was at the 67s office today and they said they would like wed and fri to start but don't know for sure yet.
Wow what a well built team. You guys will likely only lose on 4 forwards, 1 D and 1 Goalie for next season. Could next season be another go for it year? Also you guys have a great number of assets. Your GM has done a fantastic job
Yes that is high quality, but still look at who returns and what that added year of experience will do for them. I thought you guys were pretty flush with assetsThe problem is the quality we lose. Chmelevski, Maksimovich, Chiodo, Felhaber, Hoefenmayer and DiPietro are big assets to replace from within.
We traded away a lot of picks this past year because Boyd didn't want to sacrifice bodies so it's not like we have a cupboard full of picks to trade.
We will have a solid team but I think a small reboot with a Hoelscher and Bahl trade may be the better option. I think we'd still finish top 4 and win a round.
If we choose to compete for a Championship, I feel the following year would have to include a massive selloff to recoup picks and youth sacrificed to make a run next year.
Of course, that has been discussed at length on this board with many good points made on both sides of that discussion.
Yes that is high quality, but still look at who returns and what that added year of experience will do for them. I thought you guys were pretty flush with assets
Question, how much credit do you gibe Boyd for building this team? He has been there 2 years now, how much was in place before he got there?
Boyd was left a better than decent base of bodies and picks from Brown/Higgins and, IMHO, he has done a good job of adding/drafting.
The Rossi pick/signing is all on Jan Egert. Not sure if Boyd is responsible for adding Egert or not.
Interesting question. Are we elite? Tell you in about 2 weeks! One thing I can tell you is we are the class of the east and a very good team. As always whether we play Guelph or Saginaw I always have trouble gaging the western teams as we see them 2×/year and then the trade deadline happens which shakes things up. So since the final in 2005/2006?, where we had a great team with that big line of Locke/Foy/Shephard and playing Kitchener. I was sure we'd win but even though we had the best line Kitchener's depth killed us. So At this point I have trouble analizing the final but I was quite confident about winning the east.. I do think however we will be very hard to beatThere are two common themes right now:
1> Ottawa is an elite team and should roll through whomever comes out of the West
2> Ottawa is overrated and hasn’t had to play an elite team yet in the playoffs. Their 12-0 record is relatively meaningless. The Elite goalies they roughed up just played average
I find these two stances interesting. By many, Ottawa hasn’t really gotten any credit for their outstanding year. A lot of that has to do with not having any prominent players. Ottawa’s best players don’t really get much attention. Rossi didn’t finish top 3 in Rookie balloting. Hoefenmayer got relatively little attention for his great year. Andree was an afterthought. Even DiPietro hasn’t really gained much credibility. Neither goalie finished top 3 in voting either. I don’t think Ottawa will win any major awards that are voted on. It will be interesting to see Coach of the Year honours. Felhaber should win OA honours or at least finish top 3 but we’ll see.
There are two common themes right now:
1> Ottawa is an elite team and should roll through whomever comes out of the West
2> Ottawa is overrated and hasn’t had to play an elite team yet in the playoffs. Their 12-0 record is relatively meaningless. The Elite goalies they roughed up just played average
I find these two stances interesting. By many, Ottawa hasn’t really gotten any credit for their outstanding year. A lot of that has to do with not having any prominent players. Ottawa’s best players don’t really get much attention. Rossi didn’t finish top 3 in Rookie balloting. Hoefenmayer got relatively little attention for his great year. Andree was an afterthought. Even DiPietro hasn’t really gained much credibility. Neither goalie finished top 3 in voting either. I don’t think Ottawa will win any major awards that are voted on. It will be interesting to see Coach of the Year honours. Felhaber should win OA honours or at least finish top 3 but we’ll see.
Pretty sure Brazeau has already been honoured with outstanding OA player of the year. Tourigny should be unanimous coach of the year, imo. Just my opinion; I don’t think the ‘67s are more talented than Icedogs, Gens, Spirit, or Storm. They just consistently play better as a team, credit Tourigny
One thing is for sure, if it's the Storm and the 67s get out to a series lead early, they need to keep their foot on the gas and finish them off. Guelph has been the comeback kids to the max these last two rounds!
I don't think either team plays consistently sound defence. Popovich is a poor goalie. I think both teams can play run and gun with Ottawa but I don't see the depth on either team Ottawa has, especially on the back end.
Ottawa is 12-0. Only a couple of the games were close. Some played close through two periods but Ottawa's depth and conditioning swayed that balance.
Ottawa has consistently been the class of the league. For some reason, maybe because they are an Eastern team, have not gotten much credit. Heck, Niagara was getting more credit. Weird.
Anyway, IMO Ottawa will go into the Final as the favourite. This isn't like 2003 when we faced Kitchener. Mike Richards was a great player, more of a playoff guy than Locke and Foy were. Although, no disrespect to Locke, he was a good playoff performer. That team had to battle to get to the Final, especially against St Mike's.
Personally, I feel the league not having that super elite team or handful of elite teams has diminished the shine on Ottawa. It is almost like because the other teams aren't great, Ottawa is somehow just a good team taking advantage. It is weird.
I don’t disagree with the entire post, mostly just the depth on D part.
Samorukov-Durzi
Phillips-Gordeev
Hanley-Lalonde
Chayka
I would take Guelph’s D over the ‘67s, (right now)
Popovich has not performed like a poor goalie. He has a 0.901 SV% so far vs Rangers, Knights, & Spirit. Those teams have better shooters overall than DiPietro (0.913) has faced in Bulldogs, Wolves, & Gens.