Ottawa 67's 2023-24 Off-Season Thread (Part 1)

[OMG67]

Idk if Zito would have finished the season if in Ottawa, but that would have been the right choice imo.

There were a lot of choices available to Boyd. Originally we mostly felt the two centres and D-Man (OA upgrades) was necessary to give us an opportunity. But that only gave us a chance in a large pack. A few of us felt we needed a winger and 2nd D-Man as well.

It is tough to honestly see how accurate this is because the team has departed from the style of play that made them successful. Playing as they are playing now, I am not certain it makes a difference what they added. The team is completely lost right now. They are caught is some sort of situation where they feel the need to fight back on everything. Their focus is gone. Their discipline is gone.

This team is a mess. Guys like Foster, Pinelli, and Stonehouse are playing very undisciplined hockey. They have been unable to control their emotions. They are trying to prove they are capable physically but they aren’t. They need to focus on playing their best between the whistles not after them.

From a coaching perspective, constantly having Smyth out there for the PK with an awful PK is astonishing. Separating Pinelli and Kressler is idiotic. It hasn’t worked.

They need a prototypical 3rd line that can simply smother the line they are playing agaisnt. Load up the top two lines.

Pinelli - Kressler - Gerrior
Foster - Gardiner - Stonehouse
Barlas - Maillet - Horner

If you need to conserve a bit of energy, sub in some of the 4th liners to spell off the top 9 here and there when the right situation arises.

They acquired Mayer to be a leader. Run him out there 30 minutes per game. You cannot do that with Smyth beside him. Throw Marrelli beside him. Put Mews and Mayich together for the other 30 minutes. Smyth and Sirman can sub into those pairs when it makes sense.

I don’t think Cameron will do any of that. He will keep doing the same stupid shit that is resulting in frustration on the ice. I think it is that frustration that is getting them out of sync and out of their minds.

 

[badnova]

There were a lot of choices available to Boyd. Originally we mostly felt the two centres and D-Man (OA upgrades) was necessary to give us an opportunity. But that only gave us a chance in a large pack. A few of us felt we needed a winger and 2nd D-Man as well.

It is tough to honestly see how accurate this is because the team has departed from the style of play that made them successful. Playing as they are playing now, I am not certain it makes a difference what they added. The team is completely lost right now. They are caught is some sort of situation where they feel the need to fight back on everything. Their focus is gone. Their discipline is gone.

This team is a mess. Guys like Foster, Pinelli, and Stonehouse are playing very undisciplined hockey. They have been unable to control their emotions. They are trying to prove they are capable physically but they aren’t. They need to focus on playing their best between the whistles not after them.

From a coaching perspective, constantly having Smyth out there for the PK with an awful PK is astonishing. Separating Pinelli and Kressler is idiotic. It hasn’t worked.

They need a prototypical 3rd line that can simply smother the line they are playing agaisnt. Load up the top two lines.

Pinelli - Kressler - Gerrior
Foster - Gardiner - Stonehouse
Barlas - Maillet - Horner

If you need to conserve a bit of energy, sub in some of the 4th liners to spell off the top 9 here and there when the right situation arises.

They acquired Mayer to be a leader. Run him out there 30 minutes per game. You cannot do that with Smyth beside him. Throw Marrelli beside him. Put Mews and Mayich together for the other 30 minutes. Smyth and Sirman can sub into those pairs when it makes sense.

I don’t think Cameron will do any of that. He will keep doing the same stupid shit that is resulting in frustration on the ice. I think it is that frustration that is getting them out of sync and out of their minds.

Agree with you Mayer can play 30-35 min per game but he must have a D who can be trusted

 

[ecraigs]

Not that it would have made any difference, but did anyone else see the play late in the second when a Bulldog player broke his stick on a shot and then threw the piece in his hand at the puck in the Ottawa zone? You're supposed to drop it. I thought I was imagining it, but on replay it was very obvious. With the ref crew being so free with Ottawa penalties, this was a glaring miss.

 

[beastintheeast]

There were a lot of choices available to Boyd. Originally we mostly felt the two centres and D-Man (OA upgrades) was necessary to give us an opportunity. But that only gave us a chance in a large pack. A few of us felt we needed a winger and 2nd D-Man as well.

It is tough to honestly see how accurate this is because the team has departed from the style of play that made them successful. Playing as they are playing now, I am not certain it makes a difference what they added. The team is completely lost right now. They are caught is some sort of situation where they feel the need to fight back on everything. Their focus is gone. Their discipline is gone.

