Joey Payeur
When it comes to evaluating his team so far this season, the letter ‘C’ is a recurring theme for Wayne Strachan.
The head coach and general manager of the Fort Frances Lakers would be much happier if his defending three-time SIJHL champs would stumble across another ‘C’—as in consistency.
Troubles with bringing a complete game to the table on a regular basis bothered Strachan the most as he evaluated his squad two games short of the midway point of the 56-game regular season, which resumed last night after a two-week holiday break when the Lakers hosted the Minnesota Iron Rangers (score unavailable as of press time).
The five-time SIJHL coach-of-the-year was candid in grading his squad on how it has performed in each of eight categories this season while sharing his thoughts as the Lakers (11-11-1-3) entered the break in the unfamiliar position of fifth place in the six-team league.
Here are Strachan’s observations with the CJHL trade deadline looming next Tuesday:
•Forwards—‘C’ grade
“When we are on and competing, I like our speed, I like the way we are capable of moving the puck, and I like our cycle game out of the corners.
“Areas our forwards need improvement [are] consistency in the areas I mention above, much more pride in our back-checking, and defensive game as a whole.
“We only have five forwards that are a plus [in terms of plus-minus rating] at this point in the season and to have consistent success, you need more than half of your forwards playing with a plus rating.
“We have to get more secondary scoring from our depth lines. This has been a staple to Lakers’ success in the past.”
•Defencemen—‘C’ grade
“I believe our ‘D’ corps has steadily improved since the return of Ryan Gazich.
“Again, when we are on, we are solid one-on-one, we move the puck well and make good decisions, we play with poise and compete hard.
“I really like the way the younger guys responded in the last two games without [Brandon] Zajicek and Gazich in the lineup.
“Areas of improvement being needed would be again getting that consistency from each and every D-man on a nightly basis, being more physical, not getting puck focused, and being strong in our net coverage.”
•Goaltending—‘C’ grade
“Our goaltending situation through the first half has me to blame. We should have went to two or three right from the start of the year.
“In our wins, especially of late, our goalies have given us the chance to have success and that is what we need.
“They have made the saves we require, made those big saves we need, and the team has responded to their play.
“We need to build off that now and they need to have the confidence they need to go in the pipes every night.
“We need our goalies square to pucks, being big, and again someone to rise up and be that No. 1 so we can start beating the top teams in this league.”
•Power play—‘C’ grade overall/‘B+’ for the last two months
“Our power play is a big reason we started to win some hockey games.
“Again, around the time Gazich returned, our power play turned around. I think our intensity has improved in this situation and has helped our percentage increase from last in the league to fourth.
“Our puck movement is better. We are getting pucks to the net better and, as a result, we are having more success.
“If we are going to continue to grow as a team and in the standings, then our power play has to be consistent on a nightly basis and we need to be able to rely on both units each night.
“We can still improve in decision-making but the biggest drawback to our power-play success is lack of intensity. We need to get the killer instinct in us when we get power-play opportunities.”
•Penalty killing—‘B-minus’ grade
“Overall, I believe all season this may be one of our most consistent parts of our game.
“We have had good success and at the top of the league percentage-wise. Continual work on our systems will further benefit this part of our game.
“The ability to use our entire bench on our penalty killing will also further help our success so we are not burning players out.
“If we can take away lanes and tighten up coverage in front of our net, I believe we can further grow in this area.”
•Face-offs—‘D+’ grade
“This is an area of our game we need to improve on. Puck possession is key and, in our game plan, very important.
“It doesn’t just rely on the centres. We need smarter decisions in winning battles around the face-off areas.”
•Toughness—‘C’-minus grade
“We are a staff that always preaches discipline, and I believe that shows in our penalty minutes per other teams. But again, we can improve our overall toughness as a team.
“What I mean is we need to battle harder, play a more physical, hard game on the puck, and finish our checks every chance we get.
“This area may be the telling tale of our season when it comes to crunch time down the stretch.”
•Overall performance—‘C’ grade
“We have battled to get to .500 and have a record of 9-4-0-1 in our last two months (after a 2-8-1-2 start).
“We are making strides and, after a slow start due to complacency and lack of work ethic, we are coming together as a team and realizing what it takes to win at this level.
“You have heard consistency a lot through these questions and that is the biggest need from the Lakers at this point. We need to be consistent day in and day out.
“Practice habits are better. You have heard players in the last month say our work ethic needed to be better and it has improved, but we still have room to grow in that area.
“We have proven we can compete in the league. We have lost five one-goal hockey games and two games we have lost we have surrendered an empty-net goal to the top teams in the league.
“We have to make it over that hurdle in the second half and learn how to win those games.
“We have had leads in the third and we have allowed teams to battle back and beat us. We have to win those games in the second half and learn how to win those games and what it takes.
“We are improving in areas we need to. We will be trying to further improve the team by (Tuesday) and look to try and peak going into the stretch drive.
“The season hasn’t been won by anyone yet and it’s the team that has the most perseverance that will prevail come playoff time.
“We are not where we want to be, but we can get to where we want to be with some more hard work.”
There will be no shortage of difficult tests for the Lakers to pass this weekend.
The second-place Thunder Bay North Stars (22-6-2), the only team the Lakers have not beaten yet this season, visit the Ice For Kids Arena on Friday at 7:30 p.m.
Fort Frances then heads Dryden to battle the league-leading Dryden GM Ice Dogs (23-4-3).
