After battling the Raiders during last year's WHL Championship as a member of the Vancouver Giants, forward Brayden Watts has quickly adapted to life in Prince Albert. (Lucas Chudleigh/Apollo Multimedia)

By Trevor Redden

Redden On The Raiders

Redden on the Raiders: Trip an identity builder for young team

Nov 1, 2019 | 10:33 AM

For the first time in almost three weeks, the Prince Albert Raiders will play a game at the Art Hauser Centre tonight.

Since the last home game, an 8-4 victory over Moose Jaw on Oct. 12, the Raiders have travelled over 4,000 kilometres, facing five opponents in the U.S. Division.

After a slow start to the trip with three straight losses, one of them in overtime, the club bounced back with back-to-back wins in Tri-City and Spokane.

For me, the most impressive thing of it all was their soundest victory came in the game that you might expect to be their worst. Playing in their fourth game in five nights, and fifth of the trip, a fatigued Raider team dropped Spokane 4-1 in a stingy effort that provided the Chiefs with very little offensive opportunity through the contest.

“It was unbelievable, and that’s where your leaders come in. [During the second intermission] they were talking about making it their best 20. They wanted a happy bus ride home,” assistant coach Jeff Truitt said during the CKBI postgame show in Spokane.

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“They kept their wits about them, but they also knew that there was a sense of urgency to win. They do not like to lose, I think we learned that early in the season, so credit to everybody for pushing in the right direction.”

As for the whole trip, Truitt viewed it as a productive learning experience, going through some adversity and coming out stronger on the other side.

“I think that we’ve built a little bit more of a firmer identity coming down here, being with each other here for 12 days, and I think we’re coming back knowing that we’re a good team, and I think we’re better off right now than we were when we came down.”

Coming back home, the Raiders will be looking to build on recent success as they welcome the Regina Pats on Friday night in a game that will be the home debut for forward Reece Vitelli.

Vitelli was acquired from the Silvertips just before the U.S. swing, driving himself all the way from Everett to Prince Albert just in time to jump on the Raiders bus to go right back to Everett.

Through five games, Vitelli has made a big impact all over the ice. He’s won over 55 per cent of his faceoffs and has proven to be a reliable presence in all aspects of the game. On the scoresheet, just one assist to show so far but it will take some time to adjust to new teammates and a new system. A week at home to practice and get comfortable will no doubt be beneficial for him.

Watts on the podcast

Thursday morning, 20-year-old forward Brayden Watts sat down with me as the latest guest on CKBI’s Overtime Podcast.

Watts partnered up with Ozzy Wiesblatt for the Raiders Halloween costume skate this week, with the duo going as Pedro and Napoleon from the movie Napoleon Dynamite.

They did a great job.

Unfortunately for Brayden and Ozzy, the powers that be decided that Jakob Brook and Remy Aquilon had the best partner outfit, straight out of the Netflix series Riverdale.

“Me and Ozzy were pretty upset about that, we put a lot of effort into it, but it was fun to get out there. I had never had a Halloween costume skate, so it was fun to get to do that,” Watts said.

The Halloween skate is a Raider tradition, with players and staff gearing up in their best costumes and taking part in a scrimmage featuring non-goaltenders in net (Eric Pearce and Kaiden Guhle this year). While it may be commonplace in Prince Albert, Watts hasn’t seen anything like it in previous stops in Moose Jaw and Vancouver.

“It was really fun seeing the coaches dress up and see their goofy side. I’ve never had anything like that so it’s good to have a nice laugh and hang out with the guys,” Watts said.

Of course, Watts was on the other side of the battle last spring when his Vancouver Giants fell in game seven at the Art Hauser Centre during the 2019 Rogers WHL Championship Series. Playoffs are a breeding ground for bad blood, and Watts didn’t hesitate when asked which Raider was public enemy number one in the Giants locker room.

“Definitely Kells. Every player I talk to that I’ve played against or with do not like that guy on the ice. From what I’ve heard, he’s an awesome guy off the ice, but [the most hated player was] definitely Parker Kelly,” Watts said, before throwing a couple other names in the conversation.

“Brayden Pachal, that duo with him and Hayeser were really hard to play against. They were probably one of the toughest D pairings to play against in the league last year. So definitely those three would’ve been the most hated guys by us.”

As for his transition into the locker room of “the enemy,” Watts admitted some uncertainty coming in, but that was quickly dismissed.

“With all the guys here, I was really nervous about how they were gonna be, but they’re just great guys like any hockey player. I couldn’t be more happy to come to this team this year because of what we went through together last year,” Watts said.

“Even though we weren’t on the same side, we went through (the Championship series) and we kind of share that bond. They give me crap about it every day but we’re just hoping maybe I can get a ring this year.”

Dach-watch comes to an end

This topic isn’t directly related to the Prince Albert Raiders, but it will certainly impact the entire division.

On Wednesday, Raider alumni Jeremy Colliton, now the head coach of the Chicago Blackhawks, announced that 18-year-old forward Kirby Dach would be remaining with the club for the season and would not be returning to the Saskatoon Blades.

Colliton praised the way Dach has been able to adapt to the big leagues in his first few games.

“It’s a hard league. Big boys that play hard against you and you don’t get much for free. The fact that he’s been in, he’s been able to contribute, he’s gone to the net, he’s made a lot of plays, that’s a big feather in his cap and I’m excited about his future,” Colliton said to assembled media on Wednesday.

Meanwhile in Saskatoon, the Blades have been holding their own without Dach, sitting in second place in the East Division with a record of 8-6-1-1. The question now is where does the team go?

If Dach were to come back, many were predicting the Blades to be among the upper echelon in the Eastern Conference, and some considered Saskatoon to be a favourite to win the league, as evidenced by their lofty standing at third in the Kia CHL Top 10 preseason rankings, tops among all WHL teams.

Without Dach, they should still be a playoff team, but at this point haven’t been able to meet the high expectations coming into the year. How they perform in the coming weeks will likely indicate how management decides to approach the remainder of the season in terms of either adding to the roster or shifting the focus to the future.

Allan at World Under-17s

The Raiders will be without defenceman Nolan Allan for the next week as he represents Team Canada Red at the World Under-17 Challenge in Swift Current.

Canada Red fell 7-6 in a shootout to USA during a pre-tournament tune up in Medicine Hat Thursday night. The team will start the round robin Saturday night against Russia back in Swift.

All the best to Nolan against the world’s best!

The week ahead

A busy stretch coming up now as the Raiders have four games on the schedule in the next six days, starting tonight against Regina (7 p.m., CKBI) before heading to Moose Jaw on Saturday (7 p.m., XFM). Early next week it’s a two-game swing through Alberta to face Edmonton on Tuesday (8 p.m., CKBI) in a rematch of last year’s Eastern Conference final, and Calgary on Wednesday (8 p.m., CKBI).

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trevor.redden@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @Trevor_Redden