Thunder Bay Kings are finishing the Telus Cup without a win, losing their final game to Quebec 3-0.
After the loss Friday night at the Gardens, head coach Darrin Nicholas spent time with his players, challenging their mindset if their goal is the NHL one day.
“Liking to have it was if it was offered to you, of course, you’d accept it. But the wanting to have it means lifestyle changes and decisions and the pursuit of excellence.”
The team’s coach adds some people find the price of paying for excellence is too high and don’t make it.
He also tells us the focus for his team this year has been about the effort and not the results.
Nicholas points to the belief that if they stuck to their game, and never quit, then they’d have a chance to win more games than not.
“That’s how we governed our season, and when you’re playing the very best, sometimes even when you play up to your capacity, you don’t get the results you want, and that’s what happened this week.”
And, he reminded them of the hard work that was needed when they won the North American Prospects League.
The coach points to the challenge of staying in that champion mindset.
“You tend to remember the celebration, and winning the last game, but you forget the struggle, and how difficult it was, and how everyone had to pull together in order to achieve that. You just sort of think it’s going to happen again, because it’s supposed to, and that was one thing that we really struggled with.”
After the game, when speaking to the media, players expressed their immense gratitude to everyone in Thunder Bay who showed up to support them. They added they put forth every effort, but just fell short against very good opponents.
