After a successful training camp and exhibition schedule that featured four victories, the Aberdeen Wings will be ready to hit the ice when the regular season kicks off this week.

The Wings start their campaign with three games this week at the North American Hockey League Showcase in Blaine, Minn., Wednesday through Saturday.

“It’s always a tough time of year when you start training camp and you have to put it all together,” said Wings coach Scott Langer, “but I think we had a pretty good training camp and it will be exciting to get this team on the ice in a game that means something.”

While Aberdeen has a handful of players returning, including the likes of Luke Backel, Leonid Bulgakov, and Jibber Kuhl, piecing together incoming players who have never been together on the ice before can present a bit of a challenge. Langer likes what he has seen so far.

“The big thing is your locker room, the cohesion in your locker room. This seems like a really close group there. They all like each other. They all hang out together,” Langer said. “They’ve been really good through the exhibition series. They seem to have blended and obviously when teams are playing for points, it’s a little different game, so I’m excited to see this group compete.”

The new crew of players who are joining the Wings this season offer a blend of size, speed and skill, according to Langer.

“I think with this year’s group so far, we’ve seen a combination of size, some guys that can really get around the ice,” Langer said. “I think each line has little bit of everything on it right now as we put our lines together through training camp, obviously those are always subject to change, but each line has some size, each line has some skill guys and they all can skate. … We focused on guys that have some experience in junior hockey and that were good people, and so far that’s played out well.”

The Central Division of the NAHL will feature a new look this season as two teams were added, pushing the total to eight. New teams include the Minnesota Mallards and the Watertown Shamrocks.

Langer said having more teams in the division will not necessarily have a huge impact on the Wings. He noted that the competition within the division is always strong and he doesn’t see that changing with the new look this season.

“We still have the same goals in mind. We want to finish at the top of the division and then dictate what we do in the playoffs,” Langer said. “This division every year I’ve been in it has been a lot of parity and a lot of competition, and it’s tough to win on any given night, so I would think it would be no different.”

While the season features dozens and dozens of games, each one is important, starting with the showcase this week, according to Langer.

“You don’t want to dig yourself a hole in this division,” Langer said. “I think it’s extremely important to get out of the gates right away, play well, try to put some wins in the column, and utilize that to gain confidence as we get into in division play.”

With a season that stretches from September into April, not including the playoffs, things can get to be a bit of a grind. Langer said it is important to keep things enjoyable for the players, while still working hard and performing on the ice.

“I think that’s where leadership comes in. We have some of those guys in the room,” Langer said. “You have to keep it fun, too. If it it gets to be a drag and it gets to be too hard, things just start falling apart. So I think you just have to continue to make it fun every day. Winning heals a lot of that stuff, so you have to make sure that you’re putting in the effort every game, so you don’t have to get yourself into that situation.”

The preseason prep is done for the Wings and now that work is ready to be on full display as the curtain goes up on another season. Langer is looking forward to seeing what the players can accomplish.

“We’ve done a good job through training camp. They’ve bought into what we’re trying to teach and how we want to play. Now, it’s going to be learn through mistakes and battles, and whatever you get up against in a game,” Langer said. “You have the ability to fix it afterwards. And I think right now, that’s kind of where we want to get to is playing meaningful games where we can make some mistakes, but correct them and become better for it.”

The Wings, who have their home opener on Friday, Oct. 4 against Watertown at the Odde Ice Center, have been one of the most successful teams in the NAHL for the better part of the past decade and they don’t plan on changing how they go about doing things now.

“We’re going to approach things the way the Wings like to approach things,” Langer said, “and hopefully there’s a success at the end of the day.”