Sarnia Sting 2023-24 Off-Season Thread

[StingUpdates]

Cajkovic having a great game. Nice goal then that was an outrageous pass to spring Kostuch who stays hot dangling Donoso. Kid is nasty.

 

[StingUpdates]

Well I don't think we gotta think about Windsor passing us. They are.... Oof. One of the only teams we outplay whenever we play them lol.

Hurt-Cajkovic having a phenomenal game on D. Nice to see. Be great to see Brown find the net this 3rd pd. He's had a number of looks

 

[NBBFan]

5on3 PP and we have Sikic, Schwindt, Filak & Doucette out there. Just horrendous. Not one good passer. Not one elite shooter. nobody with high end vision, hands, creativity. Fricken brutal.

There is just no cohesion on the PP. It will be interesting to see what happens next year with the majority of the PP unit gone. At least then Letang will have no other choice then to play the young guys. Brown, Kostuch and Moses should be on the PP. Fit them in somewhere with a Vet or 2.

 

[StingUpdates]

There is just no cohesion on the PP. It will be interesting to see what happens next year with the majority of the PP unit gone. At least then Letang will have no other choice then to play the young guys. Brown, Kostuch and Moses should be on the PP. Fit them in somewhere with a Vet or 2.

Throw Brown, Kostuch, Barr, Wainwright & somebody net front and let them run it all yr. All be back the next yr too.

Let bridgewater run PP2 with the 1st RD, new import, Filak/Doucette.

But that's a ways away haha.

 

[NBBFan]

Way and Filak on the 4 on 4, lol. Ridiculous.

Throw Brown, Kostuch, Barr, Wainwright & somebody net front and let them run it all yr. All be back the next yr too.

Let bridgewater run PP2 with the 1st RD, new import, Filak/Doucette.

But that's a ways away haha.

Absolutely.

 

[StingUpdates]

Well credit to the boys. Since that debacle vs LDN they've certainly played much, much better. Played tough vs SBY, beat Mis, played close vs ER, beat FLT convincingly, OTL in GUE, 1 goal loss @ SSM then a W tonight.

Credit to the coaches too. For a minute it looked like every night might be a 8-1 slapping. While I wanna miss I do appreciate good efforts & I'm sure the goalies do too lol.

Best game from 23-12-24 in a bit. Brown has been snakebit as of late which sucks. But still playing well. Kostuch again awesome. Easily Cajkovic' best game here. If that's him every night then it's harder to let him go but it's still the logical decision. Hurt was a beast tonight too. Blocks, big hit, good decisions & picked up an assist.

Thought Bridgewater was fine. Didn't try to do to much. Showed his passing, edge work a few times. Fischer seems to love playing the bigger name Fs. Did a great job vs Greentree.

Surzycia is on a roll now. 5 straight good starts. 0.913 last 7 starts. 0.927 his last 5.

 

[DarkRedxJ]

Well credit to the boys. Since that debacle vs LDN they've certainly played much, much better. Played tough vs SBY, beat Mis, played close vs ER, beat FLT convincingly, OTL in GUE, 1 goal loss @ SSM then a W tonight.

Credit to the coaches too. For a minute it looked like every night might be a 8-1 slapping. While I wanna miss I do appreciate good efforts & I'm sure the goalies do too lol.

Best game from 23-12-24 in a bit. Brown has been snakebit as of late which sucks. But still playing well. Kostuch again awesome. Easily Cajkovic' best game here. If that's him every night then it's harder to let him go but it's still the logical decision. Hurt was a beast tonight too. Blocks, big hit, good decisions & picked up an assist.

Thought Bridgewater was fine. Didn't try to do to much. Showed his passing, edge work a few times. Fischer seems to love playing the bigger name Fs. Did a great job vs Greentree.

Surzycia is on a roll now. 5 straight good starts. 0.913 last 7 starts. 0.927 his last 5.

Good W tonight don't like how little Brown and Kostuch played in the 3rd. Also hope to start seeing Sim more. I just hate that Doherty and Kukumberg are doing almost nothing but we keep sitting Sim. Also swear Filak and Way played 10 mins in the 3rd.

 

[StingUpdates]

We'll just have to accept that certain guys are gonna play bigger minutes, especially late. I at least like that brown & Kostuch are getting solid mins + PP time. Hurt playing a ton. Barr is/will. Omeri too.

Be interesting to see tomorrow's game. Been a good stretch here of playing better defense. Is it because of their opponents or cause they've actually started to figure it out? OTT be a good test for that.

 

[StingUpdates]

Per game...

Team	22/23 Avg	23/24 Avg	Diff
Sarnia	3107	3902	795
Mississauga	1592	2252	660
Sudbury	3177	3758	580
Erie	3109	3659	550
Flint	2755	3112	358
North Bay	2452	2784	333
Guelph	4341	4673	332
Peterborough	3104	3425	321
Kitchener	6068	6361	293
Barrie	3252	3541	289
Sault Ste. Marie	3522	3790	268
Saginaw	3241	3365	124
Kingston	3124	3171	47
Windsor	4527	4572	46
London	8997	9035	38
Oshawa	4831	4868	37
Owen Sound	2675	2704	29
Ottawa	4043	4041	-1
Niagara	3898	3615	-283
Brantford	3608	3081	-528

Capacity

Team	%
Brantford	103.3%
Guelph	100.2%
London	100.0%
Oshawa	88.5%
Barrie	84.4%
Peterborough	84.2%
Kitchener	82.6%
Owen Sound	77.3%
Sault Ste. Marie	75.8%
Sarnia	75.0%
Sudbury	73.7%
Flint	70.7%
Windsor	70.3%
Niagara	68.2%
Erie	66.5%
North Bay	65.6%
Saginaw	61.2%
Kingston	58.9%
Ottawa	47.5%
Mississauga	37.5%

Saw this in attendance thread. How about that eh. Imagine if this team got to RD3 or 4 like they should've many times hadn't they choked. And imagine had they WON a championship last yr.

It's not been a 4000 sold only 3000 there either. It's been packed every night to see them lose lmao.

No clue if this is the new norm or after this yr or next it'll fall off but it's sure been nice to see. Gotta give credit to the how much better they've gotten at advertising, doing deals etc.

 

[stinger94]

Vilmanis and the Leblanc twins seem to keep popping up on the scoresheet for NB glad to see they are all contributing and would love to see them make a deep playoff run.

 

[SarniaStingFan]

No Sting lineup yet but Ottawa's lineup is out. They have their 2023 fourth rounder Jaeden Nelson making his first career OHL start in net today

 

[DarkRedxJ]

Chartier starts same lines Doherty in for Kukumberg. Would've liked to see Sim.

 

[StingUpdates]

Chartier starts same lines Doherty in for Kukumberg. Would've liked to see Sim.

Sim hurt his ankle a little ago. Not sure if that's still an issue or if he is just the odd man out. But I'd agree. Maybe not vs OTT but last night or Sunday most definitely want him in.

Don't like after sitting for 2 weeks they give Chartier a good team when u have the only team worse than u before & after. Not putting him in a great spot for confidence. Hopefully he can have a solid outing.

Kukumberg sitting for Doherty tells u all u need to know. Such a shame man. Whatever injuries 21 suffered completely derailed his season & likely his Sting tenure.

Excited to see Bridgewater live.

 

[stingwagoner]

Think tonight will be good game but PP better get revamped 1st unit looking like a JR B squad lately

 

[StingUpdates]

Would've loved Schwindt on last year's team. He's been great in 2024. Chartier really good that period. OTT is so good at cycling

 

[StingUpdates]

Full marks. They are playing their asses off. What a rip by Omeri. He has a great shot on him. Certainly catching breaks tho with 3 posts & the reffing lol

 

[stingwagoner]

2nd pp unit looks so much better that 1st.
12 23 27 9 11

 

[StingUpdates]

Also, Bridgewater is having a great home debut. That kid can absolutely fly. Dusted a real good Dman in Mayer to draw a penalty that we scored on.

 

[StingUpdates]

What a fricken game! One of the best home games of the year. Great atmosphere late/in OT/shootout.

Chartier with a great game. Dude was a wall in the shootout. Sick move & finish by Omeri to keep them in it. Great game from him. Love his energy on the bench. Loved Bridgewater. Wish he wouldve got a chance on 3on3 but I'll cut Letang slack there.

He called out the vets 2 weeks ago and theyve responded. Fair play to them. Though Way was awesome tonight. Schwindt been racking up G's. Filak big tying goal.

Flint loses so Sarnia is tied for 8th now. I don't wanna make it but hats off to the boys. They've been a much better team since Letang challenged them after LDN. Also has to be fantastic for these guys development to be playing such tight, intense games as 16/17 yr olds. I always praise him but Hurt is a rock back there at 16 & his play has gone up noticeably lately. Omeri, too.

Hate to say MacDonald hurt his shoulder in a fight again. What is with the local kids having the worst goddamn luck on this team?? Brutal. He was the only vet remaining too. He joins Young & Barr on D to be out. Talk about experience for Hurt, Fischer & Omeri.

Onto Windsor Sunday!

