Two months after trading their franchise player, the Brandon Wheat Kings continue to amaze.
Kelly McCrimmon has one mean poker face.
Two months after pulling the trigger on what has been described as the biggest trade in Western Hockey League history, the Brandon Wheat Kings’ head coach and general manager is tallying his winnings.
This, of course, was the third year of a three-year plan in Brandon, where McCrimmon’s intentions were to recoup assets after loading up for the MasterCard Memorial Cup. He dealt his ace—world junior scoring leader and tournament Most Valuable Player, Brayden Schenn—to a division rival for a package with no immediate return.
And yet, here is his team, with 11 rookies in a year in which it was destined for a rebuild, and McCrimmon’s house of cards is stronger than ever. In the inconsistent and unpredictable world of junior hockey, the Brandon Wheat Kings remain a surefire model of consistency.
"We can’t be overlooked at any time," said Mark Stone, the team’s leading scorer. "(McCrimmon’s) teams always work hard and he doesn’t accept losing."
The Wheat Kings, as many expected they would, did an awful lot of losing in the first half of the season. The team even lost its first four games after the infamous Schenn trade, only helping further push those playoff dreams away.
The playoffs seemed like nothing more than a pipe dream for the Memorial Cup runners up two months earlier.
Game over, right?
Cue the Rocky music.
Suddenly, Brandon did something that should come as little surprise—it won 17 of its last 23 games and clinched a playoff spot. The team now only needs to jockey for positioning in the final weekend of the regular season.
The Wheat Kings’ second-half surge did come as a big surprise, in spite of the team’s reputation, after a first half littered with learning lessons. The young Wheat Kings grew, and the crop is looking better than ever.
"I think we’re learning how to win hockey games while in the first half we were finding ways to lose a lot of games in a lot of different ways," Stone explained. "Everybody’s stepping up just a little extra and we learned a lot from our first half and taking advantage of it in the second half."
It’s a definite sign of maturity for a team that would have been excused for having a lack of it. But perhaps the strangest part of the story is that the Wheat Kings are actually stronger now without Schenn after having him fall on their doorstep right before the Christmas break.
The soap opera surrounding Schenn’s future dominated headlines through the first half of the season.
His NHL masters, the Los Angeles Kings, took their time in deciding his future and his former Wheat Kings teammates followed the story closely.
"I think we were concentrating on it a little too much and we just needed to worry about our own business," Stone said. "We felt maybe he was going to be our savior for the season and guys weren’t playing as strong as we could have."
Schenn wasn’t given the chance to become Brandon’s savior, as McCrimmon opted instead to send the prodigal son to his hometown team in Saskatoon.
Yet, in spite of having no immediate return as compensation for Schenn, the Wheat Kings are stronger now without him.
Of course, they’d love to have him back in their lineup.
"I think it was a wake-up call," Stone explained. "Once our guys figured out he wasn’t going to be back, they knew they were going to have to step up and I think all the young guys have done that and the older guys have matured a lot."
The Blades, meanwhile, aren’t exactly losing out on the Schenn deal either. Since Schenn stepped into the lineup following an injury he sustained at the world juniors, the Blades have won 21 of 25 games.
Coincidentally, Schenn’s first loss in a Blades uniform came in his first game back in Brandon on Feb. 15.
Three of the four losses since joining the Blades have all come at the hands of his former team.
Brandon’s run up the standings, however, assures it will not face Schenn and the Blades in the opening round of the playoffs. Not that they’re concerned if they do meet.
"It’s different to see Brayden in a different uniform, but he’s a Saskatoon Blade now and if it comes down to it, it’s going to be the Wheat Kings versus the Blades so you can’t worry about that too much," Stone said.
The team isn’t concerned with whichever opponent it does meet when the playoffs begin next week.
The Wheat Kings are riding a huge wave of confidence now playing the role of the underdog.
"We know we can compete with the top teams in this league and the pressure’s not on us," Stone said. "If we win a series, we’re not going to be surprising ourselves at all."
Nor will they be surprising anyone else.
