Vees to start season on the road, face Warriors in home opener
The Penticton Vees will open the 2017-18 B.C. Hockey League regular season on the road Friday, Sept. 8 against the Merritt Centennials.
Though the schedule is not yet finalized, Vees director of corporate partnerships and alternate governor David Michaud said it is “real close” to being ratified after considerable input from all 17 teams.
As per usual, the Vees will not play their first home game until later in the month. Penticton’s home opener will be Friday, Sept. 29 against the West Kelowna Warriors.
Michaud said the Vees will play seven “Wicked Wednesday” home dates (compared to nine last year) at the South Okanagan Events Centre. Twenty other home games will be on Fridays and Saturdays, with the regular season finale once again a Sunday afternoon matinee, this time on Feb. 25 against the Salmon Arm Silverbacks.
“That went over really well last year with the fans sticking around after the game against Victoria to watch our season’s awards on the ice,” said Michaud.
The Vees also finalized their pre-season schedule. They will visit West Kelowna on Wednesday, Aug. 23, and play the return game at the SOEC against the Warriors on Wednesday, Aug. 30.
Defending BCHL champion Penticton will also play two exhibition games against the two-time defending Alberta league champs, the Brooks Bandits, on Sept. 1 and 2.
“It was part of an agreement we had with (Brooks) when they came here for two exhibition games in 2015,” Michaud said. “It’s a good early chance for the team to get out on the road and do some bonding.”
Included in the Vees early-season road swing is the trip to Chilliwack for the annual Bauer Showcase Sept. 20-24. The Vees will play two games against Coastal Conference rivals that count in the standings, though the schedule is not yet finalized.
Chilliwack is also hosting the RBC Cup national championship in May 2018.
At the BCHL annual general meeting last week in Richmond, it was confirmed the Wenatchee Wild will move to the Interior Division starting this season.
The Vees were delighted after visiting Wenatchee fans swelled attendance to more than 4,000 for their lone home game against the Wild late in 2016-17.
“It’s great for us and our fans to have them come here for three games and for us to go to their terrific building for three games,” said Michaud. “It’s turned into a fun little rivalry. Their fans had a great time here last year and they’re already planning fan buses for this year.”
The Wild competed in the Mainland Division for their first two seasons in the BCHL and last year won the Ron Boileau Memorial Trophy as regular-season champions.
With Wenatchee joining the division, the schedule will be completely balanced with each team playing the other six teams six times. Interior teams will play Coastal teams at least two times apiece, in addition to the two extra games at the Showcase to complete at 58-game schedule. The West Kelowna franchise — which came close to moving to the Lower Mainland after last season — was also well represented at the AGM.
Former majority owner Mark Cheyne remains involved on the hockey side along with GM and head coach Rylan Ferster, who guided the Warriors to the RBC Cup title in 2015-16.
“We’re happy with the way it played out as we definitely didn’t want our closest geographical rival going away,” said Michaud, noting the Warriors have developed plans to improve the franchise’s fortunes on the business side. “We’ve developed a real nice rivalry with both sets of fans travelling to the road games.”
Michaud said the playoff format hasn’t been finalized, but stressed it will be “squared away” shortly and won’t be altered radically from last season.
With seven teams in the Interior, he said it will likely mean only the first-place team will get a bye, with the other six competing in three first-round series to set it up for four teams for Round 2.
Four of the five teams in the Mainland and Island divisions will qualify, with the fifthplace team from the Mainland having the potential to “cross over” if it accumulates more points than the seventh-place team in the Interior.
Michaud said the BCHL wants to map out a long-term course for the playoffs — and the league in general. To that end, a strategic committee is being formed with at least one governor and coach from each of the 17 teams on it.
“We want to take a hard look at how everyone can maximize potential on the business and corporate side of things,” said Michaud.
On the ice, the focus continues to be on going younger and developing and preparing players to move on to the next level. That means teams can only have a maximum of six 20-year-olds and must have at least two players age 17 or younger on their roster.
One welcome change will see BCHL teams now have a 23-man roster — up from a 22-man roster in recent seasons.
Michaud said it will help when the injury bug bites or when players are away for competitions such as the World Junior A Challenge and CJHL Prospects Game.
“We’re fortunate in that we have such good relations with the OHA (Okanagan Hockey Academy) right next door to us when we need players,” said Michaud.
Michaud attended the AGM on behalf of the Vees, along with fellow alternate governor Neil Jamieson, governor/owner Graham Fraser, and president, GM and head coach Fred Harbinson.