The Guelph Storm aren’t fretting over a winless start to their exhibition season, but the three losses they suffered in their first three games make it clear that wins may come at a premium this year in the Ontario Hockey League.
At least, that’s the expectation early on. But the team’s collection of youngsters will be looked upon to step into prominent roles as the season progresses, hopefully helping the Storm regain their contending form.
Guelph opened its five-game preseason schedule in early September by dropping 8-1 and 5-3 decisions to the Barrie Colts, then falling 4-2 to the Mississauga Steelheads.
Of the 20 players who dressed in the first game against Barrie, 11 were rookies. And head coach Bill Stewart wasn’t about to read the riot act to a bunch of new players who were not only nervous going into the contest, but also certainly trying to do too much to stem the tide as the talented Colts ran up the score.
“Sometimes when you want to do more, you end up doing less,” Stewart said in an interview with Tony Saxon of the Guelph Mercury. “As a coach you could have emotional outbursts and all that stuff, but again we have to keep things in perspective and walk our way through things so that once we do come together as a team we’re pulling in the right direction as opposed to all pulling in different directions.”
Why do the Storm have so many rookies this year?
Only one of the team’s top seven scorers from last year is eligible to return for another season of junior hockey—that one player, centre Robby Fabbri, is currently not in Guelph; he is at the St. Louis Blues’ NHL training camp. He could return to the Royal City at some point, but it may not be for a while, depending on how he fits into the Blues’ plans.
Players aging out is a problem that all junior teams face regularly. It’s Guelph’s turn now, two years after the Storm captured the OHL championship and went all the way to the Memorial Cup final.
So the Storm are rebuilding with prospects like Isaac Ratcliffe, Liam Stevens, Nick Deakin-Poot and Timo Haussener, all of whom are rookie forwards. Veterans such as defencemen Garrett McFadden and C.J. Garcia, and forwards Tyler Boston, Matt Hotchkiss and Givani Smith will be asked to play more minutes and fill bigger roles than they have in the past.
“It’s a work in progress,” Stewart told Saxon. “We’ve obviously got a lot of things to work on.”
Netminding looks solid with overage goalie Justin Nichols, who has played well in camp and is one of only three remaining members of the 2014 league champions (Fabbri and forward Marc Stevens are the others). Sophomore Bradley Van Schubert returns as backup.
The Storm return to preseason action on Sept. 18 at home to the Peterborough Petes, then wrap up the preliminary schedule on Sept. 20 in Mississauga.
The 68-game regular season begins on Sept. 25 when the Oshawa Generals visit the Storm at the Sleeman Centre. The Generals are the defending OHL and Memorial Cup champions.
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The Ontarion is the University of Guelph’s independent student newspaper. It began in 1951 as part of the Ontario Agricultural College and then began to represent the entire University of Guelph once it amalgamated in 1964. The Ontarion incorporated in May 1970 as The Ontarion, Inc., a not-for-profit corporation registered with the province of Ontario.