Derek Sutliffe came into his final year with the Rivermen not quite sure what role the coaches had in mind for him. He was coming off a very respectable 15 goal campaign in 2011-2012 and played almost everywhere on the forward depth chart. This season, the Las Vegas native has been mostly playing in the bottom six and has gone through his fair share of ups and downs. Back on November 1st he was scratched from the line-up for the first time of his career. A few weeks later he was held out again and was the odd man out for a third time on December 8th.
“Nobody wants to watch the game from the press box and it was a bit of a shocker for me especially with it being my last year and all, but I used it as motivation instead of dwelling on it,” said Sutliffe.
Since December 28th, Sutliffe has been one of the most consistent players on the Rivermen recording five goals and five assists. On January 5th and 6th he put up 2 goals and 2 assists including an overtime winner against Cowichan Valley and earned his first ever BCHL player of the week honour.
“I was pretty excited when I found out about it and I actually did not know about it right away until my billet mom told me to check her Facebook. It is a big honour and something that means a lot to me, but I could not have earned it without the help of my teammates.”
Rivermen Head Coach/GM Bobby Henderson has really liked what he has seen from his assistant captain of late and now thinks he is playing the best hockey of his career.
“I think Derek would be the first one to tell you that he was a little inconsistent off the start, but he has been playing lights out hockey the last couple weeks. He is realizing that he is a 20 year old this year and it’s coming down to the wire for him and he has really raised the bar of late, which is great to see.”
