Bismarck, North Dakota – I had a chance to check in with our favorite hockey team, the ‘Cats, like I always do on Wednesdays. You will hear from a very happy Head Coach Layne Sedevie following the sweep over the winningest coach in all of hockey, Bliss Littler, who used to coach Layne in Billings. You will also hear from Assistant Coach, Garret Roth. The coaching staff was very happy after the sweep over the Wild, but there was little celebration. Less than 24 hours later, it was already time to prepare for the Wings. “I think me, Jimmy, and Layne have a good understanding of each other. Our minds were already on Aberdeen after the final buzzer sounded,” stated Assistant Coach Roth. “Now that we are in divisional play, our points are doubled. I think our guys are focused on the Wings,” Roth said. Also on the docket, you will find out how the Bobcats prepare for Round 1 in the Thunder Dome on 24th Avenue in Aberdeen, SD. The first topic in our weekly visit that you will read about is how the Bobcats prepare to take on other teams and how a game plan is born. The Bobcats coaches look at film to see what the opponent likes to do on the ice. Layne also stated that a lot of it is memory, but they make adjustments all year long. From there, Coach Sedevie and Coach Roth formulate a game plan. It’s up to the players who wear the uniform to execute it. The film can be helpful to formulate a game plan when it comes to what the team needs to do against the Wings. It can also be helpful for specialty teams. Coach Sedevie says that the Aberdeen Wings are a veteran team and he also states that “if we do our job on Friday night and get the two points that we need, the team will return to the Den where they get to play in front of their fans.” But First, the Bobcats must go into enemy territory and shut-down the loud crowd. Aberdeen has a tendency to be loud. “I know, my first year going in there, it was loud” Sedevie stated, “It would be to the Bobcats benefit if they could score the first goal and take the crowd out of it.” The next topic that you will hear is who the Bobcats cut and why. The Bobcats parted ways with Dylan Parker and Eric Ylitalo. Also, in a related move, the ‘Cats made a trade and acquired Scott Albertoni to back-up Aaron Nelson. As far as Aaron Nelson, Sedevie stated “He might be one of the best goalies in the league. He has the ability to make big saves at this level, which is huge.” And now you will hear, in Layne’s own words, what he thinks of his rookies. Starting with Brendan Harris, he has committed to playing college hockey with the St. Cloud Huskies, but that doesn’t mean he will go to St. Cloud right away. “He is only a ’95, so he could come back next year or he could go to the United States Hockey League, but we could have him for three years,” Sedevie stated. Two other rookies have caught the Sheriff’s eye, Cullen Willox and Tanner Salsberry. Here’s something you might not know about Willox, but you will if you read the Bobcats’ and my website. Willox used to be a lacrosse player according to Sedevie, and he has the ability to be on the penalty kill and he has good puck management. “Salsberry and Willox are in our top four defensemen,” according to Sedevie. When asked what Sedevie expects from the two young lads, the Coach stated “we expect them to step up.” Layne Sedevie hopes that a let down doesn’t happen after the sweep over the Wild, but if it does he states “we need to learn from it as these guys are kids. We hope it doesn’t happen. Aberdeen has 11 of 12 returning veterans back, so we expect them to be a good hockey team,” Sedevie stated. When it comes to the Dakota Cup, the coach stated that he would like to keep it in Bismarck. The Bobcats have only seen the Wings on film. Coach Roth stated that they know Aberdeen’s head coach really well because they used to play with him. “We know how sound he will be. We know what he expects from his team,” Roth stated of Aberdeen’s Head Coach Travis Winter. “We know that they have some of their sharp-shooters back, like Erik Baskin, and a newcomer, Bjorn Sigurdarson.” Sigurdarson has been playing very well for the Wings. Until the puck drops on Friday night, we really won’t know what they have, but we know what we have here.
