NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers forward Andrew Basha guards the puck from an Edmonton Oil Kings' defender in the first period of a 7-4 loss on Dec. 7 at Co-op Place. That contest was Basha's return after missing 10 games due to injury.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Medicine Hat Tigers will look to the second half of the WHL calendar for something they have yet to see this season, a full lineup.
The Tigers have dealt with the injury bug from hell this season, having multiple full-time skaters on the shelf since early October. Forwards Ryder Ritchie, Andrew Basha and defenceman Josh Van Mulligen each suffered week-to-week injuries they’ve returned from with Hayden Harsanyi, Shaeffer Gordon-Carroll and goaltender Harrison Meneghin still expected to need a week or two in the New Year before they’re available.
That still doesn’t include the missing star in Cayden Lindstrom who remains rehabbing with the Columbus Blue Jackets. The expected full lineup on paper that propelled the Tigers atop the CHL’s preseason rankings has yet to hit the ice together, a moment Basha is looking forward to.
“It’s been tough so many injuries and just battling through, but we’ve still done a good job of hanging in there through those injuries,” Basha said. “I’m just excited to hopefully see a full lineup soon.”
The Tigers managed to get themselves atop the Eastern conference at the start of the Holiday break with a 19-14-1 record, sitting a point ahead of the East division leading Saskatoon Blades (17-10-2-2) and second in the Central Calgary Hitmen (17-9-3-1).
It’s a similar position to last year’s Tigers team, sitting atop the Central division heading into the holidays. A spot they slowly lost to the streaking Swift Current Broncos team, who took over and won the division in the last month of the season.
How does this year’s Tigers team avoid that? Beyond the obvious answer of staying healthy and not losing players like Lindstrom or Basha to injury, it comes down to desire to win.
“We have to get there, and maybe we had our bad luck last year,” head coach Willie Desjardins said. “Maybe this year the second half is going to turn around for us. We don’t know, that would be great. If it turns around or not, we still have to find ways to win. I don’t care who we have, we have to find ways to win.”
“Second half is more playoff hockey, it’s harder, everyone is grinding out to the end of the season,” forward Hunter St. Martin said. “We want that Central division banner, we lost it last year. There’s a couple of us learning, we had a great first half last year, but the second half, we just didn’t perform and it carried into the playoffs. So it’s just carrying that momentum, that playoff hockey into the second half and the playoffs and keep it rolling and we’ll be successful.”
One of the Tigers’ overage forwards, Mat Ward, was on the other side of that Central division race with the Broncos. He finds similarities between the two teams and he sees a path for the Tigers to have the same success as Swift Current.
“We had a lot of injuries at the start last year, (Reid) Dyck went out fairly early, (Owen) Pickering was gone for a while and a lot of key guys are out for a while there, too,” Ward said. “You add a guy like (Conor) Geekie, you have a lot more confidence knowing that your team’s really going for it there, too. So that was a big addition for us. And we know guys are coming back for us, so it’s going to be good.”
The Broncos went all in at the 2024 WHL trade deadline, acquiring Tampa Bay Lightning prospect Conor Geekie. This season’s trade deadline is set for Jan. 9 at 6 p.m. MST.
Other teams in the Central division have already thrown their hats into the ring, Calgary acquiring Pittsburgh Penguins forward prospect Tanner Howe and Minnesota Wild defence prospect Kalem Parker. Down the Highway 3, the Lethbridge Hurricanes brought in Winnipeg Jets forward prospect Brayden Yager, 19-year-old goaltender Jackson Unger and Anaheim Ducks defence prospect Vojtech Port, all with championship pedigree with the Moose Jaw Warriors.
Desjardins says the lack of a definite status for Lindstrom’s return and having not seen a full lineup is a challenge.
“All I can say is we want to win. We want to win for our fans, we want to win for the players and we want to win for management,” Desjardins said. “But everybody wants to. So if we can find something that makes sense for us, for sure, we’ll do it.
“If Calgary and Lethbridge load up, they load up. They’re good teams and are going to be hard to play against, they just are. But there’s going to be a lot every year you play, there’s going to be lots of good teams. There’s never a guarantee. You can load up and there’s no guarantees.”
The Tigers second half starts Saturday for the first of a three-in-three, hosting the Hurricanes. They head to Calgary for a matinee on Sunday before hosting the Hitmen on Monday.
It’s three of their remaining 34 games in the 86 days left in the second half that will also see them head to the U.S. division in late January for six games in nine days.
“It’s a really tough schedule, that U.S. trip is going to be hard, we’re going to get challenged,” Desjardins said. “The one good thing about a hard schedule is it makes you play better. If you can get out of a hard schedule without injuries, which would be nice, it’s good for you. So we just have to make sure that we grow and get better.”
The second half of the Tigers’ season also contains a milestone for Desjardins. The winningest coach in franchise history sits at 495 wins entering play Friday. Reaching the 500-win plateau, becoming only the 12th coach in WHL history to do so, isn’t something Desjardins has thought about. He says it’s only been made possible by those around him.
“I’ve been extremely lucky to come to this city, be with this franchise and to coach the players I’ve coached and all the people I’ve worked with, you’re just really lucky when you get that,” Desjardins said. “There’s been good times and there’s been bad times. And it’s nice, but what it really says is all the good people I’ve got to work with. Because you never get anything by yourself, there has to be a really good group around you. So that’s what it means.”
