The Kamloops Blazers are hoping an upcoming four game home stand will help the team out of its recent funk.

The Blazers have are winless in five straight games – all against BC Division rivals – which as seen lead over the Victoria Royal cut down to seven points.

Speaking on the NL Morning News, Head Coach Shaun Clouston says the team is going through a tough stretch.

“It’s a little bit shocking for the guys,” he said. “Teams are getting very excited, very determined when they play us. They’re making it harder to have success.”

Clouston went on to say the Blazers on-ice performance hasn’t been as good as it was in January, when the Blazers won 10 of their 12 games, including a nine-game winning streak.

“Probably guilty a little bit of thinking the reason that we were winning was superiority when it was probably more largely attributed to hard work and structure and energy and those types of things,” he noted.

“So we’re going to have to really work hard to get that back. I think we were close. We had some really good stretches during the weekend.”

He admits he’d rather the team go through a tough spell in February and not during the playoffs in April.

“There have been teams you know Tampa Bay might have been a team last year in the NHL that really didn’t go through much adversity until the playoffs. We’re a pretty good team, there are lots of good teams out there,” said Clouston.

“I think the one thing that separated us – and not by a large margin – was the two or three or four extra wins that helped us build a little bit of a gap to the rest of the teams in the division.”

The Blazers host the Red Deer Rebels on Friday, before a pair of key games against the Victoria Royals on Saturday and on Family Day Monday.

Photo via Kevin Light