Frontenacs: Seventh sign of obtuse ownership

Wow, that was close. The Kingston Frontenacs almost had to play hockey in April.

Some, albeit no one with a shred of objectivity, were ready to call the season a Mav-ssive success long before the Fronts faceplanted with a 5-2 loss to the Brampton Battalion in Game 7 of their first-round series on Tuesday.

Another response, once we get past the banging-your-head-against-wall stage, is to laugh like hell, an emotion that's often been provoked during the dismal dozen seasons Doug Springer has owned the team. To sum up, the Frontenacs are the only top seed in the OHL playoffs to lose in the first round this spring. Only one of the other seven went more than five games in their series. Barrie, Mississauga St. Michaels and Windsor, the other three teams bidding for the 2011 Memorial Cup, each swept their series 4-0. Please keep in mind Kingston's opponent finished with only 62 points, nine less than the worst playoff team in the OHL's other, better conference. Also make note that Brampton had the edge in shots on goal in six of the seven games (no word what the tally was in shots at the net).

One has to believe the players gave all they could reasonably be expected to give, in light of the knowledge they're smart enough to know they're playing in a messed-up organization. The handwriting was on the wall once Ethan Werek went down with a MCL injury in Game 6. Regardless, the burn is still on Springer and GM Larry Mavety for once again displaying their knack for promising everything and delivering nothing.

The Frontenacs actually hit their attendance target in Game 7 for the first (and last) time this season, drawing a crowd of 5,133. The hell of it is wondering how much the casual fans' impressions will be coloured negatively by the team's flat effort in do-or-die game. On top of that, there was veteran leader Brian Lashoff literally leading with his head, drawing a double minor for head-butting that led to a Brampton power-play goal, plus two abuse-of-official game misconducts after the Battalion put in the empty-net clincher. It exacerbates when you lose and do don't it graciously.

Meantime, it's another early exit for a franchise which keeps saying it's going to be different, but never makes fundamental changes. It's not like someone did not see it coming last spring. The Frontenacs were trying to do just enough of a patching job that would allow them to get into the second round of the playoffs, earning them another five-year free pass from the public.

People weren't buying it this time. The club hit its original attendance target of 3,500 just eight times in 34 regular-season home dates. In the playoffs, even with the healthy turnout for Game 7, it averaged just 3,498.

Now they go into an off-season needing to replace their No. 1 (and only) goalie, Tyler Beskorowany, blueliners Lashoff and Jaroslav Kruzik (who became the second Front in recent years to quit the team mid-playoff series), and first-line forward Nathan Moon. That's a lot of 19-year-old talent to replace, especially since they're supposed to be hosting the Memorial Cup.

One wishes to not have to write these posts year after year to the attention span-challenged whose collective memory doesn't go past the Fronts' most recent win. None of the arguments about how change is needed with the Frontenacs -- a new role for the owner, new management -- have stopped being valid since the Fronts were among the 80% of OHL teams which make the playoffs. Getting the equivalent of a participant ribbon does not make you elite.

There is nothing like being right. Well, the Frontenacs reaching the second round would have been much sweeter, since it's getting harder to recall what that was like. At least there is another Game 7 on Wednesday, Kingston Vees vs. the Oakville Blades, where the Limestoners might win.

It has been 889 days since Doug Springer promised to do "whatever it takes" to bring a winner to Kingston.

Frontenacs show true colours — deep shades of pathetic

Good friend Tyler King was a "bringer of reality" vis-à-vis the Kingston Frontenacs' "less than one per cent" chance of winning the host bid for the 2011 Memorial Cup.



The Fronts tend to have a strong reaction to someone having the audacity to point out straight facts, like that Kingston has not won a playoff series since 1998 and is ninth overall in the OHL and the other shortlisters for are first (Barrie), second (Windsor) and fourth (Mississauga) in the league. For instance, they could Twitter-block him, like they have done with others.

God forbid professional journalists who love Kingston should have any right to give an informed opinion.

Kinger and others didn't ask for this role, but they'll play the part of offering a honest critique of a franchise which believes the media is there to offer a free pass. Meantime, the Frontenacs would have to hand out a lot of free passes to fill the arena for the playoffs.

Battalion has no interest in a Spitty party

The Battalion and the Spitfires: hmmm, let’s see if we can get through a preview of the OHL final, which starts tonight in Windsor without resorting to dozens of dirty war-infused hyperbolic clichés sports writers live off this time of year.

Or we could go with the most obvious question lede: Can Battalion general Cody Hodgson shoot down the Spitfires and earn yet another medal?Hodgson is the most decorated player in junior hockey right now and probably the best hockey player outside the NHL. And if the Battalion is to knock off Windsor, ranked as Canadian junior's No.1 team for the bulk of '08-'09, he'll be the catalyst.

While Hodgson's hockey acumen is nothing new at this point - he did, after all, lead the WJC in scoring as an alternate captain and was named the OHL's most outstanding player this week - In reality, the 2009 OHL final is a sweet breeze of fuzzy-faced freshness full of players, coaches and fans who haven't been here before.

