Outshot, outplayed and left empty handed

Effort.

Without it, an athlete has nothing. You can skate fast, have a lethal shot, and have the swagger of a pro, but without drive from within, often players with great potential look mediocre.

Three games into the Kelowna Rockets’ new season, more veterans than rookies need to look in the mirror and demand more of themselves and less of their teammates.

In a 6-3 road loss Sunday afternoon against the Everett Silvertips, the shot clock told the true story of the team’s third straight loss.

“It is hard to sugar coat it, just not good enough,” Rockets assistant coach Derrick Martin said after his team gave up 53 shots while firing only 19 the other way. “We limped into the period waiting for something to happen rather than demanding something to happen.”

For a second straight game, the opposition scored early. After giving up the opening goal 1:13 into the opening faceoff in a 2-1 loss to the Victoria Royals, the Tips did one better by sending the fans into a frenzy :31 seconds after the national anthems were sung.

“They are a good skating team. They are a puck possession team,” Martin admitted. “They want to get pucks behind you and want you to chase the game, and we played into their hands tonight.”

Firing 22 first period shots on goal, the Rockets were fortunate to get out of the frame down 2-0 with goaltender Jari Kykkanen stopping two breakaways including denying 15 year-old exceptional status d-man Landon DuPont from scoring his first career WHL goal.

“We were loose with our gap. We allowed them a lot of free space through the neutral zone to pick up speed, and when you have that speed it’s a lot easier to execute in the offensive zone off the attack.”

The Tips used six different goal scorers in the dominant effort while Michael Cicek, Brett Calhoon and Ethan Mittelstead scored for the visitors.

“I thought we were second to pucks,” Martin continued. “I thought we didn’t do a good job of sorting it out when we did have it. We weren’t skating our sticks into battles. We were reaching into battles, and when you play a good hockey team they are going to make you pay for that.”

Heading into the weekend, optimism was high with the return of four players from NHL training camps. With three 19 year-olds and recently signed forward Horoki Gojsic, no less than a win in one of two games seemed like a guaranteed.

“We have a dressing room of people who are waiting for guys to come back and we can’t be a group that sits and waits,” Martin said. “There is opportunity aplenty. We need some guys to step up and lead from the front. We need some guys to take ahold of those minutes and make them their own.”

Goal scoring continues to be an issue in the early going. In three games, the Rockets have found the back of the net just seven times. Four of those goals have come from two players – Cicek and Mittelsteadt.

“We just looked disconnected as a group,” Martin summarized. “To be resilient, you have to come in the third period and really showcase yourself, and two shots on the scoreboard doesn’t leave a good taste in your mouth.”

With the turning of the calendar into October, things start to heat up including a rematch Wednesday against the team that ended the Rockets season – the Prince George Cougars.

“Right now for this group, it’s getting back to work as quickly as possible, as the week doesn’t get any easier for us,” Martin said astutely. “At times like this it’s easy to search for excuses. I don’t think we are a group looking for excuses.

“It is time to rectify some of the issues we have internally.”