Fog still shrouds Bulldogs going into opening night
With some uncertainty still surrounding his newest pack of Hamilton Bulldogs, Dave Matsos is focusing on what he can control in the lead up to Friday’s season opener in North Bay — that is, how they play, how they practise and how they conduct themselves outside the rink.
Focusing on anything else is a waste of time.
“What we can control is what we do every single day, on and off the ice, and for me that’s the most important thing,” he said.
With several veterans away at NHL training camps, the Bulldogs head coach is still waiting to see who will be available from the side that upset the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds to win its first OHL championship last May. So far, the list of returnees stands at 13, including five players who didn’t see a shred of ice time during that lengthy playoff run.
But they were there, said Matsos. With so many newcomers in the lineup, that’s what matters.
“Once you get to the position we did and what we accomplished last year, you have to lean on those guys to manage what’s happening in the room,” he added. “So the culture stays the same and the winning tradition stays the same ...”
Except they haven’t won. Not since the round-robin portion of the Memorial Cup. In the preseason the Bulldogs were fourtime losers, even though they dramatically outshot and outplayed their opponents at least twice.
In spite of those early results, centre Ben Garagan said he and his teammates are confident going into the weekend. The Bulldogs visit North Bay, Barrie and Peterborough before their first home game, against Ottawa, on Sept. 30.
“With a young group like this, everyone’s eager,” said 19-yearold Garagan, one of a handful of returnees whom Matsos is relying on to fill a bigger role. “Eager to get going, eager to start winning, because after the year we had last year everyone wants to follow up. Even the younger guys who weren’t here for it.”
The latter group includes rookie forwards Avery Hayes and Logan Morrison, who were both training camp standouts, as well as goalie Zachary Roy, who starts the season as a backup for Nick Donofrio. Meanwhile, Michael Renwick and Frank Jenkins join U.S. National Development Team Program graduate D.J. King on a blue line that retained only one regular (Nic Mattinen) from last year’s corps.
Still, King — like Garagan — was optimistic as training camp ended.
“We have a young team, but I really think we can do something this year,” he said. “We have the right pieces. We’re fast, we’re skilled, we have a lot of role players.”
What exactly it means to “do something” is a little bit foggy. At this stage in the season, and with so much roster uncertainty continuing to swirl, no one wants to be specific about playoff potential or concrete results. So, what is a realistic expectation? Matsos laughs.
“We expect to win every night,” he said. “I know that’s not going to happen, I understand that, but we’re just going to attack the day, make sure guys are on it working hard and doing all the right things and we’ll see how it goes.” NOTES: The Bulldogs have yet to announce their leadership group for this season, although Brandon Saigeon — an alternate last season — is a favourite to wear the “C.” Justin
Lemcke, the only captain in the team’s three-year history in Hamilton, graduated at the end of last season . ... Arthur Kaliyev had two goals and a plus-four rating in USA Hockey’s All-American Prospects Game in St. Paul, Minn., on Wednesday. He was one of only two OHLers to play in the showcase, which featured the top U.S.-born talent eligible for the 2019 NHL draft.