Saskatoon StarPhoenix

Blades need to find resiliency from last season, coach says

- DARREN ZARY dzary@postmedia.com Twitter.com/@DZfromtheS­P

When a rash of injuries hit them last season, the Saskatoon Blades relied on work ethic to keep them in playoff contention right until the very end.

Blades head coach Dean Brockman is still looking for the same sort of work ethic this season.

With a three-game road swing — Western Hockey League contests are scheduled Wednesday in Regina, Friday in Medicine Hat and Saturday at Red Deer — there is no better time than now.

“It’s been really frustratin­g,” Brockman admitted Wednesday prior to his team’s departure.

“As soon as something goes wrong, we have a tendency to give up and I don’t like that in any way, shape or form. We reminded our guys that it’s going to take strong efforts, shift after shift, to be successful. One of our trademarks last season was how hard we worked, and I haven’t seen that this year so far.”

The Blades hit the road Wednesday without forwards Kirby Dach and Logan Christense­n, who are both out of the lineup indefinite­ly. Christense­n is out a minimum of six weeks.

They did, however, welcome back goalie Ryan Kubic, who got the start Wednesday night in Regina. “We’re hoping he solidifies that area of the game, for sure,” said Brockman, whose team returned rookie goalie Nolan Maier to the Saskatchew­an Junior Hockey League’s Yorkton Terriers.

Meanwhile, Brockman is hoping the Blades can return to the same resiliency and resolve they showed last season when often short-staffed and without so many key players.

“We’ve got to find that,” stressed Brockman. “If they score the first goal in the first three minutes of the game, it means there are 57 more minutes to play instead of throwing in the towel.

“We’ll see how guys respond to what we’ve been preaching. For the most part, they’re not very happy with the way they’ve played, either, so that certainly helps things.”

After Regina, the road trip doesn’t get any easier, with stops in Medicine Hat and Red Deer. The Blades will stay and practise in Regina on Thursday rather than return to Saskatoon.

“It’s always tough to win in (Medicine) Hat and it’s always tough to win in Red Deer, but, maybe for us, it’s good to get on the road and just play,” offered Brockman.

“We’ve created a little bit of an atmosphere where guys are afraid to make a mistake and they’re not willing to do what they need to do. In saying that, Med Hat has a good team. They thumped us here, so we’ve got to try and avenge that. With Red Deer, their top two lines are pretty decent. Again, it’s how we start the game and how we persevere some of the down times in the game. If guys don’t give up and battle through some of those things, we’ll be OK.”

 ?? KAYLE NEIS/FILES ?? Although the Saskatoon Blades have been hit with injuries at the outset of the season, goalie Ryan Kubic is back in the lineup.
KAYLE NEIS/FILES Although the Saskatoon Blades have been hit with injuries at the outset of the season, goalie Ryan Kubic is back in the lineup.

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