Erie Otters 2018-19 Season Thread (Part 2)

[7D442]

Two big wins over a feisty OS team. The boys played very hard, and pretty much shut down OS at every turn. Considering how young we are, it showed how good this club will be in 2 years. What is very encouraging to me is how much depth we have. We can roll 4 lines, and not have to worry about getting scored upon. Both games were entertaining. Two fights in two nights along with 4,700 on Friday and over 5,000 last night seemed to energize the boys. It reminded me of 2 years ago when we won the championship. The new guys looked pretty good too. Murphy did pretty well to boot.

Well said Buzzy..Last night it was good to see 5,000 fans again at a game again and the boys played well ..There was a certain energy again in the stands and for the first time in a few years I thought this could be starting to turn around ..Kischnik isn’t afraid to throw down and boy did Drysdale frustrate and shut down that number 11 of OS or what?Nice 4 win streak in this rebuild process and this is what the boys and fans needed..

I like where this team could be heading .. Golden looked pretty sharp and has good fundamentals .. you can tell he was ready to jump in the rush more than one time- but stayed at home on D.. I think he’s prob where he belongs at a 3-4 spot on this young rebuilding team and could be relied on more for production .and McDougal looked great w a goal and has great speed..

All in all I like the additions and what I saw last night .. need Fowler and Beamish back - for being the youngest team in the league these young bucks may just be ok in a few years after all!!

 

[NOA]

Well said Buzzy..Last night it was good to see 5,000 fans again at a game again and the boys played well ..There was a certain energy again in the stands and for the first time in a few years I thought this could be starting to turn around ..Kischnik isn’t afraid to throw down and boy did Drysdale frustrate and shut down that number 11 of OS or what?Nice 4 win streak in this rebuild process and this is what the boys and fans needed..

I like where this team could be heading .. Golden looked pretty sharp and has good fundamentals .. you can tell he was ready to jump in the rush more than one time- but stayed at home on D.. I think he’s prob where he belongs at a 3-4 spot on this young rebuilding team and could be relied on more for production .and McDougal looked great w a goal and has great speed..

All in all I like the additions and what I saw last night .. need Fowler and Beamish back - for being the youngest team in the league these young bucks may just be ok in a few years after all!!

I’m definitely happy where we are heading. The entire team is back next year (minus Ceci and likely Podd) but we will then add a top Import and top OHL pick. Plus a few college guys or previous draft picks that could also be signed. So the future is looking better than even I expected it. Right now we have tremendous depth on the roster and in our system. The challenge will be finding and developing guys to be “superstars”

Certainly Drysdale is one. Can Fowler be another? Cajka? Golod? Who else takes that next leap. We have a lot of young 4/5 pairing defenders and 2nd/3rd line guys but we need guys to be top end players. That’s the next step in the rebuild - finding those guys. But again, top Import/OHL draft picks this year will obviously help

 

[LDN]

You guys need that point eh!

 

[EON]

The Otters are putting up a good effort today but their PK is just so incredibly bad, I don't even know how to describe it. The coverage is just awful. If there's one coaching change they need to make this offseason, it's firing one or both of the assistants and installing someone who knows how to run a PK.

 

[NOA]

The Otters are putting up a good effort today but their PK is just so incredibly bad, I don't even know how to describe it. The coverage is just awful. If there's one coaching change they need to make this offseason, it's firing one or both of the assistants and installing someone who knows how to run a PK.

100% agree

When your pk is 66%, that’s not going to work

How many more wins we have with 73% and just slightly better goalie play.. not like we have to be thaaaat much better. But even a little better and that’s 4-5 more wins. It kills me

 

[Generalsupdates]

The Otters are putting up a good effort today but their PK is just so incredibly bad, I don't even know how to describe it. The coverage is just awful. If there's one coaching change they need to make this offseason, it's firing one or both of the assistants and installing someone who knows how to run a PK.

2nd worst PK since 1997 (could be longer but that's as far back as OHL.com goes). Only PK worse was Mississauga IceDogs in 1998-1999. Crazy

 

[NOA]

2nd worst PK since 1997 (could be longer but that's as far back as OHL.com goes). Only PK worse was Mississauga IceDogs in 1998-1999. Crazy

Yeah we are all aware.. I mentioned these numbers and more detailed analysis a few days back on this thread. This isn’t news

Mississauga managed 4 wins that year. That’s how bad they were.

