Sarnia Sting 2022-23 Off-Season Thread (Part 5)

[honeydripper]

Good for these kids eh? Holy are they playing like they’ve been in the league for a year or two already!

Sarnia’s defensive play continues to suffocate teams in the preseason. The PK is relentless. This is the sort of play that I absolutely love to watch. No feet sitting idle, everyone moving, everyone on the forecheck, backcheck….all areas of the game are being played beautifully by this young squad early on. It’s been a blast to watch.

I was waiting for Doucette to do something for me this preseason. Thought his play last night showed what we are hoping for from him. Only thing he couldn’t do was finish. Hope he gets going on a consistent basis. He is someone that should have a much shorter leash then other sophomores.

Leblanc bros turning into favourites already. So many sequences where those two were drivers for extended zone time in Flints end. Moses another good game. Nice tilt! He’s got a lot of untapped offensive potential I think. He’s been a hound dog on the puck so far too. Love it. Really love what Young has shown so far too. He gives me Colton Kammerer vibes, but smoother skater and higher offensive upside.

Sim is going to be that player that I am completely wrong about. He’s already making me eat my words. I don’t think he’s going to let his size deter any aspect of his game in a negative way. Looking forward to see him develop as he gets more comfortable, but I don’t think it’s gonna take long if the last few games are an indication of his drive and determination.

I just don’t see any reason why Surzycia shouldn’t be our #1. We need to move Ben. Idc if it’s for diddly squat at this point. Sarnia has the best one-two punch in net with Chartier and Surzycia as far as potential goes that they’ve ever had imo. Really hope it’s those two as our guys come trade deadline at the latest.

This team isn’t going to out-talent anyone so this gritty effort has to be the game plan all year.
Both Flint goals resulted from ill advised pinches, Nick had no chance. He is playing great, and yes it’s time to move 70 to any team but London (I think he’d agree).

 

[StingUpdates]

Unfortunately SSM was a team that looked like a spot & they added their 3rd OA yesterday. All 3 are T6 Fs. Let's hope PBO wants to much for Simpson or isn't willing to do it yet & somebody (LDN) calls us.

Cause at this pt it just wouldn't be great for the guys to have 3. Surzcyia is deserving of more games & Chartier deserves to play somewhat regularly & obviously Ben is playing for a ton this year for his future

 

[Jason M]

Unfortunately SSM was a team that looked like a spot & they added their 3rd OA yesterday. All 3 are T6 Fs. Let's hope PBO wants to much for Simpson or isn't willing to do it yet & somebody (LDN) calls us.

Cause at this pt it just wouldn't be great for the guys to have 3. Surzcyia is deserving of more games & Chartier deserves to play somewhat regularly & obviously Ben is playing for a ton this year for his future

The only way I'm moving Ben. Is if Surzycia can keep this level of play up in the regular season. And I'm not a fan of sending him to LDN. But in Letangs 20 in 20 interview he said Ben would be are number 1 when he comes back.

On another note I still think this team will be better then what some people think. I do think we need to upgrade on WAY still.

 

[StingUpdates]

Only 10Fs tonight. Brown out again so likely isn't rest. Which absolutely sucks. Hopefully very minor whatever it is. No Doherty either. Gonna guess he got hurt in that fight. Then obviously no Wainwright or Vilmanis.

Chartier not dressed again either. All these positives but now they're really down some bodies just a week away from the opener.

Not expecting much from this one. 3in4 & pretty much only have 3 lines.

 

[Jason M]

Only 10Fs tonight. Brown out again so likely isn't rest. Which absolutely sucks. Hopefully very minor whatever it is. No Doherty either. Gonna guess he got hurt in that fight. Then obviously no Wainwright or Vilmanis.

Chartier not dressed again either. All these positives but now they're really down some bodies just a week away from the opener.

Not expecting much from this one. 3in4 & pretty much only have 3 lines.

I've been asking some people I know around the team about Chartier. But know one seems to know anything still.

 

[StingUpdates]

No stream for tonight. C'mon Windsor everyone else has been doing em.

Sim opens the scoring on the PP! Good weekend for the kid. Filak the assist. Wsr goal bit flukey as it was a rebound that hit off Struthers chest & in (wsr twitter account tweets an angle of their goals)

 

[StingUpdates]

Atta way boys. Finish strong & go 4-1 in the pre season. Lominac 2G/1A! Moses his first goal, LeBlanc scores twice again. OHL best 7Gs in pre season. Sim with his first as well. Barr 1A, +2, Young 1A, +2, Omeri & Hurt each +1.

Good stuff. Hopefully get some guys back before it all begins friday!

