Catching Up With… Cody Beach
This time last year the Moose Jaw Warriors and their fans were preparing for the clubs second trip to the WHL Eastern Conference Final in franchise history.
Last year’s team was led by the likes of Quinton Howden and Dylan McIlrath who graduated to the pros, as well as Cam Braes and James Henry who played CIS last year.
Another player who played a major role in the team’s success last year, their 45-19-6-2 record was the best in franchise history, was fan favorite Cody Beach.
Beach, just like Howden and McIlrath, graduated from the WHL to the professional ranks this year. He was taken by St. Louis in the fifth round of the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, and played this season with the Peoria Rivermen and Evansville Iceman who are the Blues American Hockey League and East Coast Hockey League affiliates.
“It was fun but at the same time very difficult. The game is so much quicker,” Beach said on making the transition from major junior to the professional game. “Every guy you’re lining up against is a man and their fighting for jobs. In junior every team is good and every guy is looking to get to the next level, when you’re at the next level it actually quit the transition.”
Beach’s junior career started with the Calgary Hitmen, he was traded to Moose Jaw early in the 2010-2011 season. He played 98 regular season games for the Warriors, scoring 21 goals, finishing with 90 points, and 392 penalty minutes.
His hard-nosed style of play made him a fan favorite, but he does admit when he jumped to the pro’s he had to tweak the way he played the game. “It was tamed down, those were the two words I’d use to describe it,” Beach.
“At this level, and being a rookie in the league, you can’t hurt your team on any given shift. As a player with my style, if I go out there and take a penalty that I shouldn’t, hurt the team, or even get scored against your shifts might be limited or you might just sit there the next forty minutes,” he added. “You’re a lot more cautious and you pick your spots a lot better. A part of maturing is picking those spots. I think I became better at it throughout junior, I find now that I’m even better at.”
“I would have never admitted last year or the year before when coaches got on me about my penalties and some of my actions on the ice,” said Beach. “Looking back at it, they were right. Stuts (Warriors Head Coach Mike Stothers) is a hard guy, a hard coach, and a hard-nosed competitor. In the moment you’re not going to tell him he’s right about everything, but does that guy know a few things about turning players into pro hockey players and turning them into the right direction.”
“Everything he (Stothers) tried to teach me in the year I had him he was directing me to learn that pro hockey is pro hockey, if you’re not doing your job you don’t have a job,” Beach added when talking about coach Stothers.
Beach played 23 games for the Rivermen before suffering a shoulder injury that has since required surgery and kept him out of the lineup since March 5th. His second career game in the AHL was on November 14th against the Rockford IceHogs, which happens to be the team his brother Kyle plays for.
“It was good. He played pretty gentle with me; usually I’d hear it a lot more. I got the better end, I think I got a point in the game and he was held off the score-sheet. I’ll take any bragging rights I can get in the family and let him know about it every day I’m around him.”
On February 16th he was able to play against former Warrior teammate Quinton Howden. “It was great. I kind of just watched the things he did. He was so much fun to play with in Moose Jaw; he must be the fastest guy I know personally, he’s doing great things for himself right now. There’s a reason why he’s playing games for Florida, that’s one of the guys I really pay attention on how his career and everyday life is going.”
“That would have been a little interesting,” Beach said when asked what it would have been like to play against former teammate Dylan McIlrath who currently plays for the Connecticut Whale. “Dylan and I are pretty good competitors so I don’t know what would have happened if we played against each other”. Due to Beach’s injury, he and McIlrath were not able to square off against each other this season.
“It was nice seeing Kendall McFaull. I didn’t get to play against him either but it was great to catch up with him,” Beach added. “With what (General Manager) Alan Millar has in place in Moose Jaw, it really shows that guys like Kendall and other guys that are coming through and signing pro contracts that they have something good in place.”
With his days of playing in the friendly city well in the rear-view mirror, Beach says he always smiles when he thinks of his time in Moose Jaw. “I remember the day I got told I was traded to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. I’m a B.C. boy so I had never heard of the town, everyone said that it was so cold, you never did hear all the best things,” he said.
“When I got to Moose Jaw, my time was great,” Beach added. “I loved the fans; they had my back no matter how things were going. From the coaches, the management, and other players, I couldn’t have asked for more guys that care more about people, their team, and their community.”
“I’ve played in a few different places and I’ve never had a town or community that’s back a team like Moose Jaw,” Beach added. “Moose Jaw will always have a place in my heart and I’ll never forget my time as a Warrior.”
“Moose Jaw was different; these people care and know who’s giving the effort. Even when I was taking a bad penalty, they were the one’s booing the ref,” Beach said when talking about his relationship with Warrior fans. “Throughout the good and bad is when you realize what kind of fans your community has, whether we were winning or losing they had our backs. I couldn’t thank them enough because they we cared so much about our team and the players.”
Beach remains on the sidelines for Peoria after having season ending shoulder surgery. He said that he was operated on last week and rehab could take up to five months.
