THE WEDNESDAY THRILLER … WITH PHIL ANDREWS

Voice of the Pats Phil Andrews

Is it Friday Yet????

The 2014-15 WHL regular season is just around the corner for the Regina Pats and this week is crawling by. Training camp and the pre-season have been great but I for one am ready for hockey games that count. The Pats start the year in Brandon on Friday and then host the Wheat Kings in the home opener on Saturday at 7 PM at the Brandt Centre on 620 CKRM.

The Pats currently have 29 players on their roster with 4 of those gone to NHL Camps. Morgan Klimchuk is with Calgary, Kyle Burroughs the Islanders, Dryden Hunt the Hurricanes and Braden Christoffer with the Washington Capitals. Chandler Stephenson is technically still on the roster but he is all but guaranteed to be playing pro this year with the Caps or in Hershey with the Bears. Here are some photos of the guys down at their respective camps.

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No pictures of Klimchuk or Burroughs sorry.

If I had to guess, Dryden Hunt and Braden Christoffer will be back for game 1 but Klimchuk and Burroughs won’t be.

That leaves 14 forwards, and 8 defenceman not including the NHL guys. Nine of those are rookies. It will be exciting to see what these young guys do in the regular season. They have all looked good in the pre-season.

The Wheat Kings will also be without some guys this weekend. Goaltender Jordan Papirny is back from the Montreal Canadiens camp but the other 5 are not. Jayce Hawryluk, John Quenneville, Peter Quenneville, Richard Nejezchleb and Eric Roy will likely not be back for the game. But much like the Pats the Wheat Kings have some good young players to step in. Should be an interesting weekend between the two teams.

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Victoria Royals Head Coach Dave Lowry was given a multi-year extension on Tuesday. No doubt he deserves it, he has done a great job in my opinion out there on the island.

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The Regina Thunder are in Winnipeg Sunday for a 1st place showdown with the Rifles. The Thunder are coming off a 35-14 win in Edmonton over the Wildcats and are now 3 and 1 on the season. The biggest positive for the Thunder was on defense where they were able to limit the run game. That had been the biggest issue through the first three games of the year. Jaeden Marwick bounced back with a good game at QB as well and Matt Frass found a groove along the ground. Kickoff is at 1 o’clock on Sunday.

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What a terrible football game on Sunday in Hamilton. The Riders and Tiger-Cats were not what you would call exciting. Nor were most of the games on the weekend aside from Calgary and Toronto. I don’t think anyone is going to catch the Stamps for 1st place int he West Division. Interesting that Edmonton’s Mike Reilly is the only starting quarterback left in the West, and he isn’t 100 percent either. Tough luck around the league for quarterbacks this year. Maybe that’s why the CFL has been so hard to watch…

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The NFL on the other hand has not disappointed in the first two weeks. Yes there has been off field issues but the games have been exciting to watch and there are some big surprises. The New Orleans Saints are oh and 2, Seattle lost in San Diego, Atlanta went from looking dominant in week 1 to rolling over on the weekend. The Bills are 2 and oh, yes the Bills and on top of that so are the Cleveland Browns. I’m a Packer fan but it’s sure nice to see the perennial bottom feeders becoming competitive.

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Notice anything different in the picture below?

Yes the players are in the way but the Pats logo has undergone a bit of a change. What do you think? I think it looks sharp.

Be sure to catch the first Pats TV episode of the year on Thursday night at 7 on Access 7. My guests this week are Senior VP of Hockey Operations John Paddock, VP of Business Operations Cliff Mapes and forward Adam Brooks.

That’s it from me today, have a great week. Talk to you from Brandon on Friday night.

Phil 
@PhilTheThrill18


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