Wearing #13: Grizzlies Main Camp Preview

In just a matter of a few hours the Victoria Grizzlies will open their 2016 Main Camp at Westhills Arena in Langford, BC and if any of the anecdotal indications run true to form, I would suggest that this will be one of the most competitive and promising camps we have seen in years.  But more on that in a few moments.

I wanted to first take a quick moment before we begin and acknowledge the sad news concerning the loss of former Salsa player, Eddie Samuels.  Eddie was lost on 6 Aug, 2016 to heart failure at the young age of only 30.  Eddie was a just s fabulous young man and its funny because for reasons which I will soon explain, I remember him so well from that 04/05 Victoria Salsa team.

The first thing I remember about Eddie was that he wore #13, which as we all know is somewhat rare for most hockey players who are about as superstitious a demographic as any you will find.  Eddie was also on a team with teammates who would later become established NHL talents, Tyler Bozak and Jordie Benn.  I used to talk to Eddie on a lot of nights when he really shouldn't have been in that much of a mood to talk and be pleasant.  You see Eddie's jersey number often described in a literal way his position on the team's depth chart.  In many ways, Eddie was that proverbial thirteenth forward for the Salsa that season.

#13 Eddie Samuels, a player who always had a smile for anyone, regardless of his position in the lineup

I would often find Eddie in a business suit leaning against the blue railings along the south end of the brand new Q Centre (known then as Bear Mountain Arena), watching the Salsa warmup.  On night's when Eddie and I would chat, he was usually a healthy scratch and the truth is that he was unfortunately enduring those circumstances about half of the nights he played for the club. And that's hockey.  I always remember that he had tons of time for both me and any of my three sons on any given night and you could always count on him to be open and honest and quick with a smile.  He never once felt sorry for himself for being a scratch and on the contrary he would muse about the joy and honour about being a player in the BCHL.  He was way more than stoic on those occasions, Eddie Samuels was down right dignified.

Almost ten years later, my eldest son would end up playing his first regular season game in the BCHL and I remember thinking of Eddie Samuels when I saw him on the Grizzlies bench wearing the #13 without a name bar. I remember thinking how cool it was that a player of Eddie's skill and dignity would later have his jersey number worn by a local 17 year old who once looked up to #13 as a player and even more so as a role model.  Eddie was very special and he will be missed.  I can only wish his family well in these difficult times and may God Bless.

It's a bit strange, because the theme of the 13th forward is perfect for this Main Camp preview because this season's Grizzlies camp may in fact feature a few forwards in the potential role of that dreaded thirteenth forward.  Obviously there is the depth of this year's core group attending Main Camp.  But secondly and perhaps as no small point is the fact that 98' born forward Spencer Hunter will likely start the season on the IR as he recovers from an injury from last season.  This will allow Coach Craig Didmon to likely leave camp with a 23 man roster until Hunter returns. At least that's what the tea leaves tell me as I dissect this club on paper.

What this camp will see in my view is a very rare thing, a completely established position in goal with two returning 19 year olds in goalies Mitch Benson and Matthew Galajda, both returning in net.  That is a huge advantage for the Grizzlies.  They are backed up by an equally impressive returning core of defensemen in Cody Van Lierop, Jake Stevens, Brett Stirling and Drayson Pears. Add to that mix Nico Somerville of the VIJHL Champions Victoria Cougars and you suddenly have what I think could be the most formidable back end perhaps in the entire Island Division and maybe more.  Just sayin...

What surprises me is what I have read on line in many of the various social media sites about how the Grizzlies may not be rated that high this season.  From what I have read and heard from some fans in the off season, the big questions are around the forwards and there is concern.  Not for me there is.  I think the forwards will be just fine.

From what I can see of the returning group, I think that the often maligned position on forward for the Grizzlies may have an up year in 2016/17.  First off is the big news that Nathan Looysen has decided not to play for his SJHL club after all and has instead decided to complete his junior career back home in Victoria and I for one am very happy to see that is the case. Looysen, with 101 points for the aforementioned Cougars last year had just two call-up games for the Grizzlies, both on the road and he was fantastic in my opinion. With almost zero prep time to adjust to BCHL speed, he played in Penticton vs future 2016 NHL First Round draft picks and I thought he looked just fine. The next day he dominated the Langley Rivermen on the road with a nice tidy two point game.  In short, the return of Looysen in my view is about the best bit of news to come by way of the Q Centre in quite a while.

