The team had missed the playoffs in their inaugural campaign the previous year and with most of that squad returning, nobody expected much from the group in Year 2. The poor attitude off the ice translated into a lackluster performance on it.
"Just a lot of negativity overall going into it," Bearcats defenceman Lucas Sangster said about the start of the season.
Out of the gate, the Bearcats quickly found themselves at the bottom of the 12-team league and currently hold a 2-16-2 record.
"Since nobody felt good about it, nobody wanted to play. Nobody wanted to try, they just expected we were going to be the 12th place team," said Sangster, a 14-year-old Amherst resident.
The start prompted the team and head coach Josh Boulton to part ways, bringing Stewiacke's Lou Lanceleve into the fold.
The players were hearing about the team's woes not only at the rink, but at school as well in ribbings from their friends on Monday mornings following a weekend of blowout losses.
But the teasing and the blowouts aren't happening anymore. Thanks to a change in attitude, the Bearcats have turned a corner. The wins aren't exactly rolling in yet, but they're putting the competition on notice they won't get an easy game against the red, white and black.
"They're a good group of boys and they're starting to see the results," Lanceleve said. "Nobody's kicking our butts anymore."
Case in point. Last weekend the Bearcats pushed the second-place Bubba Rays Gulls (14-3-2) to the brink, outshooting them 27-17 thanks to buying into systems put in place by the coaching staff and putting out the effort to make them work.
"That's saying something in itself," Lanceleve said of outshooting the Gulls, one of the league's most offensively gifted clubs. "The guys are buying in and getting some confidence and they're happy."
And that's what hockey is all about, Lanceleve said.
"At the end of the day they're just kids and they have to have fun and want to come to the rink," he said.
The Bearcats ended up losing 6-4 to the Gulls, but that's a far cry from the 7-1 drubbing in their first meeting of the season. Lanceleve said it won't be long before the wins start coming for the Truro squad.
"As a coach you have to present them with what helps them and they have to start doing it every game and stay at that level," he said. "Then they'll start banging on the door and eventually break through it. They're banging on the door now."
Even though there's still three and a half months left in the season, Sangster said he's already learned a valuable lesson about how attitude can affect a team.
"A lot of people think it's just that we're not skilled enough but with your attitude you can really start to improve and have a top team," he said.
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