KTW reporter Adam Williams is on the road with the Kamloops Storm this weekend as the junior B Kootenay International Junior Hockey League club makes its way through the Kootenays. Keep checking in as Williams chronicles the trip through Castlegar, Fruitvale and Grand Forks.
Friday, Nov. 14, 4 a.m.: I awake with a start and check the clock — 4 a.m. As I climb out of bed and start to dress, I seriously question if I actually want to do this. I don’t think I’ve ever been awake at 4 a.m.
5:01 a.m.: I walk through the doors of the McArthur Island Sport and Event Centre, bleary-eyed and tired. The building stands empty, as does the Storm’s bus outside. I’m among the first to arrive.
Kamloops Storm defenceman Kyle Lohmann gets some shuteye on the floor of the bus as it travels to the Kootenays for the junior B hockey club’s three-game weekend road trip.
5:15 a.m.: Players begin to arrive, looking as tired as I feel. The bus quickly fills, bags and coolers , pillows and blankets fill the seats. Players unroll foamies and climb underneath the seats to go back to sleep. Criss-crossing the floor, stretching out across seats, it’s clear this isn’t new to anyone on the team. Addison Bazian somehow makes a makeshift bed at the back of the bus, sleeping on an overhead ledge above the seats.
Head coach Ed Patterson and assistant coach Kyle Panasuk pull out their laptops to watch movies. Defenceman Kyle Lohmann complains that forward Jon Rivard’s feet stink.
5:21 a.m.: The bus pulls out of the McArthur Island parking lot. Silence quickly falls over the bus as players settle in for the six-hour drive.
6:46 a.m.: The sun rises over Vernon as the bus knifes through the North Okanagan town. Players continue to sleep and even Patterson and Panasuk relent, closing their laptops. The bus smells strange — Rivard’s feet?
7:50 a.m.: We travel uphill behind a lube truck, moving at about 15 km/h. Must remember to ask the driver how he’s so patient. I already want to start playing bumper cars. Lineup of cars behind us appears to be about 15 deep.
8 a.m.: I start watching my second episode of The Sopranos. I bet Tony Soprano would have whacked the lube truck driver by now.
9:46 a.m.: After a few more hours of sleep and movies, winding roads and snow covered ditches, the team bus pulls into Grand Forks.
Players jump of the bus and into a nearby Shell station for washrooms, coffees and snacks. The entire team is up now and the conversation starts.
The Kootenay’s region where the Storm is playing its weekend action. The team will travel to Castlegar, Fruitvale and Grand Forks.
Lohmann and Rivard tease forward Cole Merrick about his shopping habits, calling him a mother crossed with a child when he’s in Walmart. One moment, he’s running around like a kid; the next minute he’s crossing items off a list drawn up on the back of a receipt.
11:20 a.m.: The bus pulls into Red Mountain Resort in the Rossland area of the Kootenays. This is where the team will stay for the weekend.
The chalet-style accommodations aren’t the norm for the Storm, but they’re treated on this weekend. The team unloads the bus and splits up into a number of buildings around the nearly empty resort.
I need to get off this bus. The smell has gotten worse.
Noon: The team comes together in Patterson’s suite for a meal of cereal and muffins. The head coach lays out the schedule for the team’s day as the players eat.
Panasuk reminds the team that while the accommodations are nice, this is not a weekend for relaxing. The Storm are here to get two points tonight, two points tomorrow and two points on Sunday.
The boys sit down for a pre-game meal and to watch footage of the Castlegar Rebels.
As the coaches wrap up their talk, the players settle into the small living room to watch Bad Boys, an ESPN 30 for 30 documentary on Isaiah Thomas’ Detroit Pistons. Players slowly disperse to their own rooms and buildings.
A certain player gets a $20 fine for using the bathroom in the coach’s chalet . . .
12:46 p.m.: Patterson and Panasuk settle in to watch film of a Saturday, Nov. 8 game between the Chase Heat and the Castlegar Rebels — the Rebels’ last game before the Storm.
