The Prince George Spruce Kings don't need to check the standings. It doesn't matter if you're first on the ladder or on the eighth-place rung the Spruce Kings now occupy, the will to win every game is required to be successful.
The reality, however, is winning has become a blue-moon occasion for the Kings (13-29-1-3), who have come out ahead in just two of their last 17 games and are now six points out of a B.C. Hockey League playoff spot.
To make matters worse, they've lost five of their best players. A mass airlift on trade deadline day Jan. 10 resulted in four key Spruce Kings -- goalie Steve Papciak, defenceman Wes McLeod, and forwards Brooks Robinson, Marcus Watson -- sent to other teams, all in exchange for future considerations.
That puts the onus on the remaining 18 roster players and a selection of affiliates to continue working against long odds to attain a playoff spot.
"We have a lot of guys filling voids up and we just want to keep pushing and climb up the standings a bit," said Kings captain Sam Muchalla. "We're just hoping to get a couple bounces and keep rolling.
"Obviously we're going to be watching the standings a little bit. We have some tough games ahead of us that we need. I just hope the refs go our way next game."
Favourable officials or not, the Kings have to be at their best to derail the Penticton Vees, their Coliseum opponents tonight (7 p.m. start). The Vees went into Thursday's game in Williams Lake winners of eight of their last 10 games. Only Langley and Alberni Valley have been hotter over that stretch.
The Vees are led offensively by Denver Manderson, the top producer in the BCHL with 96 points, including 31 goals through 45 games. Penticton took a 36-6-0-3 record into Williams Lake, setting a pace that would have them leading most leagues, if not for the fact their Okanagan neighbours are the defending RBC Cup-champion Vernon Vipers, who sport a 40-5-0-2 record.
The Kings trail the seventh-place Merritt Centennials by six points, are seven points behind the sixth-place Trail Smoke Eaters, and are eight points and three notches below Quesnel.
Last weekend started well -- a 6-4 win in Quesnel -- but ended with a 9-2 loss to the Millionaires in the rematch Saturday. In the second outing, the Kings allowed six goals in the third period, four of which came during Quesnel power plays.
"With the numbers we had, I thought we battled hard," said Kings 20-year-old centre Zac Rasmussen. "We have a lot of heart in that dressing room and we're going to battle hard right to the end."
Rasmussen hasn't given up hope of a postseason berth and it shows in the way he tackles every shift -- with a vengeance -- and that attitude has to prevail for the slumping Kings to reverse their downward slide.
"It's a challenge (to make the playoffs), and I love a challenge," said Rasmussen. "There's no better way to go in your last season in the league than to have a challenge. We have lots of games left and we're going 20 minutes at a time, and we have 840 minutes left in the season. It's all going to work out."