This team is a mess. Guys like Foster, Pinelli, and Stonehouse are playing very undisciplined hockey. They have been unable to control their emotions. They are trying to prove they are capable physically but they aren’t. They need to focus on playing their best between the whistles not after them.

From a coaching perspective, constantly having Smyth out there for the PK with an awful PK is astonishing. Separating Pinelli and Kressler is idiotic. It hasn’t worked.

They need a prototypical 3rd line that can simply smother the line they are playing agaisnt. Load up the top two lines.

Pinelli - Kressler - Gerrior
Foster - Gardiner - Stonehouse
Barlas - Maillet - Horner

If you need to conserve a bit of energy, sub in some of the 4th liners to spell off the top 9 here and there when the right situation arises.

They acquired Mayer to be a leader. Run him out there 30 minutes per game. You cannot do that with Smyth beside him. Throw Marrelli beside him. Put Mews and Mayich together for the other 30 minutes. Smyth and Sirman can sub into those pairs when it makes sense.

I don’t think Cameron will do any of that. He will keep doing the same stupid shit that is resulting in frustration on the ice. I think it is that frustration that is getting them out of sync and out of their minds.

I think Boyd and Cameron understand that no matter what they did with team unless they added a lot of players and killed the draft that this was not going to be our year.

For too many years, we have had the best regular season team only to get beat by a team that played a banging defensive style.

I think that the brain trust has realized that, and this year, they are attempting to set up a team with size and defensive ability in view of the run and gun. I looke to them to draft skill but size.

I am sure one of the things that is going to happen is that Horner and Houoben are going to be told what they have to do to get more speed and possibly confidence for next year.

That being said I think they are in the beginning of a rebuild and really are not too worried about this season and looking to the draft and who they want to keep.

DC likes players that are 6' and have size that can play in both ends of the ice over scoring.

 

[OMG67]

I think Boyd and Cameron understand that no matter what they did with team unless they added a lot of players and killed the draft that this was not going to be our year.

For too many years, we have had the best regular season team only to get beat by a team that played a banging defensive style.

I think that the brain trust has realized that, and this year, they are attempting to set up a team with size and defensive ability in view of the run and gun. I looke to them to draft skill but size.

I am sure one of the things that is going to happen is that Horner and Houoben are going to be told what they have to do to get more speed and possibly confidence for next year.

That being said I think they are in the beginning of a rebuild and really are not too worried about this season and looking to the draft and who they want to keep.

DC likes players that are 6' and have size that can play in both ends of the ice over scoring.

I am not sure that is accurate. There is something else going on. The team was much different leading up to about 12 or 13 games left in the season. Something changed. This is not the same team we saw earlier and it is not because all the other teams managed to all get better all of a sudden.

I am not certain the management/coaches feel the same as you (or me for that matter). I honestly feel there is something wrong in the room. I think they will try to fix what is wrong int he room but won’t address the core problem. Again, jsut speculation on my end but there is too much smoke. There must be a fire somewhere. Too many roster decisions seem punitive.

Why would players that were chippy before all of a sudden play completely undisciplined? It points to frustration and dissatisfaction and a lack of overall giving a shit.

Yesterday’s game told the story I needed to see to confirm what I was thinking. Nothing changed yesterday from the last few weeks. Same garbage.

The team is not competitive and I really don’t think adding a winger and another D-Man would make any difference. The team is playing like they don’t give a shit about anything. Two more bodies won’t make any difference.

I honestly think this is a 4-0 series. Brantford was the absolute worst possible first round matchup for Ottawa. There is not room for the garbage we are seeing against that team. Brantford has been very consistent. Ottawa needs to play their game at their best to have a chance. The strategy employed with the way the lineup is configured suggests Cameron isn’t’ willing to make changes. I don’t think any results will change either.

If this playoff series goes the way I think it will AND I am accurate in so far as acknowledging there are players that hate Cameron, I think we will see that all play out next pre-season, or earlier. It likley means there will be a complete rebuild to rid the team of the cancer in the room. And that is not to say there is an issue with the players, jsut a difference of opinion between players and coaches resulting in a cancerous situation.

 

[beastintheeast]

I am not sure that is accurate. There is something else going on. The team was much different leading up to about 12 or 13 games left in the season. Something changed. This is not the same team we saw earlier and it is not because all the other teams managed to all get better all of a sudden.

