It’s official – Pac-Man jerseys back as Blades regular look

Michael Farren, left, and Jantzen Leslie model the Blades Pac-Man uniforms.

    Colin Priestner chuckled it might have been the worst kept secret in Saskatoon sports history.

    Actually, it might have been the most welcomed worst kept secret in Saskatoon sports history.

    For the last few months since the Saskatoon Blades 2016-17 campaign came to a close in March, the team had been using its classic blue and gold Pac-Man logo in its various communications.

    The logo and colours became prominent on the team’s Twitter and Instagram handles as well as its website. The traditional Pac-Man jerseys were used during team press conferences and public appearance functions. The appearance of the Blades dressing room was changed to the full out Pac-Man look.

    The Pac-Man jerseys have been utilized on special occasions and on more of third jersey status in recent years. A call from fans had been out for a lengthy time to bring that look back as the club’s regular look, and the frequent appearance of that style increased hopes the Blades would use that look again on a regular basis.

Leslie Jantzen grins in the Blades blue Pac-Man uniform.

    On Thursday during a press conference, Priestner confirmed the Blades would return to using the blue and gold Pac-Man colour scheme and logo as the club’s regular look

    “The first day we got the team people were emailing bring the Pac-Man back,” said Priestner, who father, Mike, purchased the Blades before the start of the 2013-14 campaign. “We’ve tried to bring the Pac-Man back at times, but there are definitely limitations in lead times in the WHL as to how quickly you can get things done.

    “We didn’t want to make any rash decisions. Everybody that we’ve talked to for years said, ‘Let’s get this back. Let’s bring back a little bit of that Pac-Man swagger.’”

    After Priestner confirmed the Pac-Man look was back, defenceman Jantzen Leslie walked into the media gathering in the team’s dressing room to model the dark uniform in full gear and right-winger Michael Farren arrived to show off the white look to Aerosmith’s “Back in the Saddle.”

    The development drew praise over social media channels with one Regina Pats fan saying on Twitter the Blades Pac-Man jerseys have to be two of the best in hockey history.

    The Pac-Man jersey look is by far the most identifiable one the Blades have ever had. The team sported the blue and gold Pac-Man style as a regular look for 12 seasons from 1982 to 1994.

Michael Farren shows off the Blade white Pac-Man uniform.

    During those 12 campaigns where tie games existed, the Blades posted a 479-353-32 regular season record, had six campaigns with 40-or-more wins, made the WHL playoffs 10 times, advanced to the WHL Eastern Conference championship series five times and fell in Game 7 of the WHL Championship series in 1992 and 1994 to the Kamloops Blazers. The Blazers went on to win the Memorial Cup in both those campaigns.

    They wore the Pac-Man jerseys as the Memorial Cup host team in 1989, where they dropped a heartbreaking 4-3 decision in overtime to the Swift Current Broncos in the event’s championship game. Tim Tisdale scored the overtime winner for the Broncos.

    The Pac-Man was the look worn by Blades legend Wendel Clark, who went on to star with the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs after being selected first overall in the 1985 NHL Entry Draft. It was the look sported by star netminders Tim Cheveldae, who is currently the team’s goaltending coach, and Norm Maracle. Standout defencemen Trent Yawney, Curtis Leschyshyn, Richard Matvichuk and Rhett Warrener all wore this style too.

    High scoring forwards Lane Lambert, Kevin Kaminski and Frank Banham all donned the Pac-Mans. The look had toughness as the Pac-Mans were the uniforms of heavyweights Joey Kocur, Kelly Chase, Tony Twist and the late Wade Belak.

    Blades head coach Dean Brockman, whose team has missed the playoffs for the past four seasons, welcomed the fact the Pac-Mans will be the team’s regular look.

    “I love it,” said Brockman. “I think it is great. There is a lot of history in that logo.

    “It just gives us that fresh air that we needed. No more stale blue. Now we have the royal blue.”

Braylon Shmyr, left, celebrates a goal last season in a classic look.

    With the move back to the Pac-Mans, the Blades have retired the “SB” logo and the double blue colour scheme that was their main look.

    Colin Priestner was well aware fans were fond of the Pac-Man look due to what the team accomplished while wearing it.

    “People have been asking for this,” said Priestner, whose has missed the playoffs for the past four seasons. “They associate these jerseys with better days.

    “I think that is one of the reasons we wanted to have them back was just too really kind of have a visual change. We have had four years of real trouble in terms rebuilding in having to kind of going through what you have to in this league to rebuild.

    “Now I think we are well on our way to being a competitive team every year and a championship team in the future. Plus, they are just really cool jerseys.”

    If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

Confidence will be a battle for Blades

The Saskatoon Blades get tied up in a scrum with the Regina Pats.

    The Saskatoon Blades are expecting more than morale victories.

