Bruins playing Habscheid hockey

Granted, the WHL season is only at or near the quarter-pole, but the Chilliwack Bruins appear well on the way to playing the style of hockey demanded by veteran Marc Habscheid, who is in his first season as their general manager and head coach.
“We’re starting to (gain some consistency),” Habscheid said after his club flattened the Blazers 7-1 in Kamloops on Friday night. “By no means are we getting the parade route ready or anything like that. But we’re getting better and that’s what we talk about all the time. Baby steps . . .trying to get more consistent and doing the little things that matter. I thought we did that tonight.”
The Bruins opened this season by losing five of their first six games and nine of their first 12, although they did get three loser points in the last seven games of that stretch.
“Confidence is a key thing and when you’re 1-5 it’s tough with the confidence part.” Habscheid said. “But the guys hung in there. We just wanted to remain true and remain consistent and improve every day and the guys have done that.
“We’ve still got a long ways to go but we’re getting there.”
The Bruins went into Friday’s game on a high, having beaten red-hot Tri-City 5-2 on Wednesday night, ending the Americans’ nine-game winning streak in the process.
“We’ve been competitive over the last little while and we were really looking to put a couple of games together,” defenceman Mitch McColm, the Bruins‘ captain, said after the victory in Kamloops lifted the Bruins' record to 6-6-1-3. “We played well . . . we played really well tonight.”
That they did. And it was because they looked after the little things. They got pucks deep and caused a lot of problems behind the Kamloops goal line. They got pucks to the net and created a lot of traffic in that area. They won a lot of faceoffs and the wingers did an excellent job of creating interference in the process, allowing teammates to get to loose pucks.
“Marc has done a great job of giving us structure,” said McColm, who shook off a huge hit from Kamloops winger Tyler Shattock and ended up as the game’s first star. “We just have to play within that and work and compete. We aren’t the most skilled team; we’re not the most gifted. It’s about working and competing.”
McColm, who went to the bench after the hit, admitted after the game that he had a sore chest but shrugged it off, saying the victory was “awesome” and helped it feel better.
Of beating the Blazers, McColm, who opened the scoring with his first goal this season, said: “They’re a good team. They put you on your heels and that’s when you have to go back to your structure; there’s safety in that structure.”
He also said it’s important that players “work, don’t panic” when things don’t go right.
“Some guys haven’t always had winning records, but I think it comes with time and experience and playing in different situations,” he said. “You don’t panic. You don’t let things escalate or snowball when something doesn’t go right. You take a deep breath and go to the next shift.”
McColm said a big part of the Bruins’ early season has involved learning and exercising patience.
“It’s a process,” he explained. “You just can’t get beaten down by that process. You can’t get worn down. It’s a long season. There are going to be highs. there are going to be lows. You just have to keep an even keel.
“You can’t get frustrated. You just have to work hard and demand a lot of yourself and your teammates.”
Three of those teammates are centre Kevin Sundher and wingers Dylen McKinlay and Jamie Crooks, who would seem to have found some chemistry as linemates.
Sundher, from Surrey, B.C., had a goal and an assist Friday night and now has 18 points in 16 games, after a freshman season in which he totalled 39 points in 67 games. While he was minus-22 last season, he is plus-4 in the early going this season.
McKinlay, who is from Langley, B.C., had 10 points, including three goals, in 55 games last season. This time around, he already has 11 points, nine of them goals, and is plus-4 in 16 games.
Crooks, who is from Vermilion, Alta., spent last season putting up big numbers -- 71 points in 33 games -- with the midget AAA Lloydminster Bobcats. He was pointless in six games with the Saskatoon Blades when Habscheid acquired him in exchange for enforcer Randy McNaught, 19. With the Bruins, Crooks has seven points, and he’s plus-5, in 10 games.
“They’ve had that (chemistry),” Habscheid said of the trio. “They’re all the same age (17). They seem to get along off the ice.
“On the ice, they’re three really different players. McKinlay is kind of a small area, along-the-boards type of player. Around the net, Sundher is dynamic. He’s great in open ice. Crooks is kind of a nifty type of player. He‘s crafty.”
In fact, Habscheid said Crooks reminds him of Brian Varga, who played for the Regina Pats and Medicine Hat Tigers (1978-82). All Varga did was win the 1980-81 WHL scoring title with 160 points in 68 games for the Pats.
“He reminds me of Brian Varga . . . same style,” Habscheid said.
The Bruins and their fans can only hope that Crooks can play with the same consistency as Varga, who finished his WHL career with 426 points in 272 games.
The Bruins, by the way, are scheduled for an afternoon game today (Halloween Saturday) against the visiting Calgary Hitmen.