Riders ready to embrace the chaos in Winnipeg
11h ago
If the Riders win on Saturday, it secures them a spot in the 111th Grey Cup in Vacnouver on Nov. 17.
I had a terrific chat with Prince Albert Raiders coach Marc Habscheid about the start of the Raiders-Saskatoon Blades second-round WHL playoff series, which starts tonight at the Art Hauser Centre.
When I asked Habscheid about the rivalry, he reminded me of the Saskatoon J’s of the SJHL. Habscheid played for the J’s in the 1980s and he talked about how tough it was to get by the Prince Albert Raiders.
From 1977 to 1982, the Raiders claimed four Centennial Cup titles, then jumped to the Western Canada Hockey League for the 1982-83 season. Two years later, the Raiders won the Memorial Cup. The buzz was second to none.
In 2019, in a time when drawing hockey fans across the country is a challenge, the CHL’s No. 1-ranked team for most of the season will have capacity crowds witness the first two games of this series against Saskatoon. This not only gives this generation some great hockey to watch, but reminds some of us who have been around a while that Raider hockey is back on top.