were very few question marks in their lineup. The only major question mark
was who was going to be the starting goaltender, Jake McCracken or
Jason Flick. That question has since been answered due to the fact that
McCracken has been unable to play due to injury.
looks to be in pretty good shape. They had a ton of veterans coming back
from last year’s team. At the draft they added even more experience with
the addition of winger Brent Theobald from the Mississauga IceDogs.
fighting with the surprising Windsor Spitfires for 1st place in the OHL’s
West Division and are among the top teams in the OHL. The Greyhounds
have been in and out of the CHL’s top 10 rankings for most of the season.
Last week the Greyhounds were in 9th spot. The Greyhounds were 1 of 4
OHL teams to make the top 10 last week. The other 3 were the Ottawa 67′s
(#2), the Windsor Spitfires (#6), and the Brampton Battalion (#10).
season. Former free agent pick-up Cleon Smith has 17 points, 1999 7th
round pick Jeff Richards has 14 points and winger Ryan Healy has shown
he can score as well as fight with 12 points, including a 5 point night
against the Guelph Storm.
regulation ties good for 33 points. At the beginning of the season I don’t
think the Greyhounds would have said that at this point in the season they
would be in a dogfight for 1st in the West with Windsor. Windsor has a lot
of rookies playing great hockey (Steve Ott, Craig Kennedy) and that is part
o
One player that I have been really impressed with is 1999 1st round
pick Trevor Daley. He is an ideal 1st round pick. For a defenseman this guy
can do it all. He jumps into the rush but never forgets his defensive role.
Despite not being physically intimidating he can hit pretty well too. Daley
has 21 points on the year which is good enough for 5th in team scoring.
(note: all totals are as of Nov. 27th):
No. Name GP G A PTS +/- PIM
23 Vasicek, Josef 24 9 22 31 6 25
16 Pecker, Cory 24 19 9 28 -4 12
21 Jardine, Ryan 24 17 9 26 6 17
25 Spurr, Chad 22 5 17 22 4 35
* 6 Daley, Trevor 24 10 11 21 17 35
26 Smith, Cleon 22 3 14 17 16 8
* 7 Richards, Jeff 16 4 10 14 10 10
9 Zafiris, Tim 17 8 5 13 7 30
* 20 McMillan, Malcolm 24 2 11 13 8 78
17 Healy, Ryan 19 8 4 12 -2 14
* 11 Chapman, Rob 24 4 8 12 3 10
18 Osborne, John 9 3 6 9 3 15
19 Theobald, Brent 25 3 6 9 4 12
5 Passero, Daniel 11 0 7 7 3 10
* 2 Zavoral, Vaclav 19 2 4 6 10 18
8 Gibson, Jake 23 1 5 6 17 36
27 Bennett, Josh 5 3 1 4 1 14
15 Nelson, Mike 18 1 3 4 4 8
12 Fox, Derek 19 1 3 4 0 26
3 Browne, Bill 23 1 3 4 1 49
14 Strilchuk, Darren 18 0 2 2 3 34
24 Ballantyne, Paul 20 0 2 2 -3 31
33 Flick, Jason 25 0 1 1 0 2
* 1 Day, Jeremy 1 0 0 0 0 0
* 1 Emery, Ray 1 0 0 0 0 0
* 29 Hazen, Scott 2 0 0 0 -1 0
* Indicates Rookie
Jason Flick. Flick has not missed a game yet this season. Had Jake
McCracken not gotten hurt during the Detroit Red Wings training camp
Flick would have not had as many minutes as he does. With McCracken out
of the lineup and his return date still up in the air, rookies Jeremy Day and
Ray Emery have split the backup duties. The only problem is they haven’t
had much to do. Flick has played all but 32 minutes in the Greyhounds first
25 games. Now that’s what I call a workhorse.
numbers are pretty impressive. Here’s a look at the goaltender’s numbers
(note: totals are as of Nov. 27):
Name GPI MINS GA EN SO Avg. W L T SV%
Jason Flick 25 1483 77 0 0 3.12 14 10 1 .903
*Jeremy Day 1 12 1 0 0 5.00 0 0 0 .667
*Ray Emery 1 20 2 0 0 6.00 0 0 0 .750
* Indicates Rookie
his players. Players like Ryan Healy, Cleon Smith, John Osborne, Ryan
Jardine and many others are playing some of their best hockey. The team
is still slumping every now and then and that has some of the Greyhound
faithful concerned.
about. If the team starts to slump near the end of the season like they did
last season, that’s when people should start to worry. Right now there
doesn’t seem to be anything to worry about. The team seems to be in great
shape and there seems to be nothing to worry about
