Compton ready to renew acquaintances

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
Seth Compton of the Kamloops Blazers is looking forward to seeing some old friends tonight.
But he will wait until later in the evening to socialize.
The Blazers and Spokane Chiefs, the defending WHL and Memorial Cup champions, will meet tonight, 7 o’clock, at Interior Savings Centre and Compton admitted that he is excited for two reasons.
“It’s a big game for our team,” said the 20-year-old centre from West Richland, Wash., who was acquired from the Chiefs for right-winger Brady Calla, 20, on Jan. 7. “It’ll be nice to get to see some buddies after the game.”
Compton, who was in his fourth season with the Chiefs, obviously has some close friends on the Spokane roster — you don’t get all the way to the Memorial Cup without forging some tight bonds — and he pointed to forwards Ryan Letts and Justin McCrae and defenceman Trevor Glass.
Asked which one of those three he expects to run at him tonight, Compton laughed and replied: “I don’t know. . . . I expect them all to.”
This, however, is a bigger game than that and Compton knows it.
“Most importantly,” he said, “is that Spokane might be a team we play in the playoffs so we need to set a good tempo there.”
The Chiefs appear headed for a third- or fourth-place finish in the Western Conference. The Blazers could finish fifth, sixth or seventh. That would set Kamloops and Spokane up for a first-round playoff meeting for the first time since the spring of 2001, when the Chiefs swept the Blazers.
Since then, the Chiefs have turned into a WHL power — winning all the marbles last season — while the Blazers have been meandering around the wilderness.
Still, Compton said, the Blazers can compete with the Chiefs. Asked what Kamloops has to do, Compton replied: “Just the same stuff that we did the last couple of games. Stick to our game plan and play 60 minutes every night. We definitely have the capability and the skill and the work ethic to beat teams like Spokane and Vancouver and Calgary. It’s just a matter of if we bring it for a full 60 minutes.”
One of the keys to the Chiefs’ success last season, according to Compton, was the team’s ability to bring it every night.
“Consistency was a huge part of it,” he said. “Our roster had so much depth. Let’s say a top scorer like Drayson Bowman or Mitch Wahl didn’t have their best night, there were guys on the third line and even on the fourth line once in a while who were able to step up and help the team win.”
That consistency has a lot to do with age and experience, and the Blazers, right now, are one of the WHL’s younget teams.
“The first-year players . . . it’s a long season so the first-year players are more likely to fall off the pace a bit,” Compton stated. “When you get a team like (Spokane) last season where everybody was focused and ready to sacrifice their bodies for each other every night . . . it’s a pretty cool experience.”
It isn’t something, however, that he talks about a great deal with his new team. On occasion, head coach Barry Smith will ask him to expound on last season and he will.
“But,” Compton added, “last season was last season and this season I’m a Kamloops Blazer and hopefully I’m trying to create memories like I had last season here with the Blazers.”
Besides, he said, his new teammates don’t need anyone to tell them what needs doing.
“The players here know what we need to do and know what good teams are,” Compton said. “It’s kind of exciting because this team is definitely moving in the right direction.”
It’s also exciting because, well, it’s that time of the season. The long grind is pretty much the teams with the playoffs right there on the horizon.
“It doesn’t get any better than this,” Compton said. “This is the funnest part of the year for a player and I’m sure for coaches and fans, too. We’re not the best team in the league but when the playoffs come, who knows? We can make it to the final, so. . . .”
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca