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Tired Cougars backsliding (0)
(Top Stories) Monday, 12 November 2007, 23:18 PST
JIM SWANSON Citizen Sports Editor

The Prince George Cougars took so many steps backward on the weekend that the positive strides of late October have been nearly forgotten.

The Cougars, who were at the .500 mark on Nov. 5, completed a four-game collapse with weekend home drubbings at the hands of the Kelowna Rockets.

And, after dropping 6-1 and 5-1 contests to their division rivals, things do not get any easier for the Cats. Coming off a draining stretch that saw them play six games in nine nights, they are in Spokane tonight to open a four-games-in-five-evenings ordeal, with two stops in each of Tri-City and Spokane.

No, this is not the soft part of the regular-season schedule.

“All I have to do is look at our schedule here the last little while,” said Cougars general manager Dallas Thompson.

“By the end of this part of the trip, it will be 10 games in 16 nights and then we’ll finally have an opportunity to practice four times -- that’s as much as we’ve had since Nov. 2. (The weekend) was frustrating because everyone worked so hard to get back to .500, and that’s where we were a week ago.

“It doesn’t get easier -- (Spokane and Tri-City) are two of the top teams in the conference, and we played them at the beginning of the year when we weren’t going at all, and they were playing well. That played a part in our (1-6) start, but it’s shown around the league that anyone can beat another team on any given night, and we’re looking to get out of this trip, like we do for every other one, at .500 or better.”

The Cats have lost four in a row, almost all the damage against coming while shorthanded. Prince George is dead last in the WHL at 72.1 per cent, and at home it’s worse at 68.5 per cent.

To go too far into Saturday’s gruesome details would cause pain for all involved. Suffice it to say missed chances early and a horrible defensive play by Patrik Magnusson got the snowball rolling in Kelowna’s favour, and the Rockets never looked back in what was, essentially, a very easy road victory. Ty Wishart had the lone Cougars goal, that mustered by a power play unit that is third-best in the WHL at 23 per cent, but Kelowna was 4-9 on the man-advantage.

In front of one of the largest CN Centre crowds of the season, 3,350, Lucas Bloodoff put two pucks past beleaguered overage goaltender Real Cyr, with singles from Colin Long, Dylan Hood, Brady Leavold and Kyle St. Denis.

Thompson is preaching patience -- though his tone hints at a need for more urgency.

“We have some time here and I want to get our team back from injury (see sidebar),” said Thompson.

“If we get that first goal things go very different for us, that’s been a constant all year, but we have to stick up for ourselves a lot more. We have guys in the dressing room who can help us stick up for ourselves more, they know who they are, and they’re not doing it for whatever reason. We need to bring our physical play up, and I expect to see that on this trip.”

Thompson said the challenge has been handed to Cyr, who was shaky again on the weekend and saw his goals-against average (4.80) and save percentage (.855) go the wrong way again. Those digits are by far the poorest of all WHL goalies with more than 420 minutes in the crease -- and they are threatening to tarnish the career of the player who holds the franchise mark for career shutouts (12).

“The penalty killing, that starts from the goaltender and moves out to the defencemen and forward -- we need some more timely saves,” said Thompson.

“We’ve talked to (Cyr), done all the talking we can do, and it just comes down to him stopping the puck. He’s had struggles. Look at the games he’s played, the whole team has struggled on those nights and that hasn’t helped him, but he has to be better and the team has to be better when he’s in the net.

“We’re not expecting him to win every game on his own, we want him to make the first save. He’s prided himself on being a No. 1 and a stand-up guy, and he’s putting a lot of pressure on himself right now.”
n Prince George native Don Nachbaur earned his 350th WHL coaching win on Sunday as his Tri-City Americans handled lowly Portland 5-1.

n The Red Deer Rebels sent overage forward Clayton Bauer to Everett, along with a sixth-round bantam pick, for winger Brennan Sonne, 20, and bluelinder Matt Strong.

n Former Kootenay Ice defenceman Chris Chubb, 27, was killed in a weekend car accident north of Edmonton.
Anyone else see the contradictions here? When the team lives in the penalty box and the penalty kill starts at the goal tender (I always thought the goalie was the last line of defense), are they really not expecting the goalies to win every game on their own? (Tommy included) Hey, I know Cyr isn't playing close to his potential, but from these comments it still sounds like the weight of the team continues to be rested upon his shoulders, I can't understand why he could possibly be putting a lot of pressure on himself right now?