Adding on to the Express


By
November 11, 2016

Espanola Express of the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League is not a reflection of its 5-15-1 record through 21 games of the 2016-2017 season, according to team president Chad Clarke.

“It’s good to start getting back to healthy numbers again and we look forward to getting our game back as our record does not reflect our team,” Clarke told HockeyNewsNorth.com. “We played a lot of hockey in October and it really burned us out.”

For one, defenseman Jamison Westaby is back with the Express after being injured during the pre-season.

The Express has also recently added a pair of players from other Jr. A leagues via the trade route — defenseman Joshua Zlatinsky and goalie Taylor Unruh. Zlatinsky attended the main camp of the Ontario Hockey League’s London Knights in September.

Espanola plays a home-and-home series with the Rayside-Balfour Canadians tonight and on Saturday evening.

Tonight’s match is slated for 7:30 p.m. in Espanola. Rayside will then play host to Espanola on Saturday at 7 p.m.


What you think about “Adding on to the Express”

  1. I really don’t know how to take this article. Cochrane played a lot of hockey in October…it didn’t burn them out. They managed to come out ok. This might have something to do about the conditioning off the players and why they get injured.

    Their 5-16-1 record IS a reflection of the team in my opinion. They’ve given up 9, 11, 12 goals in their past few games against the Eagles twice (a middle of the pack team) and Timmins (a CJHL top 20 team).

    They don’t really play a system. It looks unorganized out there. To me, it looks like a game of shinny broke out.

    They basically had to trade Dom Lavergne out of town, one of the league’s more dominant forces. They never even got Tristan Salesse to show up for a game after the Grandbois trade (one in which Grandbois didn’t show up for Timmins either). They’ve played games with 3 or 4 D and not 6. The team looked like it was falling apart.

    With Zlatinsky in town as well as Westaby back, their D is actually starting to take shape with Ellerton, Tilot, Sandboe and Lafond to round out the team. On the outside looking in should be the young Jeb Paulsen and the Islander Mitch Payette, who will likely benefit from the time off..unless they play him at D and Sandboe up front to help fill the holes up front.

    The team’s main concern now should be to add some scoring to the forwards. Having lost Lavergne and Salesse, the team needs to add bonafide scorers and offensive players to take some pressure off the defence.

    Right now, the Express aren’t talented enough in the offensive zone to keep play in that end. Too many times the puck is just stuck in the Express defensive zone.

    Hopefully things will change soon.

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