Sarnia Sting 2023-24 Season Thread (Part One)

[JAMER]

I know I mentioned it last night. But I think if Macdonald is out long term. I think we need to pick up a D man. Because if he is out awhile. We're basically down to 5 rookie D and 1 vet. Which is not good even for a rebuilding team. I know Seca said he was going to add another OA like 5 weeks ago now may be the time. If we did get an OA D I would see what Kitchener wants for Motew he shouldn't cost much maybe a 4th would do.

 

[StingUpdates]

Sting prospect Patrick Quinlan was USAs starting goalie for the U17s where they got silver. Had a great tournament.

Be a HUGE get if they could sign him in the summer. Not holding my breath, but at the draft Seca said - “We’re pretty optimistic there’s some traction with Quinlan down the road,”

He'll likely have a ton of NCAA interest so won't be easy but adding a legitimately elite goalie prospect to our crop would be amazing. Least we have Chartier, but he's no sure thing & we really lack depth there.

 

[JAMER]

A couple things I noticed today.

1. I'm starting to think maybe there's a chance Mast could get sent back. He has currently played 4 ECHL games and 1 AHL game and has 0pts.

2. I'm starting to wonder if there may be a chance Moldenhauer comes over. He's not doing well for Michigan so for. He currently has 1g and 3a through 11 NCAA games and is 12th on the team in scoring. He'd be a huge get 1st line player and could run the PP and if we where to move him it would help and some more high end picks.

 

[JAMER]

A couple things I noticed today.

1. I'm starting to think maybe there's a chance Mast could get sent back. He has currently played 4 ECHL games and 1 AHL game and has 0pts.

2. I'm starting to wonder if there may be a chance Moldenhauer comes over. He's not doing well for Michigan so for. He currently has 1g and 3a through 11 NCAA games and is 12th on the team in scoring. He'd be a huge get 1st line player and could run the PP and if we where to move him it would help and some more high end picks.

Also did some looking around on Voit. And it doesn't look like he's hurt any more. But the Marlies still aren't playing him. Here we are almost half way through November and Voit has yet to play a games this year. Either play him or send him back sitting him does no good for his development.

 

[StingUpdates]

MacDonald apparently in a sling. So very least he's probably out a month. Moses hopes to be back 2-3 weeks. Also shoulder. Hoover still not cleared yet. Nothing on Kukumberg. He's on the trip with the team, but other than that no clue.

Certainly puts them in an interesting spot. Think I've made it clear my preference is playing the rookies & not blocking them, but I also don't want them getting flooded/overworked.

Odds are the D tomorrow is
LeBlanc (19)
Young (18)* 2nd year
Fischer (17)* 2nd year
Omeri (17)** Rookie
Barr (16)** Rookie
Hurt (16)** Rookie

That's so much inexperience. Especially adding in Letang leaves in a few weeks for a month+. We also have a rookie goalie. Don't want him getting pummeled because of how young the Dcore is.

This is when I'd be fine with adding an OA. Nobody crazy. Just some guy to help stabilize things & take some pressure off the rookies & even Fischer who we tend to forget is only 17, too.

Frankly, MacDonald has been on the struggle bus quite a bit lately as well. Was demoted to 7th D a few times. So if Seca can find a cheap OA to help I'll be happy with it. Up front I don't wanna add anybody. Get Moses, Brown, Kukumberg back. Rotate Sim/Doherty/Lominac till one takes the 12th F spot. Lominac definitely been the best of the 3, but has been struggling a bit lately.

Trade Vilmanis 100% & at least one of Doucette or Filak. Doubt there's much of a market for Sikic as an OA. Hopefully get a couple top 4 round picks & finish the yr out likely battling for 8th.

 

[SarniaStingFan]

Sting prospect Liam Beamish continues to light it up in the GOJHL! 2G/1A in a 5-4 loss on Friday and 1G/1A in a 6-3 win on Saturday. Now up to 13G/11A in 20 games this year and 16 PTS (10G, 6A) in his last 7 games. Tied for 3rd in goal scoring and tied for 6th in points in the GOJHL. Added bonus is that he seems to be able to play in all situations. He's tied for the league lead in shorthanded goals with three. I think it's time to get this kid signed!

 

[StingUpdates]

Sting prospect Liam Beamish continues to light it up in the GOJHL! 2G/1A in a 5-4 loss on Friday and 1G/1A in a 6-3 win on Saturday. Now up to 13G/11A in 20 games this year and 16 PTS (10G, 6A) in his last 7 games. Tied for 3rd in goal scoring and tied for 6th in points in the GOJHL. Added bonus is that he seems to be able to play in all situations. He's tied for the league lead in shorthanded goals with three. I think it's time to get this kid signed!

Great to see. When going back to see what Seca said about Quinlan he also said Beamish was ranked significantly higher by their scouts than where they got him. Also said they think he'll be a really solid OHL player.

