Corner Brook -
Juan Strickland can't put a finger on why his team was totally out of sync in losing two games against the Grand Falls-Windsor Cataracts last weekend.
The Corner Brook Royals coach just knows his team can't afford to have a repeat performance when they tangle with the Clarenville Caribous in a two-game set this weekend at the Clarenville Events Centre.
Strickland doesn't know if the team was affected by the absence of key players like Morgan Warren and Ashley Coles, or if a short layoff in between the series hurt his team.
Either way, he said there are no excuses and his team must get back to the system they followed with almost perfection in the first couple of weeks when they had four wins and a shootout loss to start the season.
He felt his players never had any jump against the Cats and didn't put in the extra effort to win battles for loose pucks.
"It looked like a lot of our players were slow of foot last weekend," he said. "So I don't know if they've been on the ice. They tell me they skate, but how hard are they skating because Grand Falls just looked so much faster, quicker and eager than what we did.
"I also took notice that we weren't willing to battle last weekend for pucks. We didn't come back and play strong defensively."
Looking ahead to the showdown with the Caribous, Strickland insists his players are mature and old enough to look in the mirror and determine if their preparation and work ethic measures up for what is expected in senior hockey.
"It's senior hockey and you want to be play in a competitive league, you want fans to come watch you play, so you got to kind of do some soul searching and know the effort that you put in last weekend is just not acceptable," he said. "Not acceptable by the fans, the management and the coaches.
"So hopefully they're going to respond to that this weekend and now I can say 'Ok let's go back and try it my way. Let's keep them shifts short, let's go hard for 45 seconds, let's come back in our own end and play strong defensively. Let's not get caught up in hanging around neutral ice waiting for breakaways and offensive plays."
He wants his players to forget about the Cats sweeping them, and focus their energy on what makes them successful when they step on the ice in Clarenville.
"Hopefully we are going to learn a lesson and the boys are going to hit the ice on Saturday night ready to do what we done in the first two weekends, which was outwork, outhit and outhustle the other team," he said.
The Royals and Caribous tangle Saturday night (7:30 p.m) and Sunday (2 p.m.) at the Clarenville Events Centre.
