Rockets look to bounce back in Alberta
It’s been a tough start for the Kelowna Rockets, but they’ll receive help in the form of a key player when they head into Alberta for a three game road trip.
The Rockets welcomed the news that Nick Merkley is en-route to re-join the club; that will make the Rockets lineup the closest to being full that it has been yet this season.
Merkley’s return should also boost Kelowna’s offense which will be great for the Rockets who have scored only nine goals in five games which included five goals they scored in their only win through the first five games.
Merkley had 17 goals and 31 assists for 48 points in 43 games in an injury shortened season for the Rockets last year.
Merkley’s release meant he was the final Rockets player expected to return this season from NHL camps.
Assistant coach Travis Crickard says Merkley’s return is huge for the team.
“He’s going to be our horse. He’s going to drive this team” Crickard said. “Anytime a player comes back from the NHL there’s an adjustment period, but over time you’ll start to see that guys like that can just breathe confidence into every other player on the team. He’s going to be very important.”
Crickard continued on Merkley’s importance.
“Merks is a guy that makes the players around him better. So it doesn’t matter who he’s playing with, whoever’s on the ice while he’s playing will be better because of his abilities. So like I said it’s just going to breathe confidence into other guys.”
The Rockets aren’t counting solely on Merkley to help them get out of this early slump.
Coach Crickard says there are some tweaks needed in their game.
“I think a couple things in our game need to be corrected. A big factor has been guys getting more ice than they should because we’ve been without Merkley and Dube and Thurkauf and so on” said Crickard. “Another thing is managing our shift length. We have a couple guys who have been taking shifts that are extremely long and that kills the pace of our game.”
Crickard said the team will also be working their fore-check and powerplay heading into these Alberta games.
“We don’t expect to go out and score a goal every time we get a powerplay, but we should expect to create momentum” said Crickard. “Our powerplay has actually been taking away momentum. It seems like guys are on their own page when they get out there and they’re not relying on the structure that we’ve worked on, so that’ll be a big emphasis in practice.”
The Rockets dropped both games in Prince George over the weekend, but the losses didn’t come from a lack of trying. The Cougars are just a very hot team right now.
That weekend is in the books, and can’t be changed.
The Rockets are now looking ahead to Wednesday night when they hit their first of three stops in Alberta to take on the Lethbridge Hurricanes.
The Rockets head into the match-up with a 1-4-0-0 record that has them sitting in fourth place in the B.C. division.
The Hurricanes come into the game with a 3-1-0-0 record that puts them in first place in the Central division.
The Rockets played Saturday night without Dillon Dube and Calvin Thurkauf due to injury.
Kelowna will face the Hurricanes on Wednesday night in Lethbridge at 7PM.
The Rockets will then head north to face the Oil Kings in Edmonton on Friday, followed by the Red Deer Rebels on Saturday. Both of those games begin at 7PM.
