As I mentioned last nite, The Bentley Generals had back to back 19-1 CHL seasons in 09-10 & 10-11. In the entire history of the league, only the 03-04 Stony Plain Eagles went undefeated. Typically, to finish first in the CHL...you had to come in under 5 L’s & 20ish W’s

I used to read a bit of trash talk about how The Gens’ were dominating a weak league...ya...that’s total BS and I’ll tell you why: First of all...you look at ANY SR League, ever...and you’ll typically find the top teams in any given season will run at at .700 win %. Or more.

Secondly, look at the rosters of the opposition...go through some of the top names...the resumes on many of those players is second to none when you compare to any other league in Canada. Past or present. Yes. There were times where The Army had enough pro stock they could’ve

Built cores for two SR AAA teams but there was absolutely plenty of competition around home & as many excellent Allan Cup clubs as I witnessed, I saw just as many who would’ve been hard pressed to win more than 10 games in some of our Chinook campaigns. The key to survival for

Modern era SR hockey is adaptability. The days of being able to skate under the same roof, same jerseys and same names in the same league for 10-20+ years are long gone. If you wanna make a go of it now...you have to be open to collaboration. That’s how you find enough players &

Ice-Time & Money to operate. And even then...it’s probably not gonna last more than a 10 year run. At least not how you envision it will. The 10-11 Chinook League really started to bend that way. The Rocky Rams were dying off...so...they got together with Ted & Jason Stephens &

Evolved into Sylvan Lake Admirals. The Innisfail Eagles, were also dying. So, they dropped back to the SR AA level. And the Lloydminster Border Kings we’re unable to find any leagues in SK to play in, so, they kept themselves alive by joining the Chinook League for a few years.

Stony Plain & Fort Sask along with this new club in Sylvan, were very competitive with each other. Looking back now...I can’t help but wonder if we should’ve extended an olive Branch to some of the top NPHL teams, like Fort St John. The travel costs would’ve been immense but

The Flyers SR AAA aspirations were never really well received by their NORTH PEACE League and after that league declared they wouldn’t allow any SR AAA registrant to compete...it was a death sentence for the Flyers as a AAA rival and as B.C. SR hockey failed everywhere else...

The slow death of Allan Cup hey days...had already begun outside Alberta. Maybe had we found a way to fit the Flyers into the CHL skeddy...they could’ve been rescued? But it never happened. And we never managed to bring Horse Lake aboard either. It was getting to the point where

Most of the SR AAA teams in Canada were w/o leagues to play in. And it was getting to the point where there just weren’t workable solutions that could unilaterally fix problems. Each team, in each part of the country, was facing unique circumstances. My old claim-to fame moto:

The Rules Should Be The Same for Everyone. I felt that in order to grow the brand it needed to improve its credibility and for that to happen...a set of rules under which all teams had to abide by, needed to be established. Teams should play in leagues. Affiliation should be

Either eliminated or at least minimized and AAA has to be clearly distinguishable from lower tiered SR hockey. That’s what I stuck with but like I said...it wasn’t realistic. The high end of SR AAA level had gotten FAT off a screwy book full of confusing & loophole infested rules

The Allan Cup was, in all my years following it closely, NEVER properly governed. It was kinda like finding a ghost ship, adrift in the Pacific. Just this massive vessel...silently rocking in the waves and you go aboard and find nobody at the helm. The wheel is just creaking

Back & forth at the rhythmic throb of the waves she’s slowly rotting in. Somebody should’ve moored onto her and taken it into port. But every SR AAA team had a different suggestion...so...nobody could come to any agreements & the old ghost vessel just stayed adrift. Orphaned. Sad

And for one week in April...everything would seem magical when 6 teams play for 5 heart stopping days...but...the weeks & months leading up to that point were often a total disgrace, really. I mean...constant in-fighting and accusations and late nite coup’s where teams got booted

Out of leagues or playoff games got forfeited, players suspended or fined or both...over “roster ambiguities” that not everyone could understand and sometimes were enforced, other times ignored. People said: “The paying of amateur players will be the ruination of SR hockey.”

And maybe...maybe...there were times where the $$$ got out of control. But I doubt it. I put to to you...for every $1000 ever spent on a player...there was $2000 wasted on poor governance. We should’ve hired an Allan Cup Commissioner. Loooong ago. Someone to rule. And innovate.

The Gens has lots to say & tried to make suggestions and they tried to be transparent about how they were able to assemble the powerhouse they’d become. Nobody really wanted to listen when people asked me: How the fuck do The Bentley Generals sign Brandon Smith, Paul Cabana...

Travis Brigley, Brandin Cote and Jason Lundmark all on the same team?! Yep. Guilty as charged. A whole new level of depth & dominance achieved. As original Gens’ were getting long in the tooth...The Army was replacing them with guys from all over the map. Brandon Smith we flew in

From Kelowna, late spring of 2011. I don’t recall who, exactly, birddogged him. But he was living out in BC and The Gens has a credit card with a surplus of air miles piled up, so, they started paying for Smittys’ flights into YYC. He was among the most skillful D-Men to ever

Play in the Chinook League but he was only around for about 6 weeks. After almost becoming the only D-Man to win the Alberta SR AAA playoff scoring race (missed it by 2 pts) he ended up shredding his groin on the last shift of the 2011 McKenzie Cup & ended up OUT for the trip to

Kenora. Paul Cabana, a natural goal scorer, was in Calgary, trying to become a firefighter. Brandin Cote had Captained Spokane Chiefs to a Memorial Cup. He was living in Red Deer and we waited 6 months, secretly awaiting his knee rehab to finish before we signed him. Lundmark

Was an absolute grand slam signing. Younger bro of Jamie (former Flame). Jason Lundmark had played for Colorado Eagles and in Germany quite a bit. He already had a wife witj a baby on the way. Desperately needed a job. The Gens put him into the Heavy Duty Mechanic Apprenticeship

Working for our parent sponsor, Badger Daylighting...and...maaaybeee Lundy borrowed a Pick-Up truck from out back of the Badger shop that someone left the keys in and maaybeeee...Lundy still has that same old beater 10 years later, Idunno for sure.

