Rockets can’t find that winning formula
When wins aren’t coming easy in hockey, it’s often due to letting too many pucks find their way into your own net. In the case of the Kelowna Rockets, despite being among the WHL leaders in goals scored per game before Christmas, the real issue seems to be their inability to find the back of the net themselves.
That offensive struggle continued Sunday afternoon at the Langley Events Centre, where the Rockets fell 3-1 to the Vancouver Giants, a team they had dominated 8-3 in late November.
“I thought we gave away too many pucks again tonight,” said Rockets assistant coach Derrick Martin to RocketFAN. “It felt like any time we had some sustained pressure, we’d give the puck back to them and watch them break out of the zone. We’ve got to get back to playing that passionate hockey where we’re hard to play against, we control the puck, we get pucks to the net, and we get guys into the greasy areas. When we’re at our best, that’s what we’re doing, but we haven’t seen much of it the last couple of games.”
Max Graham’s power-play goal, his 11th of the season, gave the Rockets a glimmer of hope, but Ty Halaburda answered with a shorthanded goal in the second period and then added an empty-netter to seal the victory, finishing with a three-point night.
Sad to say, but the “faith” is starting to slip 🙁 Seems like there are to many guys that are just happy to be there ??. Definitely missing the “want it factor”. Very poor coming out of our defensive zone 🙁
The seasoning-ending Iginla injury, the three players at the WJ’s, and the trade speculation have to impact this group. That is a lot of uncontrollable chaos. Sadly, with the makeup of the team, few were doing the heavy lifting and many could tag along and maturate. Now those secondary players have to be impactful, which is a massive change, which takes time to grow into those roles.
I see alot of youth on this team but unfortunately the talent level is not there. The Rockets are in a really tough position hosting the Mem Cup next season and with the roster they have now I’m afraid it could be ugly. Changes will have to made sooner than later. But what ? We don’t have much time to right the ship.