Calla says Blazers have right stuff

From The Daily News of Friday, March 7, 2008 . . .

Brady Calla played on the 2004-05 Everett Silvertips who went two rounds in
the WHL playoffs.
Calla, a 19-year-old winger, also was on the 2005-06 Silvertips who finished
atop the U.S. Division and then went three rounds deep.
And yet he will stand in a hallway at Interior Savings Centre and tell you
that this edition of the Kamloops Blazers, a team that has lost 40 games, a
team that appears likely to finish eighth in a 10-team conference, a team
that is riding a nine-game winless streak . . . this team is full of talent.
“There’s more talent on this team than any other team I’ve played on . . .
ever,” Calla said prior to Thursday’s practice. “It’s just a matter of
everyone understanding their roles and executing. Even for myself . . . in
the last nine games I’ve tried to play outside my role and tried to do too
much. There are a lot of guys who have tried to do too much.”
The evidence of that is in a nine-game losing streak (0-8-1-0) that the
Blazers (26-36-2-2) hope to snap tonight, 7 o’clock, when they play host to
the Prince George Cougars (18-45-1-3). The teams meet again Saturday in
Prince George.
The Blazers know they will finish seventh or eighth in the Western
Conference — they are eighth, four points behind the Chilliwack Bruins with
each team having six games remaining.
While the games are important, Calla, who was acquired in a trade for
defenceman Keaton Ellerby on Nov. 8, said every one of the next 14 days are
crucial.
“I wouldn’t say just games . . . this is the most important two weeks,”
Calla said. “Practices are just as important as games right now. Our
intensity level is great right now in practice and we have to keep it up.”
It also is a matter of players learning their roles, something that seems to
have gotten away from the Blazers over the last couple of months.
The Blazers were 6-9-1-1 when GM/head coach Dean Clark was fired on Nov. 7.
The next day, the club acquired Calla and signed Greg Hawgood as interim
head coach. In the following eight games, the Blazers went 7-1-0-0. Since
then, they are 13-26-1-1.
“I don’t think anything is really different,” Calla said when asked about a
team that would follow a .875 run of success with a .341 skid. “It’s just a
matter of . . . we’re not on the same page right now. As a team. Everyone.
“Everyone wants to point fingers at someone right now. Really, we’re the
reason we’re in this mess. No one else. Not the coaches. Not any other
pressures. It’s us as a group.
“Once we get our minds around that we got ourselves in it, we can get
ourselves out of it . . . once we understand that, we’re going to be fine.”
But Calla and his teammates know that the sands of time are running out and
that if things don’t change in a hurry their season might be three weeks
from being over.
The Blazers will open the playoffs with games March 21 and 22 in Kennewick,
Wash., home of the Tri-City Americans, Spokane or Vancouver. Games 3 and 4
of a first-round series will be played in Kamloops on March 25 and 26.
“There are some people, some fans . . . who are a little worried,” Calla
said. “But as a team we understand. We have six games . . . six games to get
our team going up the mountain and ready to climb into the playoffs.
“We’ve had a great week in practice so far. We’re gong to be ready and
geared up to go (tonight).
“As long as we come out of the last game of the season knowing that everyone
undersatnds their roles and we’re ready to roll in the playoffs, we’ll be
confident and ready to go.
Calla realizes, too, that the onset of the playoffs provides the Blazers
with an opportunity to get what is a really bad taste out of their mouths.
“It’s great,” he said, “because no matter what happens in the next six
games, we get another season. We’re in the playoffs.
“No matter what happens, the next season starts in two weeks.”
JUST NOTES: Tonight’s game between the Cougars and Blazers will be televised
live by Shaw Cable. . . . While the Blazers are going home-and-home with the
Cougars this weekend, Chilliwack will play the Chiefs in Spokane on Saturday
and be at home to the Kelowna Rockets on Sunday. The Bruins go into the
weekend having lost six in a row. They have one victory in their last 10
games. . . . Prince George D Kalvin Sagert will join the ECHL’s Stockton
Thunder, an affiliate of the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers, once the WHL regular
season ends March 16. If a pro career doesn’t work out, Sagert, who is from
Abbotsford, may end up at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ont. “Going to
Stockton is exciting,” he told the Prince George Citizen. “They’re going to
give me a shot that’s kind of like a one-month or two-month tryout that
could lead to getting a shot at going to camp with Edmonton. If not, I can
go to school.” Sagert was the Blazers’ first pick, 15th overall, in the 2002
bantam draft. . . . Cougars D Garrett Thiessen, who also began his career
with the Blazers, has a charleyhorse and is doubtful tonight. . . . With G
Ian Curtis (rotator cuff) sidelined, the Cougars will have Damien Ketlo
backing up starter Real Cyr. Ketlo, the backup for the BCHL’s Prince George
Spruce Kings, is on the Regina Pats’ list so can only play in an emergency.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca