Tag Archives: Curtis Toneff

Team Focused On Moving Ahead

Leave a comment

It obviously wasn’t a great performance on Saturday night for the Comox Valley Glacier Kings to say the least. The 11 goals were the most they’ve given up in a game and the 6 goals in the first period was the most they’ve given up in a single period all season. In fact, the 4 goals they allowed in the second period was more than they allowed in any period previous to Saturday’s game. The 4 shots in the first period was the fewest all season, the 18 shots were their lowest game total this year. The good thing is that it was just one game and they can move on from it. The club has progressed too much since the start of the season to let this setback hurt them in the long run. It does still sting however. The thing that was disappointing was that the game was basically over by the midway point of the first period. Even offensively talented teams can only dig themselves a hole so big. A defensively-minded team is hard pressed to comeback, especially when playing the top club in the league.

Just as a refresher, the score was 6-1 just 11:48 into the contest. The Glacier Kings did play better in the third period but it was way too late to mount any kind of a comeback, especially to a squad that has only lost one game all season. Head coach/GM Curtis Toneff said it wasn’t a good night, “It was a game where after the first 5 minutes, it was over. That hadn’t happened to us this year. We ended up on the penalty kill and I tried to make some adjustments to suit our night better and I failed at that as a coach. They scored two and it’s tough as a team to get behind a team like that but we did score a goal to make it 2-1 but after that the wheels fell off. Our effort and our attitude wasn’t close to where it needed to be against a team like that. It showed by the end of the period and at the end of the game with the score. These things happen over the course of a season.” Hopefully those things don’t happen too much more. Remember Comox was playing well until Saturday’s game (4-1 in their last 5 games).

As the season has gone along, it seems that two teams have risen to the top. Peninsula (15-1-1-0) and Westshore (15-2-1-0) while everyone else is in the rearview mirror in the standings. Curtis had told me in the past that any team can beat any team this year but with the Panthers and Wolves way ahead of everyone, you can’t help but wonder about the parity. I asked him if he thought that they were in a league of their own and then the other 9 teams were in a different grouping. Toneff disagreed, “No I don’t think so. We’ve proved that we can compete with both of those teams that you eluded to, we showed that we can compete with them for two periods. If we can compete with them for two periods, then we can compete with them for three periods. For us to be successful, we have to be at full tilt. The difference between those teams is that they can be average some nights, we cannot.” Looking at past games, the Glacier Kings handed the Panthers their only regulation loss of the season back on September 28th and the Yeti were up by 2 goals on the Wolves on October 22nd before having a collapse. So yes, they have proved that they can play with the higher calibre teams but it’s like the coach says, you need to play 60 minutes against these guys.

So it was back to practice this week. I had asked the coach how he has been and he said that it he feels better now after a couple of days of frustration. It’s easy to fall into a trap after one disappointing game. Just look at my post after the 11-1 loss, I felt like it was doomsday for the club but honestly, it was just one game. With that being said, changes need to be made. You can move past the game but you also have to learn from it and not hide from it. The bench boss seemed to be in pretty good spirits. He talked about practice and maybe switching things up, “Just back to basics, systems refresh. Our rush coverage was rotten the other night. It was an effort based thing and with regards to ‘X’s’ and ‘O’s’, it’s November and maybe time for a systems refresh. I thought after the game that I’m not going to overanalyze it. You’re never as good as you think you are and you’re never as bad as you think you are.” I’m guessing it would be a minor tweaking of the systems and personnel assignments. I really couldn’t see a major overhaul based on one game. But maybe having a new face here and there and different responsibilities, it might be good. A couple of months of the same thing could get stale and easy to be scouted by other opponents.

Speaking of opponents, Nanaimo should be a good test for the Glacier Kings to see how they bounce back after an embarrassing loss. The Bucs are currently in first place in the North Division and even better at home. The reason it should be a good test is because Comox Valley knows they can play with these guys despite their good record. How do they know? Well, because they beat the Buccaneers back on September 27th at the Sports Centre. A win at the NIC on Thursday and that last game can be tossed out. That’s the great thing about sports, you can be so down one day but a couple days later things are good again.

Darryl Skender

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Leave a comment

Well, this is disappointing. The Comox Valley Glacier Kings have played well lately, they’ve been picking up wins, they got themselves to .500 for the first time and in one game, it all came crashing down. The Peninsula Panthers came into Courtenay and embarrassed the Yeti 11-1. I will admit I never watched the entire game, I watched the Blue Jays Game 7. Usually if I miss the game, I watch the replay when I get home but I feel like rewatching this game might not be productive. I did breeze through some of it but it was hard to watch. There is no point in me pointing out everything that went wrong and try to analyze every little detail. They lost 11-1. That says more than anything I ever could. What I will tell you is the the Panthers scored 6 times in an 8:57 span in the first period. Allowing 11 goals in a game at home is tough, even tougher knowing that their go-to netminder Anthony Ganoung was not even dressed because they still hold three backstops on their roster. It makes you wonder if Ganoung shouldn’t be dressed for all the games and start most of them. It’s a harsh statement but anymore outings like this and it may have to be addressed. And it’s not just on the goalies, hockey is as much a team game as any sport in the world. To be fair, they played the best team in the VIJHL, I get it. Maybe this is just a one-off and come Thursday they will look good again. It’s just disappointing knowing how hard they work on their defensive game and take pride in it. I have a feeling coach Toneff is going to be pretty hard on the boys at practice next week.

On the other side, I would like to give a shout out to Panther forward Ethan Lingard. He was playing for the Panthers back when I was broadcasting and I’ve always liked him. He had 4G, 2A which is great but that’s not what I liked the most. Did you notice his hat trick goal in the second period? He didn’t celebrate, in fact he didn’t even put his hands in the air. A hat trick is something players dream about doing. He just touched gloves with linemates and skated straight to the bench to sit down, not even punching gloves with teammates sitting on the bench while skating by. That’s because he knew that the score was now 8-1. Same thing when he scored his 4th goal to make it 11-1. He didn’t showboat or embarrass his opponent. He plays the game the right way, it’s with respect, and I applaud that.

With my ramblings getting a little old and boring I will finish by saying, next week is a new, fresh week and I would expect the Glacier Kings to be flying on Thursday night in Nanaimo. I didn’t going over the scoring like I usually do, if you’re interested, please got to https://www.vijhl.com/stats/game-center/7099.

Darryl Skender

Glacier Kings – Kraken Preview

Leave a comment

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