Watch the video above: Blades back on track
SASKATOON – After grinding out two gutsy wins in a row, the Saskatoon Blades can finally relax a little bit.
“Oh it’s huge for especially the young guys,” said captain Brett Stovin, after practice on Thursday.
“The last two games when the confidence comes back, we have a lot of good players on this team, from the first line to the fourth line.”
Special teams have played a major role in the Blades resurgence. Saskatoon boasts the seventh best power play in the Western Hockey League (WHL), with scoring at 21.9 per cent.
Blades Head Coach and General Manager Bob Woods feels that his players need to remain sharp on special teams in order to remain competitive.
“We don’t have any super stars yet,” said Woods.
“We’re not going to outscore teams five on five most of the nights, so we’re going to depend on that power play to pick us up in that area.”
Another bright spot for the team has been the emergence of defenseman Adam Henry. The Blades acquired Henry from the Thunderbirds on Sept. 29 in a deal that sent 17-year-old blue liner Turner Ottenbreit to Seattle.
The deal is starting to pay dividends for the Blades as Henry has registered four assists his last two games.
“We were pretty young on the back end and we needed to stabilize it back there and have a guy that can quarterback your power play,” said Woods.
“If you want to have a good power play, it usually starts with your quarterback on the back end and Henry fits that role very well.”
Henry arrived in Saskatoon just two and a half weeks ago and already the 19-year-old has noticed a significant change in the maturity level of the Blades’ younger players.
“When I first got here the other team would score a goal and we’d be down in the dumps, and we’d be thinking, uh oh, here we go again,” said Henry.
“But now when the other team scores we even thrive off of it. We know we can come back.”
With a record of 2-6-0, the Blades still have a lot of work to do in order to get back into the mix in the East Division.
The boys in blue have a perfect opportunity to make up some ground in the standings as they’re set to kick off a six-game home stand on Friday night against the Red Deer Rebels on Friday at SaskTel Centre.
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