an NBA expansion team for Seattle. What this means for the Kraken Nothing changes from a hockey operations standpoint. Jason Botterill will continue to be the GM, they are conducting an audit, they will pursue free agents and make draft picks and attempt trades and it will be business as usual there. The addition brings financial security. Though the NHL has a hard salary cap, Scouting, front office salaries, player development, analytics, facilities, and support staff are not subject to an NHL salary cap and can vary from organization to organization, depending on the owners’ willingness and ability to spend money. A group with French Gates’s money can cover all of that through a rebuild without needing the team to turn a profit, and won’t be forced to cut costs or tear the team down in a bad year. There is also a very expensive NBA bid going on. In March, the NBA’s Board of Governors voted to explore expansion in Seattle and Las Vegas, and Holloway’s group, advised by JPMorgan Chase and Moelis, is the only public Seattle bidder. The NBA hired PJT Partners to evaluate the markets, ownership groups, and arenas and the expansion fees is projected to be somewhere in the $6 to $10 billion range. French Gates is now an owner in One Roof, the group pursuing the NBA team, so her money is already behind that effort. Though we don’t know the extent of her stake, her fortune is several times the projected fee, and because the NBA weighs the strength of each ownership group, her name helps the Seattle bid. Her most visible impact will probably be in the community. The One Roof Foundation has focused on getting more kids into sports, and French Gates has spent her career working on opportunities for women and families. Holloway said, “We’re really aligned on that.” For the Kraken, the deal leaves them with a richer, steadier ownership group. For One Roof, it adds another prominent name as it tries to bring the NBA back to Seattle.

Rangsook Yoon, the Frye Art Museum’s new curatorial director, envisions a museum where people can gather and be moved together

Before unpacking a single box in Seattle, Rangsook Yoon has already made an impression. The Frye Art Museum’s newly appointed Senior Director of Curatorial Affairs is still in Sarasota, Florida, finishing the installation of a sweeping exhibition featuring 95 works from 10 regional collectors, coordinating a cross-country move with her husband, a dog, and four […] The post Rangsook Yoon, the Frye Art Museum’s new curatorial director, envisions a museum where people can gather and be moved together appeared first on International Examiner.

Jet Set Fever lead guitarist A.L. Truong balances art and advocacy

Five-member band Jet Set Fever performs music spanning from grunge to punk to alternative, and since their founding in 2021 in Federal Way, the group has been playing live and releasing singles, as well as an EP entitled Nothing Tracks.  Jet Set Fever’s co-guitarist is A.L. Truong, a local musician who has explored rock, metal, […] The post Jet Set Fever lead guitarist A.L. Truong balances art and advocacy appeared first on International Examiner.

With Bush Garden re-opening imminently, a look back at its storied past

To commemorate the re-opening of Bush Garden restaurant, a Chinatown International District hangout for decades, the International Examiner is reprinting a story I wrote ten years ago on the Nisei-era (1956–1970s) history of the restaurant for the North American Post.  To that write-up, included below, I would add that through the 1970s and even early […] The post With Bush Garden re-opening imminently, a look back at its storied past appeared first on International Examiner.

Firebirds season ends in 4 games in AHL Pacific Division Final

Just not to be. The Coachella Valley Firebirds faced Colorado in Game 4 last night, and unfortunately, with their season on the line, couldn’t stymie the advance of the Eagles in the AHL Postseason, losing a heartbreaker 3-2 hot off the heels of a 4-1 beatdown. Colorado can be a scary place to play hockey. Let’s Give a Hand To… Oscar Fisker Mølgaard: Even in defeat, for these brief few weeks while Colorado’s Ivan Ivan can’t accrue any more points, he leads the AHL playoffs in points with 11 in 12 games played, and is tied for the playoff lead in goals with 7. This young man found another gear in the playoffs, and went from a solid two-way center to a cornerstone of the Firebirds success. This young man already proved, at least in limited engagements in the NHL that he’s already good enough to hang, but this series proved that he may not need the AHL anymore. A properly motivated Mølgaard seems to be a game changer. J.R. Avon: While an otherwise decent but ultimately pedestrian regular season in the AHL may have allowed Avon to skate by unnoticed by the larger hockey world, this second ever playoff appearance in pro hockey may have turned some heads. JR Avon loves postseason hockey; to the point he became the Firebirds leading scorer and the AHL’s leading playoff scorer alongside Mølgaard. Jagger Firkus: While 3rd on the team in points through these playoffs, Firkus’ postseason was an extension of the kind of player he became throughout the regular season; while very adept at goalscoring, he showed a lot of adept playmaking ability that made up for taking a backseat to the Mølgaard/Avon tour (though at 3rd in goals, his performance was more like a solid opening act). He wasn’t the uber-playmaker however, as that honor went to… Jani Nyman: A player whose howitzer shot only found twine thrice this postseason found that his hands could also be useful in getting assists, as he walks away with the most on the team this postseason with 6. One can hope he manages to start utilizing that skillset a little more, as he was a major part of Coachella’s scoring attack this year, and adding a developing playmaking sense to that already strong resume of goals would be a major value add. What’s next for Coachella Valley? Defensive Adjustment Required The Firebirds scored twice, and then Colorado won this game by scoring the next three unanswered. One was the same kind of bizarre bounce that side of the ice was creating all night, but the other two were just the same kind of breakdown they’d been dealing with all regular season. For Coach Laxdal, that has to change next season. A Full Season of Jake O’Brien? While the Kraken are skittish at trusting their young talent, their AHL team is under no such aspersions; allowing young talent to flourish as much as possible. With center wunderkind Jake O’Brien finishing off a 93 point-in-53 game regular season/23 point in 15 game playoffs with the Brantford Bulldogs where he finished top 3 in the entire league, there’s plenty to like about his game that, if it still needs a little seasoning, he could be a dynamite player for the desert. Wanna fly your flag? A number of players could be asked to join their national teams for the IIHF World Championships, of which Philipp Grubauer and Ryan Lindgren are already competing. There’s a non-zero chance these baby Squids could find themselves making auditions for future roles on Team USA or Canada. While it’s obviously not what we’d want to see, we’re just glad the Firebirds remain so strong, and applaud them on another successful AHL season! We’ll see them next year! LET’S GO FIREBIRDS!