More than 40 past players from the Cochrane Generals took a walk down memory lane during the team's inaugural Alumni Night on Feb. 4.
The junior B hockey team's Saturday night game against the Okotoks Carstar Bisons doubled as a nostalgia trip for many of the players who donned the Generals' sweater throughout the team's 38-year history, including a decent number from the Gens' very first season in 1984.
Before puck-drop, the visiting alumni had the opportunity to mingle with each other at the Cochrane Arena and swap stories from their time taking to the ice for the Generals. The game was also preceded by a ceremonial puck-drop featuring the Generals' first two captains, Wade Lee and Keith Grainger.
Generals president Rick Richards called the team's celebration of alumni a smashing success.
“I for one didn’t expect the response we got," he said. "I didn’t expect a lot of these former players would bring that many of their family members with them. The buzz in the room was just phenomenal all night. They were so excited to be there. Some of them had not been to a game since they played, and for some, it had been 40 years since they’d seen each other."
Given the success of the initiative, Richards added the team is eager to offer another alumni night next season, as the Generals will be approaching their 40th anniversary.
"So we’ll want to do it up bigger and better,” he said.
“The stories were amazing and it was mostly just great for them to see each other. It’s funny. A lot of them live in the same town, but they don’t see each other. Some have moved away and came in for it, but it was mostly just about being together again.”
Gens drop to third
While the reunion in the stands was great for the Generals, the result on the ice was anything but, as Cochrane fell 4-0 to the visiting Bisons.
Blue-liner and captain Lucas Watkins was the Bisons' main goal-getter, scoring his first hat-trick for Okotoks to sink the hosts.
The result continued what has been a downward slide for the Generals in the last few weeks. Though the Gens appeared to have second place in the Heritage Junior Hockey League's (HJHL) south division locked down for much of the 2022-23 season, recent poor results have dropped the Cochranites down to third.
The skid started back on Jan. 14, when the Generals lost 3-1 to the Bisons, and followed the setback up with a 4-3 shootout loss to the last-place High River Flyers the next day.
Cochrane dropped points the following weekend as well, giving up three first-period goals in a 3-2 loss at home to the Airdrie Techmation Thunder on Jan. 21.
And after Saturday's defeat to the Bisons last weekend, the Generals lost again the following day, falling 5-2 on the road to the Coaldale Copperheads.
Head coach Kurtis Jones said he's still working out what's gone wrong since mid-January.
"We haven’t been playing our game and we’re a pretty soft group right now," he said. "As the coach and GM, I’m not very happy with the performances as a group. There are some individual performances that are good, but all in all, we’re not good right now.”
The recent skid means the Medicine Hat Cubs were able to leap-frog Cochrane for second place in the south, behind the dominant Bisons (33-3-0), who top the table.
The Generals are now sporting a 22-11-3 record and 47 points, eight points behind the Cubs. It means Cochrane is now mathematically certain to finish third, and will therefore miss out on a first-round bye and home-ice advantage in the HJHL playoffs.
“Obviously we’re not very happy about it," Jones said. "It is what it is and we’re going to have to work through it.”
The Generals have one more weekend of regular-season action before shifting focus to the upcoming playoffs. On Friday night, they'll travel south to face the Bisons one last time, and then see out their campaign on Sunday when they take on the Flyers.
“We have to figure it out right away or we’re going to be struggling going into playoffs," he said. "Hopefully our players can figure it out. I’m not worried about playing in Okotoks. Okotoks is a good team, but we can play with them when we want to play with them.”
On Feb. 7, the Generals announced their first-round playoff series will kick off on Feb. 17 against High River, the south division's bottom seed.
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