Ryan Oulahen believes every season writes its own script.
"I'm a big believer in that it's so hard to have predictions on a lot of different things," explained the North Bay Battalion head coach.
What he does know is there are a handful of players going into their fourth season with the Battalion. But how those veterans blend with the rookies, and third- and second-year players remains to be seen.
"There's a lot of stuff we do know, but in terms of the team as a whole, to ask me, What are we to work on in two weeks or three weeks? I'm not sure," he said. "I've been happy with our defensive play in exhibition, but you know, there's some things we've been trying to get going such as scoring goals and things like that. But yeah, it's a new season where we have to see how things sort out, but that's every year,"
The Troops travel to Ottawa tonight to face the 67's and then head to Owen Sound for a 2 p.m. contest against Scott Wray's Attack.
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The Troops still have a handful of players away at NHL camps including Dalyn Wakely with the Oilers, Ethan Procyszyn and Mike McIvor with the Anaheim Ducks, and Anthony Romani with the Vancouver Canucks. Wyatt Kennedy just returned from his invite to Chicago Blackhawks rookie camp.
That means an opportunity for some to take advantage of increased ice time in the final pre-season contests.
"So I've liked the way that's looked in practice. Now you get to put it into a game. That's the next phase. So for us as coaches, it's a lot of teaching and learning and showing guys their actual footage," explained Oulahen.
"To this date, we've been showing Arnsby and Ertel and all those guys what they did last year. We're now, you know, we want to get them doing their own footage so I think that's the biggest thing in exhibition."
The North Bay Battalion open the regular season on home ice Friday, Sept. 27 when they host the Peterborough Petes.