There's no doubting backroom deals at OHL draft time systematically keep the same clubs on the top of the heap. Still, the right to play in the OHL championship series still remains a socialist ideal. Brampton and Windsor will become the 12th and 13th clubs to reach a league final in the past eight seasons. During that time, neither the Spits nor the Battalion caught a whiff of the league finals. It's taken the Battalion 11 seasons since expansion to get out of the first round. Windsor's last league final was 21 years ago. Between 2001 and 2008 these two counted just six playoff series wins between them.

So Spits coach-GM team of Bob Boughner and Warren Rychel, and Brampton’s one-man coach-GM Stan Butler will probably remind their charges that this chance doesn’t come around too often. Perhaps they’ll remind themselves. Although Butler knows this lesson well – he's been with Brampton for all 11 seasons and is finally here. While Boughner and Rychel have taken their team from worst to first in just three seasons since jumping in the Spits' cockpit, the city of Windsor hasn’t gone this deep into spring hockey in two decades.

Rating the regular season: Windsor (57-10-1, 115 pts) was ranked the top team in Canada for most of the season, which instantly slots the Spits as favourites here. Brampton (47-19-2, 96 pts) racked up the same amount of points as Windsor (46) after the trade deadline.

Playoff payoff (2009 playoff numbers): Windsor’s (12-3, 79gf-49ga, PP 26.2%, PK 78.2%) Western Conference final victory over London must be the hardest fought five-game series on record in that every game went to overtime. Brampton (12-4, 59gf-44ga, PP 19.5%, PK 83.1%), and Butler, proved something by beating the favoured Bulls in six games on the Eastern front.

Youthful exuberance: Adding to the haven’t-been-here, haven’t-done-this vibe is the youth of some of this series’ biggest stars. The most purely gifted offensive forward in this series, Windsor’s Taylor Hall (late ’91 birthdate), isn’t even eligible for the NHL draft until 2010 – and he’s been dynamic in the playoffs for Windsor with 27 points (11g, 16a) in 15 games. Who doesn’t know and love the puck skills of Ryan Ellis (’91) after he became a media fave during the World Juniors? He’s tied with Hall for the team lead in points through victories over Owen Sound in 4 games, Plymouth in 6, and London in 5. Ellis’ll go in the top half of this summer’s NHL draft.

Brampton’s Matt Duchene is ranked even higher than Ellis for the ’09 Entry Draft. Scouting service Red Line Report even suggested recently that he’s a better prospect than John Tavares after one sizzled and the other fizzled this post-season. Duchene’s speed, two-way play and hockey smarts has been on display in the playoffs as Brampton knocked off Peterborough in 4, Mississauga St. Mike’s in 6 and Belleville in 6.

Game-changers: far as NHL-ready talent is concerned, Brampton has the three best in this series: Hodgson (Vancouver ’08, 10th), Evgeny Grachev (NY Rangers ’08, 3rd) and goalie Thomas McCollum (Detroit ’08, 1st).

Even before Hodgson played a leadership role for Canada’s world gold-winning juniors, he proved his value in Brampton following a late return to the OHL when the NHL Canucks kept him around out of training camp. He strolled back into the Bunker and his presence ignited Brampton’s blazing 16-game winning streak of October-November. The team had started 2-6 start without him. Hodgson is one of the most dangerous players in the OHL, but he’s obviously also the guy the team rallies around. He makes everyone better.

McCollum, a NHL first-rounder, rates better than Windsor’s starter Andrew Engelage, an undrafted overager. His numbers suggest he's the best goalie Butler's ever had. But, as has been the case all season, maybe that gives Engelage a little more incentive.

Windsor’s depth outclasses Brampton’s by a long shot. The club boasts gritty sniper Dale Mitchell (Toronto ’07, 3rd rounder), role player-turned-playoff clutch Eric Wellwood (undrafted ’90 and a Windsor boy, to boot) who scored two of the Spits’ OT winners versus London, and skilled Greg Nemisz (Calgary '08, 1st) as well as experienced blueliners Harry Young (New Jersey ’08, 7th), Ben Shutron (Chicago ’06, 4th) and Rob Kwiet.

Breakdown: Part of me thinks the leadership value of Hodgson-McCollum might be enough to finally put the Battalion over the top after a stretch of three regular season division titles in three years yielded so little post-season success.

But the fact remains, despite what people say about the pansification of hockey, big and tough still matters in the OHL playoffs. The Spitfires, the OHL’s most penalized team in the regular season by a long shot, have that in spades. They’ve got the artillery and are battle-ready (shit, almost made it).

Windsor moves on to the Memorial Cup with a tough six-game series victory.

OHL playoffs: Hunting for the reason London lost...

A butterfly flapping its wings can cause a tidal wave on the other side of the world.

In the spirit of that, it's fun to think that the London Knights losing four overtime games in the OHL semi-final series vs. the Windsor Spitfires all traces back to a crazy carom in Kingston at the end of January. There are better explanations for why the Windsor Spitfires, led by Kingston native Taylor Hall, won a series where every game went to overtime, including one in the hometown press from Spits d-man Ben Shutron, an ex-Frontenac: "I don't think it's just bounces. The puck doesn't lie out there. You have to work for your bounces."

The puck doesn't lie. That's brilliant. The focus probably should be on the turnaround in Windsor, which is off the OHL final just a few years after, wait for it, a change in management and ownership. It bears pointing out to people in Kingston who believe you can rebuild even though the house has slid off its foundation, causing the GM-for-life to fall off his rocking chair.