Looysen lead the entire VIJHL last year with 101 points and lead his club to a league championship in 15/16

Now there is the obvious problem that Looysen is another 20 year old and Coach Didmon suddenly found himself last week with no less than eight 20 year olds in camp.  But as we just saw a few days ago, the Grizzlies elected to move 96' forward Mitchell Barker to the West Kelowna Warriors for futures.  I am a bit sad to see such a great PK expert like Barker go, but room had to be made for squeezing 8 players into 6 spots.  Now there is but a single 20 year-old decision for the GM to make and while tough indeed, one difficult decision sure beats two in this case.

A WK Warrior since the 19 Aug trade, Barker was always a stalwart on the PK for the Grizzlies

Forgive me, but it is probably safe to say that core veterans Cole Pickup, Bret Stirling, Jake Stevens, Cody Van Lierop along with Looysen will all make the club as twenty year olds.  Could it come down to a decision between two solid and gritty forwards from last year's squad, Nick Guiney or Alex Peck?  The local newspaper seems to think so, but I wonder is there another shoe to drop? Could there be another surprise in store before the BCHL start deadline?

I just don't know.  Frankly likely very few know for sure, but one thing is for sure, this year's Grizzlies squad will not be like the team we saw last September which iced only 7 returning veterans from the 14/15 playoff squad.  This season the Grizzlies will be thick with returning vets and frankly I think that any opinion which sees the Grizzlies wallowing down near the bottom of the Island Division is one which is simply ill informed.

With The Shock and Awe Line of Keyvan Mokhtari and Tyler Welsh returning, the question I have is who will be the lucky forward who gets to join those two stellar playmakers for a full season?  I am picking Welsh to finish in the top 5 in the entire BCHL in assists for the season and if anyone cares to lay a wager on it, I drink Tim Hortons Medium Black.

Who will be the lucky forward who will join the speedy Mokhtari in 2016?

I mean here is a serious question:  If you were an attacking forward on an opposition club, how would you like to get a mouth full of Stirling, Stevens, Van Lierop and Pears shift after shift?  And even if you got through those veteran D-men, what shape would you be in and where would the puck be on your stick as you prepared to shoot on either Benson or Galajda?

Could this be the look of opposition forwards after facing 3 straight periods of Stirling, Stevens, Van Lierop and Pears

The newcomers could be very good and even if they take time to develop, I think this year, unlike 2015 will be much easier on the rookies.  Last year the rookies were simply asked to do cross a Bridge Too Far in my modest opinion.  There just was a touch too much pressure for the rookies to score and it hurt the club throughout the year.  Again, my opinion only. 

But this year the fresh faces of 98' (F) Brett Parker (44 points with Hanover High School), Arizona native 97' (F) Sage Eglund (14-6-10-16 Boston Jr Rangers), 97' (F) Lucas Clark (39-16-20-36 Port Perry MoJacks of the COJCHL), Vermont native (F) Adam Peck (26-17-31-48 Selects Hockey and younger brother of Alex), 98' (F) Jett Jaraczewski (19-8-20-28 Notre Dame USHS), 98' (F) Jamieson Rome (31-10-8-18 Calgary North Stars Midget AAA)  along with highly touted (D) Dayne Finnson (24-5-12-17), a former teammate of Brett Sterling form Salisbury School could all have enjoy that coveted "time to gel" and not be thrown directly into the fire on Day 1.  That could be huge in terms of the youngsters' development in the toughest Jr. A league in the country.

Then you have some of the locals and a few of the camp invites who I am really interested in seeing.  Frist there is VIJHL Rookie of the Year in 98' (F) Cam Thompson (45-23-21-44 Peninsula Panthers) .  But then there is the player I like to call "The Greatest Hands in Langford", 97' (F) Cory Hatcher (36-16-26-42 Westshore Wolves) who if it was up to me I would put on the Shock and Awe Line on Day 1 then get myself a big bag of popcorn and just sit back and watch the fireworks.

To sum up, I think the Grizzlies are going to be more than OK.  Yes I do also think that Coach Didmon will have some very tough decisions to make over the next two weeks, full stop.  But these decisions and issues are what I like to call "Quality Problems".  And I will just bet that there are a lot of coaches and GMs from across the league who would like to be in his shoes going into Main Camps which break out all across the league in a matter of minutes, not hours from now.