As for Travis Brigley...well...he along with Cote...had joined late in 2010, actually. But Brigs’ came back full time in 2011 and the story goes...after he’d had his stops with the Avalanche & Flames...he played in Europe and was wanting to come home to Alberta and raise his fam’

When The Army first met with Brigs’ he told them he needed to find a job where he could make 100K+/year. They asked him what his skills were and he told them: Scoring Goals and Hunting. I believe they set him up as a sales associate at Busit Motors in Rimbey but eventually he

Evolved into an oilfield salesman. Brigs’ led the Chinook League in points in 2010-11 and averaged nearly a goal per game. Ya. He was one of the smoothest big men to ever play in the Chinook League. He had a slow but confident roll on the acceleration of his game. Kinda like

Alexi Kovalev...he would never quite blow right by you...he would just pull up along side of you like a long, dark Cadillac on a Sunday afternoon ride from church lunch...and you’d glance off him and he’d breeze away, quiet and easy. Smooth AF, man. What a player. Loved it.

Lundmark paid huge dividends right away, too. I remember his very first game as a Bentley General. We signed him & ran him right into Sylvan Lake about 2 hours after we signed him. He put a spin-a-rama move on somebody and old Teddy Stephens...God Rest his Soul...just looked over

At me like...WTF?! Lundy’ ran about a point per game as a D-Man his first CHL season. He, along with Joey Vandermeer & Donny Morrison formed our D core for 3 straight seasons and that spring of 2011...while we had Brandon Smith healthy...they were on fire. We went up to Fort Sask

For Game 4 of the 2011 SR AAA Finals...an imminent sweep...and set a modern era record for the biggest Provincial Banner clinching blowout: 12-2!! Brigs’ set an individual record with 9 pts! http://www.allancuphockeywest.ca/leagues/hockey_boxscores.cfm?clientID=3293&leagueID=8735&gameID=932999

Look at this Fuckadingle Game Summary! The Army was ON

The Chiefs had an athletic D-Man by the name of Jon Mailman. I remember calling him “Milkman” that nite and he didn’t think I was very funny. Those Chiefs had some solid players. A very nice squad, actually. But Holy Fuck. The Gens went 5/12 on the PP that nite. Brigs’ could’ve

Dangled a dinner plate full of rice and never lost a kernel. Clean hands, folks. Austring had 5 points. I look at the summary and I swear I remember Brandon Smith had a dozen assists but he’s only credited with 3. Idunno. But when Smith tore his groin in the Mac Cup vs FSJ,

2 weeks later, we lost our turbo-booster. We didn’t notice it until the 2011 Allan Cup Finals against an absolutely LOADED team from Clarenville.

If I’m being completely honest...the Bous’ were a helluva team in 11’. I am kinda a homer for sayin this...but...fuck it...no damned way they were deep enough to beat our healthy/full roster that spring. SOMETIMES injuries catch up to you. We’d played over 30 games prior to AC11

And had kinda had a firm handle on everything until about 4-5 periods into the 2011 Mac Cup. And then...the Flyers...even though they were significantly thinner than they were a year prior...started kicking up a fuss & refusing to go down w/o taking a few Gens’ with them.

Braden Appleby tore his wrist open. Severed tendons. Blood jizzing like crimson yarn spinning off the ball...all over the ice...he never played competitively again after that. And Smith...on 38 year old legs...his groin pulled out. And then we got all the way to Kenora and find

Out Paul Cabana has to return home to write his gawd damn fireman’s exam. For fuck sakes. We flew Kevin Smyth in onna red eye to try and fill a hole but Big Smitty was waiting to go for major re-con on his shoulder. He was a shell of his old dominant self in that Finals Game.

And...of course...The Reffing was some Fucking Forest Ranger with a whistle who canoed in front Lake Suckmycocka. He buried us! 4 straight PP’s for the Bous’ I had spent 24 hours locked in my hotel room at one point that week...overdid it at the pub. Never touched a drop the rest

Of the week. Brigs’ led the tourney in scoring but that Finals...we had 3 or 4 guys from Dewberry Mustangs filling holes & although we made a late rally...that ended up as close as Brian Sutter ever came to winning another Allan Cup to go with 2009. We lost 5-2. They had 2 ENG’s.

That summer: The Bentley Generals were announced as the 2013 Allan Cup Host. Still 2 full seasons away. At the time, we still kinda thought Sutter would be our Coach, forever. There had been some speed wobbles. But nothing like what would ultimately lead to Suttsy’ firing in 2012

Yep. That 2011-12 season was a strange, slow fall from the top. Definitely a separate thread required. And a break for me before I start to explain it as best I can from where I watched it all burn down...End Thread.