The Estevan Bruins' bottom line may look better than ever, but on the ice, the team is struggling badly.
Earlier this month, head coach Keith Cassidy made the comment that at some point, early in the season isn't early in the season anymore.
In a 54-game SJHL season, it's not that early anymore. The Bruins need to be mindful of that.
With a pair of road losses on the weekend, this has gone far beyond a simple early-season skid that should straighten itself out.
When you lose eight of your first 10 games, you are digging yourself a hole.
Somehow the Weyburn Red Wings are even worse, sporting a 2-9 record, but that's neither here nor there.
Those top three spots are moving further and further away from the Bruins, and if they don't turn it around right away, they will be all but unreachable.
With overtime and shootout points and the parity of the SJHL, you can't get off to a terrible start and then expect to work your way up. It's just not that easy.
Remember the Battlefords North Stars two years ago? They were supposed to be contenders. They lost their first seven games and never recovered. They ended up finishing under .500 and losing out in the survivor series.
With the kind of talent assembled here, at least on paper, that would be a massive failure for this year's Bruins club.
It's hard to find all the answers for the way they have started the year.
Scoring has certainly been an issue, and that continued on the weekend as they scored one goal on 53 shots.
Still, there's more going on here than an inability to finish. A reasonably talented team doesn't lose eight of its first 10 games simply because it doesn't bury a few chances.
Whatever else is holding this team back has to be identified and taken care of quickly.
Looking back to the road trip on the weekend, the good news is the Bruins allowed only four goals against two pretty strong teams.
They pushed the undefeated Flin Flon Bombers to the limit at the Whitney Forum. I can give them a pass on that.
The Humboldt game on Friday though, considering their position, was the closest thing to a must-win that you're going to see in October. And the Bruins didn't manage one goal.
The Bruins are now in the midst of six days between games, and hopefully that time is being put to good advantage. It won't get any easier when they return to action on Saturday, with the Bombers in town.
So far, this looks like yet another season with high expectations and disappointing results.
The Bruins have a very finite period of time to change that.
Josh Lewis can be reached by phone at 634-2654, by e-mail at [email protected], on Twitter at twitter.com/joshlewis306 or on his Bruins blog at estevanmercury.ca/bruinsbanter. How about those New York Yankees? Such clutch production from their top batters. How do they do it?
