HEADLINE

CANADA WEST HEAD COACH PLEASED WITH OPENING PRACTICE

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

CANADA WEST HEAD COACH PLEASED WITH OPENING PRACTICE

Canada West head coach Rylan Ferster was pleased with Day 1 of practice at Credit Union Place in preparation for the 2009 World Junior 'A' Hockey Challenge.

"There was a lot of travel for guys and our B.C. guys didn't get in until late last night (Monday)," said Ferster following Tuesday afternoon's workout. "I thought it went well.

"Guys had some good jump and they're eager to get going. We'll see how they are Wednesday. It will be a little bit bigger test for us."
Canada West will take on Russia in the opening game of the eight-day tournament on Sunday at 2 p.m.

"We have to get going real quick here so there are no excuses," said Ferster, who ran an up-tempo and intense practice.

"As a coach you always want it more high tempo," he added. "All things considered it was good."

One thing the head coach of the Salmon Arm Silverbacks of the British Columbia Hockey League was stressing was strong communication on the ice.

"I've always said as a coach, certainly with club teams, if the five guys on the ice are talking you can turn them into six," explained Ferster. "Communication is intimidating and, if other teams hear you talking, they think those guys really know what they're doing.

"It's important to communicate and certainly here, where guys don't know each other."

Canada West had an off-ice team activity Tuesday afternoon and held a team meeting in the evening to go over system play and continue to get to know one another.

"We want to continue on our system play here and the quicker the we get all these kids on the same page, the quicker we'll have success," said Ferster.