That’s the approach coach Bruce Billard is taking when his Port aux Basques Junior Mariners open the 2010 Central West Junior Hockey League campaign against the mighty Cats 7:30 p.m. Saturday night at Joe Byrne Memorial Stadium in Grand Falls-Windsor. The two teams will clash again Sunday 2 p.m. at the Joe.
Billard’s squad, which entered the league one year ago as an expansion franchise, will feature only seven players from last year’s edition so it’s rebuilding time for the coach and the support staff in the gateway town.
A former senior hockey league player with the Mariners, Billard realizes the game has changed over the years and plans on staying the course he took last year when he built the team from scratch in its inaugural season.
“I try to build a team based on speed and skill and I think I’ve done that,” Billard said in a telephone interview Tuesday. “Hockey is not a clutch and grab game anymore it’s built on speed and skill so that’s what I’ve tried to do.”
“I only have seven players back from last year so we’re kind of rebuilding on the fly, but I’m pretty pleased with the way the team is shaping up giving the number of players we lost,” he added.
Heading into a showdown with the defending champions, Billard has no big expectations from his players and he is going to use the weekend series as a measuring stick.
“When you are facing the team that has won, I think, five out of six years, it gives you a good idea what you need to work on throughout the year and where you need to be come playoff time to compete,” he said.
With a lot of new faces in the mix, Billard is looking to some of his experienced players like Josh White and Jon Organ, both of Stephenvlle, to lead the charge for the Junior Mariners this season.
“I expect both of those guys to really lead our team this year on and off the ice, and I expect Russell Hardy to really take a big lead in the defence department,” he said.
This year is a special year for the league with the Veitch Memorial Junior Hockey Championship being hosted by the Junior Mariners in April.
That’s an exciting event that the team will be building towards all season, according to coach Billard.
“We have an absolutely phenomenal fan base, business support is excellent so the community is going to love it, our fans are going to love it and I really think the other teams who end up in the Veitch tournament with us will enjoy it,” he said.
The other two league entries — the Corner Brook Junior Royals and Stephenville Junior Red Wings — will tangle in a two-game set at the Pepsi Centre this weekend to kick off the 2010-11 campaign. They clash tonight 6 p.m. and again Sunday 12:30 at the Pepsi Centre.
