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.
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