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Muskies start pre-season training

September 22, 2017   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

The Shelburne Muskies are looking for a few good men.

Shaking off the summer rust, the Muskies started their pre-season with try-outs at the Centre Dufferin Recreation Complex over several days.

The ice was a mix of new prospects and returning vets hoping to find a place in the 2017 / 18 line-up for the senior season.

“We have a great core of guys. We’re looking for players who can fit in. We need a couple of good goal scorers,” said Muskies head coach Dave Ritchie. “This is our second try-out (Sept. 12). We had one on the weekend and then we have one more and we will have the team together. We likely have around 18 of 22 players that are returning this year.”

The try-outs are a mix of different hockey skills that coaches observe and make their decisions on who will make the squad.

“Tonight we focus on one-on-one and two-on-two battle drills, then we have a full scrimmage. We watch for hockey knowledge, passing skills, things like that,” Ritchie explained.

The senior league is filled with a lot of guys who played high level hockey in their junior days. It’s a very fast paced, highly skilled, hard hitting league, that is very competitive and gives the fans their monies worth every game.

“At the try-outs we’ve had 26 to 30 guys and tonight we have 30 to 35 on the ice,” said Muskies assistant coach Dave Fennell. “It’s an open invitation try-out. Some of the guys have completed their final junior year and have been scouted. We’ve got players here from all over including Collingwood, Stayner, and Alliston. We’ve also go the full team from last year here.”

While players went through the drills, Ritchie and Fennell observed what was happening on the ice.

The Muskies season opener is scheduled for October 7, against the Shallow Lake Crushers.

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