MEET THE CAPTAINS – TROY KLIEVER

Welcome to the first installment of a four part series that I like to call “Meet The Captains”. This season as you already know the coaching staff has selected Troy Kliever as the captain with Caleb Suderman, Cam Stevens, and Shael Hechter as the assistant captains. You know who these guys are on the ice but do you really know them.

For most of you your paths will probably never really cross and I want to let you know who these guys are.

First off we are going to start with this years team captain Troy Kliever. Troy Michael Kliever is entering his third year with the team. He is probably one of the most reliable defenseman that you can ask for in the MJHL. He basically does whatever it is that you ask of him as a hockey player and in my opinion, a great pick to wear the “C”.

Troy was born in Brandon, Manitoba on March 1st, 1990. He grew up in Elkhorn with his older brother Mark and other sister Kristen along with their parents Rod and Laurie. The Kliever family moved to Deloraine when Troy was finished grade one and that is where they still live today.

Troy played the majority of his minor hockey and baseball in Deloraine, which is a very sports minded community. The rink is the hotbed of activity in the winter with plenty of free ice time and the rink is always open for anyone to use at any time.

Troy credits his parents for his successes in hockey as they would always provide rides to practice or games and still to this day will travel from their home in southwestern Manitoba to watch Troy play.

After his junior hockey career is over Troy would like to earn a scholarship for either a NCAA school or CIS. He would also like to have the opportunity to play professionally overseas.

During his school years Kliever enjoyed History and World Issues and enjoys camping and spending time at the lake and on the water during the summer.

And for any of you looking to succeed in the game of hockey Troy offers this advice, “Work hard but have fun playing the game.”

There you have it folks. I hope you enjoyed the first installment of “Meet The Captains”. Stay tuned throughout the season for parts two through four and thank you so much for checking out my blog and feel free to leave a comment about anything and I will be happy to talk about it.

First Impressions

Well another Flyers season is underway and already there is a lot to talk about. As I talked about in my first post there were many questions coming into the season and some already have been answered and some are just different than I thought.

The first one was in goal. When Dayn Belfour decided to leave the club during the summer and try his hand at the U.S.H.L. it automatically left the number one spot open. So the first thought is that Scott Hellyer (last years backup) will just slide into that spot and it would be a situation where it would be his spot to lose.

There were a few guys that played well during camp but no one really took the bull by the horns and showed that they were for sure the number one goalie. But throughout the first two games of the season both Peter Alexander who got the start in game one, and Hellyer who got the start in game two have made it very difficult for the man in charge to pick his man. Or maybe he already has….I don’t know. For the time being anyway that part of the roster will be just fine.

Scoring goals shouldn’t be a problem either. With plenty of experienced fire power on this years team things are looking promising and when they actually find who plays best with each other the Flyers offense will be lethal from top to bottom.

Now here is where I get just a little bit nervous. At the end of last season the entire blue line was eligible to return which made me think that was going to be the best part of their game. And so far it hasn’t. Now I’m not saying that it’s terrible and I know that when you start the season without one of the best d-men in the league it puts you in the hole right off the bat.

Last season when Caleb Suderman missed three months with an ankle injury, it created a big hole and also put additional stress on the guys who have to fill in which in turn can take production away from them. Bad giveaways have been the story early in this season. In game one all four goals were a direct result and a Flyer mistake and the Pistons took a 2-1 lead in the first period in that game thanks to another bad play but the Flyers in their own zone.

You have to wonder if people are trying to do too much in Suderman’s absence or are trying to make an impression early in the year to earn more ice time or are just nervous or excited or both about a new season. But I’ve heard it said and seen it many times that when you are stuck in your own zone with the puck on your stick the most attractive thing in the world is to fire that sucker off the glass and out. You don’t have to make it pretty to make it a good play. There are no style points in victory. You can score 5 highlight reel goals and still lose the game but it might be that hard working second and third and fourth effort around the net that gets you the big win.

I encourage you to make a comment and let me know what you think…

As another Manitoba Junior Hockey League season begins for the Winkler Flyers the questions heading into this, and any other season for that matter are the same. Do the boys have what is takes this year? How do we get back to the way things were back in the early 90’s? I was still living in the great province of Saskatchewan when the glory days of Flyer hockey were taking place so I don’t know how that feels.

I don’t remember when the scariest players in the league were wearing orange and black uniforms, or when championship trophies were being hoisted at center ice of the Winkler Recreation Complex. But what I do know is that look in the players eyes, the talk out of the coach’s mouths, and the general feeling is that the plan is to get there again this season.

The players on the team this year don’t remember Winkler as a winning franchise. Some of the guys on this year’s Flyers roster were still in diapers when they last won a league championship. I’m sorry for making this first entry sound depressing but those are the facts.

Now every so often the right things happen at the right time to make you think, “Oh man, this could be the year.” The Flyers have a better crop of 20 year olds than they’ve had in years, the young guys are good. The rest of the division is re-building. And right now anyway, all the signs are pointing in the right direction and things are looking good.

In the end, will everything work out according to plan? I hope so.

The fans want it so bad. Every person I talk to tells me how awesome it would be if things were the same as the old days. When the team was great, the arena was full, and Flyer Pride was running through everyone that you met.

Please join me on this adventure this season and remember, we’re all on the same team. Lets all get our hands on that trophy.