The season’s pace is quickly picking up after a slow start for the Kelowna Rockets.
After one game in the first week of the new WHL season — a 4-3 overtime victory over the Spokane Chiefs — the Rockets are heading into a three-game, back-to-back weekend starting Friday night against the Kamloops Blazers.
It will be the first time this season that Kelowna will have their full roster after Nolan Foote returned last weekend from NHL training camp with the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Foote played two pre-season games with Tampa Bay, and is now ready for the upcoming challenging stretch of games with Kelowna.
“This weekend is going to be fun, it’s going to be good to get back out there with the guys and play,” said Foote.
“We need to play our systems and play hard, we know for sure that they’re going to come out hard. We’re a target this year, we’re the host of the Memorial Cup this year.”
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Kelowna will play the Blazers to start the weekend, then the Everett Silvertips Saturday at Prospera Place before an away battle against the Vancouver Giants on Sunday.
The Blazers are 0-1 on the season and the Rockets will no doubt be playing with a chip on the shoulders as it was Kamloops who knocked them out of the playoffs last season. It will be the first of 10 battles for the two teams.
Though it’s been an ideal start to the Memorial Cup season for Kelowna, the Rockets’ testing WHL campaign has only just begun.
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