Thursday, September 20, 2012

Finals Thoughts of the Bruins Heading Into the Season and Q&A with Calder Neufeld

Hard to believe the new SJHL season has arrived with the Bruins opening up in Melville.

First congratulations to Connor Milligan for being named the Captain of the Bruins and Cole Olson, Calder Neufeld and Tyler Paslawski as the Assistants. All four guys have stepped up as leaders of the Bruins and I know they will all do a great job of representing the Black and Gold.

This is my 5th year with the Bruins and this year's team may have the deepest roster coming out of training camp. The Bruins have a lot of depth and should get some production from all four lines all season. Hudson Morrison will get the first shot of playing with Cole Olson and Calder Neufeld. Morrison is a talented goal scorer and should get plenty of opportunities with his former teammate in AAA Midget (Olson) setting him up.

Up front the player who I think is going to have a breakout season is Matt Brykaliuk. There's no doubt he's the most skilled forward on the team. Playing with Reich and Froese should allow Brykaliuk to have plenty of room down the middle. Brykaliuk has the capabilities of not only setting up Reich and Froese, but should be able to score a lot of goals since he has one of the best wrist shots on the team.

On the blue line I'm really expecting a huge year from Tyler Kauk. After Christmas last year, Kauk really stepped up his game and I believe he will continue his improvement this year. Kauk has all the tools needed to be an elite defenceman, he can hit, he's an excellent skater, he has a hard shot and I think with year of Junior Hockey under his belt his decision making will only get better. I've been really impressed on how Kauk has handled himself off the ice during training camp and there's no doubt he has stepped up to become a leader in the Bruins locker room.

Austin Yano returns as Kauk's partner on the blueline this year. Yano had a solid rookie campaign, showing no trouble making the transition of the jump from going to AAA Midget to SJHL.Like Kauk he's only going to be even better in his second season. As long as he stays healthy Yano should be among the top defenceman in the league for scoring.

Goaltending is the big question mark for the Bruins with the injury with Steven Glass injury. If Glass can return from his injury and pick up from he left off last year then the question mark turns into a strength. Glass has the capabilities of being one of the best goalies in the league. Curtis Martinu will get the chance to be the starter after being picked up from Trenton of the OJHL yesterday. He's a big goal at 6'4" and will get a lot of the action in net with Glass out likely til November.

 The talking is over and now the season is about to begin. You can catch tonight's game on Access 7 beginning at 7:30. At 6:30 you can tune into Locker Talk with me, Cole Olson, and Calder Neufeld.

Speaking of Neufeld I caught up with him as we take a look at tonight's game.



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