All posts by Darryl Skender

It’s Game Day

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We’ve waited all week for this weekend. And it’s finally here. There’s 10 games this weekend in the VIJHL and the Comox Valley Glacier Kings are in 3 of them. These next few days will be the toughest test for the Yeti that they’ve had all year. Why? Because it has been tough to get a gauge on the team. They were inconsistent early in the season with bad penalties, defensive zone turnovers and not putting a full 60 minutes in. Each game they have gotten better but 4 of the 5 teams they have played are under .500. Their only win is against a club that is still winless this year. They are going to be playing upper caliber teams over the next few days. First up is the Campbell River Storm, a team that beat the Glacier Kings in overtime on September 13th. They have been rivals as long as any of us can remember. Both sides are better than their records. Comox is 1-3-1 while the Storm are 2-4-0. The two teams are very equally matched and promises to be as good of a game as the one 13 days ago. Both teams have had trouble scoring goals early on. The Glacier Kings defence seems to have the edge. As for special teams, Comox has the edge on the power play while Campbell River has been better at killing penalties. Westin Churchill leads the GKings in goals with 3. Zaya Morro leads in points with 4. The Storm are led by Dylan Toth with 4 goals. Nobody else has more than 2. Toth, Elliott Turgeon and Tom Marguet all have 5 points to lead the way for the home side. Dylan Toth just had his 4 game point streak broken in his club’s last game which was a 5-2 loss to Port Alberni. Meanwhile for Comox, Westin Churchill has a goal in 3 consecutive game going into tonight. Campbell River is 1-2-0 at home, the Glacier Kings are an identical 1-2-0 on the road.

We will find out what the GKings are made of this weekend… where do they stand, what are they made of? After tonight they play the top two teams in the VIJHL as they go up against Nanaimo and Peninsula who are both in first place in their respective divisions. It will be a grind for sure. There are a lot of technical things that will have to be done right to come out with victories but there are also simple things as well. Head coach/GM Curtis Toneff explains, “Probably just taking it one game at a time. As a whole, you can’t be looking at Saturday’s home game when you’re taking the ice to start the second period in Campbell River. It needs to be period by period, shift by shift, the old coaching cliches but they’re cliches for a reason. That’s why they’re cliches… because they work. You maintain focus and just play hockey and have fun. We did it through camp, we’ve played 2 games in a day, we’ve played 3 games in 3 days, we’ve done 5 games in 4 days so there’s no real excuse for our team. You just go and do what you trained for all summer to do.”

Is there a chance of the players being tired by the time the third game rolls around on Sunday? Absolutely. But considering that this a league of 16-20 year old kids (with a few exceptions) which means their bounce back ability should be pretty high. You take an old guy like me and I’ll be down for a couple days after a game of hockey. These young guys are in great shape and pretty resilient. Toneff says that he will make sure they stay fresh, “That’s my job to make an adjustment or two. Some outsiders or whatever say, ‘What’s up with that schedule’ but to me I love it. You see who rises to the top, you see who is in shape, you see who stays mentally sharp over the course of the weekend. You can find out a lot about your roster. At some point this weekend, there will be some adversity out there, whether you’re hemmed in the d-zone  or you’re on the PK or you’re protecting a lead or you’re scratching and clawing back into a game. At some point in the season, to have success, you’re going to have to do that so may as well start here late September.” It makes a lot of sense, have some stressful games when you have don’t have days off to rest. It can only make you better as the season goes on. So it sounds like Curtis is going to embrace  the 3 in 3 instead of being scared of it. Win, lose or draw, the Glacier Kings will live it and be stronger for it.

The games this weekend are as follows:
Friday: Comox Valley @ Campbell River -7:30pm
Saturday: Nanaimo @ Comox – 6:30pm
Sunday: Comox Valley @ Peninsula – 4:30pm

Darryl Skender

Thursday Thread

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I don’t know about anyone else but I am excited about this weekend’s games for the Comox Valley Glacier Kings. So far, they’ve played strong teams like Nanaimo, weaker teams like Kerry Park and middle of the road teams like Campbell River, Oceanside and Saanich. All those games have one theme… the Yeti have been in every one of them until the very end. So what’s difference about this weekend? Well… so far they have played a total of 5 games combined over 3 weekends. Starting Friday, it will be 3 games in 3 days. Two games will be against undefeated teams (Peninsula 5-0, Nanaimo 4-0) and their other opponent will be their arch rival (Campbell River). This is as tough as it gets. As I said, the Glacier Kings have been very competitive so far but this will be a definite test.

Going into the weekend, Comox Valley is in pretty good shape healthwise. They already have 13 players that have played in all 5 games and they added some players a couple weeks ago who didn’t start the season but will be in there everyday. Head coach/GM Curtis Toneff talked about the situation heading into this weekend, “Tegan Clayton has a broken clavicle, he’s out for probably another couple months. Other than that, we’re pretty healthy here… knock on wood.” Of course it’s still early and the wear and tear of playing such a physical sport at this level will take its toll at some point with some of the guys. It’s a long season. For now, fingers are crossed.

