Chapter 1 Complete: Grizzlies Earn A Victory

At long last the BCHL Bauer Showcase is behind the Grizzlies.  Also done with are the two disruptive components of the early Regular Season.  The first was the Victoria Shamrocks Mann Cup Playoff run which kept the Q Centre floor free of ice until late September.  Gone too is the NHL’s Kraft Hockeyville and all of its various trappings which even included Don Cherry and Coach's Corner.  And of course we should be grateful.  Both of these events were a great boon to the Westshore and even to the Grizzlies.  Heck, the Canucks left enough Gatorade in The Q Centre to fill Commonwealth Pool.  But gone most of all is a four game losing streak which wasn't doing anyone any favours.

 

Grizzlies held a lengthy lead in a hockey game for the first time since March

 

That losing streak ended vs Prince George with just over a minute left to play in Double Overtime on Sunday afternoon at Chilliwack’s Prospera Centre.  And it came by virtue of the player who may be the franchise’s most prolific overtime goal scorer of all time, #11 Kevin Massy.  KMass’s late Double OT goal lifted the Grizzlies to a 2-1 win over the Prince George Spruce Kings and closed the door on the first chapter of the new season, a chapter many would like to forget.

 

#4 - Jake Stevens, a Go-To D-Man for the Grizz 

But gone too is a statistic which was really starting to concern me.  Until Brayden Gelsinger’s First Period PP marker on Sunday, which put his team up 1-0, the Grizzlies had trailed for 355/360 minutes of hockey since 7 March, 2015.  Trailing for that long in that many games is rarely a recipe for success on any team.   But asking a room full of rookies to chase games night in and night out is frankly trying to go a bridge too far.  The Grizzlies just won’t be the prolific offensive powerhouse they were last year and that’s ok.  But that means that getting that first goal this season will be bigger than ever, at least that’s what it looks like after five games.  

 

Thus, in less than 24 hours, the Grizzlies will at long last enjoy their Regular Season Home Opener on Thursday night at The Q Centre.  It could not have come any sooner.  With Prince George winning their first game of the season on Saturday afternoon at the Bauer Showcase, the Grizzlies earned the dubious distinction of being the last BCHL team to register a win in 2015/16. 

 

While the Q Centre distractions and extended road trip are in the Grizzlies’ rear view mirror, not all the team’s issues are necessarily behind them at the moment.  The club has registered only 8 goals scored over the first five games of the season, while surrendering 15 against.  The Powerplay has looked fairly benign for the most part, trucking along at a modest 13.64 % to sit at 13^th in the league.  With that said, the Grizzlies do sport the BCHL’s best PK efficiency at 93.75%.  But best of all is the fact that the Grizzlies have only been shorthanded 16 times (lowest in BCHL) in 5 games and that stat suggests a team with discipline and poise.  That could prove crucial if it keeps up.

 

#11 - Defenceman Kevin Massy continues to be clutch in OT

 

But the worry for me is the scoring, it’s just not there, not yet anyway.  Yes, the team has been on the road for four weeks straight and yes, the Q Centre has been filled with lacrosse sticks, Kraft Dinner boxes and NHL fans during this period of time.  But the fact remains that the only Grizzlies players who have been able to contribute offensively with more than a single point this year are players who wear “A”s and “C”s on their uniforms.  That bodes well for the veteran leadership in the room, but it’s not sustainable over the long term.  Forget the Third and Fourth Lines, the Grizzlies have yet to demonstrate any Second Line scoring whatsoever.  The good news is that The Grizzlies are full of talented BCHL rookies who have loads of upside and promise.  It is also good news to report that the chances have been there and frankly, I can’t remember when I last witnessed this large a number of posts and crossbars hit by a Grizzlies team.  On Saturday night vs Chilliwack, Cole Pickup, Nick Guiney and Brayden Geslinger combined for 4 posts or crossbars.  The Grizzlies can and will score more goals, they just can’t wait much longer to make that happen. 

 

That said, help is on the way and the youngsters look ready to play a bigger role.  #15 Kevan Mokhtari (98’), with his breathtaking speed looks to be just millimetres away from scoring a hat trick on any given night and the same can be said of his line mate, #20 Tyler Welsh (97’).  Add to that mix, the impressive 98’ born D-Man in Drayson Pears who broke up no less than two, back to back, 2 on 1 breakaways on Sunday and you can sleep well knowing that help is right around the corner.

