Owen Sound Attack 2018 Offseason Thread

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Savard18

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Feb 10, 2015
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Flint, MI
Uh-oh. I didn't see it coming from Olivier but OS might have found their goalie. You know the offense will come back around soon, if goaltending remains like that.......seems like I heard about the Attack really getting things going in the second half of a season once before. Maybe it was just a rumor.

I kept a little faith in your guys over the last couple months. Not going to be a team people are going to want to face come the playoffs.
 

OHL insideout

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Jan 12, 2016
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Just watched today's game vs Hamilton and it is clear that this Attack team is certainly running on all cylinders!
What a HUGE long weekend with 3 victories and the much needed 6 pts.
Nice to see that the coach realized after that let down in Ottawa a couple of weeks ago that this team IS deep and with showing the confidence in all 12 forwards and all 6 Dmen and both goalies that these players may just be ready for the run to to playoffs and beyond!
Great to see Gadj back today and what a return, with 2 goals. Highlight reel goal today from Hancock. Secondary scoring may now be the norm for this team with goals from Lazer and Groulx in back to back games and McKenzie being that dominant force on the ice shift after shift. Guzda with a very solid effort in the Niagara win will only keep him trending upward. One piece still missing but hopefully not for too much longer, as we are all wanting to see Durzi back in the fold as quickly as possible I'm sure.
Another big weekend ahead with 3 games in 3 night's beginning Friday in Guelph.
Keep up the great work boys!
 
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AttackSound

Junior Hockey Fan Since Birth
Aug 25, 2016
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Owen Sound, Ontario
Attack have certainly turned the page on the season since the trade deadline.

With key players returning and players finding there place in the depth chart this team has certainly made the standings interesting coming down the stretch towards the postseason push let' hope momentum can keep the wheel rolling into the post-season
 

Texcanuck

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Nov 28, 2017
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First, congrats on the best "past 10 games" record in the OHL. Seems to me a pretty good run by you guys occurred last year - are we seeing a repeat? Wouldn't surprise me.
As a Sting fan, I'm very pleased to be sitting in 3rd seed, looking at the possibility of you vs London, followed by the possibility of you vs Soo.

Looking forward to seeing the new-look Attack in March!
 

AttackSound

Junior Hockey Fan Since Birth
Aug 25, 2016
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Owen Sound, Ontario
Not a pretty game against a divisional rivals tonight but good to pick up the extra point against the Storm.

With London not playing tomorrow the Attack have a good opportunity to jump London and temporarily put an even bigger gap between us and the Spirit and hopefully close the gap on 4th and a chance to start the postseason at home in round one
 

Pond Hockey

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Jun 9, 2002
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Overall pleased with the win and the continued success, though a couple things stand out.

Another 3rd period blown lead...that makes last night, both recent games vs. Ottawa, game in Guelph Feb 2nd, game in North Bay in January. Also a couple of blown leads in the last half of the 2nd (game in Sudbury in January, game in London Jan. 26). I'm glad that the team is finding ways to come back and win--last night and last weekend vs. Ottawa, for example, would have been L's in December--but it's not a sustainable way to have success. Last Saturday at home vs. Ottawa, I've never seen a team more determined to score into the empty net than the Attack were then. It's as if they don't have confidence that they can hold the lead, so they keep pouring on the offence to Ensure the W. Need to tidy up that 3rd period and build confidence late in games.

Also, goaltending has seemed questionable lately, especially last night. Their go-ahead goal in the 3rd seemed especially soft. Oli is a definite upgrade over ZB, and he played some great games when he got here and deserved more W's than he got (off-hand, I think it was 7-8 games before he got his first W). Ironically, he seemed to play better in December and beginning of January during that terrible team cold streak and is playing worse lately when the team has put up a bunch of W's. Guzda's (and Propp's and Vella's) numbers are better. The 'experience' mantra from DD hasn't exactly proven true this year, at least not in the crease. FWIW, at this point I would go with Guzda as the starter next year. Oli playing for the Attack next year would cost that conditional 3rd, and the team is already short on high picks.

