The Soo Greyhounds despite outplaying their opponent early last night with a commanding 13-0 lead on the shot clock and a 3-1 lead by the 1:15 mark of the second period once again showed why the Hounds need to hire motivational guru Tony Robbins as a 2nd assistant coach.
No disrespect to the coaching staff but for whatever reason, this team has shown time after time that they don’t have the KILL SWITCH (engage) attitude in regards to burying a team they are outplaying. The game isn’t over after you get a lead and we have witnessed this team lose too many points (which is currently catching up to them) when the game has been played one sided in the Hounds favor.
Last weekend we saw the London Knights build a modest lead of 2-0 after two periods and it was lights out for the Hounds going into the 3rd. At that point London was 16-0 going into the 3rd with a lead which is now 18-0 after beating the Hounds and Windsor last night. I would give anything to be a fly on the wall in the London dressing room during the second intermission when they have the lead in the current game.
Among other problems were the PK which as coach Dean summed up “you’re going to have nights like that/one of those nights” in regards (in my opinion) to resorting to old bad habits and it wasn’t more obvious than on the 4th Sarnia power play where I literally said to myself seconds prior “they are going to score” as the Hounds players were stationary in the box and just watching the play unfold like they were watching the latest episode of Outer Banks or Space Force.
On a positive note, the Hounds rookies played really well last night with Marco Mignosa picking up 2 points with a +3 on the night, Owen Allard with an assist as well as Kirill Kudryavstev the same. Kalvyn Watson played superb in a losing effort with two goals and an assist.
Sarnias’ Theo Hill is on fire as he picked up 3 more assists which gives him 9 in his last two games.
Tonight the Hounds need to put mental London Knights jerseys on their opponent the Windsor Spitfires because this will be a playoff game of sorts and Windsor has been playing great hockey lately and last night brought the top ranked Knights to OT before succumbing.
tale of the tape
WINDSOR SPITFIRES
Coach Marc Savard
GM Bill Bowler
Record 27-14-3-3
Watch for Wyatt Johnson tonight as he is one of the top players in the league in scoring as he has 85 points and is only 1 behind league leader from the Hounds Rory Kerins. Wyatt does have the edge though as the Spits have 4 games in hand. Another player to watch is D man Andrew Perrott who has 44 points which includes 40 of them as helpers. In net the Spitfires are strong with Xavier Medina.
SOO GREYHOUNDS
Coach John Dean
GM Kyle Raftis
Record 28-16-6-1
The Dogs have been owned this year by Windsor as they are 1-4. They had better figure them out soon as there is a good chance of them meeting up in the playoffs.
The Hounds will definitely have a strong effort from Kerins who will try and keep ahead of Wyatt in the scoring race as well as leading the team to victory.
Tyler Savard may want to show up his Dad Marc Savard (Spits coach) and play extra strong and Cole McKay and Tye Kartye need to play good disciplined games.
Sooner or later; although Tucker has played good for the Hounds; sooner or later He is going to need to steal a game when the Hounds don’t play a full 60 minutes in front of him. This game is crucial and needs to make a statement. Windsor trails the Hounds by only 3 points but have those extra games in hand. No More Mr. Nice Guy coach. These kids need to be pushed hard from here on in.
Go Hounds Go