PR - Saints

Saskatoon Saints Focus on Offence in TFHL 18

The Saints have made the playoffs every year since GM Young took over the bottom-dwelling Mirkava Mutants and relocating it to Saskatoon - the Venice of the Prairies and the home of the world's best: Gordie Howe, Joni Mitchell, wheat, drinking by a slough, drinking not by a slough, and drinking a slough mistakenly thinking it was not a slough and something entirely of a different substance than sloughiness.

Although having great Regular Season success throughought these 10 seasons; including a few divisian titles, an East Conference Title, and various awards for players and management - the Saints have failed to ever make an impact in the Playoffs. Throughout these 10 off-seasons the Saints have failed to make it past the second round.

A few seasons ago, the Saints began to focus on offence - one season having 4 of the top 8 scorers on their roster (Forsberg, Sakic, Gaborik, Spezza). The last couple seasons their offence has been one of the best in the league but GM Young sought this offseason to elevate the talent by adding superstars Markus Naslund, Ilya Kovalchuk, and Patrice Bergron - each of whom were typically the top scorers on the Hurricanes, Aces and Pontiacs respectively. It is no secret either that GM Young specifically targeted these teams' top scorers as well taking in account the fact that they are conference rivals.

The Saints now boast likely the best 'group of 9' scoring forwards in the league but will have to prove this in the subsequent season. Another key change for the long-term form of the team is the elevation of Rask to the starting goaltending position. At 21, he will be the indisputed starter for the next few seasons with little chance of change. "We'll be patient with this one, considering the past history of goaltenders who have come through Toon Town only to be traded and to become subsequent champs and award winners." This sad list includes the likes of Giguere, Biron, Lalime, Salo, Cloutier, Turco, Leclaire, among many others. Bryzgalov joined that long list recently but Young is happy with the acquisition of Naslund and Lombardi. The former will likely play out his career in a Saints jersey and Lombardi boasts some great scoring potential at quite a young age.

The long-running Saskup begins tonight and Young plans to experiment with the explosive offense against the Pontiacs - the pretenders to the prairie principe.