A LOOK BACK AND A LOOK AHEAD

The Christmas break is upon us and it gives me time to look back at the first half of the season for the Winkler Flyers. The first 42 games of the season have been a grind. It has been a tough year so far for a variety of reasons. And when I say tough I don’t been bad, it’s just been tough.

One of the reasons is that of the 42 games that the Flyers have played so far this season, 24 of them have been on the road. The longest trips of the year to OCN, Swan Valley, and Dauphin are all done. The other team’s rink hasn’t been the most friendly place to play this season. The Flyers are 9-13-1-1 on the road with the bulk of those loses coming in the first two months of the season.

The other reason for the tough start was the injuries, especially to All-Star defenseman Caleb Suderman. He was in and out of the line-up to start the season after getting injured in pre-season. His permanent return midway through the first half of the season is one of the big reasons for the turnout to start the month of November.

The coaching staff also decided to move Jordan Peters back to defense just before Suderman’s return and since then the local pairing has been one, of if not the best D pairing in the league. The more then solid play of Peter Alexander in goal has been a huge bonus this season. He sports some of the best numbers among MJHL netminders with a 17-12-2 record with one shutout. A 3.16 GAA and a .916 save percentage. He has been the difference in a number of games between winning and losing and the tandum of him and Carey Dyck should give us little reason to worry the rest of the way.

All of those things combined and also a few key additions along the way have made the Flyers a completely different team from Nov. 1st on, and it shows in their record. Winkler started the season 8-12-2 and since their Halloween road trip to Swan Valley are 13-5-2.

The Flyers have proven that IF and WHEN they give it their all and play a 60 minute hockey game (or close enough) they can beat anybody. However, if that doesn’t happen they can lose to anybody. The goal and the challenge for the team and the coaches is to figure out how to do that game in and game out.

A few things are on the side of the Flyers coming into the New Year. 13 of the remaining 20 games are at home where they have a remarkable 12-4-2 record. 8 of those games are against sub .500 teams and 7 of them are against Sherwood Division teams so they don’t matter so much in the standings.

Now the January 10th trading deadline is coming up soon after the players return from their Christmas break where teams will finalize their 23 player rosters that they will take into the remainder of the season and playoffs.

As well as things are going for Winkler at the moment there are still some areas of concern. They are not tremendously deep on the blue line. We have seen when the big guys go down there is a bit of a drop off. And I know that big, puck moving defensemen don’t grow on trees but I would say that is the first area to try and improve.

Second is to try and find a legit top 6 forward or maybe even top 3 that can score. Someone who strikes fear into their opponent. Having a player like that will also open up opportunities for others to flourish with being not so much in the spot light or on the other teams radar so much. And the other thing is some toughness. Not necessarily a big idiot fighter but someone who stirs it up and is mean and a little “grey area” once in a while.

If you take a look at the Flyers roster in terms of the quality of the 20 year olds and the way the division is set up this season THIS is the year to make a push. Remember, these suggestions are just my opinion but if you want to get a top notch player you need to be willing to give something in return. I know and realize that is the worst part of the job for the decision makers but winning here and now is the bottom line.

The Orange and Black have 21 players on the roster right now which gives them 4 open cards. So if they use all 4 cards they will need to get rid of 2 players somewhere is the shuffle. Let me know in the comment section what you think should happen.

Recently, the Flyers have not been known as the team that pulls off the big deals, where people around the league and not just within the organization say “WOW, look at what Winkler just did”.

I hope that is the case this year.

Merry Christmas folks and we will talk again soon…

p.s.

just for fun here are some pics that Ray Peters (one of the team photographers) took of me while the Flyers were playing in Neepawa this month and the Flyers took 3 penalties in a row which would explain some of my facial expressions. It is also VERY cold in that arena which would explain the hat....enjoy!!

MEET THE CAPTAINS - CAM STEVENS

Welcome to the 2nd installment of Meet The Captains. A number of weeks ago you got to know Captain Troy Kliever just a little bit better. This time I will focus on assistant captain Cam Stevens.

