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D-man looks back on season |
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Written by Dale Woodard
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Thursday, April 09 2009, 10:34 PM |
To quote Led Zeppelin, “Good Times, Bad Times.”
And over the past season the Lethbridge Hurricanes have had their share.
The buzzer sounded on the Hurricanes Western Hockey League season Wednesday night at the Enmax Centre as the team was shown the post-season door courtesy a 6-0 loss to the Hitmen that handed Calgary a 4-0 series sweep and berth into the third round.
But ’Canes captain Ben Wright said he and his teammates left it all on the table, another run to the final or not.
“We battled hard, despite what some people might think,” said Wright. “We worked our butts off all year, it just wasn’t in the chips. But I think we were still successful in winning a series. We went up against a very good Hitmen team. They’re the second-best team in Canada and they didn’t have any weak links. I have to give them credit for the way they played. They were unbeatable.”
Now, fans hoping for a repeat run to the WHL final will have to settle for a 35-32-3-2 finish that earned the ’Canes a seventh-place berth in the Eastern Conference that set the table for a thrilling seven-game series win over the Saskatoon Blades before the sweep at the hands of the Hitmen.
“There has definitely been some good times and some low times in the last season,” said Wright, one of three graduating players from the past season.
“I definitely wasn’t expecting to have as many lows, the same as everybody else in this organization and city.”
With a number of faces from last year’s final run back to start the season, expectations for a repeat performance were high.
“There are always expectations at the start of this year, more this year than others,” said Wright, who tallied five goals and 32 points in 64 games this season. “But I don’t think anybody went into the season saying ‘We have to do this’ or ‘We have to do that.’ Expectations are a good thing. They make you compete harder and keep you honest. I don’t think that played a factor in this year. I don’t think we buckled under the pressure.”
No matter when the season ended, Wright said it’s been a good ride.
“All in all I had a great experience. This definitely wasn’t a disappointing season for the organization. I think we still made strides. Any time you can win a playoff series it’s always a positive.”
But they couldn’t win the second one as the Hitmen sent Lethbridge packing in four games, bringing an end to Wright’s WHL career.
“It definitely hit me cleaning out my locker (Thursday),” said Wright, who joins fellow blueliner and local product Mitch Versteeg and forward Drew Hoff as the three ’Canes graduating players. “It finally hit me that my time here is over. It’s been an unbelievable experience for me. I’ve learned so much from great coaches in Mike Dyck and Matt Kabayama.
“They’ve been unbelieveable to me in my development, not only on the ice, but off the ice as as young man. (I have) life skills I can take away and put forth into everyday life. That’s a lot more important. Especially when you’re dealing with 16- to 20-year-olds.
“It’s the life skills that count more than the on-ice work and I think a lot of people don’t look at that at times. That’s one thing I’ve definitely taken away from this organization and the coaching staff. They’ve been unbelievable for me and I’ve learned a lot from them.”
With his WHL career in the books, Wright is now pondering what’s next.
Judging by the golf club he cradled in his hand Thursday afternoon, one must wonder if a round or two of golf is in Wright’s immediate future.
“I just kind of stole it from the room. They had these prizes from the golf tournament, so I figured I would take one,” said Wright with a grin.
As for his future beyond the summers months, Wright was taking a wait-and-see approach.
“I don’t know what’s next for myself,” he said.
“I’ll probably look at that in the next couple weeks.
“Whether it’s school or pro, we’ll see.”
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