The old adage, 鈥淚t鈥檚 not whether you win or lose, it鈥檚 how you play the game鈥� was the attitude Victoria Royals head coach Dan Price took into the Western Hockey League club鈥檚 first two preseason games over the weekend.
And according to the second-year bench boss, his team passed with flying colours, and picked up a couple wins. Not that anyone鈥檚 keeping track at this time of the year.
鈥淚t went very well,鈥� Price said Monday after reviewing his young squad鈥檚 performance in a 6-5 shootout win Friday night in Kelowna and a 4-2 win over the Blazers on Saturday night in Kamloops.
鈥淲e were not focused on wins and losses, but instead the fundamentals of the game and our compete level over 60 minutes on both offence and defence, as well as some system things and I would says we did a very good job all-around in both games.鈥�
Price went with nearly an entire team of rookies in both games as the Royals have plenty of openings on this year鈥檚 roster, and there are a handful of the veterans 鈥� Matthew Phillips (Calgary Flames), Scott Walford (Montreal Canadiens), Tanner Kaspick (St. Louis Blues) and Lane Zablocki (Detroit Red Wings) 鈥� heading off to NHL rookie camps.
鈥淲e were a very young team so it was a good chance to start developing good habits both on the ice and off the ice, like being on the road and the travel and things like that, so we were happy with the way that went,鈥� added Price.
Leading the way offensively for the Royals in the two games were rookie import centre Phillip Schultz (three goals and one assist) and veteran newcomer D-Jay Jerome (two goals and two assists).
And the goaltending was solid, especially Saturday night in Kamloops where Joel Grzybowski and Keegan Maddocks split the duties, with Maddocks stopping all 19 shots he faced in half a game.
The Royals now gear up for a three-games-in-three-days preseason slate when they head to Langley for the Vancouver Giants annual preseason tournament. On Friday night, the Royals will take on the Giants, followed by a Saturday afternoon game against the Everett Silvertips and Sunday noon-hour contest against the Prince George Cougars. All three games are at the Langley Events Centre.
And expect a little older lineup when the Royals take to the ice this weekend.
鈥淲e will try to get the veterans into some games now, probably one or two, to start to get their legs going a bit,鈥� said Price.
鈥淏ut there will still be plenty of young guys as we still need to look at some things and make some decisions.鈥�
The puck drops on the regular season on Sept. 21 when the Royals host the Cougars for the first of back-to-back games at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
