It was a good weekend for the Comox Valley Glacier Kings who are coming off wins on Saturday and Sunday against really good teams in Nanaimo and Peninsula. It certainly gave fans a lot of optimism going forward, especially if this team keeps making strides like they have been.

It wasn’t just fans that liked the performance. The coach thought his club was pretty good but isn’t ready to celebrate quite yet. Curtis Toneff talked about it, “I thought our guys started with a bang on Saturday night and carried that momentum for most of the game. We had a good vibe in the room. I don’t really like the saying in hockey or sports ‘buy in’. I don’t really believe in it. I don’t really think we’re selling anything and unfortunately we’re not playing poker. So I think it’s got to be contagious in the room. The players that play have to want it and it looks like they’re starting to want it. That’s a positive thing for us but we can’t get too high because we have some wins we need to make up for in our opinion.” He is correct with that statement as the Glacier Kings should probably have a couple more wins but have found ways to lose those games. The good thing is that they have been in very competitive games and are now finding ways to win those tight finishes.

Sunday’s game marked a change in how the goaltenders have been used in the past. Through the first 7 games, none of the three goalies got to play in back to back games. Anthony Ganoung played both Saturday and Sunday to help Comox get 4 points. I asked Curtis what his reasoning was in deciding to play Ganoung twice in 24 hours, “I’m pretty hard on goalies as a coach. When a guy gets hot and when a guy stops the puck, he’s my friend. So I rode the hot hand. I’ve had some success for whatever reason with moving goalies on but I also can be a bit prickly to them at times. With Anthony, I thought you ride the hot hand. If you go to someone else and you don’t have success, the players are looking at you and saying ‘why didn’t we start the guy that won last night’? It’s not like you can do that every time because it’s a long season. You gotta get guys their looks and keep guys fairly rested. That’s one I just went with my gut and rode the hot hand.” It seemed like good timing to give the nod to the tender who has been playing well and it paid off. The squad has a couple games (Friday and Saturday) but I would expect two different guys in the crease for the matchups. Toneff really does believe in proper rest and to give guys their shots at impressing him.

The GKings staff named their captain and the assistants last weekend. Tomorrow, I’ll get into who they are while the the Comox Valley bench boss will get into why the selections were made. Now that the leadership group has been named, players should be able to fall into the roles that were meant for them and have the proper support they need.

That’s it for today, have a great Tuesday.

Darryl Skender