As long as the coach is carrying three goaltenders, questions will continue to mount on what his position is with carrying three. So I decided to look and see what the other 10 teams in the league are doing. 9 of the other 10 teams in the VIJHL are also carrying 3 goalies. The only squad with just 2 are the Nanaimo Buccaneers. For the Bucs, former Glacier King Aaron Pichette has played two games (2-0, 1.50, .938)  and Adam Ranger has also played in two (2-0, 2.38, .919) so that tandem has done well. I asked Toneff about who was leading the way for his team, “I still think it’s early, they’re all coming from Midget to Junior. They’re all pushing each which is nice, they’re all wanting the net which is what you want to see. There’s just one or two goals a practice that they have had that you just can’t let in. If they all clean that up, it will really get interesting in there. If you look at our goals against and other stuff, goaltending hasn’t been an issue. Hopefully it’s like the rest of the team and they get better and continue to grow.” Here are the stats so far:
Silas Dromarsky, 1-0-0, 1.00, .947
Anthony Ganoung, 0-2-0, 3.04, .902
Timothee Fengos, 0-1-1, 3.46, .901
You have to wonder if all 3 goalies will get starts this weekend considering the 3 games in 3 days. All have played well for the most part.

We’re through 5 games now and the GKings still don’t have a captain and only one assistant captain. Obviously Haden Parker has an ‘A’ which he earned from being an assistant captain last season with the club. So, we are expecting one “C” and two more “A’s” to be named before too long. Curtis did say that he has been proactively collecting information to make sure he makes the right decision, “I did put it to a vote earlier this week. I did that just to give myself a better gauge and to give the players a say in their thoughts. There were about 4 guys that they voted for Captain and they had 2 ‘A’ votes because Haden Parker is lettered nonetheless. That why I made the vote one C’ and two A’s. It was interesting because it didn’t really get me anywhere because the vote was so even and perhaps all over the place. It gives you a good indication that there are 5 or 6 guys that are the leadership group. But who gets what remains to be seen to be honest with you. I don’t want to jump the gun on these decisions like we talked about a few weeks ago.” It will definitely be interesting to see if the players that are given letters will be the veterans or a mixture of new blood and experienced vets.

On gamedays, remember to check out the “Gameday Lineups” Tab on this blog to see the the roster that will be dressed for that days game. Gameday Lineup do not get emailed out to my subscribers like the new posts do. Curtis sends it to me the day of the game and I try to post it right away if possible. That’s it for today, have a great Thursday!

Darryl Skender

Coach Sees The Team Improving

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We all knew it would be sooner than later that the Comox Valley Glacier Kings were close to picking up points and they have now done just that in 2 of their last 3 games. It was a 5-1 win in their last game on Saturday that gave them their first victory of the season. It seemed like a more total effort from all lines and they showed they could hold a lead. They have been in every game this season and could easily be sporting a 3-2 record. Kerry Park is not the cream of the crop this season after having a brilliant year last year so it’s a bit early to jump on the bandwagon. Head coach/GM Curtis Toneff explained his feeling on the game, “We made good plays with the puck. You could see some chemistry developing between our lines and our ‘D’ pairs. It was a nice game to not have a lot of stress over the course of the game. Once we got a lead, it never really looked like we were going to give it up. Once in awhile it’s nice to just sit back and let the game just pass to the bench. I would describe it as a pretty stress-free game. It’s not a shot against them, it’s just the way the game went.” Comox jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period and never looked back in that one.

The Glacier Kings seem to be improving in different areas every game which is very promising. The new guys are starting to fit in and play key roles. Toneff says he has seen some growth with his squad, “I think so, it’s early. Still see some stuff that needs tweaking and fixing. Ya I’d say 2-5% better every game but we’ve been complacent a couple shifts here and there. I can’t remember a time in September where teams haven’t been. It’s just finding that consistency where you evolve from a Midget hockey player to a Junior hockey player and some guys are still learning that. We’re not going to let them off the hook for that, we’re going to be hard on them early and hopefully it pays off in the end.”

A closer look at some of the things the GKings are doing better leads us to look at their power play. Their PP was just 1 for 17 in the first 3 games while they have gone 4 for 12 in their last 2 contests. It has been a big turn-around. The Yeti’s bench boss talked about why is has been clicking lately, “Better puck movement, more practice time, we have personnel who I think for the most part are in the right spots where they belong, kinda just make sure they have their touches in practice, give them some looks. From there, just let them be hockey players. It worked last weekend, sometimes you get the bounces, sometimes it hits the netting and last weekend it did. Hopefully that trend goes in the right direction.” There is still a long way to go as Comox sits 8th out of 11 teams on the PP. In case you’re wondering, they are tied for 6th in penalty killing.

On the next post we’ll dive into the Glacier Kings injury situation, the coaches thoughts on the goaltending and the status with naming a captain and some assistants. Until then, have a great Wednesday!

Darryl Skender