Sarnia Sting 2022-23 Season Thread (Part 2)

[StingUpdates]

I've been the biggest Ben defender but it's outrageous he was invited to begin with. He's been bad this year for us. No excuses for it. He's been bad.

We are a good team who doesn't allow a ton & his GAA & SV% are near the bottom of the league.

I have never seen such a drastic stepback from a goalie on sarnia. Leaving last years playoffs i thought he was about to be a run away goalie of the yr in the O & he's been outplayed by a guy who played Jr. C last yr in Surzycia.

It's a legit problem that might only be getting worse because his mental is obliterated now.

 

[Ferda11]

Not sure there’s much defending of Gaudreau one could do at this point. What a massive opportunity wasted by him. I get the team as a whole had a bad start and the first two were no chancers, but there’s no excuse for the others. He just cannot make a timely save. What a damn shame.

 

[StingUpdates]

Make of this what u want but I've been told by 3 different ppl in the last 20 minutes on top of Saggy that we r getting Del mastro.......

The return going back would leave us all absolutely thrilled. Lol. We gotta wait till JAN 6th to find out if it's gonna happen.

 

[DarkRedxJ]

Make of this what u want but I've been told by 3 different ppl in the last 20 minutes on top of Saggy that we r getting Del mastro.......

would love to get Del Mastro but we need a top 6 centre more then we need Del Mastro I

 

[davewheeler]

I see people saying Ben had no help, I disagree. He was out of position a lot of the game. Wide open nets occur when the goalie is over-committing. He was already on his knees before the Czech guy made the pass. We've seen this in Sarnia for awhile now ... out of position... over committing ... guessing .... failure to make a save .... always the defences fault.

 

[SarniaStingFan]

We can add all we want but it won't matter if we don't get good goaltending. Gaudreau had a rough game tonight and isn't playing well. If he doesn't play well, we don't win in the playoffs. The Sting had a choice between Gaudreau and Thornton in the offseason and right now it's looking like they made the wrong choice.

 

[robp1219]

We can add all we want but it won't matter if we don't get good goaltending. Gaudreau had a rough game tonight and isn't playing well. If he doesn't play well, we don't win in the playoffs. The Sting had a choice between Gaudreau and Thornton in the offseason and right now it's looking like they made the wrong choice.

We can add all we want but it won't matter if we don't get good goaltending. Gaudreau had a rough game tonight and isn't playing well. If he doesn't play well, we don't win in the playoffs. The Sting had a choice between Gaudreau and Thornton in the offseason and right now it's looking like they made the wrong choice.

if I was picking between gaudreau and Thornton based off last year I would of picked gaudreau too. He had Better save percentage and GAA than Thornton and he was stellar in the playoffs against windsor. Nobody was expecting this from gaudreau. His numbers have never been stellar but this team in past years were brutal infront of him and he kept the team in games and gave them a chance making a lot of saves and big saves. Now he has a team infront of him and he’s junk and now he can’t make easy saves. He’s a completely different goalie from past years. Not sure why.

Make of this what u want but I've been told by 3 different ppl in the last 20 minutes on top of Saggy that we r getting Del mastro.......

The return going back would leave us all absolutely thrilled. Lol. We gotta wait till JAN 6th to find out if it's gonna happen.

Why do we have to wait until Jan 6th?

 

[SarniaStingFan]

Why do we have to wait until Jan 6th?

Players at the World Juniors can't be traded while the tournament is ongoing. Tournament ends on January 5th so players can officially be traded the next day on January 6th

 

[robp1219]

Players at the World Juniors can't be traded while the tournament is ongoing. Tournament ends on January 5th so players can officially be traded the next day on January 6th

Gotcha, I thought I remember in the past seeing a Canadian player being traded while at the tournament and talking about it in an interview. Maybe not or maybe a rule change since then.

 

[SarniaStingFan]

Gotcha, I thought I remember in the past seeing a Canadian player being traded while at the tournament and talking about it in an interview. Maybe not or maybe a rule change since then.

Probably thinking of Steve Mason in the 07-08 season when he traded from London to Kitchener. The rule change was made shortly after that I believe because Mason didn't know about the trade before he was interviewed.

 

[robp1219]

Probably thinking of Steve Mason in the 07-08 season when he traded from London to Kitchener. The rule change was made shortly after that I believe because Mason didn't know about the trade before he was interviewed.

