Hi, this is Fred Wallace with ” Off the Wire “.
The Owen Sound Attack are about to enter a very interesting stretch of the Ontario Hockey League season.
Including tonight at Barrie against the Colts, the Attack have 6 regular season games remaining.
After tonight, in sequence, home to Saginaw & Sault Ste Marie, then off to Flint & Windsor and then finally home to Sarnia March 17th to close the season.
What I find interesting is that the opposition in 4 of the 6 remaining games have nothing to play for.
Barrie has clinched the Central Division title and barring totally long odds the Colts will enter as the # 2 seed in the East.
Sault Ste Marie blew everyone in the league away this year, and outside of establishing a franchise record for points in a season…….what else matters ?
For Flint, losing might be better than winning, allowing them to potentially get the # 1 pick overall in the Priority Selection…. if Sudbury doesn’t have a similar outlook.
And Sarnia is lodged in as the # 3 seed in West no matter what.
That just leaves Saginaw & Windsor with something significant to play for in terms of playoff positioning.
For the Attack, they’re playing for home ice advantage in the opening round of the playoffs, a series destined to be against the London Knights who currently hold 4th by 4 points over Owen Sound.
Home ice conceivably means cash, which I truly understand is the goal of a business like the Attack…or London.
But is the chase for 4th place worth the variety of potential risks when your playoff opposition is virtually decided with 6 games remaining in the season ?
We’ll see.
I’m Fred Wallace