The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
The Flin Flon Bombers season starts today in La Ronge, and coach Ryan Hoffman wants to see his team come out with a lot of fire. "That said, you got to make sure you're in control, it is their home-opener," Hoffman stressed. "They're gonna be real pumped as well, so you wanna be very aggressive and play very hard, but at the same time you don't want to make a bunch of mistakes because you're too over anxious." Hoffman thinks his team is ready for the game, despite their poor effort in the last exhibition game. "We had three very good days of practice here so I think we're optimistic that everything will be in place and ready to go for Friday,"he added. The Bombers coach had the team spend time on play in their end. "Having an effective forecheck is all a mentality, you need to have a tireless work ethic and you got to be mentally prepared to do that shift in and shift out," he noted. "I just didn't think we were ready to do that on Saturday night, but we will be this Friday." One of the things that Hoffman will be paying special attention to is his opponents' offensive weapons. The Ice Wolves have Kris Desjarlais and Dillon Henningson up front, and Hoffman's assuming they will play on the same line. It will be important to keep them in check. "They got a lot of speed up front and an experienced back end," Hoffman says. "I'm sure sure they're gonna pressure us hard in our own end, and try to create turnovers. Our forwards have to work real hard to come back and give our defense some time to pick up the puck and be able to get their head up and make a play." The La Ronge Ice will be visiting Whitney Forum for the second game of the home-and home series. That game starts at 7:30 p.m.
