By Wes Gilbertson /
Members of the University of Calgary Dinos men’s hockey squad feel like they have something to prove.
Something to prove to an overhauled coaching staff, which is now headed by Mark Howell and includes former NHLers Cory Cross and Brad Isbister.
Something to prove to their classmates, who watched them crumble down the stretch last season and ultimately miss the playoffs for the first time in nearly a quarter-century.
And something to prove throughout the always-competitive Canada West conference, where the Dinos have apparently been pegged as a team that can be pushed around.
“Talking to other players on other teams and just hearing rumours from around the league, people are saying we’re soft and we’re an easy team to play against,” said fourth-year Dinos forward Aaron Richards. “The mentality that the new coaching staff has brought in is that we’re not going to be an easy team to play against, we’re going to be a hard team to play against and we see that every day in practice.
The only way to back that up is to go out there and play every single team tough...We’re going to play every team the exact same way, and it’s going to be tough and it’s going to be in-your-face and it’s going to be exciting hockey.”
The Dinos lost a couple of rock-solid rearguards but are welcoming back many of their key contributors from last season, including netminder Jeff Weber, defenceman Dan Ehrman and sharpshooters Torrie Wheat, Brett O’Malley, and Reid Jorgensen.
The crop of rookies fighting for ice-time includes Western Hockey League graduates Graham Potuer (Everett), Luke Egener (Red Deer), Eric Frere (Kootenay), Tyler Swystun (Portland) and Tylan Stephens (Kootenay), plus former Grande Prairie Storm teammates Blake Clement and Mark Stojan.
Howell, whose resume includes a playing stint at the University of Alberta, a video gig with the national team and coaching appointments with the Drayton Valley Thunder and Westside Warriors, arrived on campus in June and realized immediately his charges had a chip on their shoulders after a miserable 10-16-2 campaign.
“I think they’re really hungry to win a championship,” Howell said. “They know they failed here the last couple years and they want to make amends for it and come back strong this year and really push Alberta and Saskatchewan and the rest of the teams to try to win that championship.”
The Dinos drop the puck on their Canada West campaign Oct. 9 against the archrival Alberta Golden Bears.
Their tune-up schedule included tilts with the cross-town SAIT Trojans and Mount Royal University Cougars, plus a three-game road swing south of the border to battle the Colorado College Tigers, the University of Denver Pioneers and Air Force Falcons.
They could hardly wait.
“Obviously, last year was a big-time embarrassment,” Richards said. “Nobody likes to miss the playoffs, especially when you have as talented a team as we had.
“I wouldn’t want to play us because we’ve got something to prove this year. We got beat up on last year a bit and we shouldn’t have. We underachieved big-time and that’s been sitting with us all summer so we’re ready to go and prove a point.” |