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Redden on the Raiders: High-flying Raiders open road trip with a win

Jan 18, 2019 | 4:00 PM

It was a lot of fun having Prince Albert native Allan Bristowe with me on the air in Prince George Wednesday night.

One thing he continued to bring up is how shocked he was at the style of play employed by Marc Habscheid and Jeff Truitt in contrast to their stingy Kelowna teams of the mid-2000s.

When Allan asked Truitt during the postgame show about the changing styles, he said it was all about personnel.

“Back in the Kelowna days, we had a group that played defensively, and we didn’t have a lot of stars. The year that we won the Memorial Cup, Randall Gelech was our top scorer with 49 points. I remember at the tournament, Maxime Talbot who I had at the World Juniors [the future NHLer was then with the Gatineau Olympiques], he came over at the practice rink to chat. He said, ‘your top scorer has 49 points, we’ve got guys with 52 goals.’ And then he gave me a little pat on the back and said see you later. My mindset was ‘can you defend?’ We knew we had a team that could defend, and usually one or two goals did it. That’s how we won, based on that team,” explained Truitt.

“The strength of this team is we’re fast, we’re quick, and you have to coach their style. The game’s evolved an awful lot over the years where speed is at a premium, and you want to make good plays and you want to attack rather than just chip and chase all the time, I think that’s the biggest thing that’s evolved over time. Our coaching style has changed since Kelowna, but I think it’s for the better, we play a good game here.”

What Truitt had to say was similar to comments made by Raiders General Manager Curtis Hunt during this week’s edition of Face Off on CKBI.

“We play with a ton of pace and had you watched Marc Habscheid’s teams when I coached against him in Kelowna, it was very structured and very disciplined defensively, and then you look at us now and we have a hybrid of the ability to change on the fly,” said Hunt.

“We play with a tremendous amount of speed and that ability to adapt and change and conform to today’s game and today’s player has allowed us to see some of the growth we’ve had in the players that we have here in Prince Albert.”

It was interesting chatting with Curtis as I asked him to think back to four years ago when he was hired, joining the existing staff including Marc Habscheid and Dave Manson. Both coaches had been extended for four years, and Hunt’s contract matched that, which gave the hockey operations department an opportunity to take a long-term vision in terms of building the team.

Here they sit in year four with the number one team in junior hockey.

This year’s success is also a testament to Jeff Truitt and Dan Gendur who were able to integrate into the team as smoothly as they have.

As for what lies ahead, Hunt declined to comment at this point on anything contract related for himself and the coaching staff as those deals approach their expiry.

On the road

Both stops have been beautiful facilities so far on the trip. The CN Centre in Prince George is a great setup for hockey and they’ve done an excellent job of celebrating their organization’s tradition. As you walk a lap around the concourse you see former players and NHL alumni everywhere you look. Guys like Dan Hamhuis, Zdeno Chara, Dustin Byfuglien, and former Raider Brendan Guhle have prints up on display for fans to see. I was surprised they had enough wall space to get both Chara and Byfuglien up there.

Here in Kamloops, the Sandman Centre has to be one of the top two or three arenas in the league that I’ve seen so far. With bowl seating all the way around and upper decks hanging right over the ice on both sides, there isn’t a bad view in the building. I’m looking forward to seeing it come alive tonight.

 

trevor.redden@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @Trevor_Redden