The Victoria Royals and Seattle Thunderbirds square off Saturday night in the annual Teddy Bear Toss night at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Arena.
In the second game of the weekend back-to-back matchup, the Royals will look to bounce back after a 4-1 loss to Seattle on Friday.
The Teddy Bear Toss is always a crowd pleaser throughout the league, and Victoria expects a full house for the game.
“It is going to be awesome,” said Royals forward Gary Haden. “The building is going to be electric.”
Veteran defenceman Will Warm added, “It is always a lot of fun.”
As always, the club will treat it as a normal game and not think too much about that first goal that sends the bear fur flying.
“You really can’t think about the bear toss and about the first goal,” said Warm. “You have to just treat it like a normal game. We play our game, and when the goal happens, it’s a lot of fun.”
Gary Haden hopes the special goal comes quickly. “Hopefully we come out and get the first one early — get it out of the way and then just keep playing from there.”
Head coach Dan Price is confident his club is ready. “I can tell they are focused. We just have developed a sense in this room; you can tell when they’re ready and when they’re not. There’s a real determination in their eyes, so I know we’re going to come out flying.”
The Royals will need that energy, as they were tripped up on Friday night by a determined Thunderbirds team. Price says the team won’t dwell on the loss and the focus is on tonight’s game. “It’s over. You can’t dwell on it at all. We know the things we want to improve. It’s going to be a great night with a full building. We’re going to have lots of energy. It’s a chance for our guys to respond.”
As for predictions on a potential scorer for the big goal, the players have some thoughts.
“In my experience,” said Warm, “I’ve seen it as someone more of a role player, a player down the lineup who maybe doesn’t always score, which is always really cool to see them get the goal. So, hopefully, someone like that.”
As hot as his play has been lately, Haden could be a good guess for the goal. However, the 20-year-old offered a different thought. “I would say one of the rookies. It’d be kind of cool to see one them get their first career Western Hockey League goal, like Riley Gannon or Nolan Bentham, for the Teddy Bear Toss goal.
“But no pressure on them,” Haden said with a smile.
