The OHL 21: Fines, finds and farewells

1. It’s pretty bleak this season if you’re a Barrie Colts fan. But one reason to get excited is goalie Jet Greaves. The Cambridge native owns the fourth-best save percentage (.914) in the league among netminders with at least 20 starts.

2. It’s farewell to Erie TimesNews reporter Victor Fernandes, who left Pennsylvania and his gig as Erie Otters beat writer to pursue a new career. Vic was great at his job and very helpful in the press box, especially in my early days. He’ll be missed.

3. Folks faulting Flint for playing better and jeopardizing the first overall draft pick need to give their head a shake. Do you seriously think players and coaches on any team want to battle for the basement? If it happens, it’s a bonus. But you play to win. Full stop.

4. Guelph was owned by Kitchener last Friday. Then they beat Flint, barely. This isn’t the dominating performance everyone expected after the Storm loaded up at the deadline. GM/coach George Burnett has to be on the hot seat if this doesn’t right itself.

5. Underrated scouting alert. The Hamilton Bulldogs recently inked George Diaco, who led all Under-17 aged skaters in GOJHL scoring at the time. Last year, Liam Van Loon was in a similar situation. Diaco was a sixthround pick and Van Loon a third rounder.

6. It’s bad in Kingston. Like Sharknado bad. The Fronts have won once in 22 contests since the calendar flipped. Kingston has been outscored 108-32 in that span. That’s an average of 1.5 goals scored per game and five against.

7. Four of Kitchener’s top five scorers — Greg Meireles, Rickard Hugg, Joseph Garreffa and Jonathan Yantsis — went undrafted in the NHL. Talk about reminding scouts they made a mistake. All but Hugg are expected to return for an OA year. Nasty.

8. Man the sun sure shines bright in London. The Knights are “struggling” with a 6-4 record in their past 10 games. But their hold atop the west hasn’t budged since the next best teams (Soo and Sag) are also 6-4 in that span.

9. The fact that James Richmond doesn’t come up in OHL coach of the year discussions is just (raises baby finger to the corner of mouth) fishy. The Steelheads are 6-0-0-1 in their past seven with wins over Ottawa, London and Niagara. Many had Missy missing the playoffs. Now they will be a tough first round out.

10. Not sure the pass-the-buck strategy was the best look for Niagara in the recruiting violation saga that saw the team stripped of two first rounders and fined $250K. It also doesn’t do much for the OHL’s case that clubs are cash-strapped when it levies fines that large.

11. You shoot, you score. It’s that easy. The top five goal scorers in the OHL are also the top five shot takers. Among them is North Bay’s Justin Brazeau who is second in markers (48) and fifth in shots (247).