So much for a run to the Memorial Cup.
When the Prince George Cougars lost 4-2 to the Portland Winterhawks on Monday night at Veterans Memorial Coliseum, they were eliminated from the Western Hockey League playoffs in the first round. Their quest for major-junior hockey's big prize lasted a mere six games.
As Trump would say, or probably tweet instead: SAD.
This Cougars team - one that was ranked No. 1 in the Canadian Hockey League during the first part of the season and spent most of 2016-17 on the top-10 list - had far too much talent to get knocked out by the Winterhawks. But, as the old saying in hockey goes, if talent doesn't work hard, hard work beats talent.
Not to suggest that the Cougars played the whole series without the proper amount of effort, but there were multiple moments when they didn't show enough drive, enough urgency, enough killer instinct. So many times in the series, the Cougars scored a goal, only to have the Winterhawks come back with one of their own moments later. Every hockey player knows the most dangerous shift for a team is the one right after it has scored. But, in all four losses - Games 1, 4, 5 and 6 - the Cougars couldn't stop the Winterhawks from quickly replying after they'd gotten a puck behind Portland goalie Cole Kehler. Ultimately, that comes down to not enough hard work and not enough focus.
In the series, the Cougars also wasted too many opportunities. The trend started in the opening game, in front of more than 5,000 fans at CN Centre. Instead of riding the home-ice energy to a statement-making win, they weren't ready for the increased intensity of playoff hockey and managed just nine shots in the final two periods of a 4-2 loss. The Cougars didn't do enough to fight through the tight checking of the Winterhawks and paid the price. The Game 1 stumble reeked of a lack of preparation, and that has to fall on the doorstep of head coach Richard Matvichuk.
The Cougars were much more ready to go in the next game and cruised to a 5-1 win in their home rink. In Game 3 in Portland, they continued to dominate and pounded the Winterhawks 6-1. Maybe the Cats thought things were going to be easy after that, and they were actually in a good position in Game 4, ahead 4-3 late in the second period. But, instead of putting their hosts away in the third period and taking a 3-1 series lead, they surrendered a pair of goals to Portland's Matt Revel and, just like that, the series was tied. Call it the TSN turning point.
The Winterhawks returned north to Prince George and, backed by the brilliance of Kehler, stole Game 5. For the Cougars, that Saturday contest was an absolute must-win. But, after they dug out of a 3-1 hole with third-period goals by Brogan O'Brien and Colby McAuley, they gave up an immediate marker to Ryan Hughes and then got unlucky on an insurance goal by Cody Glass. Portland notched a 5-3 win and headed south with a chance to clinch the series.
On Monday, the teams were scoreless after 20 minutes. In the first intermission, it's easy to imagine Portland coach Mike Johnston standing in the middle of the Winterhawks' room and asking, "Who wants to go back to Prince George?" Whether those words were uttered or not, Johnston's players came out fired up and scored three times before the middle frame was 12 minutes old. Now that's playoff urgency. The Cougars got one back in the third period but - surprise, surprise - Portland's Keegan Iverson scored 1:07 later and the Cats, a team loaded with eight NHL draft picks, were done. A McAuley goal in the dying moments of the period was meaningless.
Perhaps the Cougars' rapid playoff exit shouldn't come as a surprise. There had been, after all, concerning signs of inconsistency, particularly after the WHL trade deadline in January. At the deadline, the Cougars rightfully decided to "go for it" and, through trades, added prized wingers Nikita Popugaev (Moose Jaw Warriors) and Radovan Bondra (Vancouver Giants) to their roster. Popugaev and Bondra joined another new addition, all-world defenceman Brendan Guhle, whom the Cats acquired in November from the Prince Albert Raiders. Players on the other side of those transactions - the guys the Cougars gave up - were 18-year-old forward Yan Khomenko, 17-year-old forward Justin Almeida, 18-year-old forward Bartek Bison, 17-year-old defenceman Max Martin and 18-year-old forward Kolby Johnson.
Post-deadline, the Cougars immediately won five in a row but, after that, went 12-9-1-3. Some of those defeats - in regulation, overtime or shootout - raised eyebrows because of the lesser calibre of their opponents. There were a pair of setbacks, for example, to the Red Deer Rebels (season mark of 30-29-9-4). Prince George also fell to Vancouver (20-46-3-3 record) and the Spokane Chiefs (27-33-8-4).
The Cougars' mediocre finish to the regular season calls into question the team chemistry. Was it as good after the trade deadline as before? Did all those NHL prospects on the roster not mesh? Was there too much flash and not enough substance? Maybe the Cougars needed more guys like the undrafted McAuley, whose combination of grit and talent made him their best player in the series against the Winterhawks. Having grinding forward Tanner Wishnowski (another trade deadline pick-up) down the stretch and therefore in peak form for playoffs may have helped but Wishnowski played only a handful of games from January to March due to injury.
It can't be forgotten that this Cougars team did win the regular-season title in the B.C. Division with a franchise-best record of 45-21-3-3. Thanks to that accomplishment, at the start of next season a banner will finally go up in the CN Centre rafters, which had remained naked for the first 22 years of WHL hockey in Prince George.
But, despite a claim on the team's website that 2016-17 "will ultimately be remembered as an exciting and record-setting season for Richard Matvichuk's Prince George Cougars," it will more likely be recalled for its bitter ending - a first-round playoff failure. No Prince George Cougars fan will be able to look at that banner without thinking about how this star-studded team fell short of expectations in a colossal way.
