Winds of change blowing in Kamloops?

From The Daily News of Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2007. . . .

The WHL season is 10 games old and Dean Clark, the general manager and head
coach of the Kamloops Blazers, is wondering if he is going to have to make
some changes.
“We’ve got to look at moving guys, I would think,” a frustrated Clark said
late Tuesday night, after his club had dropped a 3-1 decision to the
Tri-City Americans in Kennewick, Wash. “I don’t know how else. . . we’re 10
games in. We’ve only got 62 left and we’re getting to the part of the month
now where if we can’t figure it out by now . . .”
The Blazers went 6-1-0-0 in the exhibition schedule and were seen as a
likely contender in the Western Conference. With last night’s loss they
ended a U.S. Division swing at 1-2-1-0 and are 4-5-1-0 overall.
To make matters worse, starting goaltender Justin Leclerc went down with a
left ankle injury in the first period last night.
“I don’t know how much swelling there is. It’s his ankle and we’ll have to
wait and see,” said Clark, who indicated that Leclerc may have a high ankle
sprain. He will be further evaluated when the team returns home today.
With Leclerc gone, after three saves, rookie James Priestner made his first
relief appearance of the season.
“He played well,” Clark said of Priestner, who made 19 stops. “He gave us a
chance. It was a tough situation to come in like that and he e was really
good.”
After a scoreless first period, that included a lengthy Americans’ 5-on-3,
Tri-City took the lead when centre Taylor Procyshen came out of the penalty
box — the Blazers were on a 5-on-3 advantage — to go in alone and beat
Priestner.
Kamloops right-winger Kenton Dulle tied it early in the third period, but
Tri-City’s Petr Stoklasa, a Czech left winger, notched his first WHL goal at
11:14. Defenceman Tyler Schmidt iced the victory with an empty-net goal at
19:42.
The Blazers, who had scored four power-play goals in beating the Winter
Hawks 5-4 in Portland on Sunday, were 0-for-8 with the man advantage.
However, Clark said, that number is deceiving.
“I thought our power play was good again. We hit a post . . . we got
chances,” he explained. “(Tyler Shattock) scored and they waved it off. The
goal that we scored was right at the end of one.”
Clark also felt that fatigue may have played a part in the outcome. He said
that his top line of Brock Nixon between Ivan Rohac and Juuso Puustinen
looked tired “because of how much they played in the previous three games.”
Clark said defenceman Jordan Rowley, who also has been playing a lot, looked
tired, too.
With his team now a game under .500, Clark admitted to having some concerns.
“You would think our team would have a lot more confidence than it does,
with the number of guys we have back,” he said. “I would expect guys like
(forwards) C.J. Stretch and Travis Dunstall, because they’re in their third
seasons here, would be showing a lot more leadership and a lot more
direction. You’d think they’d have it figured out . . . but they haven’t
done that.”
The same holds true, Clark said, for the defence.
“Our back end, with the amount of experience it has, hasn’t been as good as
I would like it to be,” he said.
Clark also took time to question his team’s attitude.
“We just don’t have enough guys . . . it doesn’t pain them if things don’t
go well as a group,” he said. “We need guys who are going to care whether we
win or lose . . . whether it was their fault or not. That’s something that
is a bit of a concern.
“You would have thought with the guys we have returning that that would have
been different, but it certainly doesn’t seem to be the case.”
The Blazers headed home immediately after last night’s game. They will take
today off and skate Thursday, then leave Friday for a two-game visit to
Alberta. They’ll play the Red Deer Rebels on Saturday and the Calgary Hitmen
on Sunday.
Kamloops next plays at home on Oct. 26 against the Kelowna Rockets.
JUST NOTES: The WHL has rescinded a game misconduct given to Kamloops D
Keaton Ellerby in Friday’s 3-2 overtime loss to the Silvertips in Everett.
Ellerby was tossed at 16:33 of the first period on a call that ended up
being an error by referee Reagan Vetter. . . . The Blazers are 2-3-1-0
in one-goal games, while Tri-City is 5-0-0-0. And you could make a case that
this was another one-goal game.