In less than 24 hours, there will once again be WHL games played in Saskatchewan, with the Moose Jaw Warriors and Brandon Wheat Kings kicking things off at 4 p.m. at the Brandt Centre in the Regina hub.
A game everyone has been waiting for for a long, long time.
“It’s exciting to think about for sure, guys are certainly chomping at the bit,” said Warriors head coach Mark O’Learly. “They’ve put in seven real hard days to prepare themselves and put themselves into a good position, and I’m real excited to see where our team is in terms of the overall look in the division and where each individual is compared to where they were last year.”
Normally, there would be all sorts of buzz surrounding the home opener as fans picked up tickets and prepared to cheer on a new team in a sold-out Mosaic Place. That won’t be happening this year, of course, and that means things won’t be quite the same.
“It’s a different kind of excitement, I know sometimes to start the season you feel off a lot of energy from the crowd and we obviously won’t have that this year,” O’Leary said. “But the energy of not having played for so long and the anticipation being what it was throughout the off-season and up to now, I think it’ll be the same. And at the same time we still have some young players who are cutting their teeth in the league, and with a crowd or not, those good nerves will be there right from the start.”
The good thing is even with the short preparation time -- the Warriors took the ice for their first practice on Mar. 5 -- things have come together in quick fashion. There’s even been a bit of chemistry carrying over from last season when it comes to line combinations, something O’Leary plans to make the most of as long as possible.
“We feel good about them,” O’Leary said of the team’s on-ice combos. “We’ve tinkered a little bit since the start of training camp here, but I think the guys have kind of settled in. There will certainly be competition for spots on a nightly basis and I think that’s good for our group, but at the same time, we have some pairings and some guys we like together. We’re not married to them for the season, that’s for sure, but we’re looking forward to seeing how they turn out against Brandon tomorrow night.”
The short camp hasn’t stopped players from turning heads in the meantime. After having a team with an average age that barely touched 18 last year, the Warriors are looking to be another year better, for certain.
“Certainly some players made some huge strides and I think that was the thing going for us coming into this year,” O’Leary said. “So many guys were young 16, 17-year-olds in our league and a lot can happen in those years, those are big development years. A guy like Eric Alarie, he’s really added a step to his skating and agility, but it’s hard to mention guys because I think with the long off-season, they all put in the work and certainly look bigger and stronger.”
Warriors forward Eric Alarie has turned some heads through the first week of practice.Then there’s that kid everyone has been talking about.
Third-overall Bantam draft pick and 15-year-old rookie Brayden Yager will be able to take the ice for the full 24-game season -- something that wouldn’t have been an option in a regular year -- and has already started to draw comparisons to a certain other Brayden who starred for the team in the recent past.
“He looks really good and comes as advertised as an exciting player, I don’t think he shies away from it, either,” O’Leary said. “It’s a lot like when Brayden Point came in, he was a young guy and a little bit of a later pick than Yager, but the success he had as a 15-year-old was something else. (Yager), even as a 15-year-old, he doesn’t look out of place out there and I’m certain our players see it as well.”
Boston Bilous will get the start in goal on Friday night, and O’Leary expects his 19-year-old starter to see plenty of work with rookie Brett Mirwald,17, backing him up. But like everything else in this strange and short campaign, the competition will be there.
“II know Boston is 19 and Brett is 17, but we certainly expect Brett to push him for starts and that’s a good thing… any coach will tell you that competition brings out the best in whatever position it is,” he said. “Boston is our number one goalie coming in, but we certainly expect Brett to push for as many starts as he can.”
One thing that’s for certain is the importance the Warriors are putting on a quick and impressive start -- not only to banish the ghosts of last year’s 14-44-4-0 record, but to send a message that this team is ready to contend, and soon.
“I think the most important thing is starting with the things we can control,” O’Leary said. “We’re not going to control all the time whether the puck goes into the net, but we certainly can control our effort and compete level and attention to details and making sure we’re sticking together and doing it as a pack… If we can concentrate on those three things, I think we’ll find ourselves standing there more often than not after a real good game.”
