He also said that Sanfred King skated today and will take the warm-up against Nipawin before a decision is made.
On the 6-5 loss in Nipawin
(Asked about Nipawin's lengthy losing streak before Friday's game): They've got nothing to lose. I said to Kevin (Edgerton) before the game, this is a dangerous team to play. We had a couple of glorious opportunities early in the game. We bury them and that team's dead in the water. You get up a couple early and it could have been smooth sailing. Instead, it was back and forth and we couldn't really put them to bed. They had us up 5-2 and that game should have been over, but they couldn't hold the lead. We had chances to win it in the last 30 seconds. I'm proud of the boys for how they kept battling to the bitter end, but we shouldn't have let them get there.
On the 6-1 loss in La Ronge
(Not scoring on the 5-on-3 late in the first): We just don't seem to be able to be very opportunistic right now. Opportunity's going to knock on your door at different moments of the game and we don't seem to be answering.
(On being swept in the season series) You don't like to be swept by anybody at any time. I know they were making a big deal about it. Their players were quite vocal about sweeping us. That's something you put in the back of your mind if we do end up seeing them in the playoffs.
We played with them in the first period in La Ronge. In the second period we had a 10-minute stretch where it got away from us. The same thing happened here in Kindersley (Oct. 26), we had a 10-minute lapse and they scored four goals.
Is it surprising to be swept? Yeah. In the same breath, does it really mean anything? No.
On the slump and how to get out of it:
There's no reason to (take) much from one good game or one bad game. There's a lot of games and it's not a sprint, it's a marathon. We've got all season to become a team. You'd want them to become one as soon as possible, but when I talk about becoming a team, it's not just going to happen overnight. You gotta grow, mature with each other, go through the adversity to become a better team. I think that's what we're doing right now. We gotta find out just how well our team's going to respond.
I've done a lot of thinking about this the last two days. We're all searching for answers and believe you me, no one in that dressing room is searching any less than everyone else. What's going on is right now is our best players are getting outworked by the other team's best players. When that happens, you're going to wind up on the short end a lot of times.
(Here Rockie mentioned Crosby and Ovechkin being the hardest workers on their teams. It's also worth noting that the top line was -4 in La Ronge.)
We need our most skilled players to be our hardest working players and when they do that, they'll get the result they set out to achieve. That's the only way we're going to get out of this slump. We're not going to snap our fingers or sprinkle some fairy dust. It's not that we're a lazy team, but we're not working smart, we're not doing the little intangibles that really make up a good hockey team. I have no doubt in my mind, we'll get it done. There's too much character in that room for us not to get it done.
(On looking for crutches to end the slump) "Oh, a homestand, oh, we're going to get Dommett back." No. What's going to turn us around is when we get 20 kids to play 60 minutes of hard, intense, what I call Canadian hockey. Go through a wall to get a win, win races to pucks, battle and have pride that you're not going to get beat. Right now we've got guys who put it together for spurts, and some for the whole game, but we don't have 20 guys playing for 60 minutes.
The boys are saying "must win," well no, we don't have to win. What we have to do is start developing the right habits to give us a chance of winning. If we lose, our season's not over. But if we don't start to develop the habits, we're never going to get out of the slump.
On the acquisition of Dustin Nickel (who he has seen before while coaching Okotoks):
All that happened is Justin McDonald tweaked a groin. We didn't have a goalie to go (on the road). Dusty was looking for a place to play. Calgary had a logjam there and they were looking to move somebody. They released him and he was free to us. He came on the road trip and got into a little bit of action. One way or the other, you don't carry three goalies all year. Right now, Peck's played every game since he's been here and he'll get a break this week, whether it be Tuesday or Thursday. We'll get to see Dusty and go from there. McDonald will be healthy sometime this week.
(Asked if there is a clear-cut starter) Alexandre Peck was brought in to be the starter. I think we want one guy to be the guy to carry the ball, and the other guy be right there to catch it if he drops it. We don't care who it is, as long as there's someone who's in there who's hot.
I was fairly critical of our goaltending after Friday's game, but I thought it responded on Saturday. It's not being critical of an individual. We don't care who the goalie is, let's just get it done. All three guys we got are good goaltenders. They just need to find their confidence. Alex Peck, in La Ronge, he let in four goals and got pulled for the second straight night. We put him back in the third after sitting for three minutes and he responded. Right now I don't think we have a bona fide number one. We have guys that are capable of that, but we haven't had anyone step up yet.
(Nickel) covers the bottom of the net, goes side to side well. When he stays up and tracks the puck well, he's a very strong goaltender. If he gets scrambling, there's some holes. But that's every goalie. His biggest asset is his quickness, his feet.
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