Petes players react to the end of a disappointing season

“Other teams got better and we kind of didn’t.”

That’s how alternate captain Alex Black summarized the Peterborough Petes stunning fall from grace during the 2017-18 season.

“We were supposed to have a repeat of last year and maybe even win the East,” said Black, after Saturday’s final regular season game ended their season prematurely. “It sucks. Everyone was rolling and we hit a wall. We started sliding down the hill and we couldn’t get back up the hill.”

After reaching last year’s Eastern Conference final, and with a large number of returning players, players, staff, fans, media, opposing teams all expected the Petes to be contenders once again.

Early on they looked ready to fulfill that promise starting 8-2 and on Nov. 1 stood 10-5-1 and in first place in the conference. They had convincing wins over Hamilton, Kingston and Oshawa in that stretched and looked to be the class of the conference.

It’s almost unfathomable that they went 13-34-5 the rest of the way sliding out of the playoffs. They tied a club record for longest losing streak at 10 games, set a franchise mark for longest road losing streak of 20 games, shattering the old one of 14, and fired head coach Jody Hull in early January.

It was as puzzling for the players as it was their fans.

“I wish I had the answers. I bet the organization wishes it had the answers, too,” said Black.

Captain Logan DeNoble said things started to unravel with some injuries in November.

“It started going downhill and it snowballed,” he said. “Yeah, we had lots of injuries but you can’t really blame it on that. It didn’t help, that’s for sure. I can’t really explain it. We couldn’t get the bounces. We were giving up leads. It just sort of happened.”

Rookie Nick Robertson hinted the team was too complacent.

“We let off the gas. We thought we were more than what we were and we didn’t have the humble attitude we needed going into the many games we had,” said Robertson. “It shows with the disappointing losses we had in games we needed to win. It’s an attitude thing and a mental preparedness before each game. That’s what our downfall was this season.”

To be better next season it’s going to take a change of mentality.

“We have to be more humble than this year. Nothing is given. We have to have a good summer and come back with a hard-working attitude,” said Robertson.