67's embrace return to training camp after COVID-forced layoff
Next wave of younger players on roster as new head coach Cameron takes over
Cameron Tolnai spoke for everyone around the Ottawa 67's on Tuesday.
“It has been a long 18 months,” Tolnai said in a Zoom interview between a morning training camp practice and an afternoon gym session, all of which came on the heels of the 2-1 exhibition game victory over the Peterborough Petes a night earlier, where he opened the scoring.
“It was great to be back around the boys and playing in a game — it was great to have that competition again.”
When Tolnai was previously on the ice for the 67's, in March 2020, he was a relative kid, part of a second tier of scoring talent that included Marco Rossi, Jack Quinn and Graeme Clarke.
Now, after the pandemic pause that wiped out the entire 202021 season and with the junior hockey cycle being what it is, Tolnai will be counted on to be a front-line leader for new head coach Dave Cameron.
“With a lot of the older guys gone, it's the next wave stepping up, guys like myself, Alec (Belanger), (Adam) Varga and (Jack) Matier,” said Tolnai, a centre who scored eight goals and 14 assists in 52 games in 2019-20, his second with the 67's.
“We just want to continue with the culture built before COVID and the work ethic we had in practice that translated into games.”
It will be a different 67's squad, to be sure. Beyond the change behind the bench, with Cameron taking over from Andre Tourigny — now Arizona Coyotes head coach — the 67's will embark on a youth movement, of sorts.
That group will include Chris Barlas, Luca Pinelli and Bradley Gardiner, forwards who were top choices in the OHL's Priority Selection Draft in June. The club has yet to decide who will fill the fourth spot for 16-year-olds.
Barlas is anxious to get rolling on his OHL career, after what he described as a “weird” year of largely no-contact games and scrimmages with the Navan Grads, his former team.
“It has been tough for the past year and a half,” Barlas said. “Just a lot of training, getting ready, we
learned that with COVID anything can happen and you have to prepare for the worst. Even the dressing rooms — we had two different rooms — the chemistry was definitely off.”
The hope, of course, is to try to reach the success of the 67's teams of 2018-19 and 2019-20.
“I was definitely hoping they would pick me (in the draft),” Barlas said. “Two years ago, I watched the playoff games, I saw the atmosphere in TD Place and I wanted to play here.”
Interestingly enough, Tolnai and Pinelli spent much of the past 18 months skating together in informal sessions near their homes in Oakville.
“Those scrimmages were pretty good,” Pinelli said. “There were some high-end OHL players and it really helped me get ready for the OHL, and I now have a little connection with Cam (Tolnai).”
Cameron, meanwhile, is gradually getting up to speed on the organization's talent. Tuesday was his first day on the ice with the players, after watching the action from the seats during the opening five days of camp.
The 67's have chopped the roster to 26 players from the original 56 who started camp.
Tolnai says he likes what he has seen so far and he wasn't surprised by the scrambly play in Monday's exhibition, where Barlas and Cooper Foster — another early pick in June's Selection Draft — scored in the shootout to help deliver a win.
“It was a like a Clint Eastwood movie,” Cameron said. “It was good, bad and ugly. But we expected that. I like everybody's work ethic. Some of the guys who were here before, like (Tolnai and Varga) are taking charge of the simple stuff, loading the bus, showing the leadership you
expect from older guys.”
Cameron does give credit to the organization's scouts for the talent level he has seen so far.
While he has worked closely with Tourigny during his career — Cameron was head coach and Tourigny an assistant with the Ottawa Senators in 2015-16 — every coach brings something different.
“He came into the dressing room and told a couple of jokes to get guys going before the game (on Monday),” Tolnai said. “Today we had name tags on the ice, so that he made sure he knew who we all were. You can tell that he and Bear (Tourigny) had a great connection together.”
The 67's will have a day off Wednesday to settle in with their billets and school and will be back on the ice on Thursday. Their next exhibition game is Sept. 18, in Kingston.