Through the first quarter of the season, the Canmore Eagles have seen a lot of positives.
Their sixth-place spot in the AJHL’s southern division is not one of them.
Despite strong goaltending, clutch scoring and defensive depth, the Eagles have struggled with consistency and are 10 points out of first place in their surprisingly strong division.
“There’s a lot of things that have contributed to our 8-7 record. We played poorly at the showcase and our team has had a feeling out process,” said coach and general manager Andrew Milne. “The guys are figuring out where they fit in. I think we’ve seen some drastic improvement over time.”
The team split their weekend, dropping a 1-0 loss to the Drumheller Dragons on Oct. 17 and winning 3-2 in overtime over the Olds Grizzlys. All three Eagles scorers were defencemen, as Jakob Lavoie, Jeremy Gordon and Nik Kosman all recorded goals.
Milne has made a few changes to the lineup, trading away bruising defenceman Ashton McLeod and sending 16-year-old Kyle Craddock home while acquiring towering defender Kevin Wolf. That has allowed younger players such as Brayden Biccum to get more ice time. Milne said he’s always looking to improve the team, but he’s satisfied with the group he has right now.
“I’m comfortable where we sit now. We’ve made moves to be a better club down the road and you’ll see us get better. Guys like Biccum need more ice time now so they can make mistakes, so they’ll be better down the line,” Milne said.
He wants to see scoring spread out, as the team can’t rely on Connor Wilson, Simon Philp, Joe Serpico and Jordan Revie to generate all of the offence.
“We need to find ways to get secondary scoring,” Milne said.
The Eagles play on the road on Okotoks on Friday (Oct. 24), then face off against Bonneyville at home on Oct. 25.
