KAMLOOPS — The Western Hockey League has released its schedule for the 2018-19 season.
It will see a reduction in the number of games from the 72 game season that had been the standard for more than 40 years, since the 1975-76 season.
A reduction of four games from previous seasons will see the Blazers play 34 at home and 34 away.
Thirty-six games, or just over half the schedule will be against the other four B.C. Division teams.
The Blazers will travel to play all six teams in the Central Division, but none of the Central Division teams will come here.
And this is the alternating season in which the East Division teams travel to B.C. but the Blazers won’t go to Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
Blazers GM Matt Bardsley says reducing the schedule from 72 to 68 games was done for several reasons.
“It seems like four games isn’t a lot, but when you look at it over the course of the season it does allow for a little more practice time for the players,” says Bardsley. “Time with school, time just being at home, time for recovery — and it just makes it all in line with the Ontario Hockey League and the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.” (Both of those leagues play 68 game schedules)
Twenty-four of the Blazers 34 home games will be after the Christmas break, with 21 home games on Friday or Saturday night.
Yesterday Matt Bardsley made his first hire since taking over as General Manager earlier this month —– hiring Serge Lajoie as head coach.
Although Bardsley and Lajoie did’nt know each other before the job interview, Bardsley says Lajoie rose very quickly to the top of the list.
“He brought up a lot of his thoughts, his philosphies — things that really resonated with me that weren’t topics that I brought up.” says Bardsley. “He initiated and were similar to what I believe in on how the game should be played and what we want to do.”
Says Lajoie, “In our conversations from a style of play standpoint, we share a lot of the same vision. What really connected us is our philosophies, core values, how we see this organization —- the environment we need to create to develop these players on and off the ice —- the more I talked to Matt and connected with some people with the organization, everything just seemed to mesh.”
