Tag Archives: Curtis Toneff

Glacier Kings – Kraken Preview

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The Comox Valley Glacier Kings hit the road tonight as they will travel to Lake Cowichan in one of three Halloween games on tap in the VIJHL. The Glacier Kings have been playing well lately winning 3 of their last 4 games and have points in 4 of their last 5. Their opponents on the other hand haven’t been having a lot of luck lately. After a promising start where they won 5 of their first 6 games, the Kraken have now lost 8 consecutive matches and have sunk to the basement in the North Division. They’ve been outscored 29-12 in those 8 games which averages out to only scoring 1.5 goals per game during that stretch. Comox currently sits tied for 4th place in the North Division with a 6-7-1-2 record. A win would move them ahead of Port Alberni into sole possession of 4th and also place them at .500 for the first time this season. Lake Cowichan sports a 5-9-0-0 line which is 5 points behind the Glacier Kings and the Bombers.

I’m not really expecting a high scoring game. Both teams play a pretty good defensive game and each also have trouble scoring. As an insight, there are a total of 20 players that have scored at least 7 goals already this season. None are from either of these teams. Another example is the Yeti are the second lowest scoring team in the league ahead of only Kerry Park. Lake Cowichan has the 3rd lowest goals per game. Another stat shows the Glacier Kings leading scorer (Zaya Morro) is tied for 22nd place in the VIJHL. The Kraken’s leading point-getter (Kadin Bilajbegovic) is tied for 43rd. In fact, the only meeting between these two foes so far ended up in a low scoring 3-1 affair in favor of Comox back on October 17th. We might expect the same tonight.

As for special teams, here’s where they stack up:

Power Play
Comox Valley: 16.7% (8th)
Lake Cowichan: 17.3% (7th)
Penalty Kill
Comox Valley: 88.7% (1st)
Lake Cowichan: 76.4% (10th)

There’s no question that the Glacier Kings have been working on their offensive game in practice lately and have scored 8 goals in their last 2 matches so they could be turning a corner. It’s only the second time this season that they’ve scored at least 4 goals in back to back games. The most they’ve scored in a game is 5 and have done that twice (Sept. 20th @ Kerry Park & Sept. 27th @ Nanaimo). The question is, who will be able to step up tonight?

Someone who has been playing well offensively is Ethan Gobel. No, he is not the leading scorer on his club but he is the only player that averages over a point a game. He was held pointless against Saanich in his last contest but racked up 1G, 3A in his previous one against Westshore. Head coach/GM Curtis Toneff says he likes a lot of things about Gobel, “Honestly, he’s a hockey nerd through and through. He loves the game, he wants to get better every day and I think he does get better every day and I think it rubs off on his teammates. I think if he wants to, he could work in hockey when he done. He was hurt for a few games and was doing more analytics than I do. He’s kind of a fun guy to have around as coaches. I know Brad Smith is a very big fan. Just kind of a coaches dream, a center with size, plays in every situation. He’s our version of Anze Kopitar. Having guys like him give you a chance to win a lot of nights down the stretch for sure.” So far this season, Gobel has tallied 3G, 11A 14Pts in 11 games.

The Kraken are a dangerous team to play right now. They are definitely overdue for a victory plus 4 of their 5 wins have come at the Cowichan Lake Sports Arena. It is a tough place to play as noted by their 4-4 record there. With that being said, it is a very winnable game for the GKings as long as they don’t make too many silly mistakes. Toneff says he know this game is key in the standings and his squad can’t take the Kraken for granted, “They’re all important, it’s going to be tight for awhile. It’s going to be a desperate team that we’re facing. You look at the shot clock when Lake Cowichan plays, they’re usually in charge of the shot clock. Watching them, they’re usually in charge 50% of the game. I know they have a hard hat and lunch box mentality by the looks of it so we have to be ready to go and not think that we’re going to be spotted a three goal lead like a week and a half ago.” After winning their first 4 games at home, the Kraken have lost their last 4 in front of their fans.

The other two games in the VIJHL also have North Division implications with Victoria @ Campbell River and Oceanside @ Peninsula. If all goes well in the 3 games, Comox Valley could see themselves just 2 points out of first place in the North. It looks like Anthony Ganoung will get the start in net. The Glacier Kings line up is now posted in the “Gameday Lineups” section of this blog. Hopefully we’ll be celebrating a Blue Jays World Series Championship by the time the puck drops. Are you ready Marsha? I’ll be texting with you again tonight (it brought us good luck on Wednesday). Go Blue Jays!

Darryl Skender

Goaltending & Depth Players

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I think the one topic I’ve hit on more than any other since this blog started up is “goaltending.” It’s the easiest issue to talk about because a goaltender has no where to hide and doesn’t have a teammate that can cover up his mistakes. If a right winger has a bad game, it can sometimes be brushed under the rug because the center can adjust to make up for his error or a defenceman can cheat over to help out his d-partner when he’s in trouble. The goalie is the last line of defense. If the other team scores, people can clearly see that the goaltender didn’t make the save, whether it was his fault or not. So yes, it is a very easy topic to discuss especially when you are carrying 3 on your roster, each one looking for playing time.

It’s easy to see that the coach seems to like to play Anthony Ganoung to start a weekend and then for the most part has gone to Timothee Fengos. For most of the season, Silas Dromarsky has been a practice goalie and a back up for some games while waiting to have his chance to show what he can do. So here’s what we know. Ganoung is the only goalie to have started two games in a row. Drombarsky has the best stats. Fengos has the worst stats but it seems the coach has the confidence in him by playing him against the really tough teams. Timothee is still looking for his first regular season win but his team hasn’t scored a lot of goals for him. Case and point would be October 11th when he allowed just one goal through 60 minutes of regulation and 10 minutes of overtime but took the loss. His next game would be against the top team in the VIJHL which also happens to be the highest scoring team in the league and to take it even further, Comox was missing one of their best defenceman.

You could definitely make an argument for all three but in fairness, I think Anthony has proven himself to be the guy for now. He has been winning games, playing tough teams and has good stats. Silas has better stats and is 2-0 but one of those games were against Kerry Park and the other was against Oceanside who was struggling a bit at the time. Since that game, the Generals have reeled off 3 straight wins and are tied for first place in the North Division. I asked head coach/GM Curtis Toneff talked about the situation, “It’s pretty clear that at the present moment that Anthony has taken over the net a little bit. You know Silas Dromarsky is really knocking at the door with the opportunities he’s been given. It’s been difficult decisions as coaches because you want to give them all their touches and all that but for now we want to win every game that we can for the next little while because the standings are scarily tight right now. Anthony’s in net most likely Friday but Silas is coming off a shutout as well so that needs to be thought about too.” He hasn’t announced who the starter will be yet but I’d be shocked if it wasn’t Ganoung.

Anthony Ganoung: 4-3-1 2.50 .936
Timothee Fengos: 0-4-2 3.59 .904
Silas Dromarsky: 2-0-0 0.50 .981

Every team in the VIJHL is always looking to upgrade and the Glacier Kings are no different. Sometimes you can find a diamond in the rough that has been overlooked or just mismanaged but for the most part, top notch players aren’t usually available this time of year without paying a hefty price. The Yeti seem to have their defensive game shored up for the most part and their goaltending has been good so it’s quite obvious what the club is really in need of. It was no surprise when Toneff explained what he would like, “A goal scoring position. I don’t really care if it’s a winger or a center. I can see it is coming (goal scoring). It’s noticeably something that’s still somewhat missing. A guy that has a real gift for scoring. I think Leon (Mikhalchuk) has that, I think Weston Churchill has a little bit of it in him, (Ethan) Gobel as well. You look at some of these other teams and they 6 to 8 of these guys and you look at, like we’ve talked about, that’s why we have a bit of defensive identity. But you know what, it’s something that can be developed and we’re trying to develop it. There’s a reason we practice more than last year. It’s not like our guys don’t want to score, it’s just not a knack for a lot of our roster.” So I looked a little deeper into individual goal scoring for each team. Here are the number of players each team has with over 5 goals so far this season:

Westshore: 5
Peninsula: 5
Victoria: 4
Oceanside: 3
Nanaimo: 3
Saanich: 3
Campbell River: 3
Lake Cowichan: 2
Port Alberni: 2
Kerry Park: 1
Comox Valley: 1

Yes a goal scorer would be a wonderful early Christmas gift but they get snapped up pretty quickly. For now, the GKings will have to continue to manufacture goals, take advantage of power plays and get into the dirty areas to score greasy goals.

