67’s open on a sour note

While Coach Canada remains the official carrier of the Ottawa 67’s, some great last-minute work by all of Delta and Bearskin Airlines and Air Canada brought the entire team together just in time for the Ontario Hockey League season opener.

And by just in time, that meant absolutely no time for missed connections or lost luggage and a couple of harrowing-enough landings in the windy Soo Friday.

In the final hours leading up to the drop of the puck on the 2010-11 season, three vital veterans all showed their faces at the Delta Hotel to be welcomed back by anxious teammates. In fact, it was all the 67’s could do to keep from breaking into a rendition of Hail, Hail, the Gang’s All Here.

In the end, if getting there is really half the battle, the travel half may have been too much to overcome.

The road-weary 67’s jumped to a 2-0 lead then wilted down the stretch, outscored 3-2 in the third period to drop the season opener before a near-sellout opening night crowd of 4,744 at the Essar Centre.

“There’s no excuses,” 67’s coach Chris Byrne said. “It’s obvious we’re going to score goals. But the key is team defence.

“It was one of those games. But we’re not going to use excuses.”

After a rainy and windy 10-hour-plus drive up Thursday afternoon by the core of the team, power forward Dalton Smith was the first to arrive by way of the Columbus Blue Jackets’ training camp, reaching the Soo just before the 11 a.m. game-day skate.

Sniper Tyler Toffoli was next, making it right after the pre-game meal. The last to arrive was Thomas Nesbitt, the final missing piece of the puzzle, reaching the hotel just in time to grab a quick bite before the short walk to the rink.

And with everyone accounted for, the 67’s were seemingly good to go against a re-building ‘Hounds team that is expected to struggle.

Steven Janes put the 67’s up almost 14 minutes in and Toffoli made it 2-0 with five seconds to go in the opening period and the 67’s seemed on their way.

Instead, the ‘Hounds came to life in the second with goals by Justin Thomas and Nick Cousins, on a 5-on-2 power play, to tie it 2-2.

Carson Dubchak put the home side ahead at 13:31 only to have Nesbitt tie it on a strange goal on the power play at 18:25, the 67’s first on the man advantage after going 0-6 to start.

Brett Thompson Trevor Morbeck and Daniel Catenacci put it away in the third and only stellar work by 67’s goalie Petr Mrazek kept it a game.

Mrazek’s work allowed Jon Carnevale and Shane Prince to give the 67’s life with late third-period goals.

The day was long, especially for Toffoli and Nesbitt and even Smith, who did have just enough to score a TKO over ‘Hounds tough guy Brock Beukeboom right after the Soo took the 6-3 lead.

Twenty-one hours before he took part in pre-game introductions, Toffoli was in the press box at the Staples Centre watching his future teammates skate against Phoenix. Post-game, the Kings handed Toffoli a ticket and he headed for LAX , going Los Angeles to Minneapolis to Detroit to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, before catching a shuttle to the Canadian side.

“I really didn’t get any sleep, but I wanted to get here and play so badly,” said Toffoli. “I left L.A. at about 12:30 (3:30 a.m. ET) and got here and tried to shut it down, but I couldn’t sleep. Then I had my pre-game meal at six o’clock.

“But it’s excuses. It was cool to see the game at Staples Centre, where some day I hope to play. But the consequences were I got here late. It’s adversity. But you just have to get through it.”

Nesbitt, on the other hand, lost a little of his complexion while strengthening his knuckles, spending much of the day thinking he was practising takeoffs and landings, flying from New Jersey to Ottawa to Toronto to North Bay to Sudbury and finally the Soo, somehow missing the landing strip in Blind River, Ont.

“I would have rather came up on the bus,” said Nesbitt. “But that’s just excuses. I came to play. But I didn’t have my legs.”

“It was a little bit of Planes, Trains and Automobiles to get everybody here,” said Byrne. “But it’s nice to have everyone back.”

The 67’s jumped back on the bus, frequent-flyers included, right after the loss to make their way to Sudbury for tonight’s game with the Wolves.

Ottawa opens their home schedule Friday against the Oshawa Generals.
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