Medicine Hat Cubs forward Gerret Harty sends a pass up ice during the Cubs' final day of training camp Sunday at the Big Marble Go Centre. --NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Medicine Hat Cubs took the first steps of a hopefully lengthy 2023-24 HJHL season over the weekend.
The local junior B club hosted training camp over the weekend, inviting returning players and new prospects to three days of ice times and skill development at the Big Marble Go Centre.
Head coach and general manager Randy Wong was surprised with the group and how quickly they showcased their desire to work.
“Everyone came in with a focus and with an attitude, that we’re going to work hard,” Wong said. “That’s what sets this year apart of the team last year is that the older guys really have taken it upon themselves to show they’re willing to commit and work hard. The camps were really successful because of the energy and the attitudes were really good.”
The Cubs entered camp still licking wounds from a South finals sweep by the eventual champion Okotoks Bisons. In the 2022-23 regular season, Medicine Hat had a 27-8-3 record, sitting in second place of the South Division behind the Bisons, and beat the Cochrane Generals 4-2 in their first round series before ultimately falling to Okotoks for the second straight year.
Wong says there are returning players who arrived to camp and have quickly led the group in work ethic, and have shown a desire to be better.
“The biggest one would have been Gerret Harty, his work ethic has been phenomenal this camp,” Wong said. “Callen Prosofsky and Darnell Glasgo as well, they really are taking the team and they’re the new older guys. So they’ve taken the team on their shoulders and so far early on, they’ve led them the right way.”
With camp in the rear view, the focus for the Cubs shifts to preseason action, which gets underway Sept. 9 and 10 with a home-and-home series against the Strathmore Wheatland Kings. The Cubs head to Strathmore on Sept. 9 and host the Wheatland Kings at the Kinplex on Sept. 10.
A week later and they wrap up their preseason with another home-and-home, taking on the Coaldale Copperheads, hosting Coaldale on Sept. 17 after playing on the road the night before.
Wong says those four games will serve as benchmarks for his team.
“It’s close to home so travel is not too crazy but we get the new guys into those buildings which are tough to play in. Coaldale is a small barn and Strathmore has the big ice so we get a mix of both,” Wong said. “We have lots of vets to put in the lineup, so it’s not like we’re going to have a ton of rookies this year. But certainly, the young guys will come in and they’re going to earn their spots in the camp. They’ve really shown well.”
Until the Cubs’ preseason gets underway, Wong says they’ll take a couple days to recover from the weekend camp before getting back into practice. He added he’ll look to implement their systems and philosophies on the ice earlier this season than he has before.
“We’ll go through systems and with a lot of returning guys, we can afford to start right away and getting our systems into the preseason,” Wong said. “Typically I wouldn’t do it that much but I think I’m going to and we’ll see what that how that plays out. In the long run, I’m hoping we can get the jump on teams and we can be established with our systems early, the guys understand them and we can start practicing on them.
“It’s important to get off to a good start. Get a little sluggish and you get behind a few games and now you’re trying to catch up a bit. So it looks like the guys have the attitude to want to do that.”
The Cubs open the regular season and their 50th year of operation on Sept. 24 at Coaldale.
