The Portland Winterhawks are preparing for the start of the Western Hockey League’s regular season. Portland is in good hands leadership-wise with head coach Mike Johnston stating how they have most of their leadership group back this season.
“You have players that come into the organization at 16 as they mature to 19, 20-year-olds, and they take on more of a prominent role and they take on more of a prominent role off the ice,” Johnston said. “I think we have some really good leaders here, guys that can lead in different ways.”
He said that they have more of an experienced team than they did last year and more of a veteran group.
“So, I always believe that’s a positive in junior hockey,” Johnston said.
A couple of younger players that Johnston said have grown includes Josh Zakreski and Diego Buttazzoni. He said that they started to really play well later in the year. Johnston said that you’d hope when they turn 17 or 18 that they start to take a big step.
“So, those guys who have been in the league for a year or two, like Buttazzoni one, Zakreski two, are both draft eligible this year,” Johnston said.
Going into this season, Johnston touched on two key points that they’ll take from last season.
“One is, we want to be consistent, I thought we were really good in the first half and then the second half we stumbled a little bit when we had long road trips, we had a bunch of games back to back and I just didn’t think our consistency of play was there,” Johnston said. “Then I think the other part of it is that we know how hard this league is, we know how close every game is and the teams in our conference. So I think the guys recognize that they have to be focused and dialed in at all times because this is a tough challenging league and every point matters, so when you get to the standings at the end of the year you can continue to have home ice advantage.”
When it comes to the team’s success this season, Johnston said that he thinks they need to get some defense pairs together early and get some chemistry in those units because it’s important for their special teams.
“We want to ensure that our special teams are at the top of the league, power play and penalty kill, so I think if we do that, then I think we should be pretty good,” Johnston said.
With recruiting and what they look for when they sign players, there are some key off-ice elements that they look for.
“When we’re evaluating players at training camp, we tell them that we still focus on the four core things, skating, skill, compete and hockey sense, those are the most important,” Johnston said.
He said that the hockey sense and compete tend to separate players.
“Then the other part of it is to get to know them as people off the ice, how driven are they, how focused are they, are they good character guys, good teammates, our scouts give us information because they know the players from their areas really well, and we interview them, we talk to them at camp and try to get to know them a little bit,” Johnston said. “If we like what we see on the ice and we like what we see off the ice, then they’re a candidate to be listed.”
The season really gets going at training camp and doesn’t stop until the end of the year. He said that they tell their players that they want to continue to improve.
“We want to add more things to our game as we go along both individually, they improve in parts of the game where they need to and then as a team, we continually improve in areas where we need to be successful and I think this team has a pretty good idea of what it takes to be successful,” Johnston said.
He explained how they’ve been in the last few rounds of the playoffs the last two years.
“Two years ago we were really close to Seattle and they came back in the series against us and then last year, Kamloops overwhelmed us in that second series,” Johnston said. “So, I think gaining playoff experience in tough tight games will really help this year’s team because they can rely on what they learned last year.”
The Winterhawks will open the season against a new team in the US Division in the Wenatchee Wild Friday, Sept. 22, at 7 p.m. But the Wild aren’t a new team in the sense of the talent that Wenatchee has. Johnston touched on how both of them have a significant amount of players who attended pro camps.
“A key thing I think for both teams, probably for all teams in our league entering the start of the season is who you get back from pro camps,” Johnston said. “We know some of their top-end guys quite well. Who’s going to be in that opening day roster will probably determine a lot of that first game.”
He made it clear that the coaching staff has been working hard this summer to have an even better team this season. He said that they’ve taken everything they did last year and kind of examined it over the summer. This includes how they play, how they train and how they do their meetings.
“We’ve touched that up a little bit in areas where we think we could improve,” Johnston said. “So, we’re taking our foundation from last year, adding some things to it and looking at hopefully that being the difference in us making it further in the playoffs,” Johnston said.
He also made it clear that the coaching staff is ready to do their job this season.
“Kyle (Gustafson) and Brian (Pellerin) have specific responsibilities, Brian with the penalty kill and power forwards and Kyle with the defensemen and the power play and then once again, they’ve taken a look at everything they did last year, what that group, the defense or the forwards could do better, what the power play could do,” Johnston said. “I think every year, it’s about really examining what you’ve done it and how you’ve done it and trying to tweak it a little bit to stay current so you have some new things for our players as your enter the season.”
It’s clear that fans have a lot to be excited about this season when it comes to the talent Portland will have as well as the younger players that the fans will be able to see grow.
“You have players that they follow for several years, the prime of their career in the Western League,” Johnston said. “So, that’ll be exciting. We have some new young kids that will be cracking the lineup and I think all fans get excited when they look at the ’07 group and see who’s going to be coming in as the 16-year-olds and who’s going to make an impact and who might be here for four years. So it’s a combination of following players that you’ve seen before, looking at some of the new young talent that’s coming in. Then I think the other part of it is, I would say last year we had some really exciting home games, and they were really close, they were high tempo, really exciting to watch. So, if you’re a fan of the game of hockey, if you’re a fan of the Winterhawks, you’re going to see some exciting games here at Memorial Coliseum.”
After their season opener in Wenatchee on Friday, the Winterhawks head north of the border to Kelowna to take on the Rockets on Saturday with puck drop set for 7:05 p.m. Portland will then travel to Kent, WA to take on the Seattle Thunderbirds at 6:05 p.m. The Winterhawks’ home opener is set for Friday, Oct. 6 when they host the Everett Silvertips at 7 p.m.
Northwest Sports Desk 