Newest Tigers fitting right in with team

By JAMES TUBB on January 29, 2022.

The Medicine Hat Tigers have found it easy to welcome four new teammates in the past month.

Brendan Lee and Pasha Bocharov joined the Tigers in the Dec. 28 trade the same day Carter Chorney was signed by the club. Logan Barlage donned the orange and black after the WHL’s Jan. 17 trade deadline. All four have said they’ve felt welcomed by the Tigers organization and felt they fit in immediately.

“Everyone’s been awesome, the coaches, the players, everyone – I’ve loved it here so far,” Lee said.

“Really welcoming, like right off the bat first day, you could tell that it’s a really good group and a really good group of guys who did a really good job in taking me in and whoever else,” Bocharov said.

Tigers head coach and general manager Willie Desjardins said bringing in good character guys made welcoming new players easier.

“I think we are lucky we got some really good character players, and you don’t always get that and that’s the scary part of trading because you don’t know,” Desjardins said. “But I think we got lucky this time, we got some really good character guys. As far as coming into the group, I think our guys, they want anyone in there that’s going to help us so we’re certainly open to it and receptive to the guys coming in.”

Tigers captain Daniel Baker reflected Desjardins and said they got lucky to get three great people in trades, and they’ve been their hardest-working guys. The player Baker omitted is Chorney, someone he’s been good friends with having played spring hockey together since they were 10.

“(Chorney) is a guy who every night will battle for us and he’s a good buddy of mine so it’s good to have him in the locker room,” Baker said. “We live together so it’s been pretty fun.”

Tabbies forward Owen MacNeil also knew Chorney before he donned the orange and black, having played together with the Spokane Chiefs in 2018-19. He said the relationship with the new guys was a pretty easy transition. He added they’ve become close by getting together away from the rink and spending hours together at Co-op Place.

“We are a pretty close group, going out for dinner, stuff like that, playing video games,” MacNeil said. “We have long days at the rink so I think you get to know guys pretty quickly.”

The Tigers play has also brought them closer as the team rebounded from a tough 9-2 loss to the Saskatoon Blades last Friday to win 6-4 Saturday night against the Prince Albert Raiders.

Medicine Hat’s rematch with Saskatoon on Tuesday was postponed as the Blades couldn’t assemble a full roster due to COVID-19. The Tigers will have had an extended week off before this weekend’s home series against the Calgary Hitmen on Saturday and Red Deer Rebels on Sunday.

The Tabbies will be without leading scorer Tyler MacKenzie for the weekend as he left last Saturday’s contest with an upper body injury. Desjardins said he is still being evaluated and is listed as day-to-day.

The Tigers worked hard this week at practice, Desjardins said, but had a little bit of fun gearing up for the weekend.

“It’s important that whatever you do that you enjoy doing it and it’s a lot easier to be good at it if you enjoy it,” Desjardins said. “For us I think we want to make sure we find enjoyment at the rink and at the same time keep improving.”

Saturday’s contest against the Hitmen gets underway at 7 p.m. with Sunday’s battle against Red Deer starting at 6 p.m., both at Co-op Place.