As difficult as it was for the Lloydminster Bobcats to suffer another playoff sweep against the Grande Prairie Storm, it was especially heart-wrenching for those injured Lloyd players who helplessly watched as the season ended.
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“It was tough,” said Bobcats forward Raphael Messier, whose shoulder injury from Game 1 eventually sidelined him for the final two contests in the four-game series.
“You know you can’t really control anything. You’re in the stands and hoping that the boys will be good. I was more stressed, not playing, than playing. Yeah, it was a rough, tough finish.”
Messier was an integral part of the Bobcats all year during his first season in the Alberta Junior Hockey League. He came to Lloydminster last summer after playing parts of two seasons with the major junior Quebec Remparts in his native province.
An anticipated long playoff run this spring turned out to be an abbreviated journey for the Bobcats, and even more so for injured players like Messier.
“It started in Game 1,” Messier recounted about his injury from the playoff-opener. “I fell on my right shoulder. I taped it for the second game, but I fell on it a second time during Game 2. After a couple of tests, (I was told) I was done for one or two weeks.”
This year’s playoffs lasted less than a week — six days — for a Bobcats team that was swept by the Storm for a second straight season.
In both years, Lloydminster defenceman Noah Smith was forced to watch the playoffs from the sidelines, as he continued to recover from shoulder surgery in 2025.
“It’s hard to be in the stands and watching the boys go through everything that they’ve been going through, just all the battles, and not being in the fight with them,” said Smith, who turned 19 in February. “It’s hard.
“Yeah, it’s the same thing (as last year). These (Storm) guys have our number.”
Although he’s been based back home in Brooks, Alta., for the second half of this season, Smith has made regular trips to Lloydminster during Bobcats’ homestands. He especially wanted to visit last week as they played what turned out to be their final two games of the playoffs.
“I was involved the whole time, watching every game from back home,” he said. “Every opportunity I could to come up, when we had two games at home, I’d come up. It was worth it every time.”
While convalescing at home this winter, Smith attended BCHL games between the Brooks Bandits and Okotoks Oilers. Afterward, he caught up with former teammate Matthew Hikida, who suddenly left Lloydminster in February and joined Okotoks. The Oilers failed to qualify for their playoffs.
“I watched two Bandits games when Matthew Hikida was in town, so I went down and saw him, twice actually,” Smith said. “It was good to see him. But I’d rather be out here (playing) than watching Brooks play.”
The AJHL’s Bobcats, of course, missed the services of Hikida, a 19-year-old forward, during their ill-fated playoff push.
“I talked to him,” Smith said. “It’s kind of hard to leave and then go to a team that’s not even cracking playoffs. We all wish he would have stayed. But it is what it is. Everything happens for a reason.”
Smith, meanwhile, is focused on making a full comeback in the 2026-27 season.
“I’ve been doing rehab as much as I can, doing everything the doctor has been telling me to do — physio — and just trying to get it as healthy as I can,” he said. “The plan was to come back (this year), but unfortunately, the doctor said that wasn’t the best route to go down.
“It’s going good, though. It’s feeling better. It’s only up from here.”
It’s a similar mindset for Smith’s brother Cage, a 17-year-old forward with the WHL’s Edmonton Oil Kings. Cage has recovered from a high-ankle sprain and is back in the Oil Kings’ lineup for their first-round playoff series against the Saskatoon Blades.
After playing major junior last season in the QMJHL, the Bobcats’ Messier would like to test another shot at that level before committing to return to Lloydminster next season.
“I don’t know yet (about next year),” said Messier, who turned 19 in January. “Obviously, I will try to be back at major junior. After that, I will see what my options are. I will take a moment to think about it this summer.
“The Q was a pretty good experience for me, especially at the young age of 16. This year, I wanted to maybe try another experience, so I came here (to Lloydminster). It was a great experience for me.”
Messier was one of the Bobcats’ top forwards and skated with Canada West at the World Junior A Hockey Challenge last December back home in Quebec.
“A pretty good year,” he said about his Border City stay. “It was tough to adapt here, especially at the beginning of the year when I was not very good in English. So, it was pretty tough. But, it’s a very special group, honestly. The boys welcomed me pretty well. The group of players, every guy in the locker-room, is pretty special.”
Messier was able to live with French-speaking billets in Lloyd, along with his billet mate Mathieu Menard of the U17 AAA Lloydminster Lancers. Menard and the Lancers are in their Hockey Alberta provincials this week.
“It was my first time having a billet brother,” Messier said. “At my other billet in Quebec, I was always alone. It was a bit of adapting this year, but it was fun. A new experience again. It was pretty cool.
“I heard the Lancers made it to provincials, so that’s pretty good for Mathieu and his team. I hope they will do well.”
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