Sarnia Sting 2024 - 25 Season Thread, Part I

[StingUpdates]

Just a brutal, brutal penalty by Kostuch. behind LDNs net & trips a guy when Sarnia's having an excellent period with the lead.

So frustrating. PK is having a rough night as well.

 

[StingUpdates]

Absolutely fricken maddening. Played a terrific 2nd period. Gave up very little. generated a lot. took the lead & piss it away with a dumb penalty & then the PP gives Nicholl a nice Christmas present with 5 seconds left.

Seriously look utterly & completely lost on the PP. running into each other. no spacing. no passes. All 3 LDN goals on special teams. Once again will cost them a game.

Brutal. Brutal. Brutal.

 

[StingUpdates]

They had a chance in this game & straight up handed it to London. Kostuch penalty flipped the momentum while up 2-1 & then the PP hand wrapped them a SHG goal which was the winner. Then LDN traps it up in the 3rd & you stand no chance.

Would they have held on in the 3rd? Who knows, but those couple minutes up 2-1 are absolutely infuriating & cost them the game. Surzycia was amazing, again. Though not sure what he was doing on 4th goal. Looked like he saw it go to the right & just didn't react/push over. Still only reason it wasn't 7-2.

Nice to see Edwards score in his return. 23/17/19 were by far our best line. Like to see them get some runway. Franceschetti had his best game as well. Filak really having a strong trip, he's stepped up.

Onto the final game of this trip from hell with Wainwright back in.

 

[stingwagoner]

Pp atrocious, worst to date.
Too many low percentage and passes.
Very soft effort I counted 13 hits, which is aweful. Thought Bridgewater was our best with hurt. No energy.

 

[stingwagoner]

Thank god wainwright back brings this teams energy.leads this team.
Predict big game from his line whoever it is

 

[SarniaStingFan]

It's hard to watch this team. The special teams are horrendous. The PK stood no chance with how little energy we were playing with tonight. London's PP is one of the most connected I've seen in junior hockey. Hard to stop even when you're playing well. Then on the opposite end you have the worst PP I've ever seen in junior hockey. Nobody wanted to use their teammates. London stonewalled them at the blue line and then they were out of options. Young's turnover was a prime example of that. Skates directly into two players causing a breakaway and flipping the game. Penalty by Kostuch when they were up 2-1 was costly. You're 200 feet away from your net, you just can't take that penalty.

Repeated instances like the fifth goal are really starting to tick me off. Two go into the corner which is a mistake but they expect to have other players back to help them out. Instead nobody backchecks and Julien is wide open for a tap-in. Happened in Saginaw earlier this year too with Maillet in net where they hung him out to dry with two goals in the final minute. Can't happen

I liked the Brown-Di Iorio-Karimov combination. Created the most chances of any line at 5v5. Wish Brown would have shot it on the 2v1 that he had. He looks like he's really lacking confidence. Would be great if he could get on the board this weekend. Franceschetti played with great energy. Singehandely created the second goal. Pushed an LDN player out of our d-zone, won a loose puck in neutral ice, and then poked it to Johnston. Awesome way to get his first career OHL point. Thought our third d-pairing was the strongest. Bridgewater-Barr played a simple but effective game. Second period was by far our strongest. Take away the stupid mistakes and that's how this team has to play if they want to win.

Onto Saginaw tomorrow which will be another tough test. Likely Maillet getting the start with all the rubber Surzycia saw. Need 2 points in the worst way

 

[StingUpdates]

It's been a weird couple weeks. I fully expected them to go 1-7, maybe 2-6 on this trip & they will no matter the result tomorrow. They've also kept it closer than I anticipated in OSH, LDN, NIA, ER. I give them credit for that & for not just accepting defeat in those games. Our goaltending especially has been awesome & that's great to see.

But man oh man do they have some very frustrating issues. #1 being The PP finally got going a bit on the northern trip then when everyone left it not only fell back to what it was it's gotten even worse.. Tonight was truly maybe as bad as a power play can look. Like wtf are the coaches telling these kids???

It isn't rocket science. Guys all have designated "spots/areas" to stay/support. You should have 2or3 zone entree plays. Tonight looked like 10 guys who have genuinely never even seen each other play hockey before let alone been on the same team for a couple months + had a week of practice. I mean good fricken god that looked like beer league hockey. Worst in the OHL & not even sure they've scored a PPG on the damn road trip.

#2 is how they start. Tonight was a change with them scoring first, but then the next 25ish minutes were a gong show. Couldn't pass, couldn't defend, couldn't do anything outside get saves from Surzycia. When your shorthanded, on the road & young playing from behind is never good & this team always finds itself playing from behind.

#3 & the final one is just team cohesion. I cut them some slack here for the obvious. Injuries, U17s, Wainwright suspension. But that doesn't mean you forget how to play, where to be etc. As @SarniaStingFan echoed way to often 2 guys chase 1 & leave someone open net front. Happening way too much.

I think this team will be fine ultimately. As I said they actually played fairly tight games with Oshawa, London, Niagara, Brampton while missing so many big players. This month has been a perfect recipe for what we've seen, but some of this stuff has been preventable & to see it keep happening is very frustrating. Self inflicted mistakes have cost them way too many points for only being 20 games in.

I don't like their odds for beating KIT at the end of a 3in3 while they are off tomorrow so todays game in Saginaw is a big one. Assuming someone isn't hurt from tonight (can never assume with this team) everyone is back except Fischer. No more excuses for being shorthanded, down this & that. Hopefully Maillet can have a big game & 12 can bring a big boost.