Windsor Spitfires 2024-25 Season Thread, Part II

[Cherrydon]

I want you see some hard forechecking and zone control 5 on 5. We score off the rush or it's one and done. We have north south big players that most can't turn direction quick enough to change direction east west. Spellacy fine and Belchetz pretty good fir size. Nesbitt and Greentree. We have all power forwards and no great playmaker. Morneau tries hard and is decent as a 3rd line /2nd ljbe center. Abraham well we all know it's big hit or big miss each game. Generally size limits him .

After all that. Go Spits go!!

 

[windsor7]

Martin's been suspended pending a review. No real surprise; keep him out today and then have time to review the hit before Thurs' game.

Doesn't play smart most times..

 

[windsor7]

Costanzo starts again

 

[windsor7]

Defense is very soft..

 

[Teflon]

Brutal game so far. Zero flow or energy!! No sync.

 

[windsor7]

Nice set play by Windsor for the goal

 

[windsor7]

Spirit undisciplined game is their downfall.

 

[ohloutsider]

I'm beginning to think I should wait until the start of the 2nd period to turn the game on. Slow starts are getting too entrenched in their heads. Take the 2 points but coaching staff have to work on this part of their game .
Walters really relying on his top 2 lines. Lots of players getting mostly bench time in the 3rd . Outwater with maybe 4 shifts in the game?

 

[windsor7]

I'm beginning to think I should wait until the start of the 2nd period to turn the game on. Slow starts are getting too entrenched in their heads. Take the 2 points but coaching staff have to work on this part of their game .
Walters really relying on his top 2 lines. Lots of players getting mostly bench time in the 3rd . Outwater with maybe 4 shifts in the game?

Greentree and Protas is running the show.
Defense doesn't show up.

 

[Teflon]

This isn’t likely sustainable. Playing part games, lack of physicality or even interest wont fly late in the year. Bad decisions all over. Yes they won, but defensively????? Oh boy!! Id like to know why misa and parekh are untouchable?? Both instigate and parekh runs his mouth non stop but theres zero response. Saggy may be the most undisciplined team ive seen. Theres a lot of stuff to work on this is very sloppy hockey!!

 

[windsor7]

This isn’t likely sustainable. Playing part games, lack of physicality or even interest wont fly late in the year. Bad decisions all over. Yes they won, but defensively????? Oh boy!! Id like to know why misa and parekh are untouchable?? Both instigate and parekh runs his mouth non stop but theres zero response. Saggy may be the most undisciplined team ive seen. Theres a lot of stuff to work on this is very sloppy hockey!!

Absolutely

 

[OHLTG]

As someone put it today - "The tale of two teams." They have to find a way to get over the slow starts. I know they're trying but there has to be a solution. This team has all kinds of offence but do that next weekend against London and good luck keeping it to single digits.

More later...

 

[ohloutsider]

This isn’t likely sustainable. Playing part games, lack of physicality or even interest wont fly late in the year. Bad decisions all over. Yes they won, but defensively????? Oh boy!! Id like to know why misa and parekh are untouchable?? Both instigate and parekh runs his mouth non stop but theres zero response. Saggy may be the most undisciplined team ive seen. Theres a lot of stuff to work on this is very sloppy hockey!!

We saw this play out 2 years ago. I'm not looking to watch another rerun season.

 

[windsor7]

As someone put it today - "The tale of two teams." They have to find a way to get over the slow starts. I know they're trying but there has to be a solution. This team has all kinds of offence but do that next weekend against London and good luck keeping it to single digits.

More later...

London will be missing players.
Shouldn't get that high of score.

 

[thespitslurker]

I was able to watch most of the game today from home. Thoughts:

- I obviously didnt miss much in the beginning of the 1st because the Spits, shockingly, didn't show up on time as usual. They're lucky their record is so good because I wouldn't even bother going to games/watching online if they were this disinterested in starting games on top of them being bad.
- Nesbitt scored and got the bears flying at the end of the first and it seemed that Walters gave them a good pep talk between periods because...
- Its nice seeing them actually doing things on the powerplay. 3 PP goals as well as a shorty is very nice to see. It didn't help that certain individuals on Saginaw can't help themselves and continue to take very dumb and selfish penalties at bad times. Keep the tape, look at it and learn. Also glad that Windsor (once again lol) played to win rather than certain ppl on the Spits (you know the ones) holding grudges and fighting back when they shouldn't.
- Costanzo played very good today and bounced back from a very tight matchup against Parsons last night. He stood his ground after letting in 3 early goals. Oke didnt make it easy for him though but he found a way good job.
- Protas, Greentree and surprisingly Spellacy did good today and got some points. The depth guys did mostly okay but weren't as noticeable. Abraham being demoted is very interesting I wonder if we can find a way to trade him elsewhere for assets. He'll be the only one who gets any value at this point since Winegard is an honorary cheerleader / water boy at this point
- The D were good and bad today. I thought Mathurin sucked today, dude was taking really stupid pinches and playing really out of position. Saginaw got a couple of close calls because guys like him and Woodall made very dumb decisions. Cristo and Hicks cancelled it out a bit I thought they did good
- Next week is probably the biggest week we'll have in a bit, Erie Thursday followed by a London back-to-back. Btw I feel like this is the latest we have played London in a season were almost halfway through the season thats crazy.

Go Spits Go.

 

[spits]

Geez, reading some of these comments you'd think we'd got blown out. Yeah, some of the d man had some bad shifts but that could be because hmm I dunno, Saginaw has scored the most goals in the entire OHL...

Spitfires are 3-1 against Saginaw and now stand 12 points ahead of them in 1st place. Chance of winning the division is basically secured. I can't see Saginaw not being sellers. Probably lose Parekh to WJs and Misa could be traded if the Boston College rumours are valid.

That was a great game by Spellacy, needed that one as he was struggling offensively. That was a pretty cool set play with Woodall on his 1st goal.

Jack Nesbitt is really becoming a beast out there. He is a hound on the forecheck. Wins many puck battles. He is one of those players that is going to thrive in the playoffs. Late 1st round or early 2nd round NHL pick, no doubt. Odd seeing Abraham down on the depth chart, will be interesting to see what happens. We are into the 2nd week of December, trade whispers will pick up around the league now.

 

[tomschman]

This isn’t likely sustainable. Playing part games, lack of physicality or even interest wont fly late in the year. Bad decisions all over. Yes they won, but defensively????? Oh boy!! Id like to know why misa and parekh are untouchable?? Both instigate and parekh runs his mouth non stop but theres zero response. Saggy may be the most undisciplined team ive seen. Theres a lot of stuff to work on this is very sloppy hockey!!

Spellacy and Misa had a skermish, but it only resulted in minors.

 

[tomschman]

Saginaw is totally undisciplined and that killed them today. The spits had 3 power play goals.

An unsung hero is Ryan Abraham. The smallest player on the team and he totally dominated in his fight. The game was tied at the time, but the Spits took over with 2 goals in the next 3 minutes.

 

[OHLTG]

Now that I've got a few minutes here...

- Not the start you want. The first goal, nobody picked up Guo, who had time to let it rip from the slot. Cristoforo tried to block but missed. Second goal, very similar to the first, only Parekh. Third goal, they let Cloutier get right to the crease. Can't blame Costanzo there. Fourth goal, Parekh could have set up camp in the slot, slept 12 hours, and still scored. Part of the issue was Morneau lost his stick and had to go get it, giving Parekh so much space.

- Nesbitt's goal was big. Not just from the teddies but momentum. You go into the intermission down 3-0 and it's much different.

- Five Spitfires with multi-point games and they were all guys you need to come through in big games. We talk about depth but sometimes you need your stars to be stars.

- Protas is such a fun player to watch. He's so unassuming, but then buries something like it's nothing.

- Greentree's SHG was a thing of beauty. A bit of a knuckler but the effort to get to it was special.

- Spellacy's PPG off the end boards was a set play by Torres (Per Walters in post-game) and what a play it was. Props to everyone involved.

- Abraham can really throw when he wants to. I don't know how the fight got started but solid effort.

- I believe I've read just under 4,000 bears collected for Sparky's Toy Drive. That's a lot of smiles this holiday season which is great to see.

- Don't look now but Belchetz has points in his last four home games. He's finding his groove, at least at home. It's hard to believe he's just 16!

