We were talking yesterday about what I perceive to be unbalanced, if not unfair, scheduling in the Ontario Hockey League.
To recap, Owen Sound had 6 home & homes, started them all on the road, had 2 ” squish ” games and one ” bohica ” game, for a total of 15 games, almost 1/4 of their schedule.
Now in fairness, some will say I’m way out of line here since the Owen Sound Attack were 8 & 4 in the home & home matchups with Guelph, Barrie, Sarnia & Kitchener.
Plus when you factor in the ” squish ” & ” bohica ” games, the Attack were a highly impressive 11 & 4.
Fair enough.
But let’s look again……..
The four games the Attack lost in the sequence where road openers in every case, losing at Guelph twice, Kitchener and Sarnia.
Those results meant the Attack had zero chance to sweep the home & home whereas the opponent did
Furthermore, the four teams winning at home got to sleep in their own beds, feel good about themselves, potentially gain momentum, while the Attack immediately got right back on their bus and headed home to try and square the home & home.
Plus, with no offence to the opposition involved, Barrie will likely never have this poor of a season, Sarnia’s best players are their youngest, destined to play another couple of years there and this is a rare season in which Guelph will likely finish behind the Attack in the standings.
So, my point is another schedule similar to this one, especially with that sequence of home & homes, with Owen Sound perpetually on the road to start, will doom the Attack BIG TIME
I’m Fred Wallace