    On Saturday night in Brandon, the Blades earned a morale victory dropping a 5-3 decision to the host Wheat Kings, who are one of the top teams in the WHL with a 17-8-1-2 mark and have aspirations to contend for a league title. While the Wheaties controlled play in most of that contest, the Blades were able to gain traction during a couple of points to create legitimate hope of pulling out an upset.

    Saskatoon is also in year three under the ownership of Edmonton product Mike Priestner, which also includes being in year three of a massive rebuild after the club hosted the 2013 Memorial Cup tournament under previous owner Jack Brodsky. A blockbuster trade in 2011 that saw the Blades surrender a bunch draft picks to acquire Brayden Schenn from the Wheat Kings for that season’s playoff run also added another obstacle to the current rebuild.

    The retooling saw the club bring in Bob Woods as head coach and general manager at the start of the 2014-15 campaign as well as Dean Brockman as an assistant coach. Woods, who was an assistant coach with the NHL’s Anaheim Ducks, came to the Blades with boatloads of professional experience coaching in the NHL, AHL and East Coast Hockey League. Brockman was the storied head coach and general manager of the Humboldt Broncos of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League.

    The hires were very astute ones.

    With all that in mind, the Blades entered the 2015-16 campaign with hopes of seeing more tangible results in the win column and belief that a playoff berth could be achieved.

    After finishing last in the entire WHL for two straight campaigns, they jumped out to a 9-7-3 start and were comfortably holding a playoff spot.

    While they were 19-49-2-2 a season ago, the Blades work ethic was strong in most outings, and they dropped a number of close contests. The work ethic carried over into the current campaign and the wins were coming. Management, coaches, players and fans had to be excited about what was transpiring.

Brock Hamm has had struggles in goal for the Blades along with his defence.

    Recently, the wheels have fallen off.

    The Blades are 1-8 in their last nine games falling to 10-15-3 to sit four points back of the Edmonton Oil Kings (12-14-3) for the final playoff berth in the WHL’s Eastern Conference.

    The fact the Blades still have a young team surfaced in November, when the grind of the 72-game regular season really starts to sink in causing some to hit the wall. It also almost feels like the stench of the accumulated losses of the past two seasons is rearing its head.

    Last Monday, the Blades sent struggling 18-year-old sophomore netminder Nik Amundrud to the Calgary Hitmen for a sixth round pick in the 2016 WHL Bantam Draft. Amundrud posted a 3-5-1 record, a 4.32 goals against average and a .870 save percentage. The Melfort, Sask., product showed a lot of upside as a rookie and took a step back this season.

    That left 18-year-old sophomore Brock Hamm to be the Blades projected number one netminder. Hamm started the season real strong looking like a top end number one, but he has struggle recently and currently posts a 7-8-2 record, a 3.92 goals against average, a .881 save percentage and one shutout on the campaign.

    In Wednesday’s 5-0 home loss to the Regina Pats, Hamm was beaten early on two deflection goals by the Pats that he had no chance on. He then looked lost trying to stop Regina centre Adam Brooks giving up a third marker at the 16:57 mark of the opening frame. Hamm was pulled after stopping eight-of-11 shots, but you could see in his eyes he was fighting demons in his head.

    Jake Morrissey, an 18-year-old goalie who was added to the Blades from the Drayton Valley Thunder of the Alberta Junior Hockey League last Monday, finished the game.

    The Blades defenceman haven’t been doing their netminders any favours as well. All of the Blades current blue-liners have minus rating in the plus-minus department. They appeared to have no faith in their defensive partners or other teammates against the Pats and would constantly try to pinch to one side of the ice or the other in the defensive zone only to be burned by a scoring chance or goal that came from the spot they vacated.

    The running around is a sign that the confidence in you teammates isn’t there as well as a lack of confidence in what is happening on the ice.

The Regina Pats celebrate their 15th straight win over the Saskatoon Blades.

    Standout offensive defenceman Brycen Martin was the Blades best player on the back end posting three goals, 21 assists and a plus-five rating in 25 games before being dealt to the Everett Silvertips last Monday. Marten and a conditional third round pick in the 2017 WHL Bantam Draft went to Everett in exchange for 16-year-old defenceman Jantzen Leslie, who was a former first round WHL Bantam Draft selection, 16-year-old forward Ryan Anderson and a second round selection in the 2017 WHL Bantam Draft.

    That move will likely help the Blades over the longer term. Leslie played in Saturday’s loss in Brandon. Anderson is playing in the Alberta major midget AAA ranks with Edmonton’s South Side Athletic Club Boston Pizza Athletics posting 15 goals and nine assists in 19 games.

    In the present, the Blades need to find overall confidence. Hamm might have some after making 43 stops in the setback to Brandon. He gave Saskatoon every chance to steal a win.

    Saskatoon’s defenders really have to focus on the basics of just chipping the puck out of their own end and holding their position on either side of the net.

    There is still lots of time to rally back to earn a playoff berth, which currently isn’t that far out of reach. A more prolonged slide makes that task much more difficult.

    If you would like to pass on any comments about this blog post, you can do so by emailing stankssports@gmail.com.