SPRINGHILL – Better defence and better teamwork have been hard to come by for the Cumberland County Blues this season but Cumberland County Blues coach, Vaughn Martin, doesn’t want fans to give up hope.
“I hope the fans will hold on and keep supporting us because the wins will come,” Martin said. “Right now our team is gelling together. We have guys coming and going so it can be hard to gel and, as a consequence, sometimes the guys aren’t supporting the play as well as they should.
“ I hope we gel so the team can start working together and supporting each other.”
The Blues will have a chance to gel this weekend when the play two Nova Scotia Junior Hockey League games.
They travel to Port Hawkesbury Friday where they will face off against the Strait Pirates, and then on Sunday they return to the Richard Calder Arena in Springhill to host the East Hants Penguins.
“We didn’t have practice because of the storm on Wednesday but hopefully we can regroup and get back on the winning track and leave the losing track,” Martin said.
Martin said they need better defence if they want to get back in the win column.
“I’m not worried about our offence, we have a potent offence and people can see that,” he said. “But our defence has to take priority over getting more offence because everybody thinks they have to score to contribute but that’s not the case.”
He’d also like to see his team play more gritty.
"We’ve lost battles on the board and, mano-a-mano, we have to be better but it all depends on our numbers,” he said. “If we have the numbers we can play that gritty hockey but when you’re short on numbers it’s hard to ask the players to play as good in the third period as they did in the first.”
Neil Kelly will get the start in net in Port Hawkesbury, and then Nathan Kelly will play in goal for the Blues Sunday in Springhill.
The puck drops at 7:30 p.m. for both games.
dmathieson@amherstdaily.com
