End of an ugly season

From The Daily News of Friday, March 28, 2008 . . .

It was the evening of Jan. 7.
Not yet 72 hours had passed since the Kamloops Blazers, under new ownership
for less than three months, had traded away their three longest-serving
players who also happened to be their three best players.
Earl Seitz, CFJC-TV’s venerable sports director, was ready to open his
evening sportscast. He was seated at the news desk, facing a camera, and as
the show went to air the graphic behind him showed a Blazers logo
super-imposed over a sinking ship. It was a big ship, but it was going down,
nonetheless.
If you are looking for one moment or one thing that symbolizes the
just-completed WHL season in these parts, well, that was it.
Because there can be no doubt — the Blazers’ 2007-08 season sank like a
stone.
It ended mercifully Wednesday evening, the Tri-City Americans quietly
sweeping aside Kamloops with a 6-2 victory in front of the smallest playoff
gathering in the history of the Blazers’ home arena.
Somehow, these Blazers managed to lose 18 of their last 19 games — that
would be losing streaks of 10 and eight interrupted by one victory.
It wasn’t pretty.
But, then, nothing about this season was pretty.
This was an ugly, ugly season, the ugliest in franchise history, uglier even
than season No. 1, 1981-82, when the Junior Oilers went 18-53-1 and were
swept from the playoffs by the Portland Winter Hawks.
It was hard to watch this latest edition of the Blazers and not feel a whole
lot of sympathy for the players who were left on the roster after the
January trade deadline. The survivors had watched two coaches leave, general
manager and head coach Dean Clark, the man responsible for the recruitment
or acquisition of every player on the roster through early November, having
been fired in November and assistant coach Andrew Milne having followed him
out the door in December.
And then, on Jan. 4, the team’s three best players were traded away.
“It was tough,” right-winger Juuso Puustinen said quietly after Wednesday’s
loss. “I’ve never been involved with a coaching change during the year. It
was hard.”
It got harder. Puustinen played for Finland at the World Junior Championship
and when he returned he found that defencemen Victor Bartley and Ryan Bender
and centre Brock Nixon had been traded. Management has said all three asked
to be traded. And give management some credit for moving them to contenders,
Bartley and Bender to the Regina Pats and Nixon to the Calgary Hitmen.
But . . .
“All my friends got traded . . . and I got new friends,” Puustinen said. “It
was a tough season.”
All the turmoil meant that players were taken outside of their comfort zones
and put into positions with which they weren’t familiar and, in many
instances, in which they couldn’t succeed.
Nothing is more important on a junior hockey team than the understanding and
acceptance of roles. With all the changes and then all the losing, there was
too much confusion to sort out roles.
Which isn’t to mean that the players quit trying or that the losing didn’t
hurt.
“We maybe underestimated the season the kids had,” offered interim head
coach Greg Hawgood. “It was a tough season on them, with having a new coach
and different people and trades and what have you. At the end of the day,
they’re still 16- and 20-year-old kids.
“We want to treat them like men but we forget that they’re boys sometime.”
Hawgood, like so many of his players, was faced with a huge learning curve.
Despite having no coaching experience at any level of hockey, he was hired
to replace Clark, who is the 10th winningest coach in WHL history. Hawgood’s
record, including playoffs, is 21-36-1-1.
He will be on the coaching staff next season; he just won’t be the head guy.
“I’ll be a part of this team . . . in some capacity,” he said. “I haven’t
really worried about it. From all indications I will be on the bench, I’m
just not sure what end.
“There’s going to obviously be some changes to get the work ethic and the
things that are necessary for this team to succeed.”
Yes, we are headed into yet another summer of change. But while the last two
summers in these parts have been all about to sell or not to sell, now it’s
all about restructuring and hiring and changing the culture.
The winds of change began blowing immediately after Wednesday’s game with
the news that Digger, the long-time mascot who has been so popular with the
younger set, won’t be back for another season, at least not in present form.
This is just the first in what no doubt will be a veritable blizzard of
moves.
Barring the unexpected, Craig Bonner, the assistant GM/assistant head coach
with the Vancouver Giants, will be the Blazers’ next general manager. A head
coach will be hired. The scouting department will be given a thorough going
over. Someone will be put in charge of the business side of the operation.
There will be lots going on, especially behind the scenes.
The attendance at this week’s two playoff games — 2,895 and 2,570 — tells
you there is much work to be done.
It all makes one wonder, though, just how much damage has really been done
and if some of the fans who have been lost are lost forever.

Gregg Drinnan is sports editor of The Daily News. He is at
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca