OLDS — The Grizzlys have a good chance to win their upcoming play-in series and advance to the playoffs, the team’s assistant coach and assistant general manager Pete de Graaf says.
He says there are two main reasons for that.
One is that they’re a very young team that is finally learning how to play the game at the Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL) level.
Another reason is because they’re currently last in the league, opponents might figure they’re guaranteed a win, so they may not work hard against a motivated black and gold team.
The AJHL announced the new post-season format on Feb. 7 in response to the fact that five teams left the league to play in the British Columbia Hockey League.
When the regular season ends, the top five teams will automatically advance to the 2024 Inter Pipeline Cup AJHL playoffs.
The bottom six teams will square off in a best of five play-in series (the sixth-place team will play the 11th-place team, the seventh-place team will play the 10th place team and the eighth-place team will square off against the ninth-place team.
Winners of the play-in series will fill spots six through eight in the opening round of the AJHL playoffs.
During an interview with the Albertan, de Graaf said the new format is “a good opportunity for us.”
“We feel we match up well with the whichever team we’ll end up drawing in that plan and we see this as a chance to make a big step forward and finish our season on positive note,” he said.
The cliche is that ‘you never know what can happen in the playoffs.’
The coach agreed with that statement.
“You just have to get in,” de Graaf said. “It could be a could be a Cinderella story in the making. So that's that's what we're hoping for.”
At the time of the Albertan interview, he was not certain which team the Grizzlys would face during the play-in round.
“But we look at who our potential opponents are and we feel we match up well with them. And based on the way we've been playing lately, we think we could do some damage and get through to the playoff round.”
The coach cited the Grizzlys’ 4-3 overtime loss to the Grande Prairie Storm Feb. 7 as an example of how good the black and gold can be.
“We had a really good game,” he said. “Just basically one really strange bounce in the third period.”
He noted the puck hit kind of bulging part of the boards and ricocheted into the net.
“It was a tough way to lose a game we had in control with three minutes left in the game,” he said.
One key in post-season play is goaltending and de Graaf is confident the trio of Aidan Comeau, Thomas Samborski and Connor White are solid.
Comeau got injured a couple of weeks ago during a game in Lloydminster and is now in concussion protocol. The coach was hopeful Comeau, who got injured a couple of weeks ago during a game in Lloydminster, would be cleared to play by the time the play-in series rolls around. If not, he’s confident in the other two.
He noted the team has been working on keeping the number goals against and shots fired by opposing teams much lower.
The ace in the hole though may be their current position as the league’s cellar dwellers.
“I think we have the advantage of maybe being taken lightly and that could certainly work in our favour if teams think we might be an easy opponent,” de Graaf said.” We we'd like to show them otherwise.”
He said the Grizzlys are the “youngest team in the league by far” in terms of average age and number of games played.”
“But now they've got most of the season under their belt and we're pretty happy with the way that they've developed.
So yeah, we feel we're well positioned for a good playoff push,” de Graaf said.
“What's hurt us is small lapses in a game. Like maybe we play well for 50 minutes, but maybe have a couple of five-minute lapses where all the damage is done.
“And that's what we're working on, is eliminating those so that we can get a solid 60-minute effort. And when we do, that's when we have success, and Wednesday’s game was an example of that.”