That can wait. Perhaps the cosmos decided the Knights did not need karma, since they had John Tavares and team honchos Dale and Mark Hunter have managed to break the spirit if not the letter of the law when it comes to the OHL draft.

Perhaps the annual airlift at the trade deadline worked against the Knights developing the team chemistry which is critical in playoff hockey. Getting Tavares might have been Pyrrhic, since it meant there were too many egos for the Hunters to stroke in that dressing room. The most talented team is the one which has a talent for taking the game by the throat, even when logic might say they shouldn't.

That said, it's easy, and fun, to believe that some great organizing principle might have decided the Knights deserved to have something bad befall them, and it all really started Jan. 30 in Kingston. For one night, the Frontenacs were not so godforsaken, beating the mighty Knights 3-2. Ethan Werek scored the game-winning goal with 4.5 seconds left in the game when a dump-in by Taylor Doherty struck a glass stanchion in the corner and went straight out in front of the net, gifting Werek with a chance to one-timed the puck behind Knights goalie Trevor Cann (around the 5:00 mark of the clip).



TVCogeco's fine commentator, Tim Cunningham noted, "You'll never see a place with stranger bounces than the K-Rock Centre." That might well be true, although the Ottawa Civic Centre, with its square corners peculiar to Eastern Canada arena construction, have yielded an odd carom of two in its day.

What no one could have known then was that bounce was a gift from the hockey gods. They know wel Kingston fans have, mixaphorically speaking, wandered the desert for quite some time. This was Kingston's 36th season in the OHL, so only four more to catch Moses and his followers.

Knights coach Dale Hunter, who in his playing days was known to occasionally be a sore loser, could not have appreciated that some higher power decided, for one night, to give a damn about Frontenacs fans, who have seemed completely forsook over the past couple years with owner Doug Springer and GM-for-life Larry Mavety. Forgive him, he knows not what he does.

All he saw was that his stacked team lost to the Kingston effing Frontenacs, and when they had a rematch four weeks later in London, he ran up the score at the end of the game. Tavares was going for the OHL career goal scoring record, so Hunter had him out on the power play with two minutes left in a blowout, goal-sucking like no one has goal-sucked before. Of all the games to pick to do the first liveblog ever of a Kingston Frontenacs game!

It seemed like only your agent, along with Kinger and maybe Mister DB from Fronts Talk, noticed.

However, the boys in the Ironic Punishment division went to work. Trevor Cann, God love him, who was a great bad-team goalie in Peterborough, never became the rock between the pipes London had envisioned. Hunter actually had to pull Daryl Borden, a former Frontenac, up from Junior B for Game 4 of the series, which almost worked. Tavares also became snakebitten, unable to score goals except on the power play. Only four of his 10 playoff goals came at even strength, which isn't very No. 1 overall pick-like (see Islanders Point Blank for discussion of same). Taylor Hall, who's supposed to go No. 1 in 2010, has scored eight of his 12 playoff goals at even strength. Hall's goal last night that got Windsor started on the road back from an early 2-0 deficit was on the PP, but please don't spoil the analogy.

Cann, by most accounts, stood on his head to keep London in the series on Wednesday with 49 saves, but there was no changing this "script," to borrow the London Free Press' wording.

It is an unlikely story Windsor is writing. Not only did every game go into overtime, but none lasted as long as 11 minutes, and there is the obvious point that great feats are possible for a team and a town once it is rid of lousy ownership and management. One should obviously be happy for everyone connected to the Spitfires, since these are tough times in Windsor. That would be the gracious move, but having a love-hate relationship with sports and having grace class are not one and the same, so why pretend?

There's some background that needed providing. There are more obvious explanations for why London lost and Windsor won, but it says here the Knights were doomed from March 1, when Dale Hunter rubbed it in the noses of Kingston Frontenacs fanbase, who are the hockey gods' chosen people, full as they are with suffering and true believers.

It's just a theory. You know the old saying how theories are like a cuss word that often comes up in conjunction the Hunter brothers. It ends, Everyone's got one.

Related:
Overtime kills Knights (Ryan Pyette, London Free Press)

OHL 'O9: Who let the 'Dogs in?

Someone asked me the other day if the OHL playoffs had started yet. "Um, well, sort of ..."

Neate, as he's wont to do, drove into greater detail on the OHL's first-round attendance crisis last week, but the short story is when 16 of 20 teams make the playoffs, you're bound to get to get a couple of lulus and a few duds. Consider Tuesday's Game 7 thriller between Ottawa and Niagara as OHL '09's version of a buy-in game. Incidentally, it finished when 18-year-old Andrew Agozzino (pictured), who NHL Central Scouting doesn't even have rated for this year's NHL draft, ended 72-year-old coaching legend Brian Kilrea's career on a sour note. Of course, you can count the number of hockey men who have ended their careers with victories on a really small abacus.

So let's set up the second round.

East
Belleville (1) vs. Niagara (6)

The Niagara IceDogs, with their 63-point, sub-.500 regular season, are now the lowest seeded team in the OHL playoffs. In comparison, Belleville’s 98 points and league-best record (42 points in 25 games) since the trade deadline make the Bulls a horn-adorned Goliath here.

