67’s weekly: everything at stake
To keep it simple, the Ottawa 67’s are essentially in the postseason right now.
The situation is frankly dire, trailing the North Bay Battalion — who have one game in hand — by four points for the final playoff position in the Eastern Conference with just 11 games left to play. In essence, it’s now or never.
“We know what’s at stake here for us, nothing is new,” said 67’s Assistant Coach Norm Milley. “Every game is so important to us, so we have to focus this week on our details, our execution and keeping the energy up.”
“It’s like our playoffs started last week. We know that, and we know the urgency. There are 11 games left, so if we don’t approach it that way now, with six games left, we might not be even in a situation [where we can make the playoffs]. It’s desperate hockey now. Players know it, staff know it, and so we’re going to prepare accordingly.”
On Thursday night, North Bay will burn their game in hand, hosting the Brampton Steelheads, which the 67’s coaching staff will be paying close attention to. It sets up a massive game inside The Arena at TD Place on Friday night, when the Barber Poles meet the Troops.
By 10 p.m. on Friday, the 67’s could be two points down, right back in the fight, or eight points back, needing something special to clinch a spot in the dance.
On paper, it looks like the biggest game of the season, but when you’re in the spot the 67’s find themselves in, the reality is that every game is critical, including their cross-conference clash with the Windsor Spitfires on Sunday afternoon.
Both games could determine whether the team plays meaningful games or sits at home on the couch when the playoffs begin at the end of March, and each contest poses equally big hurdles to overcome.
“It’s gonna be a challenge for us,” Milley acknowledged. “Windsor is a team that can score. They have a lot of guys who can change the game with one play, so our details have to be sharp. North Bay is similar to us. They’re a young team, they work hard, they’re structured, so we need to play with solid details.”
Last weekend, the Barber Poles married the good with the bad. On Friday night, they played one of their best games of the season against the Niagara IceDogs, but they were unable to slow down Nick Lardis in a loss to the Brantford Bulldogs.
Against Niagara, Milley was complimentary of virtually every aspect of the 67’s performance, citing at least one positive from every position group. He says a win was exactly what his team deserved for their efforts, and added that not much actually changed on Sunday, but the polish wasn’t quite there.
Lardis — the league’s leading goal scorer with 63 — scoring against you shouldn’t come as much of a shock, he’s done it against everyone this season, but it was the how that requires a little bit of soul searching.
What Milley saw on tape was a series of plays that were almost good enough but lacked substance at the end.
“We gave him too many looks, too many open looks,” he said. “Our structure was good, but our details weren’t great. In all the clips, there are no real breakdowns in our structure, we’re right there, it’s just recognizing the details of doing the small things within our structure. If we can sharpen that up, we’ll eliminate some of those mistakes.”
Now, it’s compiling all of those experiences together, and making the most out of what’s left of the season.
