Portland's move to the Canada West Division has proven to be very challenging. At the quarter-pole the Platoon are looking up at Vancouver, Edmonton & Winnipeg in the standings.
"We do not consider ourselves to be a 4th place team", groused owner and GM Morrison. "We brought in a lot of new players at considerable cost and believe that we should be getting more out of this group. Yes, sure, the division is very competitive but that is not an excuse I am prepared to accept. Flat out we just haven't played well. Look at our goaltending! We've got high-priced help back there, both with GAA above 3 and that can't even give us a .900 save percentage. Both these guys are RFA's at the end of this year and you would think they'd be more motivated to play well! I don't lay all the blame on them either. Look at our forwards! We are averaging close to 40 shots a game but most are coming from outside the scoring areas. These guys need to get to the greasy areas and get more involved in paying the price! We've got a total of 9 guys heading for Restricted Free Agency and from what I'm seeing, not a lot of these guys want to stay in Portland or at least that's how they're playing."
"We aren't getting what we're paying for from our defense either. We've assembled a top 6 here that we think are right up there with the best in league. It's time they looked in the mirror and start to play like an elite defensive corps."
Suffice it to say that bag-skating is on the agenda at Platoon practices for the foreseeable future. "Gunney thinks these guys have gone soft on him so Richard will be leading two-a-days from now on to try and get things back to where we're happy with the fitness, performance levels and game readiness. If the players don't like it, tell them to come and talk to me!"
On a lighter note, Portland have introduced a new logo on their third jersey that will be worn at every other home game this season. Rumour has it that this could be their new look next year. Uniforms remain the same with winter camo on the road and desert camo at home. Only the logo has been added.
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