Gotcha

 

[StingUpdates]

My thoughts on the potential Del Mastro trade (sorry for the incoming novel) -

The people who are telling me about the Del Mastro stuff told me about prior things that came true (such as Pastujov trade) so I have no reason to not believe them (Saggy included), But I'll still have to see it to believe it. Must have some deep seeded trust issues.. haha. But in the case it does happen (told it's pretty much done) it's definitely a massive move & one I did not expect at all after Kyrou's addition.

Del Mastro is argubaly the best Dman in the OHL right now. He's an animal. Hes like the junior version of Hedman if you will as guys that size shouldn't be able to skate, move & handle the puck as well as he does. Can completely dominate a game in every way.

It would make our defence outrageously good. Probably be the best in the entire league (at least on paper).. Be no fun at all trying to enter the zone vs 6'5 Mast, 6'5 Romeo & 6'4 Del Mastro who all skate well for that size. Be a nightmare actually lol. Ritchie & Kyrou would be so free to activate all the time which they do so well & if he stays, Dillingham as a real physical defensive defenceman would be one of the better "3rd" pair D. Hoover, Fischer would be incredible depth if anyone ever misses time.

It would be hard to imagine it not costing Martone honestly. We can only offer two 2nds & no 3rds. A player of his caliber almost always costs 2-3 2nds, 2-3 3rds + a player.. With no 3rds available MISS would be crazy to do it without Martone involved.

That's where it leaves me a bit torn. Clearly we are ALL-IN. No holding back. I can live with that. I don't see them being good the next few years anyway so why not really suck lol. But, I really don't think a superstar D is a need w/Mast, Kyrou, Ritchie, Romeo, Dillingham, Fischer/Hoover already here. It's hard to argue with building a super defence but it would almost feel like overkill to me.

Especially with such a glaring hole in our top-6 the need there is so much larger than on the backend. I'll say Filak has been a very good 2C since being elevated there so maybe they feel comfortable with him there & I am fine with him there. He does a ton of good & will do all the heavy lifting for Vilmanis, Pastujov on L2 while chipping in himself. I just don't love Lantz as the 1C. he's been awesome & does a ton of good but 90% of championship teams tend to have truly elite 1Cs & he isn't that.

If Del Mastro is the big move & their final one, I still without a doubt would have championship aspirations for this club. It would be a stacked team that could 100% go all the way. It would just haunt me forever if they got into RD2/RD3 vs another elite team & I/we gotta watch Sikic miss 4 grade A looks in game 7, Vilmanis miss the net on golden opportunities because they didn't add another guy who can put the puck in consistently..

Now all this won't matter if Gaudreau doesn't find his game. We will have nothing left to trade so they will be putting everything on his back which could completely & utterly blow up in there face. Maybe when he returns they should give him a 2 week break or something to try & regroup/reset because at the end of the day he's a kid & his confidence is absolutely shot to hell & only getting worse. I know he's fairly active on social media & unfortunately ppl are absolute assholes online & when a kid struggles at these type of tournaments it gets really ugly (ppl already flooded his IG with garbage) .. I truly hope he can ignore it all, play well in the games he gets in & whether he is starting or not winning gold would be a great achievement that hopefully gives him a much needed boost.

 

[OHL4Life]

Well then.. haha. See if it happens. I honestly would MUCH rather trade Martone or MacDonell for a superstar F than another D, but Del Mastro is an animal in the O & would make our backend elite as hell.

Won't matter much if Gaudreau continues this play.... never seen such a falloff. Ik his stats have never been great but he never allowed goals like these so often l

maybe im a bit grumpy this morning in my old age, i would think a championship team wouldnt need to make that many moves.

and with the goalie, i asked early in the season and ill ask again, hes 19 and never had a sv above 900. at some point your record is what it is, isnt it?

 

[StingUpdates]

maybe im a bit grumpy this morning in my old age, i would think a championship team wouldnt need to make that many moves.



and with the goalie, i asked early in the season and ill ask again, hes 19 and never had a sv above 900. at some point your record is what it is, isnt it?

I'd say yes & no. Sometimes you gather such immense talent while rebuilding your team is stacked from day 1 of the season you're going for it. Other times you've built a lot of good pieces but need 2or3 to fill it out. Look at Hamilton last yr. They added the two biggest fish in the pond.



Especially with how wide open the conference is adding can really separate a team from the pack.



As for Gaudreau it certainly might be that way. I think the disappointment comes from he honestly played far better when we stunk. In the 2 previous years he played we allowed 35-40 shots a night. He was under siege & often was the only reason it was respectable. He rarely allowed "bad" goals.



