Rebels GM/head coach seeks more consistency in second half

Brent Sutter wants his players to climb off the roller coaster and settle onto a flat track for the second half of the Western Hockey League season.

The Red Deer Rebels GM/head coach watched his club navigate through a series of peaks and valleys through the first 36 games of the current campaign.

“I thought we had a really good start to the year,” Sutter said Monday evening, as the players and coaches were preparing for their first practice session following the Christmas break.

“During the month of October we played hard and we played well. A lot of things were going good.”

And then . . .

“Right before we went on that trip in early November we had a stinker of a game at home (a 5-2 loss to Medicine Hat Oct. 28),” Sutter continued. “When we started the trip in Lethbridge (where the Rebels fell 6-1 the following night) we started to go through a tough time and the month of November was a tough month.

“It was all travel and tough games . . . a lot of games. Our schedule wasn’t in our favour in November.”

Indeed, the Rebels played 13 games during the month, including eight in succession away from the Centrium and just four at home.

But then December rolled around.

“I thought that December was better,” said Sutter. “We started to take some strides. We had one game in Medicine Hat (a 4-2 win Dec. 7) where it felt like, ‘OK we’re seeing our team now’.”

Veteran forward Grayson Pawlenchuk appeared in his first game that night after missing roughly a month with an injury, and two nights later he suffered a season-ending shoulder injury at Calgary.

Minus the services of Pawlenchuk and two other top-six forwards — Michael Spacek and Adam Musil, both with Team Czech Republic at the world juniors — the Rebels lost their last two games before Christmas with Sutter plugging players into different, more expanded, roles.

“Pawly gets re-injured and these guys leave for the world juniors and you’re kind of in a mode of trying to mix and match and trying to get through,” said Sutter.

The Rebels boss has viewed too many games in which both his younger and older players have stubbed their toes.

“I think some of the young players have progressed, some not as much as we would have liked,” he said.

“For our veteran group, there’s been the odd game when we’ve had them all where we need them to be, yet there’s been a lot of nights when some have played well and some haven’t. So there’s been a problem with inconsistency.”

The Rebels managed to complete the first half of the season with a 16-14-4-2 record and head into Tuesday’s home-ice date with the Edmonton Oilers sitting in third place in the Central Division.

That, despite experiencing shortcomings in the special teams and goaltending departments.

“Our penalty kill has gotten better,” Sutter conceded. “It was running close to 80 per cent before the Christmas break so it’s starting to get better. But we had a really tough time in October and November with our PK.”

As for the club’s power play . . .

“We’re working our way back up. At one time we were 19th in the league.”

The Rebels man-advantage units are now operating at an 18.4 per cent success rate and have risen to 13th overall.

Netminding hasn’t exactly been a team strength, despite the fact that rookie Riley Lamb opened the season on fire. He eventually hit a dry stretch and gave up the No. 1 spot to another newcomer, Lasse Petersen, who in turn has been somewhat inconsistent.

“At times it (goaltending) has been really good, but the reality of it is the type of goals we’ve been allowing,” said Sutter. “Goaltending is a big part of your penalty kill and when it’s not at the level it needs to be at, your penalty killing struggles.

“I still think Lamber is going to turn out to be a really good goalie in this league, but he had a tough first half and a lot of it was mental. He had a really good year in midget (AAA) hockey, came in and looked great in the exhibition games, then started the season well before running into a tough spell.

“He was letting in a couple of soft goals a night and lost his confidence. That’s where mental toughness comes in.”

Sutter never had a chance to evaluate a third netminder, Tyson Verhelst, who suffered an off-ice, career-ending concussion shortly after being acquired from the Spokane Chiefs.

Petersen handled the bulk of the puck-stopping duties earlier this month before joining Team Denmark at the world juniors. Again, he was up and down.

“Petey is kind of similar to Lamber, but a year older. He’s still trying to find his way in the league,” said Sutter. “We’re confident in both guys, but we have to get one of them on a roll.”

Lamb came up with a multitude of sensational stops in a 3-0 loss to visiting Kelowna Dec. 16, yet looked vulnerable on two goals, then faced 42 shots in a 5-3 loss at Medicine Hat 24 hours later.

“In the two games he played just before the break, Lamber was just OK against Kelowna and despite giving up four goals in Medicine Hat, he played really well there,” said Sutter.

“To me, it was his best game all year. That’s encouraging.”

Sutter isn’t pinning the entire inconsistent first half on special teams and so-so goaltending.

On the contrary . . .

“Obviously, I don’t like the fact we’ve given up so many goals. You can’t have success that way,” he said.

“We have to tighten that up and the onus is on all the players. In October our goals against was good, but our work ethic was also huge. We were doing a lot good team things. Our system was good, we were blocking shots, we were sacrificing defensively.

“In November and December we were hot and cold, and that’s unacceptable. The one part of the game you can teach players is how to defend. That’s stuff we work on every day but there’s sacrifice for an individual to do that.”

Sutter wants his charges to adapt a team-first mentality over the remainder of the season.

“You have to set aside personal agendas and do what’s right for the team,” he stated. “I think we’ve had some personal agendas affect us, that’s why some of the guys were hot and cold.

“We can’t have that. We’re a team that has to play a real good team game. If we play like that, where our work ethic and details are good, we’re a really good team. A lot of it has to do with being prepared to play and being committed.”

Scouting Report

Rebels vs. Edmonton Oil Kings; Tuesday, 7 p.m., Centrium

The Oil Kings heated up heading into the Christmas break, posting a 6-2-1-1 record in their last 10 games. Edmonton occupies fourth spot in the Central Division and is seventh in the Eastern Conference with a 16-15-3-1 record . . . RW Davis Koch is the Oil Kings’ top points producer with 37 (10g,27a). Rounding out the top five are C Lane Bauer (22-14-36), D Aaron Irving (12-24-36), RW Trey Fix-Wolansky (8-17-25) and LW Tyler Robertson (10-12-22) . . . Patrick Dea is 24th among WHL goalies with a 3.20 goals-against average. He possesses a 14-11-1 won-loss record with one shutout and a .894 save percentage.

Injuries: Edmonton — LW Adam Berg (upper body, day-to-day), G Liam Hughes (lower body, week-to-week), RW Jesse Roach (upper body, week-to-week). Red Deer — D Carson Sass (upper body, day-to-day), LW Grayson Pawlenchuk (upper body, indefinite), RW Reese Johnson (upper body, indefinite).

Special teams: Edmonton — Power play 17.4 per cent, 17th overall; penalty kill 80.1 per cent, seventh. Red Deer — Power play 18.4 per cent, 13th overall; penalty kill 76.4 per cent, 15th overall.