In two days the 2024-25 Nova Scotia Junior Hockey Regular Season regular season will open for 2024-2025.  Teams will be looking to unseat the three-time defending Nova Scotia Champions and two-time Atlantic Champions the Antigonish Jr. Bulldogs.

As with any hockey season until it gets going full-steam, it always difficult to determine who has improved, who has remained essentially the same and who might slip in the standings.  The league has had many powerhouses over the years from the Membertou Jr. Miners to the Valley Maple Leafs to the Sackville Blazers, all who have won provincial championships.  The Pictou County Scotians can never be counted out winning a provincial championship in 2016-2017.

Antigonish has been the talk of the league for three years running but the South Shore Lumberjacks in their first year playing out of Bridgewater turned a significant amount of heads in 23-24, packing their home rink to near capacity at 1,500 plus every game for the playoffs as they took the Bulldogs to six games in the League Championship Final.  East Hants will be seeking to somehow get back into serious contention, they were so very close last season with an exceptional regular season before taking a 3-0 lead on the Lumberjacks in the opening rou d of the playoffs, only to lose four in a row and be eliminated in the first round in a classic opening round series.

The Capstone Colts are a team no one can ever under estimate as they always play tremendous regular season hockey and remain exceptionally tough in the playoffs, advancing to the provincial league championship final in 22-23.

Eskasoni and Brookfield, who both slid back a little in 23-24 will be back after both having tremdous seasons in 22-23 when Eskasoni made the playoffs and the Elks having to wait until the final weekend of the regular season to find out whether they would reach the playoffs via a tie-breaker.

One can never forget the Port Hawkesbury Strait Pirates who have iced a Jr. Team in the Strait area for nearl 60 years and will be hungrier than ever this season with hopes of reaching a provincial championship final as they did with Sackville in 2018-2019 and many years prior to that.

In recent exhibition play leading up to Friday's season openers on three fronts, the East Hants Penguins have won a pair of games via shoot-outs 5-4 over Sackville and 4-3 over the Jr. Bulldogs while losing 7-4 to the Sackville Blazers. The Valley Maple Leafs surpised the Capstone Colts with a 5-4 shoot-out win before losing to the Colts 5-3 in the second game of their week-end doubleheader.

The Membertou Jr. Miners and Port Hawkesbury Strait Pirates split a pair of games with the Jr. Miners winning 7-5 and the Strait Pirates 7-3.  The Strait Pirates concluded their pre-seson with a 2-1-0 record after defeating Eskasoni 7-4.

In a trio of other games to round out the exhibition season, the Jr. Bulldogs tripled up the Scotians 6-2 while the Scotians squeezd by the Brookfield Elks 4-3.  The Elks also lost to the South Shore Lumberjacks 10-3.

The real season begins Friday where every last single season point will become precious based on regular-season standings.  As well, the 30-gamee regular season will be a little different this season in an attempt to reduce travel costs.  Teams playing in the Sid Rowe and Fred Fox Divisions will see two divisional oponents once more at home and once more on the road, in some cases two more.  In the meantime travel to the Sid Rowe Division by Fox Opponents and vice-versa will see only six games instead of what has been the standard 12 games, a home and and away against each club.  The difference this year for example will the Valley Maple Leafs paying Antigonish and Eskasoni at home while travelling to Pictou, Port Hawkesbury and Membertou.  In 25-26, the Leafs will host Pictou, Port Hawkesbury and Membertou while travelling to Antigonish and Eskasoni.

Season tickets for fans interested will be on sale by all clubs leading up to Friday night openers on three fronts with the Lumberjacks travelling to the C.F.B. Shearwater arena and a clash with the Capstone Colts before the Lumberjacks travel to Antigonish Sunday and a re-match of the 23-24 Provincial Championship series with the Jr. Bulldogs.  The other two games Friday will see Pictou play in Port Hawkesbury and the Valley Maple Leafs in Lantz against the East Hants Bitar's Ristorande' Penguins who open 24-25 with a new sponsor.

On Saturday, one game will be played with Antigonish in Memertou while Sunday will also see one game with Membertou visiting Eskasoni.  The opening week of the 24-25 regular season concludes Monday night in Sackville between the Brookfield Elks and the Sackville Blazers.