As good coaches aught, Bulls’ George Burnett and IceDogs’ Mario Cicchillo both told reporters Belleville’s sweepp of the four-game regular season series means zilch now. Maybe somebody should remind Cicchillo that his club just carried a season series edge to the first-round’s only upset of the 613 Soixante-Septs.
The IceDavids (now I'm stretching) are overmatched everywhere: They've got a great No. 1 D-man, but even Alex Pietrangelo isn't as good as Belleville’s top D-stud, P.K. Subban. Forwards? You wouldn't dream of taking ‘91s Agozzino and Alex Friesen over Eric Tangradi or Bryan Cameran, both NHL picks as well as 88- and 81-point seasons respectively. Goal? Jeremy Smith is a solid goalie, but he’s up against near-consensus league-best Mike Murphy.
Even Belleville’s ice is bigger, close to Olympic sized. Niagara’s surface is not even NHL regulation. That could be the IceDogs only edge, when the series shifts south, albeit, which will make this series go to Belleville in 5, not 4.

Brampton (2) vs. Mississauga (3)

I love when team nicknames line up nicely like the Battalion taking on the Majors. Can we get through this without one war reference?

Another series where the coaches aren’t interested in reading between the lines of a dominant season series edge for the favoured Brampton Battalion; they won seven of eight meetings. So I’ll do it for them.
Brampton’s chalk full of star power with the OHL’s best player Cody Hodgson, a sure top five NHL pick this summer Matt Duchene, the OHL’s top European player and/or top rookie (take your pick on adjecives) Evgeny Grachev, and the American world junior goalie Thomas McCollum. What’s that mean? Well, all three Batt forwards had game-winning goals during the season series, so you can probably do the math.

Don’t count the Majors as pushovers, though, as they improved steadily throughout the season. They do have a dominating defenceman in Cameron Gaunce, who led team scoring with six points in their five-game, first-round series win over Barrie – a swift win that counts as a bigger surprise to most people than Brampton’s sweep of an overmatched Peterborough Petes. Don’t look past how much Missy's triple-overtime victory in Game 5 meant. After winning the second-longest OHL playoff game on the road, they’ve been there and done that already (always a consideration when you’re talking teenage hockey players) and won’t be rattled if they take their Peel Region rivals to an overtime or two.

Oh, and this is the first time a Mississauga team has met Brampton in the OHL playoffs since the Battalion and the formerly-Mississauga-now-Niagara IceDogs came into the league together 10 years ago. Battalion in 6.

West
Windsor (1) vs. Plymouth (4)

This is the second-round matchup most watchers spied when they looked (forgivably) past the first round. That’s because the Plymouth Whalers had the West’s second-best record after the trade deadline. Their 41 points in 29 games after that pivotal point in the OHL season puts them in the same conversation as upcoming opponents, the Spitfires (46 pts in 28 games), and the ever-present London Knights (40 pts in 29 games).

What’s still going against Plymouth is a 6-2 season series edge for Windsor, including recent one-sided wins of 9-4 and 5-1. And while this cross-border rivalry has a nice geographical symmetry to it, the atmosphere in the teams’ respective barns will be like black hockey tape and white hockey tape.

The Spits shot through the first round, relatively unchallenged, the talent of Attack star-in-the-making Joey Hishon notwithstanding. Meanwhile, the goaltending of Matt Hackett and his unreal .970 save percentage turned what was supposed to be long series against Sarnia into a five-game poaching by the Whalers. Be sure Windsor sniper Taylor Hall won’t average three points per game in this series like he did against Owen Sound. The lunch-bucket boys will have a say in this hard-fought series. With Hall, Ryan Ellis, Greg Nemisz in Windsor, and Matt Caria and Chris Terry in Plymouth, there’s no shortage of firepower here, either. Windsor in 7.

London (2) vs. Saginaw (3)

Maybe this one should be considered the haves vs. have-nots (or the have-finallys, actually). The perennial powerhouse Knights have their star-studed lineup ready for the Saginaw Spirit, whose first round sweep of Guelph was the team’s first playoff series victory since moving to Michigan from North Bay in 2002.

Saginaw did it with a sweep of Guelph, too. Meanwhile, London stumbled a bit, just a bit, in a five-game victory over Erie and will need to get its groove back.
London’s laced with firepower in John Tavares, Nazem Kadri, Justin Taylor, Daniel Erlich, Phil Varone and Philip McRae, not to mention a pair of offensive defencemen in Michael Del Zotto and John Carlson. Saginaw’s attack is more stream-lined behind vets Jack Combs, Tyler Murovich and Chris Chappell along with a big, strong defence.
London in 6 because the Hunters have been here before.

Fronts: Dino Ciccarelli's ideas intrigue Doug Springer, who wishes to subscribe to his newsletter

Those at Kingston's august broadsheet deserve a round of beers for giving play to an out-of-conference OHL team firing its general manager in its Tuesday edition.

They should know that multiple readers e-mailed on Tuesday to pass on that the subtle dig was noticed, all saying some variation of, "I had to check to make sure it wasn't the Frontenacs." Well played. It was like an early April Fools' Day joke.

"The moves came less than 48 hours after the Sting were eliminated from the first round of the OHL playoffs. During the club's 15-year-history, it has won just three playoff rounds.