Why we all play this game: for each other

All I know is that for whomever those players are who are left in Coach Didmon's team by the end of camp, there will almost certainly be a jersey #13 available for name bar stitching from veteran Head Equipment Man extraordinaire, Mel Smith.  And while those days for me are nothing but a distant memory if I still wore the shoes of a seventeen year old hockey player, I think I know exactly what I would say if I was fortunate enough to make the 2016/17 Grizzlies:  "Hey Mel, is that #13 still available back there?  I think I might be able to give it a good home."

See you along the glass. -CC

Win 3 & Let The Others Be

Before I start this week's blog, I would like to take a moment and commemorate the life of Al Gillies, the Victoria Grizzlies long time Equipment and Stick/Skate repairman Extraordinaire.  I just learned only moments after posting this blog of Al's passing and I have added this piece just now.  Last Friday on the team's trip up to Port Alberni, as we passed Al's house near Spencer Road at exactly this very hour, our Bus Driver honked twice to say hello to Big Al and I know I said a quite prayer for Al along with those on the bus.  Al was a kind, smart and savy equipment man and he was an even better human being and friend to all of us here in the Victoria Grizzlies.  We love you Al and you will be missed.  God Bless you and your family in these difficult times, our thoughts and prayers are with you all.

 Win 3 & Let The Others Be

I always love a good race.  Whether its the Kentucky Derby, the Daytona 500 or yes, even this year's US Presidential Primary Elections, I just love watching a good race.  This year's Island Division playoff run is no exception.  With that said, this year's race is becoming less clear every day.  I will admit though that it is by far more interesting than anything going on in the other two divisions, so maybe we should count ourselves lucky.  What's weird though, at least for the moment, is that just about everybody in this race is losing.  And I do mean everybody.



In a post New Hampshire presser on Tuesday, Trump reacts badly to news of the Grizzlies 4-1 loss to the Kings

Unless your team is the Powell River Kings or the Nanaimo Clippers, you just aren't winning very many games in the run up to the BCHL playoffs in the Island Division.  Conveniently the Grizzlies have managed to have timed their current 5 game losing streak just as the very two teams with whom they are in contact are also suddenly losing.  In the span of the past week, the Grizzlies (0-2) along with the Cowichan Valley Capitals (0-2) and Alberni Valley Bulldogs (0-2) have combined for exactly 0 points between all three clubs.  And that's good news to Grizzlies fans.

Strong goaltending and D will be huge keys to the Grizzlies playoff chances

You have to start asking yourself, does anybody want to win this thing or what?  The fact is that the Grizzlies believe it or not, once again control their own destiny.

With a game in hand now and 2 more wins than Alberni on the season, the math ever so slightly favours the Grizzlies.  Victoria's 4-1 loss at a packed Hap Parker Arena on BC Family Day on Monday was but the latest installment in the longest skid since the start of the season.  The good news is that the team played pretty well after a long day on the road.  It was a brutal day of travel, 17 hours in total and a road trip which even featured a car accident in the Courtney White Spot parking lot to boot.  Apparently an elderly female driver who thankfully escaped without injuries was hoping to create a Drive Thru Window at the Courtney restaurant with her green SUV as the Grizzlies awaited their pre-game breakfast.  What else is new when you travel to "The Rock"?



Its just not a trip to "The Hap" without some sort of drama

Brett Stirling was back in the lineup, along with rookie phenom Tyler Welsh.  Both men were likely not yet 100%, but were able to make up for that with a lot of skill and determination. The goaltending was also pretty solid.  The Grizzlies did connect on the PP in the First Period with PJ Conlon collecting his 20th of the year.  The bad news is that the Grizzlies were once again outshot, this time by a count of 36-30.  It marked the 7th straight game in which the Grizzlies were outshot.  It is a trend the club really needs to break and soon.

The newly designed "Drive Thru" window at the Courtney White Spot

If anybody asked me (and nobody does BTW) I would map out the road to the playoffs for the Grizzlies by suggesting the following simple strategy.  With 8 games to play, call up some APs to rest up anybody who needs a break and not risk further injuries.  But at the same time pick 3 specific matchups which you think you can really win and do everything in your power to win those games.  In other words, play those three target games like they were playoff matchups and win them all.  As for the other 5 matchups, consider them all bonus games.  I call the strategy: "Win 3 & Let The Others Be".

