Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Adam Donnelly

WHL TRAINING CAMP

Blazers open camp with optimism ahead of 2021-22 season

Sep 9, 2021 | 4:24 PM

KAMLOOPS — The boys in blue and orange are back at the Sandman Centre for WHL Training Camp — the first since the 2019-2020 season. Even after two-plus decades in the league, Blazers Head Coach and GM Shaun Clouston still gets excited.

“Especially given the fact we’ve missed a lot of things, right? We didn’t have this last year, we waited and waited and waited and didn’t really have an official camp, we just had to pick our official team. We’ve missed a couple of spring camps,” Clouston says. “It’s really exciting to be in the building with some players, getting ready to run some practices and watch some games. It’s awesome.”

The Blazers skew young heading the upcoming campaign, but many of those young players got a taste of the league last year during the pandemic-shortened season.

“We have a lot of returning players,” Clouston says. “We have a lot of players who went through that process together, who were able to figure out a way to be successful, to play hard, play together. So we’re excited about it.”

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For the past two seasons, the Blazers have been the best club in the B.C. Division. However, the pandemic put the kibosh on playoffs in 2019-2020, and last season the team played just 22 games in the ‘Dub’s B.C. bubble. For the players, there’s something to prove.

“Those back-to-back B.C. Division titles, it says a lot about the team,” fourth-year forward Josh Pillar says. “I think it’ll be nice this year to see how far we can go in playoffs, and I think everyone in the room is expecting we’re going to do that — go far.”

“It’s been a long-time coming since we’ve had a full year. I’m excited to get 68 games in, hopefully,” third-year forward Matthew Seminoff says. “Just to be able to play in front of some fans and play different teams around the league. It’s going to be exciting.”

Nineteen-year-old Josh Pillar led the team with 29 points last year. He believes he can be an impact player for the club again this year.

“I hope I can be a good leader. Teach the young guys the ropes, kind of just lead by example,” Pillar says.

Eighteen-year-old Matthew Seminoff is another Blazer who will be counted on for some offence. He sees team speed as a strength that this club can rely upon to win some games.

“Lots of speed. We’ve got a lot of young guys that played last year, a lot of quick guys — I think that was a big strength of ours last year,” Seminoff says. “Just to be able to wear teams down and when it comes to the third period, we’re all over them.”

For the coaching staff, it’s important not to weigh the club down with expectations. If the team works hard, and trusts in the process, Clouston believes there’s an opportunity for success.

“We don’t put a whole lot of expectations on what’s going to happen in the future. We just want to make sure that we’re taking care of the things we can take care of, on a daily basis,” Clouston says. “If we do that, we know we’re going to get better, and we know we’ve got a good group that’s capable of having some level of success. Hopefully, as the year goes on we figure out the things we have to do to have even more success.”