Here’s a bit of a twist for a Victoria Royals regular-season home opener. The visitors won’t be the Vancouver Giants.
The Royals will start the home portion of the 2014-15 Western Hockey League campaign Sept. 26 against the Kamloops Blazers.
Victoria’s previous three home openers, in which they have gone 2-1, have all been against the Giants.
The home openers for some WHL clubs have been announced. The Royals will be involved in at least one of those before their own curtain-raiser — at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver on Sept. 20 against their old nemesis the Giants.
Not all teams have released their home openers so it’s not known if Victoria has other games before Sept. 20 in Vancouver or its own home opener Sept. 26 against the Blazers. The full WHL schedule will be released next week.
Royals GM Cam Hope said he expects to see an improved Kamloops team at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre for his club’s opening home date.
Victoria went 7-1 against a Blazers club that missed the playoffs last season but which in the off-season hired Don Hay as head coach. Hay, most recently with the Giants, guided the Blazers through much of their glory era in the 1990s.
“I was just looking at their depth chart and Kamloops will be better this season,” said Hope.
“The best way to start is to get to know your division mates right out of the box.”
These games against B.C. Division opponents will be even more crucial now because of the new playoff format being installed for 2014-15 in the WHL which emphasizes divisional play. That makes each Victoria game against B.C. Division rivals Vancouver, Kamloops, Kelowna and Prince George a four-pointer.
Under the new format, the top three teams in each division will comprise the first 12 teams in the WHL playoffs. The last four playoff slots will go to the next two highest-placed teams in each of the Western and Eastern conferences. So it’s mathematically possible for all five B.C. Division teams to make the playoffs or just three.
