Trying to make sense of the Raiders crazy year

Shortly afterwards, some Raiders decided to jump ship.

Assistant coach Tim Leonard resigned from the Raiders before quickly finding a home with his old club, the Prince Albert Mintos Midget AAA club, later that night.

Then Colton McCarthy, an 18-year-old forward who the Raiders acquired in the preseason, quit the team. Overager Dakota Conroy followed suit three days later. Although he came off a 30-goal, 61-point year, Conroy had just two points in his opening 10 games.

Then-Raiders head coach Cory Clouston accused the Vernon Vipers, a perennial contender in the BCHL, of tampering with McCarthy. Clouston said the Vipers told McCarthy to quit the Raiders, so he could join the Vipers. Vipers general manager Mark Ferner denied the tampering allegations.

But even after all that, McCarthy did end up with the Vipers and has eight points in 12 games with them. Conroy has joined their divisional rivals, the Penticton Vees, and has eight goals and 12 points in as many games.

The plot really started to thicken when Clouston was fired on Halloween. His Raiders were 6-9 at the time, and coming off a disappointing 5-2 loss to the Lethbridge Hurricanes on the road Oct. 29. That was the second time that Clouston was let go by a WHL team in a 17-month period—after the Brandon Wheat Kings canned him in May of 2012.

Marcus Messier, who the Raiders signed on Oct. 23 to fill the overage void left by the departed Conroy, left the team to attend to “personal family matters” shortly afterwards on Nov. 8. Messier played just six games in that time with the Raiders.

The Raiders thought they were going to start a new era when introduced their new mascot ‘Boston Raider’ to the world on Nov. 14 for a game against the Moose Jaw Warriors.

But as it turned out, Boston’s acting career was cut short after his opening scene.

By the time their next home game on came on Nov. 21, the Raiders benched Boston due to the controversy that surrounded the mascot. National media outlets suggested the mascot was ethnically stereotypical.

Just a day after that, Raiders’ club physician Nigel Painter had his doctor’s licence pulled after engaging into a sexual relationship with one of his female patients.

But what’s a crazy season without a blockbuster trade?

The Raiders certainly got one of those when they traded away Josh Morrissey, who was in his fourth year with the Raiders and his second as the team captain, to the contending Kelowna Rockets.

Although the holiday break came shortly afterwards, that did little to calm the storm.

The rumour mill has been spinning on Leon Draisaitl, as Edmonton Journal’s Jim Matheson and others have suggested that Draisaitl may end up joining Morrissey in Kelowna.

The Raiders still own Leon Draisaitl’s WHL rights, the 19-year-old playing for the Edmonton Oilers this season with seven points and a -18 rating in 35 games this season.

After returning from the holiday break, the Raiders were outscored 11-3 in a pair of losses to the Saskatoon Blades, who were previously in an 11-game winless streak. Even after the pair of wins over the Raiders, the Blades are still in last place in the WHL.

But after all those ups-and-downs, the good and the bad, the normal and the wacky, the Raiders are a still in the playoff race. They’re four points back of a wildcard spot, and six back of a divisional playoff spot with 35 games remaining.

So get your popcorn fans, because this wacky film still has half of a reel left.

jdandrea@panow.com

On Twitter: @jeff_dandrea

by Jeff D'Andrea

Trying to make sense of the Raiders crazy year

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