Oshawa Generals 2022-23 Season Thread (Part 2)

[ecraigs]

Earl and Howard glared at the players? And Killer??

Howard really just watched from his lower seats, not really interacting much, although there were days. He owed two teams, so his loyalties were split.

 

[Race Dawg]

Howard really just watched from his lower seats, not really interacting much, although there were days. He owed two teams, so his loyalties were split.

Ya but he sold he London eventually.

 

[Race Dawg]

McKenzie maybe knocked net off moorings? Hard to tell could have been one of the Oshawa players. No goal... AKA the Leafs lol

 

[sirius67fan]

Great effort by Oshawa. Kudos. Still not sure about that goal but hey that's hockey, calls don't always go your way.

 

[Race Dawg]

Yup. Pissed about the bullshit goal after the whistle but let's face it Oshawa WAS the better team tonight. Deserved the win. Ottawa coasting this series. Hardly representative of regular season league champs right now. Could be coming back to Ottawa tied as I did predict Oshawa to win at least two games tho....

 

[OMG67]

Interesting review. The replay at full speed with sound showed the whistle blew well before the puck went in the net. But then they used the slow motion replays to do the replay review and didn’t consider the whistle blowing the play dead.

So, either that is a mistake made by the officials and whomever is in the replay booth that called down, or replays are capable of eliminating whistles. I don‘t think replays can eliminate whistles so I think that was a weird mistake?

 

[OMG67]

Morrison was garbage tonight. That line was weak the whole game minus the two goals of course. I don’t know if that makes sense but they really weren’t impactful at all.

A lot of bouncy pucks and fortunate goals by Oshawa tonight. Three of the four regulation goals were awkward deflections to open players or pucks that were cleared and turned into chances that resulted in goals because of weird bounces. Odd results.

Odd Boarding call late in the 3rd as well. But, the officials were stupid both ways tonight. Some very weak calls with a lot of non-calls all over the place. Tighter officiating would have resulted in a power play game with all the stuff let go. So, tough to gripe about one pivotal call And point fingers.

I wouldn’t say Oshawa outplayed Ottawa. I would say Oshawa played well the back half of the third and it was enough to win. I give Oshawa the first ten minutes and the last ten minutes. In between? Not so much.

 

[Race Dawg]

Morrison was garbage tonight. That line was weak the whole game minus the two goals of course. I don’t know if that makes sense but they really weren’t impactful at all.

A lot of bouncy pucks and fortunate goals by Oshawa tonight. Three of the four regulation goals were awkward deflections to open players or pucks that were cleared and turned into chances that resulted in goals because of weird bounces. Odd results.

Odd Boarding call late in the 3rd as well. But, the officials were stupid both ways tonight. Some very weak calls with a lot of non-calls all over the place. Tighter officiating would have resulted in a power play game with all the stuff let go. So, tough to gripe about one pivotal call And point fingers.

I wouldn’t say Oshawa outplayed Ottawa. I would say Oshawa played well the back half of the third and it was enough to win. I give Oshawa the first ten minutes and the last ten minutes. In between? Not so much.

Ya not to steal the praises of the Generals on their board but ya that boarding call was weak. Some terrible officiating tonight for sure. Oshawa took advantage of their opportunities and while we haven't seen anywhere near Ottawa's best yet (40%) I think we are seeing Oshawa play almost at their most saturated level (80%) minus 2 key players. If Ottawa just wakes up and plays their game then it'll be over in 5. If not it's going 7...

 

[three dog night]

How come the crowd was sparce.

 

[Generalsupdates]

Interesting review. The replay at full speed with sound showed the whistle blew well before the puck went in the net. But then they used the slow motion replays to do the replay review and didn’t consider the whistle blowing the play dead.

So, either that is a mistake made by the officials and whomever is in the replay booth that called down, or replays are capable of eliminating whistles. I don‘t think replays can eliminate whistles so I think that was a weird mistake?

They said it was a good goal because MacKenzie pushed the net off and a scoring chance was imminent

 

[OMG67]

They said it was a good goal because MacKenzie pushed the net off and a scoring chance was imminent

Yea but the whistle blew before the puck entered the net. The play is dead where the puck sits when the whistle blows. So, unless they can cancel the whistle, I don’t see how that counts.

