Hounds Play Shinny Style Street Hockey in 10-6 Loss/Win Streak Ends as Quickly as it Starts/Topic Suggestions ?

Just when you think the Hounds might be able to turn the corner they run straight into the building. The Greyhounds have one of the worst records in the OHL right now but have lost quite a few games by only a goal. That in itself suggests the Hounds could be a good team and make the playoffs but the reality is that unless they pick up more two point games they will be golfing sooner than their opponents unless things get hammered out very soon; if not yesterday.

On Sunday afternoon, I was expecting Charlie Schenkel to start but he did not as per an injury during warmup. I liked the fact that Coach Dean was going to go with analytics and put in the goalie that not only won the game previous, but the goalie who has the teams only two shutouts, and the goalie who is second in the league in save percentage. 

With Charlie not getting clearance to play, Sammy Ivanov got the start. I watched the game and out of the 9 goals against him, there were quite a few that he should have saved in my opinion. If it was a matter of him thinking he was going to be backing up Charlie and not getting mentally prepared to play as being the factor….well if this were the case, I think he needs to be work on that because this was a big opportunity for the team in gaining confidence if they won and returned home with a successful roadtrip.

Having said that; the whole team minus a couple of players did not play very well and there should have been a bag skate after the game but those things don’t generally happen these days. If the fact was that the team just beat a decent club in Mississauga and were now playing a lesser team in the standings…and a thought creeped into their heads and told them that the Hamilton game was going to be easy…………well, the slap into reality was well deserved. 

Were there any bright notes to take away from the game? Well I guess one could be that Landen Hookey scored in consecutive games with another goal and assist; and he also dropped the mitts. This could be his turning point in the season and hopefully so as we need his points. 

As usual Mark Duarte, Bryce McConnell-Barker, Kirill Kudryavstev, and rookie Andrew Gibson played strong in the losing effort. 

Moving onto tonight the Greyhounds will be without Charlie Schenkel as he will miss both weekend games nursing his upper body injury.

Tonight the Hounds are going to need Sammy to play well and for the defense to limit chances as Saginaw is no slouch and wants to make a big splash. The Spirit are riding a 9 game win streak and are going to want to extend it to double digits. Of note, watch out for newly acquired Hunter Haight who was just picked up from the Barrie Colts; quite often after a trade, these kids play a great first game with their new team. 

Watch the game @ CHL LIVE and Go Hounds Go !!