"(Owner Dino) Ciccarelli bluntly admitted the ownership must take the blame for the failure to produce a contender.

" 'I've got to tell you the frustration level is high and let's make no mistake about it, the buck stops with the owners,' Ciccarelli said.

"But he added the owners had only two options shake up the front office or sell the team.

"... He said Sarnia's record of drafting young players needs to get better. 'The only way to improve is through the draft. We have to draft a heck of a lot better than in the past.' " (Emphasis mine.)

Obviously, there's no reason why Kingston newsjunkies would see "fires GM" in a headline and get hopeful Frontenacs owner Doug Springer had given Larry Mavety his long-overdue Viking funeral.

Kingston has only won three playoff rounds in the 20 seasons since becoming the Frontenacs in 1989, granted. That is still no reason to be optimistic. His Royal Mavesty's contract extension has already inspired a lame Top 10 list.

Besides, as students of history know, the ones who were responsible for the collapse should get to keep calling the shots. It's much like how the Americans shouldn't have to change their screwed-up banking system just because it plunged the world into a global economic meltdown. Mavety isn't licked yet, he's going to figure a way out of this, really, honest. The last 12 years was just practice.

The Frontenacs, according to the paper, are going to draft a forward since Mavety believes the team needs some goal scorers. Far be it to point out that two players scored 30 goals this season for the Fronts, just as two players scored 30 while playing for the Belleville Bulls. Using Belleville as a benchmark might be unfair, but the Bulls are a rather successful franchise for a team which finished first in the OHL's Eastern Conference this season and made it to the Memorial Cup last season. Anyway, here's Mav in the morning's Whig-Standard:

" 'We’re still in the process (of deciding), I’d say it’s 70-30 (percentage wise) it will be a forward,' Mavety said. 'We’re looking at a team that only scored 200 goals last season. You don’t win in our league with 200 goals. We need some goal scorers.' "

Meantime, back on Planet Earth where the Internet is on computers now, some might have noticed that offensive juggernauts such as the Niagara IceDogs (213 goals), Mississauga St. Michaels Majors (229) and Saginaw Spirit (235) are among the eight teams left standing in the OHL playoffs.

Those eight teams left averaged 251.25 goals for, 207.5 against, compared to the Frontenacs' 200 for and 278 allowed.

In other words, Mavety's hockey machine was much farther below the curve defensively (71.5 goals worse) than offensively (51.25), yet his priority is goal scorers. What a schnorrer.

He's saying this after a season when the OHL only had two 50-goal men, which is the lowest in several seasons. Besides, the Fronts had a bona fide goal scorer, Josh Brittain, and traded him to Barrie, to say nothing of Cory Emmerton, Bobby Bolt, Bobby Hughes, Matt Kang and Chris Stewart, all of whom could snipe but never helped the team actually get anywhere.

An educated guess, going off the regular-season stats, is the biggest difference-maker on the ice for the top OHL clubs is a scoring defenceman. The biggest difference-maker, period full stop, is an owner who knows his assets from second base. Here are the top scorers off the blue line for each of the O's elite eight:

• Windsor: Ryan Ellis, 89 points; Rob Kwiet, 67
• Belleville: P.K. Subban, 76
• London: John Carlson, 76
  
• Mississauga: Cameron Gaunce, 64
• Saginaw: T.J. Brodie, 50
  
• Niagara: Drew Schiestel, 48; Alex Pietrangelo, 29 in 36 games after coming back from the NHL's St. Louis Blues
• Plymouth: Michal Jordan, 42
  
• Brampton: Ken Peroff, 31
  

It's a bit chicken-and-egg, but six of the eight teams still skating have a d-man among their top five point-getters. (Jordan was sixth on Plymouth despite missing 10 games; he also was a tema-high plus-28.) This might speak somewhat to having a team which can get out of its own end and move to the attack quickly, something that has rarely been said of any team Mavety has been involved during the past decade, except maybe when Jim Hulton was coaching in Kingston. (For anyone wondering, the Ottawa 67's top scoring defenceman, Julien Demers, was ninth on the team, and they're out of the playoffs, just saying.)

The Frontenacs should get the best player available. A franchise which has only won 43 of 136 games across the past two seasons needs help everywhere. When the GM doesn't really know what his team's big flaw is or what successful teams have that his team doesn't have, it really needs help.

It's not all bad. Kingston's new No. 1 junior hockey team, the Voyageurs, are set to face Oakville in the Ontario Junior Hockey League championship series. Fronts forward Ethan Werek, a gifted goal scorer by the way, will likely get named to the Canadian under-18 team today (Taylor Doherty is a maybe). Another local player, Jeremy Franklin, was recently nominated for Canadian Junior Hockey League player of the year honours.

Meantime, don't say Mavety cannot help build a contender. He still has the Mav-gic, so long as it's not for the team employing him. The Belleville Bulls, by unofficial count, have a half-dozen contributors who slipped by Kingston. Belleville got its goalie, Kingston minor hockey grad Mike Murphy, top two forwards Bryan Cameron and Eric Tangradi and shutdown defenceman Subban all in the 2005 draft, when Mavety had a higher draft slot.

