New home, new hope for Panthers
Moving to larger ice surface place emphasis on skating
One move down, one more to go.
Now that the Pelham Panthers are making themselves at home in their new arena, the junior B hockey team can focus on moving up the standings.
After finishing only two floors above perennial cellar-dwelling Buffalo in the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League’s Golden Horseshoe Conference, Mark Barrick is looking forward to far more wins than losses in his second season as head coach.
Fifty points in league play would be a marked improvement over 38 points last season, 28 the year before and only six from their one-win season in 2015-16.
But Barrick won’t be satisfied with a .500 record at this stage in the team’s rebuild.
“Five hundred would be exceptionally disappointing, .500 is an average hockey club,” Barrick said. “We’re not here to be an average hockey club.”
With the Panthers moving from a smaller ice surface in one of the oldest rinks in the league to an NHL-size rink in the newly opened Pelham Meridian Community Centre, will skating be more of a premium than ever, the veteran coach is asked.
“Absolutely,” the 55-year-old St. Catharines native said. “Bigger, faster, stronger, that’s what we’re working on, that’s where we’re getting.
“We will be a no-nonsense, no-excuse hockey club. Plain and simple.”
After four seasons playing out of Pelham Arena, and having to go outside between
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“Five hundred would be exceptionally disappointing, .500 is an average hockey club.”
MARK BARRICK
Pelham Panthers head coach
periods to get to a portable dressing room, their new digs at the southwest corner of Regional Rd. 20 and Rice Road are, well, the cat’s meow for the Panthers.
“We are playing in, bar none, probably the best junior B facility in the GOJHL,” Barrick said.
That said, there won’t be added pressure on the team to live up to what the coach calls a “phenomenal facility.”
“I’m not here to live up to a facility, a facility is bricks and mortar,” Barrick said. “Quite honestly, I’m here, and part of my job and the job of every player who plays for us, their job too is to be a winning hockey club.
“Regardless of where you’re playing out of.”
Tim Toffolo, the team’s co-owner and director of hockey operations, said pressure and putting a competitive product on the ice go hand-in-hand.
“There’s always pressure no matter where you are,” he said. “Obviously, we want to excel and do as well as we possibly can this year in the new facility for millions of different reasons.”
“We feel very confident that the product we’re going to put on the ice is going to attract people.”
That product started taking shape last season when the Panthers, knowing they would be moving to a larger ice surface, began recruiting players with a certain skill set.
“I think last year we brought in some stronger skaters and faster players,” he said. “I think one of the disadvantages for us last year was those players played in a smaller rink in Pelham at home, which I don’t think was to our advantage.
“But in order to come into this arena, and be able to benefit from it, we had to recruit those kids.”
He said the 1,000-seat Meridian Community Centre adds another recruiting tool.
“There’s no question it does,” Toffolo said. “From top to bottom, our dressing room is like no other, it is top-notch.”
The Panthers are one of three teams that will open the 2018-19 junior B season playing out of a different arena.
During the off-season the Ancaster Avalanche became the Hamilton Kilty B’s after moving to the Dave Andreychuk Mountain Arena. Cornerstone Arena in Lockport is the
new home of the league’s only U.S. franchise, now known as the Lockport Regals.
Another change is the decision by the five-time defending conference champion Caledonia Corvairs to take a year’s absence.
Barrick doesn’t think the void created at the top of the standings will dramatically change the dynamics of the Golden Horseshoe going forward.
“No, other than they’re not here to compete against,” he said. “Do I wish they were? Absolutely.
“They’ve been the best the last couple of years. I’d rather go up against the best than not.”
Caledonia’s decision to take a year off allowed the Panthers to sign goaltender Brandon McCorriston, 20, of Welland and defenceman Nathan Ellis, 20, of Fonthill.
Barrick, whose team will be playing three exhibition games this weekend, said McCorriston and a returnee from last year’s team, Nicholas Kidd, 19, of Kanata, will form a solid tandem between the pipes.
“From a goaltending standout, that’s a done deal and has been all summer long,” the coach said.
“Without a doubt, we are very strong in the back end, and I always will believe in building hockey clubs from the net out.
“I couldn’t be happier with those two guys. Great character hockey players, their work ethic is second-to-none and they do the job that’s asked of them – they stop the puck.”
McCorriston is entering his final year of eligibility at the
junior B league and Kidd, 19, only has two years left.
Barrick, however, never thought about bringing in a younger goaltender.
“I’m going with the best hockey players that I have available this year, and we’ll take it from there.
“Right now, I’m ecstatic to have a 20-year-old and a 19-year-old goaltender in our net of their calibre.”
Barrick didn’t have to think twice about returning for a second season as the junior B team’s bench boss.
“No, none whatsoever,” he said. “When Tim and I first talked about the whole thing, it was not a one-year gig.
“To rebuild a program here does not happen in a year, it’s a continual process.”
The Panthers had a checklist when they recruited players.
“All the recruiting that I did this summer, we spend a lot of time in rinks looking at other players,” he said.
“There was a character element, there was a work ethic element and there was how can they compete and play in our building.”
He stressed that no one area was more important than the other.
“They all go hand-in-hand.” While other teams could open camp with upwards of 60 prospects, the Panthers are already down to 35 players, including 17 who have already signed with the club.
“We’ve whittled away a lot of guys, so now guys are going to compete and we’re going to compete against other teams to see where our compete levels are.
Could be down to as few as 27 players following a tournament next week in their new home. After that, it’s off to the Polar Bear Express Tournament in Cochrane, Ont., where they will play four exhibition games against teams from the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League.
Barrick likes to see how players compete in games, not just how they perform in practice.
“There have been great practice players,” he said.
“You get them in a compete situation against another team and they’re non-existent.
“I’ve been doing this a long time, I’ve seen a lot of that.
“On the other hand, you get guys that are very average in a practice, but every single night they bring it all, and they’re always one of the best and most noticeable guys on the ice during a game.
His preference would be players who practise — and compete — well.
“Ideally, you would like a combination of both, but seeing things in exhibition games against other teams, and there is that compete level, you see a whole lot more in a player.”