Tigers set to face off against Blades

By Ryan McCracken on September 29, 2017.

rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com @MHNMcCracken

The Medicine Hat Tigers open their first overnight road trip of the season tonight in Saskatoon against the winless Blades at 7:05 p.m.

The Blades failed to make the playoffs for the fourth straight year last season, but a recent trade for former Vancouver Giants goaltender Ryan Kubic has them looking a little different entering 2017-18.

“I think every night, especially early in the year, you’re competing and you don’t really know what you’re going to get,” saidTigers defenceman David Quenneville, adding simplicity will be the key to success. “I think for us it’s just important we compete every night. I think these two road games are going to be important. We’ve got a lot of young guys who have never really experienced the Dub on the road, so it’s going to be fun.”

Quenneville returned to theTigers from New York Islanders camp last week and says he’s been having fun getting to know the team’s 12 new recruits — a group he believes has some serious potential.

“We had a nice dinner (Wednesday) night together and we were all laughing and joking with the young guys. We’ve got a really good group of young guys, down to earth guys you can communicate with and who are hard-working, honest kids,” said Quenneville. “I think we’ve come a long way from training camp to where we are now.”

As for the veterans, Tigers head coach and general manager Shaun Clouston says goal-scoring enforcer ZachFischer will be a game time decision but is likely to play this weekend after sustaining a concussion at Calgary Flames camp.

“He looked his usual self (in Wednesday’s practice),” saidClouston. “He was doing his baseline test again (Thursday) morning, so again, as long as things keep progressing he should be able to play this weekend.”

Defenceman Kristians Rubins and goaltender Jordan Hollett are still recovering from shoulder surgery and mono, respectively, and will likely return to action next week.

But Quenneville says they’ve been holding their own on the blue line thanks to the addition of Swedish defenceman Linus Nassen. The third round Florida Panthers draft pick was paired up with Quenneville in Saturday’s 4-0 win over the Lethbridge Hurricanes, and Quenneville says it could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

“Linus is a really nice kid. He’s great to be around and it’s nice that we’ve actually gotten in some practices together. We can work on the power play a little bit and continue to slowly build that chemistry that was already there on Saturday. We just need to keep consistent with our habits and the way we played Saturday and I think we’ll be real successful.”

The Tigers (1-1-0-0) hit the road to Prince Albert on Saturday to take on the Raiders (0-2-0-0).

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