Bulldogs offer hope for beleaguered fans
Hamilton advances to OHL Eastern Conference final after another sweep
Let us recap the past few years for many of the sports fans in this area, shall we?
The Hamilton Tiger-Cats’ longsuffering fans were given huge hope by really good seasons only to be tortured by losses in the Grey Cup to Winnipeg not once but twice. Including once at home in overtime.
The Toronto Blue Jays’ long-suffering fans felt good about their team’s 2021 season only to be tortured when their guys missed the playoffs by a single game.
The Buffalo Bills’ long-suffering fans experienced an amazing season only to be tortured by a playoff loss that was primarily caused by a coin flip gone wrong, of all things.
And Toronto Maple Leafs’ longsuffering fans were treated to the greatest regular season in franchise history only to be — what else — tortured by yet another first-round playoff exit, stretching their run of futility to 18-straight seasons without a single series win.
Yes, the Toronto Raptors gave us a blessed break from all this anguish a few years ago. Still, on balance, it’s been a lot of pain.
Stand by. There is hope. Amid all this torment and grief, the Hamilton Bulldogs continue to roll — on Friday night they completed their sweep of the Mississauga Steelheads with a 3-2 overtime win to advance to the third round of the Ontario Hockey League playoffs — and keep building the case that they’re the most-dominant team in Hamilton sports history.
Not the best. Not yet, anyway. You have to win a championship to even enter that conversation. But most dominant? Sure feels that way.
Consider the evidence. They’ve stepped on the ice for 47 games this calendar year. They’ve won 43 of those. That’s a winning percentage of .915. It’s absurd.
There’s more. They’re currently riding an 18-game winning streak which eclipses the 17-gamer they had earlier in the season. Sunday marked the two-month anniversary since their last loss in regulation time. And for 17-straight periods in these playoffs (until briefly falling behind on Friday) they hadn’t trailed.
Of the teams remaining in the playoffs, they have the second-best offence — though just percentage points in goals per game behind the leader — the best defence by a fair margin, the best power-play numbers and the best penalty killing numbers.
On Friday, they faced a little adversity for the first time in a while. They weren’t at their best. In fact, it was their least-dominant game of the playoffs. Mississauga scored first and when Ryan Humphrey responded for Hamilton, the Steelheads scored again to grab the lead. Then, to make matters worse, the Bulldogs took a penalty right at the end of the first period.
Another goal by the home side and this might’ve been interesting. Instead, Avery Hayes — playing his first game in the series after serving a three-game suspension — made a
brilliant play to strip a Steelhead of the puck while killing the penalty, which led to a Mason McTavish goal.
From there, it was all Hamilton until Arber Xhekaj scored in overtime to make it back-to-back sweeps.
Now, they get the North Bay Battalion in the Eastern Conference Final. Game 1 is Friday at 7 p.m. at FirstOntario Centre. Game 2 is Sunday at 7, also in Hamilton.
Mississauga was a good team and a test. This round should be more of a handful. After all, the Bulldogs lost their first two games against North Bay this season. That said, both of those were in 2021. Once the calendar flipped and the team
caught fire, they beat the Battalion 7-2 and 6-3. So take from that what you want.
These are two good teams. One that’s playing really well and one that’s on an all-time heater. Which might suggest there’s an element of good fortune involved in what’s going on. There isn’t. They’re simply that good.
The Bulldogs team that won it all in 2018 lost a game in each series before the final and then two in that series. The 2007 AHL Bulldogs that won the Calder Cup lost two games in each of its first two series and one in each of the semifinal and final.
Halfway through this year’s playoff tournament, Hamilton is the last unbeaten team.
Sunday marked the two-month anniversary since the Bulldogs’ last loss in regulation time
So if you’re a sports fan around here and you’ve been punched in the gut so often lately you’ve gone numb, well, we can guarantee nothing. Even great teams can falter. Ottawa swept three series in 2019 yet lost in the final.
But this team is pretty darn impressive. Larry David would probably describe them as pretty, pretty, pretty good.
And maybe, just maybe, the bearer of some medicine to take away a bit of that lingering pain from all those other recent disappointments.