By the end of their game against the Calgary Hitmen, you could tell fatigue was setting in for the Brandon Wheat Kings. And yet, exhausted as they were, the team found a way to snag two points.
Coaches very rarely, if ever, entertain the idea of fatigue as an excuse. Last season, when they were bombarded by three-game-in-three-night scenarios, Marty Murray didn’t really mention how tired his team was and downplayed it if it was brought up to him. So it says quite something that, during our postgame interview on October 26, he pointed out just how worn out his group was getting.
That’s a side effect of all the injuries the team has been dealing with that’s obvious when you think about it. Fewer players in the lineup overall, and many of those being injured being big-minute players, means everyone is playing far more than they’re used to. As Murray pointed out in the postgame, some of the forwards were playing 25 minutes a night, a number they ordinarily wouldn’t hit unless they were playing a playoff game with multiple overtimes.
All that said, the team sits 3-0-1 on their current homestand and gets another week between games, with the schedule makers doing them far more of a favor at the moment than they were at any point in last season’s wacky schedule (which owed its bizarre makeup to the relocation of the Winnipeg ICE). That week off will go a long way towards getting certain bodies healthy again, and the Wheat Kings will need that as they’re about to lose two players for the next week or so, albeit for a positive reason this time.
- We’ll start with that positive reason: Jaxon Jacobson and Gio Pantelas are away representing Canada Red and Canada White respectively at the World Under-17s. Jacobson has a six-game point streak going (the longest on the team) and has been invaluable for the team in the absence of so many top forwards. Something Marty said to me in our last postgame chat really stuck out: he said Jaxon is going to go to the tournament with the mindset of trying to be the best player there, and it wouldn’t be surprising if he was. That’s no small statement with the best players in the world from his age group all converging on Sarnia, but the way Jacobson has been playing lately (he’s the reigning WHL rookie of the week) who would bet against it? Players often come back from events like this with heightened confidence, but playing with confidence hasn’t been an issue for that young man.
- Pantelas, meanwhile, told me he was genuinely surprised to get the call he’d made Team Canada, but I’d say he’d be the only one. Marty had mentioned to me that, in his conversations with Team Canada brass, they had been very impressed with Gio’s play, and that’s not the first time he’s left an impression on someone. During the summer evaluation camp, he was a player that pundits like Ryan Kennedy and Steven Ellis singled out as being a top player at camp. Throughout the WHL season, meanwhile, he’s drawn praise for his steady puck moving and heavy, explosive physical game. It’s scary to think he’s only going to get stronger from here. How hard is he going to be hitting by the time he’s 18? It’s also quite a compliment to both young men that in their absence, the Wheat Kings are going to need someone to step up, something you don’t always say when 16-year-olds leave the team.
- At the other end of the age spectrum, the 20-year-olds continue to keep the team going strong in the absence of so many top forwards. Marcus Nguyen picked up an assist against Calgary before showing off some dazzling skill on an end-to-end overtime winner, and he continues to lead the team in scoring. Nolan Flamand is right on his heels, however, and owns the second-longest point streak on the team at five games. While the blueline hasn’t been as injury-ravaged as the forward corps, it did still have to deal with the injury to captain Quinn Mantei, and both with and without him in the lineup we’ve seen Luke Shipley up his offensive game and help run the power play. Shipley’s game-tying goal took the roof off Westoba Place on Saturday night, and he and the other 2004-born players have been steering the ship as the team grapples with its still-prevalent injury problem.
- Sticking with the Calgary game for a moment, that was the game after which Marty mentioned his team was having to deal with some fatigue. Probably nobody was quite as tired as Ethan Eskit after that game, however. He hadn’t played since the loss to the Lethbridge Hurricanes on October 12, and his first game back he was absolutely peppered with shots, including 19 in the second period alone. But Eskit never appeared overwhelmed no matter how crazy things got in front of him, and he ended up making 36 saves in the OT win. Eskit has very quietly put together an excellent early season for Brandon, holding a 2.30 GAA and an impressive .922 save percentage. Between he and Carson Bjarnason, one thing the Wheat Kings have been able to rely on night in and night out, even with all their injuries, has been solid goaltending.
- So, on the subject of those injuries, who might the team get back in time for Medicine Hat on Saturday night? Well, Dominik Petr has shed his no-contact jersey and seems a likely candidate to return, and what a boost to the lineup he would be. With one of their top set-up men leaving (Jacobson co-leads the team with nine assists) it would be huge to get another one back. As for forward Easton Odut, he’s been in the red no-contact sweater at practice for a while, but he’s gaining ground. When we last spoke to him on the subject, Marty was only able to say Odut wouldn’t be an option for that weekend (against Saskatoon and Calgary). What might he be able to do by the end of this week? Time will tell. Odut brings an attacker’s mentality to the forecheck and relentless pressure when he’s at his best, something the team would love to re-insert into the lineup.
- The team obviously still isn’t done with the injury bug, and Jacobson and Pantelas heading to Sarnia leaves more question marks in regards to the lineup. With the older guys stepping up, which of the young players does the team want to see taking on more responsibility and running with it? Joby Baumuller would be a popular answer with the coaching staff, and to the young man’s credit he’s starting to find his offensive groove. Baumuller is riding a four-game point streak of his own, including a critical goal late in the second period against Calgary. As a side note to that goal, it was set up by a beautiful dangle from Caleb Hadland, the second time in as many games he’s showed off some wicked stickhandling and one of many times this season now; can’t wait for that first goal that comes for him off one of those toe-drags. But back to Baumuller. The 2022 first rounder had an outstanding training camp and preseason, singled out as one of the players who looked to have taken the biggest steps, but he had a quiet start to the year offensively. Now the points are starting to come, and hopefully the confidence will as well. He’s got a bullet of a shot and has shown great footspeed and hands in the past, and could be exactly the sort of player the Wheat Kings need most at the moment.
Only having one game this week is a double edged sword. On the one hand, more time to rest and recover is critical for this team right now. On the other hand, losing that game would make it seem like a wasted week, especially in the standings where, for the second year in a row, the Eastern Conference is suffocatingly tight. And that game comes against a Medicine Hat Tigers team that, yes, has underachieved a bit this season but feels about one good weekend away from breaking out completely, and one that really seems to have the Wheat Kings number. With all the adversity the Wheat Kings have faced this season, the matchup this weekend might be the pinnacle of it so far. It will be fun to see how the Black and Gold handle it, and whether they can finally get into the win column against an opponent many predicted would be the cream of the crop in the WHL this year.
