NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers head coach and general manager Willie Desjardins looks up at the Co-op Place scoreboard before the third period of the Tigers 5-3 loss to the Lethbridge Hurricanes on Dec. 18.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
Christmas came at a good time for the Medicine Hat Tigers.
The club is heading into the break coming off two straight losses to the Lethbridge Hurricanes last weekend. If not for their 4-3 shootout win over the Red Deer Rebels on Dec. 11, the Tigers would be riding a 19-game losing streak.
But they’re not and now have until their next game on Dec. 28th to forget about the unofficial first half of the campaign and get ready for the rest of the season.
After a 5-3 loss to the Hurricanes on Saturday, head coach and general manager Willie Desjardins described the first half of the season as, “super frustrating.”
“We need to get away, get a break and we have to come back and be better in the second part,” Desjardins said.
Medicine Hat fell behind early and made a third-period comeback that they quickly surrendered to Lethbridge en route to the loss. When asked if the team’s inexperience has led to giving up leads, Desjardins said guys just have to be better.
“This is a tough league. Guys just have to be a little better, and can they? I don’t know, but they have to be. They have to find a way to be better and somewhere along the line they need to find another 2-3 per cent and we will be okay.”
Twenty-seven games into their season, Medicine Hat sits last in the WHL with a 5-18-3-1 record, thanks in part to their 16-game losing streak that spanned Oct. 23 to Dec. 8.
Throughout that streak, the Tigers displayed a sense of positivity and mindset that they would eventually overcome and grow because of the adversity of losing so many in a row.
Second-year Tiger Tyler Mackenzie said the team referred to the streak as their “month through hell,” in reference to the hell week U.S. Navy SEALS endure as a part of their training. The Red Deer product said the Tigers watch a lot of video of how hard the SEALS work and learn from their experiences.
“One day we were just like this is our hell month, and we’re only going to get better from there,” MacKenzie said.
Desjardins said family is a big part of their team message and told his players heading into the break, to enjoy their time with their family away from hockey.
“Hockey is hockey. But family is more important, so they have to get home and have fun with their family and then we have to come back and be ready to go when we get back,” Desjardins said.
His only other message to his players was to be safe and take care of themselves in respect to COVID-19.
“There’s lots of COVID out there so we have to be really smart away from the rinks,” Desjardins said. “We have to take care of ourselves over the break and we have to enjoy it.”
The Tigers are back in action on the road in Calgary on Dec. 28th.
