The silence of the Prince Albert Raiders fans at the SaskTel Centre conveyed the shock of what they saw.
Last Saturday, the Raiders dropped a 5-2 decision to the host Saskatoon Blades to fall to 1-3 with a third straight loss. That skid included dropping both ends of a home-and-home series to the Blades.
While the Raiders faithful are known for hijacking the atmosphere inside the Blades home rink making it feel like a Prince Albert home game, the roar of the Blades supporters was noticeable among the 7,379 spectators that turned out.
The Saskatoon marketing staff did their jobs ensuring there was a sizable turnout to support the host side, and it was obvious they enjoyed what they saw.
The surprise of the Raiders supporters regarding how the season started for their club is understandable. In 2025-26, the Raiders topped the East Division and finished second overall in the WHL’s regular season standings with a 52-10-5-1 mark. Going into the post-season, the Raiders were rated fourth in the final CHL Top 10 Rankings.
In the WHL Playoffs, Prince Albert won the Eastern Conference Championship Series in six games over the Medicine Hat Tigers. The Raiders then fell in five games in the WHL Championship Series to the Everett Silvertips.
The Raiders returned 14 players from last season. Three other potential returnees that are gone are 19-year-old centre Braeden Cootes to the AHL’s Abbotsford Canucks, who are the top minor league affiliate of the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks, along with 20-year-old centre Max Heise and 18-year-old defenceman Daxon Rudolph are both gone to the University of Denver Pioneers in the NCAA Division I ranks.
With that noted, there is no need to push the panic button. It is wise to feel the Raiders will shake off the tough start and the home-and-home sweep to the Blades.
One of the factors that likely led to dropping both games of the home-and-home series with the Blades was the absence of Raiders head coach Ryan McDonald. He was not behind the Raiders bench due to personal reasons.
Assistant coaches Cole Bell and Conor Yawney performed admirably as co-head coaches. Still, the 38-year-old McDonald has to be regarded as one of the most personable and top players’ coaches there is. While they know that McDonald will be back, the Raiders players likely know the inside personal reasons the bench boss isn’t around, and it is reasonable to say it affected them on a subconscious level.
With time, the players will be able to shake that feeling off. If McDonald needs to be away for a longer stretch, the players will be less affected on the subconscious level with the distancing of time from the initial shock.
Still, the Raiders had a lot of stretches in the home-and-home series with the Blades where they carried play. Last Friday at the storied and historic Art Hauser Centre, the Raiders stormed out of the game holding a 13-6 edge in shots on goal where they had a tonne of premium scoring chances. It took a spectacular performance by Blades 18-year-old rookie netminder Martin Psohlavec.
The Raiders even held a 2-1 lead early in the third period before the Blades scored the final two tallies of the contest to pull out a 3-2 victory. The Blades netted the winner with 1:28 remaining in the third on a tough break power-play chance that didn’t go in Prince Albert’s favour.
In the return match one night later at the SaskTel Centre, the Raiders held a 1-0 lead after 20 minutes before the Blades pulled away over the final two frames scoring their last goal into an empty net.
The Raiders will also have more practices with their five returnees back in the fold from NHL training camps in import netminder Michal Orsulak (Detroit Red Wings), defenceman Benett Kelly (Pittsburgh Penguins), centres Riley Boychuk (Calgary Flames) and Brandon Gorzynski (Dallas Stars) and right-winger Jonah Sivertson (Vegas Golden Knights). All five of those players dressed against the Blades, now cementing routines, roles and an identity can really take off in earnest.
Plus, the Raiders just faced a Blades team who had 12 returning players who were motivated by the fact the Raiders won 10-of-12 head-to-head meetings in the regular season and post-season in the 2025-26 campaign. The returning Blades players didn’t want a repeat of last season in that area.
The Raiders had an unexpected bump that included a factor outside their control in McDonald having to step away on the personal front. The best part is this happened at the start of the campaign so there is lots of opportunity to go forward and leave the early adversity well in the rear view mirror.
