Already resigned to the fact their best defenceman from last season - Karan Toor - won't play hockey at all this season, the Prince George Spruce Kings have seen their unenviable situation go from bad to worse.
It has now become apparent they've lost their top forward, Justin Rai, for the balance of the season.
Rai has missed 12 games with concussion-like symptoms and is still suffering from whiplash after getting hurt in a game two months ago in Chilliwack. At the time he went down on Nov. 19, Rai was among the B.C. Hockey League's leading scorers with 15 goals and 16 assists for 31 points in 25 games. He hasn't played since and after seeing a doctor this week it seems very unlikely the 20-year-old University of Maine recruit will be back to finish his final season with the Spruce Kings.
"It's just a season of misery," said Spruce Kings head coach Dave Dupas. "I've never seen this in my life. Guys are just dropping like flies, with season-ending stuff. It's just so disappointing, coming in with the high expectations we had, and it just unraveled on us."
Rai is in his third season with the Spruce Kings and Dupas knows nothing short of a miraculous recovery or a fire sale in advance of Saturday's trade deadline can replace his firepower.
"He went to the doctor [Wednesday] and he was advised it probably wouldn't be a great idea to play," said Dupas. "We were hoping he would come back but it doesn't look like it now. I haven't talked to Justin myself yet but I heard that from a pretty good source. He was leading the league in goals and was our top scorer before he got hurt.
"Toor is done too. So you have one of your top forwards and one of the top defencemen in the league and you don't get one game out of him this year. It's been challenging, that's for sure, and we have to just play and try to find somebody to fill that hole."
Forwards Chad Staley and Jarryd Leung as well as defenceman Adam Clements returned from the injury shelf to play against Nanaimo last weekend and are still trying to regain their midseason form. There's a chance forward Riley Hawes will be ready to play this weekend. He's been out since October with a concussion suffered in a car accident.
Dupas said with Toor out for the season and Rai on injured reserve since before the Dec. 1 cutoff, that should free up two player registration cards the Kings will use if they acquire anybody through trades before the roster deadline on Saturday.
The Kings (18-15-0-4) have 21 games left to try to improve their third-place Mainland Division standing. They trail first-place Chiliwack by six points. The Kings are in tough on the road this weekend, playing three Interior Division teams that all have winning records. That starts tonight with the Vernon Vipers (23-11-1-2), who occupy second place in the Interior. The Vipers have won seven of their last 10 games.
On Saturday the Kings play the Salmon Arm Silverbacks, the hottest team in the BCHL with a 7-2-1-0 record in their last 10. The fifth-place Silverbacks (16-13-3-5) went through injuries in the first half of the season, which hurt their bottom line, but with 10 NCAA college recruits and a former Prince George Cougar - 19-year-old forward Carson Bolduc - they are rapidly making up for those lost points. They shut out the league-leading Penticton Vees 3-0 last Saturday in Salmon Arm. The Spruce Kings will be in Penticton on Sunday to play the Vees (30-6-2-1).
"Penticton and Vernon, along with Nanaimo, are the top teams in the league right now and Salmon Arm has been beating everybody lately," said Dupas. "It's not where we want to be, that's for sure, this weekend. We'll get it over with and do the best we can and try to get some momentum going.
"We have to figure out that this is our team now and there's no Justin Rai coming back to make things better. It's up to those guys who are there now to get the job done."
