Jack O'Brien and Michael Craig will co-captain the Clippers for the remainder of the BCHL season. (Gary Dorland)

By Dan Marshall

Sharing the Load

VIDEO: Clippers expand leadership group ahead of push for playoffs

Jan 17, 2022 | 7:38 PM

NANAIMO — The Clippers hope two heads are better than one when it comes to their captaincy for the rest of the BCHL season.

Jack O’Brien has been wearing the ‘C’ since the start of the year, but over the last several weeks he’s been sharing it with fellow blueliner Michael Craig.

Coach and general manager Darren Naylor hopes sharing the role will take away from the pressure of the position.

“Jack’s a younger guy and I think the added responsibility of being a full time captain was weighing on him a bit. Michael is a natural leader as well so we’ve decided to alternate between both of them.”

Naylor has the belief his two captains can compliment each other with different styles of leadership.

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“Jack is not a confrontational guy he leads by what he does. But we needed another guy who if guys were getting off script someone could tell them and Craig is the guy who can do that.”

Craig said he was honoured to share the captaincy but stressed there are many leaders in the locker room as well.

“There’s countless guys in the room who are leaders and have veteran experience. That only helps the group and make it easier when the road gets tougher going into the end of the year.”

The new co-captain felt it was important not to change too much of his routine even with the new duties.

“Nothing really does change. You do as you would and that’s why you’ve been given this responsibility. You take care of things on a day to day basis and take care of your teammates and everything falls into place.”

The Clippers are coming off just their second game of 2022, a 4-2 loss to the Langley Rivermen on Friday, Jan. 14.

Craig said the players have already put the result behind them as they prepare for a week of Island opponents with a trip to Alberni Valley Wednesday, Jan. 19 and home dates with Cowichan and Victoria on Friday, Jan. 21 and Sunday, Jan 23.

“We’ve already touched on things we didn’t do well against Langley and we’re fixing it. It’s all about moving forward and moving on to the next game.”

CLIP NOTES:

When the Clippers play in Port Alberni on Wednesday, it will be just their third game in 32 days.

Nanaimo is 3-1 against the Bulldogs in the season. The home team has won every game.

New roster additions Alek Sukunda and Luca Grabas made their Clipper debuts in the Jan. 14 loss to Langley.

BCHL goal scoring co-leader Sean Donaldson had an 11 game point streak snapped against Langley. He had put up 19 points in that span.

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