These will be interesting times for the Victoria Royals, who have hit a busy stretch in the 2015-16 Western Hockey League season.
After earning three of four possible points against the Prince George Cougars on Sunday and Monday, the Royals begin a string of seven games in the next 11 days, which culminates with the trade deadline on Jan. 10.
Victoria is in Kamloops tonight and Friday to face the Blazers before venturing to Kelowna to challenge the Western Conference鈥檚 top club, the Rockets. Then it鈥檚 back home for two against Tri-City on Tuesday and Wednesday before another long, exhausting trip to Prince George on Jan. 8-9.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a big part of the year. You play for three and a half months to get to the halfway point and the second half is over in two and a half months. It comes real quick,鈥� said Royals assistant general manager and director of player personnel Grant Armstrong, who fills in as an assistant coach while head man Dave Lowry is away at the world junior championship.
鈥淚t goes really quickly and we鈥檙e coming up to a big deadline here. For our team there are a lot of question marks. Are we buyers? Are we sellers? Are we status quo? We鈥檒l determine that over the next little while and we鈥檒l see what the league offers, too.
鈥淭here鈥檚 no sense going after something that might not be there,鈥� he added. 鈥淥n the other side, we鈥檙e a young hockey club and our future is still out there in my mind so we have to make sure we don鈥檛 do anything to jeopardize our future.鈥�
The biggest question is, do the Royals make a last run with captain Joe Hicketts remaining in Royal Blue and with Lowry still behind the bench as he will surely be sought after by pro teams. That will weigh on GM Cam Hope鈥檚 shoulders over this stretch of seven games.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 more on Cam鈥檚 side than on mine,鈥� said Armstrong. 鈥淚鈥檓 sure there are lots of inquiries, as we also inquire about others. At this point, Joe is a valuable part of this hockey club and I don鈥檛 see any change.鈥�
What Armstrong does see is a pivotal portion of the schedule as the second-place Royals, at 22-12-1-2, remain a point up on the Cougars, who do have a game in hand in the West. Seattle is six points in arrears, but with three games in hand on Victoria, while the Rockets are eight points up.
Kamloops is 17-13-3-1 and carries an identical 5-4-0-1 record to the Royals in its last 10.
鈥淚t鈥檚 going to be a good battle with our old friend Don Hay up there. We鈥檙e looking forward to it,鈥� said assistant coach Enio Sacilotto, who runs the bench with Lowry away in Finland.
The Royals could have used that extra point they let slip away in Monday鈥檚 3-2 shootout loss to the Cougars, who play a physical brand of hockey. Tempers flared throughout the two clashes and that will continue up north in 10 days time.
鈥淭hey play a heavy game. It鈥檚 nice to play in games like that because you have to be awake,鈥� Armstrong said of the Cougars. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 take time off because you鈥檙e going to pay the price if you do.
鈥淔or our guys, it鈥檚 making sure you鈥檙e ready all the time. They are as desperate as we are to get points and as you can see from the standings, everybody is climbing up the rope now. We want to make sure we create distance and keep winning hockey games.鈥�
The Royals鈥� power play had several chances to lock up the win on Monday, finishing 1-for-7, including a late 5-on-3 that spilled into a scoreless overtime.
鈥淥ur power play could have been better there. We had chances, but so did they, so our penalty kill came up big,鈥� Sacilotto said as the Cougars were 1-for-6 on man advantage situations.
