It was a busy week for the Save-On-Foods Oceanside Generals, who played three games in four days.
The Generals lost two of their three games, a 5-0 loss to the Westshore Wolves and an 11-3 loss to the Campbell River Storm.
The team did pick up another win, their second in a row against the Nanaimo Buccaneers by a score of 6-4.
Coming off their win over the Buccaneers, head coach Brad Knight was pleased with the first two periods but not too happy with the end result in the third period, as the Generals let the Bucs back into a game they had no business being in.
“I thought the first two periods of that game were good,” Knight said. “Our effort in the third period isn’t the way that this team is going to play hockey.”
“The fans that came out to show their support deserved much better than that and it was embarrassing.”
“That’s just not going to be tolerated here in this organization. The commitment to play sixty minutes needs to be here if you’re going to play for this team.”
Even though it’s been exhibition play, Knight knows the importance of getting that message across.
“There’s lots of guys fighting for spots,” Knight said. “We can’t afford to be taking that amount of time off.”
“There’s always a punishment for an outcome like this and they’ll learn with me that’s something I don’t like to see,” he said.
“The fans deserve to see something better than what we gave them at home and the players are going to understand it come practice time.”
Though the final two games of their week might not have gone the way they had hoped, Generals players still enjoy the intensity that coach Knight brings to the table and know that they must learn quickly from their mistakes going forward.
“We can’t afford to play like that,” forward Sebastian Powsey said.
“We know what’s down that road and we don’t want to travel down that route again. That was last season, lots of things went wrong and I feel we’ve got the right group of players here that can turn that sort of thing around,” Powsey said.
“Personally, I love what Coach Knight brings to our team, he’s a no nonsense kind of guy and I think that’s what we need as a team. It was a good learning curve for us, making us work hard in practice for not working hard in the game and hopefully we’ll learn from this.”
The Generals now have 10 days before their 2015-16 season officially kicks off, as they travel to Campbell River to take on the defending VIJHL and Cyclone Taylor Cup Champion Storm on Sept. 11.
The following night the Generals are at home to host the Nanaimo Buccaneers at Oceanside Place, with a 7:30 p.m. puck drop.
This will kick off the opening weekend of the Oceanside Generals 25th anniversary, with some surprises in store through out the season to mark the celebration.