Hi, this is Fred Wallace with ” Off the Wire ” brought to you by your local Auto Logic…the Logical Choice.
It’s expected that the Greater Metro Junior Hockey League will release its schedule sometime this week, which means the local hockey season is on the horizon.
While not scheduled to start as soon as the GMHL, Junior C or the Ontario Hockey League, the season ahead in the WOAA Senior Hockey League will hold some interesting tweaks.
The WOAA Managers voted on a new system that will see the former North and South divisions cross over and play selected games against each other during the regular season.
The unbalanced schedule doesn’t permit every team to meet every other team, but it does expand the number of opponents each WOAA Club will face.
For example, the Shallow Lake Crushers will play all of their regular North Division rivals plus they will play a home and home series with both Huron East and Clinton to comprise a 20 game schedule.
This alteration will eliminate the North and South Divisions in favor of one overall division which will be ranked from 1 to 14 at the conclusion of the regular season.
The top 8 placed teams will play for the ” AA ” Championship while the bottom 6 teams will play for ” A ” title.
There are drawbacks to the format, but at the end of the day, it’s expected the WOAA Final will pit the best two clubs head to head for the Championship as opposed to a final that’s based on geography.
I’m Fred Wallace