The coaches discuss their opponent’s power plays, penalty kills, forecheck alignments and line combinations.
They talk about who was good in practice this week and who wasn’t, what they hope to see from certain players this evening and how it will affect them throughout the rest of the road trip.
Then, after nearly a period of watching the Rebels skate, they talk about how to properly match Castlegar. What gets Castlegar on its heels? When is the club dominant? Who can skate with the Rebels’ top line of Bryan Lubin, Jeremy McNeil and Darren Medeiros, a grouping that has 63 points in 22 games?
2:54 p.m.: After an afternoon of napping and relaxing, settling into their accommodations in Rossland, the Storm again converge in Patterson’s condo before embarking on their regular pre-game walk.
On the road, the Kamloops club takes a pre-game walk to clear the cobwebs and get the muscles going. Normally, it happens after the bus ride. Today, it’s after the team has been napping and lounging in their condos.
3:15 p.m.: The club sits down for a pre-game meal and watches the same game footage their coaches viewed earlier. On the menu tonight is pasta with a sausage and vegetable sauce, kale salad and garlic bread.
As the players eat, Patterson and Panasuk draw the players’ attention to intricacies in the way the Rebels play.
4:20 p.m.: The bus departs Rossland to make the 30-minute trip to Castlegar. The bus is mostly quiet on the trip — some players close their eyes, others listen to music. A few talk or share videos on their phones.
The Storm warm up with a soccer ball in Castlegar.
Most just stare blankly out the windows, seemingly preparing themselves for the game, as the bus travels through Rossland’s town centre and Trail to its final destination.
4:54 p.m.: The Storm arrive at the Castlegar Recreation Complex just as the sun sets. The club unloads the bus and each player begins his pre-game ritual.
As the Rebels kick around a soccer ball on one side of the rink to warm up, a few Storm players begin doing the same across the way.
Some have their skates sharpened, tape sticks, wander around the building with coffees and Gatorades. They pass the time in anticipation of a 7 p.m. puck drop.
I wander yet another freezing cold KIJHL rink. It’s nearly as cold inside the building as it is outside.
9:23 p.m.: Ian Chrystal scores top shelf to lift the Storm to a 3-2 victory over the Castlegar Rebels. Felix Larouche had a goal and two assists.
Jason Sandhu made 21 saves on 23 shots.
9:55 p.m.: As the Storm’s bus pulls out of the Castlegar Recreation Complex, the team continues another one of its traditions.
Driver Rob Shmoorkoff honks the bus’s horn once for every goal the team scored as the vehicle pulls past the main door of the arena. The players count out the honks as loud as they can.
9:57 p.m.: The team puts its post-game celebration on pause to sing Happy Birthday to their head coach.
Things I realized in my first day on the road with the Storm, 10:07 p.m.:
The Kamloops Storm defeated the Castlegar Rebels 3-2 in overtime to open their Kootenay road trip.
1. The song American Kids by Kenny Chesney is actually about Californians Lohmann and Rivard (not actually);
2. Buses full of hockey players smell kind of funny (read: bad);
3. Ed Patterson celebrated his 42nd birthday on Friday (Nov. 14) with a victory;
4. Speaking of Patterson, he REALLY likes country music;
5. A bus full of hockey players participating in Movember is a hilarious sight.
Saturday, Nov. 15, 9:01 a.m.: I awake to the sound of my alarm and don’t want to move. After staying up until 2 a.m., listening to the coaches and general manager Barry Dewar talk about the team, it doesn’t feel like much sleep. I think I’m still recovering from the 4 a.m. wake-up call the night before. I don’t know how the players are doing it.
I have 20 minutes before I need to be out the door and head down for breakfast. The kitchen is in a state of chaos. Patterson stands in the kitchen, cooking a ham and sausages in the oven. At the island, players grab at Eggo waffles popping from four double-toasters. There’s little room to walk and players sit and eat everywhere in the suite — on the couches and chairs, at the kitchen table, standing in the living room.
