Times Colonist from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada • 31

Times Colonist 3 WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2008 D1 1 timescolonist.com SPORTS WEB EXTRA: Blue Jays boss ready for free-agent frenzy Ricciardi must balance costs with benefits in busy signing season. SCOREBOARD, D2 Editor: Brian Drewry Telephone: 250-380-5344 E-mail: sportstc.canwest.com 0 (SO) Atlanta 6 Toronto 3 Calgary 6 Los Angeles 2 NBA Phoenix 99 Oklahoma City 98 Cleveland 119 New York 101 NHL St. Louis 1 Nashville VICTORIA SEALS ECHL i i' i iiii. nnn, mm aMle summoned by Moose Salmon Kings lose high-scoring forward on eve of long road trip GAME DAY: VICTORIA AT UTAH, 6 P.M. BRUCE STOTESBURY, TIMES COLONIST Former major leaguer Darrell Evans was unveiled as the Seal's first manager yesterday and he promises a talented team in Year 1.

Former major leaguer takes helm Golden Baseball League team names Darrell Evans first field boss for pucks. It is not an overly skilled organization but their players always come at you with a lot of tenacity and grit backed by solid goaltending." It might seem far too early in the season to be talking in terms of crucial divisional matches and games with four-point swings. Yet because of the new playoff format in the ECHL National Conference, Morrison has no option but to rate games against West Division foes such as the Grizzlies more importantly than those against opponents in the Pacific Division. In previous seasons, all teams in the National Conference were thrown into one pot with the top-eight overall advancing to the playoffs. Now the top-four teams in the West Division and the top four in the Pacific make the postseason, regardless of overall standing within the conference.

It really makes little sense since the National Conference teams play an unbalanced schedule within the conference, but there you have it. The upshot is Salmon Kings losses to foes within the West Division are doubly punished not only do they not gain two points but they give away two points to teams that are directly challenging them for the four playoff slots within the division. "These three games against Utah are huge," said Morrison. "They are four-point divisional games and it's never too early to be thinking about the importance of those." cdheensawtc.canwest.com Suns CLEVE DHEENSAW Times Colonist Olivier Labelle is as pugnacious as they come. That attribute, not to mention his 10 goals so far this season in the ECHL for the Victoria Salmon Kings, has earned the forward a call-up to the Manitoba Moose of the AHL.

It's another of those farm-team ripple effects: Former ECHLer Alexandre Bolduc went up to the Vancouver Canucks yesterday from the Moose to replace the injured Steve Bernier and Labelle went from the S-Kings to the Moose to replace Bolduc. Of the 10 Salmon Kings players on Canucks or Moose contracts, Labelle and goal-tender Jonathan Boutin are currently on call in Manitoba. Labelle, of course, is happy for the chance although there must be a small tug in missing the ECHL road series in which he was most looking forward to playing at Salt Lake City against his former Utah Grizzlies team. The Salmon Kings (8-7-2) play the Grizzlies (7-7) tonight, Friday and Saturday at the Center. "The Grizzlies farm team of the New York Islanders have players moving up and down all the time between Salt Lake and Bridgeport Islanders' AHL affiliate so it's hard to tell exactly what we will be facing this week," said Victoria Salmon Kings GM and head coach Mark Morrison.

"But they are always a scrappy team that battles hard Nash heats up into just one. We are well scouted. One night someone might see you and you only have to impress one And you never know when that one right person from that one right major-league organization will be on hand. That doesn't leave the option of too many off nights. "You are going to see really good players who are really hungry and everybody should be hustling," noted Evans.

"Most nights, you are going to see AA and AAA calibre play, depending on the pitching. Maybe you will see guys on their way to the majors, and fans can look back and say 'I saw them Hopefully, I can pass along my experiences as a player and as a manager." Building a pro team from scratch can seem a daunting prospect but Evans said he looks forward to the dual challenges of advancing young pros careers while providing an entertaining product on the field. Evans looked down at his World Series ring and said no matter the level, the hunt for the ring is the thing. "I was as excited for the Orange County players when they won the Golden League title this fall as I was for myself during his World Series triumph," he said. "The only thing was this time I made sure to stay out of the dog pile on the field after the championship-clinching game.

It's no fun being on the bottom of that." made him such an irresistible hire for Seals owners Russ and Darren Parker. "Independent baseball is more hands-on and that's the big attraction for me," said Evans, who was on base for the Braves when Hank Aaron hit his historic record-breaking 715th home run that memorable 1974 April night in Atlanta. "The Parkers know what they're doing on the business part. So I can concentrate on the baseball part. It is going to be first class and fan and community friendly." Instead of coming up through an official farm system, players in Independent leagues have their contracts bought out by major-league teams who then place them in their systems.

Since its inception five years ago, 83 Golden League players have had their contracts bought out by major league teams, 23 in 2008 alone. "The Golden League has really built up a reputation and is now parallel to the other top Independent leagues," said Evans. "Half of the players in the Golden League have already played either AA or AAA and are looking to get back. It's often nothing to do with their talent. In an organization, you could get a player in front of you in your position who was drafted higher or has more money invested in him and so you don't get the chance you deserve.

