Injuries and inconsistency have been two of the biggest things holding back the Estevan Bruins this season.
Both have been mostly absent from the team's current winning streak, which had hit six games entering last night's tilt against Melville.
Winning games on a regular basis requires a consistent work ethic and learning from past mistakes, and the Bruins look like a team that's putting it together.
As for injuries, the club had finally gotten everyone healthy when a pair of defencemen, R.T. Rice and Kyle Bird, went down against Notre Dame on Jan. 8.
The timing couldn't be worse, as the team had just traded top four rearguard Brett Blatz and failed to bring in a blue liner at Friday's trade deadline. That forced them to go with five defencemen on the weekend, including Junior B callup Jason Hengen.
Fortunately for the Bruins, the wounded defencemen shouldn't be out for long, and they do have a strong group of affiliated players to help fill in, including Hengen, Mason Benning and Josh Rieger.
Still, having only six defencemen on the roster stretches the group pretty thin at this time of year. Injuries are a fact of life, especially in the playoffs, and not having another guy at this level who can step in is not ideal.
Not to mention calling up prospects can be hit and miss because they can't play when their midget team is also playing, and they need time to travel.
Still, it's hard not to see the upside of trading Blatz for Michael Sagen last week.
Sagen is a legitimate first line winger who can score goals with the best of them. The Bruins, having league scoring leader Austin Daae on their top line, have the luxury of putting Sagen on their second unit.
Daae and Tanner Froese have scored 38 of the team's 110 goals this year and Sagen will help give them two legitimate scoring lines, taking some of the pressure off the top trio.
With Lynnden Pastachak healthy, Jason Duret scoring at nearly a point per game since coming to Estevan and the likes of Austin Roesslein,
Ben Johnstone and Cory Kosloski finding their offensive game lately, the Bruins should enjoy a boost in scoring down the stretch.
Balanced scoring is key to success and and while Daae, Froese and Sagen should continue to lead the way, they appear to have a solid supporting cast to help out.
The Bruins now find themselves three points out of fifth place in the league, as Humboldt and Battlefords are tied for that spot, and they have three games in hand on the North Stars.
Teams are always shooting to finish as high as possible, but the best-case scenario here would be to finish sixth and face the winner of the weak Sherwood Division.
Nipawin currently leads the Sherwood with 36 points, which is nine behind the Bruins, and the other three teams are all within two points, so it's anyone's guess who wins the division crown.
Contrast that with a fifth-place finish for the Bruins, and right now they'd face Yorkton, who own the third-best record in the league but are seeded fourth.
This is what can happen when you have a format where division leaders get the top spots by default. The Sherwood Division is the new NHL Southeast, or as some derisively called it, SouthLeast.
Contact Josh Lewis at 306-634-2654 or [email protected]. Who would've thought the one SJHL team that sold at the trade deadline would be tied for first in their division?