From ppl I talked to (not with Sarnia) they also thought he was tremendous value in the 8th. Definitely need to get him signed here soon.

Michael Denney also had a big night. 1G/2A. Gives him 13G/6A in 19 games. 24th in league scoring tied w/Beamish for 3rd in goals.

Of the top 28 points getters only 8 of them are '06 or '07 born. Sting have two of them! Camp sure could be interesting next September with potentially up to 11Fs returning (assuming they keep 2OA Fs) & having Beamish, Denney, Soares & whoever they select this summer in the OHL, U18 + import drafts pushing/needing a spot.

 

[StingUpdates]

As for the game today be lying if I said I was confident. No real reason either than we always lose in Ottawa lol. They play so structured & stingy i could see it being a real issue for us to generate consistently.

Gotta play a whole hell of a lot better everywhere but especially defensively than they did Friday. If Chartier starts it'll be a tough test for him. Hopefully can build off his relief appearance.

 

[JAMER]

No Brown or Kukumberg Surzycia starts.

 

[JAMER]

We need to start declining the PP. And Omeri needs to sit. Unforced error causes a 5on3 goal. And then Stonehouse blows right by him for the 2nd goal.

 

[SarniaStingFan]

Yeah that was a terrible period. After the first five minutes the Sting got completely dominated. I agree on Omeri. He needs to see his minutes take a hit after the two bad mistakes. Good thing Surzycia is playing well right now otherwise this game could easily be 5-0. I don't know why this team finds it impossible to play well in Kingston and Ottawa. Super frustrating!

 

[JAMER]

Are young D are getting exposed. We need to bring in a vet.

 

[Texcanuck]

Haha. Omeri with a shortie.
Gotta love the karma stuff.

 

[StingUpdates]

Well I've missed the game so far. Going about as well as most games in OTT do for us. Nice to see one of the rookie D finally score, let alone a SHG. But from the sounds of it he's had a rough day

Gonna happen with so many young D playing big minutes & special teams. Joys of rebuilding.

 

[JAMER]

If we don't bring in a veteran D by Wenseday I'd be surprised.

 

[SarniaStingFan]

Ottawa is simply on another level from the Sting today. They move the puck so much quicker than us. PP is absolutely awful. Can't even get set up in the zone

 

[JAMER]

I'm glad I didn't go on this road trip. What a disaster these last 2 games have been.

 

[StingUpdates]

This shouldn't be a surprise to anybody. To begin with this team wasn't filled with talent then u add in them being hammered by injuries at F & it was gonna be an issue.

Then throw in some D ones & they are to young. Youngest in the conference, 2nd youngest in the league. Got rookies playing a ton of minutes vs established, good OHLers/teams. No matter how good they've been they are gonna have struggles/bad moments, games, weekends.

Add in their PP just fricken sucks (don't have the talent for it) and it's a bit to much for them right now. Should get Brown & Kukumberg back Wednesday. Be a nice, helpful boost, but this is them. They have 4Ws over Nia/Wsr. Outside that they are 5-9.

 

[JAMER]

This shouldn't be a surprise to anybody. To begin with this team wasn't filled with talent then u add in them being hammered by injuries at F & it was gonna be an issue.

Then throw in some D ones & they are to young. Youngest in the conference, 2nd youngest in the league. Got rookies playing a ton of minutes vs established, good OHLers/teams. No matter how good they've been they are gonna have struggles/bad moments, games, weekends.

Add in their PP just fricken sucks (don't have the talent for it) and it's a bit to much for them right now. Should get Brown & Kukumberg back Wednesday. Be a nice, helpful boost.

A 2 man advantage and no Wainwright or A.Lablanc.

 

[StingUpdates]

Brightside, Michael Denney had another huge day for Stratford. 3G/1A. Gives him GOJHL best 16 goals. 23 points puts him tied for 8th in points.


Bridgewater had an assist in each game. Gives him 1G/10A in 13 games.

 

[SarniaStingFan]

This shouldn't be a surprise to anybody. To begin with this team wasn't filled with talent then u add in them being hammered by injuries at F & it was gonna be an issue.

Then throw in some D ones & they are to young. Youngest in the conference, 2nd youngest in the league. Got rookies playing a ton of minutes vs established, good OHLers/teams. No matter how good they've been they are gonna have struggles/bad moments, games, weekends.

Add in their PP just fricken sucks (don't have the talent for it) and it's a bit to much for them right now. Should get Brown & Kukumberg back Wednesday. Be a nice, helpful boost, but this is them. They have 4Ws over Nia/Wsr. Outside that they are 5-9.