WHL on of rules announcements, other notes
Kudos goes to the WHL for giving the public a heads up on rule changes.
Back in the day about 20 years ago when there were a tonne more sports reporters on the WHL beat, it was common for publications and media outlets to catch up league staffers for a story about rule changes. For publications, those stories often ran in regular season preview sections or in the sports section shortly before the start of the regular season.
The stories were usually what are often termed as “housekeeping” pieces and were usually dry. In some years, the rule changes could be a little more exciting.
For the last 15 or so years, those types of stories were pretty much non-existent due to the staffing cuts in the media industry in Canada.
This past off-season the WHL posted and distributed a “State of the League” address on June 30 which included updates on things like attendance and rule changes. In that address, the WHL announced it was going to do a test run of the “no return” rule for three-on-three overtime after every pre-season contest regardless of the regular time outcome of the game. That means once an attacking team goes into the offensive zone they can’t bring the puck out of the offensive zone on purpose to regroup.
The major junior circuit also said WHL general managers would vote on the implementation of that rule following the pre-season for the regular season.
Another rule fans might keep in mind from the “State of the League” address is the first round of the WHL Playoffs will be a best-of-five series now. The WHL last used best-of-five series for the first round of the post-season way back in 1994.
On September 16 just two days before the start of the regular season, the WHL posted and distributed a release regarding three rule changes for the regular season. It was confirmed the “no return” rule for three-on-three overtime and clearly laid out all the aspects of that rule like play would continue as normal if a defending player poke checks the puck off an attacking player’s stick into the centre ice zone.
The WHL also announced it was bringing back coaches challenged for possible off-side goals. The circuit last used this rule in the 2022-23 campaign before electing to remove it.
The WHL added a rule that referees shall now video review all major and match penalties except fighting majors in order to confirm the penalty that was assessed or downgrade the penalty to a lower category. Spectators in WHL rinks will likely have noticed these reviews are already part of games.
With the rule change announcements the WHL made, they ensure fans of the game are in the loop about the various tweaks. To be fair, the WHL has put out announcements on rule changes in past years, but making sure those announcements get out are more important than ever due to the sports media in Canada not being what it once was.
- On Tuesday, the Raiders re-assigned 2008 born forward Carter Kingerski to the MJHL’s Winnipeg Monarchs of the junior A ranks and announced 2009-born defenceman Kade Corbet has been re-assigned to a team yet to be determined. Kingerski played two games for the Raiders picking up two shots on goal and two penalty minutes. Corbet dressed for one game collecting one shot on goal and nine penalty minutes.
- When the Raiders host the Red Deer Rebels on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Art Hauser Centre, it will be the team’s Orange Jersey Night. The Raiders will wear special orange jerseys to commemorate the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. The jerseys are being auctioned off on 32auctions with proceeds being donated to Prince Albert Grand Council Urban Services.
- The Victoria Royals (2-0) hold the number one in the CHL Top 10 Rankings that were released on Tuesday. The Royals have been rated number one for both weeks the CHL Top 10 Rankings have been released. Also cracking the latest CHL Top 10 Rankings from the WHL are the Medicine Hat Tigers (3-1) at sixth and the Calgary Hitmen (3-0) at 10th. The always powerful London Knights (3-0) of the OHL are rated second.
- Saskatoon Blades 20-year-old right-winger Hunter Laing leads the WHL scoring race in the early part of the campaign with nine points coming off five goals and four assists. Saskatoon Blades captain Brayden Klimpke, who will turn 19-years-old on October 8, leads all WHL defencemen with eight points coming off three goals and five assists.
- In the early part of the campaign, the Regina Pats have the best power-play percentage at 40 per cent converting on 6-of-15 opportunities. The Seattle Thunderbirds have the top penalty killing unit at 100 per cent killing all eight short-handed situations they have faced.
Darren Steinke is a Saskatoon-based freelance sportswriter and photographer with more than 25 years of experience covering the WHL. He blogs frequently at stankssermon.blogspot.com.
