After watching their beloved Prince George Cougars suffer a first-round playoff elimination at the hands of the Portland Winterhawks Wednesday night at CN Centre, Larry and Vickie Lein weren’t at all depressed about seeing their team swept from the playoffs in the minimum four games.
Saddened, yes. Depressed, no.
Sure, they would have liked to see the Cougars push the ‘Hawks to a fifth game in Portland and maybe have the teams come back for a sixth game in Prince George. But the odds were stacked high against the underdog Cats, who finished the regular season a whopping 46 points behind Portland, the hottest team in the WHL through the second half of the season.
Season-ticket holders ever since the Cougars came north from Victoria in 1994, the Leins have learned to accept the Cougars are rarely in the mix when it comes to settling who’s the best in the league come playoff time.
In 28 seasons, the Cougars have reached the third round of playoffs just three times (1997, 2000 and 2007), advanced to the second round once (1998), were eliminated in the first round 11 times (1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2009, 2011, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2022) and missed the playoffs 11 times (1995, 1996, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2012, 2013, 2004, 2018, 2019). There were no WHL playoffs in 2020 and 2021 because of the pandemic.
The Cougars just barely made the playoffs this year, clinching on the second-last day of the season, finishing the 68-game schedule with 24 wins and 44 losses. Larry says while his patience waiting for a winner has not worn thin, it’s just about reached a limit.
“My expectations will be very high next year going forward,” said Larry Lein, 58. “Right now we don’t have enough veteran leadership for the team and it’s hard for the younger kids. I didn’t think they were fully aware what it takes to win in this league, they’re too young. Next year, when we have a good group of 18- and 19-year-olds, moving forward we’ll probably have two or three new 20-year-olds and I think next year is going to be the year. I’m waiting for the payoff.”
Only 1,727 fans showed up for Wednesday’s playoff game in a building that seat nearly 6,000. The Cougars’ attendance this season ranks third-worst in the WHL and there’s only one way to fix that, according to the Leins. The Cougars have to become winners on the ice.
“I’ve got to think that you will always get the diehard fans, but to get the casual fan, they’ve got to start winning at home,” said Larry. “People like to watch winners.”
The Cougars changed their ticket price structure in 2017 and brought in tiered pricing based on where in the arena people want to sit, while also keeping age-based pricing for adults, seniors, students and children. The cost of ticket for seniors and fans who liked to sit between the bluelines rose significantly and attendance dropped dramatically, from an average 3,626 in 2016-17 to 3,024 the following season, and crowd counts at CN Centre steadily declined, falling to an average 2,707 in 2018-19 and 2,423 in 2019-20.
Most WHL teams need about 3,000 fans per game just to pay the operational costs and the Liens know the team is suffering financially, having averaged 1,915 per game in 2021-22. But they still think the cost of their tickets is reasonable, considering the entertainment value they get out of watching the Cougars play 34 times a season at home.
“We’re pretty happy with what we pay and what we get to see,” said Larry. “With the way everything costs so much money nowadays, you’ve got to make money and I don’t think they’re making money yet.
“I think affording it isn’t really the thing, the thing that deters a lot of people from being a season-ticket holder is a lot of people find it tough to go to Tuesday or Wednesday hockey games, especially when you get four games in five nights when it’s minus-30 out.”
Just making the playoffs every year is not enough, said Vickie, the Cougars need to start putting up banners to attract more fans. The only flag they’ve hung from the rafters at CN Centre in 28 seasons came with their B.C. Division regular season championship in 2016-17.
“You’ve got to do both,” she said.
“Casual fans don’t understand that it’s a young team and casual fans don’t care about how they’re building a team or anything like that. All it boils down to is you have to win a hockey game. If you had a team like Everett or even Kamloops this year that wins games, people will find the money to go because they’re going to want to go. People will come back, they just have to win.”
Vickie Lein, 56, has never seen a Cougar team so young and inexperienced and probably never will. When Mark Lamb took over as general manager seasons ago, later becoming the head coach as well, the Cougars were top-heavy with older players and once they left there weren’t many rising talents to take their places as the leaders, so Lamb elected to rebuild the talent base with draft picks rather than trade for older players. Their top three scorers this season – Riley Heidt, Koehn Ziemmer and Hudson Thornton – were WHL rookies whose only previous experience in the league happened a year ago in the abbreviated 24-game bubble season. Years of accumulating high draft picks left the Cats as the youngest team in the league, with only one 2002-born player, winger Aiden Reeves.
“I think they went too young, they needed to bring in some 19-year-olds to help teach the younger kids the ropes and then next year we would have 20-year-olds,” said Vickie.
Like all longtime Cougars fans, the Leins have heard the familiar refrain, “wait till next year,” and most times their hopes of seeing legitimate contender in Cougarville have failed to pan out. But they’re convinced their patience will be rewarded starting with the 2022-23 season and the Cougars will be bearing gifts for their fans that will only increase in value once the postseason rolls around.
“They can’t keep saying they’re rebuilding, they can’t use that excuse anymore,” said Vickie. “(Lamb) has had four years to build a team and you’ve got to prove yourself.”
Lorne Allen, 81, has also been a season ticket holder since Day 1, when the Cougars played that first year in the old Prince George Coliseum. He volunteered for years as the team’s equipment manager and knows the game inside-out. He thinks the Cougars are sitting on a powderkeg of elite young hockey talent and the proof is going to be in the pudding over the next few years when they take aim at bringing home their first Ed Chynoweth Cup championship.
“We’ve never ever had a team built like this one is being built,” said Allen. “We got four 16-year-olds out there that we don’t even think are 16. Too many years you would keep two and maybe three 16s and your top draft pick would see very little ice time, but these guys are all playing every shift.”
Once winning becomes a habit, the fans will come back, says Allen.
“You have to have a winning team to get the young people, they’ve got to have a reason to come here and drink beer,” said Allen. ‘If you’ve got a winning team in this town it will work, and I think they’re on the right track.
“We did this (make the playoffs) this year with only one 19-year-old, and our 20-year-olds are marginal. But if you take the 16- 17- and 18-year-olds, we’ve got a helluva team. And we’ve got two good young goaltenders.”
