Bruins first half recap

December 16th, 2006

Bruins broadcaster Dave Sheldon had the opportunity earlier this week to discuss the first half of the season with Bruins General Manager Darrell May.

Dave Sheldon: The team has 10 wins at the half way mark, obviously you’d like to have more but you have to be happy with the way the team has become more competitive as of late.

Darrell May: I think so, obviously we would like to have more than ten wins at this point in the season but we’ve faced adversities with injuries and what not. I think we’ve battled hard through those adversities and we’ve been competitive. A lot of games could have gone either way. Our team has gotten tougher mentally as the season has gone and our young players have come along quicker because of the adversities we’ve been through.

DS: At the start of the season, you had five 20 year olds on the team including one in goal and two on defence. Was it important to have that veteran experience in goal and on the blueline?

DM: We wanted a veteran presence both in goal and on defence to help us get over some of the early obstacles that a new team faces with a lot of rookie players who haven’t played in the league before. If you look at any level of hockey, goaltenders take the longest to mature because it’s such a mentally draining and stressful position. Defence is the next hardest position to master so we thought that a couple of 20 year olds on the back end would certainly help us. Our two veteran defenceman, Stephane Lenoski and Craig Lineker have been pretty solid.

DS: It can be tough to find offensive production in the expansion draft. You found a big part of the Bruins offense by signing Mark Santorelli as a free agent last summer and drafting Oscar Moller in the Import Draft. Did you expect them to be as successful as they’ve been so far?

DM: Absolutely. The real positive there is that we are getting scoring from a 17 year old

Free agent signee Mark Santorelli leads the Bruins in scoring with 45 points through 37 games

(Molller) and an 18 year old (Santorelli). The acquisition of Mark Santorelli was a huge plus for our hockey club. Mark’s a natural goal scorer and a very gifted offensive player who can be a big part of this team not only right now but in the future. I was familiar with Mark from my days with the Tri City Americans. We had drafted him but he decided he wanted to go to the NCAA route and he had a scholarship to Northern Michigan. Out of the blue this summer I got a call from Mark, we talked, and Mark decided to join the Bruins. As far as Oscar Moller goes, it’s an interesting story. A good friend of mine is the power skating coach for the Edmonton Oilers. He puts on camps in Europe and has knows Oscar for quite a few years. For the last few years Oscar has been coming over to Edmonton to take his power skating courses. He kept telling me that I had to see this young Swedish kid he was working with. I finally got to see him at the Mac’s Midget Tournament in Calgary last year where he was outstanding. He scored two goals in the final (Sweden defeated Saskatoon 3-2 to win gold) and was the best player in the tournament. Having the second pick overall in the import draft gave us the opportunity to get him. Like Santorelli, because of his age he is a player that can help us right now and in the years ahead.

DS: You picked up Josh Aspenlind in the expansion draft from the Swift Current Broncos. He’s the captain of your team. How happy were you to see that he was available in the expansion draft?

DM: Josh is another guy that I knew from my days in Tri Cities. He was at one of our

Captain Josh Aspenlind has already set a career high for points in a season with 32 points in 36 games

training camps before he joined the PrinceGeorge Cougars. We knew that he was a hard working honest player. We didn’t really know the quality of a person that we got and I think Coach Jim Hiller made a great choice in making Josh our captain. He’s been a leader for us both on and off the ice. He’s been a key component on our top scoring line, playing with Moller and Santorelli.

DS: You picked up Matt Meropoulis from the Everett Silvertips in the expansion draft. Right from day one he has been a guy you can count on defensively and has been a big part of your penalty kill.

DM: Matt is another guy I knew from when I was scouting for Tri Cities. I lived in St.Albert which is just outside of Edmonton and Matt played his minor hockey in Edmonton so I had a chance to watch Matt play since his first year of bantam hockey. I liked the way he played. He’s a hard working two way player; he finishes his checks and skates real well. One of the things that we initially looked for when putting the team together was players that were good skaters and hard workers and Matt epitomizes what we were looking for.

DS: Cody Smuk would fall into that category as well.

DM: Absolutely. Cody is another guy that I watched as a bantam so I was familiar with

Cody Smuk was acquired in a trade with the Vancouver Giants

what he was able to bring to the table. Whatreally caught my eye was at the pre season tournament in Everett last season. Cody was playing for Vancouver at the time and in a game against Spokane he got in a fight with Matt McEwen who stands about six foot five. Cody took a little bit of a licking but I was about five feet away from that scrap and I saw the determination in his eyes. When we had the opportunity to make the deal with Vancouver in lieu of taking a player from them in the expansion draft that was the player we wanted and we’re very happy that Cody is moving in the right direction for us.

DS: You mentioned that you acquired Smuk and a 4th round pick in the bantam draft from Vancouver in lieu of taking a player from them in the expansion draft. We’re their a lot of deals like that being offered to you prior to the expansion draft?

