Keca - Post game Aug. 29 3-0 L vs Whitecourt
Oil Barons Head Coach Tom Keca reacts to tonight’s 3-0 loss on the Rock 97.9 post-game show.
Outshot, outhit, outplayed, but not outdueled between the pipes.
The only bright spot after tonight’s 3-0 exhibition loss to Whitecourt may have been that the Oil Barons goal is in good hands both this year and in the future.
“Our goaltending is going to be okay, I felt that Reinhart and Dattani both not only stopped pucks but I think from just a compete level they battled through screens […] and they came up with some big stops,” said Tom Keca, Head Coach when asked on the Rock 97.9 post-game show about positives he saw in the loss.
Ravi Dattani is pencilled in as the MOB’s number one guy, a 20-year-old veteran who played with the Calgary Mustangs last season. Nate Reinhart is a 16-year-old that turned aside 20+ shots in 30 minutes of work allowing just two goals.
The Oil Barons seemed to struggle mightily with the breakout on the night, even though they dressed a much more experienced lineup than last night. “I thought that our forwards as a whole just did a poor job in our own zone, they didn’t create a lot of offence, definitely not the style that we want to play,” said the Head Coach.
“We haven’t done a lot of system work and we’re back to the drawing board, we’ll give the boys the day off tomorrow and then we’ll get right back to it on Monday and we’ll start introducing some of the offensive systems and the support we want to provide throughout our game this year.”
Whitecourt looked more composed and more engaged in the game delivering a number of hard checks, the Oil Barons didn’t have much of a response.
“What are we as a team?” said Keca calling out the team’s lack of identity. “Are we hard working? Do we finish checks, are we an offensive team? We have too many guys that are caught in no man’s land they don’t know what they are and it’s our job as a coaching staff to identify roles and make systems so that players can execute to the best of their ability.”
The Wolverines outscored the Oil Barons 10-4 over the two game series. They’ll won’t see eachother again until another double header at the Casman Centre on Nov. 20-21 in regular season play.
“The thing that bothers me is we’re the toughest team after the whistle […] I would rather see our team play a little bit grittier between the whistles and stay away from the stuff after.”
Keca said he and the coaching staff will trim down the roster after tonight’s game.
The Oil Barons are now 0-2 in the pre-season with three games remaining ahead of the season opener on Sep. 11 when they’ll host the defending champions the Spruce Grove Saints.
The MOB’s next exhibition game is against the Bonnyville Pontiacs on Wednesday, Sep. 2, at 7:30 p.m. at the Casman Centre.