 

#31 Mitchell Benson on his way to a 26 saves on 27 shots performance vs Prince George

Meanwhile after five games, the club has been steeled by the fact that both of the new 18 year old goaltenders, Matt Galajda and Mitchell Benson have been better than good.  They have literally been lights out on certain occasions.  Benson for his part on Sunday made several huge stops in OT which bought his team the time they needed to figure out the Spruce Kings goalie, Liam McCloskey who was impressive in his own right.  The Defencemen have been strong in general and the new face on the roster, American Import #2 Chuck Bennis, has assumed a vital role on the blue line, especially with Brett Stirling out of the lineup for the foreseeable future with what is hopefully not a serious lower body injury.

 

The best news of all was what I saw from the many scouts at the Showcase.  Each appeared to be suffering from various different levels of Carpel Tunnel Syndrome while watching Grizzlies games. They certainly were busy scribbling and taking notes throughout the Grizzlies action from what I saw.  If you think that might just be anecdotal observations on the writer’s part, I can sure the reader that I heard personally from many of the scouts and BCHL officials at the Bauer Showcase, that “the 2015/16 Grizzlies are a very talented and young team with loads of potential”.  In short they were all impressed.

 

The Grizzlies salute the sizeable travelling "Grizzlies Nation" on Sunday

So it’s off to the Home Opener tomorrow night at The Q Centre, game time 7pm.  I hope to see you Thursday night.  Until then, I guess I’ll just enjoy this Orange Coloured Gatorade as I type away up here in the Broadcast Booth while I watch the Westshore Wolves play, there's literally cases of this stuff everywhere!  -CC

Lose An Engine, Wind Your Watch: Grizzlies After Three Straight Losses

I remember this funny thought I had on the day the entire world learned the name, Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger.

US Airways Flight 1549 with Captain Sullenberger (Insert)

 

If his name still eludes you, Captain Sullenberger was the pilot of US Airways Flight 1549 on 15 January, 2009.  The plane struck a flock of Canadian Geese during its climb out of LaGuardia, NYC and ended up making an emergency ditching in the Hudson River just a few kilometres from the World Trade Centre.  To this day, most aviation experts consider the actions of Sullenberger and his crew that day to be one of the finest examples of airmanship in the history of commercial aviation.

Back to that funny thought which I had as I gazed, mouth wide open at the live CNN television coverage of an airliner floating on the surface of the Hudson River, its passengers all standing on the wings.  I remember thinking about the pilot and wondering out loud about something which the guys at work all thought was crazy of me to ponder.  I wondered if the pilot had just wound his watch.

Craig Didmon is one of the few coaches in the BCHL who I would humbly submit might need to wind his watch at the moment.  After three games to start the new season, the Victoria Grizzlies are 0-3 and off to one of the slowest starts in recent memory.  If the Grizzlies were the Vancouver Canucks, the local Vancouver media would be up in arms and there would be a line-up of reporters outside of Coach Willie Desjardins' office demanding answers.  In short, there would be bedlam in Vancouver after an 0-3 start.  That's just the way it is nowadays in this world of instant gratification.  The fact is that many hockey coaches and GMs in the game would at this point be either hitting the panic button or at least searching frantically for its location.

And that's where Captain Sully Sullenberger and his wrist watch comes into the Grizzlies' story.



Capt Sullenberger and First Officer Jeffrey Skiles

 

When I was a teenager and was working on my Private Pilot licence, I had this great old school instructor at the Ottawa Flying Club. I always remember his instruction concerning in-flight emergency procedures.  I remember one day when he threw this emergency at me while we were in the air over Carp and he watched me conduct a series emergency procedures.  After the drill was over and I was feeling quite proud of myself for nailing it, (or so I had thought), he told me that I had forgotten the most important and first thing you need to do when you have a serious problem in an aircraft.  "And you know what that is right Clay?" he queried over the aircraft's headsets?  Flush with my freshman philosophy about flying at the time, I retorted with a typical teenager response to a good question from a great teacher, the sound of crickets.

Captain Sullenberger with a young flying enthusiast (possibly author's 1986 doppelganger)

I  remember my instructor smiling and explaining to me that when things are really "turning pear shaped" in the cockpit, you should always take a moment and wind your watch.  The basic idea behind this seemingly strange routine is to slow your mind down.  This way you tend to not overreact with too much "fast hands and feet" which could make a bad situation a whole lot worse.  If you don't take a second to think and you just react, you might take a recoverable aircraft which is in trouble and put it into an unrecoverable position and end up having a really bad day.

