Growing pains for young Storm team continue

Unlike the 80's sitcom featuring Kirk Cameron, the growing pains the Storm are experiencing are no laughing matter. A combination of factors led to a pair of unflattering results this weekend. They were beaten 7-1 by an Oceanside Generals team at home on friday that appears to have the Storm's number this season.
Then saturday, in a game that featured two penalty shots for the Kerry Park Islanders, the Storm lost 8-3. It would be easy to point the finger at the lack of experience in the line-up with only Andrew Gaiga, Dylan Budgell and Corey MacLachlan the ones with any junior experience. Even Westshore has a dozen players with a few years under their belts.
You could easily fault special teams as a big contributor in both losses.
Heck, you could credit bad luck amongst the reasons the Storm seem to be struggling, as every mistake they make seems to result in a red light going off behind their keeper.

It's sometimes much harder to examine the positives. Bear with me, but there are some rays of light peering through the black clouds of Storm land.
Some of the young forwards are finally scoring some goals. Two weekends ago, it was Robo Eliason who scored in back to back games. This past weekend, Chase Haley got his first junior goal in 3 games.

Alex Benjestorf

Look at Alex Benjestorf, who had markers in both games this weekend. Matt Tilton was finally rewarded for the opportunites he's given himself by firing one home saturday night.
You would be more worried about this team if they weren't generating any sort of chances. On the contrary. The kid line of Tilton, Wade Bartlett and Brandon Tidy had a bunch of chances, especially in the Oceanside game to score. You hope with experience that they'll put some pucks past the blue-ice instead of onto the goalies pad as this season progresses.

Look at some of the reasons why the boys are struggling at this point of the season.
The Storm play an aggressive forecheck as part of their system, bringing multiple bodies up high. Sometimes all 3 forwards can be found behind the opposition net. This creates a big problem when they don't come away with the puck and the Storm defense are often left to contend with odd-man rushes.

The Storm also try to employ a physical game plan and hit at every opportunity. While each player wearing green, gold and red may have a giant heart, their frames don't match, and so an undersized Storm team often find themselves searching the services of Hawkeye Pierce.
Boston McNeill is the latest to join the ranks of Jordan Suzuki, Rob Iszak, Tyler Bachmeier and the now-retired Jesse Bachmeier on the M.A.S.H unit after McNeill went down hard behind his own net in the Kerry Park game. The young players on this team are having to eccelerate their learning proccess and play bigger roles than were maybe anticipated at the start of the season.

I know some Storm fans lump this year into the past 4 or 5, but that's unfair to this year's group. They've faced more adversity early in this season than any other I can remember in 8 years of calling games for this organization. As you'll hear from Brandon Tidy and starting with Alex Benjestorf, they will continue to improve themselves.




Some good news comes in the form of Mike Alexander helping the team until Christmas.Mike's a veteran of the WHL and a guy that helped La Range of the SJHL reach the Royal Bank Cup. He's coaching the powerplay in practice, an area the Storm desperately need some help in. It's a shame we can't modify his birth certificate and just put him back there. So you may see special teams improve throughout the year, which could lead to more W's in the standings.

Despite some early season woes, this Storm team is determined to see this through and will not pack it in. Let's hope you the fan follow their lead. Remember, you have to go through a lot of dirty coal before you can make that diamond shine. Continue to come out and support this team that represents Campbell River, the best hockey city on Vancouver Island. That's what being a true hockey fan is all about!