Good Evening Hockey Fans,
Welcome back to the Panorama Recreation Centre for tonight’s affair with the visiting Kerry Park Islanders. We have four points in five games and need a win tonight to move back to .500 hockey while the Islanders have had no luck in their first four games of the year and are looking to crack into the win column.
Last night we travelled to the Archie Browning Arena in Esquimalt and came out on the wrong side of a 6-2 score against a very good Victoria Cougars squad. The Cougars held period leads of 1-0 and 3-1 before blowing it open late in the game. The match was a very entertaining one and a save here or a shot that might have found it’s way through Cougars Goaltender Evan Roch, could have changed the complexion of the game in a hurry. Josh Adkins scored for our Club on a scramble in front of the Cougars net while our other tally was counted by defenceman Spencer Loverock on a pretty wrist shot from the right side as he hustled to join the rush. The one thing that I took out of this game was that we can play with the Cougars. We have the talent and the skating ability to go up and down the sheet with them however, their veteran experience is the difference between the two clubs at this point in the season. The Cougars have some real polish in the offensive end and at this point we have not twinkled the twine as often as I had thought we would. That being said, we play the Cougars two more times in the next two weeks and I am already looking forward to those games.
I suppose the question you might be asking and I am as well is, “Why are we not scoring more goals?” When we went into this season, I felt that our goaltending was solid and that our forwards would put up enough on the scoreboard. I actually felt that the back end would cause us some problems. I felt that we had upgraded in all areas from last season and certainly on defence but I felt that we had more work to do. To date our defence is much better than I thought. Cody Breitenstein has come in from L.A. and is getting used to a tougher brand of hockey and is becoming a leader. Spencer Loverock gets better every day and is chipping in with points from the back. What Loverock does better and more often than anyone is pack the puck out of our end and into the offensive end, taking it out of harm’s way. He will get more polish when attacking, it is starting to come already. Patrick Croome was picked up after we had played two games and he has really solidified the group. Croome is a great kid and, from the looks of it, is becoming one of the leaders on the squad. I always say that if a player is not talking on the ice, it is one of two things - either he does not know the game or he is selfish. Watch Croome tonight, he is vocal, he leads. Austin Singhera has been a pleasant surprise. We could see that he had all the skill to be an impact defenceman but he is still a work in progress in terms of his physical development - most of these kids are. Singhera has shown me that he can go into the corners and come out with the puck and not even have to pull out a comb to straighten his hair. With the way the game has changed, skilled defencemen are at a premium and, as Austin develops this year, he will become a significant piece for us. Grayson Vickers is big and does bring the physical aspect to the game, he has to if he wants to find success. Grayson played for the Panthers as a rookie last season but I see that he has more confidence right now and when he makes contact - big contact - players on the opposition take note when he is on the ice. Last night he hit a Victoria Cougar right at the Panthers bench and the force of the hit blew the gate to the bench open leaving the Cougar half in and half out. These kind of hits make a difference in a game, in a season. Kyle Richardson is physical enough to be considered a hard-hitting type of defenceman, but he can also skate and handle the puck extremely well for 6’4”. In my mind he is the player on the back end that has the most upside. Kyle is a happy-go-lucky kid but at times gets a nasty streak going. I really have enjoyed watching him for the past several months and look forward to seeing more from him. He is so capable of giving so much more and when he does. he will make our defence even better. Much has already been written about Brett Sjervan, not for what he has done on the ice but for his tough medical situation that he went through this summer. Sjervan is a great kid and has played one game to date. He scored late in the game last week against Comox and was selected a star, we’ll see if the coaching staff elect to put him in tonight against the Islanders. Sjerven has grit and character and will push hard in the next while to move into the top six in order that he might see more playing time. There will be some real competition in the next couple weeks as we figure out which of these seven guys can and want to play, honestly....I like them all.
Last night Jonas Horvath drew into the lineup against the Cougars and actually looked pretty comfortable in his first game of the season. Horvath hails from Whistler, B.C. and we picked him up after our Spring camp in April. Jonas went out this summer and busted up his foot in an off-ice accident and it looked like he would not be in the lineup until late October or November. These kids heal a lot faster than I do and Jonas began skating in the first week in September, worked hard and found himself playing last night. He is a big kid and a good defensive centreman so we will be looking for him to add more grit than he showed last night. Again, it was his first game and I was more focused on his skating and it does look fine which has surprised us all. Jonas will be a real valuable pickup and, as we get further down the road and the matchup game becomes more prominent, he could see a lot of time in a shutdown role against some of the top lines in the league. He is big enough, he can skate well enough, he is smart enough and gauging from how fast he came back from his injury, he probably has a pretty fair-sized ticker as well.
And speaking of the Whistler connection, Jenn Finlay (Will Finlay’s Mom) and a group of people from Whistler are expected in tonight to watch feisty, big-hearted and energetic
#26 Will Finlay plying his trade. Also in from out of town for tonight is #11 Reece Costain’s father, John. Reece has such a big upside and in the next couple of weeks I honestly believe that he will start to put his game together and will showcase what he brings to the table. I spoke briefly with Reece last night and so look for him to bang a bit more this evening and to skate with a bit more wind in his face.
OK folks, thank you all for coming out once again to help support and cheer on our boys. Several of the kids from out of town have already commented about the support we receive every single Friday. From John Wilson, Coreen and I, we all want to thank you for your support! Pete Z.
.jpg)
Email
Print
