Photo Credit: Charlotte Rush

Owner Ryan Cruthers talked through a big weekend for the Charlotte Rush that was more than the box score.

On the on ice work of the team

“There were not many positives from the weekend after our St. Baldrick’s event Friday night. If you look at our rosters we were missing many important pieces. Richmond is a tough team to play and when you scratch that many players from your regular lineup unfortunately this is the result you get. These losses were completely self inflicted and if we can take anything from the weekend, it’s a reminder that the little details matter. What we do daily on and off the ice matters and we will not stray from it.”

Cruthers shows confidence in his group saying

“ I do not feel the results were the effect of complacency because we clinched a playoff spot. This weekend serves as a wake up call that the details matter. Our pursuit of excellence is not just on the weekends when we play. This is an organizational wake up call that if we are going to loose, we are going to loose doing it the right way. We did not take care of the details and its been slipping for awhile. Now is the perfect time to put an end to it, get it out of our system and refocus for what we hope is a long playoff run.We are not concerned about the 0-4 weekend. The results are what they are and quite frankly don’t represent who and what our teams are. Our motivation is to get better daily, we are here to develop daily on and off the ice and that has not been happening. Having two bye weeks gives us the opportunity to regroup and we will do what we think is best for the players over those two weeks. We will get after it this week in practice and then take some time off to let the players mentally prepare for the final stretch.

On the bye for two weeks the teams have “We will use these two weeks to reinforce the details. We have two very talented teams that genuinely love each other. We need our leadership groups to step up and we need accountability throughout both locker rooms. We have won a ton of hockey games and structurally we feel confident in many areas of our game. To reiterate its the little details on the ice but more importantly off the ice we need to work on before we play again.”

On the St Baldricks event the Rush does every year

“St. Baldricks event is our most important night of the season and is special for many reasons. Our players put in a ton of effort to help raise funds for a great cause and then sacrifice their hair to raise awareness. It says a lot about our players and the people we have within the organization that put others before themselves. We would like to thank everyone that helps make the event as special as it was. Thank you to the Pineville Ice House, Mathews II barbers who donate their time, Tim Donelli and his staff for doing the PA, and all the families, youth players/coaches, billet families, players and all those who donated or shaved their heads and all the others who contributed to this great cause.”

Cruthers gave an interesting answer about getting the first seed in the playoffs

“Getting the first spot does not change much from a competitive advantage in this division, every night we are playing tough opponents. Some divisions I am sure it means more but for us its just playing the best hockey at the right time. What’s important to us is hosting the playoffs each year, which is determined by combined points between Premier and Elite. That’s a goal we are still working towards and as we tell the players leave this place better then you found it. As far as roster moves, we will work till the deadline to make our team better on and off the ice. Sometimes that’s trading someone out of your locker room and sometimes that’s adding talent and in some cases its doing nothing at all. We like our groups but if something makes sense to make us better we will do that.”

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