Dale Hunter Leaves the London Knights

I was going to have a little bit of a different subject heading my blog this week but it looks like Dale Hunter has stolen the show once again.

From 1st to 18th

Dale Hunter has stepped down from behind the London Knights bench as head coach to pursue a head coaching position with the NHL's Washington Capitals. The Knights currently ranked #1 in the BMO CHL Top 10 and are currently 1st in the OHL have started the year with a 20-5-0-1 record with Dale behind the bench. Mean while Hunter is stepping into a challenge as Bruce Boudreau county get his star studded NHL Washington Capitals to preform up to snuff. We all know that it has been rumoured for years that Dale Hunter would be the "next" head coach of the Washington Capitals, I guess today is finally that day. If Dale can get the same results out of his players and transfer his success from the OHL to the NHL the Washington Capitals may be a force to recon with for years to come. As a head coach of the London Knights over the past 11 season Dale has amassed a very successful and impressive record (451-189-23-24) with a winning percentage of .691 which is the highest winning percentage by a coach in OHL history. Over Dale's tenure in London he has 6 49+ win seasons, the team never missed the playoffs, won a Memorial Cup, and didn't make it past the first round only twice. 

Now don't worry Knight's fans as the team is in more then capable hands. Mark Hunter will be taking over as interim Head Coach for now until the end of the season at least by all reports. I wonder if the London Knights wish they still had Beaulieu (former Knight's assistant and now Sting head coach and general manager) as an assistant to step in and take over, so that Mark wouldn't have to play the dual role? However, Mark has plenty of coaching experience having coached 1 season in the AHL for the Toronto Marlies and 5 seasons as a head coach of the Sarnia Sting (1994-96, 1997-2000). Mark also has a winning record as a head coach with a 36-28-10-6 record in the AHL and a 158-111-33-4 record in the OHL with Sarnia. Mark only had 1 losing season in Sarnia which was his first in the OHL and only coached 38 games that season. 

Sarnia Sting Stung Hard By Injuries

The Sarnia Sting went 0-3 this weekend only being able to squeeze out 1 point in a shootout loss against the Barrie Colts. Now injuries should never be an excuse for any team especially one of this calibre but the Sting have more star players in the stands then on the ice. This is probably the first time I can ever recall the Sarnia Sting having this many top end players in the stands unavailable due to injury. This Sunday against the Kitchener Rangers the Sting had to play with out leading point scorer Nail Yakupov (back injury), leading point scoring defenceman Alex Basso (hand), Brett Ritchie (hip flexer), Ludvig Rensfeldt (sick), Connor Murphy (knee) and Alex Galchenyuk (ligament repair). Now if their is any good news about this it is that Connor Murphy should be ready to make his Sarnia Sting debut in the next couple of weeks, Rensfeldt should hopefully be back next weekend along with Ritchie who is obviously day to day. Galchenyuk likely will not play this season and if he does it will be a return in March which on the plus side probably means that he will be back next season along with Connor Murphy who is again only going to play 1/2 of a season this year. 

The Sting had to call up Dundas, Mater and Dipaolo all of who also had to play that night for the Legionaries in Chatham. Dipaolo a 4th round pick in 2010 by the Sarnia Sting made his OHL debut and was undressed on one of Kitchener's goals. 

According to Sarnia Sting Website Yakupov (who missed 2 games on the weekend) will likely be out up to 10 days and Basso is out indefinitely. Who will fill Basso's spot on the blue line if this is a 4-6 week or couple of months thing? I don't see Dipaolo being a long term solution. 

Hot and Cold

Inspired by the weekend demise of the Sarnia Sting here is what teams are hot and cold in the OHL right now, this was actually going to be the main focus of the blog this week prior to the London/Washington coaching changes.

Hot

Kitchener Rangers: After defeating Sarnia on Sunday the Rangers now have won 9 straight games at the       Aud, are on a 3 game winning streak and have won 8 of their last 10 games. Kitchener now sits only 2 points behind Plymouth (2nd) and are tied with Sarnia for 3rd spot in the Western Conference

Belleville Bulls: Belleville is quickly climbing the Eastern Conference standings having won 8 of their last 10 game and 3 straight. 

Niagara Ice Dogs: Ice Dogs have won 7 of their last 10 and 3 straight. The Ice Dogs should be an elite team this season and sit 5th currently in the Eastern Conference. With 4 top players invited to the Team Canada Selection camp, Chirstmas time could be a very tough time for the Ice Dogs.

