There are two ways you could look at the Estevan Bruins' start to the season.
One, they have points in three of their four games. Two, they have lost three of four games.
Either way, it's been a middling start for the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League club.
A northern road trip this weekend represents the first big test for the Bruins, as they play three games in three nights against some of the toughest teams in the league.
On Friday, they take on the league's biggest surprise in the early going, the La Ronge Ice Wolves. The Wolves boast a 4-0 record and are outscoring teams 17-9 under new head coach Shawn Martin.
Next up are the 2-2 Nipawin Hawks, who will likely contend this year and always seem to give the Bruins trouble.
On Sunday, they head to Humboldt to face the Broncos (3-1). In past years, Humboldt has eaten up a lot of teams playing there on Sunday at the end of a road trip, but we've yet to see what this season's club is made of.
Early-season road trips are also important for team bonding, especially with teams carrying so many players before the Dec. 1 cutdown deadline.
The Bruins were a terrible road team last year, one of several areas that must improve, and that begins this weekend with their first real trip of the season.
Wyatt Garagan returned from injury on Saturday in Yorkton and we could also see Lynnden Pastachak make his season debut this weekend.
They are among a group of younger forwards who will be asked to step up, with the likes of Tanner Froese, Austin Daae and Darcy DeRoose leading offensively through the first four games.
The trade of Taylor Reich to Battlefords on Monday also opens up a little more ice for youngsters looking to make an impact.
Wins have been few and far between, for the most part, for the ECS Elecs since their program began in 2009.
The high water mark so far was 2011, when they won two regular season games and another in the quarter-finals.
They have struggled since then, with Saturday's 14-7 win over the Vanier Vikings marking their first victory since that playoff game against Swift Current two years ago.
It was the first win for second-year head coach Mark Schott and many of the players.
It is also believed to be the program's first ever victory against a Moose Jaw team.
Part of the impact of adding Yorkton and Weyburn, both strong programs, to the Moose Jaw High School Football League is that the Moose Jaw teams don't necessarily dominate the out-of-town teams now.
The kind of excitement after Saturday's win goes a long way toward building a viable long-term program, which means those moments need to happen more than once in a blue moon.
Contact Josh Lewis at 306-634-2654 or [email protected]. So let's get this straight: the Boston Tea Party helped spur a revolution that led to the creation of the U.S. government. The current Tea Party managed to shut down that same government because they don't like the president. Time for a name change, perhaps?