Cameron Lloyd Stevens (aka Cat) was born May 23rd, 1989 in the City of Brandon. Cam has three sisters, Amanda, Jacquie, and Melody. Cam just became an uncle for the first time recently as Amanda and her husband Tristin celebrated the birth of the daughter Ellie.

Cam has lived in the same house in Brandon his whole life with his mom and dad (Debbie and Kevin). Cam’s inspiration in hockey is his dad. He says that his dad has always been there for him and is his biggest fan and critic.

Cam played his minor hockey in Brandon and left home when he was 17 years old to play for the Chilliwack Bruins (WHL). Cam also played for the Lethbridge Hurricanes and Tri-City Americans before returning to Winkler full time this season.

When Cam’s junior hockey career comes to an end after this season he wants to go to school. He has three years of schooling saved up from his three seasons in the WHL. His favorite subjects in high school were History and Social Studies.

Cam’s advice to other young hockey players is that if you want to succeed you have to give it your all every chance that you get. Do all the thing that will help you get better. Get in the gym!

There is also one thing about Cam that you may not know. He is a huge fan of the movie Ratatouille. He even has a figure of Remy (the main mouse in the movie) as his key chain.

ROSTER DEADLINE THOUGHTS

The December 1st roster cut down deadline has come and gone for all Junior A teams in Canada. The deadline forces all teams to get their rosters down to 25 while at the same time leaving as many cards as they can open in order to make some moves down the road before the January trading deadline.

If you haven’t heard already the Flyers lost four players and got two. Gone are Forwards Brett Suderman and Joe Becker, Defenseman Mitch Lutz, and Goaltender Michael Deslauriers. The additions are Forward Anthony Collins and Goaltender Carey Dyck. The trade for Dyck has made the most immediate impact with the injury to Peter Alexander and Dyck has proven to be a great addition to the Flyers crease.

Deslauriers, Becker, and Lutz were all considered import players. An import player is one that did not play the previous year in the province of Manitoba. Each team is only allowed to have eight imports on their roster at any given time so the three gentlemen I mentioned before are just victims of the numbers game.

Suderman on the other hand is a different story. Flyer nation sure does love their local talent and anytime one of them leaves the team it comes with mixed emotions. Brett was also a victim of the numbers game but in a different way. The Flyers now have 21 players on the roster and have four cards open in which to add some impact players before the January deadline, so in that regard they are right where they want to be.

As the December 1st roster cut down deadline approached Brett was asked about the possibility of being assigned to the Pembina Valley Twisters of the Manitoba Major Junior Hockey League. Doing this would allow the Flyers to keep his rights while keeping an extra card open and still have the ability to AP him up to 10 times throughout the rest of the season. He would still practice with the Flyers and would be able to get the ice time that he was wanting with the Twisters.

After considering that plan Suderman decided that he would rather play for a different team in the MJHL. The Flyers then granted him that request by sending him to Neepawa for the MJHL rights to Anthony Collins.

There are some who will be put off by the fact that the Flyers traded a local kid but at the end of the day what are we trying to do here? Are we providing a place for each and every local kid to play hockey or are we trying to win. By saying that I don’t mean that we can’t win by having local players I am just saying that sometimes you need to do things like this in order to improve your hockey club.

As of 12:01am on December the 2nd are the Flyers a better team and in a great position to get even better? Yes. Is Brett Suderman getting the chance to play more and produce more with Neepawa? Yes.

The window for opportunity for the Flyers is small. The crop of 20 year olds is better then it has been in many years. This is the year to go for it and sacrificing some of the future for the present is what they have to do. Making decisions like this are not made on a whim. There are a number of things that they take into consideration like how it affects the team on the ice and in the room. They also think of how it will affect their fans and the community.

Flyer fans have been screaming for a winner for many, many years and the people in charge are trying to make that happen. Sometimes in hockey you need to take feelings and personal things out of the equation and do what’s best for the whole.

I am glad truly glad for Brett that he will now get the opportunity to play more. He added that spark every once in a while that will hopefully be filled by someone else (see above picture). I wish him all the best in Neepawa. It is hard to say goodbye sometimes but its part of the business or sport.

Remember this is just my opinion. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think...