Former Vancouver Canucks coach Harry Neale, after noting in the early 1980s that his club could not win at home or on the road, famously said his failure as a coach was that he couldn’t think of any place else to play.
That wry observation is often brought up during losing streaks in teams sports. The Victoria Royals have lost twice at home and five times on the road to start the Western Hockey League season 0-7. The quest to snap into the win column swings back home, after the five-game road trip, beginning tonight and Wednesday at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre against the Kelowna Rockets (2-2-1).
The Royals have started 7-0 twice during Dan Price’s time on the Royals bench, as assistant or head coach, and each time they came back to the pack. This situation is inverted with the Royals looking to climb into the pack in the Western Conference.
“We have to look on it as segments of season and the next seven games as a segment,” said Price.
“Our guys are not down or feeling sorry for themselves. They are confident and determined they can get there. That stems from the leadership of our older players. They are a determined group with a personality make-up in which they don’t get down.”
That is the thing about this season for Victoria. This is not a rebuilding year. That’s what the 2020 bubble season, in which the Royals were last in the WHL, and the playoff-less 2021-22 season were supposed to be about. This is a veteran roster that returned looking for the payoff this season.
It hasn’t helped that Victoria has been without its two best players and will be again this week against Kelowna. Forward Brayden Schuurman was hurt in the NHL rookie camp of the Boston Bruins and Victoria captain Gannon Laroque, signed to an NHL entry-level contract by the San Jose Sharks, is also out with injury. Schuurman is back skating but unlikely to play in the two games against Kelowna. Price said there is no clear timeline on Laroque. Just how integral those two players are to Victoria is by now glaringly obvious. It was, however, thought the Royals had the kind of veteran depth to make up for those sorts of losses. It is time to step up. Price described his veteran leadership group as “reflective” and knowing what needs to be done.
The Rockets blanked the Royals 3-0 in their first meeting last weekend in the Okanagan. That was without their captain Colton Dach, who has since been returned from the NHL training camp of the Chicago Blackhawks, and will be in the Kelowna lineup tonight and Wednesday on Blanshard.
