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OSHAWA -- The Durham Fury is attempting to take somewhat of a different approach to shaking up its fluttering team.
Logic suggests that it is much easier for a team to remove the head coach as opposed to revamping the entire roster. But instead of dropping the axe on bench boss Grant Musselman, general manager John Annis insists he'll continue to move kids out in hopes of finding that winning solution.
"We had a pretty productive meeting Monday night, went top to bottom through each kid and without putting a lot of blame on anyone but ourselves, from this year to last year, we're just not working as hard," said Annis. "We've been getting out-worked. Obviously the scores indicate that. I said a couple weeks ago there were going to be changes, and there are still changes to come."
The first of those alterations took place earlier this week with the departure of veteran winger Chris Marchant. The forward has struggled to find his game this season, and that, coupled with being a healthy scratch during Tuesday's 6-5 loss to the Ajax Attack, led to him no longer being a part of the team.
Annis had another deal in the works with an Eastern Division club on Thursday, however, the details weren't hashed out prior to our deadline.
The GM also hinted other veterans could be on their way out in the near future, but declined to get into specifics.
However, two likely candidates would be Josh Ladouceur and Aaron Pierce, who were also heathy scratches Tuesday night, benched in favour of midget call-ups Anton Zupancic and Bill Terry.
Annis hopes the benchings will start to serve as motivation for certain players who haven't produced as expected this year.
"Last year, one thing we did have was a hard working club," he said. "My personal opinion, and I brought it up (in the meeting), is that we figure a lot of kids are on their own personal agendas be it scholarships, trying to score goals or cheating all over the ice. Hopefully that will change."
Next game for the Fury (4-14-5) is Tuesday against the Toronto Dixie Beehives (9-10-2). Game time at the Campus Ice Centre is 7:30 p.m. .
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