Canes can’t be judged just yet
The WHL season starts now. The Lethbridge Hurricanes are a shuffling 7-6-0 thus far but everybody knows that after Halloween, every team in the league sheds whatever costume they’ve been trick-or-treating in and starts to establish who they really are.
Peering behind the mask, some of the preseason hopes for the Hurricanes have been fulfilled. Excepting a couple of nasty losses — a 7-6 loss to the hapless Edmonton Oil Kings last month and Sunday’s 74 slip-up with backup Reece Klassen in goal — Lethbridge has been excellent defensively.
Another preseason prediction came true, however, with the Klassen loss. Bereft of Stuart Skinner’s 30-plus saves a game, the Canes will struggle to win.
There are no internal struggles, unlike last season, but expect similar turnover if November doesn’t go the way general manager Peter Anholt hopes.
As for their ninth-place showing in the Eastern Conference, it’s too early to worry. The schedule will push the good teams up and force the bad teams down as rhythm is slowly achieved. It’s easy to forget that despite their playoff success last season, the Canes are largely rebuilt around a different leadership group and youth-reliant defence corps this time.
There will be growing pains without high-flyer Brennan Menell but the Canes (45 goals against, third-best in the conference) should remain atop the defensive standings as long as Skinner is healthy.
As for the offence, its consistency has been the problem so far. When they’re on, passes never waver and shots hit the net. When they’re off, too many forwards try too hard on their own, gift-wrapping blue-line turnovers.
None of these problems are insurmountable and I’m going to bet Brent Kisio has a plan. To this point, practices are based around systems and establishing their system. With that in place, the Hurricanes players will find sessions based on their opponents’ tendencies and how to exploit it.
This is the time of year when we all find out what kind of storm is brewing at the Enmax Centre.