Loving Dudas more and more. He has seemed a tad bit off lately, but he came through in the clutch last night when needed. That was a wicked shot. Big players come through in big moments, and he did that last night.

Opportunity tonight to leapfrog London into 4th spot. We do have 1 game in hand on London and they are idle tonight. Hoping to see Guzda get the start.

Go Attack go!!
 

Millpond

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Dec 5, 2015
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With tonight's 4-3 win, the Attack earn a playoff spot, jump London for 4th place, and get their 8th consecutive 30 win season. Their 6th consecutive win and 9 wins in their past ten games.
Nick Suzuki red hot, 21 pts in his past 10 games


Not pretty, but getting the results.
 
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Millpond

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Dec 5, 2015
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Despite the winning trend, the total lack of PP results is troubling.
At some point, one would question the logic of using 5 forwards, and going 3 for what, 36 on the power play.
I'd say that qualifies for not working .

Today's game, we got out coached. Not once did Gill put our Suzuki line out against the Colts 4th line, even when the opportunity wad there.

They stayed with the Colts for 50 minutes, till the wheels fell off, again, and Olie surrendered 3 g on 3 shots.

This time the Attack could not recover tho.

Hopefully the flaws will be a dressed soon .

The boys had a chance to move up 3pt on London who got pasted by the Soo.
 

OHL insideout

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Jan 12, 2016
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The three games this weekend were surely not the type of games you want to see from a team that is supposed to be primed for a long playoff run.
It sure looks like the shortened bench (coach using mostly 6-7 forwards and 4 d-men) and the bad deal at the deadline DD made moving d-man for depth forward has caught up to this team. We saw this weekend again that the Attack were hanging on to win late in the games against teams that are below them in the standings because the top few players had nothing left in the tank. Give the d-men credit for sure, put in the position of playing 4 regularly and Chib slotted in is quite the ask with 10 games left in the regular season. It was painful to see how deflated the team became after giving up that first goal yesterday because they didn't have the firepower to fight back.
Come on coach it's time now to really COACH!
 

OSMike

Conch Shell Crew
Mar 25, 2014
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Owen Sound
I had noted that coach had been rolling lines much more frequently in the past 5 or so games. Especially with Gadjovich back in the line up. I didn't see the 3rd period last game and was minding the cutest fan ever for the first 2 periods so was not able to focus on the lines. The Attack were pretty dominate in the 2nd but came away with nothing. The PP defintely keeps struggling. With Friend out I can only imagine how the D were feeling in the 3rd. Bourque so close to his first on a nice feed from Gadjovich for the tip but goalie came up big. Durzi coming back will correct the D depth, no way DeGray would have guessed Durzi would go down. Let's hope he back soon. I like Cade Robinson's style, he's quick and goes to the net well, he can learn from Gadjovich.
 

Pond Hockey

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Jun 9, 2002
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Saturday's game vs. Peterborough, another blown lead in the last half of the game (this one in second half of 2nd period), though credit the boys for finding a way to win. What a shot by Cole Cameron on the game-winner. He had a huge game.

Sunday vs. the Colts, we just didn't get the breaks and the puck didn't bounce our way. Credit Barrie for executing their game plan. They came on strong in the first and outshot us (doesn't usually happen, especially in the 1st) and started wearing down our D early in the game. By the 3rd, you could see there was nothing left in the tank for the D group, playing only 4 D most of the game (#4 sees very limited ice). Cameron got beat in the offensive zone and took a 'good' penalty on the backcheck to stop a scoring chance. Then we failed to clear the puck on the PK and that was it. The team was deflated after that first goal, you could see it. Then 2 goals on Barrie's next 2 shots I think. The goals were not soft by any means, but we could have used a timely save to keep us in the game (Guzda gave the boys an insane sprawling save late in the Peterborough game to preserve the lead).

