OLDS — Admittedly it’s a cliché, but head coach-GM Scott Atkinson says the playoffs are a whole new chance for the Olds Grizzlys junior hockey team.
Their regular season record means nothing, once playoffs begin.
Despite a 10-38-6 record, the Grizzlys officially qualified for the Alberta Junior Hockey League playoffs after the Calgary Canucks lost in Drayton Valley last week.
The playoffs begin March 1, according to the AJHL. It’s the first time in three years that the Grizzlys have made the post-season.
“It hasn’t been that productive a year, but like, we’re in the playoffs and got a chance to do something. Everything goes back to zero and hopefully we can do better,” he said during an interview.
Atkinson has only been in the job for less than a month after taking over from interim head coach Pete deGraaf and former head coach-GM Joe Murphy.
As a result, he hasn’t had much time to implement his system and make the changes he sees are needed.
But he’s seen some improvement.
“We’ve made a lot of progress, but there’s a lot of work to do,” Atkinson said.
“Our structure, in every facet of the game, needed major work and we’re kind of putting as much effort in as we can and trying to get that rectified as quickly as possible.
“And (we’re) dealing with a whole bunch of even conditioning issues at this time, so we’re trying to get a lot better with a lot of things in a hurry and we’ll see if we can get 'er done.
“I mean, there’s a lot of basic things that we don’t do well that we’re working on to improve and right now.
“We haven’t really got that much results for it, but we play a much more solid game, so we’re more disciplined, we don’t take as many penalties and we’re a lot harder to play against.
“That’s still a long road for us," he added. "But we’re getting better; the fellas are playing hard, so that’s good.”
Atkinson said the team has struggled defensively. He agreed defensive play becomes even more important in the playoffs.
“A lot of that’s just structure and discipline and dedication to it,” he said.
“We’re just way too easy to play against. We give the puck up too much and we don’t compete hard enough to get it back. So it’s pretty well a start-from-scratch sort of approach.”
When the playoffs begin, the Grizzlys will be taking on the Drumheller Dragons who, as of Feb. 20, sat third in the Viterra South with a 36-16-3 record.
The Dragons may be third in the division, but Atkinson suggests they’re not as dominant as the standings might suggest.
“They play sort of a fast, puck-possession game, but they ride one big line, so there’s one line that gets most of the damage done offensively,” he said.