This season we keep shots under 27. Don't allow a ton of grade-A looks, but he's letting in more goals & most notably poor goals at bad times that he simply just wasn't allowing in years past. To me, he got into his own head sometime in November & it's been downhill since. Can certainly argue what exactly he is, but he's shown he's much better than this at the very least.

 

[robp1219]

I'd say yes & no. Sometimes you gather such immense talent while rebuilding your team is stacked from day 1 of the season you're going for it. Other times you've built a lot of good pieces but need 2or3 to fill it out. Look at Hamilton last yr. They added the two biggest fish in the pond.



Especially with how wide open the conference is adding can really separate a team from the pack.



As for Gaudreau it certainly might be that way. I think the disappointment comes from he honestly played far better when we stunk. In the 2 previous years he played we allowed 35-40 shots a night. He was under siege & often was the only reason it was respectable. He rarely allowed "bad" goals.



This season we keep shots under 27. Don't allow a ton of grade-A looks, but he's letting in more goals & most notably poor goals at bad times that he simply just wasn't allowing in years past. To me, he got into his own head sometime in November & it's been downhill since. Can certainly argue what exactly he is, but he's shown he's much better than this at the very least.

35-40? In years past the sting were giving up 35-50 shots regularly. He had lots of nights facing 40 plus shots and a few 50 shots a night in each season. He has been garbage this year I’m not denying that one bit, but the last two seasons he had real good numbers considering the terrible defensive team infront of him.

 

[robp1219]

As for del Mastro, the guy is a beast in every aspect of the game. Maybe they are trying to make their defence so good they allow even less shots and less chances and with a defence this good they will spend so much time in the offensive zone because with a defence that good this team should be able to breakout out of their end a lot easier and teams will have alot harder time entering are zone or even breaking out of their own zone. Also adding guys like del Mastro and kyrou will provide more offence from the backend on 5 on 5 and the powerplay. I can see it being a good thing from that perspective. As for gaudreau tell him to delete social media and when he gets back he gets a full week off. And give him two real bad teams to start against. Try and build his game up. Also Suryzcia should get a lot more starts in second half for a few reasons…. 1.) Takes alot of pressure off Ben 2.) he’s earned it 3.) it gives him more playing experience incase we need him in playoffs. I’m not going to worry about trades too much because I can’t do nothing about it lol, just going to sit back and watch.

 

[dirty12]

Probably thinking of Steve Mason in the 07-08 season when he traded from London to Kitchener. The rule change was made shortly after that I believe because Mason didn't know about the trade before he was interviewed.

Or a leak, as was the case with (Studnicka?) to Niagara.
Or the player was eliminated from the tournament before it ended? I (think) the rule is the player cannot be moved while participating at the tournament.

 

[Ferda11]

We can add all we want but it won't matter if we don't get good goaltending. Gaudreau had a rough game tonight and isn't playing well. If he doesn't play well, we don't win in the playoffs. The Sting had a choice between Gaudreau and Thornton in the offseason and right now it's looking like they made the wrong choice.

I don’t think they made the wrong choice. Like @robp1219 said, after Ben’s performance in the playoffs and his ability to steal us games at times behind a horrendous defense, you would have to agree the Sting made the right choice at the time. No one expected what we’ve seen so far from Gaudreau, not to this extent at least. Certainly is frustrating beyond a doubt…especially when we are desperately trying to make a run. Such a Sarnia Sting thing to happen.

 

[Ferda11]

I certainly wouldn’t complain if this Del Mastro thing pans out. I’m curious who the player would be going back. I sensed a bit of sarcasm in @StingUpdates when he said we would be thrilled with the return going back to Missy lol.

My attitude is “all in” at this point. Do I want to see Martone or Angus involved? Absolutely not. If these rumours are true, I just don’t see how one of them aren’t involved unfortunately.

This would make our D core top tier no doubt. With all the injuries to Dillingham and the Sting looking to run, you would think this would open up other avenues to fill the other void we’ve all been talking about up front. I feel for Dillingham but we need all 3 of our OA’s to be contributors on the ice. Maybe we see Dilly hang them up and get healthy which would open up an OA spot and Sarnia goes after Logan Morrison? Would we even have enough to do that? Even with the Del Mastro addition if true, we still absolutely need that hole filled in the top 6.

