Blazers' Caron going from enforcer to defenceman

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
Josh Caron, who is threatening to become the WHL’s heavyweight champion, has presented the Kamloops Blazers with something of a conundrum.
Caron, a defenceman who struggled to get ice time last season and early this, has improved so much that he has become more than just another tough cookie.
Head coach Guy Charron “had a pretty good comment,” assistant coach Scott Ferguson said Monday after practice at Interior Savings Centre. “You want your scrapper and physical guy to be a winger. You look at Josh . . . he’s the guy who fights for us but he’s also playing against top lines.”
A native of Campbell River who turned 19 on Feb. 10, the 6-foot-4, 210-pound Caron was a healthy scratch in 11 of the Blazers’ first 29 games this season. However, he has been scratched from the lineup just twice since Charron took over on Nov. 23 and one of those was with a one-game WHL-issued suspension.
“He certainly has made some major strides,” Charron said, adding that Caron definitely is one of his club’s most improved players.
These days, the coaching staff has Caron paired with highly touted Austin Madaisky as the team’s No. 1 shutdown pairing, meaning they usually are on the ice against the opposition’s top offensive line.
That will be the case tonight when the Blazers play host to the Everett Silvertips. Game time at Interior Savings Centre is 7 o’clock.
So what happened to turn Caron from a one-dimensional player into one who just may end up hearing his name called during the NHL draft in June?
“It just comes down to confidence and him getting a chance to play,” Ferguson said. “At the start of the season, most of our back end was trying to find their game and he was included. I remember him sitting in my office and wondering if he belonged.
“He wasn’t playing with the edge he needs to play with. I told him it starts in practice, play aggressive, play mean . . . start playing like that in a game. He took off from there.”
Boy, did he!
Caron has only four points in 55 games, and yet he leads the team in plus/minus, at plus-4. That is all the more impressive when you consider that the Blazers have allowed 45 more goals than they have scored. He also is second in the WHL with 184 penalty minutes — although his penalties have resulted in only 21 opposition power-play opportunities. And he and Saskatoon Blades winger Randy McNaught lead the WHL in fighting majors, each with 20.
“We all know he can fight,” Ferguson said. “That same aggression he brings into scraps he has to bring into one-on-one battles, defensive zone coverage and that kind of stuff. But he has really stepped up his game for us.”
As Caron has developed, Ferguson said he has had to deliver a different kind of message to the player.
“There are nights when I tell him you can’t fight and he’s been good at that,” Ferguson explained. “He’s starting to undersrtand there’s a time to fight and there’s a time to play hockey.”
Like most hockey enforcers, Caron enjoys that part of the game.
“I was playing more of the role of enforcer, which I like to do,” he said. “I like to bring that to the game. But I think I’ve come a long way. My footwork has come a long way. I can keep up with the guys.”
Caron’s progress may well have been set back by a broken ankle he suffered that needed surgery, only to have him break it again. That cost him one season of hockey and helped limit him to 21 games with the Blazers last season.
This season, however, he has worked diligently with Ferguson and fellow assistant coach Geoff Smith, both of whom were NHL defencemen.
“They have helped a lot,” Caron said. “Fergy works with me every day. After practice, we do (defensive) drills, simple passing plays, moving my feet, footwork.”
As much as he enjoys his role as a shutdown defenceman, Caron’s eyes light up when the conversation turns to fistic activity.
“I like to throw the fists a bit, get the crowd going and get pumped up,” he said.
It is a talent that the Blazers’ coaches and players appreciate.
“He’s definitely one of the toughest players in the league,” Charron said. “That has a major impact on your team and on the team you’re playing. Not too many guys are going to want to challenge him. They may, because that’s their role so they have to. But I’m sure that’s a situation they’d be thinking twice about doing because he can hurt them.”
Asked who is the toughest hombre he has encountered this season, Caron replied: “Corbin Baldwin is a tough customer.”
He and Baldwin, a 6-foot-5, 210-pounder who is five days older than Caron, have fought three times this season, including two bouts here on Feb. 17.
In his most recent scrap, Caron went with winger Cameron Abney of the host Edmonton Oil Kings on Wednesday.
Caron said the 6-foot-4, 195-pound Abney “got me right here on the lip with the first punch. That was probably the hardest punch I’ve taken this year.”
The Oil Kings acquired Abney from Everett in January, meaning the Silvertips don’t really have a hired gun in their lineup these days.
Which means Caron likely will stick to playing hockey tonight.
“Good for him,” Ferguson said. “He wanted to get to a spot where he wasn’t just fighting, he was playing, and that’s what he’s doing now. He’s doing both.”
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Meanwhile, defenceman Ryan Funk, the Blazers’ captain, continues to work towards a return from a sprained ankle.
Funk, 20, has missed eight games and won’t play tonight. There has been speculation that he might play Friday against the visiting Vancouver Giants, but it’s more likely that he could return Sunday or March 12. The Prince George Cougars will play here on both of those nights.
The Blazers were beaten 5-3 by the visiting Kelowna Rockets on the night Funk was injured. Since then, Kamloops is 4-4-0-0, with two overtime victories and one via the shootout.
“He’s a big loss, on and off the ice,” Charron said. “He took on such a leadership role with our team. When things slipped, he would do everything he could to turn it around. You miss your captain. Any time your captain is gone for a period of time, you know it’s a loss.”
Charron said they will make sure Funk is healthy before he returns because “you don’t want him to start and he plays a game and then he takes one step forward and two steps back.”
JUST NOTES: According to the WHL website, the Blazers scratched F Jake Trask on Saturday night. However, that is in error. Trask played; F Matej Bene was a healthy scratch. . . . The Blazers have three home games left after tonight, with the next one Friday against the Vancouver Giants.

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
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