It was a grueling 10-hour trip on two different busses for a group of American hockey players but it will be worth it for a group of 15- to 18-year-olds who play for the Everett Junior Silvertips.
Coached by Turner Stevenson and divided into two different teams for a four-game weekend exhibition series at CN Centre, the Silvertips took on a Cariboo Cougars major midget split-squad Friday afternoon in the first of a four-game series.
The weekend games coincide with the start of training camp for the Cougars, the defending champions of the B.C. Hockey Major Midget League.
"(Cougars general manager) Trevor Sprague's done a great job facilitating this and it gives our kids the opportunity to see what it's like and it will be a fun experience for them," said Stevenson.
"If they ever play in the Western League, here's what junior players get through traveling through the night and getting up and being ready to play."
Stevenson, a former NHL right winger who played for Montreal Canadiens, New Jersey Devils and Philadelphia Flyers over a 13-season career, grew up in Prince George and won the Stanley Cup with Devils in 2003.
He retired in 2006 after 644 regular-season and 67 playoff games.
Stevenson was hired last summer as head coach of the Silvertips 16-and-under team, and guided them to a 17-4-1 second-overall finish in the 17-team North American Prospects Hockey League (NAPHL), earning him coach-of-the-year honours.
The 18U Silvertips are joining the NAPHL as an expansion team this season and Stevenson will do double-duty as head coach of both teams.
The Cougars are still missing several players away at junior camps but have enough to form two teams - Team Willick and Team Blackburn - to play this weekend. Games resume at 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. today and 10 a.m. on Sunday, all at CN Centre.
"We'll have just one (1999-born player) with us - it's a combination of kids from my two teams who have started school already," Stevenson said. "Half of them are kids I've coached the last couple years and obviously some new ones that are in the area, so hopefully we'll give them some good competition.
"It's a lot of fun coaching this age group because you're trying to get them moved on (to higher levels of hockey) and see their goals attained in junior."
Stevenson, 45, played three seasons in the WHL for the Seattle Thunderbirds and coached the T-birds for four seasons as an assistant from 2007-11. He lives in Sammanish, Wash., a 45-minute drive from Everett. He makes regular trips with his family to Prince George to visit his parents, Dave and Dianne, and three of his four sisters.
Among the players he's brought to Prince George is his 17-year-old son Jakob, a forward who finished third in scoring on the 16U team last year, with eight goals and 24 points in 22 games.
"He's better than I am," said the coach, who totaled 304 minutes in penalties in 58 games in his last season of junior hockey with the T-birds.
"He's not as big as I am and he's not as big as my other two boys, but he's a better skater and a better playmaker. He doesn't play the game like I used to - no one should play like that - the game's not played that way anymore."
The two Silvertips teams will play their league schedule in a series of five four-game Showcase events in Blaine, Minn., and Troy, Mich., leading up to the NAPHL championships, Feb. 17-20 in Michigan.
The NAPHL is affiliated with the North American Hockey League, USA Hockey's junior A hockey league, which compares in calibre to Canadian leagues like the BCHL. Some of the players will feed into the USHL, which is more comparable to the Western Hockey League.
Last season, Conor McLaughlin of Price George played for the Silvertips 16U team but this year there are no locals playing for Everett. Stevenson said immigration rules work against Canadians playing at that level and educational visas are no longer sufficient for approval to be placed on the team roster.
The Junior Silvertips will be in Kelowna next weekend for the BCMMHL preseason icebreaker tournament and start their season two weeks later.
