PATS’ INCONSISTENT PLAY HAS PADDOCK PUZZLED
Head coach/GM troubled by veteran-laden squad’s inability to cut down on mistakes
The 2016-17 Regina Pats established a franchise single-season standard for victories. The 2017-18 edition, by contrast, is a broken record.
Time after time, Pats head coach and general manager
John Paddock and his players lament the enigmatic WHL team’s inability to perform at the desired level for 60 minutes.
Paddock’s Pats have demonstrated that they can hang with elite opponents for extended stretches, only to experience spasms that stand in the way of a breakthrough.
For these perplexing Pats, there are as many head shakes as handshakes.
That’s to be expected from a topsy-turvy team that wins roughly as often as it loses. However, the bar is set considerably — perhaps unattainably — higher for this year’s Memorial Cup host team.
The Pats, who are guaranteed a spot in the CHL’s 2018 championship tournament, flirted with a Memorial Cup berth last season.
After winning a team record 52 regular-season games, the
Pats advanced to the league final for the first time since 1984.
The Seattle Thunderbirds then eliminated Regina, by that point a banged-up unit, in six games.
Last season’s Pats were so replete with talent that they could camouflage any imperfections by subjecting flat-footed foes to shock and awe.
The success extended to the boardroom, as the team was awarded Memorial Cup hosting privileges for 2018.
The good news was so torrential that perhaps an unrealistic situation was created.
Memories of last season are so fresh, so vivid, that comparisons are as unavoidable as they are unfair.
It’s difficult to approach, let alone match, that stratospheric standard when you consider that it took the Pats a half-century to win 50 WHL games in a season.
The Pats, remember, didn’t hit the elusive five-oh even when star-studded rosters included legends such as Dennis Sobchuk, Ed Staniowski, Clark Gillies, Doug Wickenheiser and Dale Derkatch.
But then came Adam Brooks,
We’re weighing (the team’s performance). When you’re weighing it, that’s not good enough. That’s the bottom line.
Austin Wagner, Connor Hobbs, Sam Steel, Josh Mahura, Dawson Leedahl and associates, and a landmark season followed. An impossible act to follow. In any other year, Paddock would have dismantled his roster at mid-season with the intent of fortifying the team for the future.
But, exceptional circumstances being what they are, Paddock had no choice but to go in the other direction and trade for proven veterans, with the objective of icing a respectable team on a national stage in May.
On paper, many of the requisite ingredients are in place.
The coaching, provided by Paddock and assistant Dave Struch, is of the highest calibre.
Steel, Cameron Hebig, Matt Bradley, Jesse Gabrielle, Jake Leschyshyn and Nick Henry give the Pats a strong corps of forwards.
A deep blue-line crew includes three A-listers — Mahura, Libor Hajek and Cale Fleury.
The goaltending, while not evoking comparisons to Bernie Parent or even Bernie Germain, is seldom the difference between winning and losing.
Instead, the chronic issue seems to be periodic lapses, such as Wednesday’s sudden siesta against the visiting Moose Jaw Warriors.
Regina was leading 2-1 and carrying the play before the Warriors — this season’s equivalent of the 2016-17 Pats — erupted for three goals in 43 seconds.
Just as public address announcer Mitchell Blair was announcing one goal, another one — and then another one — would be scored.
“That one-minute, two-minute time frame took too much gusto out of us,” Paddock said after Moose Jaw’s 6-3 victory at the Brandt Centre.
Paddock’s post-game comments weren’t entirely complimentary or critical. Wednesday’s game could alternately please and create unease.
Some good, some bad. This is a recording.
Such is the puzzle that is these Pats. In appraising them at this advanced stage of the regularseason, there’s enough to like that some encouragement can be derived from watching this team. As a counterbalance, the equation often includes a qualifying “yeah, but ...”
It is, in the words of the twotime WHL coach of the year, a mixed bag.
“(Pats president) Todd Lumbard came in tonight and it was, ‘How do you feel about it?’ ” said Paddock, aptly making a teetering-scales gesture with his hands.
“We’re weighing it. When you’re weighing it, that’s not good enough. That’s the bottom line.”