Preparing for the playoff push

• You knew it was going to happen. You could sense it. It's like the motorist you spot in your rear view mirror as you traverse your vehicle along Highway 97 from West Kelowna and begin the ascension over the W.R Bennett Bridge. The crazy driver you've spotted behind you is weaving dangerously in and out of traffic at a high rate of speed and you know eventually one of two things will happen. They will either cause a serious accident or a member of the RCMP will pull them over and slap the maniac behind the wheel with a ticket for dangerous driving. For the Kelowna Rockets, you could sense two subpar efforts Tuesday and Wednesday in Prince George, followed by a lossy goosy win over the hapless Vancouver Giants would eventually catch up to them. It did. On cue, in the rematch Sunday afternoon against a team 36 points below them in the standings and riding a season high 8 game losing streak to make matters worse, a lack of  urgency finally caught up to the Rockets in a 3-2 loss. The home team came out gangbusters in the first period but couldn't score, then slept through the second where the Giants popped in two quick goals :50 seconds apart. Realizing that their 6 game winning streak was in jeopardy, they played with pepper in the final 20 minutes but ran out of time against a team that was literally fighting for their playoff lives. 
• They say winning comes with a price. You get sucked into a sense of complacency when things come too easy. Wins in Prince George did that. Maybe it started the week prior when the Rockets dismantled the Cougars and Royals on consecutive nights? Let's hope a late season hockey lesson was learned. The final exam isn't that far away. In fact, it starts April 22nd against the Seattle Thunderbirds. My belief is the 2021-2022 edition of the Kelowna Rockets will be ready when test time rolls around in less than two short weeks. 
• What was really on the line this weekend for the Rockets was finishing fourth, which would have given them home ice advantage against the T-Birds in the opening round of the playoffs. If all of the top seeds in the Western Conference advance, outside of the T-Birds of course, Kris Mallette's team will have to learn to win on the road regardless with four of seven games in a series being played away from Prospera Place. That said, I would rather have the luxury of playing a seventh game in front of a hometown crowd as opposed to earning a do-or-die victory at the accesso Showare Centre, but you can't cry over spilled milk now. What's done is done. The loss against the Giants on Sunday and the T-Birds win over Everett assured the two teams will finish fourth and fifth with Seattle earning the luxury of having home ice advantage.
• All was not lost on the weekend. The good? Despite a loose 8-4 win Saturday night over the G-Men, it was the teams' 40th of the season. The Kelowna Rockets are one of only eight teams across the league - one of five in the Western Conference - that have reached that mark. It's an impressive achievement considering we played an abbreviated season last spring which saw the Rockets suit up for only 16 of 22 games. Playing consistent hockey for essentially six months is no small feat when many suggested the team would struggle to earn 30 victories with the loss of marquee d-man Kaedan Korczak and 20 year-old Dillon Hamaliuk to pro hockey.  
• I heard a smart hockey man say this week, 'sometimes you are so close to the glass, you don't see the entire picture'. It is so true. You need to step back sometimes to realize that everything is ok. It's good. This team will be ready and locked in for post season play because they are so darn hard to play against. The coaches scrutinize every move and mistake and are always asking for more. Even as a broadcaster, I get caught up in believing that good isn't good enough. Maybe it's what I've witnessed in the past that concerns me. I remember the 2017-2018 edition of the Kelowna Rockets that won 43 times only to lose an opening round playoff series in four straight to the Tri City Americans. In a blink of an eye, the season was over. Done. The empty feeling of having such a great regular campaign only to exit so quickly left everyone stunned. I don't want this group experiencing what Dillon Dube, Kole Lind, Cal and Nolan Foote and Carsen Twarynski went through when the Americans scored the game winning goal - in game four - with :55 seconds left in the third period. As the higher seed, the Rockets were eliminated.
• Andrew Cristall did it. I didn't think he would, but he is the new franchise leader in goals by a 16 year-old. By putting 26 pucks past WHL goalies this season, he moved past Shane McColgan and Nick Merkley for top spot among raw rookies in the same age group. All three scored their 25th goals against the exact same team - the Vancouver Giants. McColgan set the new record during the 2009-2010 season with his 25th goal in his 70th game. Merkley tied it in his 66th and final game of the regular season in 2013-2014. Cristall did it quicker, taking 58 games to earn goal #25 to tie the record and goal #26 in the same game to break it.  
• It will be interesting to see what type of impact Andrew Cristall makes in the WHL playoffs. Sixteen year-old's often do little, but as we've learned this season, the pride of Burnaby is no ordinary player. Neither was Nick Merkley, who put up 17 points in 14 playoff games as a 16 year-old in the 2014 post season before the Rockets lost out to Portland in five games in the Western Conference final. It was a different story for McColgan though. In his 16 year-old season, despite scoring 25 times, he found the back of the net just once and added three assists in 12 playoff games against Everett and Tri City. I'd suggest the talent pool around Merkley was much better than what Shane McColgan witnessed in the spring of 2010. 
• Who is the Kelowna Rockets most valuable player? If you evaluate performance solely on points and second half production, then Colton Dach is your man. The 19 year-old has 16+36=52 since the team returned from the Christmas break. Take note though, Andrew Cristall has scored the most of anyone on the roster since opening gifts under the Christmas tree with a whopping 20 goals and 50 points. Let's make the waters even muddier when I tell you overage forward Mark Liwiski has the second most goals - 18 - since he enjoyed egg nog with family back in Dauphin, Manitoba in mid-December. If I had my way, it isn't a point producer that would get my MVP vote. It would be a player that prevents goals. Tayln Boyko is my pick. When the 19 year-old arrived on the scene and made his Kelowna Rockets debut back on November 10th against Kamloops, a quiet confidence took over the entire group. 
• When the T-Birds and Rockets meet in the opening round, more players than not will make their WHL playoff debuts. Even veteran players like Mark Liwiski (played in play-in game vs. Kamloops) and Tyson Feist, two 20 year-old's, will be void of any real post season experience. Jake Lee will hit the ice against his old team with 11 games under his belt, all when he was a member of the Seattle Thunderbirds. Lukas Svejkovsky will have the luxury of having the most playoff games on either side - after dressing in 22 games during the Vancouver Giants run to the WHL championship in 2019.