Cold

Erie Otters: Are the basement dwellers of the entire league, I think it is safe to say that Erie is probably going to have the 1st overall pick in this years OHL Priority Selection. Erie only has 3 wins and 6 points on the season and has lost 10 of their last 10 games. Erie has only scored more than 1 goal 4 times in those 10 games (on all 4 occasions they scored 3 goals, and didn't score more then 3 goals in the whole month of November)

Sarnia Sting: Once leading the West Division and sat 2nd in the OHL now have slid to 2nd in the West Division, 3rd in the Western Conference and 3rd in the OHL. I wouldn't be surprised if you possibly see Sarnia drop out of the BMO CHL Top 10 this week. Sarnia dropped 3 of 3 games this weekend only picking up a single point vs the Barrie Colts. Sarnia has only won 4 of their last 10 games going 4-4-1-1 over the time for an 0.400 winning percentage. 

Sault Ste Marie Greyhounds: Are in the same slump as the Sarnia Sting losing 3 of their last 3 and only having 4 wins in their last 10 (4-5-0-1)

Mississagua St Michaels Majors: Are the coldest team in the Eastern Conference right now. Mississagua has dropped all but 2 of their last 12 games (2-6-1-1 in their last 10) and all 3 of their last 3. Mississagua's only wins in November came over the Sault Set Marie Greyhounds and the Barrie Colts.

Team Canada Announces WJC Evaluation Camp Invites

Team Canada announced their WJC invites yesterday (November 28th, 2011). The biggest surprise left off of the roster from the OHL was probably 1st round Toronto Maple Leaf draft choice and Mississagua St Michael Major Stuart Percy. Others are saying Malcom Subban deserved an invite as well which I can't really argue with as he has been one of the best goaltenders in the OHL so far this season however I also cannot argue with the goaltender selections that were made with Mark Visentine (Niagara) and Scott Wedgewood (Plymouth) representing the OHL at the selection camp. Visentine is looking to be 1 of 3 returnees for this year and Wedgewood has been right up there among the best goalies in the OHL this season. 

Team Canada's WJC won't effect the Sarnia Sting at all though as no Sting players have been invited this year. Brett Ritchie was the leading front runner to be invited for the Sting but was left off the list after a rather slow and injury filled start to the season. 

Players invited from the OHL are:

Goaltenders:

Mark Visentine (NIA)

Scott Wedgewood (PLY)

Defecemen:

Cody Ceci (OTT)

Dougie Hamilton (NIA)

Scott Harrington (LON)

Ryan Murphy (KIT)*

Jamie Oleksiak (SAG)

Forwards:

Freddi Hamilton (NIA)

Boone Jenner (OSH)

Tanner Pearson (BAR)

Mark Scheifele (BAR)

Ryan Spooner (KIN)

Ryan Strome (NIA)

Christian Thomas (OSH)

Tyler Toffoli (OTT)

A full list of all selected players invited to WJC selection camp can be found here.

For more around the OHL from this past week check out Brendan Ross's "The OHL Rundown"

Around the OHL in the Past Couple of Weeks

How much can Hunter and CO. Get Away with in London


This topic has been on my mind for the last couple of weeks. It all started with the infamous Ryan Rupert baseball swing that resulted in a minuscule 5 game suspension that I am sure most people are aware of. Nick Cousins of the Sault Ste Marie Greyhounds was the recipient of the chop  by Rupert which was followed up by sucker punching Cousins in the back of the head while he lay prone on the ice. Cousins received a 2 game suspension for what the OHL states as "inciting" the incident. By no means am I defending Counsins he is one of those players that everyone hates to play against he is an agitator and a pest kind of like a Sean Avery, Daniel Carcillo type player. For those of you who have no seen the incident here is a youtube clip via hockeywebcast: Rupert Slash on Cousins . Last time I checked players are expected it be in control of their sticks at all time, not to mention that the actions by Rupert after the slash should have fallen under the "bullying" penalty that the OHL has which is an automatic 5 game suspension as it is. Has the OHL started to enforce to much for head shots and slacked off on these types of incidents? I think the OHL needs to re think there disciplinary process as a head check now is pretty much a standard 10 game suspension incidents like this deserve 15 games or more by that standard in my mind. This slash on Cousins also happened not to shortly after an unconfirmed complaint by a fan in Sarnia that Rupert had slashed him in the stands while leaving the ice surface. Now I state this as unconfirmed because there is no video evidence to support the claim. Christian Thomas must be an upset individual of the lack of games given to Rupert seeing as he was given a 10 game suspension for his high sticking penalty on October 27th of this year. The difference in the Thomas incident and Rupert incident: Thomas the stick contacted the head however in the OHL justification was "not intentional" but players must always be responsible for their stick, yet Rupert had clear intentions knew what he was doing but it's ok because he didn't hit the head and it was only the mid section? Here is a link to the Christian Thomas suspension video: Christian Thomas Suspension Explanation Video .

