MENZIES: Bonnyville Pontiacs team as enigmatic as ever in home losses

Following a pair of home losses to strong southern stock, the Pontiacs, snakebitten and scorned by the Hockey Gods, have to find ways not to beat themselves.

To be honest, this year’s Bonnyville Pontiacs have played unlike any other hockey team I’ve seen – at any level. They are unique. 

“I thought we worked hard again,” said assistant coach Chad Carder after Saturday’s game. 

Carder is not wrong.

“But I thought we made stupid mistakes throughout the game tonight…we defensively shot ourselves in the foot again…it’s the same story.”

Carder is bang on.

To be fair, when you cover a team as closely as I do, when you travel with the team and watch every second of every game, you see everything. It isn’t like watching sixty Edmonton Oilers games on your TV. 

The enigma of the Bonnyville Pontiacs is not just about the wins and losses, of which there were two big home losses 4-0 vs Drumheller and 7-2 vs Calgary this weekend. 

It’s not the record: 7-11-2 isn’t that bad. Not good, not horrible. Considering the return of just four players in the off-season, the almost expansion feel to the team, that isn’t unexpected. 

The goal for this team was .500 by the Christmas break and that can still be done, with eight games left in tow. 

If you were setting a gambling line, they’d still be at least even money to make the playoffs, with four games in hand on the Fort McMurray Oil Barons and five points back (plus five head-to-head matchups still await). 

It’s not any of that. 

Uncomplimentary play

It’s the method in which they play that makes this Pontiacs team impossible to set expectations. It’s how they respond to positive things, as much as how they respond to negative things. 

There is a series of tape I could cut combined from the two losses, and not just a shift or two, but five to ten minute stretches – whole intervals of the game – that the Pontiacs aren’t just keeping their heads above water, they’re dictating the play. 

They’re creating scoring chances. They’re the better team at that moment. They are playing well.  

If you watched that tape, you’d say, damn, this team is pretty good. 

And then something happens. Typically, a breakdown in the defensive zone that leads to a goal against that completely undoes all this work. But it could be a goal of their own too.  

Now sure, you could edit a good team to look bad, or a bad team to look excellent if you cherry-pick the video. 

However, this weekend saw all of the issues of the Pontiacs balled up into two games. 

They were shutout by the Dragons on Friday night. While somewhat frustrating, the vibe around the team afterwards was fairly good after the game, because honestly, the Pontiacs played well. 

They just couldn’t score. On at least three occasions, they had goaltender Sean Cootes scrambling in the crease, snow-angeling without any sight of the puck, somehow making the saves with a yawning cage. 

Their first period might’ve been the strongest they’ve played all season. They were the hammer. But one tip shot from the point found its way into their net. The balloon popped. 

The penalty kill then got sliced and diced twice to put the game out of reach. The powerplay did everything but score. Specialty teams again reared their head. 

The same ol’ story. 

Canucks outscore Pontiacs

Fast forward to the Canucks game. The reigning champs, coming off a 6-3 loss the night before to the Bobcats, the league’s top scoring team…and the Yaks didn’t start on time. 

Before you knew it, it was 2-0 and three minutes hadn’t yet passed. 

The Pontiacs responded with a goal, then created multiple rush opportunities that were over-passed and came up short. 

A stretch pass break-away to Gavin Schmidt made it a two-goal game before the intermission. 

Then comes the 2nd period, another perfect encapsulation of their season.

Bonnyville is playing well in the period, creating opportunities. Cue the deflection goal at 9:26. They trail 4-1. 

Just wait! The Pontiacs respond with a goal five minutes later. Two goal game again. Creating momentum. 

And eight seconds later. Eight seconds after they score, they surrender a goal after a center ice draw. The goal-against-on-ensuing-shift-following-a-goal scenario has happened several times this season. 

In short, the Pontiacs shoot themselves in the foot far too often to win consistently. 

It’s not the same guys every night. It’s not one player, even just one aspect of the game. You really don’t know what will happen. This weekend, after some strong performances recently, felt particularly harsh on the group. 

“We have brain fog in moments that we can’t have it. Especially at that time of the game, we finally claw back to get one, we get a little bit of momentum, and then we quash it ourselves,” said Carter. 

“We outshot them tonight, maybe not out-chanced, but I thought it was close. But at the end of the day we are making bigger mistakes, and they’re pretty colossal.”

Beating themselves

What grows out of a weekend like this is frustration.

There is lots of talent on this team. This is not a significant skill gap between themselves and other teams. But they beat themselves before they beat the opponents far too often.

If we look across the AJHL at the moment, two teams in particular jump to mind.

The Lloydminster Bobcats and Canmore Eagles are both 3rd or t-3rd in their divisions. They are both veteran-laden clubs that are comfortable with icings, shooting it out of their zone, and playing physical and gritty when needed.

They aren’t sexy hockey teams. But they aren’t beating themselves right now.

The Whitecourt Wolverines who sit 16-6-2 on the year, are a sterling example of that. They wittle you down, seize their opportunities, and provide that top goaltending and defensive man-on-man structure that is currently winning 67 per cent of the time this season.

The point being, a lot of teams above the Pontiacs in the standings have similar, albeit older, talent. But they don’t beat themselves.

The gaps of November lead to sprint of December

The point of this longer form article isn’t to bury a team. I like these players. I like the staff. Growing a program again is a tough business.

This is just what I see.

When the Pontiacs are playing a committed and sound game in all three zones, they can beat anyone in the AJHL. Otherwise, their long flashes of good things unravel with the next bad one.

Which leads to a eight game stretch before the mid-season Christmas pause: the type of stretch that can turn this season around with all the games in hand they have.

The tied for first overall Grande Prairie Storm are on deck, a game Pontiacs fans saw a couple weeks ago that Bonnyville lost 5-4 and (again) showed stretches of great play.

Then the Pontiacs embark on a nasty seven game in 13-day stretch from Dec. 4-17.

A pivotal road test awaits on Wednesday, Dec. 4 at the Oil Barons, which despite everything that’s occurred, is still very much in sight.

Are a bunch of games in quick succession what the Yaks need, especially when there’s a tendency to zone out with a long break to come? Or does it exacerbate the issues that are undermining all the good work they are doing in these games?

Only time will tell.

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You can listen to every game, all season, on lakelandconnect.net/pontiacs.