For example, if on a totally unrelated play, the whistle gets blown and two seconds later the puck crosses the line because the players stopped playing when the whistle blew, can they then go to replay and make the same call?

I realize the puck “would have” entered the net whistle or no whistle. But where do they draw the line. How much time can pass where they can’t cancel a blown whistle?

Even the Oshawa announcers couldn’t understand it because they said the whistle blew before the puck entered the net after the showed the replay at full speed with sound.

 

[Generalsupdates]

Ottawa had a great possession game in game 1 where the Gens barely ever even touched the puck but really haven't impressed me at all in the 2 games since. They're obviously better than the Gens but I'm talking about OTT as a championship team. I don't see it. The Gens are playing with 5 D, one of which is a 4th line forward who was playing the 3rd game on D in his life tonight. Not his 3rd game on D this series, the 3rd time he's played D in his minor career+OHL career and he finished +1 against the 67s tonight. And of the other 4 D the Gens have, the one pair is '06 Danford and '06 Bedkowski (the 2nd youngest player in the league behind Misa) and in games 2/3 Ottawa in no way has been able to dominate that pair. But you're going to tell me that they'll be able to dominate Ty Nelson-Tnias Mathurin or Brandt Clarke-Braden Hache in an Eastern Final? Again, I just don't see it. But those convos can happen on the OTT thread (sorry OMG, I know you're banned from there and want to talk 67s somewhere lol).


Back to the Gens, what a game tonight, they showed a lot of heart. OTT goes up 3-1 and Gens easily could've said yep this is 1vs8 and we're missing 2 of our best D, we have no shot, it's over but they didn't do that.

-Through 3 games, '06 rookie Ben Danford has been as good, if not better, than '03 1st round pick Pavel Mintyukov, who's probably the 2nd best D-man in the OHL this season. With only 4 D, Danford is playing over 22 minutes in all of these playoff games and is holding his own nearly every shift against the OHL's top team. Could definitely see him being a 1st rounder next year if he can up his goal total to 10+ next year. He's such a good skater and so good at starting breakouts and getting out of forechecks with his skating ability.

-Calum Ritchie's shoulder is still so bad that he hasn't taken a single face-off since returning, yet he has 4 points in the las 2 games. Both Gens wins vs OTT this year came with OTT tying it up late with the goalie out and then a Calum Ritchie feed in OT for the game winning assist. He's up to 11 points in his 9 career playoff games.

-Jacob Oster was exceptional again. Another game where the stats don't necessarily show how good he was (stopped 31/35, .886 save %) but went 4/4 on breakaways and had a lot of big saves, especially in the first 40 minutes to keep the Gens in the game at that point.

 

[Race Dawg]

They said it was a good goal because MacKenzie pushed the net off and a scoring chance was imminent

Still a weak call by the officials. To me it looked like both McKenzie and the Oshawa player knocked it lose around the same time. The Generals would still won IMO anyways but that was a gift....

 

[OMG67]

Ottawa had a great possession game in game 1 where the Gens barely ever even touched the puck but really haven't impressed me at all in the 2 games since. They're obviously better than the Gens but I'm talking about OTT as a championship team. I don't see it. The Gens are playing with 5 D, one of which is a 4th line forward who was playing the 3rd game on D in his life tonight. Not his 3rd game on D this series, the 3rd time he's played D in his minor career+OHL career and he finished +1 against the 67s tonight. And of the other 4 D the Gens have, the one pair is '06 Danford and '06 Bedkowski (the 2nd youngest player in the league behind Misa) and in games 2/3 Ottawa in no way has been able to dominate that pair. But you're going to tell me that they'll be able to dominate Ty Nelson-Tnias Mathurin or Brandt Clarke-Braden Hache in an Eastern Final? Again, I just don't see it. But those convos can happen on the OTT thread (sorry OMG, I know you're banned from there and want to talk 67s somewhere lol).


Back to the Gens, what a game tonight, they showed a lot of heart. OTT goes up 3-1 and Gens easily could've said yep this is 1vs8 and we're missing 2 of our best D, we have no shot, it's over but they didn't do that.