Not to long after the Rupert incident there was an incident in a game vs the defending OHL champion Owen Sound Attack in a game played on November 21st, 2011. There is so much wrong in this scrum that I could not believe that there were no suspensions handed out on the play. Here is the link to the OHL game sheet: London Knights at Owen Sound Attack 11/21/11 . The incident occurred at 14:03 of the 2nd period. There was pretty much a line brawl. A couple of London players reached out from the bench and started punching players on the ice. Last time I checked this was not an acceptable course of action in any level or league in hockey and usually results in a suspension. The London player easily identifiable swinging from the bench was #20 which is Kevin Raine. I will give Dylan Hunter and Dale Hunter some credit on this incident though because as soon as they realized what was happening they did pull the players in question back. You will also see during this incident the London goalie Michael Houser was issued a 2 min penalty for leaving the crease as we were about to see the first goalie fight in the OHL of this season. However with London back up Jack Paterson out with mono and call up Mike Foley who has never seen OHL action as the back up Hunter went crazy yelling at the officials who immediately left the scrum to break up the fight before it could be deemed a fight. Is this because the officials wanted to prevent the goalies from being suspended or because the Hunters didn't want their star goalie kicked out of the game? I will say that the linesmen involved was taking a player to the penalty box when he saw what was occurring went over to stop the fight immediately so maybe this wasn't a Hunter incident but the official should have been sitting back writing down numbers instead of breaking things up. Here is a link to a video of the incident: London Knights/Owen Sound Attack Fight .

There was also a hit by Max Domi of the Knights on Artur Gavrus in this game which can be found here: Max Domi hit . Some people were stating it was a head hit and looking for a suspension. However, I do agree with the OHL on this one on not handing out a suspension and just deeming this a pure hockey hit. It is unfortunate that Gavrus was injured on the play but I don't feel that Domi need to be suspended here.

No Suspension for Saginaw's Garret Ross?


This hit was on Nail Yakupov in Sarnia on November 18th, 2011. Garret Ross was handed a 5 minute penalty and a game misconduct for a head check. Ross returned to action the next night. Yakupov did return to that game but missed the next game with what as deemed a "head injury but not a concusion" by the Sarnia Sting medical staff. YakupovOHL can shy away from this based on the suspensions they have been handing out since. The only video link I could find doesn't really show a great view of the hit but gives a good enough angle that it addresses the issue good enough. This video is on youtube curtsy of CTV News:  Garrett Ross hit .

Are the Sarnia Sting Starting a Trend?


I guess we will find out tonight when the Sarnia Sting take on the Niagara Ice Dogs at the RBC Center (puck drop 705) if my theory is correct or not. Last weekend the Sarnia Sting have dropped their first game of the weekend dropping a 3-2 decision to the Kitchener Rangers and then finishing the weekend off with 2 6-3 wins over the Saginaw Spirit. On Thursday the Sting lost to the Barrie Colts 4-3 in a shoot out. Can the Sting battle back and explode offensively to defeat both the Niagara Ice Dogs and Kitchener Rangers?

Sarnia Sting vs. Barrie Colts


A few thoughts from the Barrie @ Sarnia game. The Sting battled and played pretty much 5 min of complete hockey which was in the overtime period. They really didn't deserve to get a point out of the game. Sarnia was out muscled in the corners and along the boards in both zones, made a lot of back decisions with the puck especially on the power play and just didn't compete against the Barrie Colts. Barrie is currently now on a 6 game winning streak after defeating London 6-2 the next night. Now Barrie is by no means a team to be taken lightly but if Sarnia's power play (which was ranked 3rd in the OHL going into the game) was truely clicking they should have been able to defeat a Barrie team that gave them 8 power plays on the game. Now Sarnia did score on 2/8 power plays however they also gave up yet another short handed goal. The weakness in Barries PK was evident if the Sting could have moved the puck faster and got Barrie running around a little more they probably could have opened some more lanes up. Barrie's PK saw multiple players collapse in on whoever had the puck, meaning that there were at least 3 Sarnia players left in the wide open.

