Tigers building on consistency after U.S. trip

By JAMES TUBB on October 18, 2022.

jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb

After 10 days and five games in the United States, the Medicine Hat Tigers returned home with more than a few new stamps on their passports.

The club ended their road trip with a five-game record of 2-2-1 after losing 6-3 to the Spokane Chiefs on Oct. 14, putting their regular season record at 3-4-1.

Tigers head coach Willie Desjardins said it was a good trip because the team played hard against a strong division of teams.

“If you go out and you’re not ready and you don’t play well, then it’s just a really long, hard trip. But I thought we competed in every game,’ Desjardins said. “It was a good building trip for us. We saw some strengths, we saw some weaknesses, too, and we can get better.”

Desjardins says the Tigers need to build on their consistency if they want to be successful throughout the season.

“We’re really good at times, and at other times, I don’t think we’re quite as focused. I think that comes when you’re young,” he said. “Usually you get a little bit more consistent the older you get. But saying that I think it is both in young and older players who have to get more consistent. Still, it was young and old players who had really successful trips and who played well.”

The Tigers entered the road trip against three undefeated teams and walked away with three of a possible six points after beating the Everrett Silvertips 6-3 on Oct. 7, losing 4-3 in overtime against the Portland Winterhawks on Oct. 8 and getting beat 5-3 against the Seattle Thunderbirds on Oct. 11. Desjardins says the team anticipates winning every game they play, but says he didn’t necessarily know what to expect this early in the season.

“We didn’t have enough good stuff to say we’re a good team and we didn’t have enough bad stuff to say we weren’t going to be able to beat those teams,” Desjardins said. “It was more just finding out where we’re at, and I said that to the team; we still don’t know really where we are at. We had some good stuff on the trip and we had some stuff that wasn’t quite as good. It remains to be seen where we’re at as a team.”

The Tigers have the week to practise before they get set for back-to-back home games against the undefeated Red Deer Rebels on Friday and the Brandon Wheat Kings on Saturday. Desjardins says they’ll just look to get better ahead of those matchups.

“You have to get better, we’re not good enough obviously, and if you want to make the playoffs, we’re going to have to get better, that’s going to be a big step for us,” Desjardins said. “That’s something we just have to look at, is to find ways to improve and get to where we want to get to.”

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