Salmon Arm, B.C. — The Salmon Arm Silverbacks will play their first game in nearly two weeks this evening, as they hit the road to face the West Kelowna Warriors at Royal LePage Place.
The Backs have only played two contests so far in the Okanagan Cup, losing both games to the Penticton Vees, who are now 5-0. The Warriors enter action with a 2-1-1 record and are coming off a 3-2 shootout loss to the Vees last Saturday.
Tonight’s game has a 7 p.m. puck drop.
3 Things of Note
1) FOCUS IS ON THE PROCESS; NOT THE RESULT
While Salmon Arm dropped their first two games of the Okanagan Cup by scores of 7-0 and 8-2, those results have long been in the rearview mirror.
The Backs have had almost two weeks of practice to go over their structure: both in the defensive zone and offensive zone, and on special teams. With an extended training camp and 16 new players on the roster (plus a younger team overall), things will take time and there isn’t any point in dwelling on the first two games.
“I think everybody wants to look at the result, but we’ve got to obviously fix the process that got us to that result,” Silverbacks head coach Tyler Shattock said. “We’re more worried about where we’re going than where we’ve been. We’ve been working on the process here. That’s our main focus.”
2) SPECIAL TEAMS
Salmon Arm went 0-for-7 on the power play in their first weekend of action, while the penalty kill was just 60 per cent (3-for-5). The Warriors also had a tough go with special teams, going 0-for-7 last Friday (1-for-9 both games combined) and then allowing two power play goals on Saturday (7-for-9 overall).
With more practice time under their belt, this is an area that should be improved for the Backs.
3) WEST KELOWNA FORWARD GROUP
The Warriors are a much different team than last season on paper.
They have 11 new forwards this season, including 20-year-old college players Matthew Stienburg and Wyllum Deveaux, who joined the team with their NCAA seasons on hold (Cornell University and Harvard University, respectively). But they also picked up younger guys like Marcus Joughin, Connor Joyce and Felix Trudeau, each of whom have NCAA scholarships, and most important of all, rookie sensation John Evans returns, who put up 50 points in 57 games last season as a 17-year-old.
“They’ve got a pretty good forward group. Pretty high octane offensively,” Shattock said. “I think we obviously have to get on their back end. There are some younger guys back there, obviously pretty skilled — they like to move the puck and get up the ice fast and transition fast, so we’ve got to be ready to defend hard. We’ve also got to play a puck possession game where we’re not allowing them to attack on us all day long.”
Players to Watch
SILVERBACKS: NOAH SERDACHNY
The rookie forward had a primary assist on Simon Tassy’s goal versus the Penticton Vees on Sept. 26 and also had a few good chances in Friday’s contest.
Just 17, Serdachny put up big offensive numbers playing for the RINK Hockey Academy in Winnipeg last season, with 60 points (18 goals, 42 assists) in just 36 games. He is one of just three 2003-born players on the Silverbacks roster.
WARRIORS: CHARLES-ALEXIS LEGAULT
A new recruit, Legault is a 6-foot-3, 200 lb. right-shot defenceman who is also just 17 years old. Committed to Boston University, Legault tallied two assists last weekend in two games against the Vees. He’s aggressive and likes to join the rush.
Legault spent last season as the captain of the Lac St.-Louis Lions in the Quebec Midget AAA Hockey League where he recorded 28 points in 29 games.
Tune In
There are lots of ways to tune in this weekend’s games.
As always, all games will be streamed live on HockeyTV. Both tonight and tomorrow’s game will also be on Shaw Spotlight, which is channel 299 on Shaw Direct or channel 105 on Shaw Spotlight Local. There will also be a FREE radio stream available at https://mixlr.com/sa-silverbacks.