Nail Yakupov did make a big come back from his injury in this game though scoring 2 goals and adding an assist as well as being the only Sarnia player able to score in the shootout. Among Yakupov's goals was his first goal which was essentially a one handed chip shot on the power play at 1044 in the first period. Yakupov however did seem to get frustrated during the game and took a bad penalty in the 3rd period as Barrie seemed to have a target on him.

Anthony DeAngelo and Alex Basso were the only players in the + category with a +1 in the game.
Here are the highlights curtsy TV Cogeco: BAR @ SAR Highlights .

Sarnia Sting Check In


Nail Yakupov currently sits 2nd in the OHL point scoring race with 18 goals 28 assists for 46 points in 23 games. Yakupov is 8 points back of Barrie's Tanner Pearson. Yakupov is also leading the team at +17.

2011 2nd Round Dallas Stars draft choice Brett Ritchie isn't having the best start to his year sitting 8th in team scoring with 13 points (6 goals, 7 assists) in 19 games. I think it is safe to say that a lot of people were expecting bigger things out of Ritchie so far this year Ritchie is cold right now being held pointless and a -1 in his last 2 games.

Charles Sarault is making Jaques Beaulieu look great. Sarault sits second in team scoring with 37 points in 24 games so far this season. Sarault is also 3rd on the team with a +13 rating.

Reid Boucher while he currently is 3rd on the team in scoring with 22 points in 23 games is a disappointing -7 which is 2nd worse on the team only to Craig Dunnicks -9 rating. That being said Dunnick is only a -1 in 8 games with the Sting this season. Boucher who is a New Jersey Devils draft pick is having a bad November with only 2 goals and 3 assists in 8 games and is a -6 this month alone. 4 of Boucher's points came vs Saginaw while his other assist came curtsy Windsor at the start of the month. In fact Boucher has 10 points (5 goals 5 assists) vs Saginaw this year in 4 games.

Alex Basso is leading the Sting on the blue line and has been one of the other great additions by JB this off season amassing 4 goals and 16 assists for 20 points in 24 games with the Sting this season.

Jack Nevins leads the Sting with 51 PIM this season. Nevins missed Thursday's game vs the Barrie Colts after having a surprising 2 goal performance vs the Saginaw Spirit last weekend. Nevins is a hard working kid and it is nice to seem him get rewarded for that hard work. He seems like he could be another Matt Martin type player if he continues that hard work.

Brandon Maxwell who has played 20 out of the 26 games for the Sarnia Sting has now dropped down in league standings to 5th in GAA with a 2.56, 5th in Sv% with 0.915 but in the Top 10 goalies has the second most saves with 503 pucks stopped on 550 shots only next to London's Michael Houser who has stopped 752 shots and faced 814 shots in 23 games so far this year.

Next up for the Sarnia Sting will be the Niagara Ice Dogs tonight followed by a visit to the Aud in Kitchener on Sunday.

My next post will probably be early next week with my thoughts on the games vs both Niagara and Kitchener as well as possibly another surprise OHL game time permitting.

An Inside Look at The Blogger

Hello to anyone willing to read my blog. I greatly appreciate any followers and supporters that I may develop from this blog. I am 24 years old and an avid hockey fan. My true passion is following the Ontario Hockey League and that is what this blog will be all about.
A year ago I had to move from my hometown of Sarnia, ON to Port aux Basques, NL for a Paramedic job. Since then I have felt more removed from my connection of the OHL. While twitter and Facebook create a good outlet to discuss hockey I have been feeling lately that a blog would be the best idea to share my opinions of the on goings of the Ontario Hockey League.

I have followed the Sarnia Sting since the 1994-1995 season when they relocated to Sarnia. They are what gave me a boost in what was an already growing passion for the sport of hockey. I was a season ticket holder with the Sarnia Sting for about 8 years before I had to move. Through those years I developed great relationships with people around the organization from fans to players and their families to people within the organization. Those relationships gave me an increased knowledge and understand to the on-goings in the Ontario Hockey League.  Since moving to Newfoundland I have purchased an OHL All Access Pack on Livestream and started to develop an even more impartial view on the OHL watching even more teams and following even more games.

This blog is going to focus on the ongoing things in the Ontario Hockey League, everything from trades to suspensions to single games to prospects and top draft picks. While the majority of the material I will blog about will be focused around the Sarnia Sting due to my close connection with the community I will also branch out and cover things about other teams as well.

I welcome suggestions and comments on my blog. I hope that every passionate hockey fan will be able to enjoy what I have to write about. My first blog will be written at some point this week.