Suspensions continue to get the best of the Victoria Grizzlies who will be without David Mazurek this weekend and possibly captain Zach Urban as well from late calls in last Saturday's 3-2 loss to Coquitlam.
If Urban - who is third overall in the B.C. Hockey League in penalty minutes - is indeed forced to sit out tonight against Salmon Arm (7: 15 p.m. at Bear Mountain) that will be the seventh suspension handed to the club, just nine games into the season - an obvious concern.
"There is no question about it, because it does put the pressure on the players that are in uniform," said Grizzlies general manager and head coach Bill Best-wick. "Especially when you have to go down to five defencemen for multiple games, like three games in three days, and it forces you to be outside your comfort zone the way you would normally play.
"It's wearing," added Bestwick. "It's tiring for players to go more minutes than they might need to. It doesn't do anything for our chemistry or cohesion, breaking lines up."
That was very evident in the loss to Coquitlam in which Myles Fitzgerald sat out his one game suspension for multiple goaltender interference penalties.
However, the Grizzlies have experienced their share of questionable calls, at least from the fans' standpoint. In Saturday's loss, Mazurek was called for a blow to the head on Brady Shaw, who remained on the ice. Play carried on and the penalty was not called until a linesman joined in a discussion once play was finally called.
It led to a major penalty, which brings an automatic two-game sitdown for Mazurek. Worse, it led to the decisive power-play goal in the last three minutes.
Urban objected to the way the game ended and drew a misconduct, which could bring two games.
"The player stayed down for a long time, the linesman presumably made the call when they converged at the next whistle," said Bestwick. "The player was out the next shift, played the next day in Nanaimo and got into a fight in the first 10 minutes of that game the next day."
The crowd certainly felt there was embellishment and an over-reaction from Shaw.
"Some of the suspensions are just from the course of action," said Bestwick.
"They aren't subjective, they are automatic, so on a blow to the head the subjective part becomes, is it a two or a five [minute penalty]?"
Still, seven suspensions is way too many and they include: Fitzgerald, the one game for multiple goaltender interference; Jaden Schmeisser, three games for participating in a staged fight; Myles Powell, two games for second fight during the same stoppage; Justin Coachman, six games for leaving the bench to join a fight and two more for a fight at the end of a period; and Bestwick, one game for three or more fights during the same stoppage.
Those last three infractions are all from the Sept. 15 game in Cowichan where the team was also fined for the end of game mini-brouhaha.
In the meantime, Bestwick is left to juggle his lineup as the now 5-3-0-1 Grizzlies - who have lost two straight - are in Powell River on Saturday night.
IN THE DEN: The Grizzlies' have a minor hockey week promotion tonight where any player, from initiation to midget, wearing their team jersey pays just $3 for admission.