If the Grizzlies can manage to win just 3 of their remaining 8 games, it will force the AV Bulldogs to win 4 of their last 7 games and also demand that the Bulldogs collect an extra point from an OT game in there somehow.  Basically that math would ask the Bulldogs to earn points in 5 of their final 7 games, essentially 9 points in total out of those remaining 7 games.  In spite of a softer February schedule, that could be a very hard task for a Bulldogs team who finish the year with two games at home vs Powell River.

Can #22 Gelsinger with the best snap shot on the club stay hot down the stretch?

This approach will allow the team to get healthy just in time for the playoffs while still remaining competitive.   It will also realistically manage expectations in the face of some pretty daunting opposition down the stretch including two remaining games vs Chilliwack and road games in Wenatchee, Penticton, Langley and Cowichan still on the ledger.

It all starts this weekend for the Grizzlies who will host Merritt on Saturday night and Chilliwack on Sunday in their ultra cool retro 1990's Victoria Salsa jerseys.  Hopefully, Merritt could prove to be Win #1 out of the three victories which I believe the club needs in order to ensure a playoff spot. Alberni will host Salmon Arm on Saturday and Merritt on Sunday.  There will be scoreboard watching a plenty in Victoria over the weekend, that is for sure.  No matter what happens, I can promise you one thing, its going to be entertaining.  See you all this weekend at The Q. - CC

A Quick Lesson In Patience: The Grizzlies Lose 3 More

Sports columns generally fall into three basic categories.  When the team is winning, they are quite easy to write.  Here’s the basic model of that type which I call a Column #1 story:  “Team wins, team’s playing great, club has high morale, arena is full with huge local buzz, blah, blah, blah.”  You get the idea.

 

Column #2 is about the .500 team.  It’s an easy column to write:  “Win some, lose some, team has a few issues, dressing room is still confident and there is still lots of hope, blah, blah, blah”.  I write those ones all the time.

 

Then comes the one all sport writers dread, also known as a Column #3 piece, the struggling franchise.  This one is never easy to write.  The team is losing, the coaches and players are all stressed out.  The GM and owners want answers.  The crowds are routinely leaving the rink disappointed and on and on and on.

 

Today I get to write a Column #3 story.

 

#20 Tyler Welsh played on 1st Line Sunday (Photo: C. Stewart, ISN)

You know it occurred to me after the Grizzlies 4-1 loss to the Vernon Vipers on Sunday that I have seen this movie before.  Not the loss to Vernon, the part about the Grizzlies 1-6-1 start.  This is starting to look an awful lot like the 2004/05 Victoria Salsa season.  Most serious Salsa/Grizzlies fans will remember it well.  That year, the team famously had its worst start in franchise history.  The team was 2-9-1 after its first dozen games.  They would finish the year with only 16 wins and lose 39 times while scoring only 176 goals and eventually bring in Powell River’s Kent Lewis as Head Coach for the last 25 games of the year.  The Salsa would finish in 5^th Place in the Island Division but still manage to make the playoffs that year, ultimately losing to the South Surrey Eagles 4-1 in the First Round under Lewis. 

 

Coach Lewis would return to Powell River after 25 games at BMA in 2004/05

Critics would say that this year’s Grizzlies are well on their way to meeting or eclipsing that bad start.  I remember that 2004/05 Salsa club like it was yesterday.  The year opened with such promise.  First off, the team had just moved into the brand new Bear Mountain Arena, (now The Q Centre) which was at the time, the flagship arena of the BCHL.  The one concern around the new building was the word “rebuild” after the departures of so much elite talent at the end of the 2003/04 season.  Gone was none other than Kyle Greentree, Victoria’s all-time scoring leader (375 Reg Season pts) and his 115 points from the previous 03/04 season.  Greentree’s departure after five years wearing his famous #39 jersey, along with a bevy of other highly offensive players and their 217 goals that year was a massive blow to the roster.

 



#39 Greentree would play for Flames & Flyers

Thus concurrent with the positives of the Salsa moving into Bear Mountain Arena, the roster took arguably its biggest hit in franchise history.  Gone were the talented forwards of Greentree, Clayton Lainsbury, Blair Tassone along with gifted defenseman Aaron Brocklehurst.  The fears about the 2004/05 Salsa roster were quickly realized as the team struggled out of the gate and quickly fell to a miserable 2-9-1 record.  Just 20 games into that dreadful season, Kent Lewis was gone and on his way to back to Powell River.  In came Pete Zubersky of the Peninsula Panthers, which provided only marginal improvement, the problem was the roster.

