67’s weekly: do or die
The Ottawa 67’s playoff fate will be determined no sooner than Friday night, but with three games left in the season, it’s now or never.
Two points behind the North Bay Battalion for the final postseason position in the Eastern Conference, the 67’s head on the road this weekend, with meetings with the Niagara IceDogs, Erie Otters, and Brantford Bulldogs on the schedule on Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday respectively.
North Bay, on the other hand, will play host to the Oshawa Generals and Sudbury Wolves on Thursday and Sunday, split by a trip to Niagara on Friday night.
At the end of this weekend, one team will be celebrating a playoff berth, and the other will pack their belongings and head home. That is unless they end up tied, which would force a 69th game, with the winner advancing to the postseason, and the other participating in the OHL Draft Lottery soon thereafter.
“I think everybody is realizing that every game could be our last,” said Assistant Coach Norm Milley. “If we go into Niagara and lose, and North Bay wins against Oshawa, we go four back with two to go. Our chances are pretty slim [if that happens], so we know what’s at stake here. I think you can feel the urgency from everybody.”
Urgency is a word that will be used plenty in the run-up to this weekend’s slate of games, and it was on display as the 67’s took to the practice ice at Jim Durrell.
It was only a continuation of how the Barber Poles ended last week, beating the Generals 3-2, before earning a point in a heartbreaking overtime loss to the Kingston Frontenacs on Sunday.
“I thought we had a real good weekend, and I know we played hard,” Milley said. “We competed. We played desperate. We can’t control what other teams do, especially this time of the year, we just have to worry about ourselves and worry about our next game, which is Niagara.”
In terms of game-planning, Milley says not much will change. The bench won’t see a significant shortage just because of the time of year, and they won’t commit to a single goaltender, instead, they’ll evaluate as they go, and the player(s) that give them the best chance to win will be used to most.
While the injury bug continues to be an issue for the club, Milley and his staff aren’t ruling out the return of certain faces, but didn’t specify who.
Ultimately, all that matters now is the wins and losses. The playoff-like approach that the team has employed since sometime in December has never been more true — and it won’t be until they’re in the postseason.
Right now, it’s one step at a time, treating every game as if it’s Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final.
“We just got to compete and worry about ourselves,” Milley said. “We got to worry about Niagara. And then after Niagara, worry about Erie. So it’s one game at a time, 60 minutes. We can’t look ahead and hope, we need to worry about taking care of our business. We have no regrets. As long as we finish hard here, we’ll put ourselves in the best position to get in.”
Milley says the energy around his club over the past number of weeks has been palpable, crediting in part his leadership group for keeping the group hungry for the postseason.
Now, with the do-or-die reality of the weekend, there’s no reason to believe that the 67’s can’t be the ones clinching a berth at the end of it.
“If we play the way we did against Kingston on Sunday, I like our chances against any team,” Milley said. “The thing is, we just have to bring that same commitment, the same details, the same effort every game. It’s do or die, nothing to save energy for now.”
