The Windsor Spitfires are heading into Monday's New Year's Eve OHL match up against Mississauga Steelheads winless since returning from Christmas break.
Since coming off a 10-day vacation the Spitfires lit the lamp but couldn't keep the London off the board in a 8-6 loss Friday. In Flint Saturday they couldn't find the back of the net against the Firebirds in a 5-2 loss.
After Saturday's loss, Windsor Spitfires Head Coach Trevor Letowski took some responsibility for dropping the intensity and reminded players what it means to be a Spitfire.
"We need to be better than that, it's not good enough and the players know that. We have a good group of kids here and for whatever reason we just weren't ready to play that game," he says.
Letowski tells AM800 News it's time to get back to outworking opponents.
"At the end of the day that's what wins games. Young players sometimes start worrying about themselves, worrying about point totals and things like that," says Letowski. "That's just the wrong mindset and we [the team] had a long conversation about that ... we're going to work and we're going to trust our habits."
Monday night will be Cole Purboo's 173rd-straight game as a Spitfire — he's never missed a regular season game for the team.
He's put up 12-points in his last 12-games and says the basics are what got the Spitfires where they are as a club.
"I think the key is just to outwork the other team. I think that's where we create the most chances," Purboo says. "When we're out working the other team obviously that's going to translate into a good 60-minutes."
The Spitfires round out 2018 at the WFCU Centre against the Mississauga Steelheads for a New Year's Eve matinee.
Tune into AM800 for the pre-game show at 1:30pm followed by all the action at 2:05pm.