Jorgensen to U of C; Blazers ready

From The Daily News of Friday, Sept. 21, 2007 . . .

While the Kamloops Blazers are on the ice battling the visiting Chilliwack Bruins in a WHL game tonight, centre Reid Jorgensen will be in Saskatoon with the U of Calgary Dinos.
Jorgensen, who played the last five seasons with the Blazers and was their captain the last two winters, has decided to forgo a professional career, at least for now, and hit the books.
“It was a tough decision to make,” Jorgensen said Thursday night from Calgary. “It’s been tough . . . a tough couple of days. You go back and forth and then you make up your mind.”
Jorgensen, 21, was in camp with the NHL’s Boston Bruins on a free-agent tryout. They offered him an invitation to go to camp with their AHL affiliate, the Providence Bruins.
“They wanted to take a longer look,” Jorgensen said, adding that there weren’t any guarantees. With the Blazers owing him five years of tuition and books and with the U of C prepared to match that, and with there also being scholarships available, Jorgensen decided he couldn’t turn his back on that kind of package.
“I love this city, too,” he said. “If you don’t end up playing hockey, the business contacts you can make here are second to none.”
The Dinos, whose roster includes ex-Blazers like Ryan Annesley, Jared Aulin, Wade Davis, Paul Gentile, Aaron Richards and Conlan Seder, left this morning for Saskatoon, site of the annual Husky Classic.
In the meantime, the Blazers open their season tonight against the Chilliwack Bruins, with the Seattle Thunderbirds here Saturday. Game time both nights is 7 o’clock at Interior Savings Centre.
Dean Clark, the Blazers’ general manager and head coach, is adamant that his team establish its personality early. Like immediately upon the dropping of the first puck.
“We want to make sure we have lots of energy and we’ve got our feet going,” Clark said after Thursday’s practice. “There are still a lot of the fundamentals, little things, that we want to have as characteristics of our team and we want to establish that early.
“With the high energy and the speed that we have, I want to use it. We want to make it hard on teams and the way we do that is with the forecheck, by being physical, not turning away from checks and forcing them to move the puck earlier than they want to.”
The Bruins come to town with two snipers — sophomores Oscar Moller and Mark Santorelli — and foot soldiers who are trying to carve out their own niches. Clark said he isn’t too concerned about matching lines, at least not this early in the season.
“We’ll roll four lines,” he said. “We might do something on the back end, matchup that way. We’ll make sure that whoever is out there . . . you’ve got to be aware when (Moller and Santorelli) are on the ice.”
One of those defenders could be Victor Bartley, a 19-year-old beginning his fourth season here.
Bartley was in camp with the Detroit Red Wings, first with their rookie team and then with the big club. He is hopeful of transferring much of what he learned, especially off the ice, to the Blazers’ dressing room.
In main camp, the likes of Chris Chelios, Kris Draper, Kirk Maltby and Daniel Cleary were on Bartley’s team in scrimmages.
“Those guys were great,” Bartley said. “They make the young guys feel really at home in a new organization. They treat you fantastic. They treat you like any other player and demand the same things from you that they demand of themselves. It was a huge eye-opener.”
What especially impressed Bartley was the work ethic displayed by the veteran players.
“Those guys are there before anybody else,” Bartley said. “A 7:30 practice . . . those guys are there at 5 a.m., getting ready for it.
“They showed me a lot of things about how to play the game and how to make things a lot easier on yourself. I can show the leadership and hard work that those guys do on a daily basis.
“When they practise, they go tape to tape every time. There’s lots of talk. They demand perfection at all times.”
When Bartley arrived back in Kamloops, it didn’t take him long to notice the excitement around the Blazers, some of it a hangover from last season, the rest from a 6-1 exhibition record.
“After 40 wins (last season), the guys are pretty excited to get back here and show where we left off,” he said. “We’re working hard. Practice is looking good. Guys are skating hard . . . it’s really important to get that work ethic established early.”
The Blazers plan on doing that tonight.
JUST NOTES: In its previous 26 home-openers, including three as the Junior Oilers, Kamloops is 21-3 with two ties. . . . The Blazers will scratch two defencemen and a forward tonight. One will be D Mark Schneider (wrist), who is the only injured player at the moment. . . . Spike Wallace, the Blazers’ community liaison, wants to remind youngsters that there still is time to join the Blueliner Club. The first of four breakfasts is scheduled for Oct. 28. Call him at 828-1144 for more info.