Final 2016-17 Season Thread: http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?t=2206589
Begin offseason talk here.
Begin offseason talk here.
After watching the Greyhounds 12 times, 6 live this year I was completely unimpressed with Senyshyn and Speers THIS year. Bouramann to an extent too. But you're not counting on them next year. Kopacka, Katchouk, Frost, Verbeek, Timmins and others occasionally were really impressive and they should all be wearing red and white next year. I found it difficult to not like Kopacka and Verbeek's game more and more every time I watched them play. You might be losing some star names but the engine that drove the team in the playoffs will be back next year in my opinion.
After watching the Greyhounds 12 times, 6 live this year I was completely unimpressed with Senyshyn and Speers THIS year. Bouramann to an extent too. But you're not counting on them next year. Kopacka, Katchouk, Frost, Verbeek, Timmins and others occasionally were really impressive and they should all be wearing red and white next year. I found it difficult to not like Kopacka and Verbeek's game more and more every time I watched them play. You might be losing some star names but the engine that drove the team in the playoffs will be back next year in my opinion.
Complaints..... I can't believe you people!!! At least 15 other teams wish they could ice a team as exciting to watch. Fans in Sudbury and North bay would be beside themselves and be bragging if they could experience what you people are complaining about. They should be so lucky!!!
Attendance at Essar - don't broadcast game on Shaw (i.e. black them out) unless the tickets are at least 90% sold out. Pretty simple.
Don't want to get into this too much, but it needs to be addressed it is exactly what "DW1 Dale " posted earlier " This team never really had it ". It was a good regular season team and getting 100 points and finishing ahead of Windsor who is hosting the memorial cup is an accomplishment but Bannister could not get the most out of : speers and senyshen when he needed them the most. Speers was hurt most of the year and rumour I heard was that Raftis was prepared to trade the captain at the deadline but was shot down by one member of ownership being that he was a local kid and also that he was the captain, I know hindsight is 20/20 but Raftis needs to stick to his convictions and if he felt that the leadership that he needed from speers was not there then he should have traded him but maybe he needed approval from ownership for that to happen who knows. He certainly did not get the offense from speers in the playoffs that he needed and he was on the ice a ton. As for Senyshen his head did not seem into it all season, maybe thinking about Boston too much ?. I like what we have coming back in Timmins, Frost, Katchoek, Hayton, Hollowell, kopacka, raaymakers, these 7 should be our leaders, Carrol and Verbeek will be decent overage candidates as well. They should add a third impact overager as well as 2 import picks who can make a difference. Do not know if I would bring back Mackinon. Also I would explore what you can get for Gettinger in the off season. That is 2 years in a row where he disappears in the playoffs can't see him making an impact at playoff time in his final year. I think moving him for a solid D man will help.
i believe fans in north bay and sudbury ultimately want a championship just like us. we got more than 20 years of early playoff exits so at this point getting knocked out in the 2nd round isn't something to celebrate.
At least the Soo can say they have won!!! 3 times!! Battalion and Wolves 0 combined!! If you had about 3 million profit every year like London things would look much brighter
When the Hounds come to North Bay every season, it is a game that I never miss, their brand of hockey in great, speed, skill and puck possession. So you folks have a entertaining brand of hockey to watch every week, with many NHL drafted players to boot.
Just try and watch the Battalion day in day out for 4 years....wins and loses aside, painful.....slow, no skill and dump and chase, and don't even try to watch the Wolves vs Battalion, that's another level of pain.
London, Erie, Owen Sound, Windsor, Soo and even Saginaw have a much better brand of hockey.
An early exit from the playoffs is disappointing ,but you have a great team in my opinion.
I tend to agree with you but not entirely, the Soo plays in the western Conference where the overall competition is stiffer than the Eastern, by playing stronger teams many times over your team tend to learn to play better as it goes. What would be best for the over all league competition is for the east to play the west more often, by doing this it would elevate all competition from the east to match the west, if that makes any sense. Right now the Battalion and the Wolves or other teams from the east are playing just hard enough to beat one another and are at a lost when stiffer competition from the west comes in. Now don't get me wrong there are some good teams in the east that can beat teams from the west I am just speaking in the general term.
It takes a whole team effort to beat a team like the Attack. You can't place the blame on one or two kids. The Attack have top goal tending and some of the best forwards in Canada and some are not drafted yet. Soo was a great squad this year that battled right to the end. They did beat the other top teams this season. Something to be proud of. You have a great organization up there that is proactive.
It troubles me to see our fans roasting Speers and Senyshyn after a bad playoff series. They have both had distinguished careers with the team and we should be celebrating their accomplishments. I wish them well in their NHL endeavors and will always remember them as all time greats with the Hounds despite a few off games in this series.