They had to find a new goalie in December, and may be moving a few more players before the trade deadline, but for now, the Broncos seem to be on the road to success.
At the end of 2011, the team was on a 10-game winning streak, claiming victories over some teams they had yet to defeat this season.
Overall, the team seems to be pulling together, and gelling.
"I think we've found.. the chemistry between the lines," said Broncos head coach Dean Brockman just before Christmas. "We're a little deeper, and a lot healthier. We've been fairly consistent with our line-up, as with our play."
Reminiscent of the winning teams of 2007-08 and 2008-09, the lines that score every night seem to vary.
That just shows the depth of the team, Brockman said. "It's just the guys contributing in a lot of different ways."
Most of the 19-year-olds who returned to the Broncos this season have taken the steps to be better players, Brockman believes. "I hope we're going in the right direction," he noted.
One of the challenges the team faced in mid-December was losing goalie, Deven Dubyk, who was pulled up to the WHL. The Broncos ended up acquiring 1992-born Colin Dzijacky in a three-way trade from the Grande Prairie Storm of the AJHL.
Though right now, the team is looking strong, as their 10-game win streak shows, Brockman is looking to make a few movements before the final roster is set after the trade deadline on January 10.
"We're going to change things yet again," he said. "I don't think we're invincible... I still think we have to strengthen certain areas. It'd be crazy not to try to be as good as we can possibly be," he said, as they begin to play down to the RBC Cup in May.
They're building the team piece by piece. "It's a matter of us finding (the right) chemistry," Brockman believes.
Some recently acquired players have already added something to his squad, he feels. Taylor Duzan is an example.
The Broncos acquired the 5'6" left-winger December 1, and he's not only been a definite presence on the ice, he's helped motivate the rest of the team.
"When you have someone whose heart is as big as they are, that breeds success," Brockman said.
"When he takes a hit, or blocks a shot or faces some of the bigger players... that's contagious."
Getting players to learn from one another, to teach by example, is one of the coaching tools Brockman has learned to use over the year.
Unlike the teams in 2007-08 and 2008-09, this year's edition of the Broncos has not had a core group of local players that moved up the ranks of minor hockey together. But they are pulling together.
"We've got to give the team a lot of credit," said Brockman. "They were never really together before."
However, they are focused on building themselves into a team - doing things together off the ice.
"That's carried on onto the ice," he said.
Brockman and assistant coaches Tim Klimosko and Murray Brookbank have been working with the team, changing some things with their systems, and how they approach things, so it works better with the players they've got.
They've simplified their D-zone, Brockman explained, and have come up with a few different breakouts, which the players could relate to.
Is the team where he wants them to be at this point in the season?
Brockman couldn't answer that question. "I promised myself I'd only live in the moment," he smiled. "I can't control the things that are going to happen in the future. No one predicted losing a goalie at Christmas."
