The next week will prove pivotal for the Bombers in two ways - one in the standings and again with roster changes. Flin Flon has three games this week against opponents in home-ice playoff spots, then will hit the annual roster deadline Jan. 10.
The team returned from the holiday break Jan. 3 with a game on the road in La Ronge against the arch-rival Ice Wolves - Flin Flon picked up a 4-3 victory, marking their third win in the last three games against La Ronge and making it six wins in the team's past seven games.
Two more games will come this weekend, both at the Whitney Forum - showdowns with the Humboldt Broncos Jan. 6 and 7. They will be the first games Humboldt plays in the Forum since October, when the Broncos, then neck-and-neck with first-place Battlefords, took the Bombers to overtime with a late tying goal and beat Flin Flon 2-1 in extra time. In their last meeting, which the Bombers played on the road after back-to-back battles against the Battlefords, Flin Flon took revenge with a 4-1 win.
Heading out of the break, the Bombers started with a 20-7-2-1 record, sitting third in the league standings with 43 points - the same number of points they had entering the holiday break last season, but done in two fewer games. The Bombers still sit behind Battlefords, who had an incredible 28-0-2-1 record and 59 of a possible 62 points before the new year.
In each of the last three full SJHL seasons, the Bombers have had 20 wins by Christmas - a streak continued this year.
“I think we're pretty happy with our first half. In our first 30 games, I think to hit the 20 win mark before Christmas is always a goal. We had two big wins against La Ronge heading into the break and 20-7-2-1, I think, is a pretty good record,” said Bomber head coach and general manager Mike Reagan.
“It’d probably look a lot better if Battlefords wasn’t doing what they’re doing, but you’ve got to give them a lot of credit for their first half of the season.”
Perfection isn’t as perfect as it seems - Reagan says he’s glad with the team and how they’ve responded to adversity to far, adding that the team has responded well after losses so far.
“I'll be honest with you - I'm okay with where we're at. I think that having some adversity is a good thing and you want to see how your team responds from some losses,” he said.
“For the most part, I think we've done a pretty good job at responding when we've lost.”
One place Reagan wants to see the team improve is away from home - while the Bombers have a point in all but one of their home games this season, sporting a 12-1-1-1 record in home games, their road record is less stellar, sitting at 8-6-1-0 so far this season. Last year’s Bombers had a similar issue, winning 21 of 29 regular season games at home but going sub-.500 on the road - a trait that came back to bite the Bombers, who lost all four road games they played in the league final against Estevan, including getting shut out in the title-deciding Game 7.
Preparing for the road requires different strategies or plans than improving the team’s defence or their powerplay, said Reagan - it’s mental, not physical, not something easily plotted out with a coach’s X’s and O’s.
“I think playing on the road is a mindset and it's a mental challenge. That's something that we, as a team, need to do a better job of - making sure that we're emphasizing the importance of being ready and eliminating our mistakes on the road, not having poor standards,” he said.
“For instance, giving up a second goal after you got scored on in the next couple of minutes. We've been guilty of that this year, where we'll give up a goal and then, two, three shifts later, we're giving up another goal. Weathering that storm at key moments of a hockey game, I think, is definitely something that we need to do a better job of and focus.”
Deadline
More chaos will take place in the run-up to the Jan. 10 roster deadline. The Bombers will need to do any trades, major junior or college drop-downs or cuts before the deadline takes place, including having to cut their roster down to 23 players - according to the official SJHL website, the Bombers currently have 25 players on their active roster. No trades or transactions between junior A teams are allowed after the deadline.
Reagan is usually a busy man in the run-up to the deadline, having picked up players in recent years who would later prove key. Last year’s deadline saw the Bombers snag forward Drew Kuzma from the Weyburn Red Wings for draft picks and cash - the gargantuan Albertan forward was nearly a point-per-game player for the Bombers after the trade, one of the team’s biggest threats in both the playoffs and Centennial Cup and parlayed his success into an NCAA Division I scholarship.
Other big past deadline acquisitions include Cade Kowalski, acquired from those same Wings in 2019, team playoff MVP Gabriel Waked in 2019 and Cal Schell, last season’s ace goaltender - Schell was picked up from a team in B.C. in 2020, before COVID-19 shut down the league and the Bombers’ title hopes, before almost taking the team to the promised land last season.
The team has three remaining player cards to spend this season, meaning the Bombers could possibly bring in as many as three new faces. Don’t expect the team to make a deal without reason, though.
“That doesn't mean we're going to just make moves to make moves. We like our team. We brought Brock Mueller and Ethan Mercer in and we really haven’t been able to see everybody in the lineup,” Reagan said.
Reagan stays the main person who decides who stays, who goes and who comes north - but if he knows who’s on their way in or out of Flin Flon, he’s not yet naming names. What he will share is wanting a certain archetype - the coach’s main deadline desire is forward depth, he said, citing how important a deep lineup is when playoffs come around, players who play hard each shift and wear the opponent down. Reagan specifically named he’s looking for a player like ex-Bomber Brett Wieschorster - a hard-working, versatile two-way forward that other teams quickly got sick of seeing.
“If there's one area that we probably would like to work on at the deadline or maybe acquire, it’s a little more depth at the forward position. I think one of the things that we saw from last year is you can never have too much depth. We lost Cole Vardy, we Mason Kaspick in the league final, Rylan Thiessen - that’s three 20-year-olds that missed some significant time with us, deep into the playoffs and in the Centennial Cup,” said the coach.
“We've learned from that and we want to make sure that we do have that depth, because we understand that if you're going to go on a deep run, there's going to be injuries and you’ve got to have bodies that are capable of stepping in and not missing a beat. We’ve had a game plan in place here for quite a while and we're not just going to make moves to make moves - we're looking for a certain type of player. If that player is available, then we want to make sure that we jump on him.”
