WHL Unfiltered: Recent Episodes
Chad Balcom & Jeff Hollick
WHL Unfiltered is just that: two guys who love junior hockey like you do, talking current events from Brandon to Portland, Prince George to Regina. Show hosts Jeff Hollick & Chad Balcom have taken very different paths to get here, & offer different perspectives. Experienced, passionate, educated, & independent voices. We have fun discussing the game we love - won't you join us?
First, we'd like to thank everyone at DUBNetwork - past and present - for the opportunity to have these two podcasts on the network over the years. WHL Unfiltered was actually Paul Figler's idea, recruiting Jeff Hollick & myself to host.
Best of luck to Darren Dupont moving forward, as we see what's next for DUBNetwork.
Attached is the 1st episode of the new version of the show, featuring Oil Kings GM Kirt Hill.
It was time for WHL Unfiltered & Pucklandia to go independent. We hope you'll join us.
-Chad
https://soundcloud.com/whlpodcast
Longtime PXP voice of the Thunderbirds, Thom Beuning, joined us looking at the upcoming Seattle vs Portland series, and how we got here.
Mike Sawatzky covers the ICE for the Winnipeg Free Press, and he gave us some of his time looking at the ICE and their 1st round triumph over PA, as well as looking forward to the Moose Jaw series. We spoke about how a 16 is leading the ICE in playoff scoring, the impact of adding of Jack Finley, the coaching philosophy of James Patrick, the atmosphere in Wayne Flemming, 15 year old D-man Jonas Woo, and much more
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As the voice of the Oil Kings, Andrew Peard has been around the top teams in the Eastern Conference all WHL season, & shared his perspective on all the 1st round matchups, the first of which starts in Edmonton. We even talked about friends of the show like Perry Bergson and Guy Flaming
We were joined by Casey Bryant taking a look at the Western Conference Playoff picture, mostly team-by-team. As the PXP voice of the Silvertips, he's witnessed the best of the group, as teams tried to knock off Everett all season.
Peter Loubardias covers more than just the Calgary Flames, and we had a wide ranging conversation from Don Hay, the changing demographics of players, Darryl Sutter, what its like calling PXP of games, WHL Playoffs, and beyond
One year ago, We spoke with Logan Boulet’s father, Toby Boulet, about organ donation, Green Shirt Day, dealing with tragedy, what kind of hockey player Logan was, & beyond
www.greenshirtday.ca
We caught up with Winterhawks PXP voice Nick Marek looking at the remarkable turnaround Portland has experienced since American Thanksgiving, the veteran presence behind the bench, having a World Junior goaltender, getting back to having real crowds, the US Division Pennant race, and beyond
The Red Deer Rebels are having a strong season, but still overshadowed by Edmonton and Winnipeg - we thought it would be fun to take a look at the best team that no one is talking about.
Rebels PXP voice Troy Gillard shared with us stories about Chase Coward being close with guys like Stuart Skinner & Joel Hofer, what its like filling the shoes of Cam Moon, what its meant to have Steve Konowalchuk coaching the team, Arshdeep Bains signing with the Canucks, and much more
Kevin Dudley joined us looking at the Spokane Chiefs overall, the clash with Portland we just witnessed, what to expect in this stretch of 5 consecutive games between the two clubs, the changes in the Chiefs front office over the last few years, and much more
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Brennan Sonne joined us looking at his first year guiding the Saskatoon Blades to a successful season to date. We looked at his background as an Everett Silvertip, both as a player and assistant coach, influences like Kevin Constantine, Mitch Love, Doug Soetaert, Dennis Williams, and more. We also looked at this Blades team, and some of the reasons they've played well this season.
One of our favourite guests, Steve Ewen, dropped by to look at the state of the Vancouver Giants, the newspaper industry, the current covid crisis in The WHL, the upcoming trade deadline, and much more.
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We spoke with Portland Winterhawks forward Kishaun Gervais (in July of 2020) about growing up on the reserve, playing in places as different as Yorkton and Portland, his clothing line (Teddywear) and its connection to mental health awareness, what Black Lives Matter means to him, and more
https://www.instagram.com/teddywearclothing/
We spoke with 5 time Stanley Cup Champion & Hall Of Famer Grant Fuhr, about his WHL days in Victoria, The Edmonton Oilers, & more
Recorded in September of 2018
We were joined by Casey Bryant as we welcome him to the WHL, look at the Silvertips legacy, the culture that Dennis Williams has developed, Casey's NY roots, his work in Danbury (and the netflix documentary), the only loss for Everett this year, and more
Kirt Hill was kind enough to give us some of his time while he's working with Team Canada Black for the Capital City Challenge. We spoke about the Oil Kings winning the division in the shortened season, bringing in Luke Prokop, Edmonton's run to the East Final against Prince Albert, getting Jake Neighbours back from the NHL, knocking off an undefeated Winnipeg team, & more
Kris Mallette joined us on a rough day in BC. We spoke about the flooding, the Rockets success so far this season, Kris' pathway to the HC job in Kelowna, winning the 2015 WHL Championship, playing in the minors for 9 years, his time playing for the Rockets, learning from Peter Anholt, and much more
We take a trip to speak with two of our favourite newspaper scribes Lucas Punkari and Perry Bergson: topics include the Wheat Kings being decimated by injuries, league attendance, the upgraded video feed, OHL trade insanity, the state of local news, and beyond
(the audio gets better as the episode goes on)
Craig West has called games for the Tri-City Americans for 23 seasons, and he joined us in a wide ranging conversation about Stu Barnes, watching Bobby Orr in the Great Western Forum, missing one game in his TC career, the return of Sasha Mutala, calling minor league baseball, the potential of rookie Dwayne Jean Jr, the need for cancer screenings, the success of Bob Tory's long tenure in TC, and more