 

[SarniaStingFan]

Injuries obviously a concern but overall this about as good of a preseason that they could have had. Defence and goaltending were excellent. Only 11 goals against in five games. Doing that while playing with four rookie d-men is really impressive. Just looking at the numbers (didn't get a chance to watch any of the games), Young looked really impressive (2G, 2A, +6). Awesome that Surzycia is playing so well in the preseason. Will be interesting to see if he can push Gaudreau for the starting spot. On the offensive side really good to see A. LeBlanc (7G, 1A) and Filak (2G, 5A) step up. Hopefully a sign of them taking a jump this season. Awesome to see the rookie crop contributing already. Brown (3G, 2A in 3 GP) being the biggest standout

 

[StingUpdates]

Would imagine what we saw this week is what will likely be the D pairings come Friday.

Fischer-LeBlanc
Young-Omeri
Barr-MacDonald
Hurt

How they roled them both games & they played well. If that is the case that'll be a combined 310 games (reg ssn+ playoffs). Averages out to 44 games of experience on our backend. And not like they were big minutes in a lot of those games. MacDonald mainly been a 6th sometimes 7th D. Fischer once everyone returned was the 6th D. Same as Young.

Gonna be one of the youngest & most inexperienced Dcores we've had in a bit & easily one of the younger ones in the league with an average age of 17.4.

There will be some brutal, brutal nights no doubt. The goalies will have some games where they're under siege for long stretches if not the majority of the game vs the big dogs. But love what I've seen so far. Think the group has a ton of potential back there just gonna take time & experience.

Up front we have a few more vets but still super inexperienced. Will have 6 guys who haven't played OHL hockey (Brown, Sim, Hall, Doherty, Kukumberg & Lominac.) All those guys except Kukumberg are 16 or 17.

Even their "vets" aren't filled with experience. Wainwright only 1 season. Same with Vilmanis, Doucette & Moses.

Combined games with everyone at F healthy is 947. Averages out to 67 games of experience. B6 will likely have 4 rookies in it & the off chance 5 if Brown is L3 but not sure how anyone would not have him T6 after his camp.

Will certainly be a struggle on some nights to produce. Could be some real snoozers lol, but hopefully we see the guys develop as the yr goes on & start carving out there spots on the team long term.

Expectations remain low for me. Think the conference is rather deep & it's just so hard to win when your super young but especially when you'll struggle to score. Especially w/Wainwright already down for a bit. But I'd love to be proven wrong & them push for 7th. Certainly looks like we'll have the goaltending & work ethic. Good place to start!

 

[Ferda11]

Well, great preseason for the Sting.

4-1, with a league leading .800 win %
21 GF, 11 GA
PP 24% and PK 84%

A.LeBlanc lead the way with 7G, 1 A for 8 pts in 5gp.
Filak was 2G, 5A for 7 pts in 5gp
Sikic 2G, 4A for 6 pts in 4gp
Rookie Brown 3G, 2A for 5 pts in 3gp
Rookie Lominac with 3G, 1A for 4 pts in 5gp

On the blueline...

Young 2G, 2A in 4gp
Fischer 4A in 5 GP

Surzycia finished with a 2.46 GAA and .922 SV%. He stopped 95/103 shots for 8 goals against in his 3-0 record.

A lot to be happy with after the 5 preseason games. Looking forward to seeing how their play translates to the regular season. I'm sure these kids are riding high on emotion and excitement, but the 68 game long season can take it's toll. When you're playing a 3 in 3, it's no where near similar to the experience of preseason hockey this young group has seen so far. It's a whole different beast and I hope this team is ready for it. Keep up that dog mentality and team commitment to defense and this team will have a shot every night. It's going to be tough to play 68 games of hockey the way they played these 5 preseason games, so expect a decent amount of long nights! Looking forward to watching this young core develop!

 

[StingUpdates]

I feel like the Sting are trying their best to piss off their fans lol. From the stuff last yr vs LDN. Having a pre season game cost $15 for season ticket holders when they've always been free (really worked when the barn was half empty)

Now the school day game is kids only. No other fans allowed. From everything I've ever seen season ticket holders still attend those games elsewhere. They also say they didn't have that game/money added to the STH price but find that hard to believe with how it went up.

The rewards for being a STH are also downright pathetic. I'm actually yet to even get a single thing, but somebody I go to the game with got an extra calender when he got his tickets so I got that. Pretty insulting.

 

[Jason M]

I feel like the Sting are trying their best to piss off their fans lol. From the stuff last yr vs LDN. Having a pre season game cost $15 for season ticket holders when they've always been free (really worked when the barn was half empty)

Now the school day game is kids only. No other fans allowed. From everything I've ever seen season ticket holders still attend those games elsewhere. They also say they didn't have that game/money added to the STH price but find that hard to believe with how it went up.

The rewards for being a STH are also downright pathetic. I'm actually yet to even get a single thing, but somebody I go to the game with got an extra calender when he got his tickets so I got that. Pretty insulting.

I'm a season ticket holder and I have a ticket for the school day game.

 

[StingUpdates]

I'm a season ticket holder and I have a ticket for the school day game.

