Blazers' Turnstile Keeps Spinning

(Aired January 11, 2010)

So the question today is-did the Kamloops Blazers do enough to prepare for the future. It was pretty obvious last week that the Blazers were going to be looking to the future, and it had to happen. The Blazers had to cut the ties with the old guard, and build for next year and the year after. For those who cover the team closely, it was certainly clear that some of the veterans just didn't have the ability to get the job done when it counted, and didn't know how to win. That creates an attitude of defeat, and any coach will tell you that when that attitude prevails, it gets ingrained into the younger players coming up. Did GM Craig Bonner trade the right players? Did he get enough in return? As the saying goes, only time will tell.

Consistency has been a problem for this hockey club. Too many players just didn't play hard enough every night. And that's a coaching issue. Guy Charron is the 5th coach since the new owners took over 2 and a half years ago. Whose fault is that? I think Craig Bonner is a good GM and I like him a lot. I think he's done what he could. But he certainly is on the spot if the team doesn't get turned around. And so are the team owners. All talk-no walk. That's what I think about the new owners of the team. We rarely see them, even in the off season. They talked about returning to the winning ways. They all show up on the scoreboard prior to the game saying "we want it". Well, they don't want it bad enough I guess, any more than the players seem to. One of the team's promo slug lines is "The Tradition Returns." Well, we haven't seen any sign of a winning tradition so far. I'm disappointed, and I'm certain by the dwindling number of fans many of them aren't happy either. I don't care if the team wins every game, but when I go to a game, I want my team to be competitive. Perhaps giving the younger players a chance to play, and develop a new winning attitude will change what happens on the ice. After all, you can only believe the hype so long. At some point it has to turn into reality.