 

[stingwagoner]

Was great play by 12 to pressure the puck and stop them from getting out, leading to filak tying goal, team effort win there against a solid OHL playoff team.
Chartier played well when it counted and had a wicked Shootout. I guess we need more RH forwards and D as they were only ones to score on ShootOut.. sikic moses and omeri.
Guess doherty was next GOOD EFFORT BOYS that's what it's going to take every game to make things very interesting rest of the way. Again thought pp1 was bad again.
Pp2 scored again tonight good going.
Macdonald fighting for no real reason wasn't super smart may have ended his career

 

[DarkRedxJ]

What a fricken game! One of the best home games of the year. Great atmosphere late/in OT/shootout.

Chartier with a great game. Dude was a wall in the shootout. Sick move & finish by Omeri to keep them in it. Great game from him. Love his energy on the bench. Loved Bridgewater. Wish he wouldve got a chance on 3on3 but I'll cut Letang slack there.

He called out the vets 2 weeks ago and theyve responded. Fair play to them. Though Way was awesome tonight. Schwindt been racking up G's. Filak big tying goal.

Flint loses so Sarnia is tied for 8th now. I don't wanna make it but hats off to the boys. They've been a much better team since Letang challenged them after LDN. Also has to be fantastic for these guys development to be playing such tight, intense games as 16/17 yr olds. I always praise him but Hurt is a rock back there at 16 & his play has gone up noticeably lately. Omeri, too.

Hate to say MacDonald hurt his shoulder in a fight again. What is with the local kids having the worst goddamn luck on this team?? Brutal. He was the only vet remaining too. He joins Young & Barr on D to be out. Talk about experience for Hurt, Fischer & Omeri.

Onto Windsor Sunday!

With Macdonald out I wonder if we see Schnieder Sunday. Also with Macdonald hurting his shoulder again that may be the end of his season. And with him being an OA next year and this being his 3rd major injury I wonder if we just watched his last game with the Sting.

With Chartier's performance tonight I wonder if he may get the start Sunday.

 

[StingUpdates]

With Macdonald out I wonder if we see Schnieder Sunday. Also with Macdonald hurting his shoulder again that may be the end of his season. And with him being an OA next year and this being his 3rd major injury I wonder if we just watched his last game with the Sting.

With Chartier's performance tonight I wonder if he may get the start Sunday.

Yah I gotta imagine hes brought back up if Young can't go. Surzycia been so good I'm good with either guy starting. My guess is Surzy gets the start.

Thought the best part about 33s game tonight was he was a lot more composed in the net. Wasn't flying all over the place. Gotta think that's something they've been working on. Maybe why he had a longer gap between starts.

 

[StingUpdates]

One thing that is great to see is over this recent stretch of much better defensive play is who's doing it on D.

Fischer - 17 - second season.
Hurt - 16 - first season.
Omeri - 17 - first season.
Cajkovic - 18 - first season.
Young - 18 - second season.
Barr - 16 - first season.
Bridgewater - 16 - first season.

Not a younger blue line in the league. Will say Cajkovic has been levels above his play when he first arrived. I see why they'd be intrigued to keep him. For me id still move on because of all those other guys returning & I don't want any of them sitting next yr. Can let the 7th D be Schnieder or a young guy.

If they can manage to find some impactful Fs (O Draft, import draft, FA signing/trades) then next year's team could be pretty fun. Still nothing special, but entertaining & create optimism for the following seasons.

 

[stingwagoner]

Schneider is not a O level D and players we have that are younger are years above him think it's a step back on Blue line if being him back. We still need a D coach that can mold these players and hold them accountable especially Fischer being young needs that type of coaching as his defensive play is suspect 4/5times a game and that hurts us. I'm sure he can clean that up and become a absolute stud!
As for cajovic think moving on is beneficial as his size and play is too soft for what we need. We need to sign 2 heavy players throw body around and open space for linemates.

Needs next year

-Heavy hitting and tough WingeR that can play game
-top end skill forwards RW/C fre young players and then OA
**-special teams Coach!!
**-defense coach
Should be good to be higher end in league and then make all in run in 2025-26

 

[davewheeler]

Saw this in attendance thread. How about that eh. Imagine if this team got to RD3 or 4 like they should've many times hadn't they choked. And imagine had they WON a championship last yr.

It's not been a 4000 sold only 3000 there either. It's been packed every night to see them lose lmao.

No clue if this is the new norm or after this yr or next it'll fall off but it's sure been nice to see. Gotta give credit to the how much better they've gotten at advertising, doing deals etc.

The attendance has been the best it's been since the early days. Sting are a confusing team. It must be hard to play the Sting ...They are usually the under dog but they get really good goaltending night after night ....That would frustrate teams seeing 15-3 shots on net but the score only being 1-1 or something. Sarnia has a way of mucking up the games and keeping it close vs non elite teams. I love seeing them win but I do not want to see them make playoffs and get steamrolled. Good win vs a good Ottawa team..... If we got this years goaltending last year there is zero doubt we'd be in the memorial cup.