They have a stable of young skilled players, several veterans who pride themselves on being leaders and a bigger, meaner team than last year.
Yet, they only won seven games, two more than their previous campaign, and found themselves in the cellar for the second straight Bud Light West Coast Senior Hockey League season.
"There is nothing wrong with the Corner Brook Royals" is the only response I can come up with after watching the Royals play a dozen or so games this year.
Players don't care about the regular season, led to believe it's OK to do poorly because the league is structured so that all four teams make the playoffs. Why risk injury or put family or friends out of whack for the sake of a game of hockey that means nothing?
So, now it's a different season. It's the post-season, the time the Royals usually save their best. In a league that boasts parity, nobody pays attention to regular season standings or the padded scoring statistics of players around the league.
The Royals will clash with the first-place defending champion Clarenville Caribous in a best-of-seven semifinal beginning this weekend. The series opener is tonight 7:30 p.m. and Game 2 is Sunday 2 p.m. at the Clarenville Events Centre.
Jason Churchill is the man who stands between the Royals and a berth in the final. The Royals must make life miserable for the best goalie in the province. They must crash the net, within the rules of the game, and get plenty of shots on goal if they want to dethrone the champs.
Churchill is an emotionally charged individual who loves the spotlight in the big game. The Royals have to figure out how to get this masked man unravelled, and the only way to make that happen is to maintain a physical presence in front of the towering puckstopper.
Coach Juan Strickland is also a key to the series. He has to sit down every player on the team and let them know what their role is before the first puck drop.
The best players on the Royals have to be their best players, so, unless Terry Ryan and Morgan Warren show more than I saw in the regular season, expect this series to be over in a hurry.
It's time for Ryan and Warren to walk the walk. They have done very little this season and it's time for them to perform. They haven't been the offensive leaders both the players and fans expected when the season opened with so much optimism.
In playoff hockey, every year, it seems something unexpected happens. The unexpected this post-season could be the Royals stunning the Caribous by beating them at their own game. Now, that would make life interesting in the west.
Dave Kearsey is the Sports Editor of The Western Star. He can be reached at dkearsey@thewesternstar.com
