Red Deer Rebels look to return to form this weekend

“I think we’ll get back on track pretty quickly here.”

The captain couldn’t pinpoint one particular reason as to what’s led to their losing streak. During their road trip, they did play four games in five nights, but Josephson said that didn’t bother them because of their conditioning.

It may be largely about scoring more goals because the Rebels are currently in dead last in the Western Hockey League with just 55 through 21 games.

“It comes down to burying our chances,” Josephson said. “We had lots of chances every game, we just need to put them in the back of the net.”

He explained to score more goals they’ll need focus on capitalizing on their opportunities, which starts at practice.

It’s certainly not for a lack of scoring opportunities though.

He admitted early in the road trip they may have been shooting too far out, but toward the end they started to get more chances in front of the net.

That’s something they plan to do more often.

“We all know that we’re playing good hockey, it’s just about the one thing — it’s putting it in the net,” Josephson said.

“We’re doing everything right from breakouts, battling, competing, and back-checking. We’re doing all the little things right.”

Head coach Dave Struch said they have lots of positive things to build off, but added they also have plenty to get better at.

Every team, he said, goes through hard times at some point and he hopes the group can learn through it.

“We always talk about putting each other in positions to succeed, but I think the most important part of failures or difficulties is when you grow and learn from those situations,” he said.

“A loss is still a loss, whether it’s overtime or a shootout. I know we get the points, but in the team’s mind it’s a loss. We are here to win hockey games and no matter how it went, even if we had a winning record, we still have to build and grow from the road trip.

“The players are definitely not happy that we went with the record we did, and that’s a good thing. Everybody is really upset about that, disappointed in the outcome, but we’ve seen lots of video evidence where we carried momentum in the majority of the games.”

Red Deer will play their first home game since Nov. 2 on Saturday when they host the Victoria Royals at 7 p.m. They’ll then head to Edmonton on Sunday for a matinee matchup with the Oil Kings at 4 p.m.

Struch added there is plenty of energy in the dressing room and everyone seems to be in good spirits. They look forward to getting back on track this weekend.

The good news is forward Kalan Lind will return to the lineup for the first time since he suffered a lower body injury against the Medicine Hat Tigers on Oct. 9.

“It’s going to help us a lot, no question about it,” Struch said of Lind’s return. “In all different situations he’s a gritty kid and plays a hard game in those areas. We know he can score so hopefully that puts us on a good track.”

Red Deer is still without Finnish forward Kasper Pikkarainen who’s only appeared in one game this year. According to the weekly WHL report, he’s listed as out indefinitely with a lower body injury.

Struch called it a difficult situation.

Red Deer also made a trade on Wednesday, sending Jeramiah Roberts to Wenatchee for a conditional seventh round pick.

by Ian Gustafson

Red Deer Rebels look to return to form this weekend

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