Forget the fact the Prince George Cougars won just one of six exhibition games.
Forget they were outscored by a whopping 31-11 in those six games.
And forget that only a few hundred Cougar fans showed up Saturday night to see them lose 6-2 to the Kamloops Blazers to close out the exhibition season.
That all happened in the preseason, where points in the standings aren't counted and nobody remembers which team came out of it with the best record.
The real season for the new-look Cougars starts Friday in Kamloops and the Cougars have until then to sort out a few glaring concerns that could affect the progress of last season's basement dwellers up the Western Hockey League ladder.
Let's start with the goaltending. James Priestner, in his first start at home since he abruptly left the Cougars nearly a year ago, was not sharp on a couple of occasions Saturday. With the Cats down 2-1 late in the first period, Priestner waved his trapper in front of what looked like a routine shot from long range off the stick of Dylan Willick but didn't get enough leather on rubber and the puck fluttered into the net.
Another long shot late in the second period from Brady Gaudet completely fooled Priestner, but by that point the Cougars had dug themselves a deep hole. They allowed four goals in the middle frame to fall behind 6-1. While it's easy to point a finger at the 19-year-old Priestner, he wasn't the only reason the Cougars lost. It took a collaborative effort.
"There's no doubt, the first two periods I think Priestner would like to have some of those decisions he made back," said Cougars head coach Dean Clark. "I thought we did some good things as a group, more so than what we did the last three games and the score obviously wasn't very indicative of that."
Morgan Clark, a 20-year-old, did not fare much better for the Cougars Friday in Kamloops, losing 7-3.
"I'd like our goaltending to be a bit better for sure," aid coach Clark. "Unfortunately, with the way we played some young guys, that was the first full game for (Priestner and Clark) and now that I look at it I would have liked to have done that differently. We need goaltending. In order to be successful in this league you need guys to step up and play well."
See Monday's Citizen for more
