The November schedule has been extremely busy. Pretty much every week is a three-game week. I love playing games so I’m not complaining. Games are the fun part where you just get to play.
Practice is where the hard work and sweat happen. All in all, any day at the rink, whether it’s practice or a game is a good day. As many of you loyal Vees fans know, we are off to a great start. Right now we are leading the Interior Division and the whole BCHL. It’s a good start that we are proud of, but championships aren’t won in November. There is still plenty of work to be done.
Lately there have been some personnel changes in the locker room. Trades; players coming and going happen at this level. It’s never fun or easy to watch teammates leave but it happens. In the past week we’ve added two veteran players who decided to leave the Western Hockey League to become Vees. In those two players we’ve added Dakota Conroy and Connor Chartier. Dakota had played in the Western league since he was 16 and played in a few places. He most recently played for the Prince Albert Raiders. Connor played for the Spokane Chiefs before joining us. Both are in their last year of eligibility for junior hockey and have joined our team hoping to win a championship.
A common question that I’ve been asked numerous times this year, “Why the number change? Why 91?” Last year I wore number 26. That was the first number I wore in my junior hockey career back when I was 16-years-old playing with the Muskegon Lumberjacks. Before that, I wore 91 when I played in California. I chose 91 because I thought it was a cool number and it wasn’t a common one at the time. When I was originally asked what number I wanted to wear before my first year with the Vees, I wasn’t aware you could wear high numbers. On the previous junior team I played on, you weren’t allowed to wear high numbers; they had to be low. Therefore I just assumed it was the same. By the time I realized I could wear a high number, it was too late and I had to stay with 26. This year I figured I would change it up and go back to what I’ve worn before.