"Getting swept three straight by Melfort doesn't leave a good taste in anybody's mouth. Obviously we're still a little bitter on it and won't let it happen again this year, that's for sure," said Ryne Keller, Battlefords North Stars forward.
The 2013-14 season begins Friday and, while it's the start to a new year, last season is still fresh in the mind of coaches and returning players.
The North Stars were in a first-round matchup against the Melfort Mustangs, a team 15 points behind them in the standings, and the North Stars were unable to win a single game in the playoff series. However, the team says the problems that led to the early playoff exit have been addressed.
"From last year to this year, we had to be mentally stronger and if there's one thing that we wanted to address going into this season it's mental toughness," said Kevin Hasselberg, the North Stars' head coach and general manager, Wednesday morning at the team's breakfast.
He said the goal for the season is for all the players to be "linked for life." Hasselberg said last season the team wanted to succeed so desperately it might have weighed them down and mental toughness will help address that.
"In sport, there still has to be an element of comfort knowing that what you're doing is fun and what you're doing is something you wanna do and you enjoy doing and you love doing," he said. "For us, this is our safe place - the Civic Centre and our dressing room. We want to make sure that every day we get to be here is just another great part of our day and it's a tremendous opportunity and something that we will not take for granted."
The North Stars still have 27 players on the roster and Hasselberg said they'll need to cut two or three players in the next week, but they aren't making it easy on the coaching staff.
"The players have made it very difficult. They've done what they needed to do to be here and that's all we can ask of them," he said.
The North Stars were giving back to the community this week leading up to the start of the season. Tuesday, they walked some residents from River Heights Lodge to the Co-op to have coffee and chat. Later in the afternoon, they spent time with some sponsors of the "Growing with the Stars" agriculture project and took photos in front of a variety of farm equipment. Wednesday morning had the Civic Centre packed with fans for the team's breakfast.
The season starts Friday with a game in Kindersley against the division rival Klippers. The first home game is the following night in a rematch against Kindersley.
