Blazers are starting over

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
Whatever Kamloops did, or didn’t do, against the Kelowna Rockets in the WHL’s regular season, the Blazers know they are going to have to do something else starting tonight.
The Blazers, who lost all nine regular-season meetings with the Rockets, open a first-round best-of-seven playoff series tonight in Kelowna. The Blazers are the Western Conference’s sixth seed, while the Rockets are No. 3.
Game 2 is scheduled for Kelowna on Saturday, with Games 3 and 4 at Interior Savings Centre on Tuesday and Wednesday. Starting time for all games in the series will be 7 p.m.
To most observers, this matchup is not unlike that of the pesky mosquito and the elephant. Except that the mosquito may have inflicted more pain on Dumbo than the Blazers have on the Rockets.
Rarely have two teams seemed so mismatched to begin a playoff series.
The Blazers earned one point from nine head-to-head meetings, that from a 4-3 shootout loss in Kelowna on Dec. 27. The Rockets outscored the Blazers 49-18. Kelowna’s power play operated at a 31.3 per cent success rate as it accounted for 21 goals in the nine games. The Blazers were at 13.2 per cent with the man advantage, scoring seven times. In eight of those games, the Rockets scored two or more PP goals.
The last time these teams met in Kamloops, on March 13, the Rockets outshot the Blazers 16-0 in the first period en route to a 6-4 victory. One night later in Kelowna, the Rockets concluded the season series with a 7-1 victory.
And on and on it goes.
The Blazers are aware of the numbers and know they have to ignore them.
“Nine (losses) in nine games, or whatever,” Kamloops head coach Barry Smith said Thursday evening. “But it doesn’t mean a thing in the playoffs. And that’s been our take on it all the time.”
They also are thankful for a second opportunity to prove themselves against a team that not that long ago was their most despised rival.
“The guys are really excited,” Smith said. “It’s been great that it’s spring break because the players can focus solely on the hockey part of it and buy into what’s going on and not have to worry about school and all the other things.”
Coming off those aforementioned two losses to the Rockets, the Blazers certainly know what they need to do.
Smith said the Blazers spent the first couple of days this week working on “lots of physical stuff . . . (defensive) zone coverage, down-low battles.” They then moved on to “more of a flow and special teams.”
“That’s how we went about it,” Smith said, “to tune everything up that we needed to coming into the playoffs.”
Smith wouldn’t go any further in explaining his strategy going into the series.
“I’m not going to say what we’re going to do,” he said, with a laugh. “Obviously, we’ve got to bring our compete level and our work level up.”
At the same time, Smith acknowledges that the Rockets are full value for having won all nine games between the teams.
“They’ve played great against us,” Smith said. “I don’t think we’ve ever played close to where we can play. But good teams make you play bad. From our standpoint, we haven’t played very well . . . we’ve had some stinkers there.”
Smith also is well aware that there are times when a team just doesn’t match up well against another team.
“Sometimes a team matches up so well against you that it doesn’t matter what you do,” he said, “whether they’re a first-place team or a last-place team. I’ve seen it.
“You’ve got to find a way to get through it. Sometimes it’s mental, sometimes it’s playing the game better.”
In this case, Smith doesn’t think his team has a mental block.
“I don’t think it’s really mental. I really don’t,” he said. “If I thought it was, I would have addressed it more.”
One thing the Blazers can’t do is get behind early. That’s what happened here on March 13 and before they knew it they had been outshot 16-0 and were down 3-0.
“Obviously, that part of it is mental,” Smith said. “We throw one over the glass, they scored. . . . Oh gawd, here it goes.”
That doesn’t mean the Blazers are any more focused on tonight’s start than they were a week ago.
“Every team focuses on a good start,” he said. “Are we putting that as the be-all and end-all? No. We’ve focused on (sticking) to what our game plan is. . . . If we do that, the good start is going to come with it.”
JUST NOTES: G Justin Leclerc will start in goal tonight for Kamloops, with the Rockets going with Mark Guggenberger. Against the Rockets, Leclerc was 0-6-0-1, 5.39, .853. Guggenberger, a January addition from the Swift Current Broncos, was 3-0-0-0, 2.25, .887 against Kamloops. . . . RW Jimmy Bubnick has seven points in nine games against Kelowna. On the other side, C Colin Long has 16 points against the Blazers. Kelowna C Ian Duval, who was acquired at the trade deadline, has played three games against Kamloops and has an amazing 10 points. . . . The Blazers will have three healthy scratches. Smith said he has decided on them, but won’t announce them until sometime today. . . . Kelowna LW Lucas Bloodoff skated Thursday but RW Mikael Backlund didn’t. Both players were injured in Kamloops on March 13 and haven’t played since. . . . A year ago, the Rockets finished fifth in the Western Conference and lost a first-round series in seven games to the Seattle Thunderbirds. The Blazers, meanwhile, finished eighth and were swept by the Tri-City Americans. . . . Kamloops hasn’t been out of the first round since the spring of 1999. Since then, the Blazers have lost in the first round eight times and have been swept five times, including by the Rockets in 2001-02. . . . Kamloops is 5-32 in playoff games since appearing in the WHL’s championship final in 1999. . . . Since then, the Rockets are 64-41 with three Memorial Cup appearances and one championship.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
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