Rockets host Royals in pre-season home opener
The puck will drop on the Kelowna Rockets’ preseason schedule this weekend, hosting a pair of B.C. Division rivals in the Victoria Royals tonight and Prince George Cougars on Saturday. Both exhibition games start at 7:05 p.m. at Prospera Place.
The Rockets’ wrapped up their six-day training camp on Thursday, with the roster gradually being trimmed from 58 prospective players spread over three teams down to two teams ahead of these games.
There will still be plenty of new faces on display this weekend as Kelowna’s coaching staff evaluates its talent pool in gearing up for the regular season, which starts with a home-and-home against the rival Kamloops Blazers on Sept. 21-22.
The Rockets and Blazers also face off in a preseason home-and-home next weekend, Sept. 7-8, to close out a four-game exhibition slate for Kelowna.
“We don’t put too much emphasis on what we think our opponents will do during preseason,” said assistant coach Kris Mallette. “Instead, we focus on how we’d like our team to play.
“Throughout camp, the coaches have been communicating with all of our returning players regarding our expectations for them individually, and during practice about what our team identity will look like,” added Mallette. “We will use the practices with smaller numbers to implement our systems as well as preseason games to evaluate both veteran and rookie players over the next two weeks.”
Returning forward Nolan Foote, entering his third season with Kelowna and his NHL draft year, says he is hoping to use the tools he worked on this summer to lead the Rockets to success.
“I’m really excited to be back. It’s been a hard summer of training for me, so I’m ready to have it pay off,” said Foote, who turns 18 in November. “This summer I did a ton of weight training, trying to get thicker and gain weight. I also skated a lot with my dad (former NHL defenceman Adam Foote) as well as Angelo Ricci, he’s the Buffalo Sabres skills coach, he coached me growing up. Then I worked on my skating with Evan Marble and I think it improved a lot, so I’m just looking forward to it.
“I think we have a lot of good young players coming up and they’re learning from us, they’re developing and once they get the hang of it and get into some preseason games it’ll be good for them,” added Foote. “For me, as an older guy, I’m just going to try to help teach them what it’s like to play in the WHL and help them out.
“I want to be a leader on this team, and carry this team to the playoffs hopefully. It would be awesome for our team to win the B.C. Division again and we’re obviously looking to go farther this year in playoffs.”