I am not certain the management/coaches feel the same as you (or me for that matter). I honestly feel there is something wrong in the room. I think they will try to fix what is wrong int he room but won’t address the core problem. Again, jsut speculation on my end but there is too much smoke. There must be a fire somewhere. Too many roster decisions seem punitive.

Why would players that were chippy before all of a sudden play completely undisciplined? It points to frustration and dissatisfaction and a lack of overall giving a shit.

Yesterday’s game told the story I needed to see to confirm what I was thinking. Nothing changed yesterday from the last few weeks. Same garbage.

The team is not competitive and I really don’t think adding a winger and another D-Man would make any difference. The team is playing like they don’t give a shit about anything. Two more bodies won’t make any difference.

I honestly think this is a 4-0 series. Brantford was the absolute worst possible first round matchup for Ottawa. There is not room for the garbage we are seeing against that team. Brantford has been very consistent. Ottawa needs to play their game at their best to have a chance. The strategy employed with the way the lineup is configured suggests Cameron isn’t’ willing to make changes. I don’t think any results will change either.

If this playoff series goes the way I think it will AND I am accurate in so far as acknowledging there are players that hate Cameron, I think we will see that all play out next pre-season, or earlier. It likley means there will be a complete rebuild to rid the team of the cancer in the room. And that is not to say there is an issue with the players, jsut a difference of opinion between players and coaches resulting in a cancerous situation.

I fully agree. I think life before this year was easy for a few of the players. We had the players who could basically score at will, so defence was not that HUGE an issue. DC had inherited Tourigny's team.
Now that most of the players are gone, he is able to develop his team in a completely different style.

The other factor, I think, is that this organization has a dressing-room leadership that takes over when it is winning and makes things happen.

I look back and can remember teams that Killer had that players were not happy with. One of two things happened: the team leadership, which he always had, took the player aside and sorted him out, or, as was the case with Grant Marshall, the player found himself out the door and moving to another team quickly. Not because of anything but the fact that the player did not want to play for Killer. Think back to the year that Peter Lee was coaching and it is funny one of the players that Lee and Killer had the most trouble with was a kid named James last name was Boyd LOL
We wonder why Smyth is getting so much ice time. While I am not positive, it could simply be that he is buying into what DC wants and is getting rewarded.

Again there are a lot of players that I think will be gone. To a certain point, we may see a team with NO or only 1 OA. next year depending.

DC is going to find his players and choose who he builds the team around mucdh like Killer did after Peter. It became Alyn's team. I do not know if we have the player possibly Mews or Marelli. I don't see a forward that can fill the role. could Barlas be a Tonai not sure you know that better than I

I think everyone wants one thing and one thing only.

End the season, End the pain, and start the rebuild at the draft.

 

[OMG67]

I fully agree. I think life before this year was easy for a few of the players. We had the players who could basically score at will, so defence was not that HUGE an issue. DC had inherited Tourigny's team.
Now that most of the players are gone, he is able to develop his team in a completely different style.

The other factor, I think, is that this organization has a dressing-room leadership that takes over when it is winning and makes things happen.

I look back and can remember teams that Killer had that players were not happy with. One of two things happened: the team leadership, which he always had, took the player aside and sorted him out, or, as was the case with Grant Marshall, the player found himself out the door and moving to another team quickly. Not because of anything but the fact that the player did not want to play for Killer. Think back to the year that Peter Lee was coaching and it is funny one of the players that Lee and Killer had the most trouble with was a kid named James last name was Boyd LOL
We wonder why Smyth is getting so much ice time. While I am not positive, it could simply be that he is buying into what DC wants and is getting rewarded.

Again there are a lot of players that I think will be gone. To a certain point, we may see a team with NO or only 1 OA. next year depending.

DC is going to find his players and choose who he builds the team around mucdh like Killer did after Peter. It became Alyn's team. I do not know if we have the player possibly Mews or Marelli. I don't see a forward that can fill the role. could Barlas be a Tonai not sure you know that better than I

I think everyone wants one thing and one thing only.

End the season, End the pain, and start the rebuild at the draft.

The problem as an outsider is if this is accurate, and I think it quite possibly is, we don’t truly know which players are the problem. Maybe the coach IS the problem? But, the coach isn’t’ going so you have to sort out the player situation. The challenge is how deep do you need to go to sort it out?

There are wayyyy too many unknowns. I am not used to speculation to this level. I mean, this is pure unadulterated speculation. I am so far out on a limb here and I don’t know even remotely for certain that I am accurate. I am simply rasping for straws trying to figure out how this team ended up circling the toilet all of a sudden. I don’t remember a team that was motoring along and playing well agaisnt good competition all of a sudden end up playing like a ball of soap chips.

