The generally sparse crowds this season at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre are understandable in light of the home-side Victoria Royals flailing in the Western Hockey League at 5-22-3. But it also means fans are missing out on some sterling talent this season in the Western Conference. The past three Royals’ opponents, and the one tonight, feature eight players named to the Canadian team for the 2023 world junior championship tournament beginning Boxing Day.
The Royals lost 3-0 in Seattle to the Thunderbirds and Thomas Milic, Nolan Allan, Kevin Korchinski and Reid Schaefer and split on Blanshard Street with the Kamloops Blazers and Logan Stankoven and Caedan Bankier. Victoria beat the Rockets in Kelowna, with Colton Dach already having departed to the national team camp, and will meet Vancouver tonight in the Memorial Centre with Giants captain Zack Ostapchuk also missing because of the national-team duties.
The Royals in October dealt with the Everett Silvertips and blue-liner Olen Zellweger. Of the 11 WHL players named to the Canadian team for the worlds, only prodigy Connor Bedard, who in his lone visit last month sold out the Memorial Centre in a rare busy night at the turnstiles on Blanshard, and Dylan Guenther play in the Eastern Conference.
This year’s Canadian junior team is being described as potentially on a level with the 2005 team of Sidney Crosby, the 2009 team of John Tavares and Victoria’s Jamie Benn, and the 2015 team of Connor McDavid.
“It’s a very deep year and there is so much diversity in this Canadian lineup that they can play so many different ways,” said Royals GM and head coach Dan Price.
He should know. He faces many of those players night after night. Although there is no Ostapchuk tonight, the Giants still have forwards Samuel Honzek and American walk-on revelation Jaden Lipinski from Scottsdale, who were both named to play in the NHL Top Prospects Game next month in their Langley Events Centre home rink. The six-foot-three rookie winger Honzek, who represented his homeland Slovakia in the 2022 world junior championship in Edmonton and leaves Thursday to again play for his nation in the 2023 world juniors in the Maritimes, leads the Giants with 41 points in 30 games. The Giants’ veteran six-foot-three goaltender Jesper Vikman, 20, has played for Sweden in the world junior championship and was drafted in 2020 by the Las Vegas Golden Knights.
Yet, despite a roster sprinkled with talent, the Giants are only 11-14-5. And while the Royals have struggled mightily in recent seasons, they have had the Giants’ number, going 9-3 against Vancouver last season in the cross-strait games. Victoria is 0-1-1 in the first two meetings between the clubs this season.
“These are two teams that play each other a lot. It’s a great rivalry and very physical and both teams are always up for these games and play hard against each other,” said Price.
“Vancouver always has a lot of balance and forechecks well.”
This the first of four meetings between the teams this month, including three consecutive games after Christmas on Dec. 27-28 at the LEC and Dec. 30 at the Memorial Centre.
Meanwhile, when there were seven games remaining before the Christmas break, Price set his team the goal of treating it as a playoff-type series and winning it.
“We are 2-2 in that so-called series and tonight against Vancouver is the swing fifth game as we look to close it out [Friday and Saturday against the Tri-City Americans at the Memorial Centre],” said Price.
The Royals’ are led into the home stretch to the Christmas break by team-leading scorer Jake Poole (16 goals and 28 points in 28 games), who like graduated Bailey Peach last season, is a 20-year-old find out of seemingly nowhere, who has resuscitated his career as an over-ager and blossomed in his final season of junior.