 

[RayzorIsDull]

maybe im a bit grumpy this morning in my old age, i would think a championship team wouldnt need to make that many moves.

and with the goalie, i asked early in the season and ill ask again, hes 19 and never had a sv above 900. at some point your record is what it is, isnt it?

I guess it depends on your view. Are you making numerous moves to win a title, or are you making numerous moves to keep up with others. Hamilton in 2018 made many moves Thomas/Stillman/Moore/Caamano/Mattinen. They won it all that year and only had 93 points but they obviously believed in what they had to make all those moves.

 

[HkyBeegs3]

Bottom line is Gaudreau HAS to be a difference maker especially come playoff time and raise his game. Sting will only go as far as he will take them.
So in our current team state, what are our updated line combos?

 

[StingUpdates]

As for del Mastro, the guy is a beast in every aspect of the game. Maybe they are trying to make their defence so good they allow even less shots and less chances and with a defence this good they will spend so much time in the offensive zone because with a defence that good this team should be able to breakout out of their end a lot easier and teams will have alot harder time entering are zone or even breaking out of their own zone. Also adding guys like del Mastro and kyrou will provide more offence from the backend on 5 on 5 and the powerplay. I can see it being a good thing from that perspective. As for gaudreau tell him to delete social media and when he gets back he gets a full week off. And give him two real bad teams to start against. Try and build his game up. Also Suryzcia should get a lot more starts in second half for a few reasons…. 1.) Takes alot of pressure off Ben 2.) he’s earned it 3.) it gives him more playing experience incase we need him in playoffs. I’m not going to worry about trades too much because I can’t do nothing about it lol, just going to sit back and watch.

Definitely some solid points. Our backend production would be one of the best with the guys we'd have. hopefully it boosts our offense. Agree on Surzycia. I wish my brain could work like yours. Now when im watching Canada I'll only be watching Del Mastro hahaha.

I certainly wouldn’t complain if this Del Mastro thing pans out. I’m curious who the player would be going back. I sensed a bit of sarcasm in @StingUpdates when he said we would be thrilled with the return going back to Missy lol.

My attitude is “all in” at this point. Do I want to see Martone or Angus involved? Absolutely not. If these rumours are true, I just don’t see how one of them aren’t involved unfortunately.

This would make our D core top tier no doubt. With all the injuries to Dillingham and the Sting looking to run, you would think this would open up other avenues to fill the other void we’ve all been talking about up front. I feel for Dillingham but we need all 3 of our OA’s to be contributors on the ice. Maybe we see Dilly hang them up and get healthy which would open up an OA spot and Sarnia goes after Logan Morrison? Would we even have enough to do that? Even with the Del Mastro addition if true, we still absolutely need that hole filled in the top 6.

He's still obviously playing hurt. you just gotta watch him for a period to see him in pain. He's a warrior but the team has to be smart too. Not just for themselves either. Don't want this kid having serious shoulder issues his whole life because he didn't wanna miss his OA yr as hard as that is. They wouldn't have enough left or a high-end F. will only have 4ths, 5ths. Probably just get a depth F with some size & jam if I had to guess which is something id like.

Bottom line is Gaudreau HAS to be a difference maker especially come playoff time and raise his game. Sting will only go as far as he will take them.
So in our current team state, what are our updated line combos?

IF the trade happens & if is for Martone

Burke-Lantz-Voit
Pastujov-Filak-Vilmanis
MacDonell-Sikic-Wainwright
Doucette-Way-Harper

Del Mastro-Ritchie
Mast-Kyrou
Dillingham-Romeo
Hoover-Fischer

 

[OSA]

Just a thought, but if Dillingham’s shoulder is not going to improve maybe this deal is for DelMastro and James Hardie. Would be an OA sniper you could add onto the Voit/Burke line and fill in a C on line 2 with Pastujov and Vilmanis

Hardie Burke Voit
Vilmanis LL Pastujov
MacDonell Filak Sikic
4th line

Try to keep the Kyrou pairing with line 2 in a more distributive role

 

[StingUpdates]

Just a thought, but if Dillingham’s shoulder is not going to improve maybe this deal is for DelMastro and James Hardie. Would be an OA sniper you could add onto the Voit/Burke line and fill in a C on line 2 with Pastujov and Vilmanis

Good God would I love that haha. It would 100% cost Martone then & even that may not be enough. He's a 40G guy to go with Del Mastro... be unbelievable.

 

[dmead]

Out of curiousity... how many cards you guys have left?

Looks to me that your team is well positioned for a strong run as long a Ben can turn it around.