Healthier days may be ahead for the Raiders
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Overage winger Jayden Hart may make his return to the lineup this Friday in Red Deer having spent the last 11 games recovering from an upper body injury. The power forward’s absence is an indication of the type of season it has been for the Raiders and what makes matters worse is the fact some of the injuries to the Raiders and other Western Hockey League (WHL) teams are preventable.
Hart was hurt while Raiders were playing their fourth game in eight nights. Kris Schmidli, who is nowhere near ready to return, picked up his lower-body injury while playing his seventh game in 13 nights and sixth on the road. Schmidli who was the team’s leading scorer with six goals and nine assists in 12 games following the trade from Kelowna probably won’t be back for another three weeks. The Raiders would have had two-straight weeks with four games recently if not for the postponement of the Regina game due to weather. That included the Sunday afternoon game in Brandon which was scheduled after a Saturday night game at home. The WHL’s new and (not) improved computerized scheduling system also had the Raiders playing an additional two road games following the early December bi-annual trip through the B.C. division which brought the grand total to seven games in 11 nights while wheeling from Prince George to Medicine Hat. In those two extra games the Raiders suffered an overtime loss in Kootenay followed by a fatigue filled 7-4 setback in Medicine Hat the next night. The five-hour trip from Cranbrook had the team arriving in the gas city at about 3:30 a.m. on game day.
These are only the Raider examples. In fact, most teams have at least one horror story related to a schedule derived by technology from a source who is obviously unfamiliar with the geography and travel related challenges of WHL teams. It’s no stretch to suggest they are at least partially to blame for 11 teams with at least three players currently on their injured lists. The Everett Silvertips still have three healing bodies despite the returns of five from their MASH unit, while the Tri City Americans have had to call up four affiliates because seven players are getting daily attention in the trainer’s room. It appears the league is committed to another season of computer scheduling so teams can expect more quirks among their 72-game marathons in 2015-16.
However, there is another partial solution, reducing the schedule to 68 games. In addition to providing invaluable rest and relaxation and reducing wear and tear on the player bodies, it would give teams the opportunity to trim the expenses from two road trips and give them the chance to drop two marginally if not down right unprofitable mid-week games from their schedules. Although, that would help many teams especially those who operate in small markets like Prince Albert, it will never fly. The big-market teams like Calgary and Kelowna make big bucks every game who just happen to be among the power brokers in the WHL and there is no way they are going to sacrifice a single cent.
