Raiders’ ‘secret weapon’ against the Rebels is behind the bench

Habscheid isn’t wrong. If there’s one person outside of the Rebels’ organization that knows how they operate, it’s Truitt.

Truitt was the Rebels’ associate coach after joining the team midway through the 2012-13 season. After five-and-a-half years behind the Rebels’ bench alongside owner, General Manager and Head Coach Brent Sutter, Truitt joined the Raiders as one of Habscheid’s assistants and runs the Raiders’ defence and power play.

Although the series has been billed as a David versus Goliath-like matchup, even by the Red Deer media, Truitt’s experience is telling him to avoid that storyline.

Sure, the Raiders have a 21-win advantage on the Rebels, but there is evidence this could be a tight series.

The Rebels were the only team to defeat the Raiders in the first 27 games of the season, 4-3 back on Oct. 6 in Red Deer. The Raiders won the following three games of the series, but all were by one goal.

“They’ll be a prepared team. They’ll take a look at a lot of entities on the technical side of it, but from their standpoint, it’s all hard work,” Truitt said. “They’re an extremely hardworking team, they’ve got good talent and they play hard. They’re going to finish checks, they’re going to be very structured. They’re going to move pucks and there’s an emphasis on a structured defensive zone. And when they have some opportunities, they have some good scorers.”

But the one big disadvantage coming from the Rebels’ side will be the absence of their top defenceman, Alexander Alexeyev, who has been ruled out for the first round of the playoffs due to injury. Alexeyev left on a stretcher third period of the March 8 contest against the Brandon Wheat Kings, and missed the final five games of the year.

The Rebels haven’t fared well when Alexeyev has had to miss a game. They finished the year 1-4 since Alexeyev left on a stretcher, and were 5-13-0-1 on the season without him. Alexeyev is a signed, first-round choice by the Washington Capitals and had 10 goals and 43 points in 49 games played this year.

“That’s a big loss from them, with Alex not being there, for sure,” Truitt said. “But in saying that, you can take a look at [Ethan] Sakowich, [Carson] Sass, [Jacob] Herauf, they’ve got the young kids like [Ryan] Gottfried and [Chase] Leslie in there as well. But they’ve got ample guys that can defend as well, they block a lot of shots. Position-wise, they’re very good. They compete hard, every one of those guys.”

Truitt also added that Dawson Barteaux, the sixth round pick of the Rebels, will likely take the top defensive role in Alexeyev’s absence. Barteaux was selected by the Dallas Stars in the sixth round of the 2018 NHL Entry Draft, and has seven goals and 34 points in 67 games for the Rebels.

With the Rebels losing their best power play option on their blue line, that will play in the Raiders’ penalty killing hands. Under Truitt who looks after the penalty kill, the Raiders had the WHL’s best killing percentage (86.9 per cent), gave up the least amount of power play goals (a team record 38) and scored 10 more shorthanded goals than anybody else in the league this year (23).

For coach Habscheid, he sees a lot of similarities in how Truitt and former Associate Coach Dave Manson approach the penalty kill.

Under penalty killing guru Manson last year, the Raiders finished second in the league with 81.4 and 10 shorthanded goals. Manson set the foundation for this year, as well as the vastly improved play from Raiders goaltender Ian Scott, and the penalty killing regulars like Brayden Pachal, Zack Hayes and Sean Montgomery to name a few.

But the coach in charge deserves some of the credit too, and Habscheid is very pleased with what Truitt has been able to bring to the table.

“All in all, Jeff’s done a really good job,” Habscheid said of Truitt, who both won the 2004 Memorial Cup with the Kelowna Rockets together behind the bench. “He’s been a good friend to me for many years like Manse is, and it’s important that we got a guy like Jeff when Manse decided to leave because that’s an important position, not only on the tactical side, but the personality side. Jeff has fit in nicely.”

And with that, the Raiders and Rebels will begin the playoffs with a pair of home games on Friday and Saturday at the Art Hauser Centre, before games three and four in Red Deer Tuesday and Wednesday.

“Every year, it never gets old,” Truitt said. “You get into the playoffs and everybody’s on the same level right now. The beauty part of the playoffs, it’s the first to four wins. That can happen in a lot of different ways. You get excited about it. The best time of year to play is right now.”

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Jeff.dandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW

by Jeff D'Andrea

Raiders’ ‘secret weapon’ against the Rebels is behind the bench

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