Greyhounds favoured to win it all
Dogs are the media’s best friend when it comes to which teams will end the Ontario Hockey League regular season celebrating a division championship.
The Soo Greyhounds, the preseason choice to win the West Division of 90 per cent of respondents, begins the second half of the season as the unanimous choice to top the division.
The Greyhounds are the only pre-season favourite to gain supporters in a mid-season poll of the various media covering the 20-team league.
The Peterborough Petes, in the east, Mississauga Steelheads, in the Central Division, and Owen Sound Attack, Midwest, all have fewer backers in their corner after starting the 2017-18 as favourites to pace their division in points.
Like the Greyhounds, the Hamilton Bulldogs emerged from the Christmas break as the unanimous choice to win a division. Peterborough was the pre-season favourite to win the east, with 45 per cent of respondents.
The Greyhounds are overwhelming favourites to win the conference, 95 per cent, as well as the league, also 95 per cent.
Their opponents in the OHL final will be the Bulldogs according to 55 per cent of poll respondents.
Mississauga, the unanimous choice to win the Central Division at the outset of the season, has been supplanted by the Barrie Colts, who enjoy the support of 95 per cent of respondents to the latest poll.
“The addition of a proven winner in Aaron Luchuk makes the Colts even stronger,” suggested one respondent after Barrie acquired the league’s top goal scorer from the defending Memorial Cup champion Windsor Spitfires.
The Colts also topped the latest poll when it came to which team has been the most surprising so far this season. They were the choice of 45 per cent of respondents.
It’s a two-way race to emerge as the top team from the Midwest Division, according to results from the mid-season poll. The Kitchener Rangers and London Knights each have the support of 50 per cent of respondents, while the Owen Sound Attack, the pre-season favourite of 95 per cent of the media who took part in the poll, haven’t been doing all that much attacking of late.
“With so much star power, the Knights can compete,” opined one observer who follows the league on a regular basis.
Mid-season media assessments and predictions posted on the OHL’s website also asked questions of individual players.
Owen Sound’s Sean Durzi edged Luchuk 40 per cent to 35 as the most surprising player so far this season.
“Nothing like smashing your career highs offensively with a half a season to go,” one respondent said of Durzi.
Windsor’s Michael DiPietro, 45 per cent, and the Kingston Frontenacs’ Jeremy Helvig, 25 per cent, are 1-2 in the mid-season polling for best goaltender, while Greyhounds defenceman Conor Timmins, a Thorold, has the support of 40-per-cent respondents when it came to selecting the best blueliner.
“Solid in all aspects of his game and well deserving of a spot on Team Canada,” it was said of Timmins.
Barrie’s Andrei Svechnikov, 45 per cent, and the Guelph Storm’s Cam Hillis, 35 per cent, were both in the discussion when the conversation was about the top rookie at the break.
Svechnikov was also the choice of 100 per cent of respondents as the top prospect for next year’s NHL draft.
Most outstanding player at this point in the season is the Sarnia Sting ’s Jordan Kyrou according to 90 per cent of respondents.
“Averaging nearly two points per game and dangerous every time he’s on the ice.”
Not surprisingly, Kyrou is also the favourite, 40 per cent, to lead the league in scoring.
The pre-season pick, with 60-per-cent support, was Owen Sound’s Nick Suzuki, the top pick in this year’s OHL draft.
The Soo’s Drew Bannister, the 30-per-cent pre-season favourite to end the year as top coach, saw that support increase to 50 per cent in the latest poll.
“A record of 29-3-2 shows that not only is the talent there, but the team is ready to play every night.