There are legions of hockey fans in this neck of the woods who would like an answer to the question of why the Edmonton Oilers, with so much talent, are struggling so mightily.
Well, they can stop asking: I have the answer, and it came to me while watching the Jasper Atom Bears take on opponents in Whitecourt and Edson last weekend.
The Bears are similarly laden with talent, but they are successful, perched at the top of their league and undefeated so far this season.
On Saturday, the Bears travelled to Whitecourt to play on an oddly leopard-patterned ice surface against their rivals the Wolverines. For the Wolverines, the game had all the charm of a Lord of the Rings movie: everything exciting happened in the first 30 seconds and the rest was just hanging on, waiting for the credits to roll.
Twenty-eight seconds on the clock, the Wolverines scored, establishing a one-goal lead. This lasted a full eight minutes until Jasper’s Lucas Oeggerli found paydirt standing in the blue paint, knotting the score at 1.
Unfortunately for Whitecourt though, this seemed to wake up Jasper’s usual suspects and in the ensuing two and a half periods, Dylan Dekker, Sebastian Golla, Liam Crozier, Nash Hilworth, Tanner Carlton and Baden Koss all combined their efforts for nine more goals to propel the Bears to a 10–1 victory.
Beyond the first 30 seconds, netminder Donovan Fawcett played a perfect game, making one glove-hand save after another on the high-shooting Whitecourt forwards, and coming up big on a few breakaways.
Sunday morning, the Bears woke up in Edson to play a scrappy three periods against the Avalanche, who are a dozen points behind them in the standings but a strong defensive team.
The first period was back and forth and the goaltender-du-jour, Dylan Dekker, had to be sharp to keep the puck out of his net. With just four seconds to play in the opening frame, Carlton finished off a passing play from Golla and Koss with a shot over the outstretched Avalanche goalie to put Jasper up by one.
Janelle Tank had some chances early in the second and was working hard, but the Avalanche netminder was on top of his game and kept Jasper’s young star off the scoresheet. Golla buried a breakaway just before the mid-game flood and then Oeggerli put Jasper up by three on the fresh ice with a nice backhander top cheese.
Dekker was playing what looked like shutout hockey, but Edson was able to solve him on a goalmouth scramble late in the second to get back in the game. They kept the pressure on the Bears, with Golla uncharacteristically in the sin bin twice in the second period, but could not add to their comeback.
Koss restored Jasper’s lead to three goals with the Bears’ fourth marker, five minutes into the third, and although Edson got one more just before the final buzzer, it would be too-little-too-late as the Bears would skate away with a 4–2 victory, their 12th on the season, preserving their unbeaten record.
Oh, and the answer to the Oilers’ woes. If they want to take a page from the Bears’ playbook, they should play smart.
Whenever these kids hit the ice, they put on their thinking caps. Heads are up, open players are calling for the pass, defenders are keeping the puck to the outside and forwards are keeping the puck deep. They are getting plenty of shots, but also moving the puck around in the o-zone to find a player in a good scoring position.
Watch Dexter Fawcett and Dylan Skinner working together on the blueline as they double team rushing opponents to pinch them off the puck. Take a lesson from Owen Kearnan banking the puck off the boards and out of the danger zone. It’s an impressive style of hockey that reflects both the smarts these kids have and the quality of coaching they are getting from Steve Malcolm, Jim Koss and Geoff Skinner.
Next week this team takes a break, but are back on the ice for a home game against Edson’s other team on Saturday, Jan. 31.
See you in the stands.
John Wilmshurst
Special to the Fitzhugh
