The Surrey Eagles are all alone as the basement-dwellers of the B.C. Hockey League.
With just seven wins and 17 points to show for their efforts in 43 games this season, the Eagles can forget about playoffs.
All but mathematically eliminated with 15 games left to play, the Eagles (7-33-0-3) are still playing for pride and that is cause for concern for the Prince George Spruce Kings, who host the Eagles the next two nights at the Coliseum.
The Spruce Kings (20-19-0-4) haven't exactly been ripping it up either. Although they won two of their three weekend home games, ending a six-game losing streak, the Kings have slipped into third place in the BCHL's Mainland Division.
Although they've won all three of their four games against Surrey, all of those games were close until the late stages. Prince George head coach Dave Dupas says his team is under no illusion the Eagles won't put up a similar fight tonight and Friday trying to salvage a few more positives from an otherwise dreary season.
"Surrey is an odd team - they can play with anybody, they don''t get outshot and they play hard," said Dupas. "The first game we played them we scored with 15 seconds [left] to win, we lost the last one [3-1 Dec. 18 in Surrey), and the two in between were very difficult games, tied in the third period and we ended up scoring a goal or two and winning them.
"The only problem they have is scoring, and if we can score we should win. If we don't score, they're going to get their chances. They're big and pretty fast and they work hard and if our guys aren't ready for it they will create enough chances to eventually bang a couple in."
Indeed, the Eagles rank last in the BCHL in goals-for with 106, and they've also been scored on a league-worst 225 times.
While they did lose top-line forward Justin Rai for the rest of the season due to a concussion, the Spruce Kings still have three scorers - Jeremiah Luedtke (16-34-50), Chad Staley (16-26-42) and Michael Buonincontri (17-22-39) firing on a point-per-game pace or better. They've also been getting secondary scoring from the likes of Jake LeBrun (16-19-35), Braiden Epp (17-15-32) and defenceman Adam Clements (7-20-27). The Eagles' top scorer, Darius Davidson, has 22 goals and 42 points in 43 games, while Joseph Drapiuk is not far behind with 17 goals and 38 points in 43 games. After that, the Surrey point production drops off sharply.
Last weekend the Spruce Kings had one bad game - a 6-3 loss to Victoria on Saturday - sandwiched by an 8-3 win over Salmon Arm on Thursday and a wild 7-5 triumph Sunday over Coquitlam. Epp is coming off a five-point game (three goals, two assists) against Coquitlam. All three of his goals came on power plays.
While Jesse Jenks and Alex Brooks-Potts have supplied reliable goaltending all season, Dupas is concerned about his club's inability to keep teams from setting up in the offensive end. The Victoria Grizzlies exposed some of those weaknesses and so did Salmon Arm and Coquitlam.
"We have some firepower up front and we can score but we have to defend here a bit better," said Dupas. "We're still giving up too many chances, too many shots, and we have to get that under control. If we give up that amount of chances and shots against Surrey, we're going to be in trouble."
Defenceman Cole McCaskill, an 18-year-old acquired by the Kings three weeks ago for futures from Salmon Arm, impressed his new bosses on the weekend, delivering a strong effort in all three games that led to his first three goals of the season. He had a shoulder injury that limited his production with the Silverbacks and if he keeps playing like he has been, the Kings will continue to reward him with a ton of icetime.
The Surrey series marks the end of a five-game homestand for the Kings, who will play nine of their remaining 15 games this season on the road. They desperately need to win both games against the Eagles to move closer to the Chilliwack Chiefs and Langley Rivermen, who sit 1-2 in the Mainland standings, having already clinched playoff spots. The division frontrunners played each other Wednesday night in Langley.
Kings centre Brogan O'Brien will miss tonight's game while he visits the Clarkson University campus in Potsdam, N.Y., but is expected to play the Eagles on Friday. O'Brien helped Team West to a 3-2 win over Team East in the CJHL Top Prospects Game Tuesday night in Oakville, Ont. The 17-year-old native of Prince George had one penalty but was held off the scoresheet.
The Kings will also be without F Daniel Nachbaur (upper-body injury, four-to-six weeks) and D Ryan Fritz (lower-body injury, four-to-six weeks). At forward, LeBrun (upper-body) missed the last two games and is questionable for tonight.