"The School Day Game is exclusive to school aged children from the local Sarnia-Lambton school boards. Tickets for this game are not included in the 2023-24 season ticket package." From the Sting's article today.

 

[Jason M]

"The School Day Game is exclusive to school aged children from the local Sarnia-Lambton school boards. Tickets for this game are not included in the 2023-24 season ticket package." From the Sting's article today.

I have a ticket for that game I'm holding it in my hand right now. They better not refuse me entry.

 

[StingUpdates]

First-round pick Ryan Brown sat out the last two games after collecting five points in three exhibitions, but he practised Saturday and is “fine,” Letang said.

Goalie Karsen Chartier also didn’t dress for the last two games. His condition is due to be re-evaluated, Letang said.

From the observer today. Sounds good for Brown..not so much for Chartier.

 

[SarniaStingFan]

First-round pick Ryan Brown sat out the last two games after collecting five points in three exhibitions, but he practised Saturday and is “fine,” Letang said.

Goalie Karsen Chartier also didn’t dress for the last two games. His condition is due to be re-evaluated, Letang said.

From the observer today. Sounds good for Brown..not so much for Chartier.

Hopefully Gaudreau is back for the first weekend. Otherwise the Sting may have to sign a goalie before Friday

 

[Jason M]

So my grandmother got a hold of the box office this morning. And even through they printed out a ticket for her and I for the school day game. They aren't going to honor it so even know we payed and have the ticket they're still going to screw us.

What the he'll are the Sting thinking screwing us like this. My grandmother has had season tickets since day 1. And now we can't go to a game we have tickets for. I know people who have season tickets for other teams. And they still get to go to the school day games. This is BS they raise are prices and now they tell us we can't go to a game we have tickets for.

I love this team still but I've never been more pissed off.

I suggest to anyone who has season tickets to call the box office and tell them how you feel.

I still have a feeling this may change if enough people complain.

 

[Jason M]

Micheal Simpson to LDN.

 

[ZinErie]

So my grandmother got a hold of the box office this morning. And even through they printed out a ticket for her and I for the school day game. They aren't going to honor it so even know we payed and have the ticket they're still going to screw us.

What the he'll are the Sting thinking screwing us like this. My grandmother has had season tickets since day 1. And now we can't go to a game we have tickets for. I know people who have season tickets for other teams. And they still get to go to the school day games. This is BS they raise are prices and now they tell us we can't go to a game we have tickets for.

I love this team still but I've never been more pissed off.

I suggest to anyone who has season tickets to call the box office and tell them how you feel.

I still have a feeling this may change if enough people complain.

I have season tickets in Erie. We can go to the school day game, but I never do. Too damn loud, lol. We get credit for unused tickets.

 

[StingUpdates]

Well there goes the #1 landing option for Gaudreau. Who knows if they were ever interested, but not many teams left.

Feel like this is gonna drag on & be a bit annoying, especially for Chartier.

 

[Petes1987]

Well there goes the #1 landing option for Gaudreau. Who knows if they were ever interested, but not many teams left.

Feel like this is gonna drag on & be a bit annoying, especially for Chartier.

I think they wanted Michael Simpson all along as he is from London and he was the playoff MVP.

 

[SarniaStingFan]

Florida has returned Vilmanis to the Sting. Seems like Gaudreau is still with Tampa Bay although he's not playing in their preseason game tonight

 

[StingUpdates]

Well I think about 95% of predictions online have Sarnia last. Back in our old home. Haha.

Certainly see why ppl have us ranked that low. Lack of talent is glaring. Especially at F. D is youngest in the conference. Wainwright already out a bit.

I've said before I can definitely see it. But I just have a gut feeling they'll be better than anticipated. Now does that just mean they're right in the battle up till the end? Maybe. But there always seems to be one team that's a total disaster/disappointment. Maybe a team that's destroyed by injuries/bad luck.

We'll know pretty early where we stand I think. WSR/SAG/KIT/SSM/WSR/FLT first 6 games. Wsr is good. Least until they sell off their vets. SAG & SSM already have added. KIT/FLT should be teams we r right next too all yr.

if we r looking overmatched in those 6 games then it'll be a long, long season.

 

[Jason M]

Just had a good laugh . I was looking at lists of players being sent back to there junior teams. And they had Matyas Sapovaliv coming back to Sarnia not Saginaw. Maybe they know something we don't LOL.

 

[SarniaStingFan]

Well there goes the #1 landing option for Gaudreau. Who knows if they were ever interested, but not many teams left.

Feel like this is gonna drag on & be a bit annoying, especially for Chartier.

The good thing for the Sting about the Simpson deal is the high return. If Gaudreau plays well, it looks like they could get a good return for him. When talking about teams that he could go to I think we have to wait until we're a few weeks into the regular season. There's always surprise contenders that end up adding