Since the top teams in the province are coming their way next spring, the Richmond Sockeyes have decided to embark on their own pre-season journey.
The Sockeyes’ final tune-up in preparation for their Pacific Junior Hockey League home opener Sept. 7 will be a trip to Princeton over the Labour Day Weekend.
Richmond will play a pair games against the Princeton Posse of the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League — starting on Friday night. There will also be a “mini-camp” on Saturday and Sunday, along with team bonding activities away from the rink before facing the Posse again on Monday afternoon.
As hosts of the Cyclone Taylor Cup provincial junior “B” championships next April and with PJHL teams no longer going to the Keystone Cup, there were no potential big trips for the Sockeyes this season. New head coach Steve Robinson put together the Princeton retreat then got the blessing of ownership to cover much of the costs.
“Teams that will be coming here to compete against us (at the Cyclone Taylor Cup) get that dynamic and we don’t,” explained Robinson. “So I approached the ownership and they signed it off which is a credit to them.
“We will be rolling out of here on the bus at 10:30 a.m. on Friday and get to play a couple of games in what should be a good atmosphere. We also got some fun things planned like going to the Bromley Rock swimming hole. It’s a full schedule for them with three nights up there and we will come back as a team.”
Robinson is expected to finalize his roster soon after tonight’s final pre-season home game when the PJHL champion Aldergrove Kodiaks visit Minoru Arenas at 7:45 p.m.
He already has 21 players carded and 24 will be making their way to Princeton, along with injured defenceman Matthew Brown.
The trip will conclude a bustling training camp that began 19 days earlier and featured six exhibition games.
That’s more pre-season tilts than the last four seasons combined.
Former coach Judd Lambert opted for a more low key approach since many of the roster decisions were made at the club’s tryout camp back in early July.
That tradition continues but Robinson is putting his own stamp on the team with a busy itinerary right up to the regular season opener against North Vancouver.
“The big thing over the years you learn is you can do practices, you can do inter-squad games but enemy bullets compared to friendly fire can be different,” reasoned Robinson who watched his team skate to a 6-1 win over Grandview on Monday night. “We are trying to keep the guys moving along in learning the rhythm they want to play as a team.
“At this point you’re finding those little nuances of composition that come out of these exhibition games. You’re also looking for those little pieces that you think could be missing. The guys have responded well to it.”
Icing…
Of the 21 players carded thus far, 11 are returning veterans, including their top three scorers from a year ago — Arjun Badh, Connor Alderson and Brodie Crawford.
Team captain Tyler Andrews is also a notable returnee and is healthy after missing 28 regular season games. The club has also welcomed back forward Tyler Paterson who spent the 2016-17 campaign with the B.C. Hockey League’s Surrey Eagles.
Seafair product Jacob Latrace, 20, will head into the regular season as the Sockeyes’ number one goaltender. Two others are still in consideration to be his back-up.