BTW, Boyd was a huge problem as a player in Ottawa. Kind of ironic he is now the one running the ship.

 

[AGranderson]

I am not sure that is accurate. There is something else going on. The team was much different leading up to about 12 or 13 games left in the season. Something changed. This is not the same team we saw earlier and it is not because all the other teams managed to all get better all of a sudden.

I am not certain the management/coaches feel the same as you (or me for that matter). I honestly feel there is something wrong in the room. I think they will try to fix what is wrong int he room but won’t address the core problem. Again, jsut speculation on my end but there is too much smoke. There must be a fire somewhere. Too many roster decisions seem punitive.

Why would players that were chippy before all of a sudden play completely undisciplined? It points to frustration and dissatisfaction and a lack of overall giving a shit.

Yesterday’s game told the story I needed to see to confirm what I was thinking. Nothing changed yesterday from the last few weeks. Same garbage.

The team is not competitive and I really don’t think adding a winger and another D-Man would make any difference. The team is playing like they don’t give a shit about anything. Two more bodies won’t make any difference.

I honestly think this is a 4-0 series. Brantford was the absolute worst possible first round matchup for Ottawa. There is not room for the garbage we are seeing against that team. Brantford has been very consistent. Ottawa needs to play their game at their best to have a chance. The strategy employed with the way the lineup is configured suggests Cameron isn’t’ willing to make changes. I don’t think any results will change either.

If this playoff series goes the way I think it will AND I am accurate in so far as acknowledging there are players that hate Cameron, I think we will see that all play out next pre-season, or earlier. It likley means there will be a complete rebuild to rid the team of the cancer in the room. And that is not to say there is an issue with the players, jsut a difference of opinion between players and coaches resulting in a cancerous situation.

Can confirm this is all wrong, not one single issue in the room & DC is highly, highly respected by everyone. Dont believe me if you don’t want to but I haven’t been wrong all season. This is just a better Brantford team & a few guys playing undisciplined in game 1. You guys are just looking for something to talk about the last 2 weeks

 

[AGranderson]

24/25
Pinelli-Foster-Gerrior (OA)
Barlas-Gardiner-Dever
Kelly-Whitehead-Korbler
Hilton- 1st Rd -Yani
Houben ____ 3rd RD

Sirman (OA)- Mews
Marelli-Dietsch
Horner-Brady
Comp Pick


Mackenzie (OA)
Nelson

Stonehouse-AHL
Michelone- Jr A
Mayich-Trade
Smyth-Trade

 

[beastintheeast]

24/25
Pinelli-Foster-Gerrior (OA)
Barlas-Gardiner-Dever
Kelly-Whitehead-Korbler
Hilton- 1st Rd -Yani
Houben ____ 3rd RD

Sirman (OA)- Mews
Marelli-Dietsch
Horner-Brady
Comp Pick


Mackenzie (OA)
Nelson

Stonehouse-AHL
Michelone- Jr A
Mayich-Trade
Smyth-Trade

Those are interesting thoughts. A couple of thoughts

Yanni is a LW. I see him playing with Whitehead and Korbler so that they can build chemistry and develop together.

We are going to see a different Hilton next season. I expect him to learn skating drills and be a late-round draft pick of an NHL team. If he can build coordination and a 2-way game, he will be a stud in the AHL, possibly the NHL.
I notice that you have only 1 Euro. I would not be surprised to see them draft a Euro D if an RD is available.

DC is going to have to take Mews and Marelli and get them in a leadershp role. If not then he is going tohave to draft an OA that can


As to team Chemistry, this team has none. They need to look at themselves and decide what they want to do. DC coaches teams that are big and want to play two-way hockey.

I do not see Stonehouse in the AHL I think he will at best start in the ECHL

Mayich is going to get traded probably but I do not see that until the deadline unless someone is really in need.

 

[OMG67]

Can confirm this is all wrong, not one single issue in the room & DC is highly, highly respected by everyone. Dont believe me if you don’t want to but I haven’t been wrong all season. This is just a better Brantford team & a few guys playing undisciplined in game 1. You guys are just looking for something to talk about the last 2 weeks

Confirmed. All of a sudden the team forgot how to play hockey against Erie and haven’t managed to figure it out since.

