Their depth has been replenished, but his competitive spirit hasn't allowed him to be happy with his team's erratic play so far this hockey season.
Dean Brockman, head coach and general manager of the Humboldt Broncos, sat down with the Journal just before Christmas to discuss the current season, the hangover from last season, and the woulda, coulda, shouldas of the RBC Cup hosted by Humboldt last May.
"Competitive-wise, I'd like to be in a lot better shape," Brockman said about where the Broncos find themselves this season.
Just before the winter break, with their last home game under their belt, the team was in second place in the North Division, just behind the Flin Flon Bombers with 40 points. That put them in fifth in the league.
It's been an up and down season for the Broncos so far. They started off with a win, suffered three losses, then began a win-streak that lasted eight games in early October.
From that point on, they've won more than they've lost, but not by much.
Putting everything into perspective, Brockman said, with the players that graduated at the end of last season, and how many players they lost going into this season, "I think we've replenished the depth of the team for the present and for the future."
But when asked whether he's happy with where they are right now - "I'm just okay," was his response.
"Obviously, we want to be better. We want to continue to strive to be better," he stated.
All in all, they're in better shape than some predicted they'd be at this point, he said.
There is definitely talent on the team, Brockman agreed. Joey Davies and Cody Pongracz are on the top scorers list, and John Lawrence joins them on the leaders list. As of December 17, Matt Hrynkiw was the top goalie in the league.
However, the team seems to be going through a phase right now.
"The guys are playing more for themselves than they should be in a team concept," Brockman said.
The players, at this point, are not understanding the commitment it takes, or how they have to put their personal agendas aside in order for them to find success as a team, he noted.
That, combined with being away from home for long periods of time, could be why their play has been somewhat erratic.
"That's understandable to a certain extent," Brockman said. "But they are here to play hockey, and it's important that they do focus on that."
But overall?
"I really like our team," Brockman grinned.
They've had some pretty serious injuries this fall, which has hurt them as a whole and which has led to some inconsistency among the players, as they never know what line they're going to be playing with, Brockman indicated.
These injuries have taken out some of their best players, for long periods of time. In fact, Brockman said this is the worst season he's ever seen for serious injuries on one team.
On the positive side, their goaltending has been pretty good.
The play of Hrynkiw has been one of their only constants this season. That, and the work of defenceman Logan Sproule, whose play Brockman called "excellent."
"Everyone else has had their ups and downs," Brockman said. "Hopefully we'll find some consistency in (the rest of their) play."
Most of their losses so far this year have been close ones - by one point.
"That's where it has to be that extra push," he said. "That extra motivation to win. We're losing one-goal games instead of winning one-goal games."
That's one thing Brockman wants to work on in the last two months of the regular season.
The play away from the puck is another. Getting that up to par is what it takes to win a lot of championships, he said.
The last games of 2012, before Christmas, were going to be important ones, Brockman felt.
"That's going to dictate what we do at the trade deadline (on January 10) in a big way," he said.
RBC Cup hangover
The team does have a hangover from last season, which ended in an RBC Cup semifinal loss at home.
But only a bit, Brockman said.
"For me, it hasn't been an issue," he said. "You just want to get back and do better than the previous year."
Their depth last year was good - it had to be in order to be a competitive host team. And that's something that Brockman said he's happy with this year as well.
"We got some pretty good young players out of that," he said. "They should be impact players in the following seasons."
Though he hasn't carried it into this season, losing in the RBC Cup semifinal is still something that bugs Brockman, you can tell.
"You feel like you let a lot of people down," he said when the issue was raised.
Brockman always gives his team the same message - did you do everything you possibly could do to win the game?
If you feel empty at the end, you did your job, he said, and fate was just not on your side.
"If you had something left, learn that lesson and complete each day to the fullest," he said.
Things felt off the entire day of the semifinal, Brockman said, thinking back on it.
"As a coaching staff, if you lose, obviously you feel you've done things wrong. You second-guess your moves....
"The players - you'd have to ask them if they left everything they had (on the ice)," he added.
There were some tough calls that day - a goal for Humboldt that was disallowed, and a controversial major penalty in the last minutes of regulation time.
But Brockman isn't placing the blame squarely on those things.
"As an individual, I felt we could have done more to win that game," he said.
That notion really hit him hard in Nova Scotia, he said, when Team Canada West, which he was coaching, lost to the United States in the final.
"There were a lot of mixed emotions there," he said. "I felt it for the first time, being outside of Humboldt. There, it felt like letting your country down. In the Bronco world, it was letting your community down... I felt that emotion, that I let it happen again. It's pretty heartbreaking."
Dealing with a loss like that is just like dealing with a win, he indicated, just with different emotions.
"How do you overcome that? How do you deal with the emotions?" he asked.
"A day or two doesn't go by... (and) I think I could've done something different. I don't know if that ever goes away."
Financials
On the revenue side, the Broncos are feeling a loss this season in terms of season ticket sales, which are down.
Their expenses may be down as well, Brockman said, because they don't have to budget to have a team until May like they did last year, but they do need more fans at more games to make things work.
So far this season, attendance at each game is averaging just 638.
The Broncos organization is also still helping the RBC Cup host committee clean up the last of the details in their financial statements, which are presently being audited.
Though a complete financial report has yet to be made, it was reported a couple of months ago that the RBC Cup did not make enough money to put towards their legacy plan, part of which was to improve the Broncos' facilities at the arena - showers, dressing room, office space and trainer/rehabilitation facilities.
Another part of that legacy plan was to boost the Broncos' scholarship fund.
Has the lack of those things impacted the team?
"From my perspective, the RBC Cup was to replenish what we didn't have," Brockman said - like better dressing rooms, which can impact recruiting.
"That's a hit. Now we have to think of other ways to attract players," he stated.
Replenishing the scholarship fund would have been another nice attraction for players looking to come to Humboldt, he added.
While the fans look at the team one way, players look at it another.
"Players view Humboldt the same as they view other (teams). We have to find a way to separate (the Broncos from the pack)."
Brockman thought a financially-successful RBC Cup could have separated the team in that regard.
"It didn't," he said simply.
Had the Broncos made it to the RBC Cup final, would it have made a difference financially, as some have suggested?
"Winning the event at home would have made it that much more of a lasting event," said Brockman. "It would have been more memorable for everyone."
More people in the facility that day probably would have made a financial difference, he conceded.
"But no one will ever know that," he said.
The effort the community put into the RBC Cup is having an impact on the Broncos this season.
They are being hit by a lack of volunteers at their games.
"People have burned themselves out on us," was how Brockman put it.
"That's greatly appreciated," he said of their efforts at the RBC Cup.
But it has made it difficult this season to find people to work as volunteers at their games.
They are also still desperately in need of billet homes for their players this season.
Of course, there are benefits to have hosted the RBC Cup.
"We got more followers," Brockman said.
And while that may not be showing up at their gate for games, the RBC Cup gave the team national notoriety. Brockman found that when he went to coach at the World Junior A Challenge in Nova Scotia this fall.
"People knew we had hosted," he said.
There were also some small upgrades done to the Elgar Petersen Arena, like new mats on the floors between dressing rooms and players' boxes, and there's a new washer and dryer for the team to use.
It also proved, Brockman said, that this community can host a major event like the RBC Cup.
And it's given the Broncos a bigger board and executive than they had before.
Would he do it again - be a part of hosting the RBC Cup?
Brockman just smiled.
