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London Knights in slump, but same thing happened last January, too
Once again, a Memorial Cup host team's prospects of finishing first in the regular season are not looking promising but since it's the London Knights, they're probably won't be much second-guessing the league's decision.
With Sunday's setback against the Mississauga Steelheads — which held one of the OHL's best fire sales at the trade deadline — London is now 10 points adrift of the Western Conference lead and is nine out of the No. 3 seed. Moreover, it hasn't defeated a team with a winning record since Dec. 15, does not have a captain and is without No. 1 goalie Anthony Stolarz for approximately the next month after a a freak injury last week. It's certainly not time to panic, but it's fair to wonder what is up.
From Ryan Pyette (@RyanatLFPress):
This two-week stretch of lousy results ranks as alarming.
“That was a game that we needed the two points,” said veteran defenceman Brady Austin, “and we can’t let those slip away. We’ve got to come ready to work this week in practice, that’s for sure.”
They have the talent but aren’t putting it together. Instead of worrying about first place, they better start looking over their shoulders at fifth-place Windsor, now just seven points behind them.
For a team with a reputation of bouncing back in a hurry, the Knights have not done that recently.
They claim the Stolarz injury didn’t linger in their minds.
“That was a pretty emotional game Friday (against Saginaw), but I don’t think that had anything to do with today,” [right wing Michael] McCarron said. “We had a day off (Saturday). There’s no reason we should’ve been flat [against Mississauga].” (London Free Press)
London had a similar swoon at the same point last season, going 4-7-1-0 from Jan. 12 till Feb. 15. It went 46-6-1-3 the rest of the time and proceeeded to go 16-5 in the OHL playoffs.
That's the reputation of a team that boasts four NHL first-rounders, including Max Domi, Bo Horvat and Nikita Zadarov, two of whom are adjusting back to the OHL grind after playing in the world junior. (Which one didn't play, again?)
Reputation isn't the same as the tangible reality. Which is that the Erie Otters and Guelph Storm, based on Simple Ranking System, have shot out far ahead of the pack. A quick boo at the SRS shows how stratified the OHL is this season.
SRS | Points | Games | |
|---|---|---|---|
Erie Otters (W/MW) | 2.2 | 72 | 45 |
Guelph Storm (W/MW) | 2.0 | 73 | 46 |
London Knights (W/MW) | 1.4 | 63 | 45 |
Soo Greyhounds (W/W) | 1.0 | 69 | 47 |
Kingston Frontenacs (E/E) | 0.4 | 52 | 45 |
Barrie Colts (E/C) | 0.4 | 49 | 43 |
Windsor Spitfires (W/W) | 0.3 | 56 | 46 |
Oshawa Generals (E/E) | 0.1 | 62 | 45 |
That's the top 40 per cent of OHL according to SRS: two elite teams, two very good teams, four who can play with anybody but probably lose to anybody, too.
The playoffs are, to some extent, a different animal, which should prevent people from piling on too much. London might be safe from being caught by the Windsor Spitfires, but a greater concern might be winding up in a first-round series vs. the Saginaw Spirit with Detroit Red Wings prospect Jake Paterson in goal. Saginaw put up strong resistance in each of the past two post-seasons.
London will probably pull out of this January nosedive, but entering the Memorial Cup as the OHL champion might require winning up to three playoff rounds without benefit of home-ice advantage.
No host team has also won its league title since the Kitchener Rangers in 2008.
Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet. Please address any questions, comments or concerns to btnblog@yahoo.ca.
