Reinforcements are coming for Giants
WHL: Injured Skeoch and world juniors player Bondra among those expected to return soon
The returns to the Vancouver Giants lineup for top defenceman Darian Skeoch and leading goal scorer Radovan Bondra remain works in progress.
Skeoch (sprained ankle) missed his sixth straight game on Wednesday night with Vancouver’s 4-1 loss on the road to the Everett Silvertips.
General manager Glen Hanlon says Skeoch won’t play Friday, when Vancouver hosts the Kamloops Blazers at the Langley Events Centre (7:30 p.m., TSN 1410), but he will travel east for Vancouver’s five-game road trip that starts Jan. 2 in Calgary and suit up “at the end of the trip.”
Skeoch was hurt in practice, stepping on either a puck or a stick.
Meanwhile, Bondra is with the Slovak team at the world junior championships in Toronto and Montreal.
The tournament quarter-finals are Jan. 2, with semifinals Jan. 4 and the championship game on Jan. 5.
If the Slovaks are bumped to the relegation round — and they were outscored 10-2 in their first two games — it’s a best-of-three series that ends Jan. 5.
And Hanlon hasn’t ruled out giving Bondra, an 18-goal man with Vancouver so far, some time off after the tournament.
“We will decide when he gets back,” Hanlon explained.
Skeoch and Bondra were the early picks for Vancouver’s most valuable player.
The recent surge by Tyler Benson, whose assist on Jeff Rayman’s goal in Wednesday’s game marked his 14th point (2-12) in Vancouver’s last six games, has added him to that conversation.
Benson is Vancouver’s leading scorer, with 40 points, including 10 goals, in 31 games.
Bondra remains second with 29 points. He’s played 29 games.
Skeoch, who has one goal and nine assists in 27 games, is second on the team in plus-minus, with a plus-four. Bondra leads at plus-five.
The absences of Bondra and Skeoch, along with injuries to centre Tyler Popowich (shoulder), centre Dawson Holt (shoulder) and winger Johnny Wesley (shoulder) left Vancouver one skater short of the usual 18-player complement for their two games since the holiday break.
They would have been even worse off if defenceman Ryan Jones hadn’t returned to the lineup in Tuesday’s home game against Everett from an off-season shoulder injury that had kept him out all season.
Hanlon said that he expects Popowich, Vancouver’s lone 16-year-old, to play at the “start of the trip.”
In the injury report that the WHL published Tuesday, the Giants listed Holt as sidelined for three-tofour weeks and Wesley as four-tosix weeks.
Popowich was week-to-week, while Skeoch was day-to-day.
Hanlon says Vancouver will likely call on affiliate players during their road swing, which includes stops in Edmonton, Red Deer, Medicine Hat and Kootenay.
Vancouver went 4-0-0-0 on a trip through Alberta in October, helping turn around their 1-7-0-0 start to the campaign.
The Giants (14-19-1-2) are currently nine points behind the Seattle Thunderbirds (18-13-3-1) for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference.
The Blazers (22-14-1-1), who are fourth in the West, are missing three players to world juniors, including starting goalie Connor Ingram to Team Canada.
The Giants are 2-2-0-0 against Kamloops this season. They went 3-3-0-2 against the Blazers last season.