The Dauphin Kings continue to truck along on the ice as they prepare for their 51st season.
The team's training camp began last Thursday and wrapped up over the weekend. After that, the Kings played two preseason games against Swan Valley and split those games.
"I'm definitely very happy coming out of camp and now into the preseason," said Topinka. "I think our compete level has been very good for a week. We'll get back on the ice today and do some battle drills to get the guys going."
"We played well for the most part in that first game," said Topinka. "Then, we struggled in the first two periods against Swan in the rematch. But, I couldn't be any happier with how we played in the third period."
With the Kings being on the ice an extensive amount in the last week, fatigue is always a big question but Topinka feels it's all good.
"I mean there's a couple guys that have been on the ice every day sometimes twice a day for a week," said Topinka. "They got the day off yesterday, and they trained all summer to make sure they would be ready for this. It's not an easy thing for the players, but they've worked through it."
Now the Kings are preparing for their third preseason game this Saturday when they welcome the Virden Oil Capitals to town. After that game, the Kings will continue to trim their roster down which will eventually lead to the team's opening day roster in 16 days.
"The hardest job is to cut guys who have been here working really hard for over a week," added Topinka. "The players are starting to get that chemistry with different guys and then we have to cut them, it's definitely not an easy process."
"At the same time, we're trying to build the best team we possibly can," he added. "We want to bring the winning expectation back to town."
The Kings featured several veterans from last year's team that came to camp including Riley Shamray, Jaymes Knee, Brennan Kitchen and many more. But, even the new guys who weren't on the team last year are gelling well right now as they look to crack the roster.
"I mean it definitely helps when you have a bunch of guys coming back from last year's team," added Topinka. "Everyones doing things together and they really push each other on the ice. We're so early in the year and it's great to see everyone's forming together as a team."
As for Mitch on a personal basis, he was hired back on August 13. After moving to town a week later, Mitch has nothing but good things to say as he adapts to the City of Sunshine and being the team's assistant coach.
"I'm loving it so far," said Topinka. "It's a great organization and obviously one of the oldest ones around. It's an honour to be a part of it."
"The facilities are just top notch with everything that's offered," he added. "The community is great, and I'm just loving everything."
