Coming off a two-game loss to the Victoria Royals during season opening play this weekend, the Langley-based Vancouver Giants want to turn things around quickly.
Head coach Jason McKee appears confident his boys can do just that, despite falling 7-1 to the Royals in Victoria on Friday, and then 6-1 on home ice at the Langley Events Centre Saturday.
The two Giants goals this weekend came off the sticks of returning forwards Ty Ronning and James Malm.
“The pace was much higher than a lot of our young players saw in exhibition, so I think it caught us a little off guard. But then on Saturday, I thought we rebounded and we had a pretty good first half of the game,” McKee said.
“I think it was, for our young guys, a step up and it took us a little bit to get used to the pace,” he added, noting that getting behind early in both games made it tough to come back.
“The biggest thing is to get back to work here and keep our confidence,” he said.
In practice this week, there’s been a lot of work done to strengthen their offensive game.
“We have to get off to a better start here on Friday,” McKee said. “Every team is a better team when they have the lead. So we want to get off to a good start and try to plant the lead early.”
Teamwork will be key, he said.
“In general, we’re going to need to be a team that scores by committee. I don’t think scoring will come super easy for us, but I think if we work at it and continue to create the chances that we are, I think the puck will start to go in for us.”
The G-Men are going up against the Kamloops Blazers this weekend.
While the visiting team is missing some key guys who have moved on to higher levels, the Blazers are still what McKee describes as a hard-working team.
“We have to be prepared for that. Nothing will come easy, and we know that. I don’t think any team is going to give up anything easy. But we know what to expect. They’re going to come in, they’re going to have guys coming into the net, so we have to do a good job of boxing guys out and fronting pucks.”
This is the Giants’ second season at LEC. The new season schedule includes 12 more Friday night games and eight more Saturday night games.
Friday’s game against Kamloops gets underway at 7:30 p.m.
In the meantime, at Friday’s game, the Giants are hosting KidSport Day.
On the ice will be what Giants call a fierce matchup between two B.C. Division foes. Off the ice, fans will have a great opportunity support a tasty charitable initiative.
Triple O, in conjunction with KidSport and Envision Financial, are teaming up for KidSport Day.
That day, Triple O restaurants will be donating $1 from every burger combo sold to KidSport BC.
Triple O will donate an additional dollar for every Retweet for the hashtag #SoALLKidsCanPlay that day. The Giants are encouraging all hungry fans to purchase a burger combo from the Langley Event Centre’s Triple O’s kiosk that night.
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