Jonathon Brodie – Recorder & Times
No rest for the wicked.
That will be the case for the Brockville Braves as they gear up for a February that will see them play 12 games with seven of those on the road. That’s double the amount Brockville played in January.
In comparison, the next most amount of games played by a CCHL team in February is 11 by the Hawkesbury Hawks and Navan Grads. The least amount is eight by the Cornwall Colts and Kemptville 73s.
Previously, Braves coach Jesse Winchester described his team’s calendar next month looking more like a pro schedule than one for junior hockey.
He’s not exactly exaggerating either. The Florida Panthers, a team Winchester played for, is playing 12 games in February.
The bulk of the Braves games in February will take place between Feb. 9 to 27 with 10 matchups played in that 19-day stretch. The Ottawa Senators, another NHL team Winchester suited up for, will play nine games during that same time frame.
“It’s going to be tough just because there is so many games in such a short period of time,” said Winchester. “We haven’t really been tested like that, but we’ve responded well to most of the challenges that we’ve been faced with so far this year and I expect we’ll do the same.”
The first-year Braves coach – to go along with a large group of first-year CCHL players on Brockville’s roster – also believes that February’s schedule resembles one that looks more like a lengthy CCHL playoff run.
“If we can learn from this stretch it will hopefully bode well for lengthy run into the post-season,” Winchester said.
The schedule wasn’t always this difficult for Brockville. It didn’t look like this in September when the season started, but games were postponed due to weather and transportation issues, which forced changes to February with the playoffs right around the corner.
That’s what makes this newlyformed schedule even harder to navigate through. Do the Braves go hard and try to make a final push before playoffs, risking injuries before the post-season? Do they decided to rest some players and risk falling down the standings a bit? Although Brockville’s schedule has changed, there’s at least one thing fans can be sure of and it’s the fact there will be no Braves players sitting in the stands if they’re healthy enough to play.
“They’re young and they’re here to play. It’s a good challenge for them and they have to be challenged. They want to move on and want to be a good team in the league. There’s no easy days and no easy games,” said Winchester. “We’ll deal with it the best we can. We’re going to have to play the same way, our style is not going to change. It’s going to be demanding on them, but if you pay attention and you’re taking care of your body off the ice then they’ll get through it.”
Winchester knows the grind of a schedule that sees you play pretty much every other day. February will be a month where there won’t be a lot of practice time in a bid to keep the team as fresh as possible. The players will also have to take extra care of their bodies by paying more attention to their nutrition, noted Winchester, and, “maybe stay off their late-night video games.”
“I’ve been through that kind of grind as a player not too long ago, so I understand a bit about how to take care of the body and the preparation that goes into being good consistently in a short period of time and I’ll be relaying that message to the fellas,” said Winchester. “The commitment level is going to have to be raised.”
