With a new contract under his belt, Matt Fraser hopes to snap Kootenay's playoff drought.
Matt Fraser’s creativity is about to be tested.
Fraser is the next in line in a longstanding Kootenay Ice tradition. After signing with the Dallas Stars on Wednesday, Fraser is ready to use his new bank-fold on his teammates. His only problem is where to invest his newfound fortune.
Jarret Stoll and John Negrin bought stereo systems. Nigel Dawes supplied his teammates with a cold tub. Among the other player presents are a television and a ping pong table.
With all these gifts already accounted for, what will Fraser buy his teammates in the wake of his signing?
"I haven’t really quite thought about it yet," Fraser said. "I guess that’s where I’m going to have to use my imagination and get the help from one of the guys to think of an idea."
Fraser is hoping his signing will mark a changing of the guard in Kootenay. The product of Red Deer, Alta. went undrafted for two years before signing as a free agent.
In many ways, Fraser embodies the style of the team he plays for: unassuming and below the radar. The team nestled in the small and secluded eastern British Columbia town is not known as a haven for top National Hockey League prospects, nor does it receive much in the way of media attention.
The Kootenay Ice is a franchise that prides itself on a foundation of solid drafting and a lunch pail, blue-collar work ethic. It’s that work ethic that brings the franchise its greatest point of pride: its consistency and winning tradition.
Few teams have been as consistently strong as the Ice, who have yet to miss the playoffs since moving to Cranbrook from Edmonton in 1998.
Not considered one of the main contenders heading into the season, the Ice sits in first place in the Eastern Conference standings heading into this weekend’s action.
The new season brought on a new head coach when Mark Holick moved on to the American Hockey League’s Syracuse Crunch. Kris Knoblauch, an assistant the previous three seasons in Kootenay, took over for Holick, but carried over many of the team’s systems from a year ago.
"Things have gone very smooth and probably smoother than I expected with our leading the conference right now," Knoblauch said. "The Kootenay Ice have been very successful… for the most part, I’m just carrying on that tradition."
The Ice won the MasterCard Memorial Cup in 2002 and Western Hockey League titles in 2000 and 2002. But playoff success has eluded them of late.
Kootenay has won just one playoff series in the past five years, but boasts 40-plus win seasons in five of their past six.
That playoff failure has contributed to the team’s hunger early this season. Although the season is still young, Fraser is confident his team is well-positioned to end the playoff drought.
"I think we all can say we want more success in the playoffs," he said. "The neat thing about this team this year is we have the artillery to do it. We have the horses to make it through those first couple rounds and battle through the third and fourth rounds and hopefully win a championship."
Although pleased with the team’s early success, Knoblauch is taking a more cautious approach. The Ice hasn’t gone on a long road trip to date, but two are around the corner.
After this weekend’s home-stand, the Ice will play nine of its next 10 games on the road, including a trip south through the powerhouse U.S. Division.
"We’re only 21 games in and our schedule gets very difficult starting this weekend with our game against Saskatoon," Knoblauch said. "I think (the two road trips) will determine where we stand or where we compare to other teams in the league. But right now, we’re very proud of what we’ve accomplished."
The Ice like floating below the radar, but their success will be harder to ignore. With the league’s second-best record, the opposition surely isn’t going to take this team lightly.
"We know that Kootenay’s never had a lot of publicity," Fraser said. "We’ve always been a team that flies under the radar and that’s perfectly good for us.
"It’s nice to fly underneath the radar and be considered one of the top dogs in the league."
The Ice preaches team success will lead to personal success. The players won’t have far to look for an example with Fraser’s recent signing.
"When I think NHL teams see that we’re having success as a team and we don’t have those top, star players, I think they realize that we do have some very good players that they need to take a good, long look at," Knoblauch said.
"I hope it’s only a matter of time until guys are put in the situation I’ve been put in," Fraser said.
If that’s the case, the player quarters could become awful cozy in Cranbrook.
