New Smokies: Ingram, Baker and Boytink Interviews

The Smokies open the regular season on Friday against the Merritt Centennials. It's the first of back to back games against the Cents at the Cominco Arena. After a very intense season series between the two teams last year I expect to see more of the same when the puck drops.

I told you already who would make up the 22 men on Trail's initial roster this year. Now we can get to know them a little bit. I had a chat with Coach Ingram about the Mountain FM Ashes and their new faces. I also caught up with a couple of those new additions in Adam Boytink and Joey Baker on Overtime.

Smokies Coach Jim Ingram on 2010-11 Roster

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New Smokies Forward Adam Boytink

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New Smokies Forward Joey Baker

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The home opener will also be (likely) my last game as the Trail Smoke Eaters broadcaster. I intend to enjoy Saturday's game from the stands with my girlfriend Laura. Friday will be a chance to kick the season off and say goodbye at the same time. I've been talking about the building of this team all summer so I thought it would be fun to at least call them in action once. As always we don't do the home games on Mountain FM but it will be available to out of town fans and parents on BCHL PPV. If you live in the area I hope to see you there.

I also wanted to quickly mention that the Smokies have shipped defenceman Cole Gelley to Cowichan Valley for future considerations. Gelley came to Trail in a deal with Surrey and decided life as a Smoke Eater wasn't for him. He went home after the first day of camp and is now headed to Duncan. The Smokies meanwhile are quite happy with the seven veteran defencemen who make up their back end this season.

Exhibition Game 2: Vernon 4 Trail 3

We saw some scoring out of the Smokies prospects tonight as they fell 4-3 against Vernon in Chase. After getting shut out 4-0 on Friday, Dylan Tappe (92 from the Spokane Braves - pictured from camp), Adam Boytink (92 from Grande Prairie AAA Midget) and Chris Derochie (92 from the Beaver Valley Nitehawks) scored for Trail tonight.

This time around it was Matt Larose and Zach Perehudoff in goal for the Smokies. Again reports indicate they both played well in a losing cause. I don't think the decision on the back-up goaltender got that much easier this weekend. All four goaltenders have made a strong case for themselves. What is going to help one of these goalies separate themselves from the pack?

Losing both games isn't really relevant in this case. The main point of this trip again was for the Smokies staff to get a look at how their young guys can stand up to some legit competition. Now I imagine they'll have a lot to consider as they get set for the pre-season tournament this week. Who will still be on the Smokies roster for the Mountain FM Ashes? At that point we'll start to see some of the veterans come back in to the line-up. That means there is only room for so many prospects come Thursday. That will mean some decisions for the coaches coming up soon.

As for the Vipers, I don't know their goal scorers or anything as I wasn't at the game. That said, reports indicate that the young core for this year's Vipers will be very talented as usual. There is a lot of very good talent on that club again this year. The big question mark will be whether or not they can match the historic runs their last two teams have had.

Thanks to Chase for hosting the Smokies for these exhibition games this weekend. Hopefully it was a nice treat for fans in the area after they lost their KIJHL team this spring. They should be getting another franchise next fall.