Skip to content

Step into the Grizzly Den

‘My main goal is to get all 23 players focused on the logo on the front of the jersey and not the name on the back’
21155revelstokePA132932
Darnel St. Pierre mixes it up during a recent match.

Contributed by Kevin Kraus

It's 13 games into the season and the Revelstoke Grizzlies sit with a record of 6-5-1-1 which puts them in fourth place in the very competitive Doug Birks division of the KIJHL.

It has been a bit of an up and down season so far for the team – showing signs of being a great team and then also showing signs of a weak team.

It’s still early in the season and there is a lot of hockey still yet to be played. There are no weak sisters in the division this year as the Chase Heat has put together a competitive hard-working team after struggling in the expansion season. We look forward to seeing good competitive hockey here in Revelstoke every weekend.

With a mixture of returning veterans and newcomers to the Grizzlies this year, I am working hard with the players to instill my systems and game plans and also share my knowledge on what it takes to be a winning hockey team.

Right now our biggest struggle seems to be our special teams play, with the team sitting 19th in the league on the Power Play and 11th on the penalty kill.

Losing key players like Blinkhorn, Hildebrand, Roberts, Sanford, Schwartz and Spraggs takes its toll early on in the season but as guys start to gain more chemistry and confidence with each other you will see the special teams numbers jump up.

I believe that once some guys figure out what their role is on the team and play that way each and every night we will start to win a lot more games.

A big part of winning as a team is sacrificing. What I mean by that is that some players have to realize what type of player they really are and accept it and play that way. Once we have that figured out we can be a balanced hockey club that is going to be hard to beat.

At the end of the day it doesn’t matter how many goals or points a player got in the game, the only thing that matters is if the Grizzlies got the win.

My main goal is to get all 23 players focused on the logo on the front of the jersey and not the name on the back.

I would also like to thank all of our great sponsors, volunteers and fans for coming out and supporting us this season. You all make coming to the rink a great time!

Kevin Kraus is the coach and general manager of the Revelstoke Grizzlies.