Thoughts of NOJHL playoffs


By
March 22, 2022

The last time I watched a playoff game in the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League was two years ago — March 4, 2020 at Pullar Stadium in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. Soo Eagles routed the visiting Espanola Express by a 7-1 score and would go on to sweep the best of three preliminary round series in two straight games.

Shortly after that, what we now refer to as the “vid” arrived and the NOJHL, along with hockey leagues across the land, called off the rest of the 2019-2020 season.

The 2020-2021 season was even worse. Some junior leagues never got going. The NOJHL was one of the more fortunate ones as it managed an abbreviated schedule of 66 games in total. But there were no playoff games and as was the case in 2019-2020, no champion was declared for the 2020-2021 season.

Thus, the last time there was a championship team in the NOJHL was the 2018-2019 season. On April 24, 2019, I was among those in attendance as the Hearst Lumberjacks scored a well earned 6-3 road decision over the Soo Thunderbirds to win the NOJHL title. (see above photo.)

Here we are now, the 2021-2022 regular season is winding down and playoffs are just around the corner. Ah, playoff season in the NOJHL. At last, God willing.

So much has happened since the “vid” came into our lives two years ago. But as so many of us from so many walks of life — not just hockey — are saying, it is time to move ahead and learn to live with what the world has been dealt.

So, moving forward and staying positive, it is time to embrace playoff season in the NOJHL. Where to begin? Well, let us just begin by saying that there is no absolute or clear cut favourite — at least in my hockey mind — as to which of the 10 teams that qualify for the playoffs are going to raise the NOJHL championship flag as the best of the rest for this 2021-2022 campaign.

I for one — and I am sure that I am far from alone — am just thrilled that we are poised to have a championship team in the NOJHL this season.

Do I have a favourite team in the NOJHL? Sure do. In fact, I have a number of favourite teams — both as a writer and as a fan.

Okay, to the objective part. (If there really is such a thing as 100 per cent objectivity from any one person involved in the game, be they a writer, an owner, a coach, a general manager, an executive, or a referee.)

Wink of the eyes out of the way now, it is rather amazing that of the 10 teams that will make the playoffs in the NOJHL, no less than seven of them will go into the post season with records above the .500 mark. Which does say a fair bit about the competitive level of play in the league.

And really, of the “Big Seven”, I could spout off a rhyme of reasons as to why any one of the Timmins Rock, Hearst Lumberjacks or Powassan Voodoos from the East Division and the Soo Thunderbirds, Soo Eagles, Sudbury Cubs or Blind River Beavers from the West Division can go all the way and emerge as champions of the NOJHL on what would be a fine day for junior hockey in the north.

My gut feeling? I watch my weight so I really don’t have much of a gut.

Cue the wink. I know who I think which teams from the East side and West end will meet in the finals and which one will win.

But, um, I just might be wrong. Imagine that. Cue another wink.


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