NEWS FILE PHOTO
Medicine Hat Tigers forward Ethan Neutens watches warmups on the bench alongside the Junior Tigers ahead of a 5-0 win at Co-op Place over the Portland Winterhawks on Oct. 11.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
It’s been a long road coming for Ethan Neutens.
The 20-year-old Medicine Hat Tigers forward made his season debut Friday night in the fourth game of the Tabbies’ six-game B.C. division trip. The Cochrane product missed all of the preseason and the first 12 games of the regular season due to a lower-body injury suffered in practice.
Neutens spoke with the News after a skate on Oct. 9, ahead of the B.C. trip and before he was cleared to return to the lineup.
“It’s good to get back on the ice and feel like you’re at this again.,” Neutens said. “I’m kind of taking it pretty slow here, just making sure, I don’t want to re-injure myself or anything like that. But I feel good on the ice.”
He says it had been hard to watch from the sidelines, especially missing the start of his overage season in the WHL. He’s taken it on himself to make sure everyone is ready to go for games.
“I love our group, I just want to be out there and have as much energy as possible and win games with these guys but it’s tough sitting out,” Neutens said. “I just use it as motivation to get back and harder.
“I think I have a presence in the room and I don’t take that for granted. So I try and fire all the guys up as much as I can and give them positive motivation, and get out there and make them feel like that.”
That cheer-captain like approach is something Neutens says he learned from older players earlier in his career who picked up the players around them. He joined the Tigers via trade last season from the Kelowna Rockets, who they will face on Saturday in the penultimate game of the B.C. Division trip.
In 47 regular season games last season, Neutens had four goals and 10 points in 47 games. He added two goals and five points in 18 playoff games en route to the Tigers’ sixth championship. He scored in Game 1 of both the Eastern Conference Championship series and the Championship series, also finding twine in the Tigers’ 3-1 round-robin win over the London Knights at the Memorial Cup.
He’s liked what he saw from the team to start the year, speaking when they had a 5-1 record. They’ve gone 3-3 since then. Neutens sees similarities between the championship group last year and the team this season.
“There’s a different composition of the team given the personnel, but I think the guys are just as tight and they all want to be here, and they all want to work,” Neutens said. “So I just love that.”
He’s also enjoying his second stint in the city of Medicine Hat. He says he’s been around the team and made his way around the city as much as he can, just soaking in all of the different experiences.
“Being around the rink and the city is obviously great,” Neutens said. “Even when I’m injured, I don’t have to be here all day, but I do my best to show up early not because I have to, because I want to, because I love it.”
The Tigers face Kelowna on Saturday in a 7:05 p.m. MST contest and finish the road trip on Monday against the WHL’s newest club, the Penticton Vees. That game gets underway at 7:30 p.m. MST. All games are available to stream for free on Victory+.
