Well… that sure was a weekend all right.
If you had told me before opening weekend that the Brandon Wheat Kings were going to go 3-for-6 on the power play and score 11 goals in two games, I’d have said two things: first of all, that makes sense given the team’s strength lies in their offensive depth, and second of all that must’ve been a very successful weekend. But once I learned they’d given up 15 goals in those two games, I’d have had questions. Namely, a question that starts with “What the…” and ends with a word I’m fairly certain I’m not allowed to publish.
Frankly, after witnessing the weekend firsthand, I still have questions, especially about that second game. Everything was going swimmingly at the start of the third period. I even remember thinking, after Grayson Burzynski buried what should’ve been a backbreaker in the first minute of the third period, that this was more like the Wheat Kings team I’d expected.
What followed was the strangest thing I think I’ve ever called in all my years on the mic, and I don’t mean that as a good thing. I just re-watched the highlights (not something I can in good conscience recommend) to make sure it was as chaotic as I remembered. If anything my memory undersold things. I suspect it would’ve been a wildly entertaining game for a neutral fan.
It’s only two games, but no one wants to start the season on that note. And the Wheat Kings have a full week of practice to stew in their own juices because there’s no Friday game this time around.
- I went looking for a pattern, some kind of obvious answer to how Moose Jaw scored six goals in one period of hockey, and my biggest takeaway is I’m sure glad I’m not an assistant coach, whose job it will be to pull those clips apart second by second and explain what went wrong. There are some running themes (players being left alone in high-danger areas remains probably the biggest) but as you’d expect these goals don’t exactly all look alike. There are different concerns on each one. Video sessions this week are going to be a little painful.
- Every team suffers one or two deflating losses every year, and in the past I’ve asked Marty Murray if it’s better to have a game right after a tough loss to help flush it. His answer has usually been yes, and in the past the team has very quickly flushed it. My favorite example from last season was when the Wheat Kings dropped a game in Red Deer on the strength of a controversial tying goal and a last-second go-ahead marker by the Rebels, then responded with a 5-1 win over the Oil Kings in Edmonton the following afternoon when the deck appeared stacked against them. But this time the team doesn’t get to quickly flush the losses. They have to sit with this weekend for a while, as there won’t be any games for the team until Saturday night when they host the Prince Albert Raiders. That long layover after a bad loss hasn’t happened to the Wheat Kings too many times in my years with the team and I’m curious to see what the response looks like.
- The Wheat Kings were assessed three ten-minute misconducts for mouthguard violations in the back half of that game in Moose Jaw, adding another flavor of weirdness to the hodgepodge of bizarre happenings at Temple Gardens Centre. That’s the most I’ve ever seen in a single game. Someone asked if there was a new rule in place that players were forgetting (which make sense, sometimes when a rule is new you see referees crack down on it to really help hammer home the point so that by mid-season they’re not having to call it as often). As far as I can find, the newest rule update around mouthguards came just before the 2023-24 season so it’s not “new” per se. And there were no other mouthguard related misconducts on opening weekend anywhere else in the WHL, at least not marked as such on any game sheets. I’m not sure what to make of that. But that wasn’t even the third or fourth strangest thing that happened in that game on Saturday night.
- If you were looking for positives out of the weekend, you can certainly find some. They are, as you’d expect, mostly offense related. Chase Surkan has roared out of the gates of his WHL career, posting back-to-back multi-point games. Speaking of multi-point games, Jordan Gavin has posted five in a row going back to preseason. Joby Baumuller and Caleb Hadland both got on the board in Moose Jaw, Grayson Burzynski and Luke Mistelbacher both got their first goals as Wheat Kings. But if you want one of the best feel-good aspects of the weekend, it would have to be a goal and an assist for Easton Odut in his first games since December 14 of 2024. Odut has been working hard to rehabilitate the shoulder injury that cost him the majority of his rookie season and to come back into the lineup and immediately contribute an assist on the season-opening goal and a pretty slick goal of his own was a highly promising sign.
- Another big positive: the early season passing prowess of Gio Pantelas. Somehow, after a weekend in which the Wheat Kings surrendered 15 goals against, Gio managed to finish plus-four with five assists. And one of those assists was on the power play, which accounts for the gap between points and plus/minus. His set-up on Odut’s goal was fantastic, and his vision on the power play assist (which was made even prettier by Gavin’s snap pass and Surkan’s finish) was a very promising sign for future power play time. NHL scouts already know Gio has the size, skating ability, and snarl to be an enticing prospect. If he can add some offense to the mix as well, he could hear his name called very early next June.
- NHL reinforcements are on the way for the Wheat Kings as both Carter Klippenstein and Brady Turko are on the way back from the Minnesota Wild and Anaheim Ducks. It’s always a short-term adjustment for players coming back from NHL camps (the difference in even something as simple as how quickly passes come at you can be huge) but once they settle in, players fresh off their first camp tend to take a big step forward. With a week of practice to adjust to the pace, I can’t wait to see what the full Wheat Kings forward corps looks like for the first time all season. I’m also curious to see what kind of line combinations the coaches come up. Some players have already clearly formed chemistry, and with Klippenstein and Turko you’ve effectively added two thirds of a really strong forward line back to the lineup.
- I still have every reason to believe that, as was the case last season, the race for the East Division will run through Prince Albert and Brandon, and the two teams will meet for the first of what will be six times on Saturday night. Last season, the Wheat Kings finished 4-1-1 to win the season series, but it was the one overtime loss, in which they let two third period leads slip away, that ultimately cost them the single measly point that separated them from the division title. When coaches talk about points in September and October mattering as much as points in February and March, this is exactly the sort of thing they’re referring to. Expect two motivated teams accordingly on Saturday night, a game which, incidentally, will feature the new 6:00 PM start time teams are leaning into for Saturday night games. It’s a change both coaches and marketing staff seem to like. I know I sure like being done an hour earlier in the evening.
It can be easy to think the sky is falling after a weekend like the one the Wheat Kings just had, and it’s undeniably a tough start to the season. As I said on the broadcast, you can spin this as early season adversity or a good test for the team or whatever you like. Ultimately, opening weekend will be whatever the team makes of it. If they bounce back and have a great season, people will dismiss that opening weekend as a necessary learning experience.
We’ll see how much the team learns between now and Saturday night. They’ve got a long time to sit with this loss, and now we’ll see what they do with that time.
