March 1 musings


By
March 1, 2016

The first of March takes us one day closer to spring and another day closer to playoffs..

…In the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League, the question is not so much which of the top teams is going to win the championship but which ones are not going to make it out of the first round of the playoffs. To be sure, when the first round of the playoffs is over, three of the following six high-end NOJHL teams will have been ousted — Powassan Voodoos, Cochrane Crunch, Kirkland Lake Gold Miners, Timmins Rock, Elliot Lake Wildcats and Rayside-Balfour Canadians. As a matter-of-fact, Timmins — which will finish fourth in the East Division — first has to make it out of the best-of-three preliminary round and beat the Iroquois Falls Eskis if the Rock hopes to move on.

…Is there a lower-rung NOJHL team that is capable of a first-round upset? While I do like the talent that co-coach/general manager Bruno Bragagnolo has assembled for the Soo Eagles, I don’t know if the Michiganders have enough to beat the Soo Thunderbirds four times over a seven-game series. Then again, the fourth-place Eagles first have to make it out of the West Division preliminary-round series.

…Playoffs will also afford National Collegiate Athletic Association coaches the opportunity to watch prospective recruits in more of a pressure situation. In the area where I reside, I happen to know that three Division 1 schools from around here — Lake Superior State Lakers, Northern Michigan Wildcats and Michigan Tech Huskies — are evaluating a handful of NOJHL players from both the Thunderbirds and Eagles.

…Best bets of current Twin Soo NOJHLers to get a future Division 1 commitment — Thunderbird forwards Zach Senecal and Mark Tassone and from the Eagles, forward Gord Helmuth and defenseman Zack Parrott.

…If I am a Division 1 coach I am watching tape on good-sized, goal-a-game forward Hunter Atchison of the NOJHL’s Cochrane Crunch.

…What I am hearing about the future of the Blind River Beavers is unsettling. Once the NOJHL season is over, the Beavers will need to find a new president to replace the effective, outgoing Rachelle Nyman. All I can go by is what I am hearing and have been told, which is that there is a division among key supporters of the Beavers that could effect the future operation of the franchise. Personally, I am hoping that the Beavers can get their off-ice house in order and return to their competitive ways of six years ago.


What you think about “March 1 musings”

  1. The Lakers have quite a few recruits in the pipeline for the next two seasons, although some of them are only verbal commitments and haven’t signed NLIs yet. They don’t have a lot of room for additional recruits until about three seasons out. Their main focus for two seasons out is to recruit a replacement goalie for Gordie Defiel. If Senecal and Tassone are good enough skaters for Damon Whitten’s preferred uptempo style of play, the Lakers could be interested in one or both of them. Plus they are younger guys which is primarily what the Lakers are looking at now.

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