This team is better than 18 wins. We could be a 30-32 win team if not for some terrible, bottom level PK and poor goalie play. Simple as that. I’m excited for next year because we have the talent but the coaching is the biggest concern.

The fact that we have 18 wins with the goalie concerns and the pk is remarkable and speaks to the fact that this team is obviously much more capable.
I really felt we could be a 7th seed team this year but I would have assumed we had a 75% on the pk and better goalie play. I wasn’t far off to assume that type of winning season

 

[Generalsupdates]

Yeah we are all aware.. I mentioned these numbers and more detailed analysis a few days back on this thread. This isn’t news

Mississauga managed 4 wins that year. That’s how bad they were.

This team is better than 18 wins. We could be a 30-32 win team if not for some terrible, bottom level PK and poor goalie play. Simple as that. I’m excited for next year because we have the talent but the coaching is the biggest concern.

The fact that we have 18 wins with the goalie concerns and the pk is remarkable and speaks to the fact that this team is obviously much more capable.
I really felt we could be a 7th seed team this year but I would have assumed we had a 75% on the pk and better goalie play. I wasn’t far off to assume that type of winning season

Nice talking to you

 

[NOA]

pretty good weekend for the team. Playing 3 in 3 is never easy especially with such an insanely young team. But we have done a lot better overall since the Christmas break. Hopefully it continues.

Golden/MacDougall appear to be good solid additions for this year

 

[Puckit97]

Yeah we are all aware.. I mentioned these numbers and more detailed analysis a few days back on this thread. This isn’t news

Mississauga managed 4 wins that year. That’s how bad they were.

This team is better than 18 wins. We could be a 30-32 win team if not for some terrible, bottom level PK and poor goalie play. Simple as that. I’m excited for next year because we have the talent but the coaching is the biggest concern.

The fact that we have 18 wins with the goalie concerns and the pk is remarkable and speaks to the fact that this team is obviously much more capable.
I really felt we could be a 7th seed team this year but I would have assumed we had a 75% on the pk and better goalie play. I wasn’t far off to assume that type of winning season

I don’t know if you watched the games this weekend but Murphy was solid in net. Arguably the two best back to back games I’ve seen from him.
He isn’t ever going to be a high end talent but with good team D he can be good starter in future seasons. IMO he’s better than Timpano.

 

[NOA]

I don’t know if you watched the games this weekend but Murphy was solid in net. Arguably the two best back to back games I’ve seen from him.
He isn’t ever going to be a high end talent but with good team D he can be good starter in future seasons. IMO he’s better than Timpano.

He was definitely darn good. His best back to back performance ever maybe. Certainly this year, so I agree

I just wish Murph would be more consistent because I think he has solid abilities, just lacks the mental consistency and sometimes loses focus which impacts his fundamentals. The bigger concern, at this exact moment, is the PK. It has to improve. The goalie play has actually been better in the 2nd half of the year.

Yes Dan can be a solid, good starter. Devin Williams type. I really think he can be a .900+ guy next year but can we risk finding out? In other words, do we draft an import goalie to ensure we have a chance at a better starter?

 

[EON]

Murphy did play well Friday/Saturday and Ceci played reasonably well last night, the goals weren't really his fault. I agree if Erie can get even just around league average goaltending and PK they're easily a playoff team. Hopefully Murphy improves and they sign Campbell, and the PK improves next season (whether that's from internal adjustments or a coaching change).

 

[Buttsy]

I definitely agree - teams tend to overvalue London’s throw away talent instead of recognizing that in most cases they are dumping off their spare parts and you should get it for cheaper or wait for them to release the guy

Of course it’s always “buyer beware” but they are not always “Spare Parts” without value? Kole Sherwood for 2 x 2nds a few years back returned good value for the buyer? Often times kids are moved from London so that they don’t sit and waste away on a top rated Knights Team. Golden is another example he has skill but on a strong Knights D he wasn’t going to see the ice regularly. Traditionally drafting late in the 1st round London needs to load up on 2nds and 3rds to stay on top year after year.

