It’s been a rough season for the Vancouver Giants, but head coach Jason McKee still sees moments when his team is firing on all cylinders.
The Giants lost a heartbreaker on Saturday. Up 3-0 over the Kamloops Blazers, they watched their lead vanish as the Blazers got their game winner 5.1 seconds before the clock ran out.
Though there were some costly errors late in the game, overall the Giants were the team McKee wants to see on the ice every night.
“We played extremely well, we played with courage and dedication that night,” McKee said.
In many games, the Giants have barely hung on, with solid goaltending backing them up even as they fail to generate much in the way of offence. But that was far from the case on Saturday.
“We generated a lot of offence that night,” said McKee.
The G-Men outshot Kamloops 45-33, making it one of their best nights of the season for shots on goal.
“Unfortunately, it’s a hard way to lose,” said McKee.
It was a far cry from the 8-1 loss to the Kelowna Rockets on March 10.
The Giants held them to two goals in the first period, but in the second the Rockets put four shots in the Giants’ net in under four minutes.
“Our game in Kelowna was not very good,” said McKee.
The difference between the two games, Friday versus Saturday, was night and day. McKee is emphasizing the mindset and detail-oriented play that keeps the team competitive.
“If we work and execute, good things will happen for us,” said McKee.
With just four regular season games remaining including this week’s game on March 14, the Giants are still playing game to game, McKee said.
“We’re trying some different things,” he said. Some players are being moved around, in an attempt to see if new partnerships can be formed.
“We’re slugging it out,” he said of the last few games of the season.
