JH/bantam bruins melfort
The Estevan TS&M bantam AA Bruins are hitting the reset button after losing their first three games of the 2016-17 Saskatchewan Bantam AA Hockey League season.
The Bruins opened the year with a 2-1 loss to their South Division rival Yorkton Xerox Terriers (2-0) at Affinity Place last Friday evening before hitting the road for a couple of games against North Division opponents. On Saturday morning, the team made their way to Humboldt's Elgar Peterson Arena where they fell 7-3 to the Broncos (2-0), which they followed up on Sunday afternoon with a lopsided 8-1 defeat to the North East Wolfpack at Melfort's Northern Lights Palace.
“It's easily the worst weekend of our schedule and it just happened to be the first weekend, but you know what fatigue was not an issue on Saturday,” said Tom Copeland, head coach of the TS&M Bruins. “We had 24 hours to turn it around on Sunday and we just didn't do that. The errors that we're making on Sunday had nothing to do with fatigue. We came out right from the get-go and played very poorly, so the first 10 minutes we were down 4-1 and that's right from the goalie out. There is nobody who gets to shed the blame of what happened on Sunday.”
The Bruins have only seven returning players this season including Max Wanner and Turner McMillen who played two and 11 games, respectively, as affiliated players last season. Copeland said the guys who have advanced from the peewee ranks will need some time to get used to contact and the pace of the game at this level, but they'll need to work harder and be mentally focused and prepared to play if they hope to have any success. He said they designed their practices this past week with a goal of being a much harder team to play against and the coaching staff wants to start seeing better results this Saturday when they host the Saskatoon Outlaws (3-0).
“With one game on the weekend they've got nothing to hold back for and we're going to put it all on the line,” he said. “There is going to be changes in the way we prepare for games. There is going to be changes in our practice structure, all kinds of things. But at the end of the day they've got to bring a better attitude and they've got to bring a better work ethic to the game and if we don't see that then we will make more changes yet.”
