The Richmond Sockeyes were happy to remind Derek Chichak just how much work needs to be done over the next few weeks to close the gap between the Delta Ice Hawks and the top team in the Pacific Junior Hockey League.
The longtime and successful Seafair Minor Hockey coach watched his squad fall into an early hole and never recover in a 6-2 loss to the Sockeyes last week. Richmond has now reeled off 15 consecutive wins and clearly any thoughts of making a deep playoff run will mean somehow finding a way to be successful at Minoru Arena.
Chichak has guided the Ice Hawks to a 2-2 record since taking over the coaching duties two weeks ago. The Ice Hawks were the league's best team through two months of the season before a complete free fall that dropped them to third in their conference and prompted a change behind the bench.
"We just felt for the past six weeks the club hasn't improved and it might be even a little longer than that," said Ice Hawks general manager Peter Zerbinos. "I have watched us become stagnate while other teams have got a lot better. It's something I have to take responsibility for as well.
"I have known Derek for a long time and we have had a huge flavour of Seafair Minor Hockey players on this team that have brought us a lot of success who were coached by him. This is a long term commitment we have made."
Chichak's Ice Hawk alumni includes Ryan Cuthbert, Cody Fidgett and Aaron Merrick who all had leading roles in the club winning the PIJHL championship two years ago. His son Sam Chichak captained the Richmond Sockeyes to the provincial and Western Canadian championships last season. His older son Andrew also played for Richmond.
"It's a pretty neat connection. At one point I recall seeing 10 of my former players in the line-up (between the Ice Hawks and the Sockeyes)," said Chichak who has brought his longtime assistant Bob Walker with him.
He has just six regular season games remaining to reverse the club's fortunes for the upcoming playoffs.
Chichak has seen enough of his club in the past week to know there is no way they can play a wide open game and exchange scoring chances with the league's elite teams all night. Where the Sockeyes have 11 players with 18 or more points in their line-up, the Ice Hawks have just six.
"Richmond has a lot of speed and they use it," he said. "They move the puck quick and try to expose you one-onone. With speed like that you can do it. That's why we have to engage them and try to slow them down. We did that in stretches of the game but not consistently enough.
"It's going to take a different style (than past Ice Hawk teams). We have big guys so we need to crash the net and get pucks to it. Some of the guys are just not used to that kind of style. Our top line wants to move the puck around with a lot of possession but we're getting no shots from it."
The Ice Hawks' immediate concern is finishing no worse than third in their conference. That would set-up a more favourable opening round playoff match-up with North Vancouver, before worrying about the Sockeyes. By then, Chichak hopes to have put his stamp on this team, at least the best one can do taking over the coaching reigns at this late juncture of the season.
"We are at least over the corner now. We had the courtship, marriage and honeymoon all in one weekend," he laughed. "The biggest challenge is knowing the personnel and getting a feel of what they do, what their personalties are and what they bring to the game.
"It's tough because it's a short period of time, not three or four months."
