This Wednesday's game against the Yorkton Terriers marks the halfway point of the season for the Power Dodge Estevan Bruins.
At various times this year they've been an offensive juggernaut and a frustrating unit to try to figure out. They've scored at will with the highest amount of goals in the league. The 122 goals they've scoring heading into Wednesday's action has just been one fewer than Melville and Yorkton have scored combined.
After scoring 12 goals last season, Zach Goberis has been a revelation leading the league in scoring and with 25 goals so far through the first 28 games he's on pace for 50. He's scored only six fewer goals than team leading scorer Matt McNeil had all last year. In fact, no one wearing black white and gold in the last seven years has scored at Goberis' pace this season.
But as the season has worn on the defensive systems are getting tighter and tighter. In a very short time they good teams will get better and the teams the Bruins have to beat in order to be the best in the league will be an even more difficult bridge to cross. Nowhere was that more evident than the recent road trip to the Sherwood Division, where an injury depleted Bruins team gave in their all and still lost some very close games.
They only won one of four in a five day stretch. If they were healthy, it's likely a much different story. If it was the playoffs and the season was on the line, maybe players would gut out injuries more than they would if there were healthy bodies waiting behind them for icetime.
But it didn't happen like that. Instead, the team now waits between now and the roster deadline to find out who's going to stay and who's going elsewhere. And a banged up team losing a game is still losing a game.
That's not to say the right mix of players isn't already here. Goberis and and Jake Fletcher and Hayden Guilderson and Kaelan Holt and Michael McChesney – an American who may well be playing for team Canada West at the Junior A Challenge in a few weeks – are stars in this league and any one of those players would be welcomed with open arms on any first line in the SJHL.
Jake Heerspink and Johnny Witzke have played great defence all year and Arthur Miller and Jake Tesarowski have been fantastic since coming in mid-season. TJ Irey and Matthew Chekay are showing great strides as rookies and have stood out in a crowded rookie field with the Bruins' bottom two lines, to the point where they fit in well in the top two lines. And Matt Lukacs has been great at times in the Bruin net.
The great players are here. They click well together and play a brand of river hockey that's been very entertaining so far.
But now the second part of the season isn't so much about how many goals you can score, it's about how many you can prevent. The blocked shots will hurt and in most cases leave a bruise but they'll also get you wins in the playoffs.
It remains to be seen how the Bruins will manage tweaking their systems, but the teams that lead the league in goals infrequently win in the playoffs' later rounds. Flin Flon led the league in goals last season and were swept in the final. Two seasons ago the Battlefords North Stars led the league in goals but it was Melfort that won the SJHL. Flin Flon led the league in scoring in 2014-15 but lost in the first round.
In recent years, there's an abundance of offensive skill that's been left on the outside looking in once the Canalta Cup has been handed out and the winning team is skating around with it. Can the Bruins be the team that bucks that trend?
