Natives fine-tune lineup in advance of MJHL season
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- Published on Thursday, September 17, 2015
By Eoin Devereux
The Neepawa Banner
The development of the Neepawa Natives from a group of talented individuals into a collective unit continues to make gradual progress.
The MJHL hockey club has played four exhibition games, accumulating one win against three defeats. The victory was an exciting 3-2 shootout victory against the Dauphin Kings, on Saturday, Sept. 12, at the Yellowhead Centre. Other games thus far have included a pair of losses to the Waywayseecappo Wolverines, both by the same 3-1 margin, and a 5-1 defeat on Friday, Sept. 11 in Dauphin to the Kings.
Natives head coach Jim Fuyarchuk said in these first few games, he and assistant coach Dustin Howden have seen improvement game over game from the players. Fuyarchuk said it’s good to see them starting to get comfortable out on the ice.
“First of all, the work ethic overall has been very good in these games so far, which is very important when it comes to putting a team together. That’s been a real positive,” said Fuyarchuk. “At the same time, the guys are still getting used to one another out there on the ice, so that’s something we’re dealing with. There are new players alongside the veterans and it takes a little bit of time for them to find that comfort zone, where they know exactly where their line mates are going to be out there. We’re still getting some growing pains in that aspect. But what’s positive is that we are seeing that awareness gradually improve over every single game.”
With a pair of exhibition games remaining for the Natives, both against the Winkler Flyers, Fuyarchuk stressed that the coaching staff will try and narrow things down, when it comes to line combinations and potential final player cuts.
“We’re going to see what fits best. We’ll do a little experimenting with moving guys around, but really, it’s about establishing our line combinations and getting them set for the season,” noted Fuyarchuk. “As for the final roster, we’re down to some hard decisions. There are 26 players still with us. Ideally, we’d like to get to around 24. From a coaching perspective, these decisions are the most difficult, but that’s good. You want to be in a situation where you have to make hard decisions.”
The final exhibition game at home for the Neepawa Natives is on Friday, Sept. 18, against the Winkler Flyers. The season opener will be on Friday, Sept. 25, as the Natives travel to Dauphin to face the Kings.
