Courtesy Vancouver Province:

If the biggest issue facing the Lions these days centres around team chemistry, there’s good news in that the chemist with the most experience in the CFL is on the way.

Club psychologist Dr. Frank Lodato will meet the Lions on the road when they travel to face the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Friday. The visit is not in reaction to the team’s poor play. But it couldn’t have come at a better time, nonetheless.

A year-round resident of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., the good-natured octogenarian had been a fixture at Lions camp since GM/coach Wally Buono arrived. However, Lodato was absent from a CFL camp for the first time in 28 years this spring in Abbotsford while tending to an illness in his family. It may or may not be a coincidence with the Lions’ 1-3 start.

The Lions play down the concept of having a doctor with Lodato’s background on call, basically making him available to players on request when the club plays road games in the Eastern Division.

But as the losses mount the signals he might be needed continue to grow.

“We’ve hit rock bottom,” defender Korey Banks said after the 48-10 pounding Friday by the Calgary Stampeders.

“I don’t know what happened. They beat us with the basics. We have to play with who we have, and nobody is going to feel sorry for us. Either bleep or get off the pot. We need an identity. Maybe we’re more of a finesse team.”

After the Lions lost to Hamilton, slotback Geroy Simon suggested the team needed to go bowling. Another uncomfortable sign came when Ian Smart appeared to walk past Buono on Friday when the coach attempted to ask him why he chose to run a punt out of the end zone.

Lodato isn’t in the business of providing public counsel, but has kept in regular contact with Buono and a few players this season. Lodato says whatever kind of team the Lions are going to become can take time.

“That can particularly be the case when some of the personalities that have left were very strong, like Otis Floyd,” he said Sunday. “Kelly Bates was an important factor in terms of what he contributed off the field. Tyrone Williams is also a great example. It takes time to replace those people.”

It’s easy to pick whether some of the mistakes against Calgary were mental or physical because there were plenty of both (see chart).

But Lodato, who has consulted for numerous clubs ranging from the NFL Miami Dolphins and New York Giants to the Los Angeles Kings and Boston Bruins of the NHL, said its important to examine all possible flaws in the team.

“I see our job as grasping for straws. Any alley, any roadway or possibility has to be followed because that may be where the answer is, even if some of them may be bizarre,” he said.

“Sometimes when the wheels come off it’s the best thing … because you go back to the drawing board and you stop masking the problems.”

That kind of advice may cost Lodato a winter golf date with one of his Florida neighbours, John Hufngael, the Calgary coach.

Buono, on the other hand, will undoubtedly take any suggestions he can get from the good doctor once he arrives in Hamilton for a checkup later this week.

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