PR - Wheat Kings

WHEAT KINGS SEND PETER THE GREAT PACKING IN 10 PLAYER DEAL

The Wheat Kings, struggling to climb out of the Western Conference cellar,
decided that it was time to give the team a significant shake-up.  Peter Forsberg,
a multi-million dollar free agent addition this previous offseason was
dispatched to the Misconduct as part of a massive ten player trade.

Leaving Saskatoon are Forsberg, defenseman Karol Rachunek, back-up Kevin
Weekes, utility players Andy McDonald and Peter Buzek.  Arriving are center Craig
Conroy, winger Brian Rolston, defencmen Jay McKee and Nikos Tselios, and
goaltender Tomas Vokoun.

"I think Forsberg is the end of an era for us," GM Tyler Young said. "We've
always had at least one high-priced talent on our team, but has often only lead to
disappointment.  We've had some talented players like Forsberg play for us, but
only Tkachuk ever performed well - I just don't know what it is with the
Wheaties jersey which brings out the worst in top-end players.  I don't think we will
be looking at high-priced talent anymore, rather concentrating on developing
and keeping our young core group together. 

Anyways, I like this deal since we address some key concerns: we acquired two
quality forwards - Conroy will hopefully produce as well as Forsberg was for us,
and Rolston gives us another offensive weapon to spread around the depth. 
Although it may turn-out foolish to give up on a player of Forsberg's skill, he was
the producing well below expectations and the real heart and soul of this team
are the youngsters like Josh Hennessy, Dimitri Kazionov, and Stever Bernier -
getting two skilled veterans increases our depth and that should take some of
the pressure off the young guns.  We also felt our defense was weak and needed to
be toughened up and improved in the defensive awareness.  McKee is a solid
veteran defensive d-man, and Tselios is a tough SOB - we can eat his penalty
minutes, and that kind-of player is sometimes necessary to keep the other team on
their toes.  Lastly, we picked-up another quality goalie.  Plus, although he was
statistically good, Luongo has often al
lowed us to lose one goal decisions, and Vokoun may have more killer instinct,
or at the very least his presence should push Luongo.  Essentially, we now have
two #1 goalies from which to choose."

Wheat Kings - PR

QUARTERLY REPORT: THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS

The first quarter of this season has been bizarre.  Many solid clubs - the
Pain, Ice, Achaeans, Spirit - were swimming at the bottom of their conferences for
much of the first twenty games, and the Wheat Kings found themselves amongst
them.  Meanwhile the top of the league is inhabited by many surprise teams - what
is up is down, what is down is up...

This same phenomenon happened last year: the Achaeans and Spirit made the
season with second half bursts, the Pain also didn't start overly strong - on the
flip-side the Kings had and unbelievable first half and then capsized after the
All-Star break.

One would expect as similar trend this year - indeed certain teams who started
the season hot are already on their way down.

What is most surprising to Wheat-watchers is that statistically the Kings are
quite respectable: 3rd in goals for, 1st in PK, 3rd in PP; fiver players are on
their way to 35 or more goal seasons, Roberto Luongo is among the league
leaders - yet the Kings are struggling to maintain a .500 record. 

One problem is the defence - the Kings have long been a stingy team to play
against, but this season the Kings have been letting more shots against than in
the past - yet their GAA is acceptable, the exception being Kevin Weekes'
atrocious record.

Hence while statistically there are not many problems, two issues have arisen:
first, the lack of a killer instinct - the Kings are losing too many one goal
games; two, Luongo is playing-out too fast and Weekes has been incapable of
returning to his form of last season.