-Through 3 games, '06 rookie Ben Danford has been as good, if not better, than '03 1st round pick Pavel Mintyukov, who's probably the 2nd best D-man in the OHL this season. With only 4 D, Danford is playing over 22 minutes in all of these playoff games and is holding his own nearly every shift against the OHL's top team. Could definitely see him being a 1st rounder next year if he can up his goal total to 10+ next year. He's such a good skater and so good at starting breakouts and getting out of forechecks with his skating ability.

-Calum Ritchie's shoulder is still so bad that he hasn't taken a single face-off since returning, yet he has 4 points in the las 2 games. Both Gens wins vs OTT this year came with OTT tying it up late with the goalie out and then a Calum Ritchie feed in OT for the game winning assist. He's up to 11 points in his 9 career playoff games.

-Jacob Oster was exceptional again. Another game where the stats don't necessarily show how good he was (stopped 31/35, .886 save %) but went 4/4 on breakaways and had a lot of big saves, especially in the first 40 minutes to keep the Gens in the game at that point.

The expectations for Ottawa are based more so on the weakness of the League in general. Ottawa is pretty young. In a normal season, I don’t see how Ottawa accumulates 107 points. I have the series against North Bay in Round Three as a coin flip at best for Ottawa. So, I agree. Ottawa is not likely a Championship calibre team regardless of what happened tonight.

And, with all due respect, we may as well talk about Ottawa a bit here. Not like there are any Gens fans left to populate the thread! LOL.

 

[Generalsupdates]

Still a weak call by the officials. To me it looked like both McKenzie and the Oshawa player knocked it lose around the same time. The Generals would still won IMO anyways but that was a gift....

I said live it should count because the Ottawa goalie is the one who pushed it off and neither Ottawa D was going to be able to beat Buckley to it to stop the goal, but it won't count because the whistle was being blown.

 

[Race Dawg]

Gens fans seem to think Ottawa is veteran-laden team with reining championships to boot. They are a young team that overachieved this year and it was the Petes who were supposed to be the mac daddy in the East.

 

[OMG67]

I said live it should count because the Ottawa goalie is the one who pushed it off and neither Ottawa D was going to be able to beat Buckley to it to stop the goal, but it won't count because the whistle was being blown.

Yeah. I agree. I am not upset about the goal vcounting because really it should be a goal. I am just confused how they could count it and disregard the whistle. I’ve not seen that and don’t understand. I wonder if we will ever get a more clear statement on why the goal counted after the whistle?

Gens fans seem to think Ottawa is veteran-laden team with reining championships to boot. They are a young team that overachieved this year and it was the Petes who were supposed to be the mac daddy in the East.

Ottawa is overrated. Not to be disrespectful about it. They are a good team but their youth can be exposed at times and tonight was a good example. I still think they make it to round 3. Just not confident after that. North Bay is super good.

 

[Generalsupdates]

Gens fans seem to think Ottawa is veteran-laden team with reining championships to boot. They are a young team that overachieved this year and it was the Petes who were supposed to be the mac daddy in the East.

First of all, nobody said that, so not sure where you randomly got that from... But 2nd of all, Ottawa loses their best 2 D and their top 2 scoring forwards after this year, along with Boucher and probably Beck. They're not entering a complete rebuild like PBO will be, but this is clearly a very good chance of them to win, especially after spending so many picks at the deadline. So no, you don't get to cry young and act like it's a team of all rookies and you didn't spend anything at the deadline and you're just happy to be in the playoffs lol

 

[Generalsupdates]

Yeah. I agree. I am not upset about the goal vcounting because really it should be a goal. I am just confused how they could count it and disregard the whistle. I’ve not seen that and don’t understand. I wonder if we will ever get a more clear statement on why the goal counted after the whistle?



Ottawa is overrated. Not to be disrespectful about it. They are a good team but their youth can be exposed at times and tonight was a good example. I still think they make it to round 3. Just not confident after that. North Bay is super good.

I agree with you on both points. Should've been a goal based on logic and saying hmm that was going to go in and the OTT goalie pushed the net off. But I agree I feel like usually the "motion to blow the whistle" means that logic is thrown out the window and it doesn't count.

