MONDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2012 – The Canmore Eagles will attempt to get back on the winning track this week when they host the visiting Grande Prairie Storm on Wednesday, December 19 and the Olds Grizzlys on Thursday, December 20.
Both games will be played at the Canmore Recreation Centre at 7 pm.
The Eagles took it on the chin over the past weekend as they dropped all three road games losing 7-2 in Camrose on Friday night, 6-1 in Spruce Grove on Saturday night, and 5-1 to Sherwood Park on Sunday afternoon.
After starting the season winning nine of their first 16 games, the Eagles are now mired in a 13 game losing streak that has seen them plummet to the basement of the Alberta Junior Hockey League Southern Division standings with a 10-19-5 record and 25 points. Despite the slide, all is not lost as the Eagles trail the seventh-place Calgary Canucks by just two points and enjoy two games in hand on the Canucks.
Injuries have been the major reason for the Eagle’s recent woes. The club is currently playing without highly-touted goaltender Ty Swabb (high ankle sprain), defencemen Nikolos Kosman (broken forearm), defenceman Ryan Whitell (groin pull), forwards Simon Philp (hip surgery), Alex Becktold (broken ankle), Jordan Revie (separated shoulder) and recently lost Canmore native Nils Moser to a broken ankle.
Following this week’s two home games, the Eagles will get a 13-day break over the Christmas holidays and will not play again until January 3rd when they will travel to Calgary for a key game against the seventh-place Canucks.
“This year’s Christmas break cannot come soon enough for our hockey team,” said Eagle’s Head Coach and General Manager Andrew Milne. “With all the injuries on the club, we just haven’t had the depth to battle through this part of the schedule. Our healthy players are playing too many minutes and haven’t been as effective as they should be. We’ll use the upcoming Christmas break to get some badly needed rest and hopefully get some players healthy again. Despite our recent record, I still believe we have a good hockey club here and we’ll battle back when our injured players return to the lineup in the New Year.”
NOTEBOOK: The Canmore Eagle’s Christmas Tree fundraising event has once again been a huge success this December as all 360 premium trees have now been sold and the lot is now CLOSED. The Eagle’s organization would like to thank all the Bow Valley businesses and residents for their great support and we would also like to thank all the volunteers who helped out at the lot for the past 16 days. Thank you everyone and Merry Chrsitmas to all.
