| "It
could be," admits Terry Slater calmly, "that we just don't have the experience
we need the real pros to play with some of these teams in some situations." The
Cincinnati Stingers have lost nine of the last 10 games. There must be a reason. At first
faulty goaltending was blamed. But Thursday night the goaltending was alright although the
Stingers still lost 7-1 to the Indianapolis Racers. Just look at how many experienced
players we have, " Slater commands "We have Rick Dudley, Mike Pelyk, Ron Plumb
and Bryan Campbell....four....The coach shakes his head. "I know we're building with
youth and we have some good young players but something the thing you need most is a
little experience even of the experienced players isn't maybe quite as good as a younger
inexperienced player. That little bit of seasoning can make a lot of difference." In the game, Indiana's Pat Stapleton set a World Hockey Association record
with six assists and Slater uses that as an example Stapleton is a stubby 35 year old
defenseman who once held the record for assists in the National Hockey League before Bobby
Orr matured. He is not fast or flashy. "He's smart," the coach says "He's
got the experience and he knows what to do. We can't score a powerplay goal for anything
but they score six of them and the reason is Stapleton and experience.
"When they've got the power-play, they don't get all excited
and do a lot of stupid things. Stapleton takes the puck and if everything isn't just
right, he maybe turns around and takes it back out and waits for his people to get
organized. The clock is running down from two minutes to 1:50 to 1:30 to 1:10 but he
doesn't panic. When everything is set up just right, he takes it in and they score. I
don't know how many, but a lot of their powerplay goals came just a few seconds before the
penalties were over. When we get the powerplay," Slater goes on 'we start pressing
and panicking and worrying about the clock. Everyone wants to score the goal and we aren't
passing it around like we should....Experience."
All of the Racers many powerplay opportunities were the result of an
astonishing series of Stingers penalties. "It felt like we were a man down all night
long." Slater moans.He blames it on some bad calls be referee Bill Friday and on some
genuine bad penalties taken by his players. Of Friday he says, "The league is really
to blame. That was Bill's fifth game in six days. He was tired and it showed. That was the
worst game I've ever seen him call. I have a lot of respect for him, but he blew this
one."
As for the other penalties, Slater says again it's inexperience.
"We're getting frustrated and getting the bad, stupid penalty. We're high
strung." Numerous fights interrupted play continually. Late in the last period, both
benches emptied onto the ice for the biggest brawl of the season.
The Stingers host the Denver Spurs tonight at Riverfront Coliseum.
It's the first meeting between these two WHA infants. The front office of the Stingers has
declared it "Guaranteed To Win Night." which means if the Stingers lose,
everyone who comes will get in free to Sunday night's game against Cleveland. This irks
Slater. "As if there isn't enough pressure on this young team already," he
hisses. "Nothing is guaranteed in sports." |
