Kings look forward to new season

Times Editor  

 

Armed with a number of veterans and a handful of first-year players eager to make a statement, the Wheatland Kings are optimistic for the 2012-2013 season.

After a franchise best campaign last season, the local junior B team is looking to maintain and build on the past.

“We’re extremely optimistic,” said Kings head coach Doug Murphy. “We’ve got a good, solid core of guys coming back and we’ve picked up some excellent new talent. Things are looking really promising.

“Camp went really well – it was a little smaller than it has been the last couple of years, but that was part of the plan to some extent. Right now we have 14 guys back, so we didn’t want to bring in a lot of people and give them false expectations. We still have two guys at junior A camp, so you never know (if they come back too).”

According to Murphy, the Kings did things a little different this year. They hosted a midget rookie camp in the spring and they came into main camp with only 38 players. The Kings began the exhibition portion of the season this past weekend with three games in three days. 

Wheatland lost 5-3 to Three Hills on Sept. 7 and 9-4 to Okotoks at home on Sept. 8, before hammering High River 8-1 on Sept. 9 at the Strathmore Family Centre.

According to Murphy, the team deployed most of their ‘rookies’ during the weekend to see what they are made of and to see if they can handle the rigors of Junior B hockey.

“There were a lot of guys there we wanted to have a look at to see if they could actually play,” said Murphy. “We were very pleased with what we saw (in the) nine periods of hockey and on the ice for six of the last seven days.”

The Kings now prepare to take on the same trio of teams this weekend, when they finish the exhibition portion of their schedule. Wheatland will travel to High River and Airdrie to open the weekend, before closing with a home game on Sept. 16 (7 p.m.) at the Strathmore Family Centre.

The Kings open the 2012-2013 regular season on Sept. 22 when they host Ponoka at the Strathmore Family Centre. Join the team for their home opener tailgate party beginning at 5:30 p.m., prior to the 8 p.m. puck drop.