Spruce Kings ready for season
The Prince George Spruce Kings set the bar high last season when, for the first time in more than two decades of playing in the B.C. Hockey League, they made it all the way to the league championship series.
It was a historic, unexpected achievement for a Spruce Kings franchise that had never won any kind of BCHL title.
This season, there will be no surprise attacks. All 16 opposing teams will know they’re playing the team that got within three wins of the championship five short months ago.
Can they get there again and win it this time around? The 13 returning Kings need no convincing they have what it takes. But until they see what the rest of the league has in store, nobody really knows for sure.
The Chilliwack Chiefs will provide that first test tonight when the Spruce Kings open their 23rd BCHL season at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena in the first of a two-game weekend set against the defending national champions.
“We’re fast,” said Kings captain Ben Poisson, heading into his third junior A season. “We’re younger but we’re definitely fast. Our team is one of the fastest teams in the league and you’ll notice how well we work together. We’re pretty well-bonded – earlier than we were last year.
“Our veteran guys have been in the league awhile and know what it takes to win and they’ve already showed our younger and new guys what we’re going to have to do.”
The Kings have adopted more of a shoot-first mentality and that philosophy plays to Poisson’s
strengths. Enemy defencemen and his own teammates running netfront duty cringe when he winds up to take a shot.
“You can’t score if you don’t shoot and we’re trying to take out that extra pass that is risky and can lead to a turnover. (We’d rather) just throw it on net and crash the net and try to score that way,” said Poisson.
Veteran forwards Ethan de Jong, Kyle Johnson, Blake Hayward and Jarod Hovde have moved on but there’s still plenty of firepower up front with the likes of Poisson centring the Kings’ top line with Ben Brar and right winger Nolan Welsh. Americans Dustin Manz and Patrick Cozzi worked well together last year and they’ve got a new linemate with hard-shooting point producer Layne Sniher moving west from the Calgary Buffaloes midget ranks. Chong Min Lee is now one of the older guys at 19 and has looked great in training camp lining up with New York recruit Michael Conlin and Spencer Chapman.
P.G. boys Corey Cunningham and Craig MacDonald have proven they belong and they’ll be fighting for playing time with fellow rookies Tyler Schleppe and Nick Poisson, both products of the Burnaby Winter Club pipeline that continues to supply high-octane talent to the Spruce Kings.
“I think they’re going to be a very entertaining, hardworking team very similar to last year’s group – there’s going to be a big carryover from what we learned last year in our long playoff run with those players who have returned,” said Kings general manager Mike Hawes.
“We had a quick team last year and we wanted to have another fast team and I think we’ve accomplished that. The game has trended toward puck possession and when you have a fast team the puck possession part of it goes hand-in-hand with the speed and it’s nice to have those attributes on the team.”
The Kings lost one of their primary recruits, 20-year-old winger Jack Hoey, who aggravated a shoulder injury during training camp and returned to his home in Connecticut. To replace him they traded for speedy winger Sam Kozlowski, a 20-year-old RIT recruit from Delta, who had 30 points in 55 games last year for the Coquitlam Express.
The Kings defence could rate as one of the league’s best with four returnees – Layton Ahac, Liam Watson-Brawn, Dylan Anhorn and Jay Keranen – all of whom played big minutes for the team last year. The first three already have NCAA scholarships lined up while Keranen, a physical d-man who turned especially ferocious in the second half, will soon be college material. Max Coyle, a 20-year-old from Tilsonburg, Ont., is a character guy with an offensive upside who fills the role junior grad Chays Ruddy had. Spruce Kings fans will like what they see out of rookies Nick Bochen (Burnaby Winter Club) and homebrew Brennan Malgunas (Cariboo Cougars).
“We have a lot of returning players, a ton of impact guys and that’s exciting,” said Anhorn. “The theme of our defence in general is we’re fast-paced and we like to move the puck and it helps our team generate a lot of stuff on the offensive end.
“Some of our recruits this year look like they’re going to be contributors as well this year and it looks like they’re eager to start. I think we’re going to have a real strong group throughout the lineup. We have a lot of the grit we brought to the playoffs last year returning and a good structure laid out by the coaches.”
Evan DeBrouwer almost singlehandedly won games for the Kings in his only season in Prince George and played a huge role in keeping the Kings alive long enough to see four playoff rounds. He’s now off to Arizona State and that leaves the netminding duties to a pair of 19-year-olds – Brad Cooper, who put up respectable numbers and posted back-to-back shutouts, showing he was ready to play in the league in limited duty as the Kings’ backup last season, and Logan Neaton, who got used to winning a lot of games in the NAHL with the Fairbanks Ice Dogs.
“Evan did a tremendous job for us last year and when it all shook down I would argue he was probably the best goalie in our league,” said Hawes. “Logan and Brad aren’t tasked with filling Evan’s shoes. They’re here to have their own identity and play their own game and we have confidence in both of them.”
As did DeBrouwer, Cooper and Neaton will benefit from the luxury of having a full-time goalie coach around with former college puckstopper Alex Evin back for a second season as the assistant to head coach Adam Maglio.
It was a big surprise when Maglio was named as the guy to replace Chad van Diemen in the spring of 2017. Just 10 years older than some of his players, taking the reins after two seasons as an assistant, Maglio proved he has what it takes to blend a group of teenaged athletes and mold them into a winning team in what ranks as the top junior A hockey league in Canada. He went through some growing pains, just like his players, but he’s earned the respect of the league as part of the new wave of young 30-something BCHL bench bosses.
“Last year, as a first-year coach, you just prepare as well as you can and hope you can fall back on your preparation throughout the year and hope that you have the right structure and the right players and it worked last year,” said Maglio.
“It’s an adjustment because as coaches you always want to be better every year or improve in areas you thought lacked last year. So I think there’s a little more pressure in Year 2 to improve in those areas and be as good if not better in the areas you were already good in.”
The expectation is there, and Maglio has plenty to work with to once again shape the Spruce Kings into a contender for the crown.
“Our guys are now a year older and they’ve gotten bigger, stronger, faster over that year and that’s going to really help our transition game, and the way we defend, I hope we can even give up less than we did last year,” said Maglio. “Our seven defencemen can all play any given night and all be contributors. Both our goalies are capable of playing and doing well each night and they’ll push each other.
“I think early on teams will get after us right away. They’re looking to set the bar with us from last season, so there won’t be any easy nights for us.”
Last season the Kings succeeded beyond everyone’s wildest expectations and that winning habit will be tough to replicate. But, it is possible with this group of playoffsavvy veterans, who have every intention of running the table all the way to the Fred Page Cup.
Tonight’s festivities at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena start with a barbecue in front of the rink at 5:30.
Before the puck drops for the 7 p.m. game start, the Kings will raise their first BCHL banners and the Humboldt Broncos commemorative flag to the RMCA rafters.