After the final game of last weekend's Chinook Hockey League Pre-Season Showcase Tournament Brian Sutter left his team's dressing room shaking his head and waving his arms.
The head coach of the Innisfail Eagles thought his team played well in three games but also knew his squad has plenty of work ahead before its season home opener on Oct. 18.
“You can't give up four goals in a game and expect to win. You have to score five to win and against a good team you are not going to score five to win,” said Sutter.
“We just can't turn pucks over, and that happens early in the year. You have to be strong on the puck and our goaltending has to be good. We gave up three goals tonight on the first four shots on net and none of them were scoring chances.”
The Eagles had a roster of 32 players for last weekend's home tournament and Sutter said every one of them was needed. The Eagles won two games and lost one. The Bentley Generals wound up with the best record of the five-team tourney, with two wins and no losses.
The Eagles lost their opener 5 – 2 Friday night against the expansion Okotoks Drillers. The Eagles outplayed the Drillers, outshooting them 45 to 30 but drew mostly blanks against hot goaltender Todd Ford, a former Toronto Maple Leafs draft pick.
The Eagles found their legs the following night squeaking out a 3 – 2 victory over the Fort Saskatchewan Chiefs. Kevin Smyth paced the Eagles with a pair, including the game winner in the third period.
The Eagles were supposed to play the Stony Plain Eagles Sunday night but the visiting team pulled out of the tournament earlier in the week due to roster challenges. The Morinville Kings, an expansion squad from the AA North Central Hockey League, filled in and despite having only 14 players to start, gave the Eagles fits for the first 20 minutes, keeping the game tied until late in the first frame.
Brody Malek blasted a slapshot to put the Eagles ahead 4 – 3 and the home squad never looked back, cruising to an easy 9 – 4 win, ultimately outshooting the Kings 58 – 17.
While Sutter was not happy his team gave up so many goals he saw many positives over the weekend.
“We can skate. We have a defence that can move the puck. We got some people like Kevin Smyth that can play three games in three nights, and Tylor Keller who competed very hard. They were rewarded with a lot of points,” said Sutter. “Guys like Tyler Haarstad who came and played really well and Brendan Lamb who didn't play with us last year played really well, and Aaron Boyer. We've got a young group – young guys like Darrin Robak, Kaare Odegard. Those guys played really, really well.”
With 10 days to go before the season opener at home against Okotoks, Sutter said there are no plans to trim down the roster from its current 32 players.
“We will need all these guys. We had around 30 guys the whole year last year, and we needed them,” said Sutter, adding the Eagles will have three practices before Oct 18. “We were pretty good, to play three games in three nights. No level, no league professionally plays like that. It was a good start.”
