Christmas break surprises and disappointment

[three dog night]

At Christmas break who are the surprise team or players and the biggest disappointment team and players.

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[sbpointer]

I'd call the Knights leading the Mid West Division at the break a pleasant surprise.
Equally surprising is Kitchener's start but all signs are pointing to them having it together now..

 

[sirius67fan]

For me the biggest surprises are the 67's and Spits. Knew the poles would be good but not this good.Also expected the Spits to take a step back with what they lost but they've been very good. The biggest disappointment for me is Missy by a mile, expected them to be at the top of the conference. In the west Kitchener is the team although they seem to be coming around. As for players Ty Voit's numbers are spectacular in the West. In the east Pinelli has been way better than expected as a 17 y.o. imo.

 

[GoKnightsGo44]

Biggest surprise for me is the knights, I expected to be 6/7 seed and be big sellers… not the case

Also, WTF is wrong with Niagara…. Absolutely awful!

 

[HockeyPops]

Biggest dissappointment is the goalies. All of em. Except Simpson.

 

[OHL4Life]

Biggest dissappointment is the goalies. All of em. Except Simpson.

'empty net' cant make a save

 

[RangerNation]

East surprise is definitely Niagara. What the heck is happening?!!!

West surprise for me is Kitchener. It's been a head scratcher. 2 weeks ago we were calling for MacKenzie to blow the thing up and now it's all flipped upside-down.

 

[Bra Wavers]

Did not expect Saginaw to have such solid results so far and Ottawa has been off the charts.
Interested to see how the tides turn after the deadline.

 

[OMG67]

Team Surprises:

1> Guelph. They had the nucleus of a decent roster. I think most had them at least in the top half of the Conference. I had Guelph and Kitchener battling side by side for the division! I was DEAD WRONG!
2> Saginaw. I had them out of the playoffs. DEAD WRONG again!

I pretty much had the east pegged except I didn’t expect Mississauga to be so average. I figured it to be a five team race in the east and as of right now it has narrowed to three. Although, I do think the Petes will sneak back into that top 4 conversation in the second half.

Player Surprises:
1> Pinelli and Beck not getting the invite for Team Canada. I thought going into the season they’d both be there.
2> No one is running away with the scoring title. Voit has a comfy lead right now but gives games in hand to Morrison and Maggio. It also looks like we may not have players top 110 points. Scoring seems to be spread out a lot throughout the league.

Observations:
1> We’ve seen some pretty big deals go down prior to Christmas. With how close teams are bunched up, you’d think selling teams would hold on to players longer to accumulate points.
2> Officiating across the board this year has been abnormally bad. League suspensions have been more inconsistent.
3> A lot of mediocrity across the board. The bad teams aren’t ”that“ bad and the good teams aren’t ”that” good. The parity has led to a lot of teams thinking they are poised to make a run. OR at least a lot of fans anyway.

 

[rve24]

Saggy, n London above where I thought by a good margin.
Windsor slightly above.
OS/Flint not surprised n near expectations or slightly below.
Kitchener n Guelph lower (but I'll hold on to KTown turning it around lol)
East no idea.
Fire up the 2nd half n we will see who steps up. ( 1st n 2nd yr players develop, systems learned, coaching adjustments and roster changes often lead to a separation in the 2nd half )

 

[bigsportsfan]

Biggest disappointment is the new ownership in Niagara. It's not just that they are in last place. It's more the rumours of players not being looked after, trades that seem to come out of nowhere and make no sense and an owner/GM who rarely speaks to the media or explains the reasoning behind trades. It's just a terrible situation right now.

 

[StingUpdates]

There's definitely been some good surprises but I honestly feel like it's been the year of disappointment thus far. So many underperforming teams & a ton of underperforming players (especially in net) l

Been a rather confusing season in a lot of ways & if the playoffs started tomorrow I'm not sure how u could confidently predict what teams would go far. Should make for a hectic 2nd half & an incredibly fun opening round.

Hope everyone on here enjoys the holidays & Christmas! I wish your teams the best the rest of the way (unless ur playing Sarnia ) !

 

[Ferda11]

Not surprised by the Knights because they are the Knights and it's pretty much expected at this point.

Surprised with Saginaw and their record as of today. I do not think there were many, if any at all, who had them doing this well.
Kitchener 100% has had a disappointing start...but as someone else said, that appears to be changing rather quickly the last few weeks.
Flint is another team I thought would have a much better record at this point as well.

