This was the sort of weekend for the Brandon Wheat Kings that really shows you whether you’re a glass-half-full or glass-half-empty type. After all, the Wheat Kings gave both sides plenty of ammunition.
Glass half full? Well, you probably looked at getting three out of a possible four points (never a bad weekend, really), the fact that the Wheat Kings got Nick Johnson back for the first time in almost two months and he scored immediately upon his return, and the team keeping pace in the standings while maintaining games in hand on every team around them.
Glass half empty? The team lost their third straight game to open up the weekend, had to settle for an overtime loss for the second time in three games after having a third-period lead, handed three of a possible four points to a division rival, and needed two overtime games to get a win against a team that came into the weekend having lost eight in a row.
Which of those columns you lean more heavily into might give you a window into how you feel about this team overall, but the Wheat Kings and their management have to deal with the full picture, good and bad. The full picture is of a team that has some clear inconsistencies, that can dominate when they’re on their game (they outshot the Pats 44-24 on Saturday night) but that hasn’t put it all together yet and can sometimes get a little too comfortable. In other words, yup, they’re a junior hockey team all right.
With two benchmark type tests this weekend, the Wheat Kings are about to learn even more about themselves. We’re nearly a third of the way through the season, but it still feels like they and the rest of the league have more questions about the shape of the season than answers.
- First order of business, congratulations to captain Quinn Mantei for his 200th and 201st WHL games this past weekend. It’s a rarer milestone than you might think (especially when we’ve still got a lot of players in the league whose games played were hindered by COVID), and rarer still for a player to hit it all with one team. When you draft a player in the first round, you can only hope he ends up having as long and important a career with your franchise as Mantei has and continues to have with the Wheat Kings. He’s the all-situations stalwart that Marty Murray regularly pays the compliment of “You know what you’re going to get from him every game” and perhaps the most reliable player on the team. He’s got 200 games under his belt, and could easily have 300 by the time his career is done, and with two Brad McCrimmon awards for defenseman of the year under his belt already he could end his career as an all-time Wheat Kings great. All that’s missing from his resume is the one thing that seems to unite great players: great team success. Ask him and he’ll tell you that’s what he’s hungriest for.
- Keeping it with the blue line, another Wheat King is closing in on a milestone: Charlie Elick will soon play his 150th WHL game. Elick may have crossed a very important threshold for his own personal confidence in the last game against the Regina Pats when he stepped up and delivered a crushing Rob Blake-esque body check. He’d thrown quite a few of them last season, but when he threw his first this year against Swift Current it was (in my opinion incorrectly) called a penalty. This was the first time since then he’d landed a hit like that (in part, I’m sure, due to the fact that his opponents are on the lookout for it and are more cautious when he’s on the ice). A hit like that, a relatively small moment in a game, might not seem like much, but when you feel confident enough to step up and throw one it bleeds into other areas of the game as well. The Wheat Kings don’t need Elick to be an offensive dynamo, but I think both they and he were hoping for more than four assists through 17 games after he put up 25 points at even strength alone last season. A highlight reel hit like that might be just what Elick needs to turn it up a notch, both offensively and physically.
- On Elick’s left, we’ve been slowly but steadily witnessing the rise of Dylan Ronald. His game isn’t designed to be spectacular, filled with highlight reel end-to-end rushes, but solid and dependable like that of Mantei (a comparison Marty Murray has made more than once). And within that solid, dependable game, Ronald is blossoming. He had points in both games against the Pats this weekend (one assist was denied to him at first but a look at the highlights shows he made it, surely enough) but when colour commentator Pete Gerlinger and myself were chatting about him it was less about the points and more about the points he prevented on the other side. Rushes and cycles alike died when Ronald stepped in and disrupted them, and he made alert, quick moves in his own end to throw off forecheckers and start the breakout. Drafting well is a staple of any good organization, but finding undrafted players and turning them into regulars in your lineup is a different art form entirely, and something that many of the best teams in the league are masters at. Ronald has the makings of an undrafted gem who carves out a long and successful WHL career for himself.
- I’m not sure Wheat Kings fans fully appreciated before this weekend just how much the team was missing Nick Johnson. Injuries have conspired to keep him out of the lineup on home ice for much of his time in Brandon, and his goal against Regina on Friday night was actually his first as a Wheat King at home. As such, Brandon fans haven’t seen much of him in person. That goal showed so much of why the team thinks he’s poised for a breakout year. A big body with a heavy shot, he used his size to shield the puck and drive the slot, his shot to power home a goal, and his strength to stand up to the bodycheck he took after letting the shot go. With his power forward frame and willingness to drive the net, he can generate chances in close and has the shooting ability to finish them off. He’ll be especially important this weekend (more on that in a moment) but it’s no wonder he’s up to four goals and five points in just four games this season. The top-six looks a lot more complete with him in it.
- Speaking of that top-six, a quick snapshot of just how much better the forward depth is this season for the Wheat Kings, even without top sniper Roger McQueen: last season, the Wheat Kings didn’t have a single player at or above a point-per-game. This season, they’ve got five. Now, granted, one of those is McQueen who isn’t available to the team right now. On the other hand, Jaxon Jacobson has been producing about a point per game for some time now and is one two-point game away from reaching that threshold officially over the full season so far. Even with McQueen out (and it’s easy to forget the Wheat Kings are chugging along with a hole in their lineup that would cripple the offense of many another team), they’ve still got some finishers up front.
- This weekend will feature a pair of benchmark or measuring stick games for the Wheat Kings. First up, a Tri-City Americans squad that has been one of the hottest in the WHL over the last month and brings a rugged, heavy lineup to the table. The Americans represent literally the biggest challenge of the season so far for the Wheat Kings, and play an aggressive, physical style. The Wheat Kings got a taste of it on their trip south of the border last season and the Americans have only gotten bigger and nastier since then with the addition of Terrell Goldsmith, who is in many ways THE big nasty defenseman in the WHL. Right after that, the team faces the Swift Current Broncos, who sit third in the conference (just ahead of the Wheat Kings entering this weekend) and who have been rolling offensively since a difficult start. Luke Mistelbacher, who I praised in the last blog, is now up to a 15-game point streak. Swift Current is a divisional rival who stole two points from the Wheat Kings last time they met and who sits immediately above them but within reach in the standings. An easy game to get up for, but that will be true for the Broncos as well.
It feels almost pointless to dissect the standings at this stage, as the middle of the Eastern Conference is so tight you could see massive flip flops in the standings over the course of a single difficult weekend. In a conversation I had with Wheat Kings reporter Perry Bergson of the Brandon Sun, however, we both agreed on one thing: that makes the season more fun. Anyone really can beat anyone on any given night (I’d say the Regina Pats just proved that) and each game brings with it a mix of hope and anxiety. Your team could beat any opponent on any night, or they could be beaten by anyone because there are no guarantees.
Glass half full, glass half empty.
