The Red Deer Rebels’ regular-season schedule is 56 games old, and yet veteran forward Josh Cowen is still looking to get untracked.
The third-year winger was a hard-luck victim earlier this season, missing nearly a month while afflicted with mononucleosis. But he’s also partially to blame for the fact he’s appeared in only 29 games this winter.
Cowen sat out the first two regular-season contests while serving the remainder of a four-game suspension he was handed during last spring’s playoff series against the Saskatoon Blades. Then, on New Year’s Day, he delivered a sucker punch to the head of Blades’ defenceman Stefan Elliott during a game at Saskatoon and 24 hours later was tagged with a league-imposed eight-game sentence.
As a result . . .
“It’s been kind of hard to get going and get my game to where I want it to be,” Cowen said Thursday, just prior to a practice session at the Kinex. “But we have 16 (regular-season) games left and I’m working hard on my skills and things I need to do right.
“I have to be mentally sharp on the ice, my awareness has to be better. If I keep on working on those kinds of things — moving my feet, driving the net, going to the greasy areas — I’m going to have success.”
Cowen, who celebrated his 20th birthday last month, didn’t notch his first goal of the season until late November and has three on the season, to go with eight assists, a plus-four rating and 62 minutes in penalties. While he’s known as a gritty, driven player, he hasn’t necessarily played to that image this season.
Again, that’s mostly due to the fact he’s played roughly only half the season.
“It’s been tough to get a gauge on him because he hasn’t had any consistent play,” said Rebels head coach/vice-president of hockey operations Jesse Wallin. “What we expect him to bring is a physical presence and he’s a guy who can also chip in offensively somewhat.
“The biggest thing for him right now is to just get some rhythm to his game to his game and get consistently playing and feeling good about himself. He’s a guy who right now is trying to find where he fits in. We know what he’s capable of and it’s just a matter of him getting to the point where he’s comfortable to do that consistently. There have been times he’s played real well and other times when his timing has been a bit off and he hasn’t looked real sharp.”
Cowen sweated buckets during the off-season with the intention of making the current campaign his best ever.
“I’ve never worked as hard as I did last summer, both off and on the ice,” said the native of Salmon Arm, B.C., who worked out with NHL star Shane Doan down the Trans-Canada Highway in Kamloops.
“He (Doan) really pushed me and I felt great coming into the season. It really sucked to have mono early on. With mono, you can’t really do anything, you have to stay in bed. It’s awful. Even at Christmas (five weeks after returning to the lineup) I could still feel it. I realized it was something I had to battle through.”
Cowen is confident that his game will be back in gear at the most opportune time.
“I want my game to be at its peak at the start of playoffs,” he said. “Obviously playoffs is a whole new season and I can forget about this regular season and all the setbacks I’ve had and really focus on having a good playoffs with this team.
“You have to stay positive, you can’t get down on yourself. I have to take every day like its a new day. If I do that I’m going to have success.”
Wallin knows what a consistently hard-nosed Cowen can provide to the Rebels.
“He’s a physical presence, a leader in our group,” said the Rebels bench boss. “He plays with a lot of passion and can play a lot of different roles for us. There are nights when we play him against top lines, wanting him to be a checker and a bit of a pest while shutting down top guys.
“For him to be at his best he has to be playing physical, he has to be getting to the tough areas of the rink and making sure that he’s is good defensively and making smart decisions with the puck. When he’s doing those things the rest of his game starts to grow from there.”
gmeachem@www.reddeeradvocate.com