Game Day: Second half begins
r Photo and story by Chris Stanford – Kelowna.com
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r Just over halfway through their season and with Christmas behind them, the Kelowna Rockets will trade drumsticks for hockey sticks as the get set for 2009-10, Part Two against the Vancouver Giants Sunday afternoon.
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r With most players arriving back in Kelowna Saturday and the chance for only one late-evening practice that night, the team and head coach Ryan Huska will have to come out firing as they prepare for the team they’ve been chasing in their division since September.
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r “There’s still a lot of hockey left to be played, but this is an important game for us for a two reasons,” said Huska before taking to the ice with his players Saturday. “One is you get a chance to see if your players worked hard over their Christmas break and they stayed in shape, and then two – to see how quickly we can get going again.”
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r With 37 games out of 72 in the WHL record books so far, the 18-18-1-0 Rockets are 10 points back of the B.C. Division-leading Giants – a point spread that has remained relatively constant for a month or so, while the Chilliwack Bruins lurk only one point back in third with 36 points in 38 games.
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r In the all-important conference standings, the Rockets sit in sixth in the West, while the Kamloops Blazers hold down the eighth and last last playoff spot with their 33 points, so Kelowna will have to keep an eye on their backs collectively until mid-March.
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r With only a home each against the Giants Sunday and then the Blazers on Wednesday, the Rockets will polish off 2009 with an away contest against the Bruins on New Years.
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r After that, January will be the Rockets busiest month, with a total of 14 games on the schedule, and with all but two of those against conference teams, Huska is under no illusions about their importance.
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r “You look at your schedule at the beginning of the year and you see there’s times where you have to win a lot of your games,” he said. “This is one of those months, simply because we do play a lot at home . . . we don’t have a lot of travel and our trips are typically short ones.”
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r Of the 14 games, the Rockets will only travel to Vancouver, Kamloops and Seattle for single games, as well as a pair Jan. 22 and 23 against the Prince George Cougars – other than that they will be able to call Prospera Place home for the month.
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r Although they’ll be facing Vancouver without their number-three scorer Brandon McMillan, who will likely be gone to the national junior team until Jan. 6, the Rockets have largely shaken the injury bug that ailed them, and with sparkplug forward Kyle St. Denis listed as day-to-day with a concussion, the only sure scratches are the brothers Bloodoff, according to Huska.
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r Unfortunately, neither of the two will be back any time soon, with team captain Lucas out for at least a few more weeks (knee) and his brother Evan not expected back, if at all this season, until late in the going after knee surgery.
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r But with the WHL trade deadline looming on Jan. 10 (at 2 p.m. PST if you’re counting) and 26 players on the Rockets roster, there will likely be some movement soon said Huska. With most team’s carrying 23 players, it not hard to see some will be gone soon.
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r “That number is too many for typically what we carry,” said Huska. “There will be a few guys that will have to move around . . . I don’t anticipate us being overly-active at the trade deadline but we do have to get the number down to 24 at the most.”
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r Last season the Rockets acquired goalie Mark Guggenberger and forward Ian Duval at the deadline from the Swift Current Broncos and the Moose Jaw Warriors respectively, and Huska readily admits that he’d like another solid D-man if available.
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r The only problem is, if you ask 10 WHL coaches or GM’s what their teams need to do well in the post-season, you’d get the same answer 10 times and according to Huska, and D-man would come at a high price regardless. It remains to be seen what, if any, moves the Rockets will make.
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r In the meantime though, that talk is only a distraction and there’s the business of hockey to be played. The Rockets and their head coach would surely like to improve from the .500 hockey they’ve played so far and breaking the 2-2 season record against the Giants with win Sunday would be the perfect post-Christmas plum.
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r Still, Huska is characteristically straightforward about what the task ahead entails. ”It’s a matter of us coming to compete and coming to play and being ready to chase down that team that’s in front of us,” he said.
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r Kelowna fans will get the chance to see the result Sunday at an earlier hour than usual, with the puck dropping at 5 p.m., before returning to the usual 7 p.m. start Wednesday.
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