Right about now the Nanaimo Clippers are thinking about the future direction of the organization.
As they do so, they will consider the lessons of the 2010-11 season, which ended last week with a first-round playoff loss to the Victoria Grizzlies.
Back in training camp, the Clippers were optimistic – every B.C. Hockey League season begins with promise.
“I thought that we had a really good nucleus of players with speed and skill attached to it,” said Bill Bestwick, Clippers coach and general manager.
Immediately, though, injury trouble hit the team, most notably with captain Colton Cyr suffering a broken jaw.
The team rallied with a solid pre-season and an impressive road win at Powell River to start the regular season. Then came Nanaimo’s home opener, though, a blowout loss to the Surrey Eagles at the newly renovated Frank Crane Arena.
“Everybody had seen how much work had gone into getting the building ready, getting the team ready, and the community was ready,” said Bestwick. “We were awful [that night] and we’re a young team, so it took us a little while to recover from that.”
Nanaimo would go winless over its next six games, which the coach said might have affected the team’s own expectations of itself for the season ahead.
Then there were injuries, which continued to take a toll. Bestwick said the Clippers tried to adjust their training schedule, but it didn’t improve their health.
“It’s hard to put your finger on it,” said the coach. “A lot of it’s just bad luck.”
It meant that it was trickier for Bestwick and his staff to evaluate the Clippers and their chemistry when considering trades, and it was a contributing factor to the team’s inconsistent results.
Another major story in 2010-11 was the sale of a portion of the team to Kelly Hrudey and his partners Paul Colborne and David Moir. It caused a splash, but never distracted the players, Bestwick said.
The Clippers ended up winning 29 games this year, five more than the year before. One of most critical losses came in the final regular season game, which cost the Clips home-ice advantage in the playoffs.
“[That] was more important, probably, than our opponent,” Bestwick said. “At the end of the day I wouldn’t have cared who we played if we had home-ice advantage, and we didn’t.”
Nanaimo took the play to Victoria for the majority of the playoff series, but were missing key components, like scoring touch. The Grizzlies had the skill players to convert chances, while the Shipmen might have been too reliant on offence from the point.
“What teams did is they shut our blueline down and when they shut our blueline down, we didn’t generate enough offence from the hash marks in,” said the coach. “We didn’t have natural scoring ability and I think our power-play percentage would speak to that.”
The most obvious disparity in the series was in between the pipes.
“Good goaltending makes great coaches and it cleans up a lot of blemishes,” Bestwick said.
The Clippers will never know if they should have held on to 20-year-old all-star goalie Loic Boivin instead of trading him away in the pre-season.
“Would he have been the answer, or superior to what we had? I don’t know,” Bestwick said.
There were reasons why Nanaimo lost, but there were also reasons why the team played as hard as it did, and won as many games as it did.
The Clippers are excited about potentially bringing back more than 15 players next year.
“The quality of the kids that are returning, with so much experience, it’s rare that you get 15 or 16 or 17 kids return,” Bestwick said. “That really is a leg up.”
Besides the graduating 20-year-olds, every other player is eligible to return. Forward Brayden Jaw had committed to Harvard University for the 2011-12 season, but it now appears more likely that he will return to the Clips for one more year before college.
Nanaimo expects to return five defencemen including three – Victor Newell, Sam Labrecque and Graeme McCormack – who Bestwick said could quarterback the power play on any team in the league. Another D-man, Jesse Ursic, is a good off-season away from positioning himself as a pro prospect.
On the forward lines, captain Cyr, top scorer Andrew Gladiuk and Kyle Kramer head up a vastly experienced group and fan favourites Gerry, Myles and Leo Fitzgerald will continue to develop their exciting skill sets.
Having so many pieces in place means the team can target its recruiting toward its needs. If Bestwick has his way, the focus will be on acquiring proven junior A players through trades or cash transactions.
"We need to add size, obviously, and we need to add strength and we need to add a combative, competitive, abrasive six or seven guys," said the GM. "You can really zero in on exactly what you want."
The Clippers hope it means they’re closer to being a championship team. But after winning more regular-season games and fewer post-season games, there are a lot of different ways to measure the season.
“Was it successful or was it less successful?” Bestwick asked. “It’s only successful when you win it all.”
sports@nanaimobulletin.com