Kingston's first-rounder from that season, Luke Pither, is now playing for the Bulls. Another Bellevegan, overage forward Brandon Mashinter, could have been picked up from Kitchener at the start of this season to complete an earlier deal, but Mavety instead opted for AHL and NHL-destined Yannick Weber. Meantime, the aforementioned Voyageurs are in the league final with three ex-Fronts in their lineup.

In other words, it was great to see a story about a team in another OHL market tying the can to its GM get big play. Meantime, big-time brownie points (in heaven, there are no brownie points on earth) to the hometown paper for working in digs of varying subtlety:

"En route to those four series triumphs, the Vees have seen their popularity and fan base mushroom dramatically, to the point, in fact, where dozens of ducat-seeking customers have been turned away. Interest is at an all-time high, thanks in large part to 15 post-season victories, generous media coverage and, of course, the sadly dependable early departure of the city's main puck-game tenant, the Frontenacs." (Emphasis mine.)

In the words of Stewie Griffin, "It feels right, Brian. It feels right." You can only take subtle stabs at Springer, whose skin is so thin — how thin is it? — that you could almost read a newspaper through it.

It has been 528 days since Doug Springer promised to do "whatever it takes" to bring a winning team to Kingston.

Related:
Sarnia fires GM (Dan McCaffery, Sun Media, March 31)

Canadian Confucius says, playoffs start, attendance goes down.

It's commonplace enough to warrant comment: Does it seem odd that some junior hockey teams have attendance go down when the playoffs begin?

Out west, the Kelowna Rockets, who have had 174 regular-season sellouts in a row at Prospera Place, were only at about 75% last weekend, according to Regan's Rant. In one of our previous iterations in Halifax, it was general knowledge that the QMJHL's Mooseheads, who'd had some first-round flops, usually saw scores of empty seats in the opening round. They only got sellouts if they made the second.

(Update: The Chilliwack Progress noted Tuesday: "ticket sales in Chilliwack decreased approximately 13 per cent, one of the bigger dips in the (WHL). But almost everyone saw a drop, including the Vancouver Giants, who went 57-10-2-3 on the ice, but dipped around eight per cent at the gate.")

It's as much a question for the fans as it is for the teams. In the major pro leagues, demand increases when the playoffs begin. There is buzz. The playoffs start in junior and people start to tune out a bit; any and all explanations are welcome.

Once the weather warms up and the snow melts, the casual fans, the parents who might not care tremendously but will take their kids to the rink on a Sunday afternoon, scatter. Oftentimes their children are finishing their own minor hockey seasons, or beginning springtime activities.

It would be great to ask a couple OHL mavens if they just accept the reality that they're going to lose some of their fringier fans once they get past mid-March, especially if their ticketing strategy is anything like the Ottawa 67's. The Soixante-Septs' way of addressing the challenge of playing in a rink which is oversized for the OHL is to distribute a lot of tickets through group sales and vouchers handed out by their corporate partners to fill up a 9,500-seat building.

It is a great approach in the regular season (and, full disclosure, yours truly attended about a half-dozen games for free using vouchers). However, once the playoffs start and fans have to pay full freight, the 67's end up announcing attendance figures like 4,619 and 4,221, as they did last weekend vs. the Niagara IceDogs. In the press box prior to yesterday's doubleheader — the game they actually played and the one described by some fat, dumb and bald guy in the Ottawa Sun — a couple out-of-towners were wondering if the crowd was politely late. The rink was nearly empty at ten minutes to two. One would hope that the 67's made a nice profit off their 34 regular-season dates and a run to the second or third round of the playoffs

The recession isn't a catch-all explanation. It's quite possible people are just smart and realize that, as in the OHL's case, having 16 of 20 teams make the playoffs means the first round is next to meaningless. Maybe everyone's waiting for Round 2, but if they are, it's a lost opportunity for the leagues to whip up interest before the Stanley Cup playoffs push everything else out to the fringe.

Related:
Playoff Crowd Numbers (Regan's Rant)

Fronts: That 18-50 record? That's marketing's problem

It is taking a lot of reserve to avoid laughing like a hyena at this bit of news:

"The first public face of the K-Rock Centre’s operator has been let go from his job.

"Neil Shorthouse, who was the arena’s director of marketing and client services, is no longer with the arena." — Kingston Whig-Standard

One could have little to do with the other, but this is tragilarious. Who knows how good Shorthouse was at his job. Still, whoever's trying to market that building has to wear two giant millstones named Doug Springer and Larry Mavety (stop if you've heard this before). Springer, the Kingston Frontenacs owner, carries on like dickishness is next to Godliness and is all but rubbing fans' noses in it by giving a new contract to Mavety, the general mangler (not a typo).

At this point, Howie Meeker would squeak, "Stop it right there." Again, one could have little to do with the other. The K-Rock Centre does have other purposes outside of being a playpen for the sorriest owner/general manager combo to ever (dis)grace an Ontario Hockey League arena. The marketing problem is not so simple as the fact that the Springer Frontenacs, along among the 20 OHL teams, have missed the playoffs two consecutive seasons, but that represents a huge chunk.

