By Rod Kelly /

Hockey fans can’t help but wonder how fun it must be for teams that are fortunate enough to jump to early series leads in Western Hockey League playoff action.

Conversely, though, Dub supporters must also wonder how difficult the pressure is for clubs that find themselves behind a game or two early on in post-season competition.

For the Regina Pats, it’s safe to bet that either of those alternatives would be better than the situation they find themselves in once again this spring.

For a second consecutive year, the talent-packed Pats are merely on the sidelines, having fallen short of making the playoffs and now watching as their regular-season rivals compete for the playoff title and the chance to battle in the Memorial Cup.

This WHL season saw the Pats once again showcase some of Junior hockey’s most highly touted players, including local product and Canadian world junior standout Jordan Eberle as well as defenceman Colten Teubert of White Rock, B.C.

And while the Pats improved on their regular-season record from last season and managed to maintain a hardy and supportive fanbase through the 2009/10 season, the franchise failed to meet its No.-1 objective, which was advancing to post-season play.

The squad’s losing record during the 2009-10 regular-season schedule (30-35-3-4) has obviously been a bitter pill to swallow for hockey supporters in Regina and southern Saskatchewan.

But it hasn’t only been difficult for fans. Players, coaches and management, it seems, have also taken the tough times hard.

“It’s frustrating how things ended off with our team,” Eberle recently told the Regina Leader-Post.

“I thought I had a great season...as much as you don’t like to put personal success in front of team success, it was exciting,” Eberle told the newspaper.

“But I know every guy in the locker-room knows I’d put a playoff run in front of all of this.”

In the Eastern Conference, only the Lethbridge Hurricanes (48 pts) and the Edmonton Oil Kings (45 pts) had worse seasons than the Pats did this year.

To make matters worse, Regina’s .465 winning percentage was the lowest in its smaller loop, the East Divison, where the team’s record put it in the cellar below the struggling Prince Albert Raiders.

Like Eberle, Pats management has shared its disappointment following a second-straight non-playoff campaign.

The team’s inability to put together the type of play necessary to return to post-season play — a place the Pats were becoming familiar with after qualifying in 2005-06, 2006-07 and 2007-08 — hasn’t sat well with longtime GM Brent Parker.

Parker has been anything but coy with regards to his team’s recent on-ice shortfalls, even when the subject turns to the displeasure Pats fans are sharing over their team falling short of expectations not one, but two consecutive years.

“Nobody cares any more about this franchise having success than I do ... Nobody cares more,” Parker told the Leader-Post.

“I care deeply for this franchise to have success. That’s something that weighs on me very heavily.

“I want very badly to see our kids succeed and grow and be better when they leave here. That’s what drives me.”

As for Eberle, who’s likely to suit up in the NHL with the Edmonton Oilers next season, this Dub campaign was perhaps the best of his career.

A player often admired for the timely goal-scoring he’s provided in world junior hockey competition, Eberle finished second in the WHL’s point-scoring race this season with 50 goals and 56 assists for 106 points, second only to Calgary Hitmen sniper Brandon Kozun, who finished with 107 points.

The Regina-born Eberle has also collected five points — two goals and three assists — in his first two games this season with the Springfield Falcons. In 11 career AHL games, Eberle has five goals and 14 points.

In his three previous Dub seasons, the Oilers first-round draft selection collected 55 points, 75 points and 74 points.