And I'm really not looking for this to become a "is Ottawa good or not" contest on the Gens thread (although it would get us closer to the 1000 posts that starts a new thread and would re-enter a bunch of Gens fans into the chat lol), I was just expecting Ottawa to absolutely dominate the Gens in all facets of the game. That happened in game 1. It didn't happen in games 2 or 3. Nobody is saying Ottawa is boned after this year or if they don't win they'll never win again. But obviously it hurts to lose Logan Morrison, Pavel Mintyukov, Jack Matier and Tyler Boucher in one off-season. Tough to do that and be better entering the next season. So this is a big playoff run for the poles

 

[OMG67]

I agree with you on both points. Should've been a goal based on logic and saying hmm that was going to go in and the OTT goalie pushed the net off. But I agree I feel like usually the "motion to blow the whistle" means that logic is thrown out the window and it doesn't count.

And I'm really not looking for this to become a "is Ottawa good or not" contest on the Gens thread (although it would get us closer to the 1000 posts that starts a new thread and would re-enter a bunch of Gens fans into the chat lol), I was just expecting Ottawa to absolutely dominate the Gens in all facets of the game. That happened in game 1. It didn't happen in games 2 or 3. Nobody is saying Ottawa is boned after this year or if they don't win they'll never win again. But obviously it hurts to lose Logan Morrison, Pavel Mintyukov, Jack Matier and Tyler Boucher in one off-season. Tough to do that and be better entering the next season. So this is a big playoff run for the poles

On point number one, it wasn’t the ref motioning to blow the whistle. The whistle blew well before the puck crossed the line. When they replayed it at full speed with the volume, the whistle clearly blew well before the puck went over the line. The two Oshawa announcers stated the whistle blew well before the puck went over the line. IMO, the puck was at least a foot away from the goal line when the whistle blew. I think we can agree that the ref should not have blown the whistle but that isn’t the point. The play is dead when the whistle blows. At least that is my interpretation of the rules.

On the 2nd point, the 67’s did buy at the deadline. Without a doubt. The 67’s are a contender. That is not disputed. I argued emphatically in the Season Prediction thread before the season even started that the 67’s were on par with Peterborough, Mississauga, North Bay and Barrie heading into the season provided they were to acquire a good OA centre. That said, it doesn’t diminish the fact that Ottawa is still a relatively young team. They’re top 9 when fully healthy would still have at least two 17 year olds (neither are the 1st rounder Barlas) and three with Boucher out for the season. They have two 16 year old D-Men playing in their top 6. They have vulnerabilities because they rely heavily on younger players to continue playing key roles. Typical contenders don’t rely so heavily on younger players to log heavy minutes. That is the point being made.

Ottawa should win the series but if you look back at the season series, it wasn’t like Ottawa blew out Oshawa game in game out. I still think they should have swept the series and that is how I predicted it to go but two or three of the games should be close. Ottawa can be taken advantage of on home ice where teams can match lines. If they have an off game combined with some bad line matching, average to poor teams can beat Ottawa. Ottawa lost 15 games to OHL opponents (including OT/SO) and 8 of them were to teams that finished lower than 5th in their Conference. Ottawa will pull out a stinker now and then. Unfortunately, they usually come in bunches so lets hope these don’t come in a bunch!

 

[Generalsupdates]

On the 2nd point, the 67’s did buy at the deadline. Without a doubt. The 67’s are a contender. That is not disputed. I argued emphatically in the Season Prediction thread before the season even started that the 67’s were on par with Peterborough, Mississauga, North Bay and Barrie heading into the season provided they were to acquire a good OA centre. That said, it doesn’t diminish the fact that Ottawa is still a relatively young team. They’re top 9 when fully healthy would still have at least two 17 year olds (neither are the 1st rounder Barlas) and three with Boucher out for the season. They have two 16 year old D-Men playing in their top 6. They have vulnerabilities because they rely heavily on younger players to continue playing key roles. Typical contenders don’t rely so heavily on younger players to log heavy minutes. That is the point being made.

Because they chose to have their cake and eat it too. 67s management don't get to decide they don't want to trade anyone off the roster and then cry "but we still use young guys on our roster!" when they lose (I know the management aren't the ones using that excuse, but the fans are speaking for them in this case). That was their decision to do that. They easily could've traded some of those young guys for veteran 2003 born players to make it a better roster this year. They decided not to do that.

