Remarkable season breathes new life into Blades

The Blades give a final salute to the SaskTel Centre crowd on Sunday.

    Apathy had to be the biggest concern for the Saskatoon Blades at the start of their recently completed season.

    Way back on Sept. 20, 2018, I typed a column that said the Blades would make the WHL playoffs in 2018-19. I said I had a gut feeling the Blades would have a playoff spot locked up when March 2019 begins. You can even check that piece out by clicking right here.

    Having missed the playoffs for five straight seasons, I was expecting followers of the team to be so jaded they would fall down with laughter.

    Instead, that prediction was greeted mostly with silence, which might have been a more scary reaction. The playoff drought that included two heartbreaking near misses in 2016-17 and 2017-18 seemed to quell most enthusiasm for the team.

    It seemed people were waiting for the tangible result of a post-season playoff berth before showing any interest in the squad.

Kirby Dach is one of the Blades biggest stars.

    In 2017-18, the Blades posted a 35-33-3-1 record to fall three points shy of the Prince Albert Raiders (32-27-9-4) for the second and final wildcard berth in the WHL’s Eastern Conference.

Saskatoon had the seventh most points in the 12-team Eastern Conference, which meant two teams with records worse than the ones the Blades had made the post-season.

    I thought the nucleus was in place for the team to make a leap upwards in the standings. The Blades made a bigger leap than I had imagined.

    Fast forward to this past Sunday at the SaskTel Centre, the Blades were eliminated from the post season dropping a 6-3 decision to their archrivals, the Raiders, in Game 6 of a WHL Eastern Conference semifinal series before 10,521 spectators.

    Following the contest, the Blades received a salute from the crowd including a nod of respect from most of the large contingent of Raiders followers.

    Along the way the Blades finished fourth overall in the WHL’s regular season standings with a 45-15-8 record to qualify for the post-season for the first time since 2013, while picking up honourable mention status in the final CHL Top 10 rankings. They officially locked up a playoff berth on Feb. 23 with a 4-3 win after a tiebreaking shootout over the Kootenay Ice at the SaskTel Centre.

Nolan Maier ensured the Blades had solid play between the pipes.

    They swept the Moose Jaw Warriors, who were seventh overall in the WHL at 40-20-6-2, in the first round of the playoffs.

    The Blades bowed out to a Raiders team that topped the WHL standings at 54-10-2-2 and were rated second in the final CHL Top 10 rankings.

    How crazy was this Blades season?

    Last Oct. 25, the Blades acquired a left-winger named Gary Haden, who was in his 19-year-old season, in a trade with the Medicine Hat Tigers in exchange for forward Logan Christensen, who was also in his 19-year-old season. The deal at the time didn’t raise too many eyebrows as both had relatively average major junior careers to that point in time.

    Haden went on to become “Uncle” Gary in Saskatoon posting 30 goals, 32 assists and a plus-23 rating in 55 regular season games with the Blades. In his first nine games of the campaign with the Tigers, Haden posted one goal, two assists and was a minus-four.

    The Airdrie, Alta., product became a fan favourite and one of the Blades most well-known players.

Emil Malysjev made huge strides in his rookie season with the Blades.

    The “Uncle” Gary moniker was coined by Blades manager of communications and community relations Tyler Wawryk, who often comes up with nicknames or catch phrases to associate with Blades players.

    Alanna Priestner, who is the wife of Blades general manager Colin Priestner, helped use those nicknames and catch phrases to create novelty T-shirts for six of the team’s players in Haden, Kyle Crnkovic, Kirby Dach, Max Gerlach, Riley McKay and Nolan Maier. The T-shirts became hot sellers and in the process that inventive move helped make them more household names in the city.

    The Blades had the skill on the ice to back everything up. On Monday, it was announced that three Blades members cracked NHL Central Scouting’s final rankings.

    Dach, who stands 6-foot-4 and weighs 195 pounds, was rated third among North American skaters. The skilled centre finished third in team scoring recording 25 goals, 48 assists and a plus-15 rating in 62 regular season games.

Chase Wouters provided the Blades with stellar leadership as captain.

    Swedish import defenceman Emil Malysjev, who stands 6-foot-3 and weighs 187 pounds, cracked in at the 192^nd spot among North American skaters. He recorded three goals, 14 assists and a plus-13 rating in 63 regular season games with the Blades and made great strides improving in his rookie WHL campaign.

    Maier, who stands 6-feet and weighs 173 pounds, was rated 22^nd among North American goaltenders. He posted a 36-10-6 record, a 2.64 goals against average, a .910 save percentage and four shutouts in 53 regular season games.

