After a 3 day break the Flin Flon Bombers are ready to swing back into action this weekend at the Whitney Forum when they host the Melville Millionaires for the first time this season.
After the Showcase in Saskatoon Flin Flon sits third in the Sherwood Division with a record of 2-1-0-2, while Melville sit third in the Viterra at 1-3-0-1.
Both teams look significantly different since the last time they saw each other last year with lots of new faces on both teams.
These two teams hooked up in one of the biggest trades last year that saw SJHL defenseman of the year Eric Sinclair make his way to Flin Flon for future considerations which turned out to be Rylee Zimmer and Troy Williams.
Zimmer has left the Mills, awaiting a trade and Williams went back home for family reasons, so his status is unknown for the weekend. The Bombers also traded veteran forward Tyler Millar to Melville last week and he should be in their lineup this weekend.
Offense is a challenge for both these teams in the early part of the season with the Bombers only scoring 14 in their first 5 games, while the Mills have only struck 9 times in the first 5. Melville is also giving up too many goals allowing 18 in their first 5 compared to 13 for Flin Flon.
The Bombers have had the Mills number the last few years beating them all 4 times last season including a couple big deficits at the Whitney Forum, but I realize this is a new year and past history means nothing.
The Bombers have a lot of new players that I feel just have to play more and get more experience under their belt and gain the confidence to be strong players in this league. The old saying which holds true "Rome Wasn't Built In A Day", and Bomber fans may have to be patient.
The expectations in Melville may be a little different, as they have been re-building the last few years and made many significant trades which are supposed to make them a lot better hockey team.
We will see how it unfolds this weekend, with the game Saturday back on the air waves at 102.9 CFAR and flinflononline.com including the Great North GM Coach's Show at 7:15 and drop of the puck at 7:30.
