The Vancouver Giants end their 2014-15 season this weekend with a home-and-home against Kelowna, the top team in the Western Conference. While the Giants are out of the playoff picture thanks to a nine-game losing skid down the stretch, the Rockets have been on auto-pilot the past six weeks or so in preparation for a long playoff run.
Get ticket information for Friday night’s game here.
It was a roller coaster year for the Giants, who came out of the gate flying before losing 18 of 24 games under Troy G Ward. Replacement coach Claude Noel seemed to buoy the team nicely — a new bench boss often has an invigorating effect — and with four weeks left in the year they’d managed to scrape themselves into a playoff spot.
Click here for a slideshow of photos from WHL action.
Then around Valentine’s Day, for some reason, the wheels came off. Since February 20, the Giants have played a dozen games, and won just twice. They’ve been shut out five times, and outscored 43-16.
Noel was perplexed after Saturday’s game. “I don’t know what these guys were doing, to be honest,but they weren’t playing hockey.” said Noel, who called a timeout early in the first period against the Victoria Royals. “I just wanted to wake them up. They were asleep out there. ”
“Then right after, we give up a shorthanded goal?” he paused and joked, “I look like a genius for calling that timeout now, don’t I?”
This year’s team was young — Tyler Benson showed promise, and Cody Porter did well for a rookie goaltender playing the kind of minutes he got in the second half. But frankly the older part of the roster just didn’t deliver the goods on a consistent basis;
Friday night is Fan Appreciation Night at the Pacific Coliseum, which means loads of giveaways, deals and tears for departing players: Dalton Sward, Zane Jones, Matt Belerive all just completed their overage year and have run out of WHL eligibility, while blueliner Mason Geertsen has a distinct possibility of making the Colorado Avalanche affiliate Lake Erie Monsters next season.
Bright spots include a stellar future for forward Tyler Benson, who is projected to go in the first round of the 2016 NHL draft. Jakob Stukel and Alec Baer also have some serious upside, and it will be interesting to see how much of the family business Parker Smyth brings to the table — his uncle Ryan played in the NHL for 19 seasons, and his father Kevin played three years with the Hartford Whalers.
