When it comes to swimming, there are people who like to ease themselves into the water. Nice and slowly.
And there are people who would much rather dive right in.
As the London Nationals begin the 2017-18 Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League (GOJHL) season tonight to kick off the GOJHL Showcase in Brantford, they need to be ready to hit the water head first.
London will be up against the St. Catharines Falcons, who are a perennial power in the Golden Horseshoe Conference. They were one of the teams London had to go through in 2013 when they won the Sutherland Cup. Then, the Nats play the defending Sutherland Cup Champions, the Elmira Sugar Kings on Sunday.
That game is a rematch of last spring’s final, which saw Elmira defeat London in five games.
As National’s head coach, Pat Powers looks at his roster heading into the first weekend of games that count in the standings, he points out a good core of returning players who will provide leadership and experience right away.
“We were lucky enough to hang onto eight veterans from last year and we have had a number of guys with junior experience move into the area or return home to the area and want to be part of our program.”
Powers feels he will have a mature team, which usually takes you one of two ways to start a season.
“It could make us slow out of the gate with a lack of urgency to get going,” says Powers. “I think with the group that we have, though, we have the character guys that are willing to put the hard work in and put in the sacrifice to hopefully take us where we haven’t been able to go the past two years.”
That place is the last step. Go back to the end of 2016 and London was knocking on the door of a Sutherland Cup Championship as well. Unfortunately, they were up against a Caledonia Corvairs’ team jammed with veterans to the point that the league changed the rule on how many 20-year olds a club could carry on their roster at any one time to nine. Caledonia was close to 20 throughout the 2015-16 season.
Among those veteran players returning to the Nationals is Carson Brookshaw, who was a big addition partway through last year, after being acquired from the St. Thomas Stars.
“He’s a guy who hopefully can help out young guys like Cohen Kiteley and Luke Drewitt and Anthony Scattalon,” points out Power. “We look for him to lead by example on the ice, blocking shots and throwing the body and we want to see a little more leadership off the ice and I know he has it in him.”
Powers says London will have two brand new goalies in the crease. One of them knows London well.
“Jukka Schotter played for the London AAA program and moved down to New Jersey to play for a U17 team and has returned home now.”
The Nationals also have Zach Springer who comes to London from the Kingston Voyageurs. Springer turns 19 in October and posted a 3.14 goals against average and a .908 save percentage in 35 appearances in the OJHL last year.
This weekend will be a tough one, based on the competition, but things don’t get much easier from there as the Nationals shift to Western Conference competition.
The LaSalle Vipers are expected to be very good again and London will play them on the road on Wednesday, Sept. 13.
The Nationals will be four games into their season before their home opener arrives a week later on Sept. 20 against the Strathroy Rockets.
Diving right in will be key as London looks to make the long climb back to the Sutherland Cup’s final four, with the hope that this year, they will be the team left standing and celebrating at the end.
Comments