I tell the guys: 'Now you will be looked at by 30 teams instead of being locked CLEVE DHEENSAW Times Colonist The last time former major-league slugging star Darrell Evans was at Royal Athletic Park was for a charity softball game. The next time will be as field manager and director of player personnel of the expansion Victoria Seals of the Golden Baseball League, one of seven independent professional baseball leagues in North America. After getting reacquainted with RAP this week ahead of being announced yesterday as the Seals inaugural manager the 62-year-old Evans took one look at the shortish left-field fence and remarked he could have done some damage to that. Boy, could he have. Evans retired with 414 career major-league home runs and as the first player to hit more than 40 homers in both the American and National leagues and one of only two players, along with Reggie Jackson, to hit more than 100 homers for three different teams.

Oh, and that World Series ring on his finger from the 1984 Detroit Tigers is pretty darn impressive, too. Evans chuckled that is ancient history to the batch of pro prospects he will be guid ing in Victoria. "I've seen pretty much everything but the only way some of these guys would recognize me is from a Nintendo '87 video game," he quipped. Evans doesn't dwell too much on his illustrious past over 21 major-league seasons. It's the thrill of the new which keeps him on the diamond and which has brought him to Victoria and the Seals club, which begins its first season of play in April.

As a seventh-round draft pick in 1967, there were a lot of players who scouts thought more highly of than Evans. He has tremendous empathy for minor-pro players making their way in the game and that's probably why he relates so well to them and why he has spent the past 12 years managing and coaching in the minor pros from the independent Golden, Northern, Atlantic and Texas-Louisiana leagues to also at the AA level in the Brewers system. He coached the Long Beach Armada of the Golden League for three seasons, reaching the league final in 2007. Last season, Evans was batting coach and Hall of Famer Gary Carter the field manager as the Orange County Flyers won the Golden League crown. Evans' extensive list of connections in the game will prove invaluable in building a team from scratch and that's what This time around, they've upped that dramatically to 48.

It's not the only reason Vancouver is eight games above .500 and currently on a stretch of 10 games without a regulation loss (8-0-2), but it's certainly an important one. "I think that's one of the differences in our record this year and why we've been successful," said Canucks defence-man Kevin Bieksa, who leads the blue-liners with three goals and 11 points despite missing nine games to injury. "We've had a little more depth of scoring and help from our defencemen. We're not just relying on our top six forwards every game to score goals. It's just reading the play and jumping up at the right times.

Monday night Sami Salo made a couple of good plays there and you see what happened." Salo threw a puck on the Detroit net and Daniel Sedin tippedit in for the late tying it Canucks' defence adding to team's offence No. 1 overall San Jose leads by a wide margin total points from defencemen. Led by Dan Boyle's 18 points, Rob Blake's 17 and Christian Ehrhoff 's 16, the Sharks have 68 points from the back end through 21 games. Detroit, with its high-skill defence led by Brian Rafalski (16 points) and the ageless Nicklas Lidstrom (14), are next with 56 points in 20 games. Vancouver defenceman Willie Mitchell said a relatively healthy group back there and a different mix of forwards has allowed for a more free-flowing style of play this season.

"Since I've been here the coach has never said stay back, just play smart hockey and be responsible defensively," said Mitchell. "The forwards get a lot of credit. I think this year, more than any year I've been here, we've done a really good job of finding the trailer." More NHL, D3 goal and then he one-timed a pass from Pavol Demitra on a power play in overtime to defeat the Red Wings 3-2. The outing gave Salo two goals and 10 points, whereas last season at the same point he had played just five games due to injury and had no points. Bieksa, who may return tomorrow against the Calgary Flames, said head coach Alain Vigneault want the defencemen to get involved in the rush as long as it's done responsibly.

"We were encouraged from Day 1 to jump up in the play, especially to make an odd man attack," Bieksa said. "They've been stressing it but not going overboard with it. We're just getting better at it. All six of us are jumping up at any given time and that's why you see the points so close between us." It's not difficult to see the importance of points from the blue-line when you look at some of the top learns in the league. JIM JAMIESON Canwest News Service VANCOUVER If you're looking for a reason why the Vancouver Canucks are scoring goals at a pace well ahead of last season, start the search with a closer look at the NHL team's back end.

I Blessed with better health than last season's MASH unit and a clear message from management to get more involved in the offence, the Canucks' defence corps is racking up points with the likes of the elite teams in the league. Heading into yesterday's games, Vancouver was eighth overall in average goals for per game (3.09). Last season overall, Vancouver scored at a measly 2.59 goals per game clip. The difference? Check out the blue-liner's stats. Last season, through 22 games, the Canucks' as a group had 28 points.

CZZZZZZZZZ BILL WAUGH, REUTERS Suns guard Steve Nash drives past Oklahoma City Thunder centre Nick Collison during the first quarter in Oklahoma City last night. Nash, of Victoria, poured in 20 points and added 15 assists as the Suns edgd the Thunder 99-98. IZZZIZZZIIIIIZZZZZZZZ3.