Catching up with Matt Shuya

I find myself in Fort St. John en route to Vancouver (it's a long story best saved for Facebook) and while here thought I would call up a former Spruce King and let him know that I was in town for the day. This particular player appeared on the team's roster for a total of 208 regular season games. He shows up on a few pages of the hockey club's BCHL record book and is one of those players whose name is automatically synonymous with the Spruce Kings. With those unforgettable dimples, Matt Shuya appears to be in top physical shape and is even more solid than he was in his Junior A days.

A four year player with the team, Shuya was one third of the Prince George side of a blockbuster trade that saw a total of seven players ultimately traded in a deal with the Merritt Centennials back at the January 10th trade deadline day in 2006. The number 19 jersey of Shuya may have come off the player, but the Crown never came off his heart. Still today standing in the warm summer breeze outside the newest arena in his hometown, Matt re-lived many memories that brought out his smile and a sparkle in his eyes.

Now playing for the Fort St. John Flyers senior mens hockey team, Shuya admits that those years he played in Prince George have never left him and he finds himself reminiscing with people he knew from that important time in his life. He spoke in glowing terms about the fans, team mates and a few of the people from the organization that he came to know over his four seasons with the Spruce Kings. With lots of memories to recount, he is especially fond of his third season when the team had all the components to make a serious run at the title.

"That was one of my best years of hockey," Shuya said of the 2004-05 season. "We had a great bunch of guys and we all got along. We had everything to do it, until we ran into some injury troubles. I will never forget that year."

Matt Shuya shows up in the Spruce Kings record book with the second most games played and holds down fifth spot for the most career goals and also appears on the all time scoring leaders list with 141 points. Known more for his hard work in the corners and physical play, Matt Shuya also ranks in the top three for most career penalty minutes ... first place belongs to another Spruce Kings alumni from Fort St. John.

"I'm playing with Tyler Loney," beams Shuya when he talks of his life-long team mate from minor through junior and into senior hockey. "There are also other players with Prince George connections like Tyler Brough and Gerard Dicaire on the team. We're trying to see if Brad Fast wants to play this year too and maybe Chris Stevens. We're hosting the (2010) Allan Cup and it would be nice to get a few more guys up here and win it in front of the hometown fans."

The Allan Cup is the trophy awarded to the national senior amateur men’s ice hockey champions of Canada. The trophy was donated in 1909 by Sir H. Montagu Allan as a trophy for amateur teams, to replace the Stanley Cup, whose tournament had become a professional competition. In a similar fashion to the RBC Royal Bank Cup, the Allan Cup is a six team round robin tournament style championship. This will mark the first time in its 102 year history that the Allan Cup will be played in the city of Fort St. John and over the past three years, the Flyers have been quickly establishing themselves as a serious contender for the title.

When asked whether or not the still-to-be-completed Enerplex would become the new home for the senior mens hockey team, Shuya informed me that the new arena isn't as big as the North Peace Arena. He also explained how the Enerplex will satisfy one big concern for the city of Fort St. John being ice time, but with the smaller seating capacity it will be used by the minor hockey teams and not the senior team or the Junior B Huskies.

The Enerplex has a neat design concept behind it with a total of three levels. The first level will be the rink for ice hockey, above that will be a skating oval for speed skaters and above that still will be a running track. An interesting configuration to be sure but not one that didn't come with some unique drawbacks as well. One of those obstacles that was pointed out to me was how to get a Zamboni from one level to the next - install a dedicated elevator just for the ice resurfacer.

The other drawback of the tiered design is the reduction of seating space for the main rink. Limited to 1,500 seats, the seating capacity is probably the first thing that struck me as odd for a new building. Although I never went inside, I can't help but picture an arena with a much lower ceiling than any other modern facility. Then again I can't think of another project that was ever built with less seating than an already existing facility.

"What the city of Fort St. John desperatey needs is more ice," Shuya said in defence of the new building. "We were only getting one practice time a week, we were lucky to get three ice times a week to play a pair of games and still have that practice ice too."

Even in the middle of the hottest part of the day, you could feel the excitement of this Spruce Kings alumni waiting to get back into a pair of skates and feel the slice of the metal blade on a fresh sheet of ice. At the end of our short time together, Matt obliged my request for a picture with the Enerplex as the backdrop and then headed off to the lake.