Goalie Jesse Jenks and centre Brogan O'Brien didn't make the cut for Team Canada West at the World Junior A Challenge.
Bad for them, good for the Prince George Spruce Kings.
As much as they want to see their players move on to higher levels of competition, the front office staff of the Spruce Kings is breathing a bit of a sigh of relief. With seven injured players, one suspended and one on the Canada West roster, they can sure use the services of O'Brien and Jenks this weekend when the Kings face off against Merritt on Friday and Cowichan Valley on Saturday at the Coliseum.
Kings head coach Dave Dupas says he's never in his coaching days seen a team so decimated with injuries. The list includes forwards Chad Staley (sprained ankle), Justin Rai (concussion-like symptoms), Jarryd Leung (sprained thumb), Riley Hawes (concussion) and defencemen Alex Stoley (shoulder), Adam Clements (upper body) and Karan Toor (groin).
Newly-acquired defenceman Viktor Dombrovskiy will miss the Kings' next five games playing for Canada West and forward Marco Ballarin begins serving a two-game suspension for taking part in the second fight during the same stoppage of play in Saturday's game at the Coliseum against the Chilliwack Chiefs.
"This is incredible, I've never seen it like this before," said Dupas. "We''ll have half a team this weekend and we'll have to fill it with [affiliated players]."
Barring any miraculous recoveries from the infirmary, that leaves just three defencemen (Matthew Stief, Ryan Fritz, Tyler Kunz), seven forwards (O'Brien, Jeremiah Luedtke, Jake LeBrun, Braiden Epp, Cole Todd, Daniel Nachbaur, Rider Stoglin) and two goalies (Jenks and Alex Brooks-Potts) from the Kings' 22-player roster who will be available this weekend.
Luedtke has been playing well along with linemates Epp and LeBrun, and has moved into a fifth-place tie among the leading point-getters in the BCHL. Luedtke now has 10 goals and 38 points in 31 games. Another positive sign is O'Brien has found his scoring touch with three goals in the past two games.
While O'Brien and Jenks were away, the Kings were down to just nine players in practice Monday and Tuesday. They will be getting some help from the junior B and major midget ranks. Forward Trent Pereverzoff (Princeton, KIJHL) and Cole Zimmerman (100 Mile House, KIJHL) and defenceman Kyle Lohmann (Kamloops, KIJHL) will be available to the Kings for both games and GM Mike Hawes is working on bringing in one more defenceman and another forward.
Major midget forwards Austin Gray and Colton Thomas will dress for Friday's game but won't be available Saturday to play Cowichan Valley due to the fact the Cariboo Cougars have a game Saturday afternoon at Kin 1 against the North Island Silvertips.
The injury trend has been plaguing the Spruce Kings since late in the season last year.
"It's been non-stop since the playoffs last year," said Dupas. "We lost four or five guys going into the playoffs and as soon as the season started we had all our defencemen out and as soon as they started getting healthy all the forwards started going down. We haven't had a full lineup since last February. It's just bad luck."
As grave as the situation is, the second-place Kings (17-12-0-2) are still in the hunt for first place in the BCHL Mainland Division, trailing Chilliwack by just three points. The Chiefs (19-9-0-1) have played two fewer games than the Kings. Prince George has passed the midpoint of the season, with 27 games left.
"We've been treading water at about .500 for the last little bit, which is good," said Dupas. "If we keep at around .500 until we get our guys back it'll put us in a position where we can possibly make a run, but if we give up too much ground here it will be difficult.
"The boys are battling hard. We got a split against Coquitlam and a split against Chilliwack, we beat West Kelowna and we've won some games. It shows the character of the guys. They don't quit. They're just gassed by the end of the game."
Prince George minor hockey product Liam Blackburn, an 18-year-old forward who plays for the West Kelowna Warriors, was also cut from the Canada West tryout camp held over the weekend in Calgary. The camp included six goalies, 18 defencemen and 36 forwards. The six-team tournament starts Sunday in Kindersley, Sask.
