Lucas Punkari
While four games in five nights might not have been what Fort Frances Lakers’ head coach and general manager Wayne Strachan was hoping to have for a pre-season schedule, those contests against the Sioux Lookout Flyers and Wisconsin Wilderness will be huge in preparing the local Junior ‘A’ squad for the 2011/12 SIJHL regular season, which will begin next Friday (Sept. 16) here against the Thunder Bay North Stars.
“I would have liked to have had a couple of games during the long weekend, but this will throw us right into the fire,” Strachan said.
“We are going to monitor how the players are during those games and who will end up playing for us each night.
“We will probably have a younger lineup on Thursday and showcase our veterans here on Friday in the games against Sioux Lookout, and then we will have a lineup that will be closer to our regular squad for the regular season in our games against Wisconsin on Sunday and Monday,” he noted.
Having a hectic schedule before the season might be a tough task for some teams, but Strachan feels the 24 players currently on the roster are more than ready for the challenge.
“I think we just have to prepare ourselves both mentally and physically on the ice for those games,” he reasoned.
“We are trying to throw a lot at them in a short period of time with the systems that we will be running, and hopefully they are starting to catch on to them as they have battling hard with one another all week in practices.
“In the pre-season, I think it all comes down to what you personally make of it,” Strachan stressed.
“And while it’s always nice to get a win under your belt before the season gets underway, there is also a period where you are preparing for the opening night of the season.”
For the players themselves, such as third-year forward Jaret Leclair, they have been preparing for the hectic schedule.
“With four games in the five nights, you need to make sure that you are able to re-hydrate yourself and that you are still giving it a hundred percent each time out,” he said.
“We’re hoping to get a victory in each of those games, and I think they will be really good match-ups to see exactly where we stand with those two teams.”
On the other hand, the new faces on the Lakers’ roster will be using these games to not only get acclimatized to the SIJHL, but also make a good first impression.
“You obviously want to prove yourself when you first get here,” explained first-year defenceman Spencer Korum.
“You don’t want to get cut in a week or not play up to what you are expected to preform at, so all you can do is just work really hard out there, give it your all, and wherever the chips fall is where they fall,” he reasoned.
The Lakers will start heir pre-season campaign tomorrow night in Sioux Lookout before hosting the Flyers here Friday at 7:30 p.m.
Following an off-day Saturday, which will include the team hosting a “Meet the Lakers” golf tournament at Kitchen Creek, the squad then will go up against the defending SIJHL champion Wilderness in a 2 p.m. tilt here Sunday before travelling to Spooner, Wis. on Monday evening.
While the Lakers have yet to take to the ice for a pre-season game, the Flyers already have two pre-season victories over the Dryden Ice Dogs under their belts last week, with returning forward Brett Wur netting the
game-winning goal in both contests.
“In talking with some of their personnel, they [the Flyers] are exciting about what their team is going to look like this year,” Strachan noted.
“They feel like they have improved skill-wise since last season, and they are really hungry to compete with some of the teams that were at the top of the standings last year, such as us,” he added.
As for the Wilderness, they are entering the season as the lone SIJHL team in the CJHL top 20 pre-season rankings with a placing of 13th.
However, the make-up of the Wilderness roster is expected to be a lot different than the one which hoisted the Bill Salonen Cup in their inaugural SIJHL campaign last spring.
“In talking with their coach [Rod Aldoff], they are going to be returning seven guys from last year’s team,” Strachan noted.
“But I think they will still have a pretty strong set of newcomers that they have recruited to fill those roles left behind by the graduating players.
“We have to be ready for some skill and some speed from there,” he stressed. “And thinking back to last year, we had some success against them in the regular season and our little mini-series we had in the playoffs.
“When you are playing the top teams in the league, you are gunning for them all the time as that is where you want to be,” Strachan continued.
“And in order to be the best, you have to beat the best, and that’s what we will try and to starting on Sunday and Monday.”
While the Lakers will be welcoming Colton Spicer and Jon Carlson back into the fold following their stints at training camps for the Sudbury Wolves and Ottawa 67’s of the OHL, the team will be without rookie forward Jordan Larson for the games against the Wilderness—and possibly the regular-season opener against Thunder Bay—as the Fort Frances native will be attending the Team Canada West camp in Canmore, Alta. for the 2011 World Junior ‘A’ Challenge.
“Obviously, this is a great opportunity for him to showcase his talent,” said Strachan. “On the other hand, it does hurt as a team a little bit.
“I think once he [Larson] gets a grasp of the junior game, I think he is going to fit into our lineup in a positive way,” Strachan added.
No matter what the roster ends up looking like for the four pre-season games and the regular-season opener, those on the team are anxious to start taking on the rest of the SIJHL.
“We have a great set of guys in the dressing room that are really strong right now and we can’t wait to see what we can do on the ice,” Leclair enthused.
“I think our speed is going to play into our advantage, and I think as the season wears on, our conditioning will show and we’ll just out-skate everyone,” he added.