Durzi went down on that northern road trip, and the team has won 15 of 18 games since by my count, basically with 5.5 defensemen (I count #4 as 0.5 because he is rarely given any ice). The D group deserves a ton of credit for their play during that stretch. I wonder if the 5 forward PP unit is just to give the defensemen a rest. Props to those 6 guys for sure. As impressive as it's been, I don't think its sustainable for a team to have that much success with such a thin D group.

For a team that is supposed to make a deep playoff run, I don't know why there's just 7 defensemen on the roster. You have to assume 2 injuries/absences, so you really should have 8 rostered defensemen. I've heard it said that in the playoffs you can never have too much depth at the D position. I was OK with the Beamish/Robinson deal at the time, but I was hoping DD would add a veteran, shutdown-type defensemen...which didn't happen. Robinson has been good for sure, but boy could we have used Beamish over the last 18 games. And to see him on Erie's second PP unit those 2 games at the Bayshore in January! And Nick King...I get that the team had 9 defensemen after acquiring Lyle, but maybe it would have been better to wait to the deadline to move him, to see what would happen with other guys, especially since Beamish was obviously expendable.

Here's hoping Durzi and Friend are back soon!
 

AttackSound

Junior Hockey Fan Since Birth
Aug 25, 2016
2,276
992
Owen Sound, Ontario
With 9 games left of the season the Attack have a big chance to lock up home ice once and for all.

This team has surprised my expectations on the season in a big way especially after the tender issues early in the season with this club, good to see DD stick to his guns and not over pay for Olie when he did and for Gill to find creative ways to win tight games when he needed too.

After recently chatting with connections around the league a source of mine believes that this team is on the pace to make noise in the conference this post-season and I truly believe that my source isn't far off with his predictions coming down to the home stretch of the season.
 

Millpond

Registered User
Dec 5, 2015
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Nice to be on the right side of 4-0.
The team is playing very well heading into playoffs.

Got some tough ones left tho, Soo, Sarnia x 2., Barrie .
 

OSMike

Conch Shell Crew
Mar 25, 2014
882
223
Owen Sound
With 9 games left of the season the Attack have a big chance to lock up home ice once and for all.

This team has surprised my expectations on the season in a big way especially after the tender issues early in the season with this club, good to see DD stick to his guns and not over pay for Olie when he did and for Gill to find creative ways to win tight games when he needed too.

After recently chatting with connections around the league a source of mine believes that this team is on the pace to make noise in the conference this post-season and I truly believe that my source isn't far off with his predictions coming down to the home stretch of the season.

We will need our full D core and some good goaltending just to get past London. London is young, fast and have a great goalie. It's going to be a tough first round. Let's hope for home ice as that will be an advantage. After the first round all bets are off for me. Being a competitive opponent in the 2nd round is all I can hope for.
 

AttackSound

Junior Hockey Fan Since Birth
Aug 25, 2016
2,276
992
Owen Sound, Ontario
We will need our full D core and some good goaltending just to get past London. London is young, fast and have a great goalie. It's going to be a tough first round. Let's hope for home ice as that will be an advantage. After the first round all bets are off for me. Being a competitive opponent in the 2nd round is all I can hope for.

Playoffs is a completely different animal and each game takes on its own personality 16 wins are up for grabs for all playoff bound clubs in the league hard to predict what will happen till the puck drops for game 1 wherever that may be
 

OHL insideout

Registered User
Jan 12, 2016
452
281
It's concerning to see this team struggle to put teams away when they should be. Even last night's game, against a team that is 20 pts behind in the standings and their best player gone early in the first period to a 5 minute major, we only scored 1 goal through 45 minutes. The boys didn't have the jump they will need come playoff time. Not sure why our coach is so worried about matching lines when the teams we are playing should be more concerned about matching lines against our (most often) high powered offence. Whether at home or on the road the young Knights team will be fast and hungry in the playoffs for sure. Here's hoping for the best foot forward down the stretch boys!!
 
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