DM: We did get quite a few calls like that. We decided as a group, the scouting staff and myself that initially we wanted to make a couple of deals early to build our protected list with young players. We knew with the new expansion rules we were going to have to know not only players that were on other team’s rosters but also on their protected lists. That made it a little more difficult because we couldn’t just scout the other WHL teams, we had to go out and watch these players on their midget teams or junior A teams. So we did make a few deals like that but we didn’t want to make too many because we wanted teams to have to protect some guys and see what kind of decision they were going to make when putting together their protected lists.

DS: After the opening night victory over Kelowna the team lost 11 straight. Was there ever a time when panic set in?

DM: No, I think haven’t gone through the expansion process when I was with the Edmonton (now Kootenay) Ice there are certain things that I recognized. It takes some time to learn how to win, and to learn how to be on the right side of the score in one goal games. That’s something that we needed to develop. In that early losing streak we lost a lot of close games. We kept working hard through that streak and sometimes you just need a break hear and there and we got a couple of breaks and got it turned around.

DS: You hired Jim Hiller as coach, can you tell us a little bit about your history with Jim?

DM: Jim was an assistant coach with the Tri City Americans at the same time I was there. He moved on from there to be the head coach in Alberni of the BCHL. Jim’s a very intellectual guy. He pays close attention to details and he treats his players with a lot of respect. Those were the things that I thought were very important with a young hockey team. He has the ability to get the most out of our players.

DS: After that early 11 game losing streak, the team won three in a row, things were looking up but then you went into another losing streak. Are these the growing pains that come along with being a first year franchise?

DM: Absolutely. I sometimes think back to the first few years in Edmonton with the Ice. Some days we thought we had turned the corner, then the next game we didn’t recognize our team. That comes with being a new hockey club. Our team doesn’t have a lot of WHL experience. I think now with half a season under our belt we can look for our players to make big strides in the second half of the season.

DS: You’ve made some changes to the team since opening night, can you tell us a little bit about those changes and what necessitated them?

DM: Early in the season we needed to improve our defensive game. We addressed that by acquiring defencemen Dylan Chapman. We had to give up Keith Voytechek, a quality hockey player to get him but we felt that Dylan brought the experience, having played in the league final last season with Moose Jaw that we needed. He’s been real solid for us.

DS: You brought in 20 year old forward Dillon Johnstone as a free agent signing and acquired 17 year old forward Mike Proudley for a 5th round draft pick. What made you decide to make those deals?

Dillon Johnstone was leading the SJHL in scoring prior to joining the Bruins

DM: With Dillon, he’s another guy that I knew from Tri Cities. We recruited him out ofthe Tisdale Saskatchewan midget program. He suffered a severe eye injury in Tri Cities which almost ended his career and he missed a full year of hockey. This year he was

leading the Saskatchewan junior league in scoring and with us having an open spot for a 20 year old we looked into acquiring him.

We were able to get him without giving up

any of our future. We didn’t want to give up any high draft picks or young players to bring in a 20 year old and we were able to add Dillon for relatively nothing. With Proudley, I remembered him from his bantam days in Winnipeg. He scored 16 goals in the Manitoba Junior League last year so we knew there was some offensive upside to his game. He fits in good with that age group that we’re building around.

DS: With a 20 year old spot now open, will you be looking to fill that spot before the January 10th trade deadline?

DM: We’re not necessarily anxious to fill that 20 year old spot. We’ve had some success with our young guys and our plan in Chilliwack is to get better every year. We’ve got a three to four year plan to become more competitive and work towards winning a championship. To do that it’s crucial that this year our young guys gain the needed experience, so to bring in another 20 year old right now, although I won’t say it won’t happen, we wouldn’t pay big to do it because we do have an eye on the future and we like the progress that our young guys are making.

DS: When putting together the team were you worried at all that the 20 year olds you selected wouldn’t be interested in playing for an expansion team?

Veteran defenceman Stephane Lenoski ranks 4th in team scoring

DM: To a certain extent yes. There are certain challenges that come with being an expansion club and there are a lot of ups and downs. The most pleasant thing in talking with the older guys after we selected them was their attitude coming into this situation. Josh, Craig Lineker, and Stephane Lenoski were outstanding in their attitude and what they brought to our team. Your 20 year olds have to be good leaders, they have to be good people off the ice and they have to be good hockey players as well. These guys have been a real steadying influence for our young players.

DS: We’re half way through the season and the team is right in the playoff hunt. Are you surprised and how important is it that your team has something to play for in the second half of the season?

DM: We believe that our team is better than our record shows. To a man, everyone on our team believes that we can make the playoffs. Making the playoffs would be a great learning experience for our younger players. We’re focused on trying to make the playoffs and brining some WHL playoff hockey to Chilliwack in our first year.

DS: As the General Manager do you make any kind of sacrifice to try and make the playoffs this year or do you roll with what you have right now?

DM: We won’t sacrifice the future of the hockey club. If you look at other expansion teams over the years, there are several that have made the mistake of trying to patch together something just to get in to the playoffs their first year and they’ve given up future assets and I don’t think that’s the way to go. From my experience in Edmonton, we didn’t do that there and although we didn’t make the playoffs our first two years there, we were arguably the best franchise in junior hockey for the next three to five years. We were able to do that because we were patient and did not sacrifice the future in our first two seasons.