I've seen Queen's play Western twice this year. They are a tight-checking team and have a solid goalie in Kevin Baillie - all of their games this year have been close. They are very opportunistic - not especially strong offensively, but solid defensively. It's getting to the point where it's hard to ignore that they've gone 15 regulation games without a loss. At the same time, they have not played McGill, UQTR or Carleton in the regular season, so the second half will tell a lot about this team. But, they beat Windsor twice and beat Ottawa the other night, who may be the best team in the East this year.
I haven't seen Lakehead play this year, but am not sold on them yet. They have had an exceptionally light schedule during the first half, plus they lost two games to UOIT. But you have to win your games against lesser competition, and they’ve mostly done that so far, so kudos to them. Because they play doubleheaders each weekend, the luck of the draw has them missing McGill, UQTR, and Carleton in crossovers this year. Still, they will face much stiffer competition after the holidays so we'll see if their record is for real. Kind of the same situation as Queen's, although I'd say Queen's has had a tougher first-half schedule.
The biggest surprise in the OUA West this year - to me, anyway - is Waterloo. I thought after their late run last year and fairly low player turnover, they'd take the division. But they are middle of the pack.
I do not see any dominant team in the OUA this year. There are probably somewhere between 8-10 teams that could end up as champions, and then get squashed at the University Cup. My guess is that McGill finishes first in the East, but would not be surprised if it's Ottawa. I think Windsor will take the West. But I think anything can and probably will happen in the playoffs.
I don't know about others, but I'm thrilled that we don't see UNB, McGill/UQTR, Western and Alberta as the division leaders at the break this year - it's been these 5 teams for what seems like forever and it's nice to see so many new faces.
