PR - Wheat Kings

WHEAT KINGS IN TAILSPIN

The Wheat Kings have had a rollercoaster of a season, losing skid, winning streak, .500 doldrums, now another losing skid.

"If we could only play consistently at some level," lamented coach-GM Tyler Young, "then I could at least figure-out how to handle the situation. We have talent, but the talent is on and off, or simply non-existent."

Going into the All-Star break the Kings were middling along in and out of the playoffs, playing well defensively but were impotent offensively. So Mr. Young initiated a series of deals to try and increase his forward corp's scoring, acquiring Mike York and Dan Bertram for Mats Ritola, then shipping Mike York with Eric Fehr for Matt Ellison and Kristian Huslius, the latter of whom was then shipped as part of a blockbuster that brought into the Wheat-fold Paul Kariya, Glen Murray, Lance Ward, Kevin Montgomery, Dan Snyder, and Nik Antropov for Sergei Zubov, Jason Smith, Brian Rolston and Dan Bertram.

"The idea with all these deals was to get scoring and strengthen our team enough to make a solid run into the playofs, but since all these guys were added our offense has gotten even worse. It's almost like we're cursed," GM Young joked, "I've commented on it before, guys that are mediocre for us go to another team and are stars, and stars come to us and are mediocre. And what I don't get is that Kariya and Ellison are getting to play with better players now than they were on their previous clubs."

Point in fact: Ellison and Kariya had a combined 69 points (28g, 36a) in 95 games for the Mauraders and Misconduct, but only 5 points (0g) in 17 games for the Kings.

"If we don't get our act together soon, we will miss the playoffs," said Tyler Young. "I am content to just ride-out the season and lay the groundwork for next year, but still it's frustrating. I think on paper we have improved our team, but we have not improved on the scoresheet."

Asked if there will be any further trades, he replied: "I don't know, it seems the more I do the worse things get. But if we continue to lose and we're out of the playoffs 10 or so games before the deadline, I will try to move some of our veterans, Kariya and Vokoun I think especially would be on the market... heck, they're on the market now!"