Rebels healthier as they return to action versus Edmonton

“Mentally, more than anything,” he suggests. “That’s been the one really good thing about being in the rink is that because we’re all enclosed in there, we can do things together but just can’t be among anyone else. So it’s worked out well.”

The Rebels entered their bye having played 10 games, compiling a record of 2-6-2-0.

They most recently suffered a weekend sweep at the hands of the Edmonton Oil Kings, losing by scores of 5-0, 3-1 and 5-2 from March 19-21.

But Sutter says he wasn’t necessarily discouraged by what he saw in those games.

“It’s unfortunate we didn’t get any points out of it, but I thought we played very well for the most part, especially five on five. Special teams, we worked on that this week and hopefully we can improve. But our five on five play, for the most part since the first weekend, has been really good.”

Edmonton was 5-for-13 in those three games while the Rebels went 1-for-12.

The Rebels return to action this weekend as a healthier team than when they entered the bye.

Team scoring leader Ben King along with defencemen Mason Ward and Joel Sexsmith will be back in the lineup after missing time due to injury. Defenceman Kyle Masters is still listed as ‘day-to-day’ with an upper body ailment but is in line to play this weekend versus Edmonton.

“From an injury standpoint (the bye week) is nice, but it’s nice to play games when we’re in the situation we’re in, too,” he surmised. “But it’s given us time to have some good practices. That’s what this is all about. It’s not just the games it’s the developmental side of it, too.”

The development he’s seen through 10 games this season, Sutter says, has been promising.

“We’re still a young team. We were really young last year and obviously we’re a year older, but we’re certainly a better team than we were and we’ve played better. Guys are just more mature, stronger, bigger (and) quicker. But we’ve got to find different ways of scoring goals. We don’t score a lot of pretty goals. We have to score tougher goals, get into harder areas, but that is what it is. That’s how our team is made up.

“We certainly need to look at adding some more skill to our group (for next season). But at the same time you’ve got to be really careful, too, because it is a really good group. They’ve got good comradery and the chemistry within the team is really good.”

The Oil Kings, who are 9-1-0-0 on the season, have won 14-straight games over the Rebels heading into this weekend’s series that starts Friday night at 7 p.m. at the Westerner Park Centrium.

They play again Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. at the Downtown Community Arena in Edmonton before returning for another game at the Centrium Monday at 7 p.m.

All game can be heard live on 106.7 REWIND Radio starting 10 minutes before game time.

by Troy Gillard

Rebels healthier as they return to action versus Edmonton

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