The Western Hockey League season can be a grind and every team has different ways of injecting some fun into its day-to-day routine.
For the Saskatoon Blades, that meant getting into the Halloween spirit a day early. Instead of their usual practice Tuesday the Blades held a Halloween-themed three-on-three tournament.
The roster was divided into teams of three and each team had to come up with a costume to wear over their hockey gear.
Blades personnel, coaches and even general manager Colin Priestner – dressed as associate coach Ryan Marsh – joined in on the fun.
“We’re on top of these guys every day on every sort of detail known to man in terms of the hockey side of things but these kids are kids and to be honest with you, so is the coaching staff. We’re kids at heart,” head coach Mitch Love said.
Somehow a pair of teams managed to arrive at the rink dressed as prison inmates, leading to some playful banter over who came up with the idea first.
“I think there was some lack in the communication but I think our team was the first jailbirds,” forward Kristian Roykas Marthinsen said.
Defenceman Randen Schmidt, playing for the other team of convicts, added some fake facial hair to give his outfit a unique look.
“The soul patch, we had to do that to distinguish even though (Brandon) Schuldhaus has got a beard to match so it didn’t change much,” he said.
Dressed in army costumes, the coaches’ team of Love, Marsh and Ryan Keller wound up winning the tournament, showing their young charges they still have some game.
“We enjoyed the activity today and were able to find the big three-on-three win as a staff so it was fun,” Love said.