Timmins Rock head coach and general manager Brandon Perry observes his team’s practice on Tuesday afternoon at the Whitney Arena, as the team rounds into form during the second week of training camp Photo by Andrew Autio for The Daily Press
“Effort level, compete level, those are things we don’t coach here. You either have it, or you don’t, and if you don’t have it, you don’t last here very long.”
Andrew Autio
The Daily Press/Postmedia Network
As the Timmins Rock work their way through the second week of training camp, head coach and general manager Brandon Perry is experiencing a few ups and downs as he looks to shape his opening night roster.
The camp has been taking place at the Whitney Arena in the city’s east end, and after a frustrating practice on Tuesday, he told The Daily Press that it was the first real bump in the very early season road.
“Things have been really good until today I guess,” he said.
“Overall its been pretty good. We’re a younger group. We’ve got a lot to learn. We’ve got a long way to go, but the effort has been pretty good. They seem like good kids. Willing to learn, and they work hard, so I don’t think we’ll have any issues there.”
However, there have been noticeable lapses in focus.
“Consistency certainly has been an issue over the week and a half.”
While it can certainly be expected that players won’t be in peak form in mid-August, the summer rust excuse is no longer viable.
“I think the first week, you’re expected to be rusty, a little bit sloppy. We’re carrying a lot of guys. You’re not getting a lot of touches. Its just the way it is. It happens every season,” explained Perry.
“Then we turn the page to the next week. They had the weekend off. We had a great practice Monday, a really great practice on Monday, and then for whatever reason today, it just wasn’t.”
This led to Perry stopping the drills and delivering a strong, and loud, message to his players.
“We weren’t paying attention to details basically. We go over stuff on video before we go out and practice, and this is what it looks like. Everybody says they’ve got it, then they get on the ice to work on it, and it becomes clear they do not got it,” he said.
“Its just a matter of paying attention and not being afraid to ask questions when you’re not sure. That’s all a part of maturity and growing as a player. I mean, the young guys probably don’t want to speak up right now, and the more comfortable they get, the more willing they’ll be to speak up and ask questions.”
These issues are all a part of the growing and gelling process of a junior A hockey club with players coming from both the city, and from every direction. The team is far from a finished product, and evaluations are still ongoing.
For some of the younger, inexperienced players in camp, it is an eye opening standard of expectations.
“We really need to understand how hard junior-A hockey is, not just in our league, but across the country, and we’ve really got to bring up our compete level here.”
Amongst the established returning veterans, there are a lot of players vying for seemingly just a few open spots on the roster.
“That’s exactly it. You’ve got guys that aren’t carded yet, and they’re trying to make the team. You can’t afford to have bad days. Its so short, and players become available every single day. I’m getting calls every single day about players. If you want to make your mark, these guys are running out of time.”
The Rock will head down to the Cottage Cup taking place next week in Collingwood. They will practice again on Monday, and leave very early Tuesday morning, ahead of 3 p.m. game that afternoon.
Of note, the Rock have signed four local forwards and graduates of the Timmins Majors U-18 squad: Mavrick Boucher, Tyson Scott, Evan Katic, and Sutton Scheck.
Perry said he hasn’t been overly shocked at the skill level in camp, and had a relatively short list when asked if there had been any standouts thus far.
“Nothing unexpected really. I recruited them here for a reason. The Victor Hourtouat kid looks really good. Big strong kid. Has good finish. He has better hands than what I initially thought on video this summer.”
“Then the young defenceman Jack Quevillon. Big kid. Really rangey, moves really well for a big man. A lot better than I thought to be honest. He’s going to be a very good defenceman for us going forward here.”
Between the pipes it will be a young crew for the Rock, with 16-year-old Ayden Mullen, and 17-year-old returnee Graham Gee.
“Ayden looks really good. Same thing with every young kid, its just consistency. Graham(Gee) has just been sick. Today was his first full practice really. He lasted five minutes at our first practice last week, and was sick all week. He just got back. He’s going to be heading to Kingston Frontenacs(OHL) camp later this week,” said Perry.
Despite a bit of frustration on Tuesday, he is looking to build throughout the rest of the week leading to Cottage Cup.
“We’re just looking to get better every day. More and more every single day its got to start to resemble the way we want to play. The Cottage Cup isn’t necessarily about winning for us. I mean, we’re a competitive group, don’t get me wrong we want to win games, but we just want to be better every time we step on the ice.”
Perry said they will continue to hammer home the details that have made the Rock so successful in recent years.
“Effort level, compete level, those are things we don’t coach here. You either have it, or you don’t, and if you don’t have it, you don’t last here very long. The attention to detail, and playing with the structure we want play, and the pace we want to play, those are the things we’re looking to build on. Not just in practices for the rest of the week, but every period at the Cottage Cup, we’ve got to start looking more like Rock hockey.”
