NEUGSIE’S AROUND THE SJHL

1. Flin Flon’s Plight: The Flin Flon Bombers organization will be put on hold until at least after Christmas, the SJHL declared in a statement over Twitter Monday. For a few weeks after the Manitoba government deemed the province a red zone as Covid numbers continue to increase, Head Coach/GM Mike Reagan and the Bombers were trying to work with the authorities to find a solution that would allow the club, who have only played two games so far, to keep playing. It was suggested in my column last week that they might have all road games, practice in nearby Creighton, SK, and have all the players move to the Sask side of the border, but that has not been approved.
2. So How Will They Make It Up?: Part of the league’s contingency play for something like this is that as long as any team plays 50% of their schedule, so at least 25 games, they can be counted in the standings by win percentage. If any team plays a full 50-game slate it would really surprise me anyway, but either way, there will have to be some pretty creative schedule-making going on here, since the second half of the Flin Flon slate is supposed to be heavily based on travelling to the south of the province. That probably isn’t happening now either, so who knows. Really feel for the Bomber boys, who I would imagine are going to go home now until there is confirmation of a restart, and that community who clearly loves its club so much.
3. Bad News For Melfort: The Melfort Mustangs postponed last Saturday’s game, and next weekend’s series with Battlefords, and paused all hockey activities over the next week, due to a ‘Covid Exposure’. News I heard was that the player or players in question did not travel to the Friday night game in La Ronge (wherein, by the way, an unfortunate crash into the boards saw Ice Wolves rookie Carter Albrecht only narrowly avoid a very serious injury), so there’s at least that. The Mustangs have been given the go-ahead to resume hockey activities Nov 29, so here’s praying nothing comes up positive from those tests and that the young men in question are alright!
4. What’s Going To Happen Wednesday?: It could all of course be moot by the time you are reading this as what many are considering to be a big announcement from Premier Moe and Dr. Shahab was moved from Tuesday to Wednesday at 3:00 P.M. Covid rates are pretty high, but the mandatory mask rules province-wide haven’t had time to make an impact yet – so surely it’s too quick of a trigger to pull the plug on hockey…right? Right? Right…
5. The Broncos Are Who I Said They Were: Watched the regular season Humboldt Broncos closely in their two-game weekend set with the Notre Dame Hounds and one thing is for sure to me, this is the fastest team the SJ has seen since I’ve been in Sask. To list the Broncos speed demons would take too long, but from a dispassionate point of view, it shouldn’t surprise me that they looked even better on ND’s international ice than they did at the Elgar Petersen Arena. Are they beatable? Of course they are, and a couple bounces here or there and the Hounds could have had a couple points from the weekend (despite some one-sided shot clocks), but I also think the best is yet to come from Scott Barney’s men. I said it on my SJ at Noon show: Jarrett Penner adds a whole other dimension to this already scary club. I’m sure he was simply glowing after scoring the game-winner Saturday night in Humboldt against his old club.
6. The Kid’s (Still) Alright: Speaking of those Hounds, I am now convinced that ND has the best goaltending in the SJ (I know all you out there are saying “you’re a homer Jamie…bla bla bla”), but between Riley Kohonick returning from the BCHL (the goalie of the year in the division last year, by the way), and the magnificent rookie Raythan Robbins, it is looking excellent in the Hounds crease. You would think Hounds boss Brett Pilkington is hoping they won’t have to face the average of 47.5 shots they faced over the weekend, though Humboldt will pump a ton of rubber at anyone in the SJHL this year.
7. Are The Goalies Coming? And speaking of goalies, with Melville nabbing Bryan Thomson from Lethbridge, Estevan grabbing Boston Bilous from the Moose Jaw Warriors, and Yorkton picking up the highly-touted Saskatoon man Nolan Maier, who featured for the Terriers as a rookie in 17-18, I wonder if more will come down the pipe from the ever increasingly doubtful-to-start WHL. A couple options are Red Deer’s Ethan Anders, who is a Regina kid, the Pats own recently added Meadow Lake, SK boy Roddy Ross, and what about P.A.’s other tender, the fine and enormous ’02-born Carter Serhyenko? Kamloops backstop Rayce Ramsay was even a rookie in Humboldt in 18-19, so could he be back in the SJ? Just a couple possibilities…
8. Focus: Thinking about how the current situation has to be even tougher than normal on the players trying to adjust to the SJ or to junior hockey itself. Players are creatures of habit, so the fact they have an allowance of only an hour and a half at an opposing rink before puck drop to fit in getting dressed, getting warmed up, listening to the coaches, going through routines, and whatever else they do, even before on-ice warm-up 30 minutes before the game itself starts, has to be a real challenge. I have sympathy, but on the flip side you either sink or swim in this game of ours, as you all know.
9. Albertans Pausing, BC Delaying: News out of the west is not good. Games were cancelled left and right last weekend in the Alberta League with positive tests from players, with the likes of Olds, Calgary, Drumheller, and Canmore all at least on hold until early December. Wenatchee, the lone American team in the British Columbia Hockey League, has pulled out of the season completely, and the B.C. Health Authority has not allowed teams to travel anywhere until Dec. 7; so, that league’s regular season won’t begin until Dec. 8 at the earliest. If leagues are expecting Christmas Breaks, I wouldn’t be very surprised if there aren’t too many Junior A games in Canada left until 2021. Hope I’m wrong.
10. What It’s Like With No Hitting: There was plenty of outrage when the news broke that body contact wouldn’t be allowed in the Ontario Junior A loops. I spoke to a player I know in the Ontario Junior Hockey League, likely the best league in that province (one of four Junior A leagues there, by the way), and he said that while the penalty for a body check is a five-minute major and a game misconduct, plus a game suspension, the referees have tried to keep guys in games by allowing various types of physicality as long as it isn’t blatant. Full face shields PLUS masks are required while playing, and he said keeping a dry mask on is very tricky, as the cloth constantly gets wet and thus is suffocating, so that doesn’t sound very pleasant. That being said, he and his mates are just thrilled to be playing games. The numerous Toronto and Peel Region (just west of Toronto) teams will not be allowed any sort of hockey activity until their respective lockdowns are done, but the regular season isn’t slated to start till January anyways (teams have been playing pre-season series’ against one other nearby squad). That’s all up in the air, of course.

(Jamie Neugebauer is the Voice of the ND Hounds. Follow him on Twitter at @Neugsie)