By Glen Erickson /
During a chat with general manager Dallas Thompson prior to the annual December break in the WHL schedule, it was suggested to him that the Cougars might be experiencing a little déjà vu.
All over again.
Last year about this time, veteran forward Dana Tyrell was injured at the 2009 World Junior Championship in a pre-tournament game against Sweden. The resulting knee injury ended Tyrell’s season and effectively, his productive WHL career in Prince George.
On Dec. 5, Cougars’ forward Brett Connolly left the tilt at the Interior Savings Centre in Kamloops, a 3-2 Blazers victory, after re-aggravating a hip injury suffered back in August. The WHL’s top prospect for the upcoming NHL Draft has played in only 12 regular season games this season while battling the recurring hip problems.
“Well, yeah,” Thompson said, with a hint of frustration. “We don’t want to go through
that again.”
The highly-touted Connolly has apparently tweaked the other hip as well, in addition to the side that he originally injured. Over the course of the Christmas break, Connolly and the Cougars will find themselves in “wait-and-see” mode.
On the positive side, Thompson discussed the play of his youngsters, a group he believes has played well. And while it is no secret that teams do not win consistently in the WHL with 16- and 17-year-olds being their best players, he is pleased with the results so far regarding the organization’s commitment to build through the WHL Bantam Draft.
“If your older guys aren’t your best guys every night, it makes for some very long nights,” he said. “But it is very encouraging to see Brock Hirsche, Taylor Makin, Nick Buonassisi and Daniel Gibb developing. And then you throw in Jesse Forsberg who has just been phenomenal for us this season.
“We committed to the young guys. Our draft of 1990-born players was terrible and from the 1991s, we only have Art Bidlevskii. It hurts when the guys you draft either don’t turn out, or they do with other teams. We really focused on our 1992s; we have five on the team now from that draft. We have our top five 1993s signed and our top three 1994s. We’re building within right now but it takes a little time.”
Notes
Defenceman Jesse Forsberg will play for Team West at the World U-17 Challenge in Timmons. Ont. The event runs through Jan. 4…Marek Viedensky will play for the Czech Republic at the WJC in Saskatchewan. The tournament runs through Jan. 5…The Cats entered their final weekend doubleheader of 2009 against Kamloops with a 6-25-1-1 record through 33 games…Five of the Cats next seven games are against the Blazers, four at the CN Centre and one in Kamloops. |