If ever there was a time to work out the kinks this is it.
Just one week removed from the puck dropping on their 12th season in the Alberta Junior Hockey League the Okotoks Junior A Oilers are using exhibition to experiment with their lineup with an emphasis on youth.
“We haven’t really played all of our veterans together yet,” said Oilers third-year defenceman Reece Soukoroff. “We’ve had a really young lineup for most of the games. These kids come out and perform every game and that’s the future for us.
“We’re trying to get as many bodies and as many young guys into games as we can.”
Okotoks opened the pre-season in a 4-2 road triumph over the defending league champion Brooks Bandits and followed it up with a pair of home losses to the Olds Grizzlys on Sept. 4 and 6-2 defeat to the Bandits on Labour Day.
The green-and-gold dressed just five veterans in the loss to Brooks.
“We’re trying to get the jitters out and get into a groove before the season starts,” said prospect forward Zane Kindrachuk.
“It’s different because you get to play with everyone and there isn’t really a foundation, it’s pretty scrambly. You try to keep it simple because you don’t really know what the other guy might be doing so you don’t want to overcomplicate it.
“It’s pretty fun to wear the jersey. Everyone is giving it their all for a spot.”
The Oilers took it to the Bandits for the first eight minutes only to have Brooks’ Tyler Vanuden open the scoring against the run of play. The visitors broke it wide open in a dominant middle frame, scoring four times to vault into a 6-0 lead.
Speedy prospect Michael Horon got Okotoks on the board late on a shorthanded tally. Soukoroff got on the scoreboard after starting the rush and following the play to the net to round out the scoring. “I credit that to our age a little bit,” Soukoroff said of the loss. “The young guys always start with a lot of energy but can wear themselves out in the first period and second period and don’t really know how to cope with that yet, just inexperienced.
“Ultimately, inexperience lost us the game. We played a really good game, pushed back in the third, but the chances didn’t go our way.”
The numbers dictate most of the prospects won’t be making the squad this season, regardless of performance for some.
“They’re young and they’re going to learn and we’ve already been through the process,” Soukoroff said. “It’s just us trying to help them out, trying to make them as comfortable as they can possibly be out there. They want to come back to this organization and want to be a part of what’s to come.
“There are some really good players, not to name names, some of these guys are out here and proving they want to be on this team and outworking guys that some already have a spot on this team. It goes to show their character and what they bring to the table.”
Okotoks completes its pre-season schedule this weekend with a pair of home dates versus regional rivals.
“The main part is just to get our team together and start working on building towards the start of the regular season,” the defenceman added. “We know we’ve got Brooks again on Sept. 15. Come this weekend we’re going to sharpen up our systems, sharpen up our powerplay and start building for the season instead of worrying about getting young guys in the lineup.”
The Oilers take on the Calgary Mustangs on Sept. 8 and battle the Calgary Canucks on Sept. 9. Both games are 7 p.m. starts and will take place at the Scott Seaman Sports Rink in Davisburg.
Okotoks opens its regular season on Sept. 15 in the front end of a home-and-home with Brooks.
“We’ve got a couple games left and if we can not just win, but kind of dominate those games and get on a bit of a roll coming into the regular season where we play Brooks again two times in a row that would be really good for us,” Kindrachuk said.
For more information on the team go to okotoksoilers.com
