Expectations high for experienced Niverville Nighthawks squad

On paper, the Niverville Nighthawks should have one of the best teams in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League this season. With a deep roster of returning players, assistant coach Tyler Anderson said the team is feeling the pressure to complete.

“We’ve got to set the tone by saying, ‘yeah, we’re really good on paper, but we’ve got to go prove it,’” Anderson said after an inter-squad game Sept. 5.

“We’ve got to prove we belong and push it every day.”

The team held multiple practice scrimmages before lining up for formal pre-season games against their MJHL competition. The team split a pair of games against Selkirk. Anderson said coaching staff is looking for players to continue doing what they did to get to a junior A camp.

“Guys aren’t going to go out there and dangle and become Cale Makar,” he said, referring to the Colorado Avalanche’s star offensive defensemen who has won the Norris and Conn Smythe trophies in the last few years.

“They’ve got to play the way they play that makes them successful.”

The Nighthawks scheduled five pre-season games this year.

“There’s a lot of compete in this camp, a lot of good hockey players here,” Anderson said.

“There will be a lot of tough decisions in the end, but that’s what we want.”

Niverville is one of a few teams to start their fall training camp early, with the first formal skates of the season taking place Aug. 15. Anderson said with the elimination of the MJHL draft and the new rules allowing major junior players to transition to the NCAA, training camps need to get younger.

“You’ve got to get to know the players early and have that relationship with the players and the parents,” he said.

The Nighthawks play Steinbach in their final pre-season games Sept. 12 and Sept. 13.