We ruffled feathers last week with our take on the Ontario Hockey League schedule, as it pertains to the lack of home ice advantage for the Owen Sound Attack who seemingly are perpetually away on days before home games.
Today, on a different tact, I’ll wager that the Attack won’t be nearly as successful this season on the road junkets this month & next as they were a year ago….. and it has NOTHING to do with talent level.
A year ago, Owen Sound picked up 7 of a possible 12 points in 6 games split between Northern Ontario & Eastern Ontario, which represents 1/5th to 1/6th of the entire road schedule
This year, my belief is that Owen Sound will encounter a wall with no rest, no break, no off-day, & a limited chance to regroup.
Last November, when the Attack went North, they weren’t playing especially well, having been whipped in their previous games at Saginaw & at Windsor.
The skid continued as the Northern trip started at Sault Ste Marie with another shutout defeat on a Thursday night against the Greyhounds.
However, with an off day on the Friday at Sudbury, the Attack would regroup & come around to beat the Wolves on the Saturday night and get a point at North Bay the following afternoon in a shootout loss.
Starting tonight, the Attack go North Bay-Sudbury-Soo on consecutive nights…… with no day off.
Similarly, the Eastern swing last February opened with a shutout win at Kingston on a Friday, a hard fought loss at Belleville on the Saturday, a day off in Ottawa Sunday and then a win over the 67’s on Family Day on the Monday afternoon.
Next month, it’s @ Kingston-Belleville-Oshawa on successive nights.
So regardless of whether the Attack are a better team this year or not, the lack of the off day on those two trips makes me doubt they’ll play .660 hockey in those 6 games this time around.
I’m Fred Wallace