Springer, of course, is not concerned. That's the whole point. He's not concerned. He's going to go on the local TV station and promise the public everything, then follow through on nothing. He's going to assure people that His Royal Mavesty (Rhymes With...) is an "astute hockey man," ignoring that OHL-worst string of 11 consecutive seasons without advancing past the first round of the playoffs (or that Mavety, as Mark Potter has noted, takes no responsibility for the players he drafts, even though that's where successful OHL teams, like the Belleville Bulls or Ottawa 67's, are assembled. (A classic Mav story, as related by Potter on

Nothing will really change in Kingston until the owner has a change of heart and mind and actually trusts someone with a full command of his mental faculties to look after the hockey operation. The Fronts basically did the same thing this season that they did last season. They managed to suck a little less over the final two months of the season, since it's easier to play when there is absolutely no pressure. The fact is they played .344 hockey

At least now it's clear: It was all Neil Shorthouse's fault. People say, when in doubt, blame the media, but in this case, blame the marketing guy.

It has been 519 days since Doug Springer promised to do "whatever it takes" to bring a winner to Kingston.

(Kinger will be hosting a call-in show tonight on TVCogeco in Kingston. Chances are, this might come up.)

OHL Playoffs: Anything but quiet on the Western front

So the only series two-games deep has seen the No. 8 Sudbury Wolves (of the atrocious second-half) make an about-face and turn in back-to-back solid performances, managing a split in Belleville against the heavily favoured No. 1 Bulls.
Does that mean we can expect some magic out of the Western front, too as the playoffs really kick into gear tonight with six games? For my money, that may come from the Plymouth Whalers. Not exactly a huge call at the No. 4 seed, but anything that jeopordizes a Windsor-London West final could be considered an upset.

Windsor (1) vs. Owen Sound (8)
Vitals: Windsor - 57-10-1, 115 pts … huge edge in special teams with OHL’s fifth-ranked power play and second-ranked penalty kill.
Owen Sound - 26-27-15, 67 pts … pulled of a 1-1-2 record against Windsor during the regular season series.
Breakdown: Based on Game 1 of this series, a 7-4 Spitfires win on Wednesday, it’s hard to imagine the Attack taking even a game from a Windsor team that’s only lost 11 times this year. The Spits are a juggernaut, led by youngsters Taylor Hall (late ’91 – and the possible first-overall pick in the 2010 NHL draft) and Ryan Ellis (’91) and boast much depth at forward and defence. I can see an Attack ‘tender, either Tyler Beskorowany or Scott Stajcer, stealing a win in this series, probably in an overtime game. That’s why it goes to Windsor in 5.

London (2) vs. Erie (7)
Vitals: London - 29-16-3, 101 pts … won all six meetings this season … OHL’s top power play (24.4%) and league’s scoring champ John Tavares (58 goals, 46 assists) highlight a potent offence.
Erie - 34-29-5, 73 pts … League’s best penalty killing (87%) will be key to hang with Knights.
Breakdown: At the trade deadline, the Otters looked like their return to the post-season could avoid Windsor or London in the first round. But sliding down the stretch means they’ll have to deal with John Tavares.
While Tavares looked a little bored in some games toward the end of his final OHL season before he goes No. 1 in this summer’s NHL draft, it’s more likely the determined JT the nation watched at the world juniors in Ottawa will resurface. You can count on him to be motivated to do what he couldn’t in Oshawa – lead a team to the OHL finals.
Some good news for Erie is they’ve taken the last two meetings to overtime, so the Otters can hang in there for 60 minutes here or there. London in 6.

Saginaw (3) vs. Guelph (6)
Vitals: Saginaw - 36-24-8, 80 pts … franchise hasn’t advanced past first round since move
Guelph - 35-26-7, 77 pts ... only 24 points in 26 games since trade deadline.
Breakdown: Guelph committed fully to the rebuilding mode by moving one of the OHL’s best goalies, Thomas McCollum to Brampton. The Storm are the worst of the West’s playoff teams since.
This is the best team Saginaw's had to watch, and the disparity between these clubs is best described by their respective forward situations. Three of the Storm’s key horses are a trio of ’91-born NHL-draft-eligible Peter Holland, Taylor Beck and Michael Latta. In Saginaw, OHL veterans Chris Chappell, Jack Combs and Tyler Murovich lead the way. Saginaw in 5.

Plymouth (5) vs. Sarnia (6)
Vitals: Plymouth - 37-2-5, 79 pts … second-best record in the West since the trade deadline (41 points in 29 games).
Sarnia - 25-26-7, 77 pts … also strong since the deadline (35 points in 27 games).
These teams rank in the middle of the OHL in almost every important statistical category. But Plymouth’s 4-1-1 edge in the season series includes a commanding 6-1 victory in the final game of the schedule to earn home-ice advantage for this matchup. Plymouth has finished the season strong, anchored by the return of the coach who took the team to the Memorial Cup two years ago, Mike Vellucci. Whalers captain Chris Terry is one of the best leaders in the league and finished second to Tavares in league scoring. The experience of Whalers vets who won the league two years ago will make the team dangerous for both the Knights and Spits down the road. Plymouth in 6.

OHL playoffs: No 'dogs like the '07 Wolves here

Palpable potential energy follows die-hard fans through the doors of junior hockey barns this time of year as the OHL playoffs begin. Everyone starts the tournament at scratch, and even the fans of the No. 8 seeds can conjure fairy tale scenarios. Case and point, the Sudbury Wolves are one of four teams opening the second season tonight, taking on the barrelling Bulls in Belleville, the hottest team in the OHL. In case you forget, Sudbury is the most recent franchise to make a wildly unpredictable run as a No. 6 seed in 2007 – the odd duck allowed to sneak past the systemic barriers to make people believe anyone can be president; but we digress.

