It's been three weeks since the Prince George Cougars dressed for a home game at CN Centre and tonight against the Kamloops Blazers the Cougars will be a lunch bucket crew, decked out in their plaid workmanlike duds.
It's Lumberjack Night and the Cougars will be wearing special jerseys to be given away to fans at the end of the game. They might look different on the ice but the goal remains the same - play winning hockey.
The Cats didn't do much of that on their East Division road swing. They won just one of six games (in Brandon) and took just three of a possible 12 points.
Just 18 games are left on the Cougars' schedule and the rebuild that started in January when they unloaded a handful of their most-coveted veterans will likely mean they will continue to take their lumps, dressing what has to rate as the youngest lineup in the Western Hockey League.
The theory behind their major rebuild is the Cougars will suffer short-term growing pains, like they did the past two weeks taking on some of the best teams in the WHL, and reap the rewards a year or two down the road.
The new acquisitions - defencemen Rhett Rhinehart, Austin Crossley and Cam MacPhee, and forwards Ethan Browne, Ilijah Colina and Kjell Kjemhus - played well enough on the trip to earn the seal of approval from head coach Richard Matvichuk, and that goes for the youngsters who were already with the club before the deals were made.
Matvichuk says the likes of defencemen Jack Sander, Cole Moberg and forwards Liam Ryan, Matt Mosher, Chance Adrian and Max Kryski are taking full advantage of their icetime and have lived up to the pressure of playing more minutes than they would with a veteran-laden team.
That also goes for goalies Taylor Gauthier and Isaiah DiLaura, who both excelled when given their opportunities, while goaltending veteran Tavin Grant was sidelined with a case of strep throat.
"(Gauthier) played really well in Moose Jaw (44 saves in a 4-1 loss) and obviously we didn't get the outcome, but to build his confidence I thought he handled the pressure really well," said Matvichuk. "They way Isaiah played in Saskatoon (35 saves in a 4-3 shootout loss), it was worthy of another start and he made the saves he had to in Brandon that brought us to (a 3-2) victory. The future is bright."
The onus is on the Cougar veterans - especially 20-year-olds Aaron Boyd, Jared Bethune and Brogan O'Brien - to lead by example and not take any nights off. That same logic applies to older veterans Joel Lakusta, Ryan Schoettler, Josh Curtis, Josh Maser, Jackson Leppard, and the two imports - Vladislav Mikhalchuk and Pavel Azhgirei.
"The young guys we have here, those guys just keep getting better every game and that's what we ask," said Matvichuk. "Obviously we're in a position where, if our 20s and 19-year-olds aren't on top of their game that puts us behind the 8-ball. But if they play the game the way they should, the way they did in Brandon, we have a chance to win every game."
Kamloops head coach Don Hay set the record for career wins for a WHL coach with his 743rd a couple weeks ago and he's now up to 745 wins. He brings a Blazer team (24-25-1-3) that's still in the hunt for a wild-card playoff spot, trailing eighth-place Seattle by nine points. The Cougars (19-27-4-4) are all but mathematically eliminated from postseason contention.
"Unfortunately in this game there's always a way that you find to have a letdown in your first game after a long road trip and we have to find a way to put the work boots on and the hard hat on and come to work," said Matvichuk.
"Kamloops got rid of (Garrett) Pilon and (Ondrej) Vala on the back end but they really haven't changed a bunch and that team is not a reflection of what their start was - 0-9. Don is going to have them working hard and there's a reason he is where he is and congratulations to him. That's a remarkable accomplishment and we all wish him the best for that.
"It's a matter of who's going to work harder and play their system better and whoever does that will probably win the hockey game. Lumberjack Night and free beer, it should be a good time."
Game time tonight is 7 p.m.
