Poisson gets the ‘C’ for Spruce Kings
Ben Poisson has been named captain of the good ship Spruce King.
The 19-year-old centre has never worn the ‘C’ before on any hockey team he’s played for, but he’s certainly up for the task of trying to lead his B.C. Hockey League team to its first championship.
In his two previous seasons with the Spruce Kings his leadership qualities became obvious, which made it relatively easy for the coaching staff – head coaches Adam Maglio and assistant coach Alex Evin – to decide on Poisson as the team’s designated spokesman.
“I’m very excited about it,” said Poisson. “We’ve got a good team this year. The other guys helping me lead the team are awesome and they’ll take off a lot (of the responsibility) for me. They’ve all kind of played leadership roles before for the most part.”
Ben Brar, Dustin Manz and Patrick Cozzi will be assistant captains when the Kings are wearing their home jerseys. Jay Keranan will have the ‘A’ on his sweater for road games and Layton Ahac will be designated as an assistant when the team is wearing its alternate third jersey.
The Kings will unveil that new third jersey Friday night when they host the defending RBC Cup national champion Chilliwack Chiefs in the first of a two-game weekend set which opens the Spruce Kings’ 23rd BCHL season.
Prince George made it to the league final for the first time in franchise history, dropping a five-game series to the Wenatchee Wild.
The Kings expect a big crowd at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena to start the new season and will raise their first BCHL banners as defending Mainland Division regular season and playoff champions and as Coastal Conference playoff champions.
“It’s huge for the organization and the guys are excited about it, too,” said Poisson, who centres the Kings’ top line with Brar and right winger Nolan Welsh.
“Obviously playing in front of a big crowd is big, especially against the team we had in the first round of playoffs. They’ll probably want to get back at us and they ended up winning the RBC so that’s kind of a chip on our shoulder why we want to get back at them.
“People know how good we did last year and know we have a chance to win everything this year and no one’s going to take a step back, we’re always going to be going forward this year. I guess winning against us is a bigger thing just because of how well we did last year. Teams will be gunning for us but we’ll take that challenge and we’re excited to play.”
A fourth banner will commemorate the Humboldt Broncos players and staff who died as a result of their bus accident on April 6. All 133 teams in the Canadian Junior Hockey League this season will fly that banner, designed by Tyler Hutchinson of Moose Jaw, Sask. Each junior A player in Canada will wear a Broncos sticker on his helmet.
The pre-game festivities will also include a tribute to former equipment manager Malcolm Poburan, who died in April of lung cancer.
The Kings and Chiefs will also meet on Saturday night at RMCA.