Don't expect that to happen this year. While the 4-5 matchup will be a battle by virtue of the way the Majors and Colts match up, there's a pretty big divide between the conference's top four and the rest. Even if Barrie did pull off last year's big first-round surprise, I'm not buying they've got the horses. How's that for a playoff-inspired cliche?

If you want to get a look at the full OHL playoff sked, check out Terry Doyle at loosepucks, one of my favourite OHL blogs.

Belleville (1) vs. Sudbury (8)
Vitals - Belleville: 47-17-2-2, 98pts … G Mike Murphy (Carolina Hurricanes) led OHL in goals against average and save percentage … big-game experience abounds after a Memorial Cup berth last year … best record in entire OHL down the stretch (21-4 since trade deadline; even better than the West's best, Windsor).
Sudbury: 26-35-2-4, 59 pts … clinging to life support, with worst record of the league's 16 playoff teams since the deadline ... most goals allowed of those 16 teams, too.
Breakdown: Sudbury reached the OHL final that spring as the East’s No. 6 seed – beating the Bulls in six in the third round. That Wolves run has inspired the hope of every underdog, no matter how big, since. The only similarity this time is coaches George Burnett and Mike Foligno reprising their roles, but Foligno will have to do a lot more than out-coach Burnett this time given the talent divide between these rosters.
Series-breaker: Murphy will be the key to the playoffs for Belleville, but he won’t need to steal this series. Two time world-junior fave P.K. Subban (Montreal Canadiens) loves playing in the Nickel City and racked up nine points in four games against the Wolves this year. Bulls in 4.

Brampton (2) vs. Peterborough (7)
Vitals - Brampton: 47-19-1-1, 96 pts … Cody Hodgson (Vancouver Canucks) ranks third in points per game and has lit up Peterborough with 10 points in three meetings.
Peterborough: 28-37-1-2, 59 pts … worst penalty kill among playoff teams … this team’s still building with likely first-round NHL pick Zack Kassian (’91) and underager Ryan Spooner (’92) counting as two of the team’s top three scorers.
Breakdown: These teams are simply built differently. The closest the Petes came to beating the Battalion this season was a shootout loss in November. Otherwise, Brampton won the other three meetings by three goals or more.
Shrewd moves at the deadline by Battalion coach/GM Stan Butler – including picking up one of the league’s top ‘tenders, Thomas McCollum (Detroit Red Wings), from Guelph – give this team the complexion of one Bulter can actually take deep into the post-season.
Series-breaker: Like Murphy, McCollum’s best work will come later in the playoffs. This series will be all about Hodgson and draft-eligible speedster Matt Duchene (’91), who have 17 points combined against the Petes this year, shifting into playoff gear. Battalion in 4.

Ottawa (3) vs. Niagara (6)
Vitals - Ottawa: 40-21-5-2, 87 pts … excellent special teams rank first in power play (23.9%) and third in penalty kill (83.5%) in Eastern Conference.
Niagara: 26-31-5-6, 63 pts … Won season series 3-1, with one victory in a shootout … skidding into post-season with just two wins in past 10 games.
Breakdown: Don’t read too much into Niagara’s edge in the season series. The IceDogs are rebuilding. Their leading scorer is draft-eligible Andrew Agozzino ('91), whose 56 points would rank fifth on an extremely deep 67’s.
Led by centre Logan Couture (San Jose Sharks), Ottawa’s top line with Anthony Nigro and local boy Corey Cowick on the wings, plays with ridiculous chemistry on the power play and even strength. They anchor a group of seven 67's forwards with a minimum 23 goals this season.
Series-breaker: It could be legendary coach Brian Kilrea, coaching his last OHL playoffs. No doubt the season-long feting of Killer has left an impression on this group. They’ll be trying to extend his coaching career as long as they can. Ottawa in 6.

Mississauga (4) vs. Barrie (5)
Vitals - Mississauga: 39-26-1-2, 81 pts … St. Mike's hasn't won more than a single game in a playoff series since 2004, and is 2-16 over the last four post-seasons.
Barrie: 30-33-3-2, 65 pts … managed to split the season series 3-3 and knows St. Mike's well in the East's only inter-divisional first-round matchup.
Breakdown: There’s not much star power in this series, but the Majors' team concept has precipitated the OHL’s third-best power play (22.5%) and a top-four penalty kill (84.5%). Meanwhile, the Colts have the series' only point-per-game forward in Alex Hutchings. Barrie's junior nats alum Stefan Della Rovere is better known for his combination of 27 goals, 146 PIMs and gritty edge than sniping power. This series should boil down to a chess match between Barrie bench boss Marty Williamson and Majors coach/GM Dave Cameron, who can both institute defensive game plans with the best of them.
Series-breaker: The Majors special teams and the fact they have a dependable No. 1 goalie in Chris Carrozzi will prevent Barrie from a second consecutive upset in Round 1 of the OHL playoffs. Majors in 7.
Stay tuned for the a look at the OHL's wild west.
Photo by OHL Images.