News

Date: Jan 22, 2012

Looking to Rebound.

 

Looking for a Rebound

By: Tony Sposit, jrjacks.com

 

In the heat of a massive battle it is hard to see the battle field and size up what you need to do.  It is not until you get out of the trenches that you can see what needs to be done and how you need to do it. With a weekend off this past weekend the Jacks have had a chance to cool their jets and take stock over what has happened over the past few weeks. Let’s be realistic, the boys have been playing well, but really have nothing to show for it.  A home weekend split with the Jr. Penguins and a road weekend loss to Flint made what looked to be a Cinderella season look rough around the edges.

In talking with Coach Bob Jacobson about what has been going on with the team, he was very optimistic. He knows what needs to be done as he has been coaching hockey for a very long time, but that still doesn’t answer any questions on the fans end. What has happened from the beginning of the season, where we were the ones to beat, to now where we are struggling to edge 4 points in a weekend?

The league could be the answer. With many changes this year in the NA3HL I can’t help but say that this is some of the reason why we are playing the way we have been. I made this point before, but up until this year it was unheard of and considered ridiculous to play a team more than four times in the regular season. We would play one series at home and one away. This year we have seen Flint more times than any of us care to know and some of the other teams around us just as much.  In theory, it’s called a turnpike conference. This is where teams that are within a few hours, usually no more than six, play each other to help keep travel costs down. It is not a bad thing come playoff time as the match ups will be great, but it kind of makes for a boring season. But this also played into the advantage of the other conference teams. The first half of the season we made them play us, they had to adapt to our flow and our creativity and play the game our way. Now they have learned how to play that game and simply making us do the same.

That is not the exact problem and I am not saying we need to blame anything on the 3HL. The fact that we added more teams and built this league to expand is a great thing. It is something that I feel was way over due and that our new partners in the NAHL will make this league successful and one that kids want to play in. I am not quite sure that we need to blame anyone at this point in time. The fact is simply that this is the sport. Teams sometime need to make some moves to make the magic happen. Take Pittsburgh for example, they do this every year, during the first half of the season they tend to struggle and do not look to be a threat to the playoff race. Then comes the holiday and they make some moves, pull in some players, let some go and low and behold they become a sneaker and make a run at the playoffs.

The boys need to focus in this week and have a good hard week of practice. Metro is a tough team and I am sure we have not seen the last of the sneakers this season. Bottom line is that we have just about 6 weeks left in the 2011/2012 NA3HL season and everyone is gunning for the Hurster Cup. This team has a very good chance to do something that no Cleveland team is currently capable of doing, but to do that they need to set up and focus as this weekend we have a couple big games in the Rock Hall City. This Saturday Metro will take a short drive down I-71 South and we need to let them know they are in the home of your Cleveland Jr. Lumberjacks. I would hate to be clique but we need the old mentality that this is our house and no one and I mean no one comes in to our house and pushes us around. This is our game and it is our time. This is Jacks Hockey and it’s gonna be wild!

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