Lethbridge Hurricanes gearing up for opener as Klassen prepares to be the guy

Reece Klassen, last season’s back-up, is expected to get the start on Friday night after a solid showing in the preseason.

In three games played, Klassen went 2-0 and finished with a 1.57 goals-against average and .938 save percentage. He played 23 games in the regular season last year, going 5-8-3 with a 3.62 GAA and 0.887 save percentage.

For his part, Klassen says he’s extremely excited to get started.

“The team is looking good, I’ve been training a lot this summer and as a team, we’re excited to get it going.”

The preparation for a season where more is expected of you is different, especially mentally.

“Having role models like [Logan] Flodell and [Stuart] Skinner last year was huge,” he continued. “I took a bit of time off in the summer, but for like a month and a half it’s been full-on training just getting ready for however many games out of 68 this season I play.”

Not only will the crease look different this year, the competition to see who ultimately joins Klassen has been intense during training camp with import Akira Schmid and Carl Tetachuk battling it out.

“I’ve enjoyed the competition, it makes me better and it’s what hockey is all about.”

Klassen also feels good about his personal performance heading into the opener, as well as how the Hurricanes are looking.

“I feel like I’m prepared and ready to be the guy this year. Honestly, I thought the team ahead of me looked good too so that’s obviously comforting. We have a lot of returning guys which is good, they really performed well in the pre-season even though it’s tough with the ups and downs of guys going in and out of the lineup each night.”

For Head Coach Brent Kisio, this week has been about getting back to their team game.

“We’ve been focused on that the last couple of weeks actually. It’s coming around, we want to keep our tempo up and play fast but we like the way we’re shaping up and how we’re playing right now.”

The Hurricanes are still missing a few players away at NHL training camp. Jordy Bellerive and Calen Addison are in Pittsburgh, Schmid is in New Jersey and Igor Merezhko is in Calgary.

Lethbridge’s roster is down to 26 players, after re-assigning Landon Fuller and Michael Huron earlier this week, and Kisio says they’re pretty much at their spot until guys return.

“You know how it is with NHL teams, we don’t know when we’re getting guys back. The longer they stay up the better for them and we just got to deal with it here. Hopefully, we get a couple of guys back sooner rather than later and then we’ll get down a little more in numbers,” Kisio added.

There’s a possibility that guys could be back in time for the opener, and the familiarity they have could make it a seamless transition if that’s the case.

“Guys like Bellerive and Addison have been here long enough that even if they show up Thursday or Friday before the game, they’ll jump right in without missing a game because they know our structure and how we play.”

The Hurricanes are encouraging fans to get to the ENMAX Centre early on Friday, as they’ll be wearing special Ryan Vandervlis jerseys for warm-up beginning at 6:25 p.m. and Vandervlis is expected to be in attendance.

After that, they’ll be hosting a special pre-game ceremony to introduce the 2018-19 roster, which will begin shortly before puck drop at 7 p.m.

by Aaron Mahoney (@Mahones93 on Twitter)

Lethbridge Hurricanes gearing up for opener as Klassen prepares to be the guy

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