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scamperdog
01-20-2006, 06:58 PM
Courting History www.kamloopsthisweek.com



DAVE EAGLES/KTW



By GREG LAYSON
Sports reporter
Jan 20 2006

As the whispers around town grow louder, Dean Clark and the Kamloops Blazers try to maintain the voices of the disgruntled are little more than annoying white noise.
Clark, the Blazers head coach and general manager, is in grave danger of becoming the answer to a trivia question.
With just a third of the 72-game Western Hockey League schedule ahead of him, Clark could very well become the first head coach in Kamloops Blazers’ history to miss the post-season.
The club has made a playoff appearance in every one of its 24 seasons spent in the Tournament Capital, including its inaugural campaign as the Kamloops Junior Oilers in 1981-1982 when the squad made the playoffs by default after the Spokane Flyers folded 26 games into the season.
As the last-place Blazers prepare to face the Vancouver Giants tonight at the Pacific Coliseum (7:30 p.m., 610 AM and Shaw Cable 10), they do so trailing the Prince George Cougars, who hold down the B.C. Division’s final playoff spot with a game in hand and a seven-point advantage over Kamloops.
Although records do not document the fact, according to many close to the team, it’s the biggest deficit a Kamloops team has ever faced this late in a campaign.
“If we sit here and look at and concentrate — which everyone is doing — about the [points] difference [between us and Prince George], or how far we are out of the playoffs, or if we’re going to be the first team ever to not make the playoffs, that’s what we’ll be,” Clark assured.
Since Clark took over for fired head coach Mark Ferner on Dec. 8, the club has played some of its best — and worst — hockey.
Three weeks ago, Kamloops garnered five of a possible six points on a three-games-in-three-nights road trip.
Last Saturday, the Blazers put together a lacklustre affair against the Cougars at Interior Savings Centre, losing 3-0.


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‘Not a hope in hell’ that Blazers make playoffs



By GREG LAYSON
Sports reporter
Jan 20 2006

There’s something missing from the Kamloops Blazers this season. And according to the paying public, it is the team’s most vital organ.
“They have no heart like they used to,” said Julius Leone, a season ticket holder since the Blazers came to town as the Junior Oilers in the fall of 1981.
“Even without talent, you can still play with heart,” said John, also a season ticket holder since the franchise’s inception, but who didn’t want his last name used.
The stats will tell you, this isn’t a bumper crop of Blazers.
Only Ashton Rome is in the league’s top 80 in scoring. Kamloops’ 105 goals scored is fourth fewest in the WHL and the country.
But they’re good enough to win, according to Bill Luca, who has owned his season pass for 22 years.
“The players don’t seem to be that bad, they just seem like they don’t want to do anything,” he said.
Now Luca doesn’t seem to want to do anything either — namely go to a game.
“This year is the first time that I’ve missed four or five games. I used to cancel my own birthday to come to a hockey game,” he said.
“This year, I really don’t care.”


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