The Olds Grizzlys have four games remaining before they break for the holidays.
As they approach the midway mark of the Alberta Junior Hockey League’s 54 game regular season, the Black & Gold have posted 10 wins and 15 losses so far.
Olds only had 10 wins during the entire 57 game season last year. The Grizzlys finished the 2023-2024 campaign with a record of 10-41-3-and-3.
First year Head Coach Brad Tobin from Delta, B.C. discusses what his staff has been working hard to establish in their first season in Olds. He says “yeah, just trying to create that culture. It’s tough to kind of change right away, so it has obviously taken a while for us to implement that.”
Tobin says creating opportunities for players from the Grizzlys to continue their hockey careers at the post-secondary level is also an area they are focused on.
The Grizzlys have been getting out in the community as the holidays approach, according to Tobin. He says “we’ve kind of ramped it up in the last few weeks here. We’ve been getting into quite a few of the schools doing a lot of floor hockey, doing stuff around there. Few of the grades are coming in for skates and that, so a lot of the guys are helping out that way too. Then obviously with the Christmas hampers and that starting up here we are getting involved with that too. Yeah, its a busy time of the year for everybody but anywhere that we can help out and chip in in the community is big.”
Olds got to 10 wins by outlasting the Drayton Valley Thunder (9-11-3-2) 5-4 in overtime at home on November 23rd. However, the OGs have dropped three in a row since then including a 7-2 loss to the Eagles in Canmore on Saturday in their most recent game.
Coming up tonight (Tuesday, December 10th), Olds will host the Canmore Eagles (16-7-3-0) at 7pm at the SportsComplex and live coverage can be heard on 96.5 CKFM starting with the pre-game show at 6:55.
96.5 CKFM spoke with Brad Tobin prior to Friday’s game against Drumheller.
