Friday, Oct. 23, 2009

Columbus Cottonmouths 2009-10 season preview: Snakes coach Jerome Bechard hopes to create the recipe for SPHL championship

Snakes mix in 7 new players with 11 returning

Move over, Paula Deen, Rachael Ray and Bobby Flay. Master chef Jerome Bechard has got something cooking.

The 2009-2010 Columbus Cottonmouths start their sixth Southern Professional Hockey League season tonight against the Fayetteville FireAntz faced with a burning question:

Does coach Jerome Bechard have the proper ingredients to whip up the Snakes’ first SPHL championship since 2005?

The Cottonmouths will depend on their old family recipe while blending in a few new spices to add a little kick.

Returning veterans Craig Stahl, Tim Green and Orrin Hergott provide substance to the hearty mix. All are proven commodities, and each has been with the team for five years.

Toss in seasoned defensemen, most of whom have simmered together for at least one year. Newcomer Tim Hockley provides a tangy new flavor to the blue line crew.

A three-man goalie competition heated up training camp. Ian Vigier and rookie Steve Bounds are on the opening night roster. Vigier will get the nod tonight and Bounds on Saturday night. Chad Rycroft is waiting in the wings for Bechard’s final decision.

In tweaking the recipe, Bechard took out a few ingredients which will be tough to replace.

Gone is forward Sam Bowles, a scorer who roasted the competition. Original SPHL Snakes Lorne Misita and Ryan Rutz are among the missing, as are Brad Patterson, Mat Ponto and Roman Marakhovski.

But Bechard is elated about blending in fresh ingredients to produce what he plans to be a sensational recipe.

“I’m really excited about getting these new guys and see how they mesh,” he said. “We’ve got Jesse Cole, a 6-2 power forward with good hands who can score. Jeff Martens will play the same role. Nicolas Boucher is a pit bull, a Mike Craigen type. Levi Lind is a big centerman with a big body. Joey Martini has great hands and can scoot.”

As always, there’s a mystery ingredient that can enhance or doom a recipe before it’s finished simmering. “The X-factor is that we’ve got half the team that we know nothing about except by word of mouth. We’ve got to find out what makes them tick. We’ve got to get into their heads. All of them seem willing to do whatever it takes,” Bechard said.

Offensively, the Snakes want to sprinkle in team speed in several ways. Led by Hergott and Ryan McCarthy, Martini and Boucher will help the team in the quickness department.

“The biggest thing is to get the guys to understand that when we have puck control, we need to anticipate where it’s going,” Bechard said. “The fast guys will be there. We need the other guys to get there quicker.”

The Snakes offense simmered on low heat for much of last season. Bechard plans to add a liberal dose of confidence to the recipe. “I’d like for us to score 225 goals or more,” he said. “If we score four goals a game, we’re going to win the majority of our games. I need Orrin to shoot the puck more. McCarthy and Stahl need to be more consistent. Craig Stahl should be scoring 20 goals a year. He needs to have more confidence in his shot.”

The defensive blend is solid with experience meshing them together. “They’ve got a pretty good jump in knowing each other since five of the seven have been with us,” Bechard said.

The goalie competition was a first for Bechard as a coach, who had Bounds and Rycroft set when Vigier decided to return. The competition spiced up camp. “It sent a message to everybody on the team: Nothing’s given,” Bechard said. “I’m going to keep the best 18 guys.”

He tested new twists on his old recipe, beginning the first day of training camp. “I looked for work ethic and attitude,” he said. “We want to win competition and win battles. Injuries got us off track last year. The team we’re going to see is what we saw at the end of last year. I want us to create our own luck. A positive attitude is like a snowball rolling downhill.”