A new hockey season starts tonight – at least it does for the W-H-L regular-season, the 57th in the league’s existence.

The only franchise to have ever played in all of them while based in the same city is the Saskatoon Blades. They begin a home-and-home season-opening series tonight in Prince Albert at 7 o’clock.

This will be the fifth straight opener on the road for the Bridge City Bunch, who have won three of the last four, including a 3-2 decision in P-A on September 20, 2019 when Ryan Hughes scored 17 seconds into overtime. The Blue and Gold are 29-25-2 all-time in season openers, 10-12-1 against the Raiders and 5-5-1 at the Art Hauser Centre. Les Lazaruk asked Blades’ head coach Brennan Sonne about the importance of starting a new season with a victory…..

Barring any late N-H-L training camp arrivals and/or late medical clearances, the Bridge City Bunch will have 23 players to choose from for tonight’s trip to P-A. The Blue and Gold were without forwards Josh Pillar and Connor Roulette at Thursday’s practice – they being at Minnesota and Dallas main camps, respectively – while forward Jayden Wiens was in a red, non-contact practice jersey, leaving his availability in question for tonight.

Coming off 38 wins last season with 19 returning W-H-Lers, Sonne talked about the mood around the team heading into the campaign…..

CJWW’s broadcast starts at 6:45 with play-by-play to start whenever the pre-game ceremonies end. The same teams meet tomorrow night at 7ish at SaskTel Centre. Following is Les Lazaruk’s “Game Spotlight” interview for the Friday broadcast in Prince Albert with 20-year-old defenceman and captain Aidan De La Gorgendiere (pictured)…..

Les spoke with Blades’ assistant coach Dan Da Siva for the Pre-Game Show on the Coaches Show…..

And, Les also chatted with Raiders’ head coach Jeff Truitt for the Other Side feature on CJWW’s broadcast…..