While the Aberdeen Wings have already played a few exhibition hockey games, the curtain goes up for real Friday night at the Odde Ice Center.
The Wings will host Watertown in their season opener before traveling to Watertown on Saturday night.
The local squad went 4-0 in exhibition contests. While those games do not count in the standings, they are still valuable, according to coach Scott Langer.
“I think they’re super important and that’s why we put them on the schedule,” Langer said. “One, to be in an atmosphere knowing what they can bring to the table, and I think on the other side of that, we’re working on things that we’re working on daily, and it starts to take place in the games. If you’re going to make mistakes, you might as well make them in the preseason before there’s points on the line.”
Those points start accumulating this weekend. Aberdeen then heads to the annual showcase in Blaine, Minn., next week where they will face a trio of teams from other divisions of the North American Hockey League.
“It’s fun to see different opponents outside the division. … It’s three games in four days. There’s a lot of preparation that has to go in it,” Langer said. “There’s exposure for the guys. You have to come out of there with points. If you don’t come out of there with points, you know that other teams in your division are going to do that. We have make sure we play good hockey.”
Every point is important throughout the course of the season. The past couple of years the Wings have finished strong, but did not own home-ice advantage for the playoffs. Last year, Aberdeen fell in a tight game five at Bismarck.
“I think it’s a testament to what we do development wise as you see our teams get better as the season goes on. There’s nothing you can do to control injures and stuff like that. We’ve kind of got caught in that situation and used a lot of affiliates and guys like that to make things happen,” Langer said. “At the end of the day we had an opportunity to beat the eventual Robertson Cup champion and we played really good hockey.”
The Wings will have somewhat of a familiar look this season with nearly a dozen players returning to the ice. That alone will provide leadership for the new members on the squad.
“We have about 10 guys back off last year’s team. They’ve been a really good group, especially leading the first-year guys,” Langer said. “We picked up some free agents out of some different leagues as well that have made our goal tending, and our back end and our forwards what we think is a pretty decent, deep line up. It’s a lineup that works, daily works hard and we’ve got some skill to go with it.”
Langer said the Wings try to build their team starting in the net and work their way out with an emphasis on defense. He said that will be a strength of this year’s team.
“Our goal tending and our defensive core right now is probably going to be the strength of our team,” Langer said. “You’ve got to build it from the net out. If you get a chance to do that, it’s certainly going to help you down the stretch.”
The Central Division has historically produced some of the top teams in the NAHL. Langer said it’s too early to tell which teams will be the strongest in the division this season.
“All the coaches in this division do a really great job of recruiting and developing players,” Langer said. “Even if a team comes out early and is hot, it doesn’t mean that’s going to be the hot team at the end, because of how good these guys run their franchises.”
With a season that starts in September and can run through May in the playoffs, it’s a marathon and not a sprint. Langer and his staff do their best to help keep the game of hockey fresh and fun for the players, knowing the season can get to be a grind.
“I think the main thing is you’ve got to have fun with it. There’s always going to be a downside of the season, where things are just, it’s monotonous, playing the same teams and doing the same stuff and hearing the coach say the same things,” Langer said. “You just gotta keep ‘em happy. You just have to have some fun with it. Every day can’t be a grind, it’s got to be hey, I’m excited to get to the rink and put some work in. And you what know helps all that is winning.”
Langer said he tries to break up the season into smaller portions and tries to focus on those instead for the grand scheme of things.
“I think you just have to break your season down into segments, whether it’s 8 games at a time or 10 games at a time,” Langer said. “Just worry about that time frame, and how good you’re playing during that segment and then move on to the next one.”
The beginning of a journey starts with a single step, and for the Wings, that step takes place Friday night when they host Watertown.
“We don’t want to look too far ahead. Right now our focus is on Friday night at the Odde,” Langer said. “I don’t look at anything past that, because those are hard tough games and we have to win the first one. We want to do it at home, so that’s going to be all of our focus right now.”