I fill a plate and grab an empty seat on the couch. Players are already filing out of the condo to get ready to board the bus. Morning skate is scheduled to begin at the Beaver Valley Nitehawks’ arena in an hour.
9:30 a.m.: The Storm’s bus pulls out of Red Mountain Resort and again gets on the highway, this time headed for Fruitvale, home of the Nitehawks.
As the trip progresses and the bus nears the small B.C. town, talk turns to the 2013-2014 season, when the Nitehawks defeated the Storm 4-2 in the KIJHL championship final.
It was a different team then, veteran heavy and talented. But there were also some conflicting personalities, bickering amongst teammates and linemates. Panasuk and Patterson both agree, and have said before, that’s not a problem with this year’s edition of the Storm. This is a close team — closer than many of the players have ever experienced before. Chrystal remarked on it last night — this is some of the most fun he has had playing hockey.
10:09 a.m.: The bus pulls into Fruitvale and Shmoorkoff misses the turn for the arena. There’s a back way he can use to get to the rink, he says, and Patterson and Panasuk make sure to tell him he will have to take the same route to the rink for the game that evening. There’s no messing with habits and superstitions for a hockey team.
10:16 a.m.: The club enters the freezing arena and heads to the dressing room. Beaver Valley’s is a small rink, with limited seating and little room to manoeuvre. Again, it’s colder inside than out.
Ryan Keis enters the rink with his bag slung over his shoulder and stops briefly to look at the ice surface.
“I hate this place,” he says.
The Hawk’s Nest, home of the Beaver Valley Nitehawks.
10:35 a.m.: The Storm gather around Panasuk and Patterson in a corner of the rink and talk about the game that night. Panasuk reminds his charges that there’s some unfinished business between the Storm and the Nitehawks — play for the likes of Chrystal, Keys, Felix Larouche and Marc DuMont who lost to this team in the final last year.
11:18 a.m.: As is always the case, Patterson keeps his team on the ice as long as possible. The zamboni driver is looking to get onto the ice to flood before the next group. Players leave the ice and head to the dressing room, play a game of soccer in the parking lot and do a lap around the rink before showering and again boarding the bus for home.
The mood is light. Though a few players started off a little slow at practice, it was a good workout. The team is ready for its evening matchup.
11:35 a.m.: We stop in Waneta at a Tim Hortons, to grab a snack before returning to Red Mountain. The restaurant is clearly unprepared, they run out of pretty much everything.
12:45 p.m.: We leave the Tim Hortons with everyone on board. Yes, it took that long.
1:40 p.m.: The bus pulls up to our accommodations in Rossland. The players head to their rooms, planning a few hours of Netflix or a nap, maybe a hot tub. The team will have its pre-game meeting at 4 p.m.
2:30 p.m.: As Patterson again prepares dinner and Panasuk analyzes game film of the Nitehawks, I decide it’s time for a nap. Like many of the players, all the travel and bus time has me exhausted.
I fall asleep almost as soon as my head hits the pillow.
4 pm: I crawl out of bed and again head downstairs to brave the dinner rush. Most of the players have already eaten.
5 p.m.: The bus departs to again head back to Fruitvale. Players are again in their dress clothes, they sit in their same seats and Shmoorkoff again takes the back route to the Hawk’s Nest.
There’s comfort in the routine.
Tonight, the pre-game music selection, courtesy of goaltender Jason Sandhu, is a combination of rap and dance music.
The bus arrives at the rink 5:40 p.m. Bailey De Palma plays the final song before the team leaves the bus, they sing along.
The song is Taylor Swift’s Shake it Off. Patterson says no one is allowed to leave until the song is done, Panasuk wonders aloud what happened to listening to the likes of Metallica to get pumped up for a game.
But, the song choice is fitting, especially considering a few of the players are hoping to shake off last season’s championship-series defeat to Beaver Valley.
The puck drops at 7:30 p.m.
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