Royals hope to experience long playoff run
GAME DAY: VANCOUVER AT VICTORIA, GAME 1 7 p.m. at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre TV: None / Radio: The Zone 91.3 FM
It is the ‘E’ factor, as in experience, and the Victoria Royals have plenty of it in their opening round Western Hockey League playoff series against the Vancouver Giants, which opens with the first two games tonight and Saturday at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
The last time the Giants (36-27-9) were in the playoffs, Barack Obama was midway through his second term as U.S. president, and the Winter Olympics had just ended — not Pyeongchang 2018, but Sochi 2014. Remember those days?
The Royals (39-27-6) go into the series, the second-vs.-third B.C. Division matchup, with players who have a combined 336 games of playoff experience. That is compared to just 76 for the Giants, and 26 of those have come through former Royals forward Jared Dmytriw.
The Royals, however, are downplaying what appears to be an obvious advantage.
“We don’t factor that into the equation,” said head coach Dan Price.
“Everyone is 0-0 in every way at the start of the playoffs. The past is the past. This is about what we do in this moment. We do have a veteran core and veteran leadership group. But this is about what they do now — in 2018, against Vancouver.”
Among the Royals with playoff pedigree, Tanner Kaspick has won a WHL championship with the Brandon Wheat Kings, while Jeff de Wit and Braydon Buziak both went to the WHL final last year with the Regina Pats. That’s not to mention the two epic playoff exits over the past two years experienced by eight of the current Royals veterans — the second-round Game 7 buzzer-beater loss to Kelowna in 2016 and the first-round Game 6 loss to Everett after five overtime periods in the longest game in WHL and CHL history.
“Same jersey, but different team,” said Kaspick, among eight new mid-season additions to the Royals this year via trades, in downplaying Victoria’s memorable playoff departures the past two seasons.
De Wit concurred: “We know the playoff history of Victoria and that’s extra motivation. But this is a new group after Jan. 10 [WHL trade deadline]. And for me, losing in the league final last year with the Pats was a stinger and that motivates me. But for all of us, no matter where we came from, the focus is on now.”
With the veterans and new additions, Victoria’s post-season experience advantage is glaring in this series and can’t be discounted. Of Vancouver’s two big stars, 19-year-old high second-round Edmonton Oilers draft-pick Tyler Benson has never played in the WHL post-season, while 61-goal scorer and 20-year-old Ty Ronning has only played two playoff games, and both as a 16-year-old call-up in 2014.
“It’s no secret we have an older locker-room,” said Kaspick, who played in the 2016 Memorial Cup tournament with the league-champion Wheat Kings.
“This is many of our players’ last go-arounds as juniors. That ups the stakes as we look forward to going out with a bang. That [edge in experience] is something we can take advantage of, however, it’s not the be-all and end-all in this series.”
Especially with three of the Royals veterans hobbled. That provides the great unknown of this series. The league does not issue injury reports in the playoffs but blue-liner Ralph Jarratt skated Thursday in practice and will be a game-time decision tonight. However, defenceman Scott Walford, a third-round draft pick of the Montreal Canadiens, and Royals second-leading scorer Tyler Soy were both injured in the final two-game regular-season set against Everett did not skate Thursday and are not expected for at least the first two games of the series tonight and Saturday. That evens the ice for the Giants.
Soy was injured in Saturday night’s meaningless game against Everett. The Giants, meanwhile, sat out both Ronning and Benson for their equally meaningless regular-season ending loss Saturday to the Rockets in Kelowna.
It means Victoria’s superior depth advantage over Vancouver will be put to the stress test, at least early in the series. Also missing tonight will be forward and Red Wings prospect Lane Zablocki, sitting out the final game of a two-game suspension.
“There are a lot of good pieces in our room . . . more than people would think,” said the two-way forward Kaspick, under an entrylevel NHL contract to the St. Louis Blues.
“We’re not worried. We have guys who can step up if top guys go down.”
One of them will have to be rookie Royals defenceman Matthew Smith, who will likely be thrust into a top-four pairing for his first WHL playoffs games.
“I’m excited for the opportunity, and will rely on the guys with experience about what to expect,” said Smith
“Preparation is the key and I feel prepared.”
Crucial for Victoria, a team with a historic penchant for retaliation penalties, is discipline.
“We have to be cautious with our decisions when emotions and tempers run high,” said Kaspick.
“You can still play the game tough and rugged, and be hard to play against, and stay out of the box.”
If the Royals don’t do that, they will see a Vancouver power play bearing down on them with the likes of Ronning, Benson and James Malm.
“It’s going to be a grinding war and extremely physcial,” said Price, of the series.
Here’s the breakdown: OFFENCE: Both teams are offensively dangerous, but Vancouver in spots, with a significant edge in scoring depth to the Royals. Victoria was second overall in WHL scoring with 287 goals to Vancouver’s 16th-place 233. DEFENCE: The series will come down to which blue line holds up the best. The Giants might have a slight edge on defence. Without Jarratt and Walford, that will be exacerbated. Rising Vancouver rearguard Bowen Byram is the WHL Western Conference rookie of the year. GOALTENDING: The crease battle is a wash between Western Conference second-team all-star David Tendeck of the Giants, the eighth-ranked goaltender for the 2018 NHL draft, and Royals veteran Griffen Outhouse. Both are capable of stealing games by themselves. Tendeck missed the last three Giants games with an upper-body injury so his status is one of the talking points heading into the series.
“Traffic around the [Vancouver] net is beneficial to us and my focus is on whacking in loose pucks around the net,” said de Wit, a Royals power forward known to crowd the crease.
He will get no argument from the Victoria bench boss, who isn’t concerned about Tendeck’s reputation as a rising crease star, nor that of touted 17-year-old backup Trent Miner, a first-round WHL bantam draft pick, who was brought up mid-season from the Midget ranks .
“Good fundamentals create goals, no matter who the goalie is,” said Price. SPECIAL TEAMS: Victoria’s scoring prowess allowed its power play to click at a potent 25 per cent efficiency, which was sixth best in the WHL. But it could meet its match against a stubbornly defiant Vancouver penalty kill, which was tied for fourth in the league, operating at 79.2 per cent efficiency.
The importance of Victoria staying out of box is reflected in a suspect Royals penalty kill that was 21st in the league at 74.1 per cent. It faces a Vancouver power play that scored 22 per cent of the time for 13th best in the league. SEASON SERIES: Because of cross-strait proximity, the Royals and Giants play each other more than any other teams in the Western Conference with 10 games annually. This, however, is the first playoff meeting between the natural-rival franchises since the Royals moved to the Island in 2011-12.
Victoria was 7-3 against the Giants in the 2017-18 regular season but that is deceptive because several of the games between the teams went to overtime or shootout. So, from a Vancouver perspective, the Giants’ record against the Royals is 3-4-3.