EDIT:
Sorry, AG. I reread this and it reads harsh. What I should have said was..
If this is confirmed as true, then for some other reason the team has fallen apart starting from the game in Erie.

If that is the case, how did it happen? This isn’t a situation with one game vs Brantford. This is much bigger than one game. We can’t look at games vs Niagara, Peterborough and Barrie as the standard. W e need to look at teams in their relative category where they have been poor against since that Erie game.

 

[BigHitter67]

Can confirm this is all wrong, not one single issue in the room & DC is highly, highly respected by everyone. Dont believe me if you don’t want to but I haven’t been wrong all season. This is just a better Brantford team & a few guys playing undisciplined in game 1. You guys are just looking for something to talk about the last 2 weeks

Nothing could be further from truth

 

[NoQuit67s]

No change in the lineup today.
Dietsch is in, Whitehead is the reserve.

 

[OMG67]

No change in the lineup today.
Dietsch is in, Whitehead is the reserve.

Same lines too. I am starting to think Cameron is a moron.

 

[gadder]

ouch.
well, maybe the "moron" has more faith in his players, though the past few weeks haven't been encouraging. Brantford is the better playoff team but we can play so much better as we've proved - what happened?
we'll see tonight. it's win or it's likely 4 straight and out for our boys.

 

[gusfring]

Can confirm this is all wrong, not one single issue in the room & DC is highly, highly respected by everyone. Dont believe me if you don’t want to but I haven’t been wrong all season. This is just a better Brantford team & a few guys playing undisciplined in game 1. You guys are just looking for something to talk about the last 2 weeks

Why did Beck and Rohrer want out?

 

[beastintheeast]

Same lines too. I am starting to think Cameron is a moron.

I think they have realized that they have done what they have and are now playing it out to see which of these players wants to be back next year.

 

[Race Dawg]

Listening to game on the radio from the garage. Walhs was saying there were some fans in the press box?

Anyways refs doing a great job to ensure there is no flow to this game....

The problem as an outsider is if this is accurate, and I think it quite possibly is, we don’t truly know which players are the problem. Maybe the coach IS the problem? But, the coach isn’t’ going so you have to sort out the player situation. The challenge is how deep do you need to go to sort it out?

There are wayyyy too many unknowns. I am not used to speculation to this level. I mean, this is pure unadulterated speculation. I am so far out on a limb here and I don’t know even remotely for certain that I am accurate. I am simply rasping for straws trying to figure out how this team ended up circling the toilet all of a sudden. I don’t remember a team that was motoring along and playing well agaisnt good competition all of a sudden end up playing like a ball of soap chips.

BTW, Boyd was a huge problem as a player in Ottawa. Kind of ironic he is now the one running the ship.

Problem is big if you don't live in Ottawa....

 

[Race Dawg]

4-2 Ottawa now!

 

[mianjo]

67's lead 4-2 after 2

SHOTS ON GOAL

Teams	1st	2nd	3rd	Total
OTT	11	12	0	23
BFD	12	8	0	20

GOAL
#29 Cooper Foster (1) scores. Assists: #28 Caden Kelly, #6 Thomas Sirman
1st 17:31
+/-

GOAL
#8 Frankie Marrelli (1) scores. Assists: #9 Chris Barlas
1st 18:07

GOAL
#20 Luca Pinelli (2) scores. Assists: #27 Jacob Maillet SHORT HANDED
2nd 6:29
+/-

GOAL
#19 Samuel Mayer (1) scores. Assists: #18 Jack Dever, #20 Luca PinelliPOWER PLAY
2nd 16:53

 

[OMG67]

Two periods in the books. I’d be happy to be wrong tonight!

The odd part is the 67s are winning while playing Brantford’s game. They still aren’t playing their game. They are beating Brantford at their game. Odd but I will take it.

67s taking better advantage of the few opportunities they are getting. Hopefully they have a confident 3rd.

I’d like to see another replay of the hit on Stonehouse but at first glance, that really looked like a bad hit, total headhunter hit. If that is how I initially saw it, that’s intent to injure. There was no need for the player to take that route and it looked like he raised his shoulder to hit Stonehouse in the head from the blind side and there was no puck anywhere near Stonehouse. Looked super dirty. That’s suspension territory.

 

[Race Dawg]

Goal under review. Help me out was it in??.

 

[mianjo]

4-3

4:04 to go

 

[Race Dawg]

5-3 !!!!!!

 

[mianjo]

5-3 en

GOAL
#29 Cooper Foster (2) scores.EMPTY NET
3rd 18:33