Bisons revved up for season

Times Reporter   

 

The UFA Bisons had a strong finish to the exhibition season, winning two of three, and are excited to get things going with the regular season, which begins at home versus the Calgary Royals on Sept. 26.

“The players started school and we started our practices, kids are all excited, there is a lot of learning and they’re getting used to their billet families,” said Bison assistant coach Doug Raycroft.

Now that the team has been picked, the Bisons have been able to have three practices to start communicating with one another on the ice.

“We’ve had a few practices now, so it’s nice when you can practice and work on stuff and get the kids ready for the pace they need to play at for this level,” said Raycroft.

“So now that we have our team, we get a full week of practice before the home opener so we’re looking forward to that.”

The coaching staff is coming into this season with a clean slate and revamping the system as to what is expected of the players.

“We’re starting fresh, we’re going through all the things that we want to see,” said Raycroft. “Coach Dan has expectations for how well we need to pass and how we need to attack the net. We’re not really going to work on any systems to start, we just want to make sure we’re doing all the things we can to make our players as good as they can be.”

Throughout camp the Bisons wanted to get bigger in size, and by the end of the exhibition games it was tough to cut some players that otherwise would have had a   roster spot.

“They were very tough as the further you went along the harder they were,” said Raycroft. “We have a bigger group that made the team this year, not everybody is huge but our average size is quite a bit bigger than last year.”

The Royals, who are the Bisons first opponent of the season, will provide a good test with their speed and skill.

“They’re a good team, not a huge team, but they skate well and have some skill. It should be a good game,” said Raycroft.

Red Deer, who will be the visiting team on Sunday afternoon, have been the Bisons nemesis in the playoffs the last couple of seasons.

“Red Deer is always tough, including last year when they won the league, so I think that is four years in a row. It’ll be two good tests to start the year,” said Raycroft.

Overall, look for the Bisons to be a good passing team, be a quick puck-moving team and a team that hopefully scores lots of goals.

In the final three exhibitions games, the Bisons fell to the Calgary Northstars 3-2 on Sept. 17, beat the SEAC Tigers 3-2 on Sept. 19 and edged the Calgary Royals 5-4 on Sept. 20.

The home opener will be on Friday, Sept. 26 (8 p.m.) versus the Calgary Royals at the Strathmore Family Centre.