NEUGSIE’S AROUND THE SJHL
By: Jamie Neugebauer
Voice of the ND Hounds
1 . WE’RE BACK BABY! That’s right! Starting Thursday in Flin Flon, every team in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League will play four pre-season games against the same opposition until Nov. 1. I will be in Humboldt Saturday as the Hounds kick their exhibition schedule off at the Broncos, and I cannot tell you how excited I am. I can also say that I expect every team’s pre-season games to be on HockeyTV in HD, so make sure you tune in (or come out, if you can).
2. Probation Station: Now let’s take a moment to get serious. The rules about who can come to pre-season, and what that means in terms of protocol, will be a little different in every market in the league; but I am appealing to you to take the rules seriously, wear your masks, follow signs, go above-and-beyond; you the fan are a big part of keeping this province safe first and foremost, and secondly, of keeping hockey going in Saskatchewan. You just know Dr. Shehab and the Sask Health Authority will have a quick trigger to shut everything down if it isn’t going well (and you all know what ‘well’ means, I don’t have to say it). This pre-season is wonderful, but it’s probation, and a dress rehearsal for what we really want: regular season hockey that counts.
3. Divisions/Cohorts: The SJHL will be split up between the north and south until at least mid-January, and teams will only face opposition in their respective division until then (knock on wood). Humboldt, Estevan, Weyburn, Melville, Yorkton, and ND in the South; Kindersley, Battlefords, Melfort, La Ronge, Nipawin, Flin Flon in the North. It’ll be a lot of familiarity, but that often breeds contempt in our league; which I say is a good thing!
4. So What Can YOU Do? As I said in point 2, wear your mask, follow the rules. Are you someone who believes you should have the right to not wear a mask, and aren’t willing to wear one if that’s the rule? Then you are free to stay home. You will have to wear a mask from the second you walk in the rink door, to the second you walk out. You will have to physically distance. Just follow the rules, don’t complain, and let’s enjoy some hockey! It all comes down to these things. If you’re like me, you’re probably losing your mind without hockey.
5. Press Box Crunch: It’ll be interesting in press boxes around the province, as I expect to either not be allowed some places, or will have a lot more room in others (I much prefer the latter, obviously). I also expect a lot of hand sanitizer and Lysol wipes on hand. I don’t care if I have to wear a barney costume (something I suggested to Humboldt bench boss Scott Barney for the game in Humboldt on Halloween, by the way, but I don’t think he was too thrilled with the idea), I’m just so excited to call a game!
6. Coaches Poll: Saw my colleague Mike Stackhouse put out a ‘first ever Coach’s Poll’ compiling power rankings for the league ahead of the pre-season according to the coaches; which I think is great. Love him or hate him (I love him), you have to admit he works hard for this league, and has for a very long time. Other sources are putting out content aplenty as well, like Top Shelf Prospects (occasionally controversially) and others, and I say we need coverage of all sorts and lots of shade. Hard to argue that Humboldt is the No. 1 team on paper heading in, as the poll says.
7. Wolves Dip Into BC Jr. B: There wasn’t an older team in the SJHL a year ago than the La Ronge Ice Wolves, so it’s no surprise that they turn over their roster quite a lot heading into 20-21. One source that coach/GM Kevin Kaminski has used to restock the cupboards is B.C. Junior B players, a place he got some value from a year ago with Kyle Ford and Kalem Hanlon. Eight (yes, 8!) new Wolves come from B.C. Junior B: Beau Larson, Ethan Strik, Gavin Mattey, Brandon Della Paolera, Tristan Lambert, Garrett Hunter, Josh Makarchuk, and Matthew Poole if you’re counting at home. Players from there have had very mixed results in the SJHL lately, so we’ll have to see who sticks and who doesn’t!
8. But Back To The Well: But all that being said, a lot of newboy buzz around the league is landing on the shoulders of 18-year-old Quebecer Narek Aleksanyan. Like last year’s superstar performer Daylan Mannon, Kaminski has called in his Fresno Western States Hockey League connects and grabbed a kid who has to come in confident from a 104-point, 2.2 points-per-game campaign. They are very high on the young man up there, so I can’t wait to see how he compares to Mannon.
9. Top Goalie? Interesting chat around the office today about who we expect to be the top goalie in the league this campaign. I found it hard to argue against big Ross Hawryluk up in Nipawin, after a stellar rookie campaign that saw him do more than hold the fort while the Hawks offence struggled through large portions of the campaign. One coach I know who is very familiar with Estevan’s Emerik Demers spoke positively glowingly about him, while it’ll be interesting to see if Liam McGarva, the one remaining SJHL Goaltender of the Year candidate, can build off his form behind what is expected to be a very offensive-minded La Ronge team. Lots of options out there this year, including Steven Bacovsky, who will backstop an always stingy Melfort Mustangs team, the ever popular Joe Young in Weyburn, and Notre Dame’s Raythan Robbins, a young kid out of Alaska who I think has an enormous amount of talent, and polish.
10. How Many Games? That’s the real thing holding back the regular season schedule as I write this column (though I actually expect a published schedule by the time I write this column again next week). That is, how many games will we actually have during the campaign? The answer has to be less than the standard 58, in my mind (though that is of course not ideal), while 40 appears to be the floor; so somewhere in the middle I suppose!
(Follow Jamie on Twitter at @Neugsie)
