Salmon Arm, B.C. — It’s a double-edged sword, no doubt.
On the one hand, erasing your opponent’s significant lead two games in a row is certainly a positive. On the other, trailing, not just by one or two goals, but three or four, is not something you want to make a habit of night in and night out.
This has been the Salmon Arm Silverbacks pre-season thus far.
On Saturday, they stormed back from a 5-1 deficit against the West Kelowna Warriors, only to fall 6-5 in overtime. On Wednesday, they erased a 4-1 Vernon Vipers lead but lost 5-4 in overtime. Both overtime goals were surrendered while on the penalty kill.
“When you have a resilient group, that’s great — that we’ll always battle and we’re finding ways to get back into games that we’re down,” Silverbacks assistant coach Tanner Cochrane said after Wednesday’s overtime loss to the Vipers. “Gotta give credit and full points for that, but at some point we’ve got to stop the bleeding when we’re going down. It’s just about finding that happy balance between being happy about the resiliency and then finding ways just to be better.”
The Backs’ had a slow start in their first exhibition game last Friday, one that ended up as a 2-1 victory. On Saturday, they were slow out of the gate again, surrendering four goals to the Warriors in the first 12 minutes. On Wednesday, their start was better, but they fell flat this time to open the second period.
“I thought the first period we outplayed Vernon pretty bad 5-on-5, found ourselves down after that period and just a really slow start to the second,” Cochrane said. “I thought [Vernon] built some momentum off their power play that carried over to the second. We got caught chasing a lot of pucks due to a bad neutral zone and then we weren’t taking care of pucks.”
With 11 goals allowed in their last two games, puck management is certainly an area that can be improved upon. But, it’s still August, so no one is getting ready to hit the panic button. That button doesn’t even exist yet.
“I think our team defence is growing in parts of the game. It’s just got to be a consistent effort. I don’t think the effort is not there. I think it’s just executing consistently will lead to better team defence,” Cochrane said. “We’re really happy with our blue line and our group of forwards that we have here in camp. We’ve just got to make sure we’re hammering home systems and it’s a strong, collective, team effort on team defence.”
Those concepts will look to be improved upon this upcoming Friday, when the Backs’ wrap up their pre-season on the road in Vernon against the Vipers.
“We’re still trying to kind of holster in what the final roster will look like this season,” Cochrane said. “Look for a strong, 60 minute effort and hopefully not have to come back from behind. We’ve got to find way to get a lead and keep a lead. We’ve been behind in every game so far this pre-season, found ways to claw back and we’ve just got to find a way to hone in and find ways to win.”
The Silverbacks regular season opener is set for Sunday, September 8 at 3 p.m. at the Shaw Centre. For tickets to that or any other game this season, click here.
