Red, ready in Houndtown
They are getting ready to paint the town red, these Greyhounds. Ready to add more colour to the red that already adorns the windows and doors of the many businesses in downtown Houndtown.
The start, to what is being projected as an ongoing, six week prelude to an ultimate victory party, gets underway next weekend when the red and white of Sault Ste. Marie begins the Ontario Hockey League playoffs on home ice.
There are those, who pay to watch and there are those, who are paid to write, who think a possible road block may stand in the way of the Greyhound march to OHL championship glory.
Those folks are few and far between and mostly reside in OHL centers other than the Soo.
I have a shy side to me — many see it as aloofness or arrogance and that is fine — but I am not shy to say that the Greyhounds are not a clear-cut choice to seize the OHL crown.
Don’t stop reading at the previous sentence, though.
I am not saying the Greyhounds will fall short of winning the OHL championship. What I am saying is that I don’t think winning the championship is going to be with the ease that many who are on board the Greyhound bandwagon may think.
A bandwagon, I might add, that is gaining passengers to the extent that additional seats may have to be added to it.
My oh my, though, this is a Greyhound team of power, precision, skill, speed and expert instruction.
If there is a chink in the armour, it is well hidden.
If there is a flaw in the construction, it is not noticeable.
If there hasn’t been enough love put into this relentless pursuit, then love has already taken the route of infinity. (Twinkle, twinkle.)
About this group of Hounds.
A very good starting goalie in Matthew Villalta. An A-1 backup in Tyler Johnson.
Defensemen who can defend the puck and offend the opposition with big points of their own — veterans such as Conor Timmins, Mac Hollowell and Jordan Sambrook and rookie Rasmus Sandin. A blue-line brigade so bountiful that its oldest member, Noah Carroll, is often the forgotten man.
Forwards. Does this team have forwards.
Morgan Frost, 40-plus goals and 100-plus points.
Boris Katchouk, 40-plus goals and a streak of thunder and lightning in one.
Taylor Raddysh, Tim Gettinger, Jack Kopacka and Hayden Verbeek, of 30-goal vicinity.
Barrett Hayton, a 20-goal kid, whose 20 goals are only seventh best on this howitzer of a Hound pound hot-house.
The scene has been slated for a Soo squad that has set a franchise record for regular season success. Can the scene go four extra acts of playoff performance that ends with a standing ovation from the hometown crowd?
It should. It really should, though I am no soothsayer.
On a side note, I do believe in destiny and fate. But I save any feelings of destiny and fate for how they may pertain to me and who I love.
Thus, if you are waiting for me to offer to punch the Greyhound playoff ticket into an instant winner, I cannot be the one who delivers the good news for the sake of looking good.
Meantime, and in all good Greyhound fun, wear red. Show red. Glow red.
Me? I just strive to be read.
PHOTO: Soo Greyhounds scoring leader Morgan Frost.
Greyhounds better hope they do not play the Guelph Storm in the first round.
Oh, I think I was referring to next year.