There are definitely a couple of concerns that are bothersome after watching the Victoria Royals of late.
One, as I wrote in Thursday’s Times Colonist, is a lack of urgency that seems to have formed within the club.
The second, for me, is that their best players haven’t been their best players, especially defensively. There continue to be too many mistakes in their own zone.
In Wednesday’s second straight 3-2 loss to Everett, Jamie Crooks scored his 30th of the season (no small feat) to extend his consecutive point streak to six games. It came on a power play, shortly after Ryan Harrison rang the puck off the crossbar on a short-handed Everett opportunity.
But Crooks and Ben Walker did finish the night at -2, a telling stat. Brandon Magee went one worse at -3.
As a whole, there are some horrendous plus-minus numbers with this Western Hockey League club, the worst is captain Hayden Rintoul’s -29.
Rintoul has struggled much too often in his own end, and did it again on Wed. with a few giveaways in his own zone. But to give him credit, he lit a spark in the third period with several solid rushes and collected a couple of assists and finished even on the evening.
But -29 is far too great a number for the veteran. Magee is right behind him now at -28 and Brett Cote sits at -27.
Lost in the loss was a good performance from Keegan Kanzig who broke up a two-on-one and another solid effort from goaltender Keith Hamilton. Unfortunately the netminder let the winner get by him with 8:23 to go.
Hamilton has been spectacular at times, but his telling stat is an .877 save percentage, which just isn’t good enough, yet.
While it’s easy to point out the poor negative numbers on the plus-minus ledger, it would be unfair to not mention the effort that young Taylor Crunk put in during the third period. Dakota Conroy was also solid. The two, along with Mike Forsyth, were the only plus players on the night.
* * * * *
Unfortunately, Royals defenceman Tyler Stahl was suspended for the game after taking a major and game misconduct for charging in Tuesday’s loss. Stahl was handed an automatic one-game hiatus and could face further repercussion as the WHL examines the hit.
* * * * *
Speaking of suspension, Everett Silvertips 20-year-old defenceman Brennan Yadlowski was handed a 10-game adjournment on Tuesday for reportedly venturing into the Portland Winterhawks dressing room last weekend.
Yadlowski was apparently jumped by Jason Trott and both were ejected after a fight. Trott earned an instigator penalty and Yadlowski was apparently cut in the incident. Then he went over the top, getting into the Portland room.
“That was an unfortunate, silly thing that happened,” said Silvertips head coach Mark Ferner. “He’s a real emotional kid and what he did was wrong.”
“The player’s off-ice actions, following removal from the game in the third period, were unacceptable,” the league stated on its website.
* * * * *
Most recognize Ferner as the man who led the Vernon Vipers to three straight BCHL titles, as well as two Royal Bank Cup victories.
What some people don’t know is Ferner was a player/assistant coach in Long Beach with John Vanboxmeer, before becoming an assistant coach in Vancouver and Kamloops of the WHL. He then took over the Blazers’ bench.
He ended up in Vernon and was hired this past off-season in Everett by general manager Doug Soetart, who was let go last week.
“That was the great thing about Doug. He let me know that we would be fighting for a playoff spot this year. He was honest with me and I accepted that. It’s a great challenge and I feel like I let him down,” Ferner told me before Wednesday’s game.
“Losing Ryan Murray (for stretches) really hurt our team. He’s only played 26 games. Obviously we also moved a pretty good player in Tyler Maxwell, but at the same time it’s been a tremendous experience working with these kids and trying to build something from starting over.”
Ferner had an unbelievable 165-51-24 record with a .738 win percentage in Vernon. He also won 42 of 62 post-season games.
“Culture to me is everything,” he said. “Before the on-ice product changes the off-ice has to change. The kids are starting to understand that. I think I treat them pretty well, but at the same time, when they need kick in the pants, they get a kick in the pants.
“The one thing I’ve talked about is trust. You need to trust what we’re doing. I need to trust you and you need to trust your teammates and go play hard for each other.”
* * * * *
Rumour had it Ferner was a possibility to become the Victoria Grizzlies’ coach this past off-season.
Ferner admits he does have a good relationship with majority owner Len Barrie, but stressed he was still under contract to Vernon.
Now, with Soetart gone, his future could be in jeopardy, considering the Silvertips are just 14-31-1-8 this season and a replacement GM may want his own guy in charge.
Ferner did get a three-year contract to join Everett, but if he is replaced, don’t be surprised if he does hook up with Barrie.
* * * * *
On a personal note, Soetart is a former Edmonton Oil Kings goaltender who I actually grew up watching back in the old Edmonton Gardens.
I can still smell those onions frying in that fabulous old facility, that was eventually torn down and replaced by the Agricom, which later became the home of the Edmonton Ice before they moved to Cranbrook where they are now the Kootenay Ice.
Yup, Ice, Ice, baby.