- The start was horrible but they found a way against a team that's given them issues this season. They have to figure out how to solve the first period woes because, if you get down 3-0 against London, you're going to lose 7-0.

Onto Erie on Thursday...

 

[ohloutsider]

Now that I've got a few minutes here...

- Not the start you want. The first goal, nobody picked up Guo, who had time to let it rip from the slot. Cristoforo tried to block but missed. Second goal, very similar to the first, only Parekh. Third goal, they let Cloutier get right to the crease. Can't blame Costanzo there. Fourth goal, Parekh could have set up camp in the slot, slept 12 hours, and still scored. Part of the issue was Morneau lost his stick and had to go get it, giving Parekh so much space.

- Nesbitt's goal was big. Not just from the teddies but momentum. You go into the intermission down 3-0 and it's much different.

- Five Spitfires with multi-point games and they were all guys you need to come through in big games. We talk about depth but sometimes you need your stars to be stars.

- Protas is such a fun player to watch. He's so unassuming, but then buries something like it's nothing.

- Greentree's SHG was a thing of beauty. A bit of a knuckler but the effort to get to it was special.

- Spellacy's PPG off the end boards was a set play by Torres (Per Walters in post-game) and what a play it was. Props to everyone involved.

- Abraham can really throw when he wants to. I don't know how the fight got started but solid effort.

- I believe I've read just under 4,000 bears collected for Sparky's Toy Drive. That's a lot of smiles this holiday season which is great to see.

- Don't look now but Belchetz has points in his last four home games. He's finding his groove, at least at home. It's hard to believe he's just 16!

- The start was horrible but they found a way against a team that's given them issues this season. They have to figure out how to solve the first period woes because, if you get down 3-0 against London, you're going to lose 7-0.

Onto Erie on Thursday...

Yes the Spits won and are fun to watch, anything is better than last year. BUT- the reason for most on here to " sound" negative is we have the, been here done that t-shirts. You cannot come out flat for a whole period and expect to win a playoff game. Kitchener put a beat down on the Spits because that was exactly what happened to a first overall Spits team who thought they could coast through the first round. So we as fans see the same type of approach now and it sends the message, they are going to do it again.

The good part is this is a very talented team and is farther ahead in the development curve this year than most expected. So lots of season left to reset and fix the issue. This really falls to the coaching staff and team leaders to recognize this and put a focus on fixing this or another 8th place team will take them behind the shed for another playoff whipping. The talent is there, it can be fixed. Be safe.

 

[Teflon]

Misa kinda went after Spellacy. Spells just held him off knowing he’d a tore him up and had to brawl with the entire team.

 

[DetSpitsFan]

Someone got knocked down behind the play by Spellacy, Misa was coming to his aid. Props to Misa standing up for his teammate but we all remember the McDavid fight where he broke his hand? Something tells me had the gloves dropped one on one it wouldn’t have been pretty for Misa.

 

[windsor7]

Oshawa dumps their coach.
Strange.

 

[Cherrydon]

Just some thoughts on the new NCAA allowing CHL players. The players are eligible for the NCAA NIL money. That can be big bucks that could dwarf the $470 per month. The CHL cannot react to increase compensation because CHL players cannot be paid more than actualabd necessary expenses. Also to note there are other eligibility limitations. Any player that's has a NHL contract is not eligible. Any players who represented a professional club in any outside competitions are not eligible. That would include rookie tournaments i woukd think. Training and practice sessions only and cannot be compensated for any amount more than 48 hours. On the players dime to stay longer than 48 hours. Will the NHL quickly offer contracts to drafted CHL players to prevent them from choosing to go the NCAA. I don’t think it will affect a ton of players. May get some flyers to come for a couple of years. I could see the CHL opening it up to 15 year olds and scrapping the OA'S as they have a opportunity to continue developing in the NCAA. NHL transfer agreement is in place until 2028 but would if they changed draft to 19 yr old. The CHL would liklely drop the transfer agreement immediately. Interesting to see how it plays out.

 

[Cherrydon]

Oshawa dumps their coach.
Strange.

Suspect possibly an off ice issue?? Unusual to fire a coach who's team is in 1st place. Sennecke was just added to the WJC after scoring 14 points in 3 games lol. Cowan not participating in camp due to precautionary reasons