Good Evening Hockey Fans,
Well, hello to all on this cool November night at the Panorama Recreation Centre. There is so much to discuss this evening - this time of year is always a busy one. December 1st is a big date for Junior Hockey Clubs and players alike and this year will be no different around the Country, around the VIJHL and certainly around the Peninsula Panthers. But first I thought I would discuss tonight’s affair with the visiting Comox Valley Glacier Kings.
The Glacier Kings are coming in tonight and it will be our final game in the VIJHL regular season. To date we have won two of the three games however, the visitors have been one of the best teams over the past 10-15 games and I expect that tonight should be a tough and close contest. We have run into a bit of an injury bug, some fairly serious and others just day-to-day. Spencer Loverock was slashed in a game last Saturday up in Mill Bay against the Kerry Park Islanders and yesterday we learned that he had a broken thumb. Although Spencer will be able to skate and ride the bike, he will most likely be out of the lineup for a month which would place his return sometime after Christmas. The young fellow had played 4 games up with the Nanaimo Clippers of the BCHL and I know he is very disappointed with the injury however, he will be back and still attempting to push forward with his hockey career. Brett Sjerven lost a tooth in the same game when he was boarded by the same player that slashed Loverock and had to have some dental work this week. Brett missed Wednesday’s 5-3 win in Saanich but I expect that he will slot back into the lineup tonight. Tate Coughlin received a checking from behind minor penalty late in the game on Wednesday and due to the fact that the call was made in the last ten minutes of the game, Tate will be on the sidelines this evening with a one-game suspension. I expect that Adam Page will be out tonight but he should be back soon, hopefully by next week. Ben Meek has been on the shelf for several weeks now and it looks like his season has come to an end. I will address that a bit more when I discuss the December 1st carding date and the ramifications that it has on Clubs. Two AP’s - both forwards - are up tonight including Saanich Midget Josh Gladman and Victoria Racquet Club Midget Trevor Owens. Grayson Vickers has been a swingman for us this season and he most likely will play up front but can easily slide to the back end if and when needed.
Comox sits 6 points ahead of us and play in the North Division of the VIJHL, although they have played 2 more games. They are tied with the Campbell River Storm and both teams have been getting closer to the Nanaimo Buccaneers who have fallen on some hard times as of late. We have had the Glacier Kings number in our barn over the past several years and I know that they would like nothing more than to come out of tonight’s contest with the two points in their back pockets when the final buzzer sounds.
December 1st always is a cause for concern as Clubs are forced into making some choices that they might not have wanted to make. On this date, teams have a magic number that equals 25, that is the total of players and available cards must total 25. Earlier this week we had 24 players signed although Ben Meek has not played in several weeks due to injury and Will Finlay is attending University and has not played for five or six weeks. Ben called me this week - he had just called Brian Passmore - and advised that he is going to be heading to Texas in January to go on an intensive four-month firefighting course. I am thrilled for Ben and I hope he has a great time and finds success and that his four month efforts end up in kickstarting a career in this area. As he has been sidelined for some time and the fact that he is heading out just after the New Year really leaves little time for him to come back into our lineup and so earlier this week we released Ben from our roster. This left us with 23 + 2 cards going into December 1 at midnight. Brandon Story is having an internal struggle trying to decide if he should continue on with the Club. There is a health issue in his family and our group has always believed that family trumps hockey every single time. Brandon has also started a full-time job selling automobiles - if any of you need a set of wheels please give him a call - and this is taking up a lion’s share of his time. Getting to practice has been hard and sometimes Brandon arrives at a game from work and has not had time to have a meal. He can’t make it to the game on Sunday in Campbell River and we all understand his situation.
Brandon is an awesome kid and I know that he is going to sit down with Passy and figure out what is best for him. I think the outcome will probably be that we will release him but leave the situation somewhat open as the final carding date of January 10th comes around. If this is the last game in uniform for Brandon, the entire Panthers Organization wish him the very best in the future, no matter where the fork in the road takes him. If this situation does play out like I anticipate, it would leave us with 22 +3. Will Finlay is a player who Passy will be contacting prior to Sunday night to determine what his situation is. It may be that he will be back or more than likely he will be continuing with the heavy workload at the University of Victoria. If he does in fact stay away from the team, we would be at 21+ 4 going into December 1.
I like our goaltending and we are very deep on defence so we are not really looking to make any moves to that part of the roster. Up front we could use a little more firepower and depth, that is something that we all agree on. We have been working the phones quite a bit in the past several days so we will see if anything develops. If we hook a fish through the groundwork we have done, well that would be great. But if nothing develops at this point there is no problem. We will have some flexibility at 21 players and 4 cards and it would allow for several moves. Next Friday I may have some news on this front and I will certainly let you know about any changes. We have some awesome chemistry in our room right now and so this will be something that we do not want to change with the addition of some extra bodies.
January 10th will be the next Carding Deadline and this is the one that all the players know very well. By January 10th most teams have some idea where they are in terms of their chances going into the post-season. Some teams decide that they should make some moves for the future while others feel that they may be missing one or two pieces and will try and upgrade at specific positions. We feel that we have a Club that can compete in the playoffs and we want to get stronger with this group and by adding to this group. On January 10th Club’s must go down to 23. There are some real tough choices around this date, it is a date that I absolutely hate. Most teams cut down on this date but I have always tried to add players. I usually go under the 23 rather than be at 25 and have to cut. I don’t know what will happen this time around but the last couple of days have been interesting in terms of players on our squad, and some of the problems we might have had to face, look like they are taking care of themselves.
We are talking to some Junior A Clubs, we are also talking to some of the teams in the VIJHL seeing if we can work something out that would be helpful to both organizations.
THERE IS NO GAME NEXT FRIDAY, IT IS ON THURSDAY!!! That’s right, we play next Thursday night.
This is our only Thursday night game of the year and will start at 7:30 pm. Jackson Skerratt will be cutting his hair in the lobby after our warmups are complete to help raise awareness for “Locks of Love.” Check out our website at
www.ppanthers.bc.ca on Sunday or Monday to find out why Jackson has grown his hair out for all this time. It will be coming off next Thursday night, December 5th.
OK all, I hope you enjoy the game tonight, thanks for the support!
Pete Zubersky
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