I don’t know about anyone else but I am excited about this weekend’s games for the Comox Valley Glacier Kings. So far, they’ve played strong teams like Nanaimo, weaker teams like Kerry Park and middle of the road teams like Campbell River, Oceanside and Saanich. All those games have one theme… the Yeti have been in every one of them until the very end. So what’s difference about this weekend? Well… so far they have played a total of 5 games combined over 3 weekends. Starting Friday, it will be 3 games in 3 days. Two games will be against undefeated teams (Peninsula 5-0, Nanaimo 4-0) and their other opponent will be their arch rival (Campbell River). This is as tough as it gets. As I said, the Glacier Kings have been very competitive so far but this will be a definite test.

Going into the weekend, Comox Valley is in pretty good shape healthwise. They already have 13 players that have played in all 5 games and they added some players a couple weeks ago who didn’t start the season but will be in there everyday. Head coach/GM Curtis Toneff talked about the situation heading into this weekend, “Tegan Clayton has a broken clavicle, he’s out for probably another couple months. Other than that, we’re pretty healthy here… knock on wood.” Of course it’s still early and the wear and tear of playing such a physical sport at this level will take its toll at some point with some of the guys. It’s a long season. For now, fingers are crossed.

As long as the coach is carrying three goaltenders, questions will continue to mount on what his position is with carrying three. So I decided to look and see what the other 10 teams in the league are doing. 9 of the other 10 teams in the VIJHL are also carrying 3 goalies. The only squad with just 2 are the Nanaimo Buccaneers. For the Bucs, former Glacier King Aaron Pichette has played two games (2-0, 1.50, .938)  and Adam Ranger has also played in two (2-0, 2.38, .919) so that tandem has done well. I asked Toneff about who was leading the way for his team, “I still think it’s early, they’re all coming from Midget to Junior. They’re all pushing each which is nice, they’re all wanting the net which is what you want to see. There’s just one or two goals a practice that they have had that you just can’t let in. If they all clean that up, it will really get interesting in there. If you look at our goals against and other stuff, goaltending hasn’t been an issue. Hopefully it’s like the rest of the team and they get better and continue to grow.” Here are the stats so far:
Silas Dromarsky, 1-0-0, 1.00, .947
Anthony Ganoung, 0-2-0, 3.04, .902
Timothee Fengos, 0-1-1, 3.46, .901
You have to wonder if all 3 goalies will get starts this weekend considering the 3 games in 3 days. All have played well for the most part.

We’re through 5 games now and the GKings still don’t have a captain and only one assistant captain. Obviously Haden Parker has an ‘A’ which he earned from being an assistant captain last season with the club. So, we are expecting one “C” and two more “A’s” to be named before too long. Curtis did say that he has been proactively collecting information to make sure he makes the right decision, “I did put it to a vote earlier this week. I did that just to give myself a better gauge and to give the players a say in their thoughts. There were about 4 guys that they voted for Captain and they had 2 ‘A’ votes because Haden Parker is lettered nonetheless. That why I made the vote one C’ and two A’s. It was interesting because it didn’t really get me anywhere because the vote was so even and perhaps all over the place. It gives you a good indication that there are 5 or 6 guys that are the leadership group. But who gets what remains to be seen to be honest with you. I don’t want to jump the gun on these decisions like we talked about a few weeks ago.” It will definitely be interesting to see if the players that are given letters will be the veterans or a mixture of new blood and experienced vets.

On gamedays, remember to check out the “Gameday Lineups” Tab on this blog to see the the roster that will be dressed for that days game. Gameday Lineup do not get emailed out to my subscribers like the new posts do. Curtis sends it to me the day of the game and I try to post it right away if possible. That’s it for today, have a great Thursday!

Darryl Skender