With Canada Day out of the way, sports fans can once again focus on what’s truly important to the nation: hockey.
The Canmore Eagles unveiled their 2012-2013 schedule, which will include 19 weekend home games. Their home opener is scheduled for Friday, Sept. 14 against the AJHL’s newest team, the Whitecourt Wolverines, formally the St. Albert Steel. They follow that match with a Saturday night game against the Spruce Grove Saints on Sept. 15.
Training camp opens on Aug. 23 and the team needs to improve on last year’s 3-17 start, which essentially sunk the team’s season.
“Of our 29 home games this year, we will have 19 of them on the weekend, which makes it a lot easier for our fans to come to the rink,” said head coach and general manager Andrew Milne.
“We got off to a very poor start last season, winning just three games in our first 20, so our players better come to camp fully prepared to start the season as an extremely hungry hockey club,” Milne said.
That puts added emphasis on the team’s four exhibition games, which begin on Aug. 28 in Canmore against the Mustangs.
“We’ll be treating these four exhibition games very seriously and hopefully that will help us get off to a much better start this season,” Milne said.
Most of last year’s club is eligible to return, however, Milne said competition will be fierce for jobs. The team has busily signed several young players over the spring, and with a core of local players they hope to get back into the AJHL playoffs.
While last year’s star Luke Philp has moved on to the WHL, other born-and-raised local players such as Simon Philp, Luke Simpson, John Stevens and Jeremy Gordon will be called upon to step up.
The Eagles also end the season with five of their final six games at home, which could come in handy for the playoff race. However, this advantage is counter-balanced with three occasions where the team will play three games in three nights. The first triple threat is on Oct. 19-21 where the Eagles face off against Bonnyville, Lloydminster and Drumheller.
They have another triple header on Nov. 16-18 and again on Dec. 14-16. That trio of games against Camrose, Spruce Grove and Sherwood Park will be the team’s annual fan bus trip.
The season wraps up on March 1, 2013.
