Shawn Mullin's Trail Smoke Eaters Blog: Weekend Review and Audio

The Smoke Eaters finished the weekend with a record of 1-1-1. That record sums up what a roller coaster it was for Trail. The 2-2 tie with Prince George was a terrific hockey game with a lot of reason for optimism. The 11-4 loss to Quesnel was a disastrous game (despite an evenly played first period) that could have destroyed the young team's offence. An interesting note about that game is that Quesnel had only scored 12 goals in 5 games before dropping 11 on Trail. That shows you just how strange a game it was. The 8-2 win against Merritt was a great way to end the trip and showed the resiliency of this squad.

The coaches told us to expect ups and downs with a team full of rookies. I don't know if even they expected that kind of an up and down. How many times do teams go from being blown out to winning a blow out within less than 24 hours? These guys certainly aren't boring. They're a confident, enthusiastic group of players that are easy to like and should be easy for Trail fans to cheer for.

Here's some audio from our broadcasts over the weekend:

WEEKEND STARS

Here are my Smoke Eaters three stars of the weekend...

Nick Sandor (2G, 2A): One of the newest Smoke Eaters made an immediate impression with an assist and hard work along the boards and in the corner against Prince George. His play earned him a spot with Chad Gehon and Andrew Pickering on the top line for Saturday and Sunday. He rewarded Coach Ingram for his confidence in him with two goals and an assist. Sandor's four points in three games are more points than he had in 32 games for the Bulldogs last season. Sandor got an opportunity with the Smoke Eaters and is taking advantage of it. His one timer is deadly, he has good instincts and he's willing to work for those loose pucks. The start of his Smokies career is very promising
Ryan Bulach (3G, 1A): The Smoke Eaters Captain opened up the goal scoring flood gates this weekend. His tip in of the Brandon Clark point shot against Prince George was a massive goal in a game with few of them. Bulach's goals all weekend were examples of a player being rewarded for going to the net. In Merritt he scored two on picture perfect tap ins. Bulach also won a lot of important face offs and was always battling for pucks in both ends of the ice.
Brandon Clark (2G, 1A): Clark continues to anchor the Smokies defenceman. His veteran presence is a calming and steadying influence on the young group that can sometimes get a little bit scrambly in their own zone. Clark is also making massive contributions offensively. In his previous three BCHL seasons Clark had point totals of 14, 18 and 17. Last season he only had one power play goal in the entire season. This year he has 4 goals, 2 assists and 6 points in 6 games. He has two power play goals in that time and is doing an admirable job leading the top ranked power play in the BCHL. His goal scoring totals are tied for the team lead. This is another player (like Sandor) who is getting an opportunity to be a top line player and delivering results.

Honourable mentions: Andrew Pickering (0G, 4A), JF Boisvert (1G, 3A), Steve Koshey (1G, 3A), Chad Gehon (2G, 1A)

The Smokies are showing a significant amount of scoring depth so far this season. They've got seven players (Gehon, Pickering, Sandor, Bulach, Clark, Boisvert, Koshey) who are at a point a game pace or better. Eleven players have at least a goal and sixteen players have at least a point. On that note congratulations to all the players who got their first BCHL goals and points this weekend. Hopefully just the first of many. Their power play is 10 for 32 with a 31.25% efficiency so far this season. They're 6.25% ahead of any other team in the league. They are fifth in the league in goals per game (4.20) behind Langley, Penticton, Victoria and Powell River. It certainly has been a pretty good start to the season offensively. The defence and goaltending was holding up pretty well too until the Quesnel game. I suspect long term they'll be back at least in the middle of the pack in goals against per game.

TOUGHNESS

Smoke Eaters fans were calling all of last season for more toughness and more size. It would be hard to imagine them complaining about that so far this season. Jadon Porterfield and Sean Nugent are as tough a one/two punch as any in the league. Nugent has fought in 5 out of 6 games this season and won or at least tied every one of them. Porterfield has fought in both of his games including the complete destruction of Quesnel's Ryan Reynolds. He also had a great and even tilt with Merritt's Barr. Both guys are as strong and as tough as any of the so called enforcers around the league. They also both love to drop the gloves and get physical. Nugent is also helping the Smokies on the scoreboard with three goals in six games.

Those guys are not the only ones who are bringing a physical game to the table. Chad Gehon got the Merritt game off to quite a start by being willing to drop the gloves with tough guy Tyler Barr. Ryan Bulach was willing to go toe to toe with tough guy Elias Grossmann. Rookie Graeme Strukoff has been giving players fits to the point that he has been jumped four times this season. Strukoff held his own in each one of those fights despite not getting a chance to square up in any of them. Veteran Patrik Martin continues to be a scrappy player willing to go with anyone despite his size or their size. Rookie CJ Legassic appears ready to follow in those footsteps after being willing to go with monsters like Jordan Simpson and Cam Brodie... and frankly I think he's nuts because those guys are huge. Big rookie Jayson Reardon is handing out some bone crunching hits as he gets more comfortable with the flow of the BCHL game. Basically what I'm getting at is that no one will be able to say that this team isn't tough or gritty enough. Hopefully those fans who were demanding more size and toughness will head to the rink this weekend to watch these young men put themselves on the line every night.