Ryan White can hardly wait for this weekend to arrive.
No, it isn’t Christmas. Rather, the Kamloops Blazers defenceman is going to
get to play at home over the weekend as the WHL team journeys to Edmonton
for three exhibition games.
“I’m pretty excited about playing at home in front of the home crowd and
some of my friends,” White, 20, said. “They haven’t seen me play before so
it’s going to be a good experience.”
White stopped, smiled and added: “I’ve never been this excited about
preseason games or regular-season games before.”
The Blazers will leave today for Edmonton. They will be one of six teams in
the three-day round-robin tournament that is being played host to by the
expansion Oil Kings. All games will be played at Servus Credit Union Place
in St. Albert.
The Blazers will play the Regina Pats on Saturday, 10 a.m. (PDT), the Oil
Kings on Sunday (6 p.m.), and the Swift Current Broncos on Monday (2 p.m.).
The Kelowna Rockets and Prince George Cougars also will take part.
White joined the Blazers in the middle of the 2005-06 season from the AJHL’s
Fort McMurray Oil Barons. While he isn’t spectacular, he is the epitomy of a
steady, no-nonsense defenceman. That was very much in evidence last season
when he may have been the Blazers’ most-consistent defenceman while paired
for the most part with then-freshmen Kevin Kraus and Jordan Rowley.
“I thought I had a weak start last season,” said White, who was the best
defenceman — and maybe the best player on the ice — in Wednesday’s
intrasquad game, “but I feel that I came back after Christams and was really
strong. I thought I stood out quite a bit.”
As for playing a lot of minutes with two newcomers, he said: “As the season
went on we learned how to play together and tried to help each other as much
as we could. We just kept it simple.”
And now White finds himself as one of four 20-year-olds on the roster,
knowing the team can only keep three of them.
“I can’t control that,” he said. “All I can do is take what I’ve done this
summer and do the best that I can and hopefully everything works out.”
But how does he deal with the uncertainty of it all?
“I just don’t think about it,” he said. “I haven’t thought about it at all.
I just come to the rink smiling every day.”
He did admit, however, that “I really want to be here. I worked hard all
summer and I just want to finish my last season in Kamloops and have a
successful season.”
From what he witnessed last season and what he has seen in training camp the
last few days, he feels this team is onto something good.
“Guys like (C.J.) Stretch, (Travis) Dunstall and (Tyler) Shattock worked
hard all summer,” White said, “and have come back and have really shown what
they’ve done. I think we’re going to have a really amazing season and I want
to be a part of it.”
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The Blazers have added LW Matt Wray of Qualicum Beach to their roster, atleast for this weekend’s Edmonton tournament.
The 6-foot-2 1/2, 212-pound Wray, who will turn 18 on Nov. 22, had been in
camp with the Prince George Cougars. He had two points and 88 penalty
minutes in 46 games with the BCHL’s Powell River Paper Kings last season.
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JUST NOTES: C Brendan Ranford, the Blazers’ top pick, 15th overall, in the2007 bantam draft, is the only 1992-born player left on the roster. He is
from Edmonton and will get to play at home this weekend, too. . . . D Joel
Woznikoski, who suffered a left knee injury in the intrasquad game, will be
re-examined Tuesday. He was quite stiff and sore yesterday. . . . Others not
making the trip to Edmonton are LW Alex Rodgers (shoulder), D Mark Schneider
(wrist), D Victory Bartley, RW Juuso Puustinen and D Keaton Ellerby (Team
Canada). Bartley (Detroit Red Wings) and Puustinen (Calgary Flames) leave
for NHL camps next week. . . . D Daniel Medland-Marchen, who came out of
Wednesday’s game with a broken collarbone, likely won’t play again until
November. He is 15 and will play for the major midget Okanagan Rockets. . .
. The Blazers officially have released C Brady Mason, 20. He has cleared WHL
waivers so is free to join the BCHL’s Westside Warriors.
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