 

But what a lot of folks forget were the finer details of that 04/05 team.  Yes, they lost a lot of games and gave up a bucket full of goals (255).  But that Salsa team had a young 18 year old 6 foot, 180 lbs Centre who they picked up in the summer of 2004 from the Regina Pat Canadians of the SMHL.  The youngster came in and scored a modest 15 goals and 16 assists but had little impact in the playoffs.  But he stuck with the Salsa and came back the following year, doubling his goals to 31 and ended up leading the team in scoring with 69 points.  Most importantly he lead the 05/06 Salsa through one of the franchise’s greatest playoff runs, a full 16 games until they were eliminated in the BCHL Semi-Finals to the then Burnaby Express.  The next year in 06/07 when he was 20, he returned again and scored 128 points (still the single season franchise record).  That season he and a young 17 year old forward from Central Saanich named Jamie Benn lead the team under its new name, the Victoria Grizzlies.  In fact, that year the Grizzlies had three players who each scored over 40 goals.  The 2006/07 Grizzlies won 39 regular season games and played in 11 playoff games.  I will never forget it, those were heady days with the building always noisy and full of fans.

Bozak would lead the Salsa in 2005/06 with 129 Reg Season points

That player I was talking about was Tyler Bozak.  Everyone knows where Bozak ended up and what kind of an impact he is enjoying to this day playing in the NHL.  Why his story has relevance to the 2015/16 Grizzlies is that during that forgettable 04/05 season, Bozak wasn't just a young and talented Saskatchewan forward, playing on a really bad team.  Tyler was patient and so was the franchise.  Bozak, in spite of the rotating door of coaches and several offers from the WHL, kept returning to the Salsa and both he and the team got better and better.  It was a true lesson in patience.


 #19 Iapalucci, 1 of only 6 forwards to score (Photo: C. Stewart, ISN)

Let’s look at some basic facts about what’s going on with the Grizzlies at the moment.  They average less than 2 goals/game in team scoring.  At this rate the club will set new records lows for goals in a season at 112.  The one bright spot, the goaltending and team defence isn’t quite the good news one might think.  The Grizzlies are actually on pace to concede 210 goals, the exact same number as last season.  On its present course the Grizzlies will fail to make the playoffs this year and it might not be close.

 #22 Gelsinger, only Grizzly with 1 point/game avg (Photo: C. Stewart, ISN)

So the question is why?  Obviously the team is losing, they are full of injuries to D-Men at the moment and they struggle with offense like Tiger does with his driver.   But what really worries me is the compete level.  Generally it’s there and I don’t see a lot of players taking the night off.  That’s actually a problem in my view.  The effort is there, the legs are moving, but the team still isn’t scoring, which tells me that there may be deeper problems.  If they weren’t working hard, I would not be nearly as concerned, but this team is indeed giving their coach all they have.  That’s the worry. 

#26 Barker is 1 of 11 Grizzlies yet to score (Photo: C. Stewart, ISN)

I think this year the Victoria Grizzlies have finally had their “Elite Level Talent Gas Tank” run empty.  The loss of too many returnable players with names like Gruber, Kennedy, Mackie, McBride, McDonald and Harpur has crippled the Grizzlies.  Naturally, the organization is pleased that many of those players have each moved on to the next level, but this year unlike in years past, they simply haven’t been replaced.  The current squad will likely need some tinkering and I expect the telephones and fax machines to be working overtime in the next few weeks.  Coach Didmon’s move to bring in Chuck Bennis from the USHL last week was precisely the type of player move Victoria needed at the time and I expect more in the coming weeks.  The problem is that a coach in the BCHL is only allotted so many player cards (35) between June 1^st and 10 January and each signed player (min of 22) uses up a card.  That means that team’s like the Grizzlies have to be very efficient with their rosters and this seriously reduces a GM’s flexibility during the year.  What might that portend for the remainder of the year?  I am not sure.  All I know is that this club has a couple of potential Tyler Bozaks in the Dressing Room and I want to see them get through this season and return next year.



Bozak in new Grizzlies gear at BMA circa 2006

Now we await three straight back to back games this weekend, Alberni Valley (4 Pointer), Cowichan Valley (4 Pointer) and the Surrey Eagles on Saturday night, two at home and one on the road.  The Grizzlies will need to win two out of three of those matchups in order to avoid having this season's start look anything more like that dreaded 04/05 season.  Not to mention, I am really not looking forward to writing another Column #3.  I just never had Bozak’s patience. -CC