With three games left to play before the halfway point of the 2025-2026 season, the Cochrane Cannex Generals find themselves at the wrong end of the standings in the Heritage Junior Hockey League (HJHL) South Division standings.

After a near perfect 3-1 start in September, the generals slogged through an ugly October-long skid that saw them tally just three wins and six losses. The start of November has unfortunately been more of the same in the wins-losses department: after three games the Generals are 1-2 on the month, with five games left to go before December.

That puts the team at a total record of 7-9, good enough for fifth in a six team South Division. Ahead of the Generals in the standings are the Okotoks Bisons, the Coaldale Copperheads, Medicine Hat Cubs, and the Wheatland Kings. Below them is just one team, the lowly High River Flyers, who have three wins and 13 losses so far this year.

But the Generals place in the standings can be deceiving. Unlike previous campaigns, there isn’t a clear runaway favourite in the South this year. The Generals are just four points back of the once great juggernaut Okotoks Bisons– who after coming off three league championships in a row stumbled mightily to start the season– and are only six points back of the first-place Strathmore Wheatland Kings.

Back in September, before a boisterous home crowd at the Generals home opener, the team began the season with a lot of promise. But an October that saw the Generals drop four games in a row, including two to division rival Coaldale pushed the team further down the standings. At the start of November the Generals lost both games of a home-and-away against Medicine Hat to top their win-loss scale into the negative even further.

As long as the Generals can stay ahead of High River (3-13), they’ll be almost guaranteed a spot in the playoffs, but surely the team would like to see improvement as far as the standings go.

Last year the generals finished with a 20-17-1 record, with 16 of their 20 wins coming in regulation.

After 16 games the Generals have been powered by the offence of standout 21-year-old Diago Coelho, who for the second year in a row is leading the team in scoring. Coelho, a local Cochrane product and fourth year veteran, has tallied 10 goals and 12 assists so far this season.

Coelho’s production places him in the top five of all scorers in the league, second to only Medicine Hat’s Kyle Woolridge (25 points) among all South Division skaters. Coelho leads the Generals in goals and points, and is tied with forward Ty Barry for the team lead in assists (12) and forward Evan Sine for powerplay goals (3).

Scoring hasn’t been an issue for the Generals this season. Even though they have more losses than wins at this point in the season, the Generals have a positive goal differential at plus two. Across 16 games the Generals have scored 60 goals and allowed 58.

The Generals powerplay unit has been one of the best in the entire league. Its 23.1 per cent effectiveness is second to only the North Division’s Sylvan Lake Wranglers, who enjoy a 11-3-2 record. The Generals penalty kill unit is less effective, at 82.1 per cent.

A bad October set the generals off course, and a slow start to November has not helped correct it. But if the Generals can get back on track and round into a more consistent form in December, they could see themselves moving up the standings right in time for playoffs in February.

It could be a slow climb back up the ladder but the only way to move up a ladder is one rung at a time.

The Generals play the Mountainview Colts in Didsbury on November 14 and then visit the Ponoka Stampeders on November 21 before returning home to play the Airdrie lightning on November 23.