Centre Ice-Kam Playoff Post-Mortem

[Sammy]

No question about the Blazer's individual and team work ethic. It was outstanding! And the series was outstanding.

But as we all know, hockey is not only an outstanding game, it is an unforgiving game, and it unfortunately takes more than hard work to win big playoff games. It takes big talent. Big guns win big games.

Let's compare:

Mahovsky: 6-3-9 (+3)
Taylor: 2-4-6 (+6)
Total ICE: 8-7-15 (+9)

vs.

Jorgensen: 0-4-4 (0)
Richards: 2-2-4 (-10)
Total KAM: 2-6-8 (-10)

Despite the limits of stat, my obervation is that Kamloops lost mainly due to the Ice's superiority at their top centre positions, and the stats reflect this. This is not to say that Richards with an atrocious plus/minus, or Jorgensen who was actually one of the better Kam forwards despite not scoring, were exclusively to blame (eg. winger Hogg's 0-3-3 (-8) also sticks out like a sore thumb as does the inexperienced d-corps): it's just that in the end, the Ice had better centres. And better players, especially better centres, win games.

[Chipper]

Well put. Next year the Blazers will be much bette,a year older and some good experiance under there belts.

[Jew Panda]

Kamloops Blazers lost too many players and I blame it partly on management. They were unable to hold the team together and players became unhappy. Cam Cunning, Jaret Lukin and Paul Brown have all been very successful players here in Kamloops and fan favourites, but because of the inability to stabilize emotions on and off the ice, these players weren't happy and went packing.

As I've mentioned before in another thread, the Dean Clark regime must go, as it's obviously proven to be unsuccessful. When will the city of Kamloops realize this?

In my personal opinion, the Blazers organization just doesn't have the tools to fill the toolbox. :]

[Sput]

Just as a question...is Clarke, in your opinion, an old style coach or does he just not have the abilities to motivate and teach these young men coming in? What are his downfalls? and would some better stability in the franchise make things better? I know there has been a lot of issue with the off ice part of the franchise this past year, and wonder if that had any roles in how things played out on the ice.

[Jovorock]

Cam Cunning, Jaret Lukin and Paul Brown have all been very successful players here in Kamloops and fan favourites, but because of the inability to stabilize emotions on and off the ice, these players weren't happy and went packing.

the Dean Clark regime must go, as it's obviously proven to be unsuccessful.

Parting has been a problem for the Blazers, now that guys like Brown are gone maybe they can get that under control.

I don't think they have given Clark enough time, I wouldn't expect him to go just yet. Sure the Blazers didn't go as far as you guys would like but they were alot better team at the end of the season than at the beggining.

[Sput]

Spunds a lot like the situation up here in PG then. It seemed to be mostly our older vets, the so called leaders of the team, that wanted to be out partying all the time and hockey and school came a distant second/third. With most of those guys not coming back for '05-06 thing should be looking up. I feel Lambert had the current 18yos buying in and following the game plan and rules, and those that don't for next year will either be traded or simply dropped off the roster in favor of guys that WANT to play by the rules and play hard.