Darryl Skender

Faceoffs & Unsung Heroes

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The Comox Valley Glacier Kings started the season losing their first 4 games, 3 in regulation for a variety of reasons. There’s a lot of little things in a hockey game that can mount and become bigger things and eventually will decide if you win or lose. Faceoffs can be that important and in some of the Glacier Kings losses did have a big impact. They were losing the majority of the draws. Sometimes it can stand out brightly if you lose a faceoff in your defensive zone and get scored on immediately. But it can also be a lot more subtle than that. Every time you lose a faceoff, you lose a chance at possession of the puck. It can also be a lost chance if you’re at the offensive zone dot. It is especially key after you take a penalty. The faceoff is in your own zone and if you can win it and clear the puck down the ice, you’ve just killed 20 seconds of being shorthanded before the opposition can get control inside your own blue line so the power play goes from being 2:00 to 1:40.

Since the very start of the season, faceoffs have gotten significantly better and so has the team’s play. It has meant more possessions in a game and they have actually scored a few times right from winning the draw in the offensive zone. A glaring example was in the club’s last game. Westin Churchill won the faceoff back to Leon Mikhalchuk, his shot was stopped but Churchill buried the rebound. That’s just one instance. I asked Head Coach/GM Curtis Toneff if his team has been practicing that art, “Ya we actually do. We’ve worked on it, we’ve talked about it. One night we were in Saanich in Game 2 or Game 3 of the season, I actually brought in my old assistant coach Sam Waterfield and he brought all the centers in because he was always good on faceoffs when we were in Merritt. It’s maybe one of my weaknesses as a coach. I am not an expert so I figured I’d bring in someone that knows more than I do to help the boys. They’ve all seemed to take a thing or two that he said and use it to their advantage. That’s kudos to the players to take it all in seriously and take pride in their faceoffs. I know (Isaac) Dunsire has come a long way, (Ethan) Gobel’s good, (Landon) Morris has been good and then (Weston) Churchill has shuffled back to center for now so same thing for him.” If that trend can continue, more wins should be on the horizon.

Something that separates good teams from not-so good teams are star players obviously. However, if you look deeper into a roster, good teams will also have players who are not talked about as much as the stars that score a lot of goals or the goalie that has a great Goals Against Average. In hockey we call them Unsung Heroes. They are guys that don’t get a lot of attention because they are good at their job. The old saying goes that an official is good in a football game if nobody notices them. They are not stealing the show, the players are. Well, in hockey you need players that aren’t in the spotlight but are very effective at what their job is. That’s how you win games, especially if you’re not an offensively gifted team like Comox. The Yeti rely on guys like this to help win games. Coach Toneff talked about it, “Two guys kind of come to mind that don’t get a lot of credit since I’ve been here. Haden Parker and Landen May are hard to play against. They’re not guys that as an opposition, are a lot of fun to go on a rush against. They have long sticks, Landen can bully guys a little in the corner and get in their heads. Just their little bit of extra length I think. It helps us defend. It (shots) sometimes goes off their toe or their butt in the corner and we live to fight another day. I think that when we were missing Landen last Wednesday in the third period, it became noticeable on the scoreboard. With Parksie, he’s been pretty consistent all year. Those are guys that don’t jump off the screen. Maybe me being an ex-defenceman, you appreciate them more. I think we do as coaches and I think our team does as well.” It is not by accident that he named a couple of defenceman. May has 2 assists in 15 games while Parker has 1 helper in 15 games. They are both big bruising defencemen that keep opposing forwards honest and are not afraid to get in the dirty areas. That doesn’t show up on the score sheet but does score points with teammates and the coaches.

That’s it for today. I’m about to turn the Blue Jays game on. I love texting back and forth with owner Marsha Webb during the games. She loves the Jays as much as I do and we are both quite opinionated lol. As for the Glacier Kings, they’re next action is next Friday night in Lake Cowichan.

Darryl Skender