Good Evening Hockey Fans,
Welcome back to the Panorama Recreation Centre for the game tonight against the visiting Kerry Park Islanders. The Islanders downed our Club last Friday night right here by a 7-5 count, sealing the game when they scored with only 15 seconds left into an empty net after our goaltender Josh Round was pulled for an extra attacker. And then we were at the Bear Mountain on Wednesday night and were spanked by the Westshore Wolves which brought about a busy trade deadline yesterday, more on that in a bit. We actually outplayed both the Islanders and the Wolves but it seemed that everything that they threw at us seemed to find the back of our net while in both games we faced some really good goaltending. I always believe that when a goalie is hot, a team has to get more traffic to the net, to the tough areas of the ice and I felt that we might have done a better job at doing just that. With the two losses we dropped five points behind the Wolves in the battle for 3rd place, albeit, we still have played three less games. This is an important game for our team tonight coming on the heels of two losses and coming a day after we made several moves which will pay dividends down the road.
I consulted with our coaches Brian Passmore and Ben King and of course John Wilson and then decided that we needed to make some moves for our kids and our Club to move to the next level. On the Peninsula, our goal is to move players to the next level and when there are any tough choices to be made I always try and fall back on what we are trying to accomplish and it always makes the picture much clearer. Our 2nd goal is to bring a Championship back to the Peninsula and this process does not take overnight and there are growing pains. With that being said, I could not be any happier how quickly we have put in place an awesome core of young players and a great coaching staff and so yesterday was much about trying to take a couple more steps in building a top-end squad out here.
The day started with conversations with the management of the Salmon Arm Silverbacks of the BCHL in regards to 17-year-old Spencer Loverock, a product of Peninsula Minor Hockey. The conversation did not take long and after the call, Spencer was signed by the Silverbacks and will be making the jump to Junior “A” as I believe he should. All year long I believed that with his skating ability he would be moving to the next level and for him that happened yesterday. Spencer has quite a story to tell. As a 16-year-old he broke his leg in September 2011 while playing in a game in Major Midget and was told he would not play the rest of the year. We bought the team in December 2011 and I saw him skating at a practice and asked one of our coaches who the kid was. I learned that he would not play last season but I could not stop watching him skate and decided to sign him just in case he might get back. Spencer played the last five games of our regular season and then I thought he was our best defenceman in our exciting playoff run last season. This year I have seen his confidence grow and his play improve and I see him as an NCAA Scholarship kid in the next several years. Loverock is at the game tonight however will be heading to Salmon Arm in the morning and the Peninsula Panthers wish him all the very best in the future.
With Loverock gone and with the young lineup, I believed it would be very hard to get through the South Division of the VIJHL which is easily the best Division in Junior Hockey in Canada. The Saanich Braves have been loading up and have an older roster which is playoff hardened and their management had been showing a keen interest in two of our players, one being Cole Golka. Golka struggled early in the season but had really turned his game around and was one of the better forwards in the VIJHL and really should have a great shot at making the jump to Junior A next season. After a lot of calls over the past several days the conversation heated up yesterday afternoon and around 3:00 pm we struck a deal. I called Cole and told him that an agreement was in place but that I had not signed off on it and if he wanted to stay on the Peninsula I would not move him. I believe that this was the best move for the youngster and after he took some time to contact his Dad, he too agreed that it would be best for his hockey aspirations if he jumped at this opportunity. Cole did say that he was ‘very settled” as I know he loves the team and his billets and I believe he will be staying with the Allison’s where Cody Breitenstein also billets. We will see Cole two more times when we play the Braves and there is still a chance that we match up with them in the playoffs. I watched the game last night in Victoria where the Braves lost 4-2. Golka had both Braves goals and was named the 2nd star and this was only 3 hours after his trade was official. Good luck in the future goes out from the Panthers to Cole Golka, a great kid and one that we will all miss.
With the Golka trade in the works, I contacted Comox and spoke to the Glacier Kings General Manager about our Captain, 18-year-old Patrick Croome. The Glacier Kings obviously jumped at the chance to acquire Croome and after we constructed a deal on paper I contacted Patrick and once again let him know that he did not have to leave. As were the other two, Croomer was shocked at first but after the news settled in and after he had made a couple calls for advice, he called me back within an hour and said that he was ready to move on. The Glacier Kings are hosting the BC Junior “B” Championships in early April and with this move Patrick will be in a position to be playing the best teams in the Province at an event which will have scouts from every single BCHL team in attendance. Croome came to the Peninsula because we offer kids a chance to move to the next level and as we are in a rebuilding phase, moving him was the best way to make sure he would get ultimate exposure. I would have never moved any of our kids to a team that could not win it all and they all know this. The Panthers wish Patrick the best of luck wherever his hockey takes him. I love all three of these kids and will watch their progress closely.
We did not get any players back at this point however all of the deals were constructed so that next season we should end up with some pretty decent talent coming this way. Further discussion will be held with Comox and Saanich once the Regular Season and Playoffs are over but for now, our focus is now away from player movement and back on the ice where we have a game to win tonight. Many of our kids’ roles will take on more importance, they will pick up key minutes that they might not have normally seen, and they will develop and be ready for the playoffs and into next season because of the new opportunities that will be presented.
OK, where does that leave our squad now. For starters, Cody Breitenstein will be taking over as the Captain for the departed Patrick Croome. Cody is such an awesome kid and it was a real toss-up at the start of the year between he and Patrick as to who would wear the “C”. And today just before lunch, we signed Peninsula Minor Hockey product Thomas Strocel. Thomas played some games last season as an affiliate player and earlier this season the Victoria Cougars signed him to a card. Thomas was let go on December 1st by the Cougars however has been on the ice skating and he will be jumping into the lineup tonight. Strocel can play either forward or defence and as we moved two rear guards yesterday, he will find a spot on our back end for the time being, certainly for tonight.
We have two cards left at this point however, any player that is rostered as of midnight last night, cannot be moved to another team. The only players that are available to us are players like Thomas Strocel who are not on a current roster. We have 21 players as we sit right now and a host of affiliate players that are chomping at the bit to get into the lineup and who we want to see play so as to determine if they will fit in our lineup so we are flush in terms of numbers. I believe we can win with this group and want to start off on the right foot this evening when the puck drops.
It’s time to get going and so let’s get loud. Enjoy the game tonight!
Pete Zubersky
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