Kings crown begins to crack

Posted on: Staff Writer

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

All things were great for the Agra Risk Wheatland Kings prior to puckdrop on Oct. 24 at the Strathmore Family Centre. Unfortunately, losing two games over the weekend with a combined score of 8-1 left a bitter taste for the team. “I think we showed our worst performance of the season so far,” said General Manager Cody Holdaway. “We really struggled to generate any consistent offence, and that’s something we need to address quickly.”

Photo Courtesy of Carter Lawrence

The weekend of rematches turned into a blowout for the Agra Risk Wheatland Kings, having suffered a pair of defeats to the Okotoks Bisons and Medicine Hat Cubs. 

The Kings were shutout 3-0 on home ice to the Bisons on Oct. 24, before falling 5-1 on the road in Medicine Hat the following night.

“We didn’t play very good and we were missing a few players for the whole weekend. We went to Medicine Hat and we really struggled to get anything offensively going, and we had some penalty trouble,” said Doug Raycroft, head coach of the Wheatland Kings. “I’ve been talking about how we have some defensive struggles still and this is one of those weekends where it came back to bite us. It really wasn’t a huge surprise – it just didn’t go our way this weekend.”

He added that it is certainly no secret that the current Kings team, as well as historically, have not been the most defensively-oriented team.

Against teams such as Okotoks and Medicine hat, Raycroft relented, lacking defense and not being able to maintain control of the puck is particularly costly on the ice. 

“I think we have got the potential to be one of the best teams – I think for the most part, we are a hardworking team; we just need to be more consistent with our goal scoring. It’s something we need to work on going forward for sure,” he said. “For practice, one of the things we really want is to play at a fast pace, and to do that, you have to move the puck really well. For us, that’s a lot of passing, a lot of scoring, working on our systems, and then with our defensive play because we need to (refine) that a little bit more.”

Raycroft added he is aiming to work on the little things and finer details for his players in order to get them to improve going forward.

Coming up, the Kings are next set to square off against the Coaldale Copperheads on home ice on Oct. 31. The following night, the Kings will be on home ice again, with the High River Flyers coming into town.

“(Coaldale) is in first place right now. We played them once this year and we beat them, but they’re a very good team. That will be a good game,” said Raycroft. “High River, they are in last place in the South right now. Two different teams, but both big games for us moving forward.”