When you look at the opening day line up and compare it to the current roster, it is very different. Is the team better now than on September 6th? The answer is pretty obvious, of course it is. Every team will be better as the season goes on by just getting more shifts, getting in better shape, playing in more situations, facing different diversity and improving on personal skill sets. But the Glacier Kings have brought in quite a few players which has really bolstered their line up. One case and point is Ethan Gobel who joined the team after the season started. He is second on the team in points and first in assists and point per game. Also Cameron Collins who has points in 3 of his last 4 games and sits 4th in team scoring despite also missed the first 3 games. In fact he has already equaled his point total of last year with the Pacific Coast Academy U18 Prep team in under half the games played. The list can go on but the moves head coach/GM Curtis Toneff has made definitely upgraded his squad. The problem is, so have the other teams.
Since most of the teams in this league have improved, who has made the best progress? Comox Valley has to be up there as they are vastly better than they were in Game 1. But is it just skill that can make a team better or are there other factors? Toneff says he’s happy with the how his team has been coming along and a big part of that is because of the players thought process, “Progress has been pretty good as a whole. I think we brought in players that we hope have one or two mindsets. Those return goal guys, veterans that are 18, 19 or 20 and simply want to win. Or the 16, 17, maybe a couple 18 year old’s that really want to get to the next level and get better everyday. Maybe that’s why they came to this league. I think if you combine those two, it’s a recipe for success. We just have to show and manage our effort and energy levels better. We’ve had weeks where we looked like we had good legs and then weeks where we don’t look like we have good legs. We talked about what they were doing the other 21 hours of the day. That becomes important this time of year. What does that other 21 hours of the day look like? Is it guys getting better or guys getting worse? It’s kind of up to them as athletes to do the right thing. It’s not always being in the gym more, it’s maybe just eating right or hydrating right or sleeping right.” It’s obvious that Curtis wants a full commitment from this team and not just during the 3 hour game.
It’s been a few weeks since the coaching staff made their decision on who the leadership group was going to be as well as who would don a letter. With that honor comes a lot of responsibility. For young kids that can be a lot of pressure. It’s still pretty new to most of them and Toneff says the lettered guys as well as the rest of the team need to take another step, “Pretty average to be honest. They have some learning to do and some growing to do like we all do. Our players have to get better and our leaders have to get better, I know I have to be better. If we want to take that next step and put some separation being average and .500, we all got to be 5 to 10 percent better here. It’s that time of the year where it’s not all sunshine and rainbows outside. There are some long days where the sun is down pretty early and you find out where your character lies. We’ll start to find out in the next month or so who has that character.” The leadership core does need to get better and it seems they are. The real evaluation should come around mid-season when everyone is more comfortable in their roles.
For now, the biggest task will be putting the Peninsula game behind them, regain their confidence and be ready for Nanaimo on Thursday. The club had started getting a little bit of swagger before Saturday’s loss. One good solid effort against the Bucs can certainly make a huge difference in a lot of different ways. We will see which way it will go tomorrow evening.
Darryl Skender
