Raiders hope to get into a ‘Habby’ of winning

Marc Habscheid will start to really assume the reins of the Prince Albert Raiders beginning Wednesday night at home against the Calgary Hitmen.

The new head coach has been taking a crash course in Raider hockey since his arrival Saturday morning and the early reviews are good. The team won in his debut (Saturday’s 5-2 win over Saskatoon) despite the turmoil of a coaching change as well as a fourth game in five nights with over 750 miles of bus travel mixed in. Habscheid’s positive outlook and personality with an affinity for humour is also an early hit with staff, players, fans and the media.

Habscheid’s persona presents a stark contrast to outgoing head coach Cory Clouston. There is no questioning Clouston’s work ethic and desire to win. On game day, he was all business with intensity and focus. However it appears his approach didn’t connect with the players who performed inconsistently through Clouston’s tenure. As someone who has been fired, I can tell you it is a kick in the gut and even though WHL hockey is a performance-based business, it doesn’t minimize the human factor even though fans all over the hockey world constantly clamour for the canning of their respective coaches.

Cory Clouston was a different person on off days. He spoke often about his family as well as topics like music and boxing and is passionate about personal fitness. He could also smile and crack a joke contrary to the impression held and expressed by many including those who never met him.

However, the team’s inconsistent play and waning confidence in a portion of the fan base who expressed their dissatisfaction by staying away from the Art Hauser Centre at a time when the team just announced a significant financial loss for last season, the board had little choice but to make the move.

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The Raiders responded by winning impressively in Moose Jaw, turning an early 2-0 deficit into a 6-3 victory in a rink (Mosaic Place) that has not been kind to them over the past few seasons. Make no mistake, the players won that game for Dave Manson, who was interim head coach for that game only. The proof is the players left the Trojan like helmet for the game’s most valuable contributor at Manson’s spot on the bus before the ride home. Dave promptly gave it back to the players.  

They were also very good the next night against the Blades. The crowd (2,440) was an improvement over recent games, but not nearly good enough for a Saturday night against the Raiders biggest rival. It’s time for those who sincerely called for Clouston’s firing as a condition to return to the rink to come back. Others will find any reason possible to continue to allegedly boycott Raider games  

It is still the honeymoon period for the Habscheid era and there will be adversity, it’s inevitable during a long season, but for now the team is playing intense, physical, high-tempo entertaining hockey and isn’t that what it’s all about?          

dwilson@panow.com

On Twitter: @RaidersVoice