These last two games weren't them. We tend to forget how important the emergence of Brown was. He was one of their best forwards before the injury/going to the U17's. With Brown in the lineup the Sting are 6-4 and scored 4.2 goals per game and without him they've gone 3-6 and have scored 2.9 goals per game. That's a quite a difference! With him and Kukumberg coming back I expect to see some better results from this team. The Sting are still just two points out of being fourth in the West. Let's not give up on the team 19 games into the season. Still plenty of time left in the season and we haven't even seen the full team play together yet

 

[StingUpdates]

These last two games weren't them. We tend to forget how important the emergence of Brown was. He was one of their best forwards before the injury/going to the U17's. With Brown in the lineup the Sting are 6-4 and scored 4.2 goals per game and without him they've gone 3-6 and have scored 2.9 goals per game. That's a quite a difference! With him and Kukumberg coming back I expect to see some better results from this team. The Sting are still just two points out of being fourth in the West. Let's not give up on the team 19 games into the season. Still plenty of time left in the season and we haven't even seen the full team play together yet

I'm not giving up on them by any means. Just think the hot start maybe got expectations or hopes a touch to high. There's a reason literally every single prediction had us last. Do I think we are better than that from what I've seen? Definitely.

But even with healthy Fs we are still incredibly young especially on D which has really shown as of late & our PP was pretty brutal even before those guys left the lineup.

But your right with a healthy F group it'll certainly be better than these last 2 efforts. Can actually roll 4 lines & have confidence at least 3 of them can produce somewhat consistently.

 

[SarniaStingFan]

I'm not giving up on them by any means. Just think the hot start maybe got expectations or hopes a touch to high. There's a reason literally every single prediction had us last. Do I think we are better than that from what I've seen? Definitely.

But even with healthy Fs we are still incredibly young especially on D which has really shown as of late & our PP was pretty brutal even before those guys left the lineup.

But your right with a healthy F group it'll certainly be better than these last 2 efforts. Can actually roll 4 lines & have confidence at least 3 of them can produce somewhat consistently.

I would agree the expectations probably got a little high. Likely the best the Sting finish is 7th or 8th in the conference. Still going to be a lot to overcome too: Letang/Vilmanis/maybe Kukumberg being away at the World Juniors and likely selling some veteran pieces at the trade deadline.

Hopefully we see the young pieces continue to get better as the season goes on. Would like to see Barr get some more playing time. Don't know why they've been so hesitant to play him this year.

This team has already proved me wrong this year. I also thought they were going to be absloutely terrible going into the year. Hopefully they can continue to prove me wrong

 

[StingUpdates]

I would agree the expectations probably got a little high. Likely the best the Sting finish is 7th or 8th in the conference. Still going to be a lot to overcome too: Letang/Vilmanis/maybe Kukumberg being away at the World Juniors and likely selling some veteran pieces at the trade deadline.

Hopefully we see the young pieces continue to get better as the season goes on. Would like to see Barr get some more playing time. Don't know why they've been so hesitant to play him this year.

This team has already proved me wrong this year. I also thought they were going to be absloutely terrible going into the year. Hopefully they can continue to prove me wrong

My guess would be Hurt is a bit more physically mature than Barr so maybe they figure he can handle bigger T6 Fs better. Which he has to be fair. Hurt was playing awesome until KGN then he struggled again today.

But least Barr has gotten consistent shifts all yr. Really like his upside. Moves the puck really well for a rookie. Defends fairly well too.

1st half is all about the young Dcore but The 2nd half will all be about the young Fs. With as you said Vilmanis & maybe Kukumberg going then potentially 2or3 guys being shipped out guys will be given good ice time.

Hopefully we see a couple of them really make a statement that they are a key piece moving forward. I've liked Lominac. Just needs to be less cute at times but I've loved his grit lately. Really been going at it w/other teams. Has had his fair share of chances as well. Just hasn't buried them.

Doherty been really disappointing honestly. Had a great opening weekend then a good weekend a few weeks back but outside that nothing. Sim has surpassed my expectations already honestly. We know the drill with him. If he grows watch out. But he's at least made me a believer that if he doesn't he still may end up being a decent F for us. Luecke wasn't as good this weekend, but he's been impressive. Then obviously Brown looked terrific before getting hurt. Hopefully we see Beamish, Denney, Soares be given a shot at some point. Definitely think Beamish will be. See how they feel about the other 2, specifially Denney if he keeps this up.

 

[StingUpdates]

Lines I'd like to see assuming Kukumberg & Brown are back @ Brantford on Wednesday:

LeBlanc-Filak-Doucette
- Bit of everything. Good board work, speed w/25, solid finishing ability & all responsible defensively.

Brown-Wainwright-Vilmanis
- Ton of speed w/12&23, great creativity especially with the wingers & all 3 can finish & set up the others.

Lominac-Sikic-Kukumberg
- Give Lominac legit facilitators to play with along with 2 bigger guys to create space & do the heavy lifting for him. 15/21 could be a handful to deal with.

Doherty-Way-Hall
- Hall/Way have been solid together so keep them and put whoever between Sim, Luecke, Doherty next to them. Playing with 2 PWF type Fs hopefully gives them more space.