Warm Feelings
You can’t help but get warm and fuzzy when you see the Christmas lights at night. It is nice for adults but must be simply amazing and breathtaking for children waiting for Santa to arrive. I miss those days of excitement and innocent anticipation, but from time to time it returns. On a recent to trip in the Soo I thought I’d take just a few quick snaps of houses lit up on my way to my Moms for dinner. Can anyone guess where the feature image with the three young ladies was taken? I will give you a hint; the one in the middle is a famous Canadian boots on the ground journalist.
Hounds Finish First Half Still In Contention
With a record of 10W & 21Losses you would think that the Hounds were done like Christmas Dinner; but they aren’t. The fact that 9 of those losses were in extra innings is somewhat of a good thing because the boys managed to scrape together 9 extra points; so in theory it works out to 4.5 more wins.
Anyway, the team is heading into the second half in 9 days where they are holding the 8th and final playoff spot and hope to climb the ladder and maybe get on that fourth rung for home ice advantage. I think with the recent acquisition of Brenden Sirizzotti, the return of Owen Allard at some point (hopefully January), and the imminent return of star goalie Charlie Schenkel, this team will start winning more than losing.
This team plays most games close and it shows how well they are coached and how strong they compete; and with the jitters for the young kids behind them, I feel the Hounds will surprise some of the pundits that wrote this team off early in the season.
Speaking of early; earlier in the season I alluded to Kyle Raftis trying to shop around one of the goalies in order to get some scoring touch but I am not so sure right now. Both goalies are solid and the team is on the cusp of winning. If this team is in the mix to host the Memorial Cup, they need two ….not one…..but two solid goaltenders and they have that right now with Ivanov and Schenkel. Trading one of them would leave a backup with literally only 40 minutes of experience in Landen Miller.
Anyway, watch out for the second half as winning will become more common than losing for this team and for the first time in a long time the Hounds will not be missing kids to the world juniors. Speaking of World Juniors; I generally don’t watch them but this year I might as I want to see Hounds import selectees Noel Nordh (Sweden) and Julian Lutz (Germany) play….and maybe…just maybe Kyle can work his magic.
Go Hounds Go !