Raiders goaltender Boston Bilous has been the busiest netminder in the WHL so far this season. Jeff D'Andrea/paNOW Staff

By Trevor Redden

Shreddin' with Redden

Redden on the Raiders: Boston brewin’ up a great start, point production in November, and a big test this weekend

Nov 22, 2019 | 4:04 PM

It’s an early-season heavyweight tilt Friday night as the WHL’s leading team, the Prince Albert Raiders, head to Lethbridge to take on the second-place Hurricanes.

This is the second of four meetings between the two teams, with the Raiders winning the previous match 4-2 at the Art Hauser Centre back on Oct. 11.

At a glance, the Raiders and Hurricanes seem to be very similar with 15 wins each, and a very similar goal differential. The Hurricanes are +31 with 91 goals for and 60 against, the Raiders are +33 with 88 goals for and 55 goals against.

Both teams have premier offensive talents with the Raiders boasting the league’s leading point producer in Aliaksei Protas, while teammates Brayden Watts, Ozzy Wiesblatt, and Spencer Moe all sit in the top 20.

Hurricanes forward Oliver Okuliar leads the league in goals with 17 and sits in sixth in points, while Buffalo Sabres seventh-overall pick Dylan Cozens is tied for fourth in points. Defencemen Alex Cotton and Calen Addison are currently first and third amongst points from defenders respectively.

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Fans in Lethbridge and tuned in from afar should be treated to a great game this evening as the Raiders continue their tour through Alberta, which concludes Saturday night in Medicine Hat against the Tigers.

Busy Boston

Based on his usage so far, you can probably expect Boston Bilous to continue playing a key role this weekend as he leads all WHL goaltenders in minutes played so far. The next closest across the league is Saskatoon’s Nolan Maier, but Bilous has served as guardian of the goal for 82 minutes more than his counterpart.

After playing in just 19 games last year, Bilous has already surpassed that total as Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid has already named Bilous as his starter 20 times this year.

Boston was my guest this week on the Overtime podcast, and it was clear that he isn’t taking this opportunity for granted.

“Trust is earned, and if I’m not doing good we have a really good goalie in Carter [Serhyenko]. I have to earn every start and keep proving myself to Habby and the coaching staff that [they] can play me. It’s a privilege, not a right, so you just have to keep that in mind every start,” Bilous said.

In terms of handling the added workload, he said it’s been an adjustment figuring out when to push himself and when to let his body rest in between games.

“Habby preached an unreal saying last year: you have to do what you need, not what you want, and that’s half the reason we were a championship team because everybody did that,” Bilous said, referencing the work done by all players up and down the lineup to contribute to success.

“Sometimes you might want to go on the ice [for practice] but it’s not the best thing for you, and vice versa. You have to be on top of the food that goes into your body and your sleep. You have to take care of a lot of those little things that you didn’t maybe put a lot of attention on before. I’m having fun with it and trying to do my best, and I love every minute about that.”

What’s in a name?

We also addressed the story behind his unique first name in the podcast, which his parents took a little while to settle on.

“It’s kind of funny, I asked my parents and it’s nothing to do with sports or the city of Boston. I was originally named Carter for a week or two, then my parents just came to the conclusion that I needed a ‘B’ name. My brother’s name is Braxton, my sister’s name is Brooklyn, so they just came up with Boston and that’s it, that’s the end of the story,” Bilous said with a laugh.

It’s understandable that his name wasn’t connected to the Boston sports scene, as at the time of his birth on February 2, 2001, things had been quite bleak. The New England Patriots were yet to win a Super Bowl in their 41-year history, the Red Sox hadn’t won a World Series in 83 years, the Bruins’ Stanley Cup drought was at 29 years and counting, and the Celtics hadn’t won an NBA title since 1986.

One day after Bilous’ first birthday, the Patriots broke a collective 172-year championship drought for the four major sports teams in the area with a victory over St. Louis in Super Bowl XXXVI, and the dam broke. In less than 19 years since then, the city that Boston Bilous was not named after has seen a collective 16 titles, with every team winning at least one.

I’m not saying there’s any correlation, but it’s quite the coincidence.

Red-hot Raiders

Through ten games so far in the month of November, the Raiders have five players performing at or above a point-per-game pace.

Leading the way are Spencer “Mr. Moe-vember” Moe and Aliaksei Protas with 15 points each in 10 games. Close behind is Brayden Watts at 14, Ozzy Wiesblatt with 12, and Evan Herman who has produced nine points in nine games played.

More recently, we’ve also seen some great production from Kaiden Guhle who has scored in three-straight games going into Lethbridge, and Landon Kosior who is riding a three-game assist streak. All three of Guhle’s goals this week were assisted by both Kosior and Herman, with two coming on the power play and Wednesday’s coming just moments after a Rebels penalty expired.

Looking ahead

After the two in Alberta this weekend, the Raiders will head home to conclude a busy month of November with a home-and-home set against the Swift Current Broncos beginning Friday night in Prince Albert.

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Trevor.redden@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @Trevor_Redden