Canucks can’t wait for the puck to drop
New captain Riva and his three alternates are using scrimmages to ready for junior B season
Hockey is giving the Niagara Falls Canucks a definitive schedule in a time of uncertainty.
While the 2020-21 Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League regular season is tentatively scheduled to start Dec. 2, players, coaches and off-ice personnel with the junior B club have already been following a to-do list to prepare for their return to play.
They know that, in addition to one-hour practices three times a week at Gale Centre, the Canucks and their Golden Horseshoe Conference archrivals, the St. Catharines Falcons, will play home-andhome controlled scrimmages, Fridays in Niagara Falls and two nights later in Jack Gatecliff Arena in St. Catharines.
Matthew Riva, who will begin his fourth season with the Canucks as team captain, conceded it’s been difficult to still only be practising and scrimmaging heading into November.
Normally, league play would have started in early September.
“It’s tough. All the guys want to get going really badly,” the 19-year-old Niagara Falls native said. “Playing against the Falcons makes us more excited for the season to start.”
Though he has two more years remaining in his junior B eligibility, Riva wasn’t surprised he was named team captain.
His three seasons with his hometown team have allowed him to “adapt” and become more comfortable and grow as a leader.
“I feel like I am a vocal player in the room and on the ice. I try to get the boys ready for game time, try to correct things, try to encourage others,” the five-foot-11, 170-pound, right-handed shot said. “I feel like being a ‘vocal guy.’ ”
Riva isn’t worried the added responsibility on his shoulders that comes with the C on his chest will diminish his offensive contributions to the team.
“No, not at all. I’m just going to keep playing the same way I’ve been playing, and hopefully have a better season than I had the past couple of years,” he said.
Last year, Riva earned first-team conference all-star honours after scoring 22 goals and collecting 49 assists for 71 points in 49 regularseason games. He added two goals and two assists in five playoff games.
In 2019-20, Riva’s contributions on — and off — the ice did not go unnoticed.
“All the guys want to get going really badly. Playing against the Falcons makes us more excited for the season to start.” MATTHEW RIVA NIAGARA FALLS CANUCKS CAPTAIN
He received the Tyler Crooks Memorial Award as the conference’s player of the year and the Donald Sanderson Memorial Award from the Ontario Hockey Association for dedication, deportment, desire and discipline.
The award honours the memory of Sanderson, a Whitby Dunlops player who died in 2009 at age 21 after suffering a head injury in a game.
Assisting Riva in providing leadership in the Canucks dressing room and on the ice are alternate captains Jaleel Adams, Michael Marchesan and Brodie Thoms. Each is entering their final year in junior B.
Adams, who turns 21 in January, has been on both sides of the Canucks-Falcons rivalry. The Beamsville native played parts of two seasons in St. Catharines before netting 18 goals and adding 33 assists in 48 games in his first year in Niagara Falls.
“I enjoyed my time in St. Catharines, and I’m enjoying my time here in the Falls,” Adams said. “It’s a big rivalry, it’s been like that for years.”
It didn’t take the former Falcon long to feel comfortable battling against the Birds.
“I hate them,” he said with a chuckle. “These guys are my teammates, the Niagara Falls Canucks. I love them, they’re my brothers, I’ll go to battle for them.”
Adams can’t wait for the puck to drop for real.
“I really want this season to start, badly,” he said. “I’m just happy that we can play St. Catharines. Even if we’re playing them for a whole month or whatnot, at least we’re still playing games.”
Adams, a five-foot-nine, 185pound right-handed shot, suggested controlled scrimmages aren’t that much different than games.
“There’s no bodychecking, so that’s the main thing. Other than that, it’s still like the same kind of hockey,” he said. “Everyone is intense still. There’s still chirping on the ice.”
It didn’t take Thoms much time to adjust to playing with the Canucks after starting the season with the Pelham Panthers.
“I don’t think it took that long,” the 20-year-old Welland native said. “There is a good system in play here. It’s kind of easy to adapt to.
“If you know how to play the game and you have hockey IQ, you’ll play the system with ease.”
It also didn’t take the six-foot, 175pound forward long to regard the Falcons as an archrival once he put on a Canucks sweater.
“I feel like there’s always a rivalry with the Falcons, no matter who you play for,” he said with a chuckle.
Thoms had 11 goals and 15 assists in 38 games after starting the season with one goal and seven assists in eight games for the Pelham Panthers.
He had 10 goals and six assists in 22 games for the Pelham in 2018-19.
Marchesan joined the Canucks after splitting last season between Pelham and the Hamilton Kilty B’s.
He had six goals and 10 assists in 34 games in Pelham before wrapping up league play with four goals and four assists in 15 games in Hamilton.
Despite a longer commute to practices and games, the 20-yearold Burlington native asked the Kilty B’s to trade him to Niagara Falls.
“They have a really good team. They’re a top team, and you’re not going to want to go to a team that is not contending, especially in my last year,” Marchesan said.
The six-foot-four, 205-pound forward doesn’t take the practices and controlled scrimmages for granted. He considers every on-ice session with the team as an audition for a roster spot.
“You are always fighting for roster position,” Marchesan said.
“You can’t cheat in practice,” he stressed.
“You practise how to play. If you’re not doing the little things in practice, it’s not going to translate to a game.”
Bernd Franke is a St. Catharines-based journalist and the regional sports editor for the Standard, Tribune and Review. Reach him via email: bernd.franke@niagaradailies.com