    The Yorkton, Sask., product was invited to join Canada’s men’s team for the under-18 worlds that start Thursday and run through to April 28 in Ornskoldsvik and Umea, Sweden.

    Dach, Malysjev and Maier will all be entering their respective 18-year-old campaigns next season.

“Uncle” Gary Haden became a fan favourite with the Blades.

    The Blades had a great overage crew. Offensive-defenceman Dawson Davidson was the team’s leading scorer recording 13 goals and 62 assists for 75 points. He posted a plus-27 rating appearing in all of the Blades 68 regular season games.

    Right-winger Max Gerlach was second in team scoring with 42 goals, 32 assists for 74 points. He was a plus-seven appearing in all of the Blades 68 regular season games.

    Defenceman Brandon Schuldhaus showed he was the ultimate pro. Acquired in a trade last Oct. 2 with the Moose Jaw Warriors, Schuldhaus appeared in 61 regular season games with the Blades posting eight goals, 23 assists and a plus-15 rating.

    Chase Wouters became the team’s charismatic captain, and he has two more years of eligibility remaining. He got the playoffs started in style scoring the overtime winner to give the Blades a 3-2 victory over the Warriors in Game 1 of their first round series at the SaskTel Centre.

The Blades celebrate a goal from Ryan Hughes (#53).

    McKay became a fan favourite for his feisty style of play. While he topped the WHL with 149 penalty minutes, he showed an offensive touch putting up 12 goals and 17 assists appearing in all of the Blades 68 regular season games.

    Ryan Hughes proved to be a slick right-winger acquired in a Jan. 10 trade with the Portland Winterhawks. In 61 regular season games split between the Winterhawks and Blades, Hughes recorded 30 goals, 39 assists and a plus-13 rating.

    Defenceman Nolan Kneen was another astute acquisition arriving from the Kamloops Blades last Nov. 26. In 55 regular season games split between the Blazers and Blades, Kneen posted six goals, 39 assists and a plus-24 rating.

    Colin Priestner and his staff have to be given huge credit for assembling the Blades roster. During the season, Priestner added seven players via that trade route that bolstered the defence and created more depth on the forward lines.

    Out of all the Blades staffers, Priestner had to have felt the biggest sense of relief that this season came to pass. The same likely goes for his father, Mike, who bought the team before the start of the 2013-14 campaign. 

    The reward finally came from all the rebuilding that took place in the previous five non-playoff years.

Kyle Crnkovic turned heads with his play as a rookie.

    Priestner’s biggest hire might have been bringing Mitch Love on board as head coach last May.

    Love joined the Blades after spending the previous season as an assistant coach and assistant to the general manager of the Everett Silvertips. He was on the Silvertips staff for a total of seven seasons.

    It seemed there were few veteran staffers from other WHL teams that tried to test the youthful duo on the gamesmanship front noting Priestner is 35-year-old and Love is 34-years-old. Both showed they have some veteran savvy on that front.

    The rest of the Blades coaching staff played a key role in the team’s results this season. Associate coach Ryan Marsh played a huge part in shaping the club’s play on the ice. Returning assistant coaches Ryan Keller and Jerome Engele and returning goalie coach Tim Cheveldae all added their positive influences.

The fans poured into the SaskTel Centre in big numbers in the playoffs.

    That trio is popular in the Blades dressing room and seems to keep cementing spots as lifers on the team.

    Off the ice, the Blades worked a big group game getting into the community with various events.

All the hard work finally paid off with more people arriving at the SaskTel Centre. For the longest time, it appeared the Blades would have their worst average attendance since posting a franchise worst record of seven wins, 52 losses, 11 ties and two overtime setbacks in 2003-04.

    A surge at the gates in late regular season games helped the Blades avoid that distinction as they drew an average of 3,911 spectators for their 34 home regular season dates. That was a slight improvement from the average attendance of 3,851 spectators per game the club drew for 36 home dates in 2017-18.

HC Mitch Love and his staff have given great guidance to the players.

    In their five home dates in the 2019 playoffs, the Blades averaged 7,428 spectators per game concluding with the massive 10,521 spectators that came out for Sunday’s game.

    In Saskatoon, the Blades have been rejuvenated.

    Of course, the composition of the Blades roster next season will have a different composition than this past season. The team leadership has to remind fans that every season writes its own story.

    There will be times that factors out of team’s control like injuries can derail a season.

    At the moment, all the excitement with the Blades feels new again. The team brought back its traditional blue and gold Pac-Man look before the start of the 2017-18 campaign believing these good times were around the corner.

The Blades gained new life in a big way in 2018-19.

    Going forward, you can be sure everyone on the Blades staff will do their best to try and make what happened this season become a habit and maybe get the team to hit heights it has never see before.

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

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