Cameron looks for urgency
Head coach Malcolm Cameron knows it’s time for the Regina Pats to start heating up — or risk being left out in the cold.
With just 18 games remaining, the Pats are on the clock as they look to solidify a playoff spot — preferably a favourable one — in the WHL’s Eastern Conference standings.
“I would liken it to a car in Saskatchewan,” noted Cameron. “Once you shut the motor off it takes a long time to warm up. You have to keep it running.”
In other words, it’s getting a little late to ask for a boost.
The Pats (27-22-3-2) have gone 9-9-1 in the second half of the campaign, posting just three wins over teams with winning records (the Brandon Wheat Kings, Calgary Hitmen and Red Deer Rebels) since the Christmas break.
Cameron believes the Pats are capable of running with some of the WHL’s better clubs.
The key is to get their game up to speed quickly and not let off the gas.
“It’s not the coaches’ job at this time of year to have to go in and rattle the chains and (use) fire and brimstone in the locker-room,” he said. “The fact is, if we get to the playoffs, we’re going to be playing some good hockey teams. We need everybody in our lineup playing their Grade A game to beat the top teams. The statistics don’t lie about who we’ve beaten this year and how we’ve beaten them. It has been a result of a four-line, six-D combination and everybody going for 60 minutes. If we don’t get that, we haven’t had much success against the top teams.”
Cameron witnessed that kind of effort on Dec. 15 in a 5-4 overtime loss to the Kelowna Rockets, the No. 1 team in the country. Although the end result wasn’t in Regina’s favour, the head coach felt it was an indication of his team’s capability.
“We were really shorthanded (due to injuries) and we went 63 minutes with them,” he noted. “That was just a complete team effort. If we don’t get that we’re not going to have success. We’re going to have to scrape and claw to get into the playoffs and we won’t do much damage when we get there.”
The postseason quest continues tonight against the visiting Saskatoon Blades, who’ve lost all six meetings this season. Regina has earned nearly half of its 27 wins against the Blades and Moose Jaw Warriors, posting a combined 13-0 record versus two of the conference’s cellar-dwellers.
The Pats need that streak to continue tonight — especially given their struggles against top teams.
“There’s no question it puts more pressure on us to have to win those games,” added Cameron. “We haven’t got to the point yet where we have the luxury of watching the standings and saying, ‘OK, we can have a bad night here or there.’ We have to have a good night for the next 18 games. That’s the only thing that is going to guarantee us a playoff seed.”