Warriors’ loss shows value of consistency

The West Kelowna Warriors stunningly quick exit from the BCHL playoffs illustrates just how difficult it is to remain consistent on a year-to-year basis in junior hockey.

While the Warriors dealt with some extenuating circumstances this season, the fact of the matter is they went from winning the BCHL and RBC Cup titles to getting turfed out of the playoffs in four straight games by the Merritt Centennials.

It’s great news for the Warriors and their loyal fans they are going to remain in West Kelowna — this after the franchise’s relocation to the Lower Mainland appeared to be a done deal.

Now they have more than six months to wait for their team to play its next meaningful hockey game.

It of course speaks to how consistent the Penticton Vees have been for the last decade or so.

Under Fred Harbinson, the Vees consistently win 40-plus games a season (not to mention 50-plus win campaigns in 2011-12 and 2015-16), and take a serious run at a championship every season.

They’ve won six straight Interior Division pennants, three BCHL playoff titles (and lost one other in the final), a Western Canada Cup and an RBC Cup (and got to the semifinals of another).

Since players graduate from the junior ranks at age 20, every team deals with constant turnover of players at this level. None more so than the Vees, who move infinitely more kids on to the college and university levels than any team in the country. There have been many years when a highly touted teenage player has left for college after just one year in Penticton.

And yet, year in and year out, the Vees are in the hunt. We really are spoiled with a team that never completely rebuilds, but simply reloads.

I often wonder what the reaction would be if the Vees won a title and came back the next year, barely finished over .500 and got swept out of the first round of the playoffs.

There may come a day when it happens. Just probably not on Fred Harbinson’s watch.

JUST SAY BYE TO THE BYE: The BCHL will yet again need to go back to the drawing board with the chronic pain that is its playoff format.

The first-round bye for the Vees (and Vernon Vipers) is ridiculous. “Bye” the time the Vees play their first pre-season game on March 17 — quite likely against the Merritt Centennials — exactly three weeks will have elapsed since their previous game.

No matter how driven and motivated a group is, three weeks is simply too long to wait. Vees GM/head coach Fred Harbinson said the team is taking a positive approach to the break, insisting they will be fresher and stronger for a lengthy playoff run. Hopefully he’s right.

The Vees, of course, will be playing into May no matter what since they are hosting the Western Canada Cup April 29 to May 7 at the SOEC.

It’s going to be interesting to see the Vees emerge from this prolonged hiatus. Can they hit the ground running in a best-of-seven playoff series?

Of course, Merritt will have 10 days off themselves after sweeping West Kelowna.

So . . . it’s another idle weekend ahead in the middle of the post-season. Just wonderful.

David Crompton is a sports reporter at the Penticton Herald.