 

[ohloutsider]

Murphy did play well Friday/Saturday and Ceci played reasonably well last night, the goals weren't really his fault. I agree if Erie can get even just around league average goaltending and PK they're easily a playoff team. Hopefully Murphy improves and they sign Campbell, and the PK improves next season (whether that's from internal adjustments or a coaching change).

Erie might get into the playoffs yet - not too far off and Windsor, Kitchener and Sarnia all seem to be in tumble mode.

 

[EON]

No Golod tonight, that's unfortunate. Did he get hurt in practice this week, or just sick? This is a big game tonight for Erie's playoff chances.

 

[7D442]

Anyone w the scoop on why Golod is out ??

Fowler , Beamish and now Golod out - ouch ...

 

[Puckit97]

Anyone w the scoop on why Golod is out ??

Fowler , Beamish and now Golod out - ouch ...

Has Mono apparently

 

[NOA]

Has Mono apparently

Terrible. He was finally starting to hit his stride and now this.. hard on the body too so probably won’t really see him get going again the rest of the year.

Just too much offense out for a team that already is young and void of top talent. But so it goes in the rebuild. Without Fowler/Golod we just wont be able to score much consistently.

 

[HarrynLloyd]

"And that's gonna just about do it"
Mark Jeanneret : 2003

 

[7D442]

Glimmer of hope there about 2 -3 weeks ago

Now even the glimmer disappeared

 

[Moroz]

7D442, I like you, had some hopes. A week ago Sunday we were one point out of a playoff spot. The loss in Oshawa was a tough one, after fighting back to go ahead 3-2 late in the 2nd, only to give up two quick PP goals.

Then the last three games, two of which were against teams (Windsor and Sarnia) we had a legitimate chance of catching, were pretty disheartening. There were reasons for this, certainly, injuries and illness playing a big part. But in some ways the last six games were a microcosm of the entire season.

In the Owen Sound back to back games, Murphy was very good - we do not win those games without his excellent play. Then his next two games against Windsor and Saginaw he stopped 27 of 32 and 42 of 48 respectively, for save percentages of .843 and .875. I did not see the games, so I cannot say that it was entirely his fault. But those numbers, and his overall number for the year (.880), are just not good enough to be competitive in this league.

It is too early to do a post mortem of the season. But a look at some of the numbers is not encouraging to those of us who were hoping for a significant step forward:

1. We have 23 games left. Nine of those are against London and Guelph, and one more is against SSM. It will be very difficult to make a run with that schedule.

2. Last year we had 56 points and a goal differential of -50. At this point in the season, we are on pace for 57 points and a goal differential of -51.

3. Given the schedule and the trajectory of the past ten days, I think it will be hard to match last year's performance. That will be disappointing, if that is the way in which it plays out.

4. We have 18 wins this year. Murphy has 17 of those wins. Out of 45 games, our back up goalie has produced one win. I do not know how that situation could have been tolerated for so long.

We shall see how the rest of the season goes, and I shall hope for the best. But I have to admit to being rather discouraged.

 

[EON]

This team is toast now, especially with Golod out with mono and Fowler still out with the collarbone injury.

The upside is that Erie will get a top 4 draft pick, which hopefully they grab an impact player with (likely a forward I would think).

All comes down to this offseason. Personally, I'm hoping all three coaches are sacked and they refresh by hiring a new youthful, energetic, and positive head coach. Then, let him pick out two assistants. Following this, Brown just needs to get to work on hitting the high picks and signing a few of the impact guys (Campbell, Swankler, Alexander, etc.).

 

[buzzworthy]

I very much agree with all of your posts. You can see the frustration setting in with all of the fights we have had the past several games. Being as young as we are, we are an easy target for older, bigger, better teams. The only good thing I can see from all of this is that the boys still play as a team. Not one of them has jumped ship yet, and I hope they keep competing.

 

[Swamp Rat]

Just a matter of note.

Danial Singer's mother passed away this morning after a brief illness.

Our prayers go out to Danial and the family.

 

[three dog night]

Just a matter of note.

Danial Singer's mother passed away this morning after a brief illness.

Our prayers go out to Danial and the family.

Very sad news