When we got on the ground and we shut down, he told me that I was quite strong with my emergency procedures and checklists but that my "hands and feet" were a bit too fast and that I needed to slow down a bit and take time to think.  "And that's why you always just check your wrist and wind your watch before you do anything, OK?"  I felt a little lump in my throat as I looked at my instructor and recognized the wisdom of this invaluable lesson in both flying and life.

When it comes to the Grizzlies, a panicky type would point to the fact that The Grizzlies have been outshot in 6 of 9 periods thus far and point to the lack of offense.  One might notes how many players are well into minus numbers in their +/- stats after three games.  A "Nervous Nelly" might demand action pointing out the fact that in the last 300 minutes of play, (less 5 mins in Cowichan) going back to 7 March 2015, the Grizzlies have trailed in every minute of those 300 minutes.  The over-reactive type might call for a bunch of drastic line changes and maybe even a few roster moves.  Good move or bad move, a panicky coach would certainly forget to wind his watch and he just might start making wild moves.

Gelsinger (22) and Pickup (14) Leading the Grizz

 

But let's step back for a moment and talk about how the Grizzlies are playing.  Frankly, I am not overly concerned, heck we are only three games into a 60 game schedule.  I think in general, the Grizzlies are playing quite well in spite of the three road losses.  Remember the Grizzlies have only seven retuning veterans in the lineup and two of them, Cody Van Lierop and Nick Guiney were sidelined in the last two losses with Van Lierop, a top D man missing all three games.  The losses have all been close one or two goal contests. The Grizzlies have one of the best goaltending tandems in the BCHL and team defence looks solid so far.  The Power Play can score goals and the team's leaders like, PJ Conlon, Cole Pickup, Kevin Massy and Brayden Gelsinger have lead the way offensively pretty well so far.  Don't forget that the Grizzlies also own the #1 PK in the league, which currently sits at 91% efficiency.  In fact the PK would be at 100% efficiency if it were not for Kevin Massy being tripped while killing off a Clippers PP on Friday night which temporarily left only three penalty-killers on their feet, which turned a 5 on 4 PP into a 5 on 3 situation.

 

So are things really that bad?  I think not.

Capt Sullenberger and First Officer Jeffrey Skiles

If you go on-line and listen to the Cockpit Voice Recorder, (CVR) of US Airways 1549 its really quite chilling.  There's Sully Sullenberger, climbing out of LaGuardia on a cold January afternoon on his way to Charlotte, NC.  He even points out to his co-pilot Jeffrey Skiles how beautiful the Hudson River looks on the day.  Suddenly he says to his Co-Pilot says: "Birds."  The Airbus A320 flies through the flock of geese and within seconds the two pilots know that they have lost both engines. They know as well that they have zero chance of a re-start on either engine and they have nowhere to land as they are now gliding over Manhatten at well under 5,000 feet.  This is what pilots call "an in-flight emergency".  Within three minutes, the airplane would be carefully managed to a safe and effective emergency water landing in the middle of the Hudson River and all passengers would exit unharmed and be rescued by various water craft who would rush to the stricken airliner.  Meanwhile Captain Sullenberger, after wading through water up to his knees in the back of the airplane to check for any forgotten passengers, would be the last to board a rescue craft.  No panic, no emotion, just a cool, professional reaction to a frightening situation.

Coach Didmon at The Office

And frankly, that is what the Grizzlies need at the moment, just a calm and professional reaction by the one commanding "the aircraft".   I am pretty sure that is exactly what Coach Didmon has in mind; I have watched him coach for years now.  At the end of the day, The Grizzlies have simply lost a few hockey games.  They have lost a few hockey games with a roster full of talented rookies, each of whom who are slowly finding their way in the early days of their respective BCHL careers, hardly an emergency.

You know I read somewhere that Tom Hanks is going to play the role of Captain Sully Sullenberger in a new Hollywood movie coming out soon about Flight 1549.  I wonder what they will have his character do when he suddenly sees that flock of Canadian Geese appear in his window and he finds himself at low altitude over America's largest city in an airplane full of people and fuel with no operating engines?  I hope they show him winding his watch.

Grizzlies Meeting Author's Idol, Ron MacLean (note author not in photo)