Boys are back in Houndtown


By
September 19, 2016

It is not an ordinary, usual Friday-Saturday doubleheader at home for the Soo Greyhounds. No, it is a lot more than that.

It’s opening weekend in the Ontario Hockey League and that always has a special ring to it.

Opening weekend — or opening week or opening night, whatever the case may be — signals the start to another season, in this case Greyhound hockey.

And to top it off, the 2016-2017 season will mark the 45th anniversary for the Greyhounds as members of the Ontario Hockey League.

So much has changed since the Soo’s first OHL team took to the ice for the 1972-1973 season.

The biggest change was the move from venerable, erstwhile Memorial Gardens to where the Hounds now play out of, the Essar Centre.

But not only has the Greyhound moniker remained the same but the red and white colours still prominently adorn the team jerseys.

As first pucks are set to drop on the 2016-2017 season, the Greyhounds will be out to improve on their 2015-2016 performance — which was a decent one, all things considered.

The youthful Hounds turned a seventh-place finish in the 10-team Western Conference into a stunning first-round playoff upset of the second-seeded Sarnia Sting.

And as second-year head coach Drew Bannister looks to this season, he simply says that “we expect to be better.

“We are all a year older so in that regard we should all be a year better,” Bannister told HockeyNewsNorth.com.

And better the Greyhounds should be, having lost only a few players from last season’s edition.

Homegrown captain Blake Speers will lead the way for the Greyhounds. But as the captain, he is just one of the leaders.

“We have a good leadership group,” said Bannister. “We have players who can lead by example and that is a strength of our team.”

Bannister did not get into where he thinks the Greyhounds could or should finish this season.

“Like I said, the expectations are for us to be better in what will once again be a tough Western Conference,” said Bannister, who has a place in Greyhound history from his days as a star defenseman on the 1993 Memorial Cup championship team.

That 1993 Memorial Cup title remains the only one that the Hounds have won in their OHL history.

Speaking of Memorial Cup, the 2017 Memorial Cup host Windsor Spitfires will be here on Friday to play the Greyhounds in their season opener.

Then, on Saturday, Haviland Bay native Bobby Jones and his Oshawa Generals come to town.

Jones is entering his second season as head coach of the Generals, who are celebrating their 80th — 80th! — anniversary as members of the OHL this season.


What you think about “Boys are back in Houndtown”

  1. Wow 45 years! Gotta figure I’m closing in on the 1500 game mark as I have been there from the beginning! Of course factoring in some NOHA games(Montreal Jr Canadiens P/O game as a hi light, then all the playoffs, exhibitions and road games! Ya you can say I’m a diehard! Go Hounds Go

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