OLDS — After jumping out to a strong start, the Olds Grizzlys have floundered and sunk near the bottom of the Alberta Junior Hockey League’s eight-team south division.
Assistant coach Pete deGraaf says the reasons for that decline have been a puzzle for the coaching staff.
"We’re trying to figure that out right now,” he said during an interview. “We have a very talented team and for some reason, they’re not all gelling together at the same time on the same day.
“Some days the forwards play well and we’ve had issues with the goaltending and other days the goaltending’s been good but the rest of the team hasn’t been very good in front of them.”
The assistance coach was asked if the team has any new strategies in mind to fix that problem.
“We’re just working on simplifying things and getting the guys to do the little things well and just play harder in general.
We think we’re getting a receptive response to that, so we’re looking forward to that happening this weekend,” he said.
Asked if trades are a possibility to shake up the team, deGraaf said “that’s always an option, but it’s not something that we’re actively going to pursue.
“This is a group that we think we can bring together and get them all working together.”
During a recent home game it was clear the Grizzlys were shooting the puck deep in the opposing and then going in after it.
Decades ago, the NHL’s Boston Bruins were famous for employing a “dump and chase” strategy.
“We don’t call it dump and chase," deGraaf said.
“It’s more chip to space and recover, because we did find we were turning pucks over at the opposing blue line, and if we can get the puck behind their defence and establish our forecheck, it’s almost like passing to yourself instead of dumping it in.
“So we do use that as a strategy and a lot of teams in our league do as well; just get the puck behind the defence and get it back and then use your forecheck and apply pressure from below.”
The Grizzlys will get a chance to see how well their adjustments are working Nov. 4 when they host the Sherwood Park Crusaders at the Sportsplex. Game time is 7 p.m.
The next day, they Calgary to face off against the Canucks.
"We’ve seen both those teams and we’ve had success against Sherwood Park. And we’ve played well against Calgary, just didn’t find a way to get the win when we needed it,” deGraaf said.
“But we feel if we bring our A game, we should be able to fare well against both those teams.”
He said the fact that the Canucks game is a road game shouldn’t make any difference.
“We’ve had success there before, so we just need to get on track; get all the guys pulling the cart in the same direction at the same time,” deGraaf said.
“If we can get there, I think we can beat just about any team in our league.”
