No team is ever going to go 68-0 on the season, but that doesn’t mean you don’t do your best to win every single game. After the Brandon Wheat Kings loss to the Saskatoon Blades, it wasn’t so much the score as the effort that led to it that was bugging head coach and GM Marty Murray.
The night before, the team had done a tremendous job against one of their projected season-long competitors in the Prince Albert Raiders, beating them 4-1 in their own building and winning the physical battle as well. The next night in Saskatoon, however, the same effort level wasn’t there. After the game, Marty said he felt the team played perhaps one good period cumulatively against the Blades, with much of their best work being done in the third.
My chat with Marty after the game got me thinking about the heightened standard for the group. Last season, if the team had played the second road game in as many nights (this time against a rested opponent) and erased a two-goal deficit only to lose by one late, he and I might’ve had a very different conversation. We might’ve talked about battling back or overcoming road fatigue or spent more time on the positives of the game.
This time, however, the team wasn’t to be let off the hook quite that easily. Yes, some circumstances went against them (the Blades hadn’t played the night before) but there was far more talk about needing to be better, and more of a sense of disappointment than their was after other losses last season. It might not seem like much, but the tone around this team has shifted. This isn’t a team for whom “good effort, we’ll get ’em next time” will be enough on most nights.
- As much as the Wheat Kings weren’t happy with their effort in Saskatoon, they had plenty of reason to be happy with the game they put together the night before. Fast-paced, physical, and high-intensity, the showdown with Prince Albert lived up to the billing. Marty said afterwards it felt less like the third game of the season and more like the third game of a playoff series. We’ll get five more of those games (in the regular season at least, and what a playoff series that would be if it happens) and three of them will be in Brandon. Take my advice, Wheat Kings fans: if you’re only able to get to one or two games this season, make sure those are on your list.
- The intensity of the game might explain which of the Wheat Kings showed up in the biggest way on the scoreboard: Marcus Nguyen, the one with the most experience in big games. Marcus has gotten high praise from his teammates so far and the coaches seem pleased with him too, but it was on this recent road trip that he did his best work. His shot shone through on the first of his goals, and even his empty-netter against the Raiders was a skillful display in its own right; it took him all of six seconds to take that puck from up for grabs off a defensive zone faceoff to in the back of the other team’s net. Two goals against the Raiders, and another against the Blades for good measure, and suddenly he’s the Wheat Kings’ second leading goal scorer.
- You probably don’t need to spend too much time guessing who the first leading goal scorer is. With a four-goal opening night under his belt, Roger McQueen hasn’t stopped scoring since. He picked up a goal and an assist against the Raiders, and a goal in his hometown against the Blades, and leads not only the Wheat Kings but the entire WHL in goals and points. What’s been especially nice to see with Roger is his goals are now coming in a different fashion than they did last year. Last season, a lot of his goals were right-place-right-time finishes with him using his size and reach to tap home pucks from in close. This season, he’s been picking corners a lot more. Adding a deadly shot to his arsenal is only going to make the points easier to come by, and he’s been using that shot to devastating effectiveness so far.
- It was another Saskatoon native, however, that was clearly the Wheat Kings’ best forward in the loss to the Blades, and who is also now tied for second on the team in points. Nolan Flamand came to camp on a mission, and that was a huge part of why he was one of the three 2004-born players the team kept. He hasn’t coasted on the fact that he remained with the team, however. He had three assists against the Blades, and his line was consistently the best the Wheat Kings had. Marty told me after the game he was the team’s best forward and it wasn’t especially close. Right now, he’s a calming influence for the team, and someone who helps them spend more time in the offensive zone and more time with the puck in their possession.
- Shoutout to Ethan Eskit for being named the WHL goaltender of the week, an award he probably deserved to win the week before as well. After opening the season 2-0 with 47 saves on 50 shots, he got his busiest night of the year so far in Prince Albert, this time stopping 32 of 33. His finest save came on the penalty kill in the first period at a time when the game was still scoreless, and who knows how the eventual 4-1 Wheat Kings win might’ve changed if not for that stop? By that time, Carson Bjarnason was back with the team, but the coaching staff decided to let him rest one more game and get used to the pace of play before throwing him into the cage again. They just needed Eskit to hold the fort one more time, and he didn’t let them down. Expect him to get more playing time if he keeps this up.
- Last weekend, the Wheat Kings opened their schedule against an opponent they knew would be a tough test, then played against an opponent with a little less firepower. They beat the former in a thrilling, playoff-style contest but maybe suffered a bit of an emotional letdown and lost to the latter. We’ll know very soon if they learned the right lessons from last weekend, because they’ll be in a similar boat this Friday and Saturday. First up is a rising Edmonton Oil Kings squad with a ton of recently returned NHL talent. Then it’s a Swift Current Broncos team that’s lost a lot of their firepower from last year (and a healthy chunk of their blue line as well). Neither team will be a pushover (the Broncos just secured their first win of the season by a 5-4 count over the Raiders) but it will be telling to see how the Wheat Kings handle their second and third home games of the season.
On that note, it’s nice to be home again, where the Wheat Kings will spend the majority of the next month. In fact, once their road trip through Alberta next week is wrapped up, they start a run of five straight home games and 11 of their next 12 at Westoba Place. Last season, the Wheat Kings piled up points on their December homestand. Can they do the same this time around? I can’t wait to find out.