 

[lazyboy]

Saginaw is definitely my surprise team. And an honourable mention goes out to Ottawa

I was really really big into Guelph so they are hands down my biggest disappointment

 

[Square Corners]

Player Surprises:
1> Pinelli and Beck not getting the invite for Team Canada. I thought going into the season they’d both be there.
2> No one is running away with the scoring title. Voit has a comfy lead right now but gives games in hand to Morrison and Maggio. It also looks like we may not have players top 110 points. Scoring seems to be spread out a lot throughout the league.

Observations:
1> We’ve seen some pretty big deals go down prior to Christmas. With how close teams are bunched up, you’d think selling teams would hold on to players longer to accumulate points.
2> Officiating across the board this year has been abnormally bad. League suspensions have been more inconsistent.
3> A lot of mediocrity across the board. The bad teams aren’t ”that“ bad and the good teams aren’t ”that” good. The parity has led to a lot of teams thinking they are poised to make a run. OR at least a lot of fans anyway.

Beck isnt even playing hockey. Pinelli isnt good enoguh for how young he is. Barlow would be invited before him

 

[RangerNation]

Beck isnt even playing hockey. Pinelli isnt good enoguh for how young he is. Barlow would be invited before him

Owen Beck is definitely playing hockey.
I would also assume they are talking about Fancesco Pinelli, not Luca.

 

[Square Corners]

Owen Beck is definitely playing hockey.
I would also assume they are talking about Fancesco Pinelli, not Luca.

Owen Beck was invited to Canada Camp. He's talking about Jack Beck, who wasnt invited

COuld mean Francesco but he said wasnt invited, so he definetely meant Jack Beck, who should not have been ivnited even if he was healthy let alone the fact hes been hurt the last 2 months

 

[NordiquesForeva]

Owen Beck was invited to Canada Camp. He's talking about Jack Beck, who wasnt invited

COuld mean Francesco but he said wasnt invited, so he definetely meant Jack Beck, who should not have been ivnited even if he was healthy let alone the fact hes been hurt the last 2 months

Can't speak for them, but Jack Beck was invited to the summer orientation camp for the world juniors, so he was on Hockey Canada's radar and there was some possibility going into the season that he could have gotten at least a December camp invite if his performance was there (which it wasn't, even before the concussion).

Pass on Luca Pinelli, though. Maybe next year, probably the year after.

 

[RangerNation]

Owen Beck was invited to Canada Camp. He's talking about Jack Beck, who wasnt invited

COuld mean Francesco but he said wasnt invited, so he definetely meant Jack Beck, who should not have been ivnited even if he was healthy let alone the fact hes been hurt the last 2 months

Ah, I missed the non-invite part.

 

[dirty12]

Owen Beck is definitely playing hockey.
I would also assume they are talking about Fancesco Pinelli, not Luca.

Those were ‘67s players

 

[RangerNation]

Those were ‘67s players

It's all starting to make sense now lol

 

[OMG67]

Beck isnt even playing hockey. Pinelli isnt good enoguh for how young he is. Barlow would be invited before him

Wrong Pinelli and Beck…

Frankie Pinelli and Owen Beck. I didn’t realize Beck was invited and didn’t make the roster.

Why would I expect a 17 year old Luca Pinelli in the pre-season to be invited to Team Canada and now say it was a disappointment he wasn’t? That’s just crazy talk. No one in their right mind should assume I was talking about Luca Pinelli.

I could understand the confusion regarding the two Becks because Jack was invited to the Summer camp, but Pinelli? WOWZERS….

 

[GermanSpitfire]

Wrong Pinelli and Beck…

Frankie Pinelli and Owen Beck. I didn’t realize Beck was invited and didn’t make the roster.

Why would I expect a 17 year old Luca Pinelli in the pre-season to be invited to Team Canada and now say it was a disappointment he wasn’t? That’s just crazy talk. No one in their right mind should assume I was talking about Luca Pinelli.

I could understand the confusion regarding the two Becks because Jack was invited to the Summer camp, but Pinelli? WOWZERS….

You did a great job confusing everyone - I Initially thought you were talking about Jack and Luca because you’re a 67’s fan.

Then I thought he had to have been thinking of F.Pinelli and Jack Beck because Luca was too young for this team.

Wasn’t until reading on that I realized you probably meant Owen and F.Pinelli.

If you manufactured that confusion - well done. haha

 

[RangerNation]

You did a great job confusing everyone - I Initially thought you were talking about Jack and Luca because you’re a 67’s fan.

Then I thought he had to have been thinking of F.Pinelli and Jack Beck because Luca was too young for this team.

Wasn’t until reading on that I realized you probably meant Owen and F.Pinelli.

If you manufactured that confusion - well done. haha

Let it be known, I was never confused, just misguided!

 

[OMG67]

Let it be known, I was never confused, just misguided!

LOL

I can’t accept criticism for the misguiding!