Bisons optimistic for future

Times Reporter  

 

The UFA Bisons season was finished on March 4, with a 3-1 loss to the Red Deer Optimist Chiefs, awarded with a continuation to the next playoff round. Though the Bisons rolled through the Calgary Flames in their first round, the two-time National Champion Chiefs proved too powerful, as they conquered the series in four games.

“It doesn’t make any difference who you lose to, it’s just the fact that you’re done,” Bisons coach Dan MacDonald said. “It’s disappointing; you always have high expectations and anytime it’s over you’re letdown you didn’t go any further. They’re a very good team, we would’ve had to have been at our very best to beat them.”

MacDonald previously coached in Red Deer before taking the reins in Strathmore this season. It was a new coach, and a new billeting program.

“I’ve taken over about four or five programs, and it always takes the first year to sort things out a little bit – to get a path, to get a direction,” MacDonald said. “The second year, you really get a chance to move forward. You have to establish your own philosophy, work ethic, and a style that the players can aspire to. That’s just the way it is.”

At one point in the season, the Bisons were at the top of the AMHL, and went on a 13-game unbeaten streak in November through to December.

“We still felt like we had a good team, and we made progress,” MacDonald said. “When you win that many games, it’s a testament to the effort the players put in.”

From there, it was a slightly downhill journey. After suffering an early exit from the Mac’s Tournament in late December, the Bisons went 4-5-1 for the remainder of the season, and finished fourth in the South, with a 21-11-4 record.

“We ran into a lot of injuries and sicknesses that derailed us at Christmas time. We were just recovering from all those things. In the playoffs, we had all 20 guys back – and that was a good thing – but we barely had 20 guys throughout the season,” MacDonald said.

Captain Mackenzie Bauer, for example, suffered a sports hernia and was out for six weeks.

“I don’t think he ever really got back to his best,” MacDonald said. “It takes time to get these things sorted out.”

The billet program, MacDonald felt, created a closeness amongst the players, both on and off the ice, that would not have been there otherwise on and off the ice.

“It had a real impact on the program because we had a real tight group; they went to school together, they played together, they did a lot of things as a group,” he said. “It enhanced us, even though we had those setbacks, we dealt with it relatively well within that.”

MacDonald mentioned that the team’s 4-2 win on March 2 for Game 3 against the Chiefs was his highlight of the year.

“We had half a dozen other games where we were really good as a group,” he said. “But the game we did win in Red Deer, we played really, really well that game. I think that was the best game we played as a group all season.”

Though roughly nine Bisons will be eligible to return, MacDonald is expecting roughly half back in his locker room this fall.

“The (returning) players believe in your methods – this is the way we want to play, this is how we do things,” MacDonald said. “You’re always optimistic and you think things will be better.”