Also several of the other top teams are in a very similar boat. Windsor finished 1st in the West and they rely heavily on 16 year olds Greentree and Cristoforo (and it's biting them). London finished 2nd and rely pretty heavily on 16/17 year olds Denver Barkey, Sam Dickinson, Oliver Bonk and Easton Cowan.

I said at the deadline I didn't think Ottawa did enough so it's not like this is hindsight being 20/20, I said live they didn't get enough veteran players at the deadline and could waste a year that went almost perfectly in the regular season

 

[OMG67]

Because they chose to have their cake and eat it too. 67s management don't get to decide they don't want to trade anyone off the roster and then cry "but we still use young guys on our roster!" when they lose (I know the management aren't the ones using that excuse, but the fans are speaking for them in this case). That was their decision to do that. They easily could've traded some of those young guys for veteran 2003 born players to make it a better roster this year. They decided not to do that.

Also several of the other top teams are in a very similar boat. Windsor finished 1st in the West and they rely heavily on 16 year olds Greentree and Cristoforo (and it's biting them). London finished 2nd and rely pretty heavily on 16/17 year olds Denver Barkey, Sam Dickinson, Oliver Bonk and Easton Cowan.

I said at the deadline I didn't think Ottawa did enough so it's not like this is hindsight being 20/20, I said live they didn't get enough veteran players at the deadline and could waste a year that went almost perfectly in the regular season

Without a doubt on all of that!

Boyd had a different strategy. I think he made a mistake. Boucher was injured at the time of the deadline and they would have had a strong sense of true odds of him finishing the season healthy.

Additionally, IMO they have too many bodies to start next season anyway. There was no reason to keep all of the skaters. It would have made a significant impact for this year and a marginal impact next year had they moved a player like Foster and Sirman. I think they could have potentially added Wright with a package including Foster and Sirman when the Windsor deal was announced and was so tremendously underwhelming. Miedema is a good player but not a stud by any stretch. Ottawa could have jettisoned pieces that beat that trade.

It was wide open for Ottawa. Boyd prefers maintaining competitive rosters over Championships. This deadline was proof of that.

 

[yessir29292]

They have two 16 year old D-Men playing in their top 6.

Two first rounders. Danford was drafted right in between them and is logging 22 minutes and may be Oshawa’s most important D man.

It’s a young league, age doesn’t mean a ton. The far an away best player in the CHL is 17. Saginaw is building around a 16 year old for the Mem next year.

Every good team has young guys who contribute.

Dumb argument anyway. 67 fans arguing that they didn’t really go for it so they can cope with a second round exit. Facts are Ottawa traded a lot for a top 10 NHL pick and the top OA in the league at the deadline while already being first in the league and will be a significantly worse team next year.

 

[OMG67]

Two first rounders. Danford was drafted right in between them and is logging 22 minutes and may be Oshawa’s most important D man.

It’s a young league, age doesn’t mean a ton. The far an away best player in the CHL is 17. Saginaw is building around a 16 year old for the Mem next year.

Every good team has young guys who contribute.

Dumb argument anyway. 67 fans arguing that they didn’t really go for it so they can cope with a second round exit. Facts are Ottawa traded a lot for a top 10 NHL pick and the top OA in the league at the deadline while already being first in the league and will be a significantly worse team next year.

You misunderstand the point.

Ottawa is not what one would call a traditional odds on favourite Championship contender. Ottawa oddly finished 8 points above the 2nd place team. Just because they finished 8 points above doesn’t mean they are the odds on favourite and it doesn’t mean they should roll over Oshawa in four loppsided games in round one. The team isn’t impervious. In fact, no teams in the OHL are impervious this season. You have an 8 seed up 3-0 on the 1 seed in the Western Conference. That speaks loudly about the parity in the league this year.

In a normal year, there would typically be a team or two that seem to be head and shoulders above the rest of the league. This year, there were many teams that made a tremendous effort in acquiring significant players at the deadline specifically because of the parity and the perceived opportunity they had under those circumstances. Ottawa was no different. They made two trades that they felt were affordable because of their accumulation of draft picks and the perceived value they would get and where that placed them in the pecking order. Those trades gave Ottawa an ”opportunity.” It did not put them head and shoulders above the rest of the league like Hamilton last year post deadline.

The resulting roster in Ottawa is young compared to the standards held by a traditional #1 contender. In my opinion, North Bay is a better team and better constructed for the playoffs. I think Ottawa and Sarnia are on level ground. I think London and Barrie are slightly behind but only slightly. That is five teams I would be very comfortable endorsing as the top contender. How often does that happen?

So, the perspective is off. GeneralsUpdates suggested Ottawa should have rolled right over Oshawa. I am saying that the team isn’t impervious. The reason they are not impervious is because they lean heavily on their youth. Conversely, North Bay only relies on Romani as a 17 year old and don’t have any other 16 or 17 year olds that are leaned on in any significant way. That is a traditional contender. That’s not Ottawa. How many traditional contenders have only seven key players that are 19 or 20 on their playoff roster? I can’t think of one EVER.

Too much expectation is placed on this Ottawa roster regardless of the deadline acquisitions. Those acquisitions gave them an opportunity. A lot is going to have to go right for that opportunity to translate into a championship. They will have bumps in the road along the way and tonight was one of them. I fully expect Ottawa to win the next two games. If they win one in OT and the other by a single goal, it shouldn’t be looked upon as a failure. They need to learn how to win in the playoffs. This is a team that went out four straight last year.

 

[dirty12]

You misunderstand the point.

Ottawa is not what one would call a traditional odds on favourite Championship contender. Ottawa oddly finished 8 points above the 2nd place team. Just because they finished 8 points above doesn’t mean they are the odds on favourite and it doesn’t mean they should roll over Oshawa in four loppsided games in round one. The team isn’t impervious. In fact, no teams in the OHL are impervious this season. You have an 8 seed up 3-0 on the 1 seed in the Western Conference. That speaks loudly about the parity in the league this year.

In a normal year, there would typically be a team or two that seem to be head and shoulders above the rest of the league. This year, there were many teams that made a tremendous effort in acquiring significant players at the deadline specifically because of the parity and the perceived opportunity they had under those circumstances. Ottawa was no different. They made two trades that they felt were affordable because of their accumulation of draft picks and the perceived value they would get and where that placed them in the pecking order. Those trades gave Ottawa an ”opportunity.” It did not put them head and shoulders above the rest of the league like Hamilton last year post deadline.

The resulting roster in Ottawa is young compared to the standards held by a traditional #1 contender. In my opinion, North Bay is a better team and better constructed for the playoffs. I think Ottawa and Sarnia are on level ground. I think London and Barrie are slightly behind but only slightly. That is five teams I would be very comfortable endorsing as the top contender. How often does that happen?

So, the perspective is off. GeneralsUpdates suggested Ottawa should have rolled right over Oshawa. I am saying that the team isn’t impervious. The reason they are not impervious is because they lean heavily on their youth. Conversely, North Bay only relies on Romani as a 17 year old and don’t have any other 16 or 17 year olds that are leaned on in any significant way. That is a traditional contender. That’s not Ottawa. How many traditional contenders have only seven key players that are 19 or 20 on their playoff roster? I can’t think of one EVER.

Too much expectation is placed on this Ottawa roster regardless of the deadline acquisitions. Those acquisitions gave them an opportunity. A lot is going to have to go right for that opportunity to translate into a championship. They will have bumps in the road along the way and tonight was one of them. I fully expect Ottawa to win the next two games. If they win one in OT and the other by a single goal, it shouldn’t be looked upon as a failure. They need to learn how to win in the playoffs. This is a team that went out four straight last year.

The point made by GU stands; two players for 15(2-4) made the ‘67s a big time buyer.
The ‘67s are all-in for the ‘23 playoffs, (and) the 2006-07 birth years. They can piece off some ‘04 & ‘05 born over the next couple of seasons to recoup picks. It will be interesting see how the ‘67s stack up with Missy, Oshawa, Hamilton in 2025-26.

Yeah, the ‘67s could have had Wright for Mews + picks. Foster & Sirman; that’s nonsense. So is Foster as comparables for Lardis and Mediema.