Bacon, eggs, fruit and pancakes, what better way to start your day? Heck, what better way to start the hockey season?
Thursday, the Battlefords North Stars held their annual Kick Off Breakfast at the Civic Centre, which was well attended by sponsors and fans of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League team. After the meal, North Star president Ray Adelman thanked the sponsors and introduced his board members and the coaching staff for the season.
Head coach and general manager Ken Pearson took centre stage and announced the 2010-11 opening day roster and unveiled some surprises as well. Some of those surprises were due to transactions made earlier this week. Despite the North Stars one win in pre-season, the team feels confident the roster unveiled is one that will be a threat in the league.
"Every year you want to win the championship, but we are in a real tough division - anyone can finish from first to fifth quite easily," said Pearson. "Our expectations are that we want to finish the regular season off as strong as we can and as high as we can in the standings and make sure we are ready to go for the playoffs."
Pearson made his final cuts after the team's practice and a trade Wednesday. The trade sent 19-year-old defenceman Dominic Perrault to Estevan for two defenceman. In return the North Stars received Dakota Johnson, 20-year-old defenceman, and 17-year-old defenceman Nathan Zimbaluk. Pearson says Johnson, who was introduced at the breakfast, but not yet able to join the team, is a big physical defenceman with a good shot and a tough guy to play against.
Pearson wasn't done there. He also acquired Cade Kimery from the Humboldt Broncos to help bolster the North Stars' defence and hopefully bring some more experience to the defence core.
With some new faces there will still be a bit of a learning curve for the group, but until then the players hope the natural talent can take over and the chemistry can start to form.
"We are going to have a strong roster, our pre-season didn't really show that, but we were still working out some kinks," said North Stars forward Tony Oak. "Now we are down to our final roster with all the experienced guys we need so I think we are set pretty good,"
There is no question the team will be able to score goals this season and Pearson hopes with the additions on blue-line, the overall team defence will quickly meet his standards.
"You will see a hard working and a high tempo game," said Pearson. "We want to be physical and at the same time use our speed to the best of our capabilities. I think it is going to be an exciting team to watch. We are going to score a lot of goals. There might be some nights we give up a lot of goals too."
For opening night against Kindersley it is guaranteed there will be some new faces since fans watched pre-season over a week ago, especially in net. Two goalies were kept on the official roster, but both will not be dressing Saturday. Graham Hildebrand remains injured, but is skating with the team and is close to being able to play. Kyle Birch is suspended after a fight in pre-season action in Dauphin and will not be back by Saturday. As for what Pearson's plans for goaltending are Saturday he didn't want to tip his hand, but said, "we have a couple of options we are looking at."
The front runners would have to be Garrett Montour and Blair Mahon, the two goalies who played some pre-season action with the North Stars.
On the topic of goaltending, Pearson announced addition of a new goalie coach to the staff. Jody Lehman, who returned to the Battlefords after eight season of playing professionally overseas, brings years of WHL, AHL and ECHL experience and is looking forward to working with the two goalies throughout the season.
The final surprise of the morning for some was the new jerseys and logo. The team's away jerseys were unveiled by Oak and Saturday night the third jersey will be wore for the home opener, another new look.
