Hitmen update

Oh look, a notepad. This has been one seriously long week. A bunch of us from work spent two days this week at a course that focused on coaching and how to best deliver feedback and ideas to the people we support. It was a really informative course, and having so little training/experience with formal coaching, it was really beneficial to me. It just meant earlier mornings than I normally like, and a whole lot of thinking. Otherwise, there was a Hitmen game, in which they finally played without their heads in their asses (second half only) and won a see-saw 7-5 battle with Lethbridge. Tonight they take on the Moose Jaw Warriors in what should be an epic clash. There was dodgeball, and there was a very brief trip to Boken City on Wednesday night. We'll stay with the Hitmen though. It's no secret I don't have a lot of confidence in the new coach, Mike WIlliamson. It's also no secret, at least the people sitting near me, that I don't appreciate the "efforts" of Giffen Nyren. As noted last time, by playing Jaynen Rissling and Peter (Chuck) Kosterman regularly, the team will see long-term benefit from the short-term mistakes they make. The team will also see long-term benefit from the confidence they gain by making positive contributions to the team in the short term. They were both in the lineup Tuesday night and we got a taste of what we can expect from these two youngsters. Rissling has some rover in him, we saw him below the offensive hashmarks a few times. Kosterman showed a mean streak we haven't really seen, and got his first WHL point, too. These are two seriously high-end young defensemen. Anyway, the point here is this: coach doesn't seem to be a strong leader himself, and he doesn't seem to know how to get the most out of his natural leaders. Ian Schultz and Tyler Fiddler have been pretty consistent all season, but Mike Stone, Kris Foucault and Joel Broda, the other leaders, by way of tenure, have all been inconsistent or seemingly unmotivated. Stone played as though the first half of the season was his own personal try-out for the Canadian junior team. Foucault is starting to score but isn't playing anywhere near full speed, or anywhere near the level we saw when the Hitmen acquired him last season. Broda just doesn't seem to bring it every night. I don't remember him actually hitting the net with a shot all season, and I get the feeling he's more focused on where he'll be plaing next season (Hershey, AHL) than where he's playing now. And then there's Brandon Kozun and Martin Jones. For their efforts with Team Canada, they were given a free pass for the last couple of weeks. Kozun seems to be finding the next level. He absolutely dominated the game against Lethbridge, seemingly willing the Hitmen to victory. He started taking the leap Brett Sonne took after last year's WJC, and the Hitmen need Kozun to get to that level if they're going to make a deep playoff run. Jones, on the other hand, seems as though he's still battling the demons of the overtime goal in the WJC final. It was a tough goal to give up, but he doesn't seem to have battled back from that just yet. And while there's a period of "let him play through it" you have to afford your veterans, there's also a time that period needs to come to an end. Jones looked really shaky on Tuesday night, coughing up some of the most awful rebounds I've ever seen. At one point, he gave up a rebound on a shot that was fanned on and rolled to him. He kicked it into the blue ice to his right where the Hurricanes quickly buried it in the net. It started off as three goals on nine shots. Here's hoping Jonesy gets a rest either tonight or Sunday. Hats off to Ben Wilson and Cody Sylvester for playing outstanding hockey Tuesday night. Wilson has a lot of rover in him, and he takes himself out of position too often for anybody's liking, but he usually